Fman99

metirish wrote: I'm on to you. Oh, are you?

I like a guy with two last names. Plus how can you think of "Owen" and not recall the great Anne Ramsey in "Throw Momma from the Train"? Baseball America today issued their 2007 National League Draft Report Card (subscriber only), with evaluations of each team�s crop from June�s Amateur Player Draft. Among other categories, they rank: best pro debut, athlete, hitter, fastball and as well as closest to the major leagues. BA gives specific attention to Dylan Owen, a 21-year old right hander drafted in the 20th round out of Francis Marion University; he was 9-1 with a 1.49 ERA in 14 games (13 starts) for the Brooklyn Cyclones, walking 12 and fanning 69 in 72.1 innings.

Proper Name: Joshua Smith Fogg Born: December 13, 1976 Lynn, MA Height: 6-0 Weight: 205 lbs. Age: 30 Bats: Right Throws: Right Pos: SP Experience: 6 years 2007 Salary: $3,625,000 College: Florida Married: wife named Jessica Fogg Nicknames: "Chesty LaRue" (I have no source on this but it sounds nice) Career record: 60-60, 4.90 ERA Health record: Had arthroscopic surgery in his right elbow after the 2006 season to remove bone spurs. Scouting report (stolen openly from Mets Geek's recurring "Upcoming Series: What to Expect" taken from April 2007): "It might be safe to say at this point that Josh Fogg just isn�t a good major league starting pitcher. And yet the Rockies still insist on marching him out there for another thirty starts. He got off to a hot start with the Pirates in 2002, and I think teams have been letting him coast ever since. Fogg�s basically a junkballer with good control. His fastball has some sink but only tops out around 88, giving him one of the slowest fastballs in baseball. He has a pretty good change and a decent curve, both of which he�ll throw often. He�ll occasionally mix in a slider, and he�s also been working on a cutter, reducing the number of pitches he doesn�t throw to one. What to Expect: Fogg absolutely needs to hit his spots to have any sort of success. If he leaves the ball up in the zone or out over the plate he�ll be hit hard (see above). A nibbler, the only way he can pitch well is to paint the corners and hope his fastball has a little bit of sink to it. He won�t throw the fastball terribly often�just a little over half the time�and he lives on his changeup, throwing that almost 22% of the time, the fourth highest rate in the league. He also has to be careful with his curveball which he will hang from time to time." 2007 vs. Mets: Went 2-0, 15 IP, 16 H, 7 ER, 2 BB, 8 SO. Pros: The guy is the classic MLB innings-eater. He's been consistently mediocre-to-poor over the course of his career. Look at his W-L record over the past 6 years. 2002 12-12 2003 10-9 2004 11-10 2005 6-11 2006 11-9 2007 10-9 There's a pattern of some kind here. His similar pitchers list on Baseball Reference includes such "luminaries" as Rodrigo Lopez, Jason Jennings, and former-Met-turned-whiny-bitch John Thomson. Yet this is your Game 3 WS starter, amazingly. Cons: His ESPN photo makes it look like the guy next to him passed gas and he's enjoying it somehow. Creepy. Upside: Best case - he gets more run support and puts up a 15 win season with lousy peripherals, a la Traschel in 2006. Downside: He clogs up a SP slot with his 5.5 ERA and 4-8 record, that Pelfrey or Humber could be auditioning in and gaining MLB experience, thereby clogging progress in the name of "veteran stability." See Lawrence, Brian or Lima, Jose. Cost: He made $3.6 million in 2007 and put up nearly identical numbers after doing so. I'd think the Mets could get him for about the same or less (2.5-3.5 mil, give/take) on a one-year flier. Yet the Mets seem to sign 3-6 of these types of guys every spring to try and fill out the roster with SP depth (see Sele, Aaron). Disastrous rating: from 1 to 10, about a solid 7. This guy is a seat-warmer, like the guys at the Oscars who fill in the crowd when Al Pacino gets the green-apple splatters.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: I'd prefer Don Muraco teaching social studies, and Tony Atlas doing AP physics, but yeah, pretty cool. You could get the Iron Sheik to teach your Civics class. "America, ptooie!"

Is it too much to ask the Rox to win a game or two and make a series of this thing? So far Dice-K has been very hittable this postseason.

Edgy DC wrote: Great work, guys. You broke the new poster. Ha! No wonder my brain hurts.

Oooh, she has got a big ole' behind! I mean, I'd like to slap some barbecue sauce on that big ol' butt and just uh burr burr burr burr burrrr. OOwwwwooooo!!!!

Valadius wrote: Tim McCarver is an idiot. "When the runner gets to third base, the next stop is home." DUH! I would personally love to see each team's regular season broadcasters get to do that team's postseason home games. They know the players and coaches and have perspective. Instead of the national network coverage's "appeal to the casual fan" philosophy that is so insulting to me.

Yeah there are a lot of older movies on that list to be sure. What jumped to my mind was the end of "The Usual Suspects"... Kevin Spacey in particular as he's out on the street.

="Yancy Street Gang"]I hope they DO play that game. I'd like to be able to watch the season opener on Sunday night on TV, rather than watch it on GameCast while sitting at work on a weekday afternoon. I care more about my convenience than I do the Mets players'. Especially after that September they gave me. I agree... I enjoyed them starting the season off in St. Louis this past spring. But I also thought that ESPN tends to rotate those season-opening games from year to year and that it'd be unlikely for the Mets to kick off back to back seasons in prime-time.

metirish wrote: It is interesting that 52% of the Yankee bullpen budget went to Rivera, that's a high number, Wagner is probably similar I would think. Still though if Rivera had got injured then Joba could have closed for the minimum and perhaps they then decide not to sign Rivera for huge money and stay with Joba as the closer. Who was closing games for Boston when thew season started?, Papelbon was in the rotation I think. That'd be the Joel Piniero experiment. As a Sox closer he turned out to be a pretty good Cards #4 SP.

I'll throw April 28 out there for Mois(t)es(t) Alou as his worst day... in a 12 inning win against the Nats he went 0-6 with a K and 2 GIDPs. And I'll assume also that he had a big goofy piece of chaw in his mouth the whole time he was up there at the dish.

Rockin' Doc wrote: Welcome Fman99. Nice avatar you have there. Thanks, Doc. My two year old son Nate (pictured in that avatar) can tell you the names of all of the Mets starters and what numbers they wear. Start em young, I says!

sharpie wrote: Trey Hillman, currently manager of those crazy Ham Fighters of Nippon to be named manager of those crazy City Royals of Kansas. You can't fight ham, you can only hope to contain it. Seriously, could we get a MLB team to change its name to the Ham Fighters? I'd buy that merchandise.

Frayed Knot wrote: I wonder if Mr. Selig looks at the times of games and wonders to what extent they're affecting his cherished TV ratings: Bos/LAA series (3 games) - Avg time of game = 3:20 NYY/Cleve (4 games) - Avg time = 3:57 Bos/Cleve (7 games) - Avg time = 3:43 Overall AL Avg (14 games) = 3:42, or 3:31 if you want to remove the two extra-inning games and just look at the 12 that went 9-innings The NL games are, as always, not as bad, but still hardly what you'd call quick Ariz/Chic series (3 games) - Avg time = 3:13 Phil/Colo (3 games) - Avg time = 3:08 Colo/Ariz (4 games - 1 extra innings) - Avg time = 3:30; Overall NL avg = 3:18, or 3:11 if you take out the extra-inning game I know baseball's not a timed game and I don't want to artificially rush things, but they've got to find some kind of way to shave at least a little bit of time off so every game isn't going past midnight. There have been just 4 sub-3:00 games to date: 3 of 10 in the NL; and just 1 of 14 in the AL. Of course a lot of it is their own fault as I had it at a full 3 minutes between the final out of a half-inning and the first pitch of the next one while reg season games are more like 2 and change. That tacks on some 15-18 minutes per right there. I agree on all counts. The late start times are a factor too... I mean, how many of these games are ending way beyond when normal people are going to sleep? Perhaps MLB's sorry sad-ass postseason coverage should be an entire thread unto itself.

Won a keeper league I started up in 2002. My first win, after blowing the lead on the last day of '02. First prize was $510. Having Wright, Beltran and John Maine, among others, helped my cause.

sharpie wrote: Jeter lowest ranked shortstop in either league. Who is this Jeeter fellow exactly?