TruffleShuffle

here's where the rockies blow the save

And Heyward. (I think I was the only one so enamored by Heyward.) i liked heyward too, just not for the cubs organization. i'll wait until vitters is hitting .220 in daytona in 2010 before i call him a bust.

is wainwright's BABIP under .200 yet?

gee i wonder who/what would giving felix that impression???

nice Whoever the backup 1B is would immediately put up better numbers anyway. ryan ludwick already is doing that.

I feel bad for Mulder. For the Cardinals it's probably better if he doesn't come back as the pixie dust never seemed to help him like it helps most of their other pitchers. it seems like when it comes to pitching, the cardinals don't do well if they go out and try to get really good pitchers. those guys end up pitching poorly and the todd wellemeyers and braden loopers of the world turn into good pitchers.

who cares about the white sox

if we're trading for an OF - which we shouldn't even be thinking about doing unless one falls in our lap - milton bradley makes a thousand times more sense than adam dunn.

you don't sign a guy and tell him that he's going to be playing one position, then a quarter of the way through the season, change your mind and shift him over to the position he didn't want to play.

was it Sickels who last spring said he could very well see Theriot putting up a .280/.350/.400 line? yeah but sickels is probably just racist (like you and i) and loves the gritty white guy over the more talented minority.

fixed. anyway, what about gay male reporters going into male locker rooms or gay female reporters going into locker rooms? if straight women are concerned about men going into their locker rooms for fear of being leered at, shouldn't they also be worried about gay women coming into the locker room and doing just that?

118 pitches with a big lead... classic dusty

i would just like to inject that while everyone assumes that theriot's 2007 performance is the "norm" for him, his expected BABIP - i won't bother getting into the formulas, since nobody really agrees on the best one - was anywhere from 30 to 40 points higher than his actual BABIP last year. so theriot really "should" have had another 15 to 20 hits last year (I'll assume 16 - all singles.) so with neutral luck, his line would've been: .296/.353/.374 last year, which is a lot better than the actual line of .266/.326/.346.

fans in the RF bleachers had better organize and start chanting "H G H" when he's out there. the HGH reports clearly got in his head toward the end of last season and he slumped badly; let's get in his head again.

I'm hoping when Eyre returns, Marquis is DFA with either Marshall or Gallagher stepping into the rotation. hahahahaha there is way more chance of us going with 13 pitchers than dumping marquis and inserting marshall/gallagher in the rotation

further evidence that lou piniella is an idiot

From what I recall, there was one pretty good parallel, and pretty much every other one given (mike schmidt) was faulty. again. my point is that a player can improve when he has shown some of the skills needed to become a quality big league hitter. comparing cedeno to players who exhibited solid patience or power in their major league debut seasons is so incredibly dumb.

it's not at all. what's terrible logic is assuming that because some other hitters improved a lot, then so can cedeno. in the cases of the players discussed in this thread, they showed in their first full seasons that they had some of the skills - be it patience or the ability to pick a pitch and drive it for doubles/home runs - that are required to become a good major league player. cedeno showed none of the batting attributes needed to become an average or above-average player at the big league level. saying "hey mike schmidt sucked at 23 and he got good!" is a lazy argument. you're comparing apples to oranges. since i'm so wrong, there should be plenty of examples of guys who were God-awful hitters in their first full seasons, but became average or better. i'm surprised that you guys haven't found all these examples to put me in my place once and for all.

that's pretty unprofessional. especially since soto's improvement coincided with him dropping 25 lbs.

i am wondering if there has been more of an organizational push for OBP than in previous years. they have a lineup that shouldn't be incredibly patient, but they're leading the league in walks.

In 1973 Mike Schmidt as the everyday starter hit .196. In 1986 Barry Bonds as the everyday starter hit .223. In 1990 Sammy Sosa as the everyday starter hit .233. So enough judging a player based on his first year as an everyday starter. cedeno at age 23 had a 54 OPS+ schmidt at age 23 had a 93 OPS+ bonds at age 21 had a 103 OPS+ sosa at age 21 had a 92 OPS+ in two cases cedeno was 2 years older than the player, and all of the players you mentioned were doing something well - hitting for power, drawing some walks, or both. cedeno wasn't doing either one. pointing this out for no other reason than to say that the comparisons aren't good ones. you need to find someone who was completely unproductive. Hahahahahaha, all NCCF said was you shouldn't judge a player based on his first year starting. IMB! is right, you're better than this, Truffle. it's a bad comparison. those players were providing some value to their teams, even though they had low batting averages. they were close league-average hitters. cedeno showed no ability to hit major league pitching at age 23; he was one of the five worst players in baseball. plus, two of the players given as examples were two years earlier in their development curve. so, we've shown that adequate major league hitters can become very good major league hitters. great. you're better than this, CaliforniaRaisin.

interesting thought. i guess it depends on whether hendry prefers patience with prospects, or whether he's willing to throw in the towel on them when they struggle for five games, as seems to be the case with lou. my guess is that hendry would prefer that pie be playing most days, but he isn't about to tell piniella how to manage his ballclub. right. i'd like to be a fly on the wall if/when the topic of demoting Pie to carry 13 pitchers comes up between Lou and Jim. i really wanted to believe they weren't giving up on Pie when they brought in Keller, but i obviously have my doubts now. the dumbest part is that they brought someone in to work with him, haven't given him consistent playing time to work on what he's learned - and in the limited time that they've given him, he's played pretty well - yet they might be farming him out anyway. this defies any sense of logic or intelligent though. it's how a 12 year old with a.d.d. would run a ballclub.

i hate him already

In 1973 Mike Schmidt as the everyday starter hit .196. In 1986 Barry Bonds as the everyday starter hit .223. In 1990 Sammy Sosa as the everyday starter hit .233. So enough judging a player based on his first year as an everyday starter. cedeno at age 23 had a 54 OPS+ schmidt at age 23 had a 93 OPS+ bonds at age 21 had a 103 OPS+ sosa at age 21 had a 92 OPS+ in two cases cedeno was 2 years older than the player, and all of the players you mentioned were doing something well - hitting for power, drawing some walks, or both. cedeno wasn't doing either one. pointing this out for no other reason than to say that the comparisons aren't good ones. you need to find someone who was completely unproductive.