nilodnayr

Well that only makes sense if you feel that signing Z for 75-85 would heighten or lessen the value of the team. If I had the money I would pay more money for the team with Z rather than without. I'd have to believe that anyone shelling out that type of cash for this team might want us to have an Ace. But might be just me.

I like it. My concerns would be that you're pretty light on steals, and there's not really much flexibility. Everyone's second position is 1B(Kendrick, Guillen, Sheffield, Dunn, Gordon), and Hafner can't even play there. Although, position flexibility really isnt as important when you only have 2 bench spots. Its really hard to justify using one of those on Clemens for 2.5 months. Especially with your starting pitching. Maybe you can trade him for upton or figgins. Also, with all your power you might want to think about a steals/average guy. Although, I think he'll be good long term, I'm not that high on what Chris Young will be able to do this year (and you'll definitely have 4 better keeper candidates). Given the makeup of your team, Willy Taveras would probably work better for you in CF and is less sought after.

Only one person is throwing more than one reliever per week, and Putz is just as good a bet as half the guys they're throwing to pick up saves. Besides, there just wasn't any value using a pick on BJ Ryan or somebody when guys like Ben Sheets were on the board. Putz is having an elbow problem right now. Might want to consider picking up another closer. He's gonna be back for opening day. Failing at that, these guys left Chris Ray, Brian Fuentes, Joe Borowski, and Todd Jones on the wire. Pick up Ray, do it quickly. Really? Ray had a 4.85 PERA last year with a 6.5 K/9. Not that any of those other guys are really great, but hes one of my least favorite closer options especially considering his division. Fuentes is by far the best of that group.

Yeah, Kolb is totally the man behind Torres. If by behind you mean not even making the ML team. I was hoping this website had some credibility.

Ditto. Riggans sitting on the bench doesnt do anything. Upton's upside is much greater than Cantu's. Cantu is very overrated based on his 100+RBI season, but the truth is seven out of ten times he steps up to the plate he makes an out.

You are thinking of Gomes, Per rotoworld... Jonny Gomes-DH- Devil Rays Feb. 21 - 10:55 am et Jonny Gomes reportedly packed on a significant amount of muscle during the offseason and said Tuesday his injured shoulder is 100 percent healthy. "Did you see Jonny Gomes walking around?" manager Joe Maddon said. "Oh my God, I didn't even recognize him." Maddon said Gomes will primarily work in the outfield, but there's been some speculation that he could see time at first base as well.

2 votes from me

Yay for me just picking him up in the NSBB mock draft league. Not that hes great or anything, but hes a closer and hes in a big ballpark. No one of the 87 candidates stepped up so Julio will at least have a pretty decent leash to begin the season.

Depends on when the game is. I got opening day just after they started sending them out. Haven't received anything else yet.

Tulo and Matsui will be starting, but I think the Rocks will keep Barmes and Carroll considering neither starter is a sure thing. I think they'll at least keep them for the first month or so.

Ok, on the Toronto side we have: Royce Clayton (probable starter) Aaron Hill (probable starter) Russ Adams (AAA bound, promising going into 2006, but played horribly) John McDonald (sucks) Jason Smith (probable 25th man) Ray Olmedo (sucks) On the Atlanta side we have: Edgar Renteria (definite starter, not available for backup role) Kelly Johnson (probable starter) Martin Prado (pretty decent prospect, Braves may keep him in the bigs if they think they can find ABs him, otherwise will be AAA bound) Pete Orr (AAA bound) Willy Aybar (MIF and 3B backup, not available) Chris Woodward (probable backup/released) Of all of those it sounds like Lou wants a guy with experience, which to me leaves Chirs Woodward, Jason Smith and John McDonald as the only options, try to contain your excitement...God I wish we were there to see Lillibridge (he didn't play in the game).

Just for fun I calced Jacque's MORP for 2006. It was $11,673,359.84. Impressive. Put me in the camp that Marquis most likely will be a poor pitcher, but has a chance of being average. BP puts that at about a 25% chance, which seems about right to me. I wouldn't have minded taking that chance for one year for depth's sake, but not for three, especially considering the pitchers that should be breaking into the bigs in 08 and 09. He will have to induce a lot of grounders to keep the ball out of the air and in the park with the amount of base runners he lets up because of his low K rate.

Totally spaced on this...grrr

God some of you just don't get it. I'm not one to name a starting pitcher's role. The simple fact (FACT, NOT OPINION) is that every single starter in baseball has the same damn job. What difference is there between an "ace" and a "5th starter" when it comes to baseball? Are the Cubs spotted a run when their ace goes? No, they have the same job. Naming them means absolutely nothing and is a waste of time. When I say dominance, I don't mean going out there and pitching like an "ace." K:BB dominance is no more than being the best pitcher you can be. There's maybe one or two other factors, but K:BB is one of the most important if not the most important thing when evaluating how good a pitcher is. Quite frankly, Marquis is not very good at it, never has been and never will be. The ability to strikeout guys without walking them is by far the most important skill a pitcher can possess. It has nothing to do with his "role" it has everything to do with his job - getting people out. Capable to living up to his contract? Come on, let's not be naive, I'm not looking at his contract and saying he sucks. I'm looking at him and saying he sucks. It doesn't make a difference if he's making seven million or 1/7th of a million. At the end of the day he's the same pitchers so I am going to evaluate his pitching looking at that, not the number of zeroes on his paycheck. Does it really make a difference? For the love of God it's nine innings. We all saw what Ryan O'Malley could do for about the same time. :lol: K/BB ratio is not one of the most important stats for pitchers. Maybe walks but not K/BB. Some pitchers just don't strike a lot of guys out and have good success. Look at Chien-Ming Wang from last year. He had one of the lowest K/BB ratio's but was one of the better pitchers in the league. You have to pitch to your strengths. Your job as a pitcher is to prevent runs. If you do that by striking out 15 guys then good job. If you do it by inducing 15 ground balls then good job. Just get the batters out. Except, that for the most part, once a pitcher induces a groundball he has no control over the outcome of whether or not that groundball becomes an out or a hit. In fact, a pitcher that induces 15 groundballs is not even going to get 7 outs, whereas a pitcher that strikes out 15 guys gets 15 outs(groundball BABIPs are higher than FB...to what extent, I'm not sure). About 1 in 3 baserunners score, so you are looking at over 2 runs in 15 ABs for the groundball pitcher and 0 for the strikeout pitcher. I'll take the strike out pitcher. And if you want to look at component ERA, the formula is below. While strike outs are not a direct factor, they indirectly affect the amount of balls put into play and therefore the amount of hits. The formula for ERC as it appears in the 2004 edition of the Bill James Baseball Abstract: ERC=(((H+BB+HBP)*PTB)/(BFP*IP))*9-.56 PTB, defined: PTB=.89*(1.255*(H-HR)+4*HR)+.56*(BB+HBP-IBB)

In addition to the correlation argument, let me ask you how much control you think a pitcher has over his ERA.

Are you wanting Jones packaged because you feel Pie should be in CF on opening day? no, because i want murton to play everyday. So you're willing to make the season much harder to do that? If you trade Jones now, you either have Pie in CF (where the offense almost certainly suffers) or you have Murton in RF and Floyd in LF everyday, which is a disaster waiting to happen-if it be from terrible defense or Floyd breaking down. Well it obviously wouldnt be a pre-season trade so we would have the luxury of seeing how things play out in the OF as well as give Pie some more time in AAA, so take a big step back from the jump to conclusions mat.

I see the cubs taking the risk adverse position using Miller as the #5 starter at the beginning of the season, Prior rehabbing, and Guz in AAA. There is a reason Hendry amassed the starting pitching depth this offseason, he doesn't want to get caught with his pants down again. I think Lou will provide the riskier viewpoint, but Hendry will ultimately make the decision to keep Miller as long as possible to build up trade value as well wait until Prior looks better and Guz keeps on doing what hes doing. I'd love to see Guz break camp with a spot int he rotation, but I don't see it being as realistic as the option I presented above.

We've got an issue. Philip Hughes isn't yet available on the yahoo database. I had to give you a guy to keep the draft moving, so you got Jason Hirsh. As soon as Hughes is available you have dibs. Same goes for my situation with Homer Bailey. Sounds good...that helps so I don't overdraft Hughes on my other team's online draft like I did here. PLEASE TRADE PAVANO!!!!

so you should have mocked for roto :)

I think your post is missing a word...such as who "he" is...but we are already talking about possible trade implications in the Miller thread. Also, I thought much earlier in the day the x-rays came back negative...its a strained oblique (which is probably worse than a bone break). Possible IBL.

Yeah, but I also think that the Royals would be more than glad to get anything just to move him. Even that, like I said, if somehow he stays healthy, and I believe he has one year left on his current contract (I could be wrong) that team who gets the rights of Mike Sweeney, won't be locked on the contract like forever, you know? There was several times where, IIRC, the Angels were looking for a hitter at one point, before Sweeney got hurt. And other than Vlad, their offense is, putting it nicely, "questionable" at best. Sweeney has a limited NTC, which includes to the Angels. Although, hes a 10/5 player so the NTC doesn't really matter, but he named every California team in his limited NTC, so maybe he has something against going there. At this point, hes got all the say in where he can be traded, making the Angels unlikely. Also, I don't live in KC, but I'm guessing hes still thought of as the face of the organization. It would probably be better from a media relations standpoint to just let him finish his contract. Its not like the Royals are going to compete this year (although that can be said of pretty much every year). But especially right now with Gordon, Butler, and Hochevar coming up now/soon they are actually rebuilding. Sweeney provides a nice transition so some of the heat is taken off the kids. Unless KC is completely lacking in common sense, Gordon will be the face of the organization by mid-May. Ohh I completely agree, but what I'm saying is having Sweeney around this year provides a nice transition. Additionally, (again I'm not from KC so I don't know for sure), but I don't know if the average KC fan has as much of a hard on as we all do for Gordon. Not to say that they don't or they don't know who he is, but the typical fan likes vets not rooks.

Unless those are some really good prospects, the Braves aren't letting Salty go. They are extremely high on him. I know he's good, but what happens when he's ready for the majors with McCann already at catcher? If we were able to grab him it would make our draft decision a lot easier (Price over Wieters, assuming Price isn't grabbed ahead of us). My guess is one of those guys could move to firstbase. The Braves might trade Salty, but it would take a Pie or Veal level prospect to get him. They are that high on him. If by guess you mean thats what everyone has said and what makes sense and what will probably happen, then yes, its a guess :). I think Marshall might intrigue an org like the Braves. Miller and Marshall for Lillibridge would be AWESOME!!!

It would be better if he was doing that for the cubs...

Yeah, but I also think that the Royals would be more than glad to get anything just to move him. Even that, like I said, if somehow he stays healthy, and I believe he has one year left on his current contract (I could be wrong) that team who gets the rights of Mike Sweeney, won't be locked on the contract like forever, you know? There was several times where, IIRC, the Angels were looking for a hitter at one point, before Sweeney got hurt. And other than Vlad, their offense is, putting it nicely, "questionable" at best. Sweeney has a limited NTC, which includes to the Angels. Although, hes a 10/5 player so the NTC doesn't really matter, but he named every California team in his limited NTC, so maybe he has something against going there. At this point, hes got all the say in where he can be traded, making the Angels unlikely. Also, I don't live in KC, but I'm guessing hes still thought of as the face of the organization. It would probably be better from a media relations standpoint to just let him finish his contract. Its not like the Royals are going to compete this year (although that can be said of pretty much every year). But especially right now with Gordon, Butler, and Hochevar coming up now/soon they are actually rebuilding. Sweeney provides a nice transition so some of the heat is taken off the kids.

Gordon has been doing well in spring. Hes 6-17 and had 4 RBIs today (not that I care, but baseball people do). Teahen hasn't played 3B at all in any games. Gordon pretty much has 3B locked up. The KC star said it would be a "stunning development" if he weren't starting at 3B opening day. Most likely if Sweeney goes down for an extended period of time Billy Butler will be his replacement, not Gload.