TruffleShuffle

well there haven't been that many commissioners, so let's take a look back: kenesaw mountain landis - did a lot to help the game grow, including getting rid of all the gambling scandals and the brawls that were commonplace in the teens. but doesn't he have to lose a lot of points for being the primary force that kept blacks out of the game for 25 years? happy chandler - only served 6 years; was a progressive commissioner who favored players' rights and integration, so of course the old racist owners got rid of him ASAP ford frick - he was pretty good. before his time as commissioner, he was one of the main forces behind the creation of a hall of fame in the 1930s. he was also adamantly pro-integration, though the pioneers broke into the game before he was commissioner. he also helped baseball grow as teams moved to the west coast, there were good decisions made as far as expansion, and baseball became a fixture on television. william eckert - the unknown soldier. hadn't seen a game in person for 10 years preceding his appointment. only served three years, and was forced out because the owners figured he'd have no ability to handle the impending labor trouble. suffice it to say, this was not one of the more inspired choices for commissioner. bowie kuhn - fairly similar to selig, i would guess. the game grew significantly during his tenure, both in terms of attendance and tv revenue, and players were a lot better off when he left than when he started. but he was kind of a prick, tried to get jim bouton to retract ball four, suspended some players for dubious "transgressions." all in all, he was good for the future of the game, though rather awkward and ham-handed in his rulings. peter ueberroth - was a good businessman and the profitability of the game improved greatly during his five years. on the down side, he was notorious for allowing collusion among owners when it came to free agency. a. bartlett giamatti - only served six months before passing away. fay vincent - no. draw your own conclusions. selig hasn't been the worst, i'm pretty positive of that, and he's among the better half of commissioners at the very least. the game has certainly grown with him as commissioner, and i don't think anyone could say that selig does not love the game of baseball. there are some big negatives - the 1994 playoffs being wiped out, and the blind eye to steroids being the most egregious. but it's not like richard justice is the only person who things that selig has been the best commissioner; the official historian of MLB feels the same way.

I have been preaching Cueto over Homer for well over a year now, and people are finally starting to come around. He has pinpoint control as well. The only reason he wasn't getting more hype then Bailey is because he is only 5-11. Edinson Volquez was making the Yankees look silly (8 Ks, 0 BB in 4 IP) with his heat (upper 90s) and change the other night. He's a step below Cueto though because his curve/slider is a work in progress. I think the Reds(save for Baker) are headed in the right direction. They have some really good prospects. I wish we had a Jay Bruce-type prospect in the wings. cubs were "headed in the right direction" in 2003, we all know how that turned out.

steve rosenbloom, you have failed at baseball

He's white dummy. oh yeah... john mccain reminds me of larry bird then

larry bird

i think jason hirsh will be pretty good... oh wait

we shouldn't laugh too hard; they got Rocky Cherry and Scott Moore from us for the great Steve Trashsel.

Aside from the fact that it's a gold mine of baseball information and insight, the annual Baseball Prospectus is also very funny. They openly insult players and managers who suck, and don't seem to take themselves too seriously. Go buy the book; it's the best $21.95 you can spend (unless you've gotten a huge discount from "Kristen.") Here are a few of the cub-related things that made me laugh: Tyler Colvin: "At this stage of his development, Colvin has a couple of significant holes in his swing; anytime your strikeout-to-walk ratio looks like Tom Brady's touchdown-to-interception ratio, that's bad news." Cliff Floyd: "This is sort of what it's like when you finally get with your dream girl from sophomore year, only it happens twenty years, three children, and forty pounds later after one too many rum-and-cokes at your high school reunion. Hendry had long courted Chicago native Floyd, and jumped at the opportunity to add him to the roster in late January, a superfluous move that left all the Chicago outfielders feeling like the glass was half-empty." Angel Pagan: "If you're going to have a generic fourth outfielder, better that he have a slightly blasphemous name. Indeed, until baseball becomes really big in Slovakia, this is the closest we're going to come to having our own Miroslav Satan." Alfonso Soriano: "Virtually all of Soriano's PECOTA comparables have some or another kind of Cubs connection: Joe Carter, Andre Dawson, Dusty Baker, Don Baylor, Glenallen Hill, and Ernie Banks. Perhaps Soriano was predestined to be a Cub his entire life; there's nothing more Cubby than being a very good player who sometimes gets mistaken for a great one." Daryle Ward: "Piniella used Ward in right field a couple of times last year, a sight that was not to be witnessed by children under the age of 13." Mark Pawelek: "There's stuck in neutral, and then there's Pawelek..." Steve Trachsel: "Trachsel made some kind of deal with the devil to sustain an ERA in the mid-fours in Baltimore while posting an unholy 0.65 strikeout-to-walk ratio. The Cubs fell under that spell and were foolish enough to trade two pretty decent prospects for him in third baseman Scott Moore and reliever Rocky Cherry. Trachsel rewarded them by turning in a sub-replacement level performance over four starts. To put it kindly, this was a serious mistake of valuation. One hopes the Cubs have learned from it and will pay more attention to peripheral statistics and less to things such as ERA and won-loss record going forward."

oh i also like how in that proposed deal, howry is regarded as equal in value with pignatiello.

lol whoever in floated the "donaldson & howry for crisp" idea is a moron. crisp is a mediocre hitter with a good glove; howry is a very solid setup man and donaldson is a good offensive prospect at a position where offense is hard to come by. either howry or donaldson would easily be too much for a guy the sox feel they have to dump; giving both up would be the definition of insane.

is beckham's glove good enough to stay at ss as he gets older? if so, i'd love if he fell to the cubs.

According to this BP article. And BP suggests that it is a good move and will result in more runs over the course of the season than if Kendall batted 8th and the pitcher 9th.

here's a question... how did carlos silva get a 4 year, $48 million contract this offseason, and kyle lohse went unsigned until march and ended up with 1 year, $4.25 million? they're both guys with marginal stuff who can throw a lot of innings and be an average to slightly below average pitcher in the back of the rotation. i bet lohse must be pretty pissed about this.

You've party pooped a time or two, mister. Yeah. Upper deckers, too. lol

psu-illinois score might be lower than that... bring on the big ten brickfest.

a guy who had a .391 OBP is going back to the minors this year. great work, bill stoneman.

poor reds44. he's just like a lot of us were in 2003. some giants fans tried to warn us, but dusty talked a pretty good game and came with a good career record. the time will come when he realizes what dusty really is. it will not be pretty.

Yeah, but that first month together should be great to watch. hopefully for the sake of price, he has a more competent manager who doesn't ride him for 130 pitches with an 8 run lead.

Are the Flyers pulling a Mets? i hope not; the mets retained their lousy manager at the end of the year.

i've seen a good argument for one side c'mon obp people, weigh in here

guess who just got swept in a home and home by the maple leafs??? lmao.

someone mentioned that uribe was a +18 glove last year and theriot was a -6, right? i'm assuming that people weren't only talking about their batting abilities and completely ignoring the fact that they play the most important defensive position on the field.

duncan should be suspended for several regular season games; girardi should be fined too. if nothing else, duncan should be suspended for being stupid enough to say this: :roll:

some would argue that his numbers are likely to improve against rhp, though.

double me up if necessary, just don't give me a team like the giants or skins, because i can guarantee you that their picks would not be good ones if i were making them. brownies or vikes or cards would be fine.