TruffleShuffle

he went 0-4 today; should probably just release him

give me til saturday around noon, in a wedding later saturday and too drunk right now

come on richmond, don't ruin this for me

I had Northwestern St. over Iowa in 2006. Beat that bro! I had Kent St. to the elite 8 when they went same here... that probably remains my greatest ncaa bracket accomplishment. that year i also had southern illinois in the sweet 16, UNC-willmington beating USC and mizzou making the sweet 16 (actually made elite 8) and all of the final four right except for indiana. it was unbelievable how well i did that year; i finished around 200 out of 2 million on espn.

STILL PERFECT BABY

that's not really true. his xFIP's with the twins were 4.45, 3.94, 4.81 and 4.54. he was pretty close to league average in 2004 and 2007, above average in 2005 and below average in 2006. it wasn't until he got to seattle that he became truly terrible. It's mainly those WHIPs scaring the crap out of me. oh he's definitely not good and the big concern with him is that he pretty much walks the knife's edge all the time. his stuff was never anything more than average to begin with and it seems like he has lost velocity the past two years. if he's not able to locate his pitches and throw as hard as he did with the twins, he's probably going to be awful. but it's worth seeing if he's recovered from his injury and/or rothschild figures some things out with him. you're paying him a bunch of money the next two years; mineaswell see if you can get something out of him.

i can get a young guy doing coke and writing it off as a youthful mistake, but what's a guy in his late 50s doing snorting coke? and who's he doing it with?

that's not really true. his xFIP's with the twins were 4.45, 3.94, 4.81 and 4.54. he was pretty close to league average in 2004 and 2007, above average in 2005 and below average in 2006. it wasn't until he got to seattle that he became truly terrible.

probably even 4.50 or 4.60... that's probably not far from league average and that's not awful for a 5th starter.

ironically, he has colvin replacing a former crush (hoffpauir)

i feel like everyone is basing their picks on the pomeroy rankings. i have lots of random things. byu in the elite 8, three 11 seeds (washington, minnesota and san diego st) in the sweet 16 being the weirdest.

yeah this has been fun to watch those two cash cows bonk out early.

i know you normally fall in love with a prospect after about 5 good games, but a handful of spring training ABs is crazy even for you.

apparently "i might play again this year" = "i won't miss a major"

well many of his years with the twins he was pretty much a less-walks, less-strikeouts version of jason marquis, so yes it's possible that he could be an innings-eating 5th starter. he'll pretty much always walk a fine line because he gives up so many balls in play, but if he can get back to averaging 1-2 walks per 9 innings and his sinker comes back to the point where he's not getting drilled so frequently, then he could be okay. but he had better straighten something out from last year because he really was that bad in 2009. by the way, the start before this one he gave up 4 hits (2 doubles) and 1 walk in 3 innings without striking anyone out, so giving up 0 runs was more luck than some new effectiveness. today he was considerably better (4 ip, 2 h, 0 bb, 3 k, 1 hbp) than his last start.

Just like Jordan. hahahahaha.

astros and rockies being contracted is probably the biggest news of your season.

NL East - 1. Phillies 2. Braves 3. Mets 4. Nationals 5. Marlins NL Central - 1. Cardinals 2. Cubs 3. Reds 4. Brewers 5. Astros 6. Pirates NL West - 1. Rockies 2. Dodgers (wild card) 3. Giants 4. D-backs 5. Padres AL East - 1. Yankees 2. D-Rays (wild card) 3. Red Sox 4. Orioles 5. Blue Jays AL Central - 1. White Sox 2. Twins 3. Tigers 4. Indians 5. Royals AL West - 1. Mariners 2. Rangers 3. Angels 4. A's NL Champ - Rockies AL Champ - Yankees WS Winner - Yankees NL Cy Young - Tim Lincecum AL Cy Young - Cliff Lee NL MVP - Chase Utley AL MVP - Mark Teixeira NL MOY - Jim Tracy AL MOY - Don Wakamatsu NL ROY - Stephen Strasburg AL ROY - Wade Davis

lol, nobackchekin. dude's a +41 and scores 110 points a year, i think he should keep doing what he's doing and not give a [expletive] about defense.

I would think Utley and Hamels would be a good start for Philly. that had better be an end for philly because they're already losing that trade.

I wouldn't do it i probably wouldn't either, but it's about the best deal i could come up with for the cardinals that the phillies might actually do also. there's no way they'd throw in utley, and werth is better than victorino and can play corner OF. how about pujols and brendan ryan for howard, rollins and brown? rollins offers a very clear upgrade over ryan at SS and brown becomes the heir apparent to the RF job after ludwick becomes too old/expensive. Rollins - 4.8 WAR average the last 4 years Howard - 4.9 WAR average the last 4 years Brown - borderline top 10 prospect in all of baseball Pujols - 8.25 WAR average the last 4 years Ryan - projected WAR around 2.5

spreads on first round games: Ohio vs Georgetown -13.5 San Diego State vs Tennessee -3 Robert Morris vs Villanova -18.5 Saint Marys CA vs Richmond -2 E Tennessee St vs Kentucky -19.5 Wake Forest vs Texas -4.5 Sam Houston vs Baylor -11 Old Dominion vs Notre Dame -1.5 Lehigh vs Kansas -25.5 Northern Iowa vs UNLV -1 North Texas vs Kansas State -16 Florida vs B.Y.U. -4.5 UTEP vs Butler -2.5 Murray State vs Vanderbilt -3 Montana vs New Mexico -9 Washington U vs Marquette -1.5 Vermont vs Syracuse -17.5 Florida State -1.5 vs Gonzaga Morgan State vs West Virginia -17.5 Missouri vs Clemson -1 Cornell vs Temple -3.5 Wofford vs Wisconsin -10 Louisville vs California pk Cal Santa Barbara vs Ohio State -17 Georgia Tech vs Oklahoma State -2 Oakland vs Pittsburgh -10 Minnesota U -1 vs Xavier New Mexico State vs Michigan State -13.5 Houston U vs Maryland -9 Utah State vs Texas A&M -3 Siena vs Purdue -4

pujols for howard, jayson werth and domonic brown. fair?

personally i miss Chuck_Cubs

not really... there have been tons of guys like brad eldred, bob hamelin, etc. who hit for lots of power but didn't make enough contact to be adequate major league ballplayers. power is a good tool to have, but ability to make hard contact with good regularity and put the ball in play most of the time is an important skill. for a 19 year old to be able to put the ball in play as much as castro does speaks well to his future development. also, derek jeter hit 16 home runs in 454 minor league games. hitting for power doesn't necessarily mean just home runs. as far as the brad eldreds and bob hamelins go, power alone doesn't make you a top prospect and even if it were no one is really a sure thing, but it's good predictor of future success. right, and castro had 23 doubles, 6 triples and 3 homers last year. that's not too far from jeter's age 19 season (14 doubles, 11 triples, 5 homers) or even his age 21 season (31 doubles, 10 triples, 2 homers). and you seem hung up on the power thing, but there are other things that are strongly correlated to future success, some of which include playing well as one of the youngest players in a league, making hard contact consistently and keeping the strikeout rate low. the fact that he hit 32 XBHs as one of the youngest players in two pitchers leagues speaks well to developing some power down the road. he's not going to weigh 160 lbs forever.