Jake

There's plenty of talent in the bullpen, it's just a matter of finding out which roles are right for people and which guys will stick and which have to go. Petricka is a good example of a guy who didn't quite make it out of ST but could very well become a key cog.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Apr 5, 2014 -> 04:50 PM) Isn't this the last year of his contract? Nobody knows how old he really is? I wouldn't think the Sox can get much for him. He's signed through '15 with team option for '16. We know how old he is. Cuba has been keeping very solid records since before he was born.

I see no reason to take Hoffman at 3 and if it is with Rodon on the board, it is unconscionable

Don't know if it has been said, but the sample size that led to the conclusion that his defense was poor was woefully small. You need at least a full season of reps to even begin to get a valid sample size and you won't know the true value of the defender until you have multiple full seasons of data.

http://hamptonroads.com/2014/04/nc-probes-...s-2012-election Elections Director Kim Strach told state lawmakers at an oversight hearing Wednesday that her staff has identified 765 registered North Carolina voters whose first names, last names, birthdates and last four digits of their Social Security numbers appear to match information for voters in another state. Each case will now require further investigation to determine whether voter fraud occurred. "Could it be voter fraud? Sure, it could be voter fraud," Strach said. "Could it be an error on the part of a precinct person choosing the wrong person's name in the first place? It could be. We're looking at each of these individual cases." ... Strach said there could also be about 50 people statewide who died before election day but were recorded as casting a ballot. In several past cases, instances of so-called zombie voters turned out to be the result of clerical errors. ... However, other states using the cross-check system have yielded relatively few criminal prosecutions for voter fraud once the cases were thoroughly investigated. Only 11 people were prosecuted on allegations of double-voting as a result of the 15 states that performed similar database checks following the 2010 elections, according to data compiled by elections officials in Kansas, where the cross-check program originated. Bob Hall, director of the non-profit group Democracy North Carolina, cautioned officials not to jump to conclusions based on the preliminary database check. "I know there is more than one Bob Hall with my birth date who lives among the 28 states researched," Hall said. "There may be cases of fraud, but the true scale and conspiracy involved need to be examined more closely before those with political agendas claim they've proven guilt beyond a reasonable doubt."

Semien doesn't look like he's ready at the plate. No big deal, just more time in AAA needed.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Apr 2, 2014 -> 06:21 PM) They may largely agree with the candidate already, but what about the specific example that Balta brought up with Adelson, Romney and a bill to outlaw online gambling. It's a good point - these guys have lots of things they don't really give a f*** about, so they don't have to face cognitive dissonance when they stand to benefit from something like that. I'd also probably mention that a lot of these guys don't know a thing about certain policy issues and end up being easily convinced of anything when lobbyists visit them. The money follows.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Apr 2, 2014 -> 06:05 PM) They've out-dumbed the "corruption or appearance of corruption" line from Citizens United with this gem: It's not corruption unless you are literally and explicitly buying votes and access, apparently. There are two things: 1. It's true. They don't donate to change your mind. They donate because you already agreed with them. It doesn't meet the standard for corruption. All it does is make political positions inaccessible for people who hold less "profitable" political leanings. 2. When politicians change their minds, they can't change their minds. The money will stop if you change your mind. The main exception is if suddenly the money is behind some other position. It's one of the reasons I don't want term limits, because a well-entrenched politician might be the only person who can act in a way that pisses off the deep pocketed influences. Mitch McConnell, for instance, has dared cooperate a little bit because he thought he had a little bit of wiggle room against the primary people. Of course, we more often see people acting in a way that might not raise money in places where the elections aren't competitive.

We live in a time where it has never been more technologically or intellectually feasible for people's voices to become relevant in politics without being rich, but we of course don't see a problem with allowing political speech to become a market just like everything else. The question continues to be: how many different parts of your life should be determined solely by your personal wealth? Education is getting further and further from something that is experienced in a common way. Affecting politics? Nope. Hmm...waiting in line to see a Supreme Court case? Nope, lobbyists are paying people to stand in line for days on end.

I think Leury put himself ahead of Semien for the role of super sub when Gordon returns

Fun Noah stat from NBA.com player tracking: He averages more passes per game than everyone in the NBA other than Kemba Walker, Rajon Rondo, Chris Paul, John Wall, Kyle Lowry, Ricky Rubio, and Josh McRoberts (the official poor man's Joakim Noah)

Filtered out people who play less than 20 min/game, less than 40 total games, and have fewer than 3 at the rim attempts per game. That leaves 92 players, so it seems like a fair enough sampling. So the one factor from which we can argue Hibbert is better, he's not really leaps and bounds better. Unbelievable how many more steals Noah gets than his peers at the center position.

I think some might argue it isn't necessarily part of defense, but it's hard for me to promote a center that averages less than 7 boards a game for DPOY

Yeah, it has been widely suggested that cancer contributed to this. I found it quite upsetting - not so much because of how gruesome the end product was, but how fun that moment should have been, how simple a task he was doing, and the reason it all fell apart.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Mar 31, 2014 -> 09:39 AM) One of those paid top-notch sportswriters need to know that slide shows suck and cause people to avoid reading your articles. One of those top notch forum posters needs to know that slideshows are absolutely money for generating clicks and their format gets your ads about [insert amount of slides here] more impressions than a straightforward, text-only piece. People want lists and slideshows on the internet and B/R was smart enough to jump on that gravy train before the rest of the sports media jumped on board

Gillaspie = 3 hitter of the future

George is still really good, but the guy who looked like a legit MVP candidate is long gone right now

QUOTE (IowaSoxFan @ Mar 31, 2014 -> 12:29 PM) Though he probably wouldn't hit much worse than he did last year left handed. I'm guessing overall production goes down batting lefty (no more homers), but strikeout rate would actually improve. The relative lack of lefties he would face would allow for him to make a bunch of soft contact instead of swinging through sliders he can't reach

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 31, 2014 -> 01:07 PM) I have no idea what a versatile hitter is but I'd prefer the #3 slot to be a good hitter. A versatile hitter is a guy who isn't automatically wrong for most situations he might come up to the plate. You don't want a powerless guy, a pull-only guy, an only-homer guy, a no-walk guy, a high-strikeout guy, etc. He needs to be good enough to drive in your good hitters that are in front of him but also not so good that he's wasted by coming up with 2 outs and nobody on in the first all the time. He's versatile because he is a jack of all trades at the plate, at least against righties, which is when he will be batting third. Of the players in this lineup, Gillaspie had the second highest BB% last year. Paulie had a tenth of a percentage point better, but they aren't competing with one another for time anyway (and the guy who PK would replace had a much higher BB rate than PK). In this lineup, only two players had low K rates than Gillaspie, one of whom is Eaton who had almost the exact same K rate and the other is Alexei. He also had the third best isolated power in this lineup, after Dunn and Flowers. His overall production is middling in the context of this lineup, but... only Dunn and Avisail had a better wRC+ against righties and I'm not sure if I believe Avisail is going to rip righties like he did in the majors last year. If you like OBP, he's second to Dunn by only .003. And this is all despite significantly lower than career norms in BABIP despite good LD%, GB% relative to career averages. And we are learning more and more that the 3 hitter isn't supposed to be the kind of player that we always thought. They come up with empty bases more of than not and when they do come up with men on, they're often your base stealer types who need a well-rounded hitter at the plate to do their thing. One of the most statistically justified parts of lineup building is alternating righties and lefties, and he does that too for this lineup. Cliffs: -he actually is one of the better hitters in the lineup, at least by track record, and definitely against RHP -he does a variety of things well, especially against righties -the 3 hitter isn't as important as you think it is -it is very nice for our lineup that we can have it alternate lefty-righty without putting our only fearsome hitter (Dunn) in front of Abreu in the order QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 31, 2014 -> 02:25 PM) Thus proving that either they have never seen the guy play before, or that Hawk isn't the only Homer in baseball. The thing is that we didn't necessarily trade Rios because we thought he wasn't that good or because he was a bad guy -- he was just expensive, getting older, and we had just gotten a guy who could fathomably replace him for 6+ years at a much lower price

Gillaspie is a versatile hitter and left-handed. I don't want to see him get many ABs against LHP, but for now I'm not going to lose my mind over it. Surprised about ADA. I have a feeling we're trying to trade both ADA and Gillaspie and this may influence their playing time until those things happen. Makes perfect sense to have Lindstrom as closer. If he put up last year's numbers but as a closer, you could get a bunch for him at the deadline. It keeps Jones's arbitration value down. Works for me.

Paul George since 12/31 - 39.3% FG%, 32.6% 3P% ...only saving grace is that 89% FT%

Almost everything on B/R is now written by paid writers, including several top-notch sportswriters that they've snagged from NYT and other reputable publications

FWIW, keep in mind that Japanese pitchers only pitch every 7 days

Alex Liddi is a 1B. With that said, I feel no assurance that PK will do anything remotely useful

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 29, 2014 -> 02:29 PM) Last year he also started off the year being very complimentary towards the team's attitude. "not a butthole on the team" is a direct quote. Sometimes a team full of non-buttholes can be a team that isn't approaching things seriously