Frayed Knot

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Question for the room: Explain Green relative to Delgado Higher for the extra 100 ABs and the 24-10 HR gap. IsoP = .190 vs .139

Yancy, Of Gotay & Easley, who's 12 and who's 11??

They're going to sit around until next Wednesday whether the AL series ends quickly or not.

It's been Rockies Around the Clock

Just speaking for myself ... Nymr83 wrote: 1. how is Castillo higher than Easley and/or Gotay on most lists? Better OBP and better defense 2. why the LoDuca-love? he had an 85 OPS+ and is not a good defensive catcher But he was the everyday catcher which counts for something. 3x the ABs of Castro 3. why is joe smith so low? i know he pitched less innings than wagner/heilman/feliciano (who he should be below) but they were quality innings Not many of them were. He started with 17 scoreless then gave up 18 runs in his next 27 innings and was essentially finished for the season by the end of June.

The thing about the Rox' run is that without a pinch-hit, 2-out, 2-strike hit by Tony Gwynn Jr. of all people for the Brewers against his papa's old team and Trevor Hoffman no less on the final Saturday of the season the Rox are ELIMINATED and the streak up to that point doesn't matter and they never get the chance to add on to it in post-season. Since having virtually ZERO margin for error with ~2 weeks to go every single thing has gone their way.

]Really logo-free, or just airbrushed or black Sharpied logo-free? For years the Mets required all-black shoes so any logos that did exist in those early days of logo-heavy shoes were blacked-out.

Sunday's Newsday ran a few quotes from back when Torre was getting canned by the Mets which run in direct contrast to the 'player's manager' image he has now with the Yanx. Not so many guys rushing to his defense back them. - "He was a good man, not a good manager" -- Neil Allen - "It was obvious there was no discipline around here and something had to be done" -- Alex Trevino - "That big brother stuff between me and him was overdone. Hey, you know what the say: 'You get hired, you get fired' " -- Lee Mazzilli

Holliday & Reynolds have traded HRs - 1-1 bottom 4. First 3 innings = 3 DPs turned by Colorado This Tulowitski guy can play a little. Moves like Vizquel but is 6'2" 200+ NL looks like they'll be sporting some pretty good short-stops for the next coupla years: the two guys here Tulowitski & Drew; plus Reyes, Ramirez, Rollins, Hardy in Milwaukee, and the Dodgers top prospect is a Taiwanese SS (Chin-Lung Hu) who got a September call-up. And only Rollins from that group is over 25.

Dusty Baker named new manager for Cincinatti. I find that kind of surprising. You probably have to go back to Piniella to find the last time Cincy coughed up big bucks for a skipper.

I only caught the back half of the first game and the early parts of the second. - Sabathia was uncharacteristically wild for a 2nd game in a row (including several bases-loaded walks) so the Sox scored early and often. Ortiz & Manny were on base virtuallu every time up and Backett was near perfect before getting pulled after 6. - The problem with the NL game was not only that it started at 10-something but was taking forever to get through the middle innings despite being low-scoring. Snakes tied it at 2 in the 9th when a potential game-ending GiDP was negated by not getting the call on a 'neighborhood' play at 2nd base (correct call IMO). Weirder part still was the runner (Stephen Drew) not realizing he had been called safe and getting tagged out after wandering off the base (runner from 3rd had already scored). Snakes' closer Valverde then walked in the eventual game-winner in the 11th. * I'm Jonathan Trumpbour Matlack!

The other problem was that he was hired because he was Sam Perlozzo's buddy from way back when. Once Perlozzo was kicked out plus there was a partial font office change things probably didn't look good for an expensive pitching coach.

Born a Met is those who's first MLB game was in the blue & orange Died a Met is the less obvious final game as a Met Then there is the rare group who did both. One might even say that they're in the Krane Pool. I just got to thinking about this realizing that Conine, Sele, and perhaps Glavine. Alomar & DiFelice will join the 'Died' list this (really next) year. Meanwhile Gomez, Ambres & Smith were newly hatched Mets in '07, If UMDB doesn't have lists like these for all-timers I bet it could come up with them fairly quickly. Might make for an interesting feature. Willie Randolph, for instance, is a D-a-M.

seawolf17 wrote: This is going make no sense out of context once JD/JCL jumps up a player designation, but if Valadius wants to bitch about a player ranking, how about we get Garry Templeton out of the Top 500? What a waste of a roster spot. Let's get these 2007 rankings up STAT and get him outta there. Figuring that there'll be about 9 or 10 new names up once this year gets added, one could follow along with JCL's assigned players and get a good look at the ones who are destined to go bye-bye.

Leaving aside the value of closers for a second, my main concern is one of producing a list through a particular method and sticking with that list even if it produced some illogical answers simply on the basis of, 'well, that's how things turned out'. The idea here is to produce a list where the order can be explained so even if no one else agrees with it, it should at least make sense to you. For example: * Blending pitchers & hitters is the toughest part of this project, but does Maine - who had an All-star half season anyway - really deserve to be behind Delgado? * How do Endy's fewer ABs, lower OBA & lesser power land him 2 slots above Castillo and 6 above Gotay? * Mota & Schoeneweis ahead of Smith?? In approx 1/3 more IPs they both gave up more than 2x as many runs

Zvon wrote: How do older non active players get to move up this list? Un-retire and play again!! Think about it; a retired player has already been judged to be below the also-retired guys ahead of him on the list so it's not like that's going to change short of us reviewing and changing past scores. So all he can do is hold his place or drop as he gets passed by active and future players. If you want to argue specifically about Trachsel you can fish up the lists where he played and make a case why he shouldn't as high as he was. The 2003 list would be a good one to start since that's where he racked up much of his ponts. More discussion of this topic took place HERE if you want read a similar exchange between myself and 'Slugger' which has a few more details on the same subject. Funny how it's usually Trachsel that stirs folks into action. On the other hand if it makes you feel any better, he'll certainly drop at least 3 spots this winter as Wright, Reyes and Beltran pass him by -- which reminds me that we'll soon need icons for both Reyes & Beltran and I believe you're the guy in charge of those.

vtmet wrote: I agree that Upton caused a technical doubeplay by using that shoulder block on Matsui...but why did the runner going from 2nd to 3rd get sent back to 2nd? That makes no sense... The short answer is because that's the rule. Why it's the rule is so to give the runner an incentive NOT to interfere.

GFaFiF: This way it's presented without prejudice or agenda. Yeah but is it accurate? Do you really want to make the case for Easley being more important to this season than Wagner; or Chavez more than Heilman; or Newhan more than, well ... anyone?

This statistics-based approach not only gives Wright the MVP but also gives him high marks for defense.

Nine (or maybe 10?) days in a row to start the season?!? I don't think I've ever seen that before

I think I posted a table something like this one a few weeks back. His walk rate was somewhat worse in the 2nd half compared to the 1st although for the most part hovered somewhere just above or below average. But it was the power outage that really marked his decline. Aside from April & July those power numbers are considerably below league averages. MonthBAWk RateIsoPApril.356.086.240May.268.081.080June.330.078.094July.265.053.188August.272.069.120Sept.205.068.128 And again, this notion that there needs to be some sort of specific cut-off date from which the whole "turn-around" can be traced is largely fan myth -- they usually are. Look at ARod during this sure-to-be MVP season: April (BA/OBA/Slg): .355/.415/.882 May: .235/.361/.422 June: .402/.496/.773 July: .206/.361/.474 August: .330/.434/.620 September: .362/.470./723 "Shit Happens" is the answer to the question about why something happens when it does a whole lot more often than most fans think, and is why the focus on a particular player's "ability" to hit in post-season is a waste of time.

Willing to talk, sure -- but the teams and/or the player could not make the trade itself contingent on the results of those talks without getting league permission and the specifics etc which would go along with it. Then all you're left with is a promise that the potential FA won't instruct his agent to refuse to return his new GM's phone calls. And, y'know, oral agreements are barely worth the paper they're written on.

"11 years from now $25-$30 mil might be today's $13 mil. " Of course that was part of the logic Texas used when they signed him 7 years ago. At the time ARod signed for $25mil/yr the other top contracts of the day were in the $18/$20 range (Jeter, Manny, Thome, Giambi). Now, 7 years later, as he's going for a new deal, the top contracts are around ... well they're around $18mil or so (Beltran, Soriano, Zito). For top players, the ceiling really hasn't moved much in recent years which is one of the reasons why I'm not sold on this notion that clubs are going to line up to hand ARod a contract with the numeral '3' as the first digit in the annual salary. Granted he's the best player these days but that's 50% more than what the next highest guys are getting! I know that all Boras needs is for the "one stupid owner" theory to come through, but simply because HE is throwing those numbers around (and the press lapping them up) doesn't mean it's destined to happen.

The "negotiating window" - although it winds up thrown into virtually every fan's off-season trade fantasies - rarely occurs. Except for a few veteren players with full no-trade protection who could call their own shots (Schilling to BoSox, Randy Johnson both to and from the Yanx) I can't remember when the last time it actually happened. One problem (in addition to the ones Vic mentions) is that it needs MLB approval, and then once you get that you have to offer it to ALL teams seeking a trade for that player. That puts a serious crimp in the team's ability to deal their player and in the amount of time it takes to do it.

The other thing about a Rockies/Indians WS is that it would guarantee the 8th different champion over the last 8 seasons.