BigbadB

Agreed. I should be ahead by 12 games at the very least. :D

I think you did a fine job setting your line up. I probably would have gone with Maholm at Coors. I think it's cool we have pitchers facing each other. Either one of them is just as capable of throwing a gem or gasoline onto a fire.

Looking forward to the match up with Alamo this week. We kick things off with a pitching duel between Ubaldo Jimenez and Paul Maholm. What sucks is I won't be around Sunday if it's close. I'm on vacation most of next week.

Wonder what the MLB network will show during the offseason. Baseball doesn't have cheerleaders.

I think I recall seeing a major league baseball softball exhibition in that park with Jenny Finch striking out just about anyone who faced her. I also remember a Scott Podsednik home run in that game. It was only memorable because he doesn't hit home runs very often.

20 active scoring or are you including a bench as well in that number? The number of major league roster players will likely play a big part on what overall team salary will be.

What about TT? We could also check the Fantasy Baseball forum and read up to see if there is anyone there that might be a valuable addition. I don't know much about Rob, but it seems like he posts a lot in the Fantasy Baseball forum. I've always had respect for that dude who spells his name backwards, RyanDolin (nilodnayr).

Good call. I forgot to mention him. It's out of the stretch that he does his weird arm hang with the ball in his hand. I think I saw Ian Kennedy emulating that identical delivery.

No, I didn't. I don't remember where the discussion took place, but I said before the game started (days before) that it's ridiculous that neither Peavy or Santana are on the all star roster. I only used Aaron Cook as an example. I can make a long list of pitchers who I would have excused from the all star roster to put Santana and Peavy in their place. Since Selig turned the game into a HFA game, to me it would be all about winning. And if my main objective is to win, Johan Santana and Jake Peavy are pitching for me. Period. For the record, I had no idea how Cook pitched until someone pointed it out in this thread. I paid so little attention to the game that you could arguably say I didn't watch it at all. I only singled out Cook because it seemed crazy to complain about him being there with the way he pitched. I like the idea of the manager taking one of his guys so he can extend him should there be extra innings. As long as it's not absurd for the guy to be there.(Cook has been very good this year) If you didn't pay attention to the game, then you really missed out. Even McCarver, Buck, and FOX couldn't screw this one up. This was an epic, just a great, great baseball game. Fair enough.

I think money and options have a bit to do with that though. Plus, once Lou says that Marquis seems to pitch a game out of his Kazoo and lives to pitch another day. That and he loses all trade value is he's not in the rotation. Teams might trade for a 7m starter, but none would have any interest in a 7m long reliever.

No, I didn't. I don't remember where the discussion took place, but I said before the game started (days before) that it's ridiculous that neither Peavy or Santana are on the all star roster. I only used Aaron Cook as an example. I can make a long list of pitchers who I would have excused from the all star roster to put Santana and Peavy in their place. Since Selig turned the game into a HFA game, to me it would be all about winning. And if my main objective is to win, Johan Santana and Jake Peavy are pitching for me. Period. For the record, I had no idea how Cook pitched until someone pointed it out in this thread. I paid so little attention to the game that you could arguably say I didn't watch it at all.

That doesnt mean someone wont give him a look. He is a former top 10 pick, and a rule 5 doesnt involve a lot of commitment. Your basically inviting him to ST, and if it doesnt work out, he goes back to Daytona. It costs money, and there won't be any real significant players worth that gamble once Veal and Atkins are protected. If I was a major league team, I'd be shopping at Florida, who has received umpteen thousand prospects via trade over the last few years. They can't protect all of them.

I prefer to make my argument without the use of hindsight. You have 2 all star roster spots left, you have these three to pick from (the game has not started yet, so you have no idea how any of them performed beforehand): Jake Peavy Johan Santana Aaron Cook Which 2 do you take? Because Hurdle will be sitting at home watching the World Series, obviously it was an easy choice to take his own guy. He doesn't care who wins because it doesn't affect him one bit.

The Reds already returned the favor. They hired Dusty to manager their team. Pure genius.

Wait, Hurdle is to blame for playing all of his players? I watched most of the game and I could have sworn that Buck said Francona only had 1 player left on his bench in about the 6th or 7th. So the managers managed the same way (to get everyone into the game). The AL is just deeper than the NL, when it comes to talent. The starters for each league are pretty evenly matched. But the AL bench was far superior to the NL bench, if you ask me (sizemore, Longoria, Morneau, Kinsler). And the RPs are much better (Nathan, Paps, KRod, Rivera in consecutive innings - holy crap). Yes. Hurdle is to blame for this entire mess. Well, it's Selig's mess to begin with, but it's Hurdle's fault we lost. Isn't he the one who pick's his pitching staff? How can you honestly pick a pitching staff and not have Johan Santana and Jake Peavy on the roster? I don't care what their records are or what their other significant stats are, these are absolutely 2 of the best pitchers in the NL, and I'd much rather have these guys with a game on the line than Aaron Cook or Brad Lidge or even Carlos Marmol right now. This is no longer about getting every player in the game. This is about home field advantage, as stupid as that may sound. I will applaud the first manager who says "screw playing time, I want to win this game". Ah, but the good ole boy network probably doesn't have a single manager who has the nads to buck the system. This will forever stay one of the dumbest things Bud Selig did under his legacy of doing dumb things.

Looks awesome. But, I won't be golfing there at those prices. Heck, I can go to Torrey Pines for $45. If you can get us a good deal, I'll golf with ya.

My favorite will likely always be Juan Marichal. My least favorite is a lengthy list: Kent Tekulve Fernando Valenzuela Mike Gonzalez (Active with Braves) Gene Garber Mike Fetters Al Hrabosky

I don't remember who to apply the credit to, Meph or TT, but one of them provided a spray chart that showed a lot of Khalil Greene's fly balls at Petco to be home runs at Wrigley for the 2007 season. Obviously, each home run nullifies an out, which in turn improves his OBP, AVG and SLG. I'll take a quick look at his splits to see what visiting parks he's played in so far to see if a lot of them are more neutral than the one's he's yet to visit. Only 17 games have been at what I would call hitter friendly parks (Jacobs, Wrigley, MinuteMaid, Chase, Citizen's Bank), and he didn't play all that well there, either. There might be a little truth to a loss of intensity considering how horribly the Padres have been as a team this year. I'm not sure what to make of that, but the Cubs aren't playing poorly, so it probably wouldn't be a concern. As bad as he's been, I still like what he offers defensively and in power. Last year, he had 7 HR's at NL Central ballparks (at least one at each park) in 20 games.

Yeah, I like 16 if it's at all possible. No whiney bitches? That leaves me out. I also enjoy the H2H format. Nothing better than getting creamed by the last place team in the league because your team sucks that week.

Hey Raisin, It looks like you could use some help setting your rotation for week 16. I'd be happy to help.

Greene just needs a change of scenery.

Got any data to back up your claim?

I'm game. I leave for Idyllwild on Sunday for a week, but am available until then.

I'd love to, but I have to admit that mid-year is vacation time for me, as well as many other people. It might be hard to pull off during vacation time, but we can give it a try.

Just because its a question about baseball, doesn't mean that a scout should be the authority on the correct answer. Just because your sell computers for CDW, doesn't mean you know how to run a company. Agreed. Scouts aren't paid to determine where a player best fits into a line up card. Separating scouts for a minute with major league managers, I don't think the "good ole boy" network always makes the best decisions on line ups, either. My comments aren't meant to bastardize Theriot. I will give credit where it is due. He's having a great year at the plate and I'm happy to say so. My comments are fact based (right out of the Cub stat books). If you want to score the most amount of runs possible, Theriot just isn't the guy to look at to start off a game. If the Cubs didn't have Lee, Ramirez, Soto, Fukudome and Edmonds in the heart of the order, then I might lean your way and go with Theriot at the top of the line up with Soriano hitting 3rd. Soriano is a difference maker at the top of the order. How much do I like having a difference maker batting first? A whole heck of a lot. I like Jimmy Rollins batting first. I like Curtis Granderson batting first. Neither of these guys are OBP studs, but when they bat first, they make poop happen. If we didn't have Soriano and it was 2005 again and Dusty was our manager, I'd be screaming for Theriot to bat at the top of the order. OBP is no longer a problem with this team, however, as there is a great balance of OBP all the way through the line up. With that said, look very closely at Soriano's production at the top of the line up and show me how many other lead off guys are more productive than him over the course of a season. The answer. Not many. I know we went around with this discussion back when Roberts was a potential add-on, but if they did land Roberts, I'd still have Soriano leading off and Roberts hitting 2nd. One of my favorite things about Soriano leading off is when the bottom of the order gets a few runners on, you don't have to hope that the line up gets all the way to Lee for something to happen. Soriano can make it happen a few spots ahead of Lee. And when I say "something to happen", I'm referring to XBH's.