TransMonk

Frank Wren DOB: 3/17/1958 Hometown: St. Petersburg, Fla. College: St. Petersburg (Fla.) JC Assistant Director, Scouting - Montreal Expos 1987-1990 Assistant General Manager - Florida Marlins 1993-1995 VP / Assistant General Manager - Florida Marlins 1996-1998 General Manager - Baltimore Orioles - 1999 From Wikipedia: When Pat Gillick resigned as GM of the Orioles at the close of the 1998 season, Wren was recruited as his replacement. But the 1999 Orioles were a major disappointment. The club finished six games under .500 despite one of the highest payrolls in the game and the signing of free agent slugger Albert Belle to the most lucrative contract in baseball at the time. During the season, Wren was criticized publicly by Baltimore owner Peter Angelos and his family, and when the season ended, Wren was fired after less than a full year on the job. VP / Assistant General Manager - Atlanta Braves - 2000-2007

]...Wright was the man the entire year, hit for a great average with great power, fielded his position like a gold glover and added 30+ stolen bases to his credit. Only if they give GGs to everyone in the league.

HAIL!

My List: 30 - David Wright 29 - Carlos Beltran 28 - Oliver Perez 27 - John Maine 26 - Jose Reyes 25 - Orlando Hernandez 24 - Tom Glavine 23 - Carlos Delgado 22 - Billy Wagner 21 - Moises Alou 20 - Aaron Heilman 19 - Shawn Green 18 - Paul Lo Duca 17 - Pedro Feliciano 16 - Damion Easley 15 - Luis Castillo 14 - Ramon Castro 13 - Jorge Sosa 12 - Lastings Milledge 11 - Marlon Anderson 10 - Pedro Martinez 9 - Ruben Gotay 8 - Scott Schoeneweis 7 - Endy Chavez 6 - Mike Pelfrey 5 - Jose Valentin 4 - Joe Smith 3 - Carlos Gomez 2 - Guillermo Mota 1 - Aaron Sele Biggest differences with FK: I have Perez and Maine above Reyes. This is mostly due to them stepping up and nicely filling out a rotation that many thought would be a question mark at the beginning of the year. They gave a positive answer to those questions. To me they are closer to a wash, but I did have Perez on top of Maine when I originally made my list. While Reyes had a good first half and achieved more walks and stolen bases than in previous seasons, he really struggled after the All-Star break and took a step backwards after his break out season in ’06. I have Glavine higher than Delgado and Wagner. Glavine was spotty at times, but did pitch 200 innings and led the team in quality starts. Delgado had decent power numbers, but was a shell of his former self the majority of the year. Wags, like Reyes, had a great first half, but struggled down the stretch. I had Green above LoDuca, only because in almost identical ABs, Green was superior in almost all stats except RBI and had an OPS almost 100 points higher. Green is a RF and LoDuca is a catcher, so it’s not a major point of contention for me. I had Easley above Castillo. Again in similar at-bats, Easley had better overall stats IMO. Because Easley got hurt and Castillo filled a major hole in the #2 spot in the lineup, again it’s not a major issue for me. From there down, there are some slight differences, but nothing shockingly different that I would argue too hard for. I have Anderson higher just because of how many clutch PHs he had. I have Smith lower because he was just not the same in September as he was in April. I went with Sele over Burgos as last man standing only due to the fact that he was up with the ML team all year.

Classic.

Pudge's '08 option was picked up in Detroit. http://detroit.tigers.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20071009&content_id=2258480&vkey=news_det&fext=.jsp&c_id=det

Nope, I wouldn't say with any certainty that the same could be said for LoDuca. He had the 5th most games of any catcher in the NL last season. At any rate, I'm less advocating for LoDuca than I am against Castro. I have no problem with not bringing Paulie back. But if Castro's the #1 we better have a better backup plan than Mike DiFilice. I believe that if Castro is asked to produce on an everyday basis next year that he is as strong a candidate to spend time on the DL as Alou.

In limited duty...no I can't. I have major questions about his durability.

OlerudOwned wrote: ="Grote15"]Is'nt LoDuca the best option at catcher?....You have Mota and heilman back..I'd be surprised if either are back... Not while Castro is an option. Ugh.

http://mets.lohudblogs.com/2007/10/05/glavine-declines-player-option/ Shocker.

I have mixed feelings about not being able to watch the Braves. I'll miss the convenience, but won't really miss the broadcasts. I believe TBS setup to start doing a regular national Game of the Week starting next season on Sundays.

metsmarathon wrote: ...leinenkugel... My beer brand of choice. Flows like water where I'm from. It's cheap and everyone's got it.

I'd have to say I've been pleasantly surprised with their coverage. I expected the worst when I heard that the Braves network was going to show two-thirds of the year's playoff games on their channel. They've done a good job of separating it from the normal Braves broadcasts. I think the graphics are a bit FOX-ish. I could do with out the shadows and the outlines on the score bar. But I think they've put together fairly watchable (and listen-able) announcing crews and their production pieces have been decent. Thoughts? Comments?

You know what I find creepy about this series? The Diamondbacks changed their colors to red, sand and black this season. You would think with them going to a couple of playoffs and winning a World Series over the past 10 years that you would see more of the turquoise/purple/copper colors from the fans who have been rooting for them from the beginning. But when the crowd is panned over, it seems every Diamondback fan is wearing the new red. It's like their merchandise department let them trade in all of their old stuff for new stuff. Seems like there should be more fans with "lucky 2001 jerseys" or "the cap I wore when they won it all in 2001".

I'd invite Bobby back to manage in a heartbeat.

Since we have a thread open: I've never liked Jerry Manuel. I think he was a crappy manager with the White Sox and has even less of an idea about NL baseball than Willie does. His inablity to play effective small-ball in tight situations embarrassed the 2000 White Sox in the DS sweep at the hands of the Mariners helmed by Pinella who capitalized on Manuel's weaknesses. http://www.baseball-reference.com/postseason/2000_ALDS2.shtml I would not be sad to see him go.

Would it really take Reyes to get Santana? Wouldn't that just be plugging up one hole by creating another? I'd be willing to give up Milledge, Gomez, Pelfrey or Humber to the point that it would take to get him...but Reyes seems like giving up a lot.

Wow...funny.

Thanks, Yancy!

Division Series: A. Rockies v. Phillies: Phillies in 4 B. Cubs v. Diamondbacks: Cubs in 5 C. MFYs v. Indians: Indians in 4 D. Angels v. Red Sox: Red Sox in 5 Championship Series: E. Cubs v. Phillies: Cubs in 6 F. Indians v. Red Sox: Red Sox in 7 World Series: G. Cubs v. Red Sox: Cubs in 7

As for catcher, I wouldn't mind having both LoDuca and Castro back. I've warmed up to Castro filling in more than he has as well. I would imagine Castro would be pretty easy to lock up. I would be uncomfortable with Castro as the primary catcher just due to his history of injuries. If Paulie isn't on the team next year, I would want a young, defensive backstop that could split time with Ramon.

metsmarathon wrote: dare we enter next year with ruben gotay as our primary second baseman? No.

Wow!

Isn't this Yorvit Torrealba character a FA this year? I've heard good things.