Productive Outs

http://loot-ninja.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/south_park_warcraft.jpg

plz don't ask that question :(

better watch out for UK!

travis henry is suspended.

i love gore. my money league is PPR, and he's pretty awesome in PPR leagues (so is reggie bush). i have nothing else to add. FRANK GORE RULES

Don't hate on my cats. 6-6 here we come. They had a bad '08 recruiting class, luckily '09 is looking much better. this team is totally different from the past two years. obviously, that's to be expected, considering the amount of seniors on last year's team, but i was really impressed by the defense. that front 4 is going to create problems for a lot of teams.

i can't wait until this team dismantles spain in the final. and i'm glad someone else noticed derwood's incessant posting about this team. you're not indifferent. you're either lying, or you don't know what the word "indifferent" means.

man, i nerd out so much when the olympics roll around. i hate the scoring, but gymnastics is still my favorite.

yeah, he probably just wanted to let Morneau win.

i'm really happy for joe crawford. hopefully, he makes the roster.

patrick patterson > speights

I agree. The completely wild Hill that we had at the start of the season still wasn't that bad. You can point to his walks all you want, but his control was not causing a huge damper on his ERA. It wasn't helping it, but it wasn't giving him a huge 5.00+ ERA. Look at Fausto Carmona's walks per start this year up to his injury: Apr 2nd: 4 BB Apr 7th: 5 BB Apr 12th: 8 BB Apr 17th: 1 BB Apr 24th: 4 BB Apr 29th: 4 BB May 6th: 5 BB May 12th: 4 BB May 17th: 0 BB May 23rd: 3 BB 38 walks in 10 starts and 58 IP. Yet he still had a 3.10 ERA and had a 4-2 record, but also a 1.58 WHIP. The guy's control was comparable, if not worse, than Hill's was/is, but instead of sending down their young promising starter to the minors to work out the kinks, they kept him up to let him work through it, and you know what, he never really did... and they still won because he had stuff good enough to keep his team in the ballgame. Hill has/had that stuff. Now, granted, back in the minors Rich Hill has been just as bad with his control now as he was then, so it's kind of a moot point. But regardless of all that, I'd still would've taken a wild Rich Hill who will walk 3-5 and only give up 2-4 runs a game (which is exactly what he was doing), with smatterings of greatness, over Jason Marquis who is a good bet for a range between mediocre and crap each and every game. Unfortunately, Rich Hill has gotten worse, and that makes me a sad panda. I think Carmona is a bad example. Carmona was (is?) going to implode. His FIP for the season is 4.60. His BABIP is .274. He has a ridiculously-low HR/F of 3.2%, while giving up .15 HR/game (extremely low). His defense has also turned 15 double plays behind him in only 58 innings, compared to 36 in 215 innings last year. While Carmona is a groundball pitcher, and I don't have league average DP data, that seems like a high rate. Likewise, Hill's 2008 MLB FIP is 5.78. Hill's 2008 AAA FIP is 6.47. His MLB BABIP is .214 (his AAA BABIP is .310). Again, he has a lower HR/F rate, and is giving up fewer HR than normal. I don't have time to list the DP data (should be studying right now), but I am going to guess that Hill has not been the beneficiary of as many double plays.

if you like WARP3, Ramirez hasn't touched Wright. David Wright: 2005: 10.1 2006: 10.2 2007: 14.2 Aramis Ramirez 2005: 4.9 2006: 6.9 2007: 9.7 WARP is a counting stat, but still, Wright has been far better. then again, this is WARP3, which isn't the end-all be-all by any means. that being said, I think Wright is the better player right now.

The guy playing CF for the Cubs is right there with him at the least: EqA BRAA BtRuns Edmonds .303 379 319 Williams .300 418 311 According to Sean Smith's totalzone, Edmonds has been about 130 runs better on defense over their careers. That's not the end-all, but it's better than FRAA and most people would say Williams wasn't much of a defender, especially towards the end of his career. At the very least, Jim has twice as many outfield assists. Edmonds kept his EqA1 above .320 for five straight years, and Bernie has four rings, which the writers at least will care about. Neither one are a whole lot different than Duke Snider. haha, i knew that i was forgetting at least one player. i think they're both borderline.

unless i'm leaving someone huge out, bernie williams was the 2nd best CF of his generation.

yeah, same here... i actually thought i had a decent sleeper in ankiel, but hamilton is just crazy this year. he still has a chance of getting injured though.

i disagree here. players tend to draw less walks when they are "on fire". then again, you could just be saying that his walk rate is going to catch on fire. his K rate is down to 12.8%, so that's a positive i guess... i would definitely rather him draw more walks though. his OPS+ right now is 126, which is just off his career average of 124. edit: yeah, i started to post this and ran downstairs. raw beat me to the K rate.

http://rotoworld.com/content/playerpages/player_main.aspx?sport=MLB&id=2156 haha. the reds look like they're going to get rid of Hatteberg instead of Patterson.

drop travis hafner, add dan uggla

"Hopefully Jimmy still has something left and it was just a bad start," general manager Jim Hendry said. hopefully? is that how a GM is supposed to run a team?

according to joe sheehan, he wouldn't be awful in the field or on the basepaths, either: https://baseballprospectus.com/unfiltered/?p=867 i'd stick his .480 OBP in the 2 hole.

well, it wasn't this exact league, but we had an NSBB one back in 2005. mark was in it, derwood, and maybe RynoRules? i can't remember everyone else. but i won it too :P

if soto keeps it up, he definitely deserves a spot

i think that's my second championship in three years of participating in the league. a lot of luck involved in both.

It's not like his replacements have done much better. The replacements for Soriano in the lineup by day (including Fontenot replacing Soriano in the first inning when he got hurt): Fontenot/Fontenot/Fontenot/Patterson/Cedeno/Cedeno? (could be either Cedeno or Murton)/Fontenot/Johnson Those are the players who either played LF directly, or played 2B because DeRosa moved to LF to cover for Soriano. And their performances: Fontenot (leadoff) 1 for 5, 1 2B, 2 K Fontenot (leadoff) 1 for 5, 2 K Fontenot (leadoff) 0 for 5 Patterson (leadoff) 0 for 4, 2 K Cedeno (8th) 2 for 4, 1 BB, 1 K Cedeno (8th) 2 for 5, 1 2B, 1 K (if you believe Murton replaced him then it was 1 for 6) Fontenot (2nd) 0 for 3, 1 BB, 1 K Johnson (leadoff) 1 for 4, 1 BB, 1 K Total numbers with Cedeno's 2nd day: 7 for 35, 2 2B, 3 BB, 10 K, a .200/.263/.257 line Total numbers with Murton's day added: 6 for 36, 1 2B, 3 BB, 9 K, a .167/.231/.194 line Soriano's numbers for the season: .175/.230/.298 Soriano was about the same as the people that replaced him, and 5 of the 8 days so far his replacement has batted leadoff, and another day his replacement batted 2nd. There is no evidence to support that Soriano getting hurt has led to the hot streak of the offense. Oh, by the way. Soriano was striking out every 5.18 at-bats so far this season. His replacements are striking out every 3.5 at-bats. The Cubs strikeouts so far have actually gotten worse because Soriano has not been in the lineup. you never cease to amaze me. good post.