nilodnayr

On the other side of the token, I thought Theriot only having 6 XBHs since April was pretty impressive, but Jesus H, Renteria has only 3! To Renterias credit, he did have 11 bases in those 3 XBHs as opposed to Theriots 12 bases in his 6 XBHs and Theriot has about 40 more ABs.

I think this is a really interesting piece of info. I think that possible the A's (and a lot of people here) were absolutely in love with the idea of Murton in LF and Patterson at 2B a few years ago. However, over the last couple years we've learned that Murton can't hit for power and Patterson cant field. I think a lot of people have turned a blind eye to those facts and are still thinking like they were a couple years ago. Its dumb to overreact to outcomes over small sample sizes, but the last few years have illumniated that the true talent of these guys just isn't what we had thought/hoped it was. I think its quite possible (especially when these guys aren't in your organization) that the A's are still thinking that Murton will develop power and be a serviceable LF and Patterson's glove will play at 2b. I was as big of a Murton and Patterson fan as anyone a while ago, but I honestly now don't see Murton being anything more than a 4th OF and Patterson even being a serviceable bench guy.

Its only like 2.2M for this year. Yeah, 2.2m this year and 7m next year? Someone has to sign off on this budget increase. I'm just glad that someone is doing it. I'm sure the attitude is that that will be someone elses problem. In fact, there are a lot of terrible increasing contracts from 08-09. Even netting out signing bonuses and not counting arbi guys I count over 10M in increases to the guys we have under contract...and thats without counting Harden. A lot of our bullpen contracts expire after this year (Wood, Howry, Eyre, Lieber) and Dempster too, but they don't make a ton of money and Wood will probably be retained at a big raise. The 2009 Cubs are going to have a payroll well north of 130M. The luxury tax level is 162M for 2009 so we still have plenty of room.

Its only like 2.2M for this year.

He has the best ERA on the team ERA is a pretty terrible way to try to value relief pitchers... In terms of expected wins added (WXRL), here is how the Cubs relievers rank for 2008. Marmol Wood Howry Lieber Eyre Marshall Ascaino Cotts Wuertz Of course thats only for 2008, so it doesnt necessarily mean thats how they will be in the future. The Cubs would be complete idiots to give up Wuertz this year as Wood, Howry, Lieber, and Eyre will be FAs after this year. Doesn't leverage play a significant role in WXRL? It's not Wuertz's fault that Lou only uses him when the team is down by 5 or up by 14. Well, yeah I guess it does since WXRL is based off of win expectancy. So if Wuertz comes into a 10-1 game and pitches a scoreless 7th inning he changes the win expectancy by very little. Someone correct me if I'm wrong there. But believe it or not, but only Wood, Marmol, and Howry have a higher pLI in the pen than Wuertz.

Nope. (HR*13+(BB+HBP-IBB)*3-K*2)/IP + League Specific Constant

Hopefully trade Rasmus for Burnett, who blows out his elbow Throw Anderson in as well and its a deal!

He has the best ERA on the team ERA is a pretty terrible way to try to value relief pitchers... In terms of expected wins added (WXRL), here is how the Cubs relievers rank for 2008. Marmol Wood Howry Lieber Eyre Marshall Ascaino Cotts Wuertz Of course thats only for 2008, so it doesnt necessarily mean thats how they will be in the future. The Cubs would be complete idiots to give up Wuertz this year as Wood, Howry, Lieber, and Eyre will be FAs after this year.

Has the fact that Gary Hughes was at Petco Park watching Maddux pitch last night been discussed anywhere? Why does no one seem to see that Marquis is actually better than Maddux? Because he's not. Based on what exactly? Putting Maddux in a division with parks that trend heavily towards hitters parks in August isn't exactly a sound decision. Marquis sucks, no doubt, but Maddux's numbers this season are influenced by the parks in that division. Based on everything. Maddux has a better ERA, better WHIP, fewer walks, more K's, and a better ERA+. What exactly are you basing your statement that Marquis is better on? Top of my head calculations,('07x2, '08x1) Marquis has roughly an equal ERA+ to Maddux the past 2 seasons. Convenient that you're just looking at the last two years. Marquis ERA+ 06: 74 07: 101 08: 94 Maddux ERA+ 06: 109 07: 98 08: 100 They've been close the last two years combined, but in no way has Marquis been better. And if you look at three year splits, they're nowhere near. ERA is a pretty dumb stat to evaluate a pitcher because theres a lot of luck in ERA. Park factors are pretty crappy, so combine the two and ERA+ isn't great. FIP would be a better stat to use to compare the two (there are better, but its a good simple one). Marquis FIP 06: 5.90 07: 4.99 08: 4.36 Maddux FIP 06: 3.80 07: 3.58 08: 3.93

They were talking about the Sabathia trade. I almost freaked out about that as well, but I realized they were talking about the Sabathia trade and that guy that they are converting from 3B to 2B. If there was a PTBNL in the Harden trade it probably would have been Vitters which would make this trade very very different.

http://oakland.athletics.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080708&content_id=3092033&vkey=news_oak&fext=.jsp&c_id=oak I'm a bit surprised they're not bringing Murton to the mlb club. Like I said earlier, the A's have about 85 OFs. I assume Beane will send feelers out on Emil Brown, DFA him if he can't get a deal done in the next couple days and then bring Murton up. After Emil Brown they have Gonzalez, Cust, Sweeney, Davis, not to mention Denorfia and Buck who will probably be back up soon. I'm pretty sure this is their depth chart: Gonzalez and Davis platoon in CF Sweeney in RF Cust and Brown in LF Assuming Buck and Denorfia return soon and Thomas is done, the smartest thing would be to get rid of Brown and Davis. Platoon Cust and Bankston at DH. Start Buck, Gonzalez, and Sweeney agasint righties in the OF and mix Murton and Denorfia in against lefties. With Buck and Gonzalez being able to play CF, Murton will probably end up a full time starter over Sweeney after he cools off. But if Thomas does come back, Murton isn't one of the 3 best OFs on the A's. Of course, he should actually get a chance when one of the starters goes down, unlike here. Sooooo many of those players barely qualify as major league players, they really need some people that can up non-negative VORP Buck, Gonzalez, and Cust are all better (or Gonzalez soon will be better) than Matt Murton. Like I said, I think Brown and Davis will be DFA'ed if they can't be traded. Sweeney's value is that he can play CF, so the A's really don't need him, Murton's bat is better. They had plenty of OFs before today.

I've heard Friday, but I don't know if its confirmed. I hope for Friday as well, Saturday's game is a blackout except for Chicago area. Really seemed like Lou was leaning toward Saturday from the post game press conference.

http://oakland.athletics.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080708&content_id=3092033&vkey=news_oak&fext=.jsp&c_id=oak I'm a bit surprised they're not bringing Murton to the mlb club. Like I said earlier, the A's have about 85 OFs. I assume Beane will send feelers out on Emil Brown, DFA him if he can't get a deal done in the next couple days and then bring Murton up. After Emil Brown they have Gonzalez, Cust, Sweeney, Davis, not to mention Denorfia and Buck who will probably be back up soon. I'm pretty sure this is their depth chart: Gonzalez and Davis platoon in CF Sweeney in RF Cust and Brown in LF Assuming Buck and Denorfia return soon and Thomas is done, the smartest thing would be to get rid of Brown and Davis. Platoon Cust and Bankston at DH. Start Buck, Gonzalez, and Sweeney agasint righties in the OF and mix Murton and Denorfia in against lefties. With Buck and Gonzalez being able to play CF, Murton will probably end up a full time starter over Sweeney after he cools off. But if Thomas does come back, Murton isn't one of the 3 best OFs on the A's. Of course, he should actually get a chance when one of the starters goes down, unlike here.

A Harden deal makes so much more sense than a Wolf/Maddux type deal. Especially considering we get Gaudin as well. We had and now have even more of a very deep rotation with quite a few back up options. After Sabathia, Harden was the only true difference maker available. Hudson and Burnett are difference makers, but to a lesser degree. Harden has the obvious injury concern and that was reflected in the bounty that he pulled in vs what Sabathia did. But the point is, that the marginal upgrade of Harden over Gallagher/Marshall is extremely large, and if Harden gets injured there are a plethora (Marshall, Gaudin, Lieber, etc) of guys that can step into his spot and put up league average numbers. Wolf/Maddux are safer bets but really won't be that much of a marginal upgrade over Gallagher/Marshall.

The wide girl totally called him out on that too. I believe they actually broadcasted the Hendry press conference a few minutes before Olney said that and he was like "but, but, I didn't hear anything about it! And no one else did either!" Its pretty ridiculous that the media doesn't believe that anything can happen without them hearing about it.

The wide chick on ESPN News called him out on it earlier and he said that in the article he mentioned that the cubs aren't going to get anyone without question marks and that Harden definitely has question marks in his injury history. So basically he refused to say he was wrong.

http://mbd.scout.com/mb.aspx?s=304&f=2062&t=2658135&p=13 You should, because it was a joke.

Hendry said earlier in his press conference that the doctors have thoroughly examined Harden. Harden was in Chicago this past weekend. Did Hendry say that? Wow. I listened to the press conferences and Hendry during the game and I didnt get that at all. He said that Beane made the A's doctors available to our doctors and was very open with all the medicals, but I'm pretty darn sure that he never said we examined Harden himself.

Yeah, he did in the press conference too.

This year is Gaudin's first year of arbi. Hes signed for 1.775M. Hes under our control for 2.5 years. Unfortunately I don't see the Cubs getting rid of Marquis. Thanks nilo. After today, anything can be possible! True. We definitely have plenty of guys who could take his spot in Marshall, Lieber, Gaudin and eventually Hill. Although, in the press conference, Hendry praised Marquis for pitching a lot of innings. If they could get rid of Marquis in a deal for Burnett, that would be amazing. Also, don't forget that Dempster is a FA after this year so we will have to fill that hole as well. We definitely have enough arms to do so, but GMs can never have enough arms to be happy.

So evidently the Harden for Rasmus and Anderson rumors were a tad bit untrue. :D

This year is Gaudin's first year of arbi. Hes signed for 1.775M. Hes under our control for 2.5 years. Unfortunately I don't see the Cubs getting rid of Marquis.

Gaudin is going to be the underappreciated part of this trade similarly like Murton was in the Nomar trade.

The A's have about 85 outfielders.

pretty basic info; probably more analysis tomorrow. Bold prediction: Christina Kahrl will hate the deal for both teams. why do you say that? she liked the sabathia deal on both sides. I'm not a BP Subscriber, but everything I've ever read of Kahrl's transaction analysis has been derision towards both sides of each deal covered. Shes about as condescending and elitest as they get.