BigbadB

Please define what makes a "pretty decent leadoff hitter"? To me, a decent lead off hitter gets on base for the production guys who hit 3rd and 4th. Juan Pierre is horrible at getting on base. And when he does get on base, he runs himself into outs, taking away chances for the production guys to drive him in. Alfonso Soriano scored 119 times last year compared to Pierre's 87 times. Soriano got on base at a .351 clip. Pierre was at .330. Pierre really provides nothing at the plate, while Soriano provides SLG to go along with a respectable OBP. Kevin Youkilis scored 100 runs (mostly in the lead off spot) without having any speed to speak of, and he only played in 147 games. He got on base 38% of the time. He didn't always bat lead off. Had he stayed in the lead off spot all year, it's hard to say how many runs he would have scored. He scored 73 times in just 95 games. The primary job of a lead off hitter is to get on base. Pierre is not good at getting on base. He can hit for decent average, but he can't walk to save his life. And I'd like to point out that it is not hard to lead the league in hits when you easily lead the league in AB's. He also led the league in outs by a wide margin. It's what he does in those at bats when he doesn't get a hit that decreases his value. Not to mention the fact that he got caught stealing 20 times. That's pathetic.

There are typically 3 results to a Juan Pierre at bat. Ground out to the 2b, ground out to the SS. Ball gets past one of the SS or the 2b.

I agree with that too. However, I think there will be plenty of times where the pinch hitter (pitcher's spot) will be leading off an inning if Izturis is batting 8th, and it would be a good thing to get the pinch hitter on base somehow with Soriano due up next.

When you can predict the outcome of an at bat 7 times out of 10, the player you are referring to is pretty bad. And I wasn't referring to just predicting whether he makes an out or not, but rather where he makes his out. For what Pierre offered at 6m, I'd rather have Alex Sanchez for less than a million. .280 for a lead off hitter would be good if they had an OBP of .350+ to go with it. Pierre's .330 is not good enough, and tack on the 20 times he got himself out attempting to steal, and it's even worse. Pierre really only has 1 skill. Speed. After his speed, there is very little to get excited about.

touche. i have a feeling i'll end up with one of the guys i dropped. though i doubt vlad lasts to #3. i'll take either the best OF or best SP available. i'm still trying to figure out how i feel about matsuzaka. i pick three times before that...burrell won't be there at #25. the draft isn't as deep as i thought it would be. Once the last few teams make their drops, there should be plenty of decent players to draft.

Cleveland is probably another year away, but might be worth dropping a couple of bucks on to win it all. They have a lot of exciting young players in Marte, Barfield, Peralta, Garko, Shoppach, Sowers, Guthrie, Carmona, etc... Now that they've pretty much blocked Franklyn Gutierrez in the Cleveland outfield, he's a guy I wouldn't mind having as a 5th outfielder.

Scouts believe he can handle shortstop longterm. I've been sarcastic about Wood, just as Tim was being sarcastic about Adenhart. Sarcasm aside, I'd give up quite a bit for Brandon Wood.

Grant complements Vasgersian so well, that they are just so natural together. One of my favorite commercials is Mark Grant circling the bases on a motorcycle and sliding into 3rd base.

Todd Hundley probably tops the list, but in the top 10 should be names like Dave Rosello, Mike Tyson, Kenny Reitz and Mick Kelleher. The Cubs teams of the late 70's to the early 80's were horrible. 1984 was the first reason to get excited since 1972. Not one winning season from 1973 through 1983. NONE.

I was shooting for something a smidge more realistic than BBB and Tim :) In reality we'd be lucky to end up with Willits. Reality is that Wood will rot in AAA behind Orlando Cabrera, and Jones can help them now. Hey, if they don't want to part with Wood, we'll be happy to run Cesar Izturis out there everyday. Oh, wait....maybe happy isn't the correct terminology.

Brandon Wood! Come on down.

Not really.

You are correct, sir. However, if he played 10 more years instead of 8, he would only need to average 33 HR's a year. If he played to Bonds current age, it would be significantly less. Barry Bonds only had 292 HR's at the stage of his career that A-Rod just reached. A-Rod has 464. Bonds has averaged 40 in the timeframe A-Rod has remaining. While A-Rod probably won't have a 73 home run season, he probably won't have a 5 home run season, either. To put it another way, if A-Rod hit as many home runs as Bonds has hit since he turned 31, A-Rod would eclipse 900. While i'm skeptical that he could hit 900, I think 800 is well within reach.

It makes sense, but I don't like it.

If A-Rod averages 42 home runs a year through his age 38 season, he'll have more than 800 home runs. Barring any significant injuries, I think he'll make it.

Anything that takes away the microphone from Ted Leitner would be fine by me. But, I don't listen to the games on the radio. They broadcast every game locally on tv. The tv team is one of the best around with Matt Vasgersian and Mark Grant.

I voted for Michael. There are a lot of good picks, but Michael's goofyness just cracks me up all the way through each episode.

I don't remember anymore what his ailments were. Was it elbow or shoulder related?

Bigger sample size? Okay. In each minor league stop that Hill had 200 or more at bats (which includes last year), he's never posted an OBP below .365. 2000- .442 2001- .396 2002- .382 2003 Iowa- .365 2006- .396 Not too shabby. Unfortunately, I think you end up with a big dip in his OBP production when he doesn't play much, something a 25th man not managed by Dusty Baker is usually accused of. But, I'll take the OBP improvement over the likes of Womack, Bynum, Neifi, Cedeno, etc. infinity. He'll have to really impress in the spring in order to bump someone from the 40 man roster and make the team. It is probably likely that Pagan will be the 25th man. #1, he's already on the 40 man roster. #2, Piniella will probably prefer outfield help that can play any of the outfield positions. There does seem to be quite a bottleneck at Iowa as well. Patterson, Moore and McGehee will be manning 2nd and 3rd. I'd like to see McGehee get some corner outfield work to possibly expand on his utility player value in 2008. There was talk of letting Patterson play some CF, but that won't be happening while Pie is in Iowa.

Good news. You're actually another home run closer to breaking the record now, because Hank Aaron only hit 755. Yeah, only. :D

Isn't he slightly ahead of Greg Maddox? Who? I think he meant Garry Maddox. However, Maddox had quite a few steals during his illustrious career. 248 to be exact.

Alright. You got me.

I don't remember "cutting" Bobby Hill. Jake is a Pirates fan. But, the Pirates didn't cut him either. They traded him to the Padres. He was traded after we DFA'd him. Technically that's a cut. :-) Did you get something for him? If so, technically, that's not a cut. :wink:

I don't remember "cutting" Bobby Hill. Jake is a Pirates fan. But, the Pirates didn't cut him either. They traded him to the Padres.

Even worse is the fact that we are less than 7 days away from the start of early bird sign ups, and there still hasn't been an official announcement. I'm going to sign up on the 15th. I want my cable company to have to go to the trouble of refunding my money.