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Rob

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Everything posted by Rob

  1. Rob
    Z probably will show up tomorrow in the clubhouse and make a quick apology. I imagine most of the players will forgive him before he even needs to say anything... everybody realizes how frustrating this season is. Quade seems like he'll probably hold a grudge, but as poorly as he's handled personnel this year... well, I don't think that'll matter for next season. Hendry has already been trying to find a way to unload Z for a couple seasons now. I don't see this changing anything in that regard... maybe a few of the racist articles make Z a bit more amenable to waiving his NTC this offseason. But the fact of the matter is that Hendry is trying to hold onto his job, and even if he manages to blame this season on injuries and Mike Quade (and it's looking like he may be successful in that regard), he's still going to be under a lot of pressure. Releasing Zambrano is admitting a very expensive failure. Unloading him without getting back any useful pieces or salary relief is admitting a very expensive failure. His only hope of trying to salvage the situation is keeping Z around. Knowing Hendry, there will probably be a suspension with some public statements intended to scapegoat Z, a few attempts to trade him (shocking how little you get offered when you trash your own players), and he'll be in the rotation next spring... slotted in at SP4 or some nonsense.
  2. Rob
    Dad's gonna be crushed! :lol:
  3. Rob
    The Gretsky deal is back on. Once again, per Jim Callis on twitter:
  4. Rob
    I can't imagine Andreoli is gonna be a budget-buster with his limited ceiling.
  5. Rob
    Per Jim Callis on twitter:
  6. Rob
    I don't know that I buy that he can be above average offensively... though I don't think he'll be much below average either. That said, nobody took him in the Rule 5 last year even though he was unprotected, so I have to imagine that other teams don't think too highly of his bat either.
  7. Rob
    No reason to believe that he won't. http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100828054703/uncyclopedia/images/b/b5/Exploding-head.gif Are we still on this or had you just been spending a few hours looking for the ideal gif? Johnson has been a very solid bench player all year, and yes, I have no reason to think that he'll just suddenly fall off a cliff, assuming he remains in the same role he has been in. Saying there's no reason to believe that he won't is far from guaranteeing that he will. His BABIP is .409. Neither he, nor any other player in baseball can sustain that. Therefore, you do have reason to think he can't keep it up.
  8. Rob
    2.11 GO-AO this season. 2.47 last year. Lefty groundball pitchers... that's not a huge list. Paul Maholm and John Lannan are probably the best comps... maybe Jonathan Niese if things go very well. If everything goes absolutely perfectly for him, maybe Ricky Romero or Jaime Garcia. Of that group, only Romero's average fastball is higher than about 90.5.
  9. Rob
    I was under the impression Rusin was a pretty heavy groundball pitcher, which would make him a bit more intriguing for me than otherwise. I could be mistaken on that one though. Anybody feel a Paul Maholm comp is off the mark?
  10. Rob
    Todd Walker, Michael Barrett and Mark DeRosa were all better players than Reed Johnson. DeRosa, yes, but he brought two other guys as well. Beyond that, you're splitting hairs. I get Johnson's BABIP is high, but the guy is having a great year, can play all 3 OF positions, and is cheap. Guys like that have value to contenders. Walker are Barrett had been legitimate starting caliber players for contending teams in previous years. Now they were both obviously on the downslopes of their careers, but there's still some degree of upside to guys who have shown more in the past (remember our Jim Edmonds acquisition?). Reed Johnson has never been perceived as a starting caliber player. Again, I'm not saying I don't see the value in Reed Johnson. I absolutely do see it. I just see that utility guys and 4th outfielders bring back less in trades than guys teams are planning to plug in as the starter.
  11. Rob
    Todd Walker, Michael Barrett and Mark DeRosa were all better players than Reed Johnson.
  12. Rob
    Are you just assuming the acquiring teams will ignore every other year of his career when evaluating him? I'm not suggesting that we're going to get Domonic Brown or Jesus Montero for him just that he's a very cheap 2 month rental for a team looking for a solid bat off the bench. it's 2 months and he'd be coming off the bench. you don't get "solid young high upside prospects" for that. Bingo. I'd love to trade Reed and think other teams should be legitimately interested in him. But I'd be shocked if we got much more than an Evan Crawford type for him... a mildly intriguing prospect with significant holes is a pretty reasonable price.
  13. Rob
    I saw an episode of The Shield with a similar situation, though it was a shipping container on the outskirts of town.
  14. Rob
    there is? he's 4th all time in defensive WAR, and in the top 100 for WAR for position players. http://www.fangraphs.com/graphsw.aspx?playerid2=1012186&playerid3=1013157&playerid4=335&playerid5= If you don't believe Trammell and Larkin belong in the Hall (and plenty don't), it's pretty easy to make the case Ozzie doesn't either... especially if you want to cast doubt on defensive metrics in general. Like I said, I'm a big hall guy and would have all of them in there. But there's a case.
  15. Rob
    I don't have a problem with him being in the Hall of Fame (I'm a big Hall guy, personally), but there is a legitimate argument to be made that Ozzie Smith doesn't belong in the Hall. And Lindstrom doesn't exactly stand up to the Hall of Fame 3B standard... though I would certainly agree that standard is way higher than it should be.
  16. Rob
    The Meche deal doesn't look so bad now.
  17. Rob
    That's certainly possible. But somebody should have been. Why? He's a platoon player with chronic back problems who isn't very good defensively anymore. Didn't say teams should be falling over themselves to acquire him. But he's a nice complementary piece. Hits lefties well and is fine defensively in the corners as well as able to handle CF (though to what degree is debatable). There are guys like that all over baseball. I mean, I get your point, but the likely reality is that nobody wanted him vs. the Cubs not trying to trade him. Someone like Baker I get because he's back next year. Johnson doesn't fit into the Cubs' plans at all, so I'm sure they would have been happy to give him up if anyone was offering anything. $5 says if Hendry is back next year, so is Reed Johnson. Something tells me somebody was willing to offer something small, but Hendry didn't want to trade him for that little since it might hurt his chances of bringing him back next year.
  18. Rob
    That's certainly possible. But somebody should have been. Why? He's a platoon player with chronic back problems who isn't very good defensively anymore. Didn't say teams should be falling over themselves to acquire him. But he's a nice complementary piece. Hits lefties well and is fine defensively in the corners as well as able to handle CF (though to what degree is debatable).
  19. Rob
    That's certainly possible. But somebody should have been.
  20. Rob
    In fairness to Hendry, this deadline doesn't mean all that much. The guys we all wanted moved are almost all paid enough money that nobody is going to just claim them on waivers... and if they do, that's probably a better deal than we would have gotten anyways. About the only guy we should have traded but may have trouble doing so now is Reed Johnson. That said, I'm very disappointed at our inactivity... and as much as I like Carlos Pena, he better not be our plan at 1B going forward.
  21. Rob
    hahahahahahahahahahaha
  22. Rob
    I'd be all about trying to snag Matt Bush. That strikeout rate is legit.
  23. Rob
    I keep seeing visions of Eric Patterson, sadly.
  24. Rob
    The average major league 2B this season has hit .255/.316/.379 Barney is at .300/.328/.369 In other words, because of Barney's lack of plate discipline and power, he's only managed to be an average 2B despite his .300 batting average. So yeah, it's possible to be a productive ML player... but you aren't going to find many stars without real secondary skills.
  25. Rob
    I absolutely refuse to label Samardzija as a bust until he's out of our system entirely... the way his peripherals absolutely refuse to stabilize from year to year, I wouldn't be any more shocked to see a K/9 of 13 next year with a BB/9 of 4, or the complete opposite. WILD CARD!
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