Kalapse

QUOTE (joeynach @ Jan 6, 2010 -> 05:33 PM) UPDATE??? I'm a little baseball'd out right now. You'll see an update before February.

QUOTE (striker @ Dec 23, 2009 -> 01:51 PM) So did you just go through the mlb.com transaction and determine days on and off the 25 man roster? Yeah, pretty much.

QUOTE (chisoxfan09 @ Dec 29, 2009 -> 04:57 AM) Kalapse, most excellent work. Just one clarification for me if I could ask. The standard MLB contract (Standard because I see International Free Agents and people like Alexei getting 4 years) is 6 years (3 Pre-Arb/3 Arb)? To rephrase I think this only applies to amateur players who start in MILB or get picked up in the yearly June draft? Then once they play as you say 172 days of service that counts as 1 option gone? See I get the options and the ARB/Pre-Arb mixed up. Thanx for your time. I'm sorry I didn't answer you sooner, I haven't been very active on here over the past few weeks. First a refresher course. All out contractual clauses aside: if a draft pick or international free agent signs say a 4 year contract and accrues 4 years of service time over the duration of that contract he will be arbitration eligible in his 5th and 6th major league season even though the contract expired after 4 years. Alexei Ramirez is a good example of this: he signed a 4 year deal and it appears as though he'll be spending all 4 years in the majors so by the time his deal runs out he'll have accumulated 4 years of service time so the Sox will still hold the rights to Alexei for 2 more seasons when his deal runs out and he'll be arbitration eligible both years. Ok, any player who's either drafted or signed as an undrafted free agent or international free agent is under team control for 6 full major league seasons with only 1 exception: (as of right now only Japanese players have done this if memory serves) some International free agents will have a clause included in their contract that when their deal expires they must be tendered a new contract by a specific offseason date or granted their outright release, negating any years of control a team may have normally held after the duration of the deal. Such a clause would also prohibit a team from receiving any kind of free agent compensation since the team must release the player and is not granted the right to offer arbitration. Tadahito Iguchi had such a clause in his contract, this is why he was traded away for next to nothing at the trade deadline in the final year of his contract, the Sox were out of the race, didn't plan on bringing Iguchi back for the '08 season and wanted to get something-anything in return for him. Now to clear up any confusion you may have with service time and team options: Once a player is placed on the 40 man roster he must either be kept on the active 25 man roster or optioned to the minor leagues. So if you place a prospect on the 40 man roster in order to protect him from the Rule V draft or to be called up to the majors, if you wish to send him to the minors whether it be at the end of spring when you must get your active roster down to 25 men or anytime throughout the season then you must "option" that player to the minor leagues. Each player gets 3 'option years' meaning you can only send him to the minors in 3 separate seasons. 1 option is good for an entire season so if you send a player down in April then call him up in May and send him down again in June you've only used up 1 option despite the fact that you sent him down twice, you can't burn more than 1 option in any given season and there is no limit to the number of times you can send a player down in a given season though a certain amount of time must pass before he can be recalled again (off the top of my head I believe it's 10 days). So an "option" is actually an "option year" and you get 3 of them. Once a player is out of options he'll have to be placed on waivers and go unclaimed by the other 29 teams in order to be sent to the minors. Once a player reaches 5 years of service he can not be sent to the minors without his consent. Service time is unrelated to options. Like you said: once a player reaches 172 days on the active major league roster he's awarded 1 year of service, a player can earn nor more than 1.000 years of service in any given season. Once he reaches 3.000 service years he's eligible for arbitration (some players such as Mark Teahen qualify for arbitration before 3 years through Super 2 eligibility) and at 6.000 he becomes a free agent. So: All seasons started with between 0.000 and 2.171 years of service = pre arbitration, a team can pay the player whatever they see fit as long as it's at or above the major league minimum and jives with pay reduction rules. All seasons started wtih between 3.000 and 5.171 years of service = arbitration eligible. This is of course assuming that the player is not under contract. Someone like Evan Longoria or Ryan Braun won't have to deal with this since they signed long term deals in their pre arbitration seasons that run through their first few free agent eligible seasons. I hope this long, convoluted post cleared up any confusion.

Personally, I wouldn't give up my PS3 for anything simply because of its ability as a media server and hub. I can either stream video and music from my PC to my PS3 or -- and more importantly -- quickly transfer a few seasons of several TV shows and a bunch of movies to an external hard drive then plug that into to the PS3 (any properly formatted external hard drive will do, Sony doesn't care) and instantly be watching media off the 1 TB hard drive or swap out the internal hard drive of the PS3 itself upgrading my memory to 500 gigs of space (without voiding the warranty) and transfer media to PS3's hard drive and watch my TV shows from there. It's just an incredibly powerful and versatile media server. Not to mention the whole outstanding exclusive baseball game thing which is a pretty big deal for me personally.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Dec 29, 2009 -> 04:51 PM) Beckham's mug alone is worth it. I don't have MLB 09, just got the PS3 in September. I'm happily looking forward to the newest version of the best baseball game on the market. Ok, I just assumed you bought the game when you got your PS3.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Dec 29, 2009 -> 02:01 PM) If you look at a lot of the movies that make bank, they dont make a lot of sense. Spiderman 3? Twilight? New Moon? blech Revenge of the Fallen made $402M domestic, which puts it in the top 10 all time. I don't plan on ever seeing it.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Dec 29, 2009 -> 12:19 PM) then MLB 10. From the details Sony has released thus far regarding MLB 10 I'm not seeing a compelling reason to by the game. MLB 09 was groundbreaking, as of now MLB 10 looks like updated rosters, Home Run Derby, new crowd animations and some silly video editor. Nothing to justify dropping $57 to pick it up at launch.

The God of War Collection is a winner. I didn't play the first two games when they were originally released on the PS2 (I have no idea why) so this is a new experience for me and one that I'm thoroughly enjoying. The game looks great in remastered 720p, it almost feels like a PS3 original.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 23, 2009 -> 04:52 PM) Tough = it's against the rules for him to sign with us now. QUOTE (Jenks Heat @ Dec 23, 2009 -> 09:26 PM) I thought they changed that but I could be wrong. They did change the rule. Under the current CBA teams are free to negotiate with their free agents through the entire offseason even if they either did not offer arbitration or offered and had it declined. The Sox could still bring back Dotel, Podsednik or Dye without breaking any rules.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Dec 16, 2009 -> 04:38 PM) I agree with you about the leadoff part, but we definitely could use the team speed. Say we ignored every every statistic other than OBP and simply signed the players with the highest OBP out of the entire player pool. While good in theory, a team of plodders with not many skills other getting on base seems a bit limited to me. Haven't the A's, Blue Jays, Red Sox, etc., tried this for the past 5-6 years, with limited success? Is the correlation between OBP and runs scored that strong that you can completely ignore other skills such as bunting, speed, and contact altogether? Jesus, you read way too much into my posts. I'm just tired of arguing at this point, you've worn me down. Was Juan Pierre the best corner outfielder that Kenny could acquire or was he the best "leadoff hitter" that he could acquire that could also play that position? That's all I'm saying.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Dec 16, 2009 -> 12:59 PM) The other problem with overstating the importance of a leadoff hitter, is that it narrows your field of potential players. I'd rather find the 9 best guys available, and then make the lineup from there, than specifically seek out a leadoff hitter and limit the pool of players I can choose from. Its simple math. The bigger pool of players I have to choose from, to make each position better, the more successful I'd be as a GM. Find the best players within your budgetary and resource constraints, then let your manager make the lineup card. I agree 100% which is why I dislike acquiring a guy like Pierre, he's not all that good at baseball but he's a prototypical "leadoff hitter" so Kenny went out of his way to get him.

QUOTE (Jenks Heat @ Dec 15, 2009 -> 09:13 AM) Halladay is more of an injury risk, not a large one but a risk none the less, but he is a horse. How do you figure? Just based strictly on work load?

QUOTE (iamshack @ Dec 16, 2009 -> 03:58 PM) I don't even remember this Julio Ramirez character...I must have blocked him out of my mind or something... We got him from Florida straight up for Jeff Abbott.

QUOTE (Markbilliards @ Dec 16, 2009 -> 02:30 PM) I refuse to accept that anyone can justify any player other than Andy Gonzalez as the worst Sox player of the decade. Andy Gonzalez: .185/.280/.249/.529, 39 OPS+ Brent Lillibridge: .158/.273/.179/.452, 21 OPS+

Harold Baines Gustavo Molina Julio Ramirez

QUOTE (knightni @ Dec 16, 2009 -> 02:38 PM) The decade starts at 2001 and ends with 2010, btw. Not in baseball.

QUOTE (soxfan3530 @ Dec 16, 2009 -> 11:11 AM) Speaking of that, i know a year or so ago the idea was thrown about that the sox should sign Frank for a game or so and let him retire a White Sox. I think that would be a great gesture for opening day this year. I don't think he wants to push back his hall of fame eligibility another 2 years.

Garrett Jones for MVP?

QUOTE (iamshack @ Dec 15, 2009 -> 11:16 PM) Oh sorry....I was sort of zipping through during commercials on my tivo (yeah, I know I can fast-forward through them). Perhaps I shouldn't be a dolt and comment in the thread before I understand what I am commenting on. As for the walk rate, I know you know that. But unfortunately when you throw some of these numbers and metrics around, people not as educated or knowledgeable as yourself misunderstand. Just making a distinction to keep things clear. That's fine on both counts. I'm not even sure the original poster was talking about Castillo, I assumed they were and commented on it but both LA and NY were/are desperate to move Pierre and Castillo for different reasons (with money being a common link of course.)

QUOTE (Ranger @ Dec 15, 2009 -> 11:08 PM) Pierre never gets hurt...what makes you think he will suddenly start? So, then you'll concede the leadoff position won't make or break them anyway, so it's useless getting worked up about it one way or the other? Podsednik had a really nice year last year...the Sox had less than 80 wins. Pierre's been on winning teams, the Sox can win with him, too. They won't win, or lose, because of him. It helps to have a good one, but it isn't totally essential. If the leadoff position isn't important then why not just put Alejandro De Aza out there for the minimum? They could very well win or lose because of Pierre, the number of times your guys get on at the top is directly proportionate to the number of runs a lineup produces. If all else is equal you will score more runs with a high OBP hitter at the top than you will with a low OBP hitter, more runs means more wins if the pitching and defense are equal and since the only variable in this scenario is your leadoff man all else is in fact equal. Just because a team at a time won a world series without a great leadoff man (and Podsednik wasn't great but he was definitely good in '05) doesn't mean that spot in the order won't matter for this team.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Dec 15, 2009 -> 10:59 PM) I'm confused, weren't they talking about Luis Castillo. I've never heard a bad thing about Pierre. He's known as a good clubhouse guy and a consumate pro. There's a little miscommunication here. Pierre is, by all accounts, a great guy. I was talking about Castillo.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Dec 15, 2009 -> 10:58 PM) I heard the same as Ace....I thought he handled his predicament in LA very professionally...did you hear differently? As for the point Melissa is making, all it matters is if the guy gets on base. Whether it's because he walks, or hits, or gets drilled, or gets on base because of an error, it doesn't matter. Pierre doesn't walk much, but he's a lifetime .300 hitter. So we can disparage his walk rate as much as we want, but it doesn't quite paint the entire picture. I've heard a few times that he's a cantankerous dude which rubs management especially the wrong way. We're talking about Castillo here, not Pierre. Pierre's a consummate professional. Yeah I get that there are a few ways to get on base and you don't have to look at his walk rate, just look at his recent on base percentages; right around .330 because he hits at a consistent average and walks at a consistent rate. When I say you look for walks first and foremost in a leadoff hitter I mean this because it's the easiest way to raise your on base percentage. There aren't a lot of speedy .310+ hitters out there that can have a high OBP without a good walk rate.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Dec 15, 2009 -> 10:46 PM) Given regular playing time, I expect his career OBP at least for this season... 35%. Add solid steals and hide his ass in left, and I'm pretty happy. Why? Aside from his bizarre '09 season he hasn't done anything like that since '04 and now he's moving to a small AL ballpark where it'll be harder for any of his soft bloopers to fall and more difficult to find gaps if anything he could struggle even more than he has in recent years.

Placido Polanco is about as close as you'll find to Pierre in terms of slash stats.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Dec 15, 2009 -> 10:39 PM) Wasn't he on base 37% of the time last year? Doesn't he have a career OBP of 35%? 36.5% thanks to his insane May, his numbers from June through September were roughly the same as the past 4 years: .290 AVG, .330 OBP, .690 OPS. So what's more likely? He duplicates his fluky numbers from last year or he matches the numbers he put up over the 4 years going into '09? (.286/.329/.359/.688 in 2600 PA, .331 was his high OBP)