mul21

Man, they are just killing them with pulling guards.

Man, terrible read by Cutler there. Should have gone to Sanzenbacher across the middle there.

Man, the Bucs are just killing themselves with penalties. It also seems like the defense is flying around and hitting a bit better than the last few weeks today.

My problem with this line of thinking is that we haven't seen guys of his ilk try to produce late into their 30s outside of the steroid era when pitching is used like it is now. I mean, you're looking at guys who were elite(ish) late in their careers in the 60s-80s before the 6 inning start became prevalent and you're seeing a different reliever every time you come up late in games and those guys are throwing mid to upper 90s pretty regularly. The loss of bat speed, especially against those late inning guys, along with the fact that you're seeing guys be able to give more max effort early in games makes me nervous about aging superstars in the near future. Perhaps. I'd still rather they take the chance. I'd love to as well, especially if they could get him to sign a 7/$210 deal or something along those lines. Assuming payroll is increased anyway.

My problem with this line of thinking is that we haven't seen guys of his ilk try to produce late into their 30s outside of the steroid era when pitching is used like it is now. I mean, you're looking at guys who were elite(ish) late in their careers in the 60s-80s before the 6 inning start became prevalent and you're seeing a different reliever every time you come up late in games and those guys are throwing mid to upper 90s pretty regularly. The loss of bat speed, especially against those late inning guys, along with the fact that you're seeing guys be able to give more max effort early in games makes me nervous about aging superstars in the near future.

Well, Kenney would be losing some power I guess, so I can see this sort of ringing true. That said, I take everything from the media in this process with a grain of salt. Boston media is blaming Kenney (gee, wonder which side leaked that information), while wasn't it Leviine the other day that was blaminig Henry? I find that really hard to believe, just for the simple fact that Ricketts has been the one in charge of this whole deal and I just don't think there's any way he would let Kenney be any sort of stumbling block to putting together his front office dream team.

The only problem I have with that is the fact that, as somebody else mentioned, like half of the good prospects he has in their system are from trading Gonzalez and Adams. He just hasn't been there long enough to really make a huge difference in what they've got. Now, picking the right guys to trade for is a nice quality to have, but those are guys who you've had a chance to see against other professionals before acquiring them.

I'm not concerned about them being able to work together. I just think Wilken might not like having the carte blanche that he has for the last however many years. Theo and Hoyer are occasionally going to tell him, no, we don't like that guy here, pick your second choice, and I'm concerned about how long he'll be willing to deal with that part of it.

It's not just the analysis of information that will change, it's the type of info available that's going to make the biggest difference. The thing that stuck out to me in that SI article was the amount of time spent getting data entered into a database that allowed them to project a players potential development based on players with similar college numbers in similar programs. Obviously, a scouting report is a scouting report, but the supplemental info available to help make decisions will be so much more vast that it can only help in determining a guy's true potential. Based on the additional info available and decisions made with the help it will provide, I can see Wilken getting frustrated that he might be getting trumped by numbers. Hopefully they can figure out a system that keeps everybody happy, because the more good people you have providing info, the more likely you arrive at a good decision.

The Game 5 Carpenter/Halladay duel was pretty good. But yeah, other than that, some sloppy baseball with a decent number of not very close games.

The system is lackluster and aggressive promotions is a part of the system. The system is lackluster because of a lack of overslots, taking some chances early, and not spending jack in Latin America for several years. Combine that with a few guys being traded or not panning out, and I think you have a much better case for saying aggressive promotions haven't hurt in any significant way than arguing they have.

I have a feeling he has relationships with people in Latin America that are probably pretty important to the Cubs continuing to be able to sign pretty highly regarded guys from down there. I think they need to make sure he's treated well so they don't burn any bridges, but at the same time, him having less influence on the minor league instructional philosophy is something I'd like to see as well. He's got to be the guy most responsible for the aggressive approach they've been preaching for years now.

I may be erring in assuming the Red Sox can bump payroll up as necessary if they choose to, much like the Yankees but not to the same degree. In all honesty, I think NL teams will have the inside track on Pujols anyway. I'm pretty sure he prefers playing first rather than DHing and while I think he'll entertain offers from AL teams and use them to boost the overall value of the deal, I think he'll end up in the NL. Fielder's more likely to be in the AL, I think. Something like the Cubs getting Pujols for (throwing out a random amount) 10/280 and then the Angels/Red Sox/Yankees fighting over Fielder at a little less in money and years than Pujols got. I just don't see the Cards being a factor. It'd take nearly everything they have just to bring Pujols back and they may not even be able to afford him alone without boosting payroll. If he were going to go back to St. Louis at a major discount, I think he would have done it before the year. Something that most people tend to forget about when trying to figure out payroll for the Cards is their stadium payments. They're paying off a significantly higher portion of principle on their loan than they're required to every year. I'm thinking I remember it being in the $10 million range that they're paying on top of what they're required. So, regardless of what they're payroll currently is, I think they can easily bump it by $10 million for at least a couple years (especially with the WS run this year) and be okay. I think Pujols ends up back in a Cards uniform.

Man, he hates him some Szczur.

Wait, who the hell are you? So confused!

I'm pretty sure it wouldn't matter if they had clean medical records or not, Boston is still going to do their due diligence and have a full physical done before they fully sign off on the deal.

Levine says Red Sox are being asshats and deal is likely to be pushed back further.

I'd be interested in reading what he had to say. Link?

Well, that clearly trumps Hue Jackson's claim that the Carson Palmer trade was the best ever. I mean, can you claim any trade is better than one that probably saves a guy's life?

I can see the way Boston is going to play this: "We didn't like the compensation being offered, but the Cubs called in the Commissioner and he made us take what they were offering. We're not happy about it, but we're left no other choice at this point." Which hopefully means we're screwing them and they're trying to save face after getting Flaherty and Gaub or something.

How would it be a misprint if I heard it on the radio? Unless you're saying I typed 200 instead of 150 or something. Either way, I'm not 100% sure on what I heard, but I did hear him say something with regard to "around $200M." You did say baseball budget though right? That could theoretically include front office personnel salaries and not just ML salaries and draft spending. The way it was worded made me think it was including something other than just player salaries and draft spending.

The reality is Ricketts has given the go ahead to essentially sign as many over slot guys as possible in the draft. Just by doing that our chances of stocking up the farm with top prospects significantly increase. Overslots may not be around for much longer. I really hope that Selig can't push that through, but I suspect he might. I think there's going to be enough pushback from enough teams other than the Yankees, Cubs, and Sox to keep that from happening. They're far from the only ones who do it. What i don't get is why that's part of collective bargaining. It would seem that the players would be totally against it (although I guess that would leave marginally more money for ML players) and that enough owners would hate it that it would be one of the first things to get dropped from negotiations.

Boers and Bernstein are talking about Gammons' comments that whatsherface posted. Making a big deal out of the fact that it sounds like Crane Kenney and Randy Bush are doing the negotiating. I find that hard to believe. I think Gammons is wrong and that these two are blowing things out of proportion. Everything we've heard is that Ricketts is doing the negotiating right?

He really fills up a stat sheet (good and bad). Is there anybody comparable to him who's had success in MLB? That's the only thing that's holding me back. Otherwise, I love that combination of power, speed, and the position he plays. He has that horrible BB/K ratio, but he's good in every single other area. Dunston?

I have no idea what the Tapatalk crap is, but I hate it more every time I see it. Make it stop!