Lefty Specialist

Castro's style of play isn't exactly celebrated in Chicago. They'd eat him alive in New York. He's a great talent, but he has too many brain farts and lazy plays.

Don't like Castro. When I see him play I think of this scene from Bull Durham:

Very few Ferraris are given out. Hard to compare that with the 1977 Chevy Vega he was handed in Queens. It's unusual for a manager to go to the playoffs with a team for the first time in 14 years (as Buck did) and then get fired. But these were the Steinbrenner Yankees, so anything was possible. Don't forget that Buck had the Yanks playing the best ball in the AL in '94 when the strike came, too. So this was a team primed and ready to go. Yes, Joe didn't do anything stupid, but perhaps his best talent was dealing with The Boss, something Buck wasn't really capable of. Maybe he should be in the Psychological Hall of Fame.

Edgy MD wrote: I'm not sure what you mean to say about Torre. Torre was handed the keys to a Ferrari. All he had to do was keep it from running into a ditch. Had they kept Buck Showalter after 1995, they'd be talking about him for the Hall of Fame now. The Torre hiring was derided at the time because up to that point he'd been profoundly mediocre as a manager.

Edgy MD wrote: Yeah, the tough thing is that we all understand that a manager can only do so much with what he has, that good managers are often saddled with a squad wanting for talent, and that bad managers often are blessed with managing a juggernaut, yet at the end of the day, they're mostly judged by winning percentage. (Cough....Joe Torre....cough)

Of the four teams left, this is the most intriguing matchup. The Royals, a team that hasn't woken from its dream yet, against a team that's been there 3 times in the last 5 years. Should be fun. Wonder how many KC fans said after the All-star game, "Great! Now we get home field advantage for the World Series!"

What they need to add in the offseason: nothing. d'Arnaud plays, Recker backs up, Plawecki waits in the wings. Next.

Moving the fences in is cheaper than getting a legitimate power outfielder. That's how they roll in Wilponland. Can't wait for all the 'Matt denDekker is going to have a breakout year' stories in Spring Training.

OK, 'stunning' isn't too strong a word.

seawolf17 wrote: "I miss you guys so much." Even if Toronto paid 2/3 of what he's owed the Wilpons wouldn't bite. He would solve 2 problems (SS and leadoff), but I just can't imagine a scenario where this would happen. Plus, he hasn't been quite the same player since he left. Which is too bad because he was as electric as a player can get for a couple of years there with the Mets.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: What makes you so convinced? The kid is 22 and hit the living shit out of the ball. Limited defensively I'd say, probably not a good SS over a long period even, but I'd bet he'll outproduce Muffy beginning in '15, given equal opportunity to play. What do you say? Let's bet a beer on it. If Flores was given one position and was allowed to remain in the lineup every day, I have no doubt he'd outproduce Murph over the course of a season. And that's no slight against Murphy, who is what he is- an above-average singles and doubles hitter and a less-than-average fielder. Flores, in addition to being much younger, is a better fielder and has much more pop. He was told to play shortstop and did it passably. Now imagine Murphy at shortstop. The problem is that you can't have both of them in the lineup as the middle infielders. One position has to be manned by a good fielder to help cover for the deficiencies of the other. I don't think Murphy's going to get better or have more trade value than he does right now. So that, plus the realities of the Wilpons (much as we hate them) means he needs to be traded this winter.

I'm realllly irritated by these Viagra commercials with the British escort telling her potential clients that they need to take the little blue pill if they're going to score with HER.

It's more fun listening to Joe Buck call walk-offs [u:36zxrx5r]against[/u:36zxrx5r] the Cardinals.

Nats suck. Getting that in early. With our luck, it'll rain. And that lineup tells me that Sandy did nothing over the winter which would be, um, less than optimal.

"Maybe that was my gynecologist's stage name. They have those, don't they?" My wife wanted to know why I was laughing so hard. Perhaps I'll tell her one day.

I have little patience with tattoos of any kind. I would never do something to my body that I couldn't undo (or at least couldn't undo without long, painful, expensive cosmetic procedures not guaranteed to work). These are people who'll be laughed at for the rest of their lives. And I imagine the second guy will get more than his share of beatings along the way should he stray into the 215 area code.

Wow, Dave Raconiello could be Tim Teufel's twin brother. The resemblance is uncanny.

Did they really just tell us who the replay umpire was in New York? I thought they guarded it like a National Security secret.

I'm thinking I have the pattern for how I'd like this series to go. I want the home team to lose each game, disappointing their fans every night. Also, this way, the Cards lose the series 4-3, the last defeat being a crushing one on their home field. The Giants winning is just an afterthought.

Royals having the look of a team that will not be denied.

The FA Marketplace, According to Cots' Baseball Contracts Mike Aviles * Asdrubal Cabrera Stephen Drew Alex Gonzalez J.J. Hardy (signed) Jed Lowrie John McDonald Hiroyuki Nakajima * Hanley Ramirez Jimmy Rollins * * � player whose current contract includes 2015 option. Ya know, that's a list that makes me want to play Wilmer Flores at shortstop for a year.

Dunno. Bad things happened to The Crusher.

I really hate the 'Big Game' moniker. He hasn't exactly been lights-out in 'big games' this year. But it seems to have been surgically attached to his name, like 'all-important' has been attached to 'loss column' and 'iconic' has been attached to 'wooden cap'.

Zvon wrote: We need that shortstop and/or that outfielder. I don't know which will be resolved first, but it should effect the approach to the other. It could decide if the position can be carried (possibly as is) or really needs a big upgrade. So for now I'll just sit back and watch. Time to get to work Sandy. We want something nice for Christmas. The last time Sandy got us something for Christmas, it was Chris Young. There's some high-grade anthracite for you.

Two AL teams I kinda like, and two NL teams, one of which I despise (cough-Cardinals-cough) and one of which I don't like. So it's easy. Royals, and failing them, Orioles.