MFS62

You're right, FK. When scouting a young player, better judgement comes from seeing a player more than just one or two times. One example has been Martinez. There was one seminal report on his fielding, based on one scout from one of these services watching him play the field on a very windy day. The report came back that he was a mediocre fielder, destined to be moved to a corner, or even first base. That report was picked up by other (lazier) report orgs, without checking out his fielding for themselves. Later reports have corrected that bad report, but he still has some of the stigma attached /upgraded to him. From what I've heard, my estimate of Martinez is that he can turn into an Al Oliver kind of player - .300 - 20 HR - 85 RBI, but with better consistent speed and defense than Al. I'll take that. Later

worried. I'm a conspiracy theorist, but just can't think who would be involved in this one. Maybe the Yanks are paying off his agent to make unattainable demands to kill the deal, then they'll jump in and "save the Twins". Uh, I need my medication. Later

From a Twins fan named Nikephoros, who I have met several times after meeting him on another board: ]'d rather have had a package including Hughes/Horn/Jackson/Tabata or Ellsbury/Lowrie/Masterson/Crisp myself, but I'm okay with this deal, too. Granted, having Phil Hughes as the centerpiece of a trade gets me more excited than Gomez, but the Twins needed to pull a deal and they did it. I'm kind of glad that it's over (or soon will be), to be honest. The franchise can focus on Francisco Liriano and hope he'll step into the void left by Santana. Maybe not a banner day to be a Twins fan, but not the end of the world, either. - N. Later

If the rumors are correct, and the Mets will be giving up several young starters in the deal, look for them to sign a veteran innings eater before the Santana deal goes down. Later

Just curious. Why do you think the HOF voters love Gossgae and don't like Lee Smith? Their WHIP and ERA+ numbers are very comparable. Yes, Gossage had higher IP/G numbers, but Smith also had more saves, pitching in the same era. Later

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: And they chose the Rocky Mountain News to deliver that message? Tracy Ringolsbe(sp?) is an esteemed baseball writer. I've read his stuff for years in TSN. He covers the national baseball scene for that paper, and I heard he is the one who wrote the report. He is the mountain time zone equivalent of Peter Gammons. Later

Frank Cashen. He helped the team rise from the dead. You have to re-wire a room in your house. Who do you call? Later

http://mbd.scout.com/mb.aspx?s=228#s=228&f=1381&t=1281014 Later

This may be what AG/DC had read: From Joe Sheehan of Baseball Prospectus -- on CNNSI.com -- Mr. Sheehan has Zimmerman pegged for a "breakthrough" season.....going as far as definitively stating he'll be better than David Wright in 2008. ] Ryan Zimmerman: Zimmerman may seem like an odd choice for the list, given how well he's played in his first two full seasons. However, Zimmerman's raw stat lines have been held down by his home park, RFK Stadium, which just killed power, especially right-handed power. Zimmerman's home/road splits do not reflect this gap14; he's slugged .501 at RFK in his career, .435 on the road, but a guiding principle of performance analysis is that an individual's home/road splits, even over two years, do not mean that player isn't being affected by his home park. We know what RFK did to run scoring and power, and moving to a new park should enable Zimmerman to convert some of his doubles to home runs. Throw in development -- he's 23 this season -- and you have the recipe for a breakout. David Wright might well have been the most valuable player in the National League last season; Zimmerman will be a better player than Wright in 2008. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.c...yers/index.html Later

Caught the last part of the show last night. 1) Rick has hair under that hat. Lots of it. And its curly. Never saw him without that hat before. 2) Duanier Sanchez and Mike Pelfrey (in his last few starts) have ground ball/ fly ball ratios "off the charts" (he used the same expression when discussing each of them). 3) They put up at string a little above knee height across the plate during spring training and have the pitchers try to keep their pitches in that zone. He added "hitters hit pitches in that zone at a .220 clip". (Slight paraphrase) When Pelfrey did that last year, he held opposing hitters to a .190 BA. (He again said "off the charts". That must be a favorite term of his.) 4) He also said that when the count is 1-2, the league hits at a .220 clip. Sounds like they're expecting big things from Pelfrey this year. Later

seawolf17 wrote: One of the best baseball cards ever. The scrren name of a poster on another old baseball site used to be "Oscar Gamble's Fro' in a Lid". He might have been influenced by that card's picture. Or maybe just Oscar. Later

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I'll be making my first-ever visit to St. Lucie. I'm going to see the Mets play the Indians on March 19. (The only other time I saw the Mets play in spring training was against the Braves in, I think, West Palm Beach in 1986. That season ended pretty well. Hopefully this one will have a similar conclusion.) Just don't associate any of the Mets with The Odd Couple. (cross-forum allusion) Later

Typical anti-New York media bias. fie (or should it be "phai"?) on them. Later

="Edgy DC"]I'd want to go to PSL, just to see if it's as crappy as all that. That morbid curiosity of mine has hurt more than one vacation. How many of you have dragged a significant other to Kingsport? Not to Kingsport, but to Columbia, SC. We were driving from Myrtle Beach to Atlanta and stopped off there. The trip would have been a total disaster if not for eating at The Lizzard's Thicket. My wife still says they served the best cornbread she ever tasted. As for Columbia, there wasn't a game that day, and I couldn't find a place open to buy a Bombers souvenir. Later

The sportscaster on the station I was listening to said "Caldwell". I couldn't figure out who he was talking about. Later

cooby wrote: sealwolf, didn't your English teachers teach you nothing? Don't use double negatives! He ain't never done that! Later

AG/DC wrote: As a former Dodger whose name was bigger than his skilzz, it's practically an historical accident that he was never a Met. Skilzz?? His changeup was as devastating in its day as Johann Santana's these days. name?? And he brought a championship to Brooklyn. May his name be exalted forever and ever. Amen. Later

="Willets Point"]="DocTee"]Never mind "the Jake", it'll always be "the mistake by the lake" for me. I think that's also the nickname for the entire city of Cleveland. Yep. Cleveland was the place where a river caught fire - from the pollution floating on it. Later

mario25 wrote: Free Agent Rh outfielders still available: Trot Nixon,Reggie Sanders,Jason Lane,Emil Brown,Bobby Kielty,Shannon Stewart...just a thought Stewart has a lousy arm (that from my pals in Toronto). But he does run and field pretty well. Sounds like a left fielder to me. Maybe Reggie Sanders can crank it up one more time. Later

Why do we have to know that she's "long limbed" ? Someone can be an athlete with "normal" length limbs. (whatever that is) Is she also restocking shelves in the gift shop? Later

Elster88 wrote: ="AG/DC"]I don't want to minimize Leyritiz's guilt, but it's the News piling on when they try and extend the case against him by citing two trips to the liquor store four and a half years ago, when he spent $256.23 and $169.53. You beat me to it. That's one decent party and one below average party for a college kid. Now I know why I had to keep sending money to my kids when they were in College. Thanks for clearing that up. Later

Do we have to do them in order? I don't know if I will be able to contain myself if I have to wait with my Frank Howard comment. Later

AG/DC wrote: Yeah, but that was number four of three, so I wasn't sure what to make of it. Rethought my post. Inserted #2 (Give Gomez more minor league time). Changed the numbers, but not the sentence. My bad. Later

As has been mentioned here before, his name is a text book oxymoron. I think the trade can mean one of three things: 1) It sets up a trade of one of the young outfield prospects. 2) It allows Gomez to play a full season at AAA to hone his skills. 3) Omar really likes the way Pagan's game has developed, and needs a righty hitting good outfielder to go along with Endy. (Pagan, a switch hitter, has shown more power from the right side and better average from the left side) 4) Omar woke up screaming when he saw Easley playing the outfield in a dream. Angel becomes the only experienced center fielder on the roster behind Beltran. While he can play center well, I think of Endy as spending a lot of time as the semi-regular left fielder this year. EDIT: What happened to my avatar of Doc Gooden? Looks like it killed the format of this thread. Edit 2: Looks like this has been fixed. Thanks to whoever did it. Later

DocTee wrote: Whether you admire Leyland or despise Leyritz, it's still tragic for the victim and his/her family at this holiday season. Stepping down from soapbox....now. Exactly. There is no excuse for DUI. Later