Tracer Bullet

Guy has 2 emmy awards. As a baseball analyst. Yet he only watches the games he's covering (he all but admits this weekly in his espn chats, rightly ridiculed at fjm). And he's brutal, just brutal, in both substance and delivery. If he were the analyst for some team with a local broadcast, whatever (I'm thinking a Dave Otto type). But he's on the biggest sports channel's biggest baseball broadcasts every week for 6 months a year, has weekly chats at the most-visited sports website, and wins awards for his performance. I don't hate him, personally, though my son is now old enough that I don't want him watching Sunday Night Baseball for fear that he might pick up on some of the things Joe says. I don't really care that he doesn't like Moneyball, but the fact that he ridicules it (when he doesn't even know what it's about) and still claims Billy Beane wrote it is stupid and pathetic.

This post is insane. The first paragraph is testosterone driven junk. Do you have anything on which to back this up? Any evidence of routine 130 pitch games in the good ol days or that having young pitchers throw tons of pitches would "build arm strength" - you know what would be great, if every high school pitcher pitched both ends of a double-header. That would certainly build arm strength, so they should be immune from abuse injuries in the future, right? The second paragraph (aimed at me) isn't much different. People will certainly criticize Lou. But many of the people that criticize Lou on this board aren't the ones that would say "you should leave Z out there for 130 pitches Lou, quit being a ninny."

I get so tired of this argument. If he pulls Z after 110 or so pitches and the reliever blew it, very few people on this board (outside of the game thread, where overreaction rules) are going to complain about taking Z out. We have 7 people in the pen, might as well use them. I mean, other than just Marmol and Wood.

I think his actual moves were pretty good, bordering on very good. DePodesta didn't quite realize when he was a GM that it was very risky to be so out of step with both the fans and ownership. I'm not shocked that he got fired whatsoever. He tried to move so quickly to rebuild an already pretty good team that he essentially put his own head on the chopping block if it went wrong, even if it were for just a year, and it did. If Depodesta wants to succeed, his best bet would be to go to a smaller market team that has been losing, and is willing to give him a little bit of a longer leash. I think he would do quite well in that position. I was actually impressed with his willingness to stick his neck out there and accept that if things went wrong for 1 year, the team would still be better off in the long run. I wasn't shocked he got fired. But it's funny to me that the year after he's fired, the team he basically put together did quite well. Then his replacement got some bad contracts (Pierre, Gonzalez) and blocked some young guys, and the team was mediocre. So he went out and made some more bad signings (Jones). Of course the fans are going to go nuts - you traded Lo Duca! But the owner should have a longer vision, but he strikes me as an idiot (at least with re to baseball). I don't think DePodesta is the greatest thing since sliced bread, but I think he could be very successful and made some good moves for the Dodgers. When he got fired way too soon, I was really hoping the Cubs would sign him. Now that Hendry's had some successful teams, I don't see him being fired any time soon.

The guy who has pitched 81 innings isn't eligible for you, but the guy with 34 IP is the winner?

There's a ton of research that indicates that platoon splits are real, predictive, and persistent for both hitters and pitchers. I fully endorse populating the roster with the best available players, but when it comes to bench players and bullpen pitchers, I've got no problem with Hendry adding lefties. By and large, non-starters are fungible commodities, so it makes sense to have a few players on the big league club that can take advantage of platoon splits. While that may be true, you have to use those splits correctly. I don't have confidence in Lou to look beyond matching up righties v lefties, when some people have the opposite split. I also am not convinced Lou really looks into it sufficiently, otherwise Reed Johnson would never see the field against a RHP. But really, if the choice is a good RHP against a righty or an average or worse LHP against a righty, I'll take the good RHP. Ascanio may not be good, but he wasn't bad enough to not be given a longer look to find out. And I don't think Cotts is good enough (despite his #s in AAA) that you HAVE to have him up right now.

I don't disagree with your first statement, but if you trade Soriano for Beltran, you put Murton in LF and see if you can still get over an .800 OPS. With Beltran's #s in CF and the rest of our team, that's not really a hole. And it's easier to find a LF than a CF if Murton doesn't work out.

then what are they paying him for? does he sit all day in the corner and just masturbate? my whole point was if this guy was such a shrewd talent evaluator, maybe they'd have acquired a decent player or two during his tenure. i wasn't much blaming anybody, i just said that team's roster is awful. jesus, i don't even care that much about the guy either way. what's with this weird allegiance anyways? His tenure has been two months as an assistant to the GM. This is why blaming the current roster failure on DePo is silly. The allegiance stems from a management exec that is open about his decision making process on a blog, and takes SABR stats into account in the decision making process. His article today on why the Padres just made a trade is fascinating, really. Cro Magnon is right on the timeframe. It has been almost 2 years, not 2 months that DePodesta has been at his post. But Towers is a pretty strong G.M. We just don't know what has happened in that office over the last 2 years. Maybe the two of them have agreed on mostly everything, and Depodesta has whiffed on a lot of players. However, maybe DePodesta tried to suggest some good players that Towers wouldn't devote the money to. I'm not what you exactly call a supporter of Depodesta, but I have a hard time blaming him when you simply don't know which decisions he was heavily involved in and which ones he wasn't. The same thing goes if the Padres have success; credit cannot be given to him for that. Unless it specifically comes out that he was involved, it will be hard to attribute anything the Padres do to Depodesta. I know this is a little off topic, but why aren't you a supporter of DePo? Are you saying you think he'd make a bad GM? I can understand if you think he's overrated by some, he probably is. But I'm curious what you mean by that. I didn't mean that I think he would be bad. I'm rather neutral on him. I'm not jumping for joy if he was hired as the general manager of the Cubs, but I would be optimistic for the team's future. So essentially all I was saying was that I'm not one of the ones on here who would normally jump in to defend his GM record just because they like him and his philosophy. Fair enough, but I think his GM record is pretty good (I also like his philosophy). You think his GM record needs defending?

then what are they paying him for? does he sit all day in the corner and just masturbate? my whole point was if this guy was such a shrewd talent evaluator, maybe they'd have acquired a decent player or two during his tenure. i wasn't much blaming anybody, i just said that team's roster is awful. jesus, i don't even care that much about the guy either way. what's with this weird allegiance anyways? His tenure has been two months as an assistant to the GM. This is why blaming the current roster failure on DePo is silly. The allegiance stems from a management exec that is open about his decision making process on a blog, and takes SABR stats into account in the decision making process. His article today on why the Padres just made a trade is fascinating, really. Cro Magnon is right on the timeframe. It has been almost 2 years, not 2 months that DePodesta has been at his post. But Towers is a pretty strong G.M. We just don't know what has happened in that office over the last 2 years. Maybe the two of them have agreed on mostly everything, and Depodesta has whiffed on a lot of players. However, maybe DePodesta tried to suggest some good players that Towers wouldn't devote the money to. I'm not what you exactly call a supporter of Depodesta, but I have a hard time blaming him when you simply don't know which decisions he was heavily involved in and which ones he wasn't. The same thing goes if the Padres have success; credit cannot be given to him for that. Unless it specifically comes out that he was involved, it will be hard to attribute anything the Padres do to Depodesta. I know this is a little off topic, but why aren't you a supporter of DePo? Are you saying you think he'd make a bad GM? I can understand if you think he's overrated by some, he probably is. But I'm curious what you mean by that.

SEC Freshman of the Year out of Ole Miss in....2001 I think. Was the Rockies 2nd round pick in 2004. He was also Eli Manning's backup QB at Ole Miss. Which is funny because Todd Helton was Peyton's backup at Tennessee for a while. Smith was also the guy that Papelbon (from Mississippi State) struck out to end the WS last year. Prior to the Fukudome acquisition, he was a guy I was hoping the Cubs would explore as a RF option. He's put up good numbers in the minors. Sorry i know this is off topic, but every time i see that name or read that word in a sentence it brings back really bad memories. We'll always have 2003. And most of 2005. and 2/3 of 2002 and 2004.

No, Papelbon struck him out to end THE World Series last year. It was just funny that it was a guy from MSU against a guy from Ole Miss. gotcha, my bad.

SEC Freshman of the Year out of Ole Miss in....2001 I think. Was the Rockies 2nd round pick in 2004. He was also Eli Manning's backup QB at Ole Miss. Which is funny because Todd Helton was Peyton's backup at Tennessee for a while. Smith was also the guy that Papelbon (from Mississippi State) struck out to end the WS last year. Freshman of the year in '01, drafted in '04, played in the CWS in '07?

then I traded him for a guy who promptly took a line-drive off the face. Only fair that Oswalt sucks now.

For some reason, I read the bolded as "flashing" which made me think "you have really bad eyesight."

Whether or not it's deflating doesn't really matter. You can't manage a roster without sending guys back to AAA from time to time. We aren't talking about some sort of franchise player here. He's a reliever. And the Cubs felt, somewhat justifiably, that they needed a left handed arm out there. That's your roster reason. Why does it matter what arm the guy throws with? I understand the Cubs' rationale, I just don't agree with it. I think it would make more sense to give Ascanio a longer look. Of course, I rarely get concerned with what hand a guy throws with or what side of the plate he hits from, whereas this seems to concern Mr. Hendry a great deal.

Soto is more deserving. It'd be a tough decision if only one could go... but if Marmol really is the best reliever in the NL, and Soto is even with McCann to be the best catcher in the NL... doesn't that indicate that Marmol should get the nod over Soto (again, with the understanding that only one could go)? Soto is more deserving than McCann. And the best C is more valuable than the best RP, in my opinion.

He has, but Ascanio has looked great ever since he has been up here. If it's not broke, don't fix it. 5 IP, 4 hits, 3 walks 3 strikeouts. Only 1 ER, but his numbers don't scream MUST KEEP! they also scream SHOCKINGLY SMALL SAMPLE SIZE. I don't really think it has a great impact (if any) on our chances of winning, but it does seem sort of pointless. Well yeah, but I was just refuting the notion that he's been great. Bottom line is no reason to get pissed about it. We agree there. I just don't like sending Ascanio down when he hasn't "earned" the demotion. If Hendry really doesn't believe that sending guys to AAA after a stint in the majors is deflating for them, he's fooling himself. If you don't need to do it (for performance or roster reasons), I'd prefer not to.

He has, but Ascanio has looked great ever since he has been up here. If it's not broke, don't fix it. 5 IP, 4 hits, 3 walks 3 strikeouts. Only 1 ER, but his numbers don't scream MUST KEEP! they also scream SHOCKINGLY SMALL SAMPLE SIZE. I don't really think it has a great impact (if any) on our chances of winning, but it does seem sort of pointless.

Soto is more deserving. He's the only position player on our team that deserves to start the ASG. (edit for poor wording) Aramis deserves a spot (but he won't get it). EDIT: I see now that you said start. Then yeah, you're right. My bad. Yeah, Ramirez should be there.

Soto is more deserving. He's the only position player on our team that deserves to start the ASG. (edit for poor wording)

What quote?

I have a ball with both Marshall's and Murton's autograph on it. I'd like at least one of them to have success. i have a ball somewhere at my parents with shawn estes and joe borowski's autographs on it. ill sell it for $2000 OBO I can top that. I have one with Dave Veres and Antonio Alfonseca. Hector Villanueva Jerome Williams, Corey Patterson, Mark Prior, Bobby Hill, Michael Barrett, GlenAllen Hill. If you're offering to trade, no. If you throw in a Luis Salazar, I'll consider it.

Are we seeing Kosuke in his prime? He's 31 and had surgery on his elbow (shoulder?) last year, right? I'm guessing Kosuke was even better at age 26-29 than he is now.

I'm sure it's different for each person, but I didn't hate Oakley like I hate Edmonds. Oakley was part of those Knicks teams, but he wasn't John Starks (who is the comparison I'd make to Edmonds).