MFS62

Alex Ochoa was Gil Floores with a little more power. IIRC, Flores averaged about 1-2 homers per year for his career.Later

Edgy, I would think that you are correct that the higher number of right handed hitters would skew the overall park numbers, the best mathematical term I can come up with is the weighted average. That's probably why Shea is considered a pitcher's park.Later

OH JOE SCHULTZ!Just read that neither Mike Cameron nor Lastings Millege are in the starting lineups for their teams tonight.Both of them for somebody?I hate trading deadline speculation, too.Make a freakin' trade for a power hitting lefty first baseman or get off the pot already.Later

That is a perfect example of what makes baseball so intriguing. Those pitchers had such totally different styles yet achieved similar results.Maddux is the perfect example on why you can't just look at radar gun speeds when scouting a pitcher.Later

Valadius wrote:Raffy's probably the quietest Hall-of-Famer there ever was. Actually, I give that honor th Al Kaline. Other than being the youngest player to lead his league in hitting, after that he never lead his league in any major offensive category in any year (he may have led in doubles once IIRC).And, he was as dull as dishwater. (does anyone still use that ecpression?) He was a very good player, but IMHO not a Hall of Famer.Later

Thanks, I had heard that over the years, but never saw the numbers.I love it when posters on other boards used the "Shea is a pitcher's park" arguement when discussing a power hitting acquisition without looking into the splits you just posted. Later

getalife wrote:I've seen timelines on the internet with the answers to most of these questions.Can you give me some f'rinstances?I asked for some help as to where I might find the answers. If I knew where to find them, I wouldn't have asked the questions. Later

Thanks, Yancy.Good insight about the CBA and a good start.Let's see what others can come up with.Later

As you get older, the past years often seem to blend. The other day, I was trying to place in time when some small but notable changes took place in MLB. Does anyone have answers to the following: 1. When did the DL change from 30 days to the current 15 & 60 days? (I'd guess the 1970's?) 2. When did the trading deadline change from June 15th to July 31st? (I'd guess 1989) 3. When did the rule end that allowed MLB rosters of 28 players until the end of April when they dropped to 25 players until September 1st? (the late 1960's?) 4. When did the restrictions on interleague trading end? (the 1970's?) 5. When did the All-Star roster for each league expand from 25 to 28 to 30 to 32 players? (mid-1970's to late 1990's ?) 6. When did they add the All-Star rule allowing a catcher to re-enter a game in the event of an injury to the last catcher in the game? (no idea on this one) 7. When did the rule restricting the number of coaches take effect? (Remember the Cubs of the early 1960's?)8. When they change the rule that allowed three option years (with multiple callups/ sent downs for a player in one year) rather than three options/ recalls total?Any help would be greatly appreciated.Later

Omar/ WFAN update.No deal to report.He said the Mets were in the hunt, but are not in just an '05 mindset.He also said that he would not overpay for a name player (Soriano?) but the team needs to add offense.He supported Beltran and is sure he'll improve over the rest of the season.yadda yaddaTypical GM-speak.EDIT: About Kent. He was an Amos Otis redux - a player who the Mets tried to move to third base to fill that historic chasm. When they couldn't (Otis) or didn't want to (Kent) they were traded away.When the Mets got Kent, there was some criticism of his defensive play at second. So I checked. When he was in the Jays' system, he had twice led his minor league in fielding and DPs converted by second basemen (the only statistics available at that time). So he wasn't the second coming of Bill Mazeroski. So what? But he played the position at least as well as Todd Bellhorn and Todd Walker do today, and you had to like his bat.But when they moved him to third, his clubhouse "personality" must have escalated and he may have walked around with a case of the RA. But we'll never know if his clubhouse problems were with his teammates (to paraphrase the bakery ad- nobody doesn't hate Barry Bonds), or with the press. As someone noted above, that doesn't mean the guy can't play.Later

Omar was supposed to have come on the Mike Francessa show at 1:05 today.(WFAN)The interview was then rescheduled to after 2:00 PMThat has now been pushed back to after 4:00 PM.Will we hear a deal has been completed today?Later

]Who's Hot? Todd Helton is starting to wake up, going 11-38 on the Rox' recent road trip. And he's now cold.I just heard on WFAN that Helton was injured in last night's game, and will miss the next few games.Later

"Cripple pitch"or"He's a good crip hitter"I've posted my reasons why I dislike those phrases before.Later

Patchy,Picked up my vacation mail yesterday and saw the CD.Haven't had a chence to even open it yet,Thanks in advance.Lateredit; typos

Ok, so maybe it wasn't a nice thing to say, even in jest. But some players seem to hit the same at all levels, neither showing dramatic improvement nor degradation as they get promoted.One who stayed about the same was Bud Harrelson, who seemed to hit around .230-.250 (IIRC) at every level, but played in the day when a shortstop's defense was how he was measured. You knew what you were getting and you got it. And it is an old baseball axiom that defense is the only thing consistent from level to level. I don't see that great defense in Ragsdale's numbers.And Todd Hundley was touted as a good field/ no hit catcher when he came up to the majors, where he improved his offensive numbers.But I don't get the same feeling about Ragsdale. I don't follow the draft as much as I follow the minor leagues, so I really can't answer your other question. Later

="Johnny Dickshot"] What an obnoxious post. Who would you have chosen?Take a look at his numbers and please explain to me what he has shown at any level since he was drafted as a number 2 pick to justify his subsequent promotions to higher levels.http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/corey_ragsdale.shtmlThey say he is an excellent fielding shortstop, but last year he had over 30 errors. In fact, he had more errors than RBI for the season.To quote sportswriter Dick Young (talking about Pirate bonus baby Bob Bailey, "On one hand, he can't hit. On the other hand, he can't field, either." But he was talking about Bailey atthe major league level. Ragsdale has been demonstrating the lack of both abilities in the minors.I'd have chosen just about anyone else on the B-Mets. I dunno. Victor Hall?Later

He's a soft-tossing lefty in the Blake McGinley mold.He has good control and a decent breaking ball, which can usually guarantee success through the lower minors. But I believe his FB tops out in the mid 80's. I hpe he can keep it up at this (and higher 0 levels.Later

Some days, it just isn't worth gnawing through the restraints.I think he means player rehab.Later

Think I saw that Orber MOreno is off the 60 day DL and has been sent to Binghamton to start his rehab.EDIT: Tried to verify this on the minor league transaction page, but couldn't get the link to open. Any help would be greatly appreciated.Later

Iubitul wrote:MFS - I used to live in Naugatuck - where did they film there?They use an old factory building in some of the outside shots.Later

Interesting.Bill James wrote that you can get a pretty good preview of a player's career by looking at his first 500 AB in the majors.Whether 500 or 600 is better (I know, more data is better for basing projections), it looks like Mr. Wright is meeting the expectations we had for him. And he seems to have come back from the All Star break well rested. He had been in a mild slump prior to the ASB.Of course, there are exceptions. Sometimes swings can occur when players are traded to different leagues/ teams/ ballparks.IIRC, Paul O'Neill had about a .265 BA in over 3,000 AB in the National league at the time he was traded to the Yanks. He went on to hit over .300 in more AB there for the rest of his career. (Statistics on broken water coolers with each team are unavailable at this time.)I attributed that to the fact that at that time, the NL was more of a fastball league and the AL more of a breaking ball league, and Paul had what was called "slider bat speed". Didn't mean to hijack your thread. Good job. But I try never to miss a chance to slam the AL and the Yanks in general and O'Neill in particular.Later

And Naugatuck really doesn't look like Boston, either.This version of the movie mentions pods in New Jersey. In fact, Tom Cruise's house is at the foot of what looks like either the Goethals or Bayonne Bridge.But the plot involves Tom meeting his wife in Boston. And after the initial attack, the story has him trying to get there.In one of the final scenes, Tom and daughter are entering a totally ravaged "Boston". I turned to MMYF and whispered "I knew that if the Red Sox ever won the World Series, the world would end".We both laughed out loud, and the folks around us were wondering what was so funny..Later

So many special effects.So few plot questions answered (or just cursory explanations).I had seen an interview with Spielberg a few weeks ago. He said he had done two movies (E.T. and Close Encounters ) in which the aliens were benign, friendly or downright cute. He wanted them to be pure evil in this one. So I went to see it last week. I had seen the first WotW , but MMYF had not. So she enjoyed it more than I did. And , best of all, she didn't ask me to explain the differences between the two movie versions.Lotsa' noise, mayhem and those good special effects made for good Summer escapist fun. In honor of the fact that Spielberg stayed true to the original by giving the aliens three fingers, I'll give this one three fingers up (out of four).Final note, I had remembered that part of the movie had been filmed in Naugatuck, CT, the next town over from where my daughter lives. It took a long time, but near the end of the movie I spotted the location they used.The place they used needed some urban renewal anyhow.Later

Is this looking any better now, you nay sayers?At least I deserve some props for predicting his rebound.Later

AHA!ThanksLater