RealityChuck

Better in Cooperstown than the Hockey Hall of Fame, which is essentially in a shopping mall in downtown Toronto.

Dave Kingman. Stupidest man to ever play major league baseball. He could only do three things at the plate: 1. Hit a home run to left field. 2. Hit a fly ball to the left field warning track (sometimes even one-handed). 3. Strike out. Since 2 and 3 were far more common than 1, you wanted to shake him up and point to right field and say, "You can hit the ball there sometimes."

You didn't get mine of Mota? I wasn't sure how to read the chart.

Valadius wrote: Next state to examine: Idaho. Harmon Killebrew runs away with being best position player and best overall player. Who to choose for best pitcher, though, is more difficult. Larry Jackson or Jason Schmidt? I'm going with Jackson, who has a better ERA+, but feel free to dispute me on this one. Note: no Mets have been born in Idaho, but that might have changed had we held onto Matt Lindstrom.Hey, Jackson was a renowned Met killer. Back in the 60s, he ranked with Koufax and Marichal for most victories over NY. His final record was 21-2 vs. NY, including 18 wins before his first loss. Some said at the time that he stayed in the league a couple of extra years because of NY. Jackson also beat the Mets in their first game.

Valadius wrote: I hate how huge you're forced to have the photos. Especially since it's all done so crudely and need to be manually edited to get close.

If he makes it to the majors, does he set the record for most vowels in a row? Or does he just tie Henry Aaron? I guess it's a matter of definition.

Sent it from my sf_writer account.

The frustration is that they seem to be underachieving. Yes, I know their record is good, but they've been coasting on the first two months; since then, they have been mediocre. The injuries are certainly a factor, and hopefully, they'll start driving in runs at a normal level. I'm seeing some improvement lately: they have been coming back when they fall behind early, something they haven't done in awhile. They would have lost the last two games if they had been playing the way they did in June and July: the team would fall a run or two behind and then just coast. Getting back Alou is big. Giving Milledge more playing time seems an easy choice. And Delgado seems to be hitting much better lately. I also think the fun will return with Endy.

seawolf17 wrote: I don't know who you're going to get through waivers at this point. Mike Piazza, anyone? He's cleared waivers.

It's seems very unlikely anyone will come close again. Too many factors work against it, just like it's unlikely there will be another 30-game winner. It requires you win 15 games a year for 20 years, and with the shorter starts and five-man rotations, that's pretty hard to do. The DH used to be a positive factor (since you didn't have to pinch hit for your starter in a close game), but that's become less important. With pitchers coming out of the ballgame after 100 pitches, they are slightly less likely to be the pitcher of record when they leave. If that happens once or twice a season, it can make a big difference over the course of a career. In addition, young pitchers tend to be brought along more slowly. Look at Johan Santana. He'a 28 and needs 211 wins. If he pitches until he's 40, that's over 17 wins a year. In the last five years, he's won less than 17 twice (I assume he'll reach 17 this year). In 2005, he had a very good season statistically, but only won 16. And if he's injured at all and misses part of a season, he's going to find it hard to make the 17. Obviously, it's not impossible, but it's highly unlikely any pitcher will be able to get the innings needed to get to 300.

Nymr83 wrote: ="DocTee"] Something I learned today, to my surprise: in Ripken's 20 seasons, he had but three where he scored 100 runs, and only four with more than 100 rbi. Arod, Nomar, Jeter, etc have ruined forever the perception of what a SS needs to do to get respected. I predict that Omar Vizquel will one day be left out of the Hall of Fame largely because of the players that followed him. True, but Ripkin started the process; he was not the typical shortstop and probably led to people thinking that Arod, Nomar, and Jeter could stay at SS as they developed.

Just a great movie in all respects. There's nothing wrong with going for the emotions, and Spielberg does is perfectly.

Nymr83 wrote: These days they are also catering to the Fantasy Football players by telling us not just what they expect to happen but which individual players they expect to have good games, they also scroll fantasy stats on the bottom of the screen i believe. I think that Fantasy Baseball is the worst thing that ever happened to sports analysis. I have my issues with sabrmetrics, but at least that has produced some useful information. Fantasy sports makes people think that you win real sports games the same way you win in a fantasy league. Since the ultimate fantasy-sport-style team is the MFY, it's clear that that's not so.

It's not going to matter all that much to him. It's not like he lost all 10,000 games himself.

Wait until you lose a bet to me.

="Gwreck"]="RealityChuck"]1. What manager (or managers -- there may be more than one) managed an all-star team without ever managing in the post season? Alou and Showalter both managed the all-star game before managing in the postseason, but they both got there years later. Not who I was thinking of. And, double checking, this manager managed two all-star games, but never managed in the postseason. And you're right about Lopez.

seawolf17 wrote: 2. According to Wikipedia: The manager for each league's team has for many years been the manager of the previous year's league champion. This honor is given to the manager, not the team, so it's possible that the All-Star manager could no longer be with the team with which he won, as happened in 2003, when Dusty Baker managed the National League team despite having moved from the National League champion San Francisco Giants to the Chicago Cubs. This has even included situations where the person is no longer actively managing a team: in 1979, Bob Lemon managed the American League team after having been fired by New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner. The coaching staff is selected by the manager. Interesting change, which brings up a couple of trivia questions: 1. What manager (or managers -- there may be more than one) managed an all-star team without ever managing in the post season? 2. What manager managed four all-star games, but only was in the postseason twice? (The change of rules now makes this much more unlikely, though not impossible.) 3. (easy one) What all-star game didn't have either of the previous year's winning managers managing?

You're really not going to want any catcher catching both ends of a double header. Better to have Castro play two night games in a row and then have LoDuca come back. Bring up DiFelice to be a spectator.

Edgy DC wrote: I don't particuarly need an outfielder. I'm enjoying playing a little Russian Roulette watching Green's resuscitation, Gomez's development, and Alou's daily drama, but it's continually hard to fathom all the talk about pitching help in light of the offense's struggles.Because the team was supposed to have iffy starting pitching this year, and when sportswriters get an idea into their head at the beginning of the season, it remains until the end (because otherwise, they would be wrong about something). The problems with the starting pitching all assumed worse-case scenarios for all players; an average scenario meant the pitching would be adequate. It would be nice to get another hitter to take up the slack, but that's Fantasy, not reality. The team can win with what it has.

ira's issue is that Willie doesn't do everything by the Holy Book of Sabermetrics. He is a heathen and refuses to bow down to the icon of Bill James. He actually makes moves that don't match the Holy Writ. This cannot go on, because it mocks the church of Sabermetrics and might give people the impression that their entire edifice is an intellectually dishonest fraud. Thus, Willie must be stopped at any costs!

Edgy DC wrote: Secondly, a lot is going into that signature. See how the swrils of the l and the d intersect to form the image of a baseball? The d also has a flag on top to make it look like a musical note.. It's just like those teenaged girls who practice their signature over and over.

Wait a minute. Formerly good ML pitcher making a comeback after some disappointing years? Four letters in his name? Mets bring him up to replace someone on the DL? This year, it's Park Time! Ugh.

True Yankee = True Scotsman. And no true Scotsman would play for the Yankees.

I saw the list last night before seeing the question here, so I'll pass.

Centerfield wrote: The problem with thinking along the lines of "let's see what this kid's got" is that success in April doesn't necessarily translate into success later on. Nothing necessarily translates into anything. Maybe it doesn't work; maybe it does. There are no guarantees in baseball.But players have egos. And by showing confidence in a player who has had very little confidence shown in him lately, it's going to give him a better attitude. Will it make a difference? No way to tell. Burgos just may not have the ability. But if he's borderline, isn't it better to show confidence in him than to pull him? If he has confidence, and isn't tentative and looking over his shoulder, then he's going to be a better pitcher, because he won't be overthinking.