nymr83

I believe Alderson over Backman any day of the week. As someone young enough to have NOT witnessed his playing days and with no fond memories of him i see nothing more than a loudmouthed minor league manager who should have been shown the exit door years ago.

one more thing on relievers - these are the strand percentages for some of our primary guys. they dont show up in the box scores but they matter. Reed wasn't so great here. Familia was bad and didnt have too many chances (ie those "save situations" are usually easier than coming in mid-inning as others are asked to do) [league average is about 27%] PITCHerInheritedStrandedScore% Familia, Jeurys11554.50% Reed, Addison NYM332136.4% Robles, Hansel NYM483331.3% Smoker, Josh NYM121016.7% Henderson, Jim NYM191615.8% Salas, Fernando NYM201715.0% Edgin, Josh NYM201715.0% Blevins, Jerry NYM554714.5% Salas, Fernando NYM252212.0% Goeddel, Erik NYM181611.1% Montero, Rafael NYM770.0% Salas, Fernando550.0%

Grimm - Familia over Reed? why? Saves are a crap stat - Familia was very very good this year - Reed was otherworldly

FK - Wright gets a 1? I think you have him mis-ranked below our other less-successful part-time hitters Wright - 164 PA - 110 OPS+ Duda - 172 PA - 89 OPS+ Bruce - 184 PA - 82 OPS+ TJ Rivera - 113 PA - 117 OPS+ - you have him all the way up at 16 - he needs to move up my next rankings, but not 15 spots higher than David!

Mets Guy in Michigan wrote: seawolf17 wrote: I'm coming around on the whole thing. Despite my vicious hatred for Roger Clemens, I feel like you have to put him in there. Bonds too. It's just not a representative Hall without them. But then what about Pete Rose, who clearly had a gambling addiction, now recognized as a mental wellness problem? Gambling on games in which you are a participant does more harm to the credibility of the game than drugs ever could.

Salamander is the moniker I always remember him as though he used many.

seawolf17 wrote: So we should keep Clemens out? Okay. SORRY SUCKA Clemens should be kept out until he tells the truth about the bat shard incident

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Thanks for remembering! It looks like this poll is going to make it after all! We now know that the final count will be somewhere between 572 and 734. the poll is - arguably - already over and the result known as the original post indicated he need to play the games under the contract he signed with the Marlins - he has since been released and signed as a free agent - not claimed off waivers which would continue the contract. during the course of his new six-year contract, from 2012 through 2017?

cooby wrote: I'd love to know who the formerly banned poster that is now a folk hero is though! "folk hero" isn't really an apt description. Edit - there is a not-fully-updated thread here: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=307 find someone who was responsible for every single "problem" up until 8 or 9 years ago, hasnt posted since, and had about 50 screen names. then project that person onto a current poster who "joined" since they left.

20 pounds lighter could be a good thing compared to the alternatives. i sure wouldn't be lighter if i stayed off my feet for 6 months...

The Posada part is puke-inducing, but he makes this good point on the difference between Bonds and Clemens: 2) on the integrity/character issue, Bonds finishes above Clemens, at least for me. Clemens was accused of lying under oath with no regard to his trainer or his trainer’s life, and he and his well-paid lawyers threw dirt all over the guy who had no choice but to tell the truth to investigators I really don't remember if Bonds did anything similar, but if not its fair to say you voted for Bonds and not Clemens because Clemens dragged people down with him in a d-bag manner.

First draft here trying to see how i feel about it... the dashes are my "tiers" - a few things that jumped out at me: -There is no chance I move Noah off #1 -Colon vs deGrom, and where to place Cespedes relative to them, is something i'm pretty unresolved on, but I have my top 4 in some order. -wow, we had basically 5 full-time players (Syndegaard, Colon, Cespedes, Cabrera, Granderson). -Harvey - I might replace him with Nimmo or something, he made the first draft just based on innings, but they were BAD innings. -Reed over Familia. Saved are a useless statistic and Reed was the better pitcher. RANK Name ------- 30 Noah Syndergaard ------- 29 Bartolo Colon 28 Yoenis Cespedes 27 Jacob deGrom ------- 26 Neil Walker 25 Asdrubal Cabrera 24 Steven Matz 23 Curtis Granderson 22 Michael Conforto ------- 21 Addison Reed 20 Jeurys Familia 19 Wilmer Flores ------- 18 Seth Lugo 17 Robert Gsellman 16 David Wright 15 James Loney 14 Jose Reyes 13 Kelly Johnson ------- 12 Lucas Duda 11 Hansel Robles 10 Jerry Blevins ------- 9 Jay Bruce 8 T.J. Rivera 7 Rene Rivera 6 Travis d'Arnaud 5 Juan Lagares 4 Erik Goeddel 3 Logan Verrett 2 Alejandro De Aza 1 Matt Harvey

ugly. blue all the way!

I've always liked Harper from when he said "that's a clown question bro" to the dumbass reporter who asked him if he was drinking underage

Mets Guy in Michigan wrote: Also, is there a chance we can keep some of the nasty political rhetoric out of the baseball threads? There are at least two political threads in the non-baseball forum dedicated to this kind of stuff. It's starting to bleed over and I bet I'm not the only one who would like a respite. Am I the only one? I'm with you - I was about to write a nasty response to one of them but i refrained as we already have that in politics threads. keep it there, or risk the baseball forum becoming unreadable. I'll wish for d'Arnaud or Plawecki garnering some MVP votes and someone finally claiming that job for the long term.

Frayed Knot wrote: I always found the lack of green in MLB uniforms as perplexing. Are they afraid they'll blend in with the grass? All this while the other primary colors dominate like they got an anti-trust exemption. Besides the A's, only Balt, SF, and Pitt don't have some shade of blue or red as their main color, while teams like the Rangers, Indians, and Nationals couldn't decide and instead vacillate between featuring between blue AND red. There doesn't seem to be as many anti-green-ites at lower levels of sports; plenty of colleges use it and, hey, it was good enough for the Harborfields Tornadoes. But the NFL has (I think) just the Jets & Eagles; the NHL had the old North Stars but even their move to Dallas shoved green to their secondary color behind black; I have no idea about the NBA; and I don't seem to be seeing any in the EPL either so apparently it's not strictly an American prejudice. In the NFL, Green Bay is primarily Green, there is more non-blue/red that isn't green - vikings, ravens, Saints, and the Black & White Raiders,

Edgy MD wrote: Notable that Clemens and Bonds have the exact same totals, as the case for ("no doubter on the stats") and against ("but he used") is exactly the same. yeah, any other case against them would need to be non-baseball - Bonds was a dick to reporters but generally considered to be well-liked and kind to fans. Clemens was supposedly a jerk to everyone.

if you really went by the "passport rule" it would be the US (which would include PR), Japan, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic and maybe a few ok 2nd tier teams like Canada, Cuba, Mexico... not much of a tournament. they need the fake teams.

Edgy MD wrote: T.J.'s Bronx is more Puerto Rico than Shreveport, which is where Seth Lugo comes from. Mets Guy in Michigan wrote: I know they want to get as many countries represented as possible. But it really seems like a stretch to have some of these guys represent these countries. Of course, the US has played World Cup soccer matches with a serious paucity of starters actually born in the US. My main issue with Puerto Rico is that I don't want them playing as a nation against other nations, but instead competing as a US state in the 64-team US Baseball Cup of States Championship Tournament that exists only my head, where it is exceedingly well organized, highly popular, and enjoys the simultaneous and spirited participation of the highest-profile professionals and most ambitious amateurs, despite the fact that the final four are almost always, California, Arizona, Florida, and Puerto Rico. Texas isn't ahead of Arizona? by a ton? I needed to stretch the definition of "active" to even field a team for players born in Arizona. the argument probably starts and ends with the pitchers here anyway. posARZTEX CBrett NicholasCameron Rupp 1BTommy JosephJames Loney 2BIan KinslerKelly Johnson 3BEric SogardMatt Carpenter SSJJ HardyCliff Pennington LFAndre EthierJay Bruce CFJason PridieCarl Crawford RFKole CalhounHunter Pence PTom WilhelmsenClayton Kershaw

there would be no reason for players as a whole to be against it - though the Glavines of the world would surely protest not being able to receive strikes a foot off the plate) - i suspect many of them would be in favor of fairer calls and not needing to get kicked out of the game for yelling at a blind umpire.

Edgy MD wrote: Wow, I guess there's a lot more gap in between Hoffman's career and Wagner's than I can see. the gap in ability goes in the other direction, though Hoffman certainly lasted longer (not as much as i thought, though the innings gap ~180 is significant for relievers)

Farewell 2016 - Stark mentions the greatest homerun of all time to leadoff his column today- http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/18352822/bartolo-colon-blast-strange-true-feats-make-mlb-great and in case you needed to see it again, because who doesnt? http://m.mlb.com/video/topic/11493214/v671207583/must-c-classic-colon-launches-first-career-home-run

Andruw Jones is a tough one! Edmonds feels right to me, but aren't they the same player? Jones fell off the map early but you forget he was playing CF at age 19! Edmonds first full season wast until 24.

Important Question: When will baseball reference replace that ugly photo of Beltran in a Yankees jersey?

Edgy MD wrote: Even after bringing next to nothing the last two years, he's one of the all-time great post-season players. He's part of a very small class in that regard. I didnt even think of that! and yeah, that is something that should help sway the old fogies. unfortunately, i'll only ever remember one pitch Beltran saw in the postseason