ZoomSlowik

How many teams are really going to be after him? I personally doubt that the Angels make a huge offer with Kotchman and Morales developing. It'll be a decent one, but I don't think it'll be in the 4/$48 range. Boston? They have bigger problems than who is going to play 1B. The Dodgers? Possibly, but considering their reluctance to sign Beltre and some of the other contracts they're stuck with, I'm not so sure. Baltimore? A possibility with Sosa and Palmeiro out, but they really need pitching. Mets? Bigger issues. Yankees? Same. I think this FA market could have the opposite effect than some think. Instead of driving up the price of what's there, fewer teams will be making big splashes because the market is crappy, kind of like this year's trade deadline market, especially with the poor early returns of so many of the guys from last season.

I really thought they were going to come up short this year. They just keep winning, even despite all of the injuries this year. I thought the Marlins were a virtual lock to take that division, but they just can't seem to play up to the level of their talent.

Damn, I had all kinds of material before I saw that message in the red font a while back.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Sep 28, 2005 -> 11:44 AM) You did see Aarons two double plays, and what would have been a 3rd if their were less than two outs yesterday right? And you did see the pop up he hit when he tried to bunt the day before right? Rowand is definately a bottom of the order hitter. He doesn't have the fundementals to be a #2 hitter. The problem is that outside of the two guys that are already there, no one on our team is well suited for the #2 hole, and we don't have any #3 hole type hitters either. This means that our options are basically to hit Rowand #3, which doesn't really work, hit AJ #3, which doesn't really work, hit Dye #3, which we haven't tried and might work, or move Iguchi down to 3, which could conceivably work. I think the real answer is Dye, but I wouldn't complain if we tried it for a few games next year (a little late to tinker with the order this year, especially when the games mean so much). Hopefully we'll make a move or two to help the issue a bit though.

I had to change my avatar. Frankly, the Rally Crede was starting to creep me out, kind of like the Evil Monkey from Family Guy.

QUOTE(VAfan @ Sep 28, 2005 -> 09:03 AM) Let's face it, AJ and Rowand aren't the answer in the #3 hole. And Everett, despite two singles last night, is probably better suited hitting 5th. My suggestion is to move Iguchi to 3rd. The lineup could be: Podsednik Rowand Iguchi Konerko Everett Dye Pierzynski Crede Uribe And if Ozzie wanted to blow out the cylinders (see the original Flight of the Phoenix) for a game, he could go with this lefty dominated lineup. Podsednik LF Harris 2B Gload 1B Everett DH Borchard RF Pierzynski C Perez CF Uribe SS Blum 3B The second lineup really scares me, but I'd have no problems with the first option.

How is my stuff that unrealistic? Did I say we were going to get all of those guys? Clearly no. I just said look into getting guys, and if they don't get them, then we move on. I'm basically looking at two moves: getting a 3B and getting a 1B/DH. Pretty much everyone I said has been mentioned at some point in the last year as being available, and that includes Howard. Clearly they have to move one of them, and moving Thome will be much more difficult. Besides the money and injury issues, he's a fan favorite and a big name. They'd get a ton more for Howard. I seriously doubt it would take 3 starters, but yes, their demands would be high. And it's not like I'm saying we're not going to have to deal anyone. I know that getting bats like Teixeira (okay, not so sure he is available, but it was mentioned earlier, and I don't buy them trading Delgado this year, but I digress) is going to take one of our good starters and possibly some of our top prospects. One of my possible ending scenarios is the same team except we deal for Tracy or Overbay and sign Mueller. Is that really that far out of the realm of possibility? If it really makes you fell better, I'll add the rest of the stats. It doesn't really change that much. Rowand- 74 runs, 12 homers, 66 RBI, .735 OPS Uribe- 56 runs, 15 homers, 70 RBI, .711 OPS Crede- 54 runs, 22 homers, 61 RBI, .765 OPS Everett- 57 runs, 23 homers. 83 RBI, .736 OPS None of them exactly blow him out of the water in your precious OPS stat, none have more runs, only Everett has significantly more RBI, and only Crede and Everett have significantly more homers. Plus Everett had the benefit of hitting #3 or #5 most of the year, so he got considerably more and better RBI opportunities, and gets better lineup protection with Konerko and Dye behind him. Do you think Rowand actually gets anything to hit when he usually has Crede and Uribe behind him? Rowand has the highest average on the team with runners in scoring position, but it doesn't matter that much where he hits in the lineup. Plus Everett's overall numbers make him look better than he has been because he was solid early in the year. Obviously he has been brutal of late. Also, you're using Uribe having 4 more RBI as a major arugment for your case. Rowand statistically has been at his best when in the 5 hole, and it isn't even close. He may not be a #3 hitter, but he isn't a 7 or 8 either. Looking back at my list #3 is a bit high, but I'd still bat him 6th at the lowest. I don't get the hate for his D either. Crede, Uribe, and Rowand are all among the best defenders at their positions. In all of baseball, Rowand has the 6th best fielding percentage, the 9 best RF, and the 2 best zone rating. Once you get past Jones, Hunter, Wells, and Edmonds, Rowand really has to come into the discussion. Also, you keep making the assumption that Anderson can come in and be a solid replacement right away. To steal your line, "WTF are you smoking?" The guy hasn't done jack s*** in the majors. In his 28 at bats, he had 0 walks and 10 K's. 3 of his 5 hits came in that one start he got against Hernandez. The guy was striking out better than once a game in the minors, and you think he's going to come in and perform in the majors? He may be a solid defensive outfielder (not sure he's that much better, even in his short time in the field he let a ball drop between him and Uribe that he should have had), but he's not going to come in and be a major part of the offense any time soon. Frankly, his swing is so long I'm having visions of Joe Borchard. His numbers are better so far, but he still needs to drastically cut his strikeouts. Expecting Young or Sweeney to step in next year is even worse. At this point both are extremely raw. You missed the point on my Ichiro example. You make it sound like power is the only thing that matters at traditional power spots, I mentioned someone with only 15 homers that is a RF (by the way, he's played a grand total of 3 games in CF since he was in Japan) that would be a major addition to any lineup. Frankly I fail to see how a .275 hitter is a waste of a spot. If that's your criterion, then half of the league is a waste of a spot.

By the way, my general plan: -Everett, El Duque, and Marte must go. Try to package the latter two for a real hitter (like some of the lower profile guys I mentioned) and add a prospect if necessary. -Resign guys like A.J., Garland, Politte, and whatever other lesser guys are due. (too lazy to look). -Try to resign Pauly. I wouldn't go much higher than 3/$30. If it goes higher, so be it. If he does go, try like hell to get Giles, I think he'd do well. Put him in RF and move Dye to first, or DH depending on who is acquired in the first part. He could also be used as insurance if Dye gets hurt. -Look into acquiring a serious bat, preferrably lefty, a la Teixeira, Dunn, Huff, or Ryan Howard. If a starter must be dealt, I'd lean toward Freddy or the Count. These two are more expensive than Garland and seem to be more inconsistent. Don't trade Buehrle or McCarthy under any circumstances. I'd deal any prospect except Anderson or Sweeney. Find a cheap veteran inning eater type if one of the starters is dealt. -Look into getting a 3B. Blalock would be a priority, Bill Mueller is a fallback. A more dangerous hitter is important. Crede could be kept as a backup, or used as part of the deal. -See if we can get Frank back at a lower cost. Let him walk if necessary. -Acquire a cheap LOOGY. The lineup should look something like this, depending on if we could/couldn't acquire one of the impact bats. I'll insert them as needed: LF Podsednik 2B Iguchi CF Rowand 1B Konerko/Teixeira/Dunn/Huff/Howard/other guys I'm leaving out/Dye RF Dye/Giles DH same guys as 1B and Tracy/Overbay/Thomas/whoever 3B Blalock/Mueller/other guy/Crede if we're desperate C Pierzynski SS Uribe SP Buehrle SP Garcia/veteran fill-in SP Garland/veteran fill-in SP Contreras/veteran fill-in SP McCarthy CL Jenks SU Politte, Hermansen, Cotts MR Vizcaino, Baj, random LOOGY Edit- clearly I wouldn't bat guys like Teixeira 6th, or Giles 5th. I'd move them up to 3/4 depending on the rest of the lineup.

Let's play a quick game of "which one doesn't belong in this discussion": Aaron Rowand- .275 BA, .332 OBP Juan Uribe- .252 BA, .298 OBP Joe Crede- .254 BA, .308 OBP Carl Everett- .245 BA, .306 OBP Clearly those last 3 players are a bigger issue. With his defense, I have absolutely no complaints about how he is hitting. It'd be nice if he hit a few more homers, but it isn't crucial. Plus he's still fairly young and has really only had two years as a full time player. I disagree with you that you HAVE to have a leadoff hitter or a middle of the order hitter at one of the middle infield spots or in center. Would you pass on Ichiro with our current roster because he doesn't have enough power? Of course not. Who really cares what position your guys play as long as you have the components? You really only need 3 guys that fit those roles and there are 6 other spots on the field. We've got 2 middle of the order guys in Konerko and Dye and a leadoff type in Pods. If we just get rid of one of the blackholes and replace them with a more solid hitter, that helps a lot, and even moreso if we get two replaced.

I've seen a lot of stuff on here, and I gotta post. First subject: Rafael Furcal. I highly doubt he ends up here, and frankly I think it'd be a waste of money. Yeah, his overall numbers look pretty good, but look a little deeper. He's hitting far worse on the road than he is at home (.246 to .319). He's done this before too. In 2004 he hit .267 on the road and .292 at home. In 2003 he hit .283 and .302, and in 02 it was .267 and .283. So three of the last four years he's been a pedestrian hitter outside of Turner Field. Why? Because although their park is less favorable to homerun hitters, it helps guys like Furcal because there is more space to bloop in hits. Put him in US Cellular and he'll lose some of those hits because the outfielders have less ground to cover, albiet he might hit a few more homers. Also, he's been fairly good in the field this year, committing only 15 errors, but in the 3 previous years it was 24, 31, and 27, with fielding percentages down around .96. He's not that good a defender, and he's far from an elite hitter. So why should we give him $8-$10 million? It just doesn't make much sense. It's better than the Orlando Cabrera fiasco last offseason, but I still think we could find better ways to spend money. Getting Delgado or Teixeira would be huge, but I'm not sure how likely either is. They just signed Delgado, so I doubt they dump him already. Maybe in another year or two, but not now. If we got Teixeira, we'd have to give up a ton of talent, and then deal with Scott Boras. I find that highly unlikely. If someone were to be moved, it would probably be Soriano, who's defense and lack of walks are hard to swallow. I like the ideas of getting Chad Tracy or Lyle Overbay, but I don't like getting both of them. I think we need to resign Pauly. He's been our most dangerous hitter for long stretches of time. Plus, we're not hearing all of these ridiculous demands like we did from Maggs last year, meaning I think he'll be more reasonable. It sounds like he wants to stay hear, meaning I don't think it'll necessarily take the $12 mil that some have thrown around. I also wouldn't mind Adam Dunn. He's likely to somewhat reasonable to get. I don't like the BA or the K's, but it's hard to argue with his OBP, and he could hit 50 in the Cell. He'd look pretty good in the 3 hole. I wouldn't mind Aubrey Huff either. I know he had an off year, but he still has 21 HR and 89 RBI, and this is the first year in a while he's hit under .290. Plus I like his versatility. He can backup at the corner OF, 1B, and 3B (sparingly since he isn't exactly Brooks Robinson over there), and DH when not playing any of those spots. The only problem with him is that their GM is insane, but if we can get him without touching one of our starters, I'd do it. Brian Giles is another guy I like a lot, but there's the whole "where would he play?!" thing like with Griffey. However, the guy is still hitting around .300, walks a ton, and probably got robbed of quite a few homers in that park. Since he's not as big or hot a name as he used to be, so someone might be able to steal him. I'd love to see him here. He could play all the outfield spots occasionally and DH when he isn't doing that. As for our guys, I think we need to keep both Juan and Rowand for their defensive capabilities. Both are among the better fielders at their position. Rowand has saved a ton of extra-base hits with his defense. Plus I don't see his offense as that much of a problem. Our bigger offenders on offense are Everett, Uribe, and Crede. At least one of them has to go. Adding someone like Tracy, Overbay, or a healthy Frank as the DH instead of Everett should help a ton. Frankly I wouldn't care either way on Bill Mueller/Crede. Mueller has virtually no power and is average at best at 3rd, while Crede can't take a walk and has a much lower average. Obviously we need to trade Hernandez for whatever we can get to open up a roster spot for McCarthy. I wouldn't move any of the other guys unless we can get an impact bat for him though (like the previously mentioned Delgado and Teixeira). If we did that we'd probably have to grab some bargain basement guy to fill in the 5th starter role, which isn't exactly high on my list. I expect our roster to look very similar, with the exception of another bat for the DH spot.

I definitely agree with Tony, get a Beckett. That way you know what they are all worth, which ones are really rookies, ect. You should generally be able to get virtually any card (except for ones that are really in demand, ie Lebron's when they came out) somewhere between the low list price and the high list price. I used to be a big time collector, but soured on cards. There was just too much stuff that was too expensive, and it got really hard to collect rookie cards because not only are they expensive, pretty much all of them are short-printed. All I collect in cards now is short-printed cards of Northwestern players and the occasional Sox card.

Not entirely sure why this was bumped, but I'll still make this a keeper if there is enough demand. I haven't heard from many of the players though. Please respond with your opinion if you see this. I'll send out PM's after the playoffs (in the real league, not fantasy) if I need to.

I think I was 3-4. I go to roughly one a month (except when I'm at school. No longer an issue), but I got a few more this year. I'm pretty sure these were the games, although the last two I'm not 100% sure about the last two: 5-4 win against Angels where we were trailing by one going into the 9th and won. 12-2 slaughter over the Cubs. 4-2 loss to Seattle. 7-5 loss to Cleveland on Monday. 3-1 win over Twins on Friday. 4-2 loss to the Twins 8-1 loss to Arizona And I had tickets for yesterday, but we were exhausted after a long day Saturday and the weather looked pretty miserable. I'm disappointed, because in previous years they'd be like 6-0 or 7-1 when I went, and Frank would homer every game we went to. I have yet to see a playoff win (kind of hard since they were swept in 2000 and won on the road in 1993), so hopefully that will change.

I want Boston. They're pitching is brutal. All of their hopes of advancing are pinned on a guy who's still recovering from ankle surgery, and they've been less than stellar recently. Their lineup will probably single-handedly win them one game, but I have a hard time seeing them win low scoring games, especially since suspect pitching can make their pen an even bigger problem. I'd love to see it because I'm so sick of hearing how great they are after winning it last year. The Yankees would be my next choice despite the fact that they are playing better now. Their lineup doesn't seem to produce quite as well as Boston's, and their pitching is still not the greatest. Johnson has been on and off, and Mussina has only been decent when healthy. I don't think they get good performances from both of them. Plus their pen is really thin, with only Rivera and Gordon performing well. They can also be burned with a bad outing or two from the starters.

The difference between the collapses is how poorly the teams played when blowing the lead. We're still in the general vicinity of .500 during this stretch, while the 1969 Cubs finished the year on like an 8-20 stretch, losing like 11 of 12 at one point. And when it comes to the playoffs, being up 3-1 and losing the series is a massive collapse, trumped only by the Yankees. Plus the entire principle of karma is you get what you pay for. This is clearly not the case. Bad things happen to good people, and good things happen to bad people. Plus, the religious beliefs of karma involve the next life, not the current one. Blaming cross-city hatred for baseball ineptitude is way worse than blaming some goat or a star player that died like 50 years ago, or a scandal that happened long before we were born.

QUOTE(Buehrle>Wood @ Sep 23, 2005 -> 03:27 PM) Well, both the Big Ten and The Big East would get 7 teams in the tournament if I had to judge before the season. Obviously both conferences are loaded and head and shoulders above the rest. However, I still don't see a top tier team in the Big East. UCONN has had a ton of distractions of late, which makes me wary to put them with Michigan State and Duke. Villanova is right there as well, but just not there. With that said, I'd say the Big Ten, although it's a tough call. I don't buy 7 teams for the Big Ten. The league has enough depth that there aren't many gimmes, which will probably result in a couple of teams that distinguish themselves and everyone else stuck in the middle. That isn't really conducive to producing a large number of tournament teams. I see Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State as fairly solid tournament teams, and I think maybe one of Minnesota, Ohio State, and Wisconsin makes it, depending on the results of automatic tournament bids. I doubt that two of those last three make it personally. Ohio State's roster intrigues me, but I'm not really sold outside of Dials. One can argue that some of their guys will produce more with larger roles, but pretty much all of the guys that could do this played at least 20 minutes a game last season. Minnesota doesn't impress me at all. They racked up a decent number of wins in a less than spectacular conference last year, and I don't think they can do it again. Someone would have to step up big time. Wisconsin is in a similar spot, but I like their roster a little better. Villanova is going to be this year's Illinois. They are a veteran team with a lot of capable scorers and solid outside shooting. They don't quite have the ball-handling that Illinois had, although I think Lowry will be very good. I think they have a better post game than Illinois though. They had some injury issues in the offseason, but Sumpter is almost back, and Fraser is progressing well. They've got the weapons to handle pretty much every team on the roster. They probably won't have quite the streak Illinois had if for no other reason that their schedule will be tougher, but they can make some serious noise.

I gotta say, it's close. I'm not sure which would hurt more to not have in the lineup. Even assuming that we had still gotten Iguchi, AJ, and Dye without the trade, our lineup would probably be: 2B- Tadahito Iguchi SS- Juan Uribe LF- Carlos Lee 1B- Paul Konerko DH- Everett/Thomas in the 3 hole when healthy C- A.J. Pierznski RF- Jermaine Dye CF- Aaron Rowand 3B- Joe Crede That lineup still isn't that stellar. Carlos isn't exactly tearing the cover off the ball either, that OBP is brutal. Scotty might be worth less when he isn't running, but he still gets on base. We'd probably still be in that dreaded "we hit a lot of solo homeruns" mode. Granted Lee probably would have hit a little better hear, but a healthy Pods makes a difference, and with the other guys we got with the money it isn't that close.

I agree with the previous guys, it's probably Ortiz or A-Rod. Vlad is going to be hurt by his time on the DL and Hafner was not good early in the season (on my fantasy team. Glad I didn't cut him!). The might give it to Hafner because of the tear that the Indians are on, but as it was said, the world revolves around the Yankees and Red Sox.

Normally I'd say the ACC, but most of their powers are a bit down this year. The Big East has a couple of pretty good teams and some decent depth this year. The Big Ten just doesn't seem to have one really good team this year like Duke, Villanova, or UConn (yeah, I know, PG in limbo. But everything else is pretty good). MSU has a couple of solid players but don't seem to have a lot of depth, Illinois needs to get production from guys besides Brown and Augustine, Iowa is in a similar position, and Indiana's guard play is uninspiring. Frankly I think there's a decent chance Michigan wins the Big Ten. They suffered a lot of injuries last year. They've got several solid players and decent depth. If they can stay healthy this year they should make some noise.

QUOTE(whitesoxfan99 @ Sep 21, 2005 -> 05:36 PM) Zambrano has more starts of 8 innings or more than Buehrle this year. Zambrano has 12 and Buehrle has 10. Buehrle has 22 starts where he has pitched 7 innings or more. Zambrano has 21 such starts. This is my last post on this subject. First off, you brought up several numbers a few posts ago. We already concluded a while ago that earned runs in the NL are not equal to earned runs in the AL. Most of those are a bit scewed in Zambrano's favor. The NL has had a lower ERA than the AL every year since like 1975. Obviously that's going to mean some more runs show up for the AL starter somewhere. Johan Santana has the 11 lowest ERA in baseball, with 9 of the players ahead of them playing in the NL. Some of them also included unearned runs, which I'm not concerned with. The pitchers have no control over the defense whatsoever, so I'm not going to count that against them. This stat would also be in favor of Zambrano because he's a bit more of a strikeout pitcher. Before you say that they don't have control of the pen either, I brought that up because the pitcher DOES have some control over how deep into an outing he goes. And yes, Zambrano does go deep into games with some regularity, because he has great stuff, but he also usually racks up monster pitch counts when he does it, and he comes up with a short outing pretty regularly. Trust me, Zambrano is fairly inconsistent (he's on my fantasy team), and it is pretty maddening. As for the comment about Buehrle, yes, I generally would be happy with a 7 inning, no run outing. It is a very good start. However, two things to note. First, I didn't bring up this example. I'm simply trying to defend his point. Second, if we had lost the game, I'd be pretty pissed regardless.

You apparently don't seem to care how many innings that a starter goes as long as he is good. I'm trying to say that there is a big difference between going 6 or 7 and going 8 or 9. If Carlos hadn't walked his 5 guys that game, his pitch count would have been lower, meaning he probably would have been able to go at least one more inning. When your bullpen sucks as bad as the Cubs' has for long stretches this year, that is important. Would you have trusted the pen the next day in a one run game? I know I wouldn't. That's why Prior going a little deeper was important. Obviously I'd rather have 1 or 0 runs allowed than 3, but I'd also rather have more innings from the guy if I can get them. Often times he isn't even there for the seventh. The point I'm trying to make is that even when Zambrano is on, he might only go 6 because often times he is effectively wild, while when Buehrle is on he'll go at least 7. Plus if Zambrano pitched like this in the AL where he doesn't have the luxary of a sure out in the pitcher, his numbers would suffer. God, I need to get off this topic.

QUOTE(fathom @ Sep 21, 2005 -> 02:24 PM) He went 7 innings, and didn't allow a run. No matter how you want to try and use that statistic to make your case, that's a fantastic start. That's an even better start than what Prior did the next day, when he went the whole game and allowed 3 runs. It's not like he was only able to go 5 innings because of his pitch count that game. Prior won, Zambrano didn't. Tell me which start really means more to the team. That's one of his best outings of the year, and he still struggled enough that he couldn't finish off the game. Are you trying to say that 7 innings of shutout ball isn't as important as 9 innings of shutout or 1 run ball? With better command that probably would have been the result of that outing.

QUOTE(fathom @ Sep 21, 2005 -> 01:58 PM) Who gives a s***, he didn't allow any runs. Sometimes, it's not a bad thing to walk a batter (no matter what DJ says in the 9th inning). Especially during a game where the opposing team's pitcher had to bat, it's not really a bad thing to pitch around the lower part of the order. The Cubs lost that game. Because they had to pull him, the Cubs' horses*** bullpen came in and blew the game. That's a major reason to give a s***. The Sox couldn't touch him, but because he often struggles with his control he wasn't available to finish the game. Another inning or two would have made a big difference. Beuhrle has gotten through at least the 6th inning in every start this year. Zambrano failed to do that 6 times. That's a lot of unnecessary pressure on your bullpen from someone that is supposedly a top pitcher.

QUOTE(whitesoxfan99 @ Sep 21, 2005 -> 12:42 PM) I fail to see how Mark's any more consistent than Zambrano. Mark's monthly totals April 3.89 ERA, May 2.44, June .96, July 5.01, August 3.46, and September 4.97 Zambrano April 4.31, May 2.40, June 5.79, July 2.11, August 1.74, September 3.94 2004 Buehrle-April 5.93, May 1.58, June 5.79, July 2.58, August 5.35, and September 2.44 Zambrano April 3.55, May 1.71, June 2.86, July 3.44, August 3.61, September 1.01, and one start in October where he had a 7.94 ERA. Check out the game logs though. He comes up with some brutal starts, and racks up some monster pitch counts. 5 earned in 6 innings at Pit? 4 earned in 3 1/3 at Washington? 8 earned in 2 2/3 at Miluakee? For someone that supposedly has so much talent, he fails to make it through the 6th inning quite a bit.

After last night's game, I'm a believer. I will be adding the Rally Crede as soon as I get back on my own computer.