Diffusion

Thanks for the lineups, Serena, appreciate it. Go Jaxx!

1-2-3, nice.

Did anyone catch the Mudcats lineup? - Moore, Niles, Muniz, Hill, Shanks, Abercrombie, ?, ?, Lockwood...

When and where will I first be able to find out the lineups for these Jaxx playoff games?

Nathan, that's magnificent, thanks, I really appreciate it. Ron, you've seen Murton every day, and did you make anything of the way that Murton handled inside pitches from right-handed pitchers? The numbers that Nathan's provided there really don't suggest much of a problem at all in that department, but it's something that's been noticed by a few people in the limited time Murton has been in the majors...

I'd be extremely interested in Matt Murton's platoon split with the Jaxx (and the Iowa Cubs too if you have that) if there's any way of anyone here coming by that data....

Why?

GO JAXX!

If the Jaxx win their last two games, today and tomorrow, they're second half champs! They're hosting Mobile, who on the year have a 58-78 record, including 26-40 on the road. Go Jaxx!

Luke Hagerty's line on the year now... 6.2 IP, 13 H, 0 HR, 29 BB, 4 K, 28.35 ERA (21 ER)

I have Angel going last Wednesday and Pina going last Thursday, which would be the proper 4-days rest (this based on the 8/10 and 8/11 game threads). Also, Guzman went after Pawelek last time and Mark was Mesa's last starter. Right you are. Sorry. I'll shut up now. :)

Guzman started last Thursday, and the Cubs have said all along they want him starting every fifth day, so, though I may be wrong, I think he goes tomorrow and not tonight.

I'm pretty sure Bartosh isn't on the 40 any more. I think he was out of options coming into this year (which is why the Indians traded him, because they couldn't fit him in their 'pen), so for the Cubs to get him to Iowa they'd have needed to outright him. Drop Rohlicek and you lose him. Besides poor control, is he really that bad? I'd rather lose Richard Lewis from the 40. I'd rather lose Koronka over both of them though.

They can outright Richard Lewis off the 40. That's hardly an issue then. Van Buren will be claimed in the Rule 5 if he's not protected. You should see some of the rubbish pitchers in the back of major league bullpens. I've never read anything to that effect. As I understand it he's got similar stuff to Mike Wuertz, a low-90s fastball and a good slider, only he throws it with a weird motion. Could someone here confirm that?

They got a pretty good return for Jimmy Anderson from the Red Sox.... Hehe, indeed. They got Andrew Shipman and a PTBNL that ended up being, er, Jimmy Anderson! Shipman has 54 IP, 47 H, 0 HR, 26 BB, 56 K, 3.00 ERA line at Double-A this year. He's 23, but his stuff seems to be thought by scouts to be pretty average. Still, 0 HRs and a K an inning.

Because of Barrett's defense, or lack thereof. Also, Blanco has come on strong lately with the bat. Barrett's OPS is over .800, which is 4th among starting catchers in MLB. He should be starting, period. Just like Macias "should be starting [in CF], period" because he's hitting .290 or over? :roll: sorry dude, but OPS is just a *little* more important than batting average. I despise OPS. It's just far too crude. It adds two things that use different scales. A point of OBP is significantly more important than a point of SLG. So it's like adding 1 metre and 2 centimetres and coming up with 3. I much prefer EqA ("A measure of total offensive value per out, with corrections for league offensive level, home park, pitching faced and position. EQA considers baserunning as well as batting. The scale is deliberately set to approximate that of batting average. Average is .260.")... Lee, .356 Rammy, .308 Lawton, .276 (includes time with PIT) Barrett, .273 Walker, .273 Burnitz, .266 Dubois, .257 (includes time with CLE) Hairston, .249 Hollandsworth, .236 Neifi, .229 Macias, .235 Corey, .226 Blanco, .226 Everyone from Dubois down, there's been our problem. Far too many at-bats for players that can't or aren't hitting. I mean, Lee, Ramirez, Lawton, Barrett, Walker and Burnitz, there are six above average players relative to their position. The numbers of Garciaparra (.139) and Murton (.357) are irrelevant because they're simply not played enough, but I believe that they can provide at least average offence relative to their position. That then means a strong lineup. Just as long as Dusty runs out the lineup he fielded last night long enough. He had the right players last night though. Now he's got to wait for them to come good. It will happen, the team-wide slump won't last forever. He's got to resist the temptation to think that "we only scored 4 runs, they all came too late, therefore I got the wrong players in there". Another .300 EqA player would make a world of difference though. If the Cubs could sign Brian Giles to a two year deal ($16m?) over the off-season, that'd be fantastic.

Yep, the Cubs can expose Maddux to revocable waivers. However, if someone claims him and the Cubs decide not to pull him back, Maddux has to approve the move. In other words, he can veto it if he doesn't want to go to the claimant...

Kind of sounds similar to him not reading Moneyball, and just reacting to the reaction to it. If I didn't know better, I'd think he'd never played baseball and was just reacting to what he overhears the six year old kid a few rows in front of him pointing out to his dad.

What, no polo or badminton stories of your own to share? Ok, big shot. After being an All Conference keeper in middle school, I attended a high school with an established keeper. So, wanting to play immediately, I switched to center midfielder and was pretty good. Anyway, the first game of the playoffs in my senior year, I raced for a loose ball. Their sweeper, a Norwegian exchange student who I battled in an epic 5 set tennis match earlier that year, was going for it also. We struck the ball at nearly the identicle moment. However, a bone on the top of my foot fractured and I went down. The referee, with no medical training, grabbed my foot while I was on the ground. He bent it toward me, asking if it hurt, and I exclaimed, "F#%$ yeah, it hurts!" He then gives me a yellow card! Regardless, we won that game and I attended the next game in a case. The guy replacing me moved up from left fullback. The guy replacing him was a freshman. The freshman tried to clear an in-coming ball about 10 yards out from the goal by one timing it. The ball went of the outside of his foot and spun into the goal. We lost 1-0. Mostly because I broke my foot in the last competitive soccer game I ever played. (While I play some indoor now, its not nearly the same.) Now, one time in badminton, I had this shuttlecock... Haha. Consider yourself lucky, nowadays it's an automatic red for saying the magic word. Of course, it does take quite a bit of non-profane berating to get a card where I played. Yeh, backup goalkeeper, hard to get sent off when you're hardly ever on! :P

Betancourt?

For the first time in a long time, I actually enjoyed the Sunday Night broadcast. Jon Miller's always very good, but Steve Stone provided ten times Morgan's usual insight and Steve Phillips managed to not say anything that stupid.

What time do roster moves typically go down on days when it's a night game, does anyone know? Or is there not a typical time?

That's true. But if the Yankees or Astros claim him, they'll be told by the Reds they can have him, and the claimant will then have to pay a) the cost of the waiver claim and b) every single cent left on Griffey's contract. That's a situation I bet that the Reds could easily live with even if they're not getting anything at all in return. The salary relief itself is enormous, Griffey's earning big chunks of money through something like 2025. If someone were to claim Griffey and the Reds let it stand, I'm pretty sure all the claiming team would owe Jr. would be $41.5 million plus the minimal waiver fee to the Reds. Yes, Griffey has deferred payments coming to him until 2024, but the vast majority of that should still be paid by the Reds. His contract was structured in such a way that he's earning $12.5M each season of the contract, with $6.5M per year deferred over the 2009-2024 period. (With the exception of 2000, which only had $5.5M in deferred payments.) In other words, while Junior has only received $6 million of his 2002 salary, he's already "earned" all $12.5 million of it with the services he provided the Reds that year. In short, I would think the deferred salary he earned while playing with the Reds should still be paid by the Reds, regardless of where he finishes the contract. So while technically Griffey will recieve $79.5 million in salary payments after this season (not counting any interest on the deferred money) at least $38 million of that will be paid by the Cincinnati becuase it was earned while Junior was in their employ. That is, I believe, all true. I didn't mean to imply otherwise, though I can see why what I wrote could be taken to mean that I did. By "every cent left on Griffey's contract", I didn't mean to include the deferred money that's deferred from time he's already spent in Cincinnati. All the same, I think that $41.5m (thanks for checking the real figure) is still a pretty enormous amount of money to be saving, even if it's spread out, especially when you're talking about a player that's simply nowhere near as good as he once was, stands very little chance of getting back to where he once was, and gets injured all the time... Interesting view. Are a couple of prospects worth $10-15m? I'm not sure about that myself. Still, worth debating I think...

That's true. But if the Yankees or Astros claim him, they'll be told by the Reds they can have him, and the claimant will then have to pay a) the cost of the waiver claim and b) every single cent left on Griffey's contract. That's a situation I bet that the Reds could easily live with even if they're not getting anything at all in return. The salary relief itself is enormous, Griffey's earning big chunks of money through something like 2025.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/baseball/mlb/players/5511/career_by_all_batting_splits.html Matt Lawton Career Splits First half: .279/.376/.445 Second half: .254/.363/.387 Hmm.