Kalapse

Edwin has 8 quality starts in 18 outings this season which is just brutal, hell Danks has 9 in 15 outings and he's having a down year. QS may not tell you how dominant a starter is but it gives you a good idea of how often he's giving your team a chance to win and Edwin's inefficiency, lack of a third quality pitch and Javy Vazquez-esque blowups have been a problem. It's real easy to fall in love with him after an outing like yesterday but he's such an incredibly flawed pitcher.

Yeah, the OBPs are pretty unrealistic, right now he's sporting a 5.4% BB% which puts him in the bottom 25 or so in baseball. If he gets to 552 PA which he's about on pace for now, keeps up the 5.4% BB%, is gernerously hit by 5 more pitches, 3 more SH and 2 more SF he'd have 496 AB and would have to go from his current hit total of 70 to 134 in order to get to .270 and his OBP would be .326. AVG/OBP with a 5.4% BB%: .270/.326 .250/.308 .230/.289

K-Rod waived the vesting option in exchange for additional compensation, this according to Rosenthal. So they can now use him as a closer without apprehension, I'm curious to see how much he gets out of this. It's a nice move for both sides, avoids any possible unpleasantness and is a big positive for the club as a whole.

QUOTE (BigEdWalsh @ Jul 13, 2011 -> 07:52 PM) You make it sound like he was Eddie Brinkman. He was a light hitter and free swinger but the worst he hit as a regular was .265. That would hardly rank him as a terrible hitter, "one of the worst hitters ever". Except for the 4 or 5 times he did hit below .265 as a regular? For a regular .265 (his career AVG with the Sox) is bad it becomes terrible -- for a regular -- when that .265 is almost entirely singles and comes with a 3% walk rate. 81 players had at least 5000 PA between '85 and '97, Ozzie had the lowest OPS+ of the bunch by a good amount and that .265 AVG places him 60th out of the 81. Lower it to 4000 PA and he's last out of 151 players (Frank Thomas is #1). http://www.baseball-reference.com/play-ind...re.cgi?id=ugBTT - 5000 PA http://www.baseball-reference.com/play-ind...re.cgi?id=o32pC - 4000 PA

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jul 13, 2011 -> 05:59 PM) He's one of those players who would have fit in any era...and certainly in the first 5-7 years, he had the added dimension of hitting for more triples and piling up some decent stolen base numbers I'm not sure a career 61% SB% is something to brag about, the year he garnered MVP votes he stole 13 bases and was caught 17 times. Looking at decades: From '85 to '89 17 players had at least 2000 PA and played primarily SS, Ozzie had the lowest OPS+ of the 17. http://www.baseball-reference.com/play-ind...re.cgi?id=brhkI From '90 to '97 (I wanted to go '90 to '95 but that would seem like I was being cruel to Oz since '95 was a particularly bad season at the plate) 15 players had at least 3000 PA and played primarily SS, Ozzie was second to last in OPS+ out of that group, he also had a 53% SB% in 117 attempts during this span. http://www.baseball-reference.com/play-ind...re.cgi?id=quTwL I'm sure his glove was terrific but there's really no denying that Ozzie brought very little on the offensive end, mediocre AVG, miniscule ISO, no walks, brutal SB%.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 13, 2011 -> 05:36 PM) Even though the Brewers system is weak, for that kind of money there has to be something of value on the PTBNL list. If there's nothing there and all he costs is $2 million then I'd wish the Sox would have grabbed him. All reports point to the prospects not being anything special, the Mets just wanted him off the roster to eliminate any possibility of that option vesting, pay $6M now to save perhaps $16.5M in the future. He's only 20 GF's away from that option vesting and they were getting nervous.

According to Rosenthal the Brewers are getting about $6M from the Mets, not the previously reported $5M. The Mets are responsible for the $3.5M buyout and about half of his remaining $5M salary for this season. Hell of a pickup if he sticks in the setup role and isn't a distraction.

Christ, my $3.5M guess was apparently conservative. The Mets are reportedly sending the Brewers $5M so Milwaukee will be paying K-Rod about $3.5M including the buyout for 2.5 months of work, not bad at all. The Brewers just have to be careful with his games finished from here on out and this looks like a nice deal.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jul 13, 2011 -> 12:01 AM) Why do the Brewers need K-Rod? Axford's a solid closer. Are they really going to pay K-Rod all that money and have him setup? I suppose they will, there's about $5M owed to him for the rest of the season with that $3.5M buyout so $8.5M for 2.5 months with the Mets kicking in a little cash, perhaps covering the buyout? That seems a bit steep considering the prospects won't be anything special though the Mets are dealing from a place of desperation. According to Cots their payroll is somehow down about $7M from last season, they're tied for the division lead, have an incredibly talented roster and have made 1 playoff appearance in the past 29 years or so, I guess they're going for it and see K-Rod as a bullpen solidifier. The sucky thing about K-Rod is that he's a hitty backup closer to Axford, if he hits the DL or struggles and K-Rod takes over for an extended period of time they're likely taking on a $14M (sans buyout) payroll obligation for 2012. It's a peculiar move, I'll assume they're giving up absolutely nothing for K-Rod, have plenty of room in the budget and just couldn't pass up a deal that brings in a potential deadly bullpen arm for nothing but the salary he's due this season. They were said to be interested in Heath Bell as a setup guy and while he's a lot cheaper he'd cost actual talent to acquire, they obviously see a setup man as that last piece.

QUOTE (Cali @ Jul 12, 2011 -> 10:32 PM) That was probably the most boring All-Star game in a long time. I wonder if anything will be made of Bochy not using either of his starting pitchers and only using Wilson cause Hanrahan wasn't getting the job done. Hanrahan gave up a single, he was doing just fine, Bochy wanted to get his guy a save with minimum effort. Shocking that the AL pitching would struggle with Sabathia, Felix, Verlander, Price and Haren all unavailable. Terrific idea making this s***-show mean something, Bud Selig lives in his own bizarre little world.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jul 12, 2011 -> 10:13 PM) I think we'd know by now if there was an announcement to be made on Oz or KW on Wednesday. I cannot believe they are not calling up Dayan. We'd know that by now as well probably. What a joke. If we don't bring up Viciedo now, with our offense, I truly don't care if we lose, lose, lose. It shows me KW isn't even trying. Cause if it is Oz against bringing up Viciedo, KW should at least convince him to bring him up. It's a no brainer. Our team is as listless as the AL in tonight's all star game. Things tend to go down after the All-Star game, in fact the Mets and Brewers just made a trade. If anything goes down we'll know tonight or tomorrow.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 12, 2011 -> 06:09 PM) Rasmus is hitting like Beckham and playing a little less than average defense. Its amazing Beckham is a bust but the Sox would have a hard time getting someone like Rasmus. Yeah, batting average wise but Rasmus is still sporting a .329 wOBA which is well above league average (.315) and was a 4 WAR player last season with a .366 wOBA. Beckham's wOBA is at .297 right now and .305 last season, not good. The thing to love about Rasmus is his 11% walk rate the past 2 seasons with his K rate going from 27% last season down to 20% this season meanwhile Gordon's BB rate is down in the 5's (something he said he wasn't going to worry about this season) and his K rate of 18.5% last season is up to 19.3% this season, right there with Rasmus. You can argue the defensive side of things with Rasmus putting up below average UZR numbers the past 2 seasons and Gordon kicking ass at 2B but their offensive production isn't exactly comparable right now. And yeah, Gordon's a bust because he hasn't produced at all with the bat after excelling as a rookie meanwhile Rasmus is still doing certain things well and struggling with others coming off a very good 2010 at the plate (the .351 BABIP was concerning).

Question for those who bought the Minnie plan in the past; did Minnie Minoso come to your seat and say hi each game or did they cop out with a video message on the scoreboard? Perhaps he put on a little performance between innings?

That really was a special moment, glad I got to see it live on MLB Network. The energy from the crowd during that AB was incredible.

Sox record after their June 7th game: 30-33, 6 GB Sox record after their July 7th game: 43-46, 5.5 GB You can really cherry pick anyway you want.

QUOTE (Baron @ Jul 8, 2011 -> 02:02 PM) He was picked up off of waivers before he got to AAA. So there really is no story beyond that. The 40 man roster stood at 38 men with him and he was not out of options, they didn't have to send him through waivers but they chose to anyway. Now the 40 stands at 37 so why were they trying to clear a spot on the 40 by outrighting him to AAA? It's probably because he's not any good but if that's the case then they must have really not thought much of him.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 7, 2011 -> 02:14 PM) It isn't just Pierre. Of course it isn't but he's the most easily replaced. He doesn't have $38M or $44M remaining on his contract, his upside is minimal and there's a replacement waiting in AAA. You can b**** about Dunn and Rios all you want but they're pretty much unmovable.

QUOTE (Greg Hibbard @ Jul 7, 2011 -> 02:00 PM) I think you missed my point. What is Pierre's career ISO? Did anyone on here think we acquired Pierre for his ISO? About 20 points higher than it is this season. It's one of the reasons I wanted nothing to do with him and think he's pretty bad at baseball. I'll ignore his ISO once that BB% comes up a bit from his sad 6.8%.

QUOTE (Greg Hibbard @ Jul 7, 2011 -> 01:59 PM) I can't imagine leading the majors in sacrifices can be viewed as a bad thing. Then there's leading the league in CS.

QUOTE (Greg Hibbard @ Jul 7, 2011 -> 01:52 PM) His ISO? Seriously? Should I start complaining about Dunn's stolen bases too? It's completely ridiculous that you just ignore ISO for leadoff hitters especially when they don't f***ing get on base or steal bases at a particularly high clip. When he's setting records for lowest ISO among OF, there's a serious problem and that's what he did last season. You CAN NOT have a player at the top of the lineup, picking up the most PA on your club who is incapable of picking up an XBH. His .260 whatever batting average is about as weak as they come, how in the hell is that acceptable? How exactly does it hurt your team when your leadoff hitter actually picks up a double on occasion?

Yeah, that's how ESPN calculates outs made, the standard is (AB-H) + DP + SF + SH + CS = outs made which is what BR uses and Pierre leads the way.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 7, 2011 -> 01:27 PM) Its backup QB syndrome. The guy who isn't playing is always the most popular guy, because he doesn't ever make outs. The backup QB put up an .840 OPS in the majors last season and has been putting up big numbers in the minors, meanwhile our everday LF has been battling Aubrey Huff and Raul Ibanez for the lowest WAR in baseball and has battled the last 10 days to move up to 5th worst. When you look at his numbers on the season what exactly does he do well? His K rate is pretty good, that's about it. His BB% is 6.8%, he has a .324 OBP, he's hitting .264, he has a .047 ISO, he's the most adept player in baseball at making outs, his SB% is 56%, his UZR/150 is -16.7, he has the worst arm in baseball and he's struggled to get down bunts since coming to the Sox. Sounds like a terrific player, why would anyone want him replaced?

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Jul 7, 2011 -> 01:33 PM) Whereas Pierre is among the league leader in making outs. He's still leading the majors.

He's had 2 horrible months out of 3, his OBP on the year is .324, his ISO is .047, he's 13 of 23 in SB and he's been hot garbage in the field. He's in the middle of a hot streak that's gotten his numbers back to bad rather than among the worst in the game, cherry picking some stats doesn't change the fact that he's beed awful this season. Of course no one's complaining right now he has a .900+ OPS over his last 10 games, it's a very convenient time to start posting some Juan Pierre stats.

The Phllies paid half of Thome's contract.