Productive Outs

two things we agree on, screen name and this. so when's your elite eight getting vacated? :P /runs Stop...lol....Btw I go to school at Louisville so I pull for the Cards also. I'll probably be pulling for them in the first game of next years football season, but dont get me wrong if UK wins I wont be that upset. I think Strong is gonna do great things at UL...Joker Phillips at UK...not so much you are a rare breed, sir

in terms of power hitters: how many walks are "given" to them? Sammy Sosa is a prime example, in my opinion. he experienced a jump in his walk rate in 1995, though he was IBB 11 times. he treaded water in 1996 and 1997 before his explosion in 1998. Sosa's 461 walks from 1998-2002 account for nearly half of his career total. if i remember correctly, Sosa changed his swing somewhat prior to the 1998 season. the question is this: did his walk rate jump because of an improved approach to hitting, or did his increased power output directly result in more walks? did opposing pitchers simply become scared of Sosa?

LF: Bonds CF: Edmonds RF: Vlad we went back and forth between Santana, Johnson, and Pedro. Pedro's ERA+ is 17 points higher than Johnson's, and 9 points higher than Santana's. in terms of IP, Johnson pitched around 2 more seasons, and Santana pitched just over a full season compared to Pedro. Johnson has also had a similar decline over the last 5 seasons.

my friend and i came up with the following: C: Jorge Posada 1B: Albert Pujols 2B: Jeff Kent SS: Derek Jeter 3B: Alex Rodridguez OF: Barry Bonds OF: Manny Ramirez OF: Vladimir Guerrero SP: Pedro Martinez RP: Mariano Rivera i had some trouble with Vlad... Edmonds had a pretty nice decade. any obvious omissions? this list is offensively biased, but we did consider defense as best as we could. the number of games played weighed pretty heavily as well (mauer vs posada, kent vs utley).

Don't hold your breath for that .350 OBP. Considering he could barely get on base that often in his prime, I don't see how he's going to do it as he declines. Soriano has never been an elite on-base machine, but he has improved while in Chicago. His IsoD in 2008 was .64, and in 2009 it was .62. Those numbers are far better than anything he posted while with the Yankees. He walked in 8.5% of plate appearances in 2008, and 7.7% in 2009. If he can hit in the .280 range, and bump that BB% up slightly, I don't think it will be that hard for him to approach a .350 OBP. That is obviously a pretty big "if", but not impossible.

do you guys think the fact that Coach K had to deal with Dean Smith for the majority of his time at Duke gives him extra "coaching points"? it was just a thought i had. Kryzewski had more success during Smith's tenure, which is an interesting point in my opinion.

really? i could see a Tennessee fan doing that if the Vols were out of the tournament, but you're playing for a trip to the final four. i would think you would be on your own rivals site talking about your team's chances. i don't understand why fans of opposing teams do this. i have never been to Tennessee's rivals site.

i have not seen WVU play that much this year. correct me if i'm wrong, but aren't they a wing-oriented team? again, i know little about the team, but i don't see them being able to handle UK's guard and interior play. i know UK is beatable -- i'm not blind. i'm just wondering, what is leading you guys to pick WVU?

Because it'd have been 45-0 instead of 45-10 or whatever? Who cares? A stomping is a stomping. you're right. cincinnati is pretty much a horrible place. reds fans suck. i've been to a lot of games at both cinergy and GABP, and i assure you that they are horrible people. i am a bengals fan, but i have not been to a game. it wouldn't surprise me if they were just like reds fans, though.

just be glad that the bengals didn't have odom. ravens, steelers, bears... i'm already happy with this season. things could get ugly after the bye, though. the ravens will be out for blood.

Wieters has a .299/.367/.552 line in May, with a .382 wOBP (according to firstinning.com). Firstinning has him at a .362 wOBA for the year, but statcorner has him at .383; I guess statcorner's formula is different. Regardless, he has improved during the month of May. His IsoP is up .153 (.100 in April, .253 in May), and his strikeout rate is down almost 15% (25% in April, 10.2% in May). He obviously isn't posting a wOBA of .452 like he did last year, but I think he will be a very serviceable catcher for the Orioles the remainder of this season, and much better next year.

not having a computer makes it hard to follow this stuff. i'm making these transactions way too late :( drop ortiz, add morneau drop chris young, add ibanez

group A: Ryan Howard group B: Miguel Cabrera, Braun group C: Quentin, Pena, Longoria group D: David Ortiz, Joey Votto, Nick Swisher, Geovany Soto, Chris Young wild card: pm

I love how you can not mention your own team's success without mentioning the University of Kentucky. By the way, the firing of Tubby Smith has nothing to do with Billy Gillispie. I honestly believe that it was simply time for both sides to part ways. It remains to be seen whether Gillispie will equal Tubby's tenure or surpass it. I'm willing to give him more time. Tubby didn't exactly leave him with much. UK made the tourney last year with one of Gillispie's players contributing. The guy who scored 92 points in one game happens to be a Tubby guy. Plus the glaring weakness on the team right now is also a Billy guy. cough DeAndre Liggins cough. I think Gillispie is more adept at developing players than Tubby was at UK. It's hard to say that about Meeks because of his injury-plagued season last year. I think he'd be a good player under Tubby right now, but I don't think he'd be as good as he currently is. Kentucky has had PG problems since Rondo left for the draft. Bradley was a makeshift option, and Porter is not an SEC caliber point guard. Jasper didn't pan out either. Tubby recruited some good players, but I think he made mistakes in what he recruited. There's a reason Gillispie has had to recruit JUCO players. The roster was not balanced when Tubby left. Outside of Meeks, Tubby did not do much in terms of high-end players after the 2004 class, and I don't think anyone expected Meeks to be this good. Patterson has been a big lift to the program, and is one of the best pure post players to ever play at UK. Let's not forget that Tubby could not get a commitment from him. I'm not a "Tubby-hater" like many UK fans are, but I was happy when he decided to pursue the job at Minnesota. It was good for Tubby, and hopefully it will turn out to be better for UK as well. The decisions of Meeks and Patterson at the end of the season will have a big impact on Gillispie's success in the next 2 or 3 years.

I realize that. That's what I meant -- he obviously wanted out, and the majority of UK fans wanted him out as well. It wasn't working anymore, probably because of the unrealistic expectations many of us have.

I love how you can not mention your own team's success without mentioning the University of Kentucky. By the way, the firing of Tubby Smith has nothing to do with Billy Gillispie. I honestly believe that it was simply time for both sides to part ways. It remains to be seen whether Gillispie will equal Tubby's tenure or surpass it. I'm willing to give him more time. Tubby didn't exactly leave him with much.

that was insane.

that sucked. i don't know how many open threes Louisville shot. that was the difference in the game.

I think DeAngelo Williams is a must-start at this point, even against the Giants. He has been on fire the past 5 or 6 weeks. I would start him over Steven Jackson if it were my team.

Thank you, Moderator Roast. I would guess that people are being "snotty" to E.J. do to his obsession with locking threads. Bradley > Dunn (better not add to the chit chat problem)

Kentucky is 18th in pomeroy's ratings right now. that doesn't seem right. oh well, at least they'll beat indiana, and if louisville plays like they did vs WKU, they could squeeze a win out in that game as well. i think the miami (fl) game this saturday will be a very good test. if they can cut down on turnovers (they were 2nd nationally, not sure if that has changed or not), they'll be ok. '

Kentucky turned the ball over 31 times, had a 17 point lead at one point, and shot 68% from the field. they won by two points. wtf?

sigh. i would love to have a point guard. Patterson also seems indifferent to the outcome of the game. i know he's not getting many looks at all, but it doesn't seem like he's playing very hard.

the only way i would drop colston is if he suffered a major injury and landed on the IR. brees and colston will have their magic working once again just in time for the fantasy playoffs. keep him.

I'm not as excited about Burnett as everyone else seems to be, especially for the crazy money teams are lined up to pay him. Assuming Dempster's year wasn't a total fluke, Dempster will be $3-$4 million cheaper per year for 1-2 less years. You really think Burnett is going to go for insane money? I certainly see Sheets and Sabathia going for insane dollar amounts, but i'm not sure how I feel about Burnett. He had his worst year since 03 last year so possibly his price tag will be a little less? Or maybe that's just wishful thinking. :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: career high 18 w's mon frere, the guy finally figured out how to win #-o tree is clearly being sarcastic. BUt that's how GM's are gonna see it. Where is the "clear" sarcasm? You must know him better than I do. clearly. tree is one of the smartest baseball posters on here.