nilodnayr

Isn't a hit batsmen an unearned run, just like a walk? I assumed the same applies to someone who is K'd and gets to 1st base on a wild pitch/passed ball. Pitchers only dream about walks being unearned runs. Our staff ERA would have been like negative eleventy thousand if that was the case.

Sox fans care more about what is going on with the cubs and comparing themselves to the cubs than singularly thinking about their own team. I went to about 20 games the WS season and there was more anti-cubs paraphanalia than pro-white sox. It was crazy. Frankly, I don't think its a bad signing. Vazquez has good peripherals. MORP has him at about 28M 2008-2010 (Lilly is pegged at being worth $20M over that time period).

ML salary increases are correlated with proximity to signing the CBA...someone less lazy than me can provide the link. I think in relation to what will happen with the cubs very much depends on the outcome of our season. If we retain Z, we will have about 90M locked up in just a small handful of players in 2009, so it will get interesting if payroll does not increase with baseball inflation.

no, unless there are several injuries out of camp. Several? I wouldn't say several. And most likely Pavano will get dealt. So far the Yanks hitters have said Hughes is amazing.

I think you are in a good position to deal some of your pitching and OF/1B for steals and saves. In my 12 team league I try to draft a top tier closer , mid-tier closer, and then pick a third up on the waiver wire. I'm not sure if anyone is going to trade a top tier closer though. But you've got some stellar trading chips like Konerko and Lackey. You can afford to subtract them. Also you can pick up steals on the waiver wire. Its possible guys like BJ Upton and Willy Taveras haven't been drafted in your league...thats probably 100 steals right there.

I like Bryant Gumble in Gumble to Gumble though. Its a shame they took that show off the air.

Yeah, and I especially like their pitching depth. They might actually get better if anyone in the rotation but sheets gets hurt. Something has got to happen in the OF situation though with Mench and Jenkins alreadying complaining. I'm very glad to see Hart being a lock, he should be quite productive. Hopefully Gross gets a decent amount of time as well. They really need to just give 3B to Braun. He'll be a league average 400K 3B.

redminds me of southpark... I actually like the fact that Ozzie hates the cubs, I think thats how it should be in this city

I'm Logan White's Honkys

Crap, I did as well...

Barrett will make about 3M post-tax, so if he hits 20 homers, this could end up being about 1/12 of his salary. Thats a pretty significant portion of his income.

So, I guess the question is why. Are those pitchers throwing more mistakes? Or are batters hitting more mistakes that are thrown to them? A lot I guess would be digging into the PBP and pitch location data, BA on balls over the plate vs BA on balls not over the plate and such. I wonder if there is a correlation between BABIP over expected and BB/9, although one would imagine that high BB/9 pitchers who actually make it in the majors probably are also high K/9 pitchers so they would have less balls in play and therefore probably a greater variance in BABIP over (or under) expected, but it would be an interesting study none the less. I really love all this play by play data and think the more advances that are made in recording and mining it will lead to many many more really cool insights into the game. I see it going toward tracking the trajectory and speed of pitches along with the batter's decision and result in order to dig deeper into how pitchers can exploit batters and visa-versa. I know it will be criticized for taking the "human element" out of the game and turning players into robots, but I just call it using all the information available.

Like some have said here, I like stats that can isolate and explain. I like to know why. Why did RJ and Peavy have bad years. Did they even have bad years? How does that halp us predict how they are going to perform in the future. How can we isolate results inwhich they have control over, vs outcomes that can be influenced by luck or other players.

UK has a very useful method for weighting OPS toward OBP, i can't remember what the exact weight is, though. Usually, you'll see ((1.6*OBP)+SLG) to get an adjusted value. I forget where it was mentioned but someone had mentioned OBP was undervaled 3 times its present value, which is nuts. Every stat has value, where and when to apply it adds less or more value. The more you know, the better off you'll be, as it's more like a puzzle and each stat is a piece of that puzzle rather than a beauty competition looking for the most attractive stat. I try and look for both sides of the equation, not only analyzing how well a player has done as far as his numbers, but what does he do physically that got him to that point. Tangotiger values OBP a little bit more. Good explanation of it here

wOBA is an interesting stat outlined in The Book

Link I never believed Cuban would divulge his bid amount. 8-) So you've posted like 30 times in this thread without actually reading the radar article?!?!? Thats just silly. No one claimed it was Cuban who made any sort of announcment or leak. What are you talking about? I read it but you've apparently not read this whole thread. The sentiment was that it was a legit report. I honestly never believed it but I wasn't familiar enough with Radar to come out and blast it!!! I was only comfortable saying I thought the amount in the report might be false because, again, I didn't know anything about the credibility of Radar. Seriously, read the thread before trying to put someone on blast. I don't mean to be a jerk (in this post or my last), but you need some critical reading skills. Obviously I have read the entire thread as evidenced by me pointing out (albeit through hyberbole) that you have been a very active participant in this thread. I DO have critical reading skills and noted that in order for you to write a statement such as "I never believed Cuban would divulge his bid amount", that somewhere something must have stated that Cuban was the one divulging said bid. Which is not the case if you had read the article. Ergo, my assumption that you had not read the article.

Link I never believed Cuban would divulge his bid amount. 8-) So you've posted like 30 times in this thread without actually reading the radar article?!?!? Thats just silly. No one claimed it was Cuban who made any sort of announcment or leak.

Although baseball isn't in the bad shape it was a decade ago, I'd have to believe that it would be good for baseball if the Cubs won the World Series. There are a ton of cubs fans in every single other market and although we have a very good road attendance record now, renewed interest from transplant cubs fans will put $ in everyones pockets.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070226&content_id=1817199&vkey=spt2007news&fext=.jsp&c_id=chc&partnered=rss_chc This is exactly what we should be striving for on defense. Not spectacular, but not a problem. This is going to be a subject that gets completely overblown in the media because we don't have a proven OF and I've already read the opinion that we will have the worst OF in the league.

It would be better if they had to spend it on their minor league system, the draft, and scouting. I feel like I've read that there are rules about this, but they just aren't being enforced.

Yeah I'll be there for the Saturday game. One thing about baseball in Milwaukee in April --- it won't be cold at the game, no matter what. I'm pretty excited. I hear Miller Park is awesome. Although, I think that's Easter weekend, so I'll probably just go on Fri and Sat... I've got tix to all 3 games too - if you're really interested in going, I'd suggest buying your tix *now* - I don't think they'll be around long! And this series is over the Easter weekend, lucky for me as I've got Good Firday off anyway - might as well put it to good use. Miller Park is beautiful - we went to a game there when we were up for Irish Fest a few years ago. Question, though - anyone know how warm they keep things when the roof is closed? I read somewhere that it can be up to 30 degrees warmer inside, so don't know if I should pack short sleeves, long sleeves, what type of jacket, will a blanket be warranted, etc. In April, it could be 40-50 degrees outside, so hard to predict. Any guidance will be appreciated :) I don't think I've ever been there when its cold out, but if you aren't out in the bleachers its just the same as being in any indoor stadium.

If the Mets acquire some pitching, then they look like the team to beat in the NL. Marshall for Milledge? I dont think the Mets would bite on that. After all, their asking price for Milledge at the break was Barry Zito. I thought the asking price for Blanton was Milledge. I never heard anything about Zito/Milledge. The asking price for 1/2 a season of Zito was indeed Milledge. http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/lastings_milledge/index.html Looks like towards the deadline more of the rumors were around blanton and haren than zito.

If the Mets acquire some pitching, then they look like the team to beat in the NL. Marshall for Milledge? I dont think the Mets would bite on that. After all, their asking price for Milledge at the break was Barry Zito. I thought the asking price for Blanton was Milledge. I never heard anything about Zito/Milledge.

I disagree. Look at who they have brought in...Izturis, Soriano, and DeRosa. Izturis is ALL glove. Soriano was above average in LF last year and that was just his first year in the OF. I'm not sure of DeRosa's metrics, but I believe he's been just fine and can play a lot of positions usually which shows defensive proficiency. Its not like we brought in Adam Dunn or anything. For it to be Hendry's philosophy though, he would have to be bringing in people to fit his notion of good defense-I doubt he's putting that much value in defensive metrics. Izturis I agree with you about-Soriano was seen as average around the league, and he's moving to a new position. DeRosa's reputation is that of an average or above average defender. You forgot the 4th person though-Cliff Floyd. The more Floyd plays in the OF, the more the OF defense is going to suffer because of it. If you look around at many of the people writing articles, they all are saying that the Cubs are going to suffer defensively-could they be wrong? Sure-but their method of judging defense is likely the same one as Hendry's, and so he wouldn't put a team out there with this bad of a reputation defensively if he really wanted a team that could "catch the ball" Except that Floyd will take time away from Murton who isn't thought of to have great defensive skills (regardless of whether or not that is true). No, he didn't go out and get Covelli to replace murton, but he didn't downgrade.

I would pair wright, young, and one of your starts and get a lower tier 3b who isnt a huge downgrade from wright, a great starting pitcher and a good OF. You have good depth in the OF, but need a top hitter there. But of course that all depends on the needs of your competitors.