TruffleShuffle

dumpster :x

wow derosa doesn't hit many like that one :shock:

haha nice throw

Well this game starts in about 2 minutes, so here's the game thread. SS Cedeno LF Soriano 1B Lee 3B Ramirez RF Murton 2B DeRosa C Soto CF Pie P Dempster

so 48 people have voted, and nobody has him hitting where lou does. wtg lou.

so does lieber.

awesome

I never understood why people trust projectons, I really don't. because they're better than what any random person will do off the top of his or her head.

even when you take the last arby year out of the equation, he's still making less than his MORP according to BP, and that's pretty impressive. especially when you consider that salaries/value are likely to continue to rise. solid work by the tigers on this one.

Theriot is a way, way better hitter than most pitchers. He gets on base a third of the time and can't be considered an easy out or any easy strikeout. Having Theriot bat behind you is very different than having Rich Hill or Ted Lilly bat behind you.

chalk it up to the dodgers history of being able to develop hitters, and the cubs' inability to do so. oh, i was hoping for a better answer pie has a higher strikeout rate, hits balls hard less frequently, has had no success at the major league level and has not shown the ability to consistently hit for a high average like kemp has? does that work?

not really. they're different hitters. theriot has better plate discipline than pie and is less likely to be exploited by pitchers who are nibbling and throwing a lot of breaking balls to the #8 hitter. at this stage of his career, pie could really use someone behind him who is at least some threat to get hits.

my favorite is the section about the giants. man do they tear into them. Rich Aurilia: "Let's get this out of the way: the Giants are just lousy with veterans who would make fairly good reserves, but whom they treat as regulars. Aurilia's a serviceable platoon cornerman who can pretend to play the middle infield for innings at a time, but he was signed to be the regular first baseman after the 2006 season. He hit the DL in June having started two-thirds of the Giants' games and hit .236/.278/.346. When he got healthy, he was dropped right back into the lineup, and played just as often. Naturally, he's signed for 2008, too." Ray Durham: "The two-year contract to which the Giants signed Durham after the 2006 season made no sense given that his 2006 homer total screamed "fluke" and was paired with a defense only slightly stronger than "I thought it was flaxseed oil." ... His average will bounce back; his defense, however, is deadly to a pitching staff that was 11th in the league in strikeouts last year." Pedro Feliz: "If he's batting seventh for you and you're not paying a lot of money and you get OBP from everywhere else... well he's still only a three-win player. He was fourth on the Giants in WARP3 last year and two of those four, Feliz and Bonds, aren't coming back. Send in your season-ticket renewal checks today!" Kevin Frandsen: "Given a regular second-base job, Frandsen would play near-adequate defense and hit .270 with some doubles and not enough walks, making $400,000 for his trouble. Even an average year from Durham wouldn't return $7 million more in value than that because of the 10-15 runs he gives away on defense. Remember that the next time someone tries to tell you that Barry Bonds's salary was handicapping the Giants." Ryan Klesko: "Klesko's return from shoulder surgery last year went reasonably well. If that seems generous given his season line, remember that a .344 OBP is to the Giants what seeing a minus sign is to the Spears family." Fred Lewis: "As with Durham and Frandsen, there's just no way the difference between Lewis and Rowand was worth the investment in the veteran, as it's not entirely clear who the better player is between them." Bengie Molina: "Molina has 152 career walks; Bonds walked 132 times last year. Nothing against Molina, who had another year off the factory line, but his was another "what's the point" signing. He did exactly what he could be expected to do, but no one came to the park to see him, he didn't make the Giants good, and he cost millions of dollars. Replacing him with a combination of Knoedler and Rodriguez might have dropped the team's 71 wins to a mere 70. Of course, that's all because of Bonds's salary again." Dan Ortmeier: "From August 10 to September 22, Ortmeier started 20 times (delivering three walks and 20 strikeouts in 90 plate appearances) while Fred Lewis bided his time in Triple-A, a state of affairs that defies description. Can we use "Sabean" as a verb yet?" Nate Schierholtz: "So if Ortmeier is the post-Bonds version of Linden, Schierholtz is the new Lance Niekro. With 125 walks and 66 home runs in roughly 2,200 minor league plate appearances, Schierholtz has the perfect combination of hackery and middling power to serve as Niekro's heir. That two-walk, no-homer cup of coffee last year was just a tease, folks; there's more to come! Tip for the Giants: aim that cloning ray at Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum, not your failed outfield prospects." Omar Vizquel: "The giants re-signed him for his glove, but he also counts toward their collection of old, expensive players who can't hit." Randy Winn: "The best two months of Winn's career, August and September of 2005, will end up costing the Giants more than $28 million over four years for a player who, at his best, is maybe one win better than the alternatives (sound familiar?). Winn has a limited no-trade clause for the rest of his deal, and while he's a good fourth outfielder, he's a marginal starter, especially on a corner. Winn, Roberts and Rowand are all taking playing time from Lewis and Davis, inexpensive players who are broadly comparable, potentially better, and tens of millions of dollars cheaper. The Giants have made decisions like that all across the roster, while feeding the idea that it was Barry Bonds's $16 million - a bargain in both theoretical and real terms - standing in the way of their plans. No franchise has wasted more money on marginal upgrades. This is a diseased organization that needs a complete and thorough cleansing, from the owner's box on down."

what a bad signing this was. thanks jim.

yeah that was my point. hampton and park, while overpaid, could've been expected to be at least a little above-average if they hadn't had injury/forgetting-how-to-pitch problems. pierre's numbers in 2008 were basically in line with his PECOTA projections, meaning that the dodgers got what they paid for - a speedy outfielder who doesn't get on base enough, has no power, takes bad routes to fly balls, and has a very poor arm.

chalk it up to the dodgers history of being able to develop hitters, and the cubs' inability to do so.

he really wasn't bad last year; the brewers' God-awful defense killed him.

not sure why you think this, but okay. the unc-wazzu game will be verrrrrrrrry interesting. unc was the #3 fastest-paced team in the country (out of 341 d-i schools), while wazzu was #336. this is about as big a contrast in style as you will ever see.

sad though it may be, i still have a chance to win the bigger-money bracket i'm in. i've already lost three elite 8 teams (vandy, pitt, dook) though, so i definitely need wisconsin to go to the final 4.

After the load they gave Florida for Biggy/Dontrelle, I seriously doubt they have enought to land Street. And that includes if Porcello was available. Detroit has to lower their sites. that INCLUDES if porcello was available? i don't think so. if the tigers offered porcello for street, the a's would make that deal in a heartbeat.

Can we atleast give the KID a yr before we throw the B word out there? i didn't even give him 5 minutes. You prolly wouldn't even give KGJ, ARod or Pujols the benefit of the doubt. I for one, will not group current youngs with the past failures, until they proven they are failures. the cubs probably would've turned those guys into busts

Can we atleast give the KID a yr before we throw the B word out there? i didn't even give him 5 minutes.

and Kendall sometimes defense gets overrated, but when people do "cubs vs brewers" and they forget about defensive abilities, they're making a big mistake. the brewers were atrocious defensively last year, and if they'd defended at even a league-average level, they probably could've won the nl central. while moving braun to lf will probably help - it'd almost be impossible for him to be worse out there than he was at 3b - they still have four very bad defensive players (fielder, weeks, kendall, braun). I'm not going to count bill hall since he's switching positions, but he was a bad cf and a bad ss, so it wouldn't be a surprise if he's a bad 3b too. cameron, hart and hardy are solid defensively, but in no way do they make up for the ineptitude of the other guys. their fielding could lose them the division once again, if it's a close race.

game over? eyre is such a joke, i hope he pulls some fat and goes on the dl, and we can try someone in the bullpen who might actually be good.

has hill really been working on a new delivery? if so, that's stupid. take a guy who has a history of control problems, but finally overcame those, and after he's found success, change the way that he's throwing. if it ain't broke, don't fix it.