Tracer Bullet

Anyone seen the episode of Scrubs when Turk asks Carla to marry him and Elliot says to her "now you only have to have sex when you really want to"? Just sayin

Neifi was a demigod with a bat for almost a solid month. Yuck. Really? I don't remember that. I still stand by my opinion, however that Neifi was a decent 25th man. The problem was that he was used more that a 25th man should be used. I disagree. I think his defense is overvalued at SS (I watched this year when he was filling in for Guillen at SS - yikes) and he's a relative 0 with the bat. He's not fast anymore (if he ever was - I don't know). There's nothing that Neifi brings that a relative non-prospect, young, cheap MI couldn't do for you.

fixed

BTW - unless you're pandering to the female posters, I don't even know why "freakishly often" is an option. There's no such thing.

+1

Which are?

That sucks, but he should only get compensation if he gives up all the stats he got from Braun for the past month. If it's a H2H league, you're probably not going to go back and delete Braun's stats from his team and refigure the results of those matchups, or in roto, reduce his totals for the year by what he got from Braun. So he got a benefit for the last month or so that he shouldn't have received. If you give him compensation on top of that, it's a windfall for him. My question is - where was the team that drafted Braun during all of this? If I had the rights to a prospect like Braun on my team and saw that another team had signed him as a FA, I'd have been all over it within minutes of finding out (emailing the commish or the league, posting a message on the league board, etc). How did this take a month to come to light? If it were up to me, I'd apologize to the guy if he made moves based on thinking Braun was available, but tell him the stats he got from Braun that he wasn't entitled to are more than fair compensation.

Ok, but the last time he went PAST the fifth inning was May 24th. Which tells me that's he's been sucking. Last three starts he has pitched 5 1/3, 5, and 5 2/3. so he has actually pitched past the 5th inning twice in his last three starts. I think Balsa meant past the sixth inning. Otherwise, Balsa's statement and Bruno's statement couldn't both possibly be true. I think Balsa was just pointing out that though Marquis has only failed to pitch at least 5 inning in 1 start (and that was a really bad one), he's hasn't pitched 6 complete innings (or more) since May 24. Point being - if you arbitrarily pick 5 IP as the standard, he's only failed to make it that far once. But, if you arbitrarily pick "more than 6.0 IP" as the standard, he's failed more often than not - in fact, he's only pitched more than 6.0 IP on 5 occasions and only once in his last 9 starts.

Actually a couple weeks ago, when we last had the "Soriano shouldn't be leading off" debate, Jon had some great posts that showed that the stats don't prove anything about whether he should lead off. He's been very up and down throughout his career. i thought the stats showed that, except for one season, his numbers as a leadoff hitter were significantly better than the other spots in the batting order. maybe you're right though. 2001 I don't have figures for No, you're right. 2002 he didn't have enough at-bats in any other slot to really count (I'm counting 35 AB's as a decent sample). 2003 he was much better at leadoff than at 3rd 2004 he was much better at leadoff than batting 3rd or 5th 2005 he was best at 5th, then leadoff, then 4th 2006 he was much better at leadoff than batting 4th 2007 he doesn't have enough of a sample (although he has 28 AB's and was almost 400 points lower at the 3 spot than leadoff, so he would have to be unbelievable at the 3 spot later in the year to possibly catch leadoff). Add to that from 2002-2007, Soriano has had 4 years above an 850 OPS, and 2 years below. The 4 years he had an 850 or above were all batting leadoff primarily, and the 2 years he didn't he batted primarily lower in the order. There are possible other explanations for this (something else in Texas may have caused it, since there isn't a year where Soriano batted leadoff in Texas), but the fact that Texas is a great hitters park and Soriano was batting around great hitters lessens the chance that it was another factor. I don't have time to find the posts, but Jon displayed the stats in a neat little fashion. Made it pretty clear that if you really look at them, they don't "prove" anything and they probably don't even suggest that he's better in the lead off role. Regardless, I don't believe that the psych effect of leading off makes him a better hitter.

Actually a couple weeks ago, when we last had the "Soriano shouldn't be leading off" debate, Jon had some great posts that showed that the stats don't prove anything about whether he should lead off. He's been very up and down throughout his career.

Or a number two hitter... or 3, where he is and perfect He lacks the power that is usually preferred in a number three hitter. This is fantastic. Lee lacks the power to hit 3rd, so you think he should hit 2nd. But you don't think we should move Soriano from the leadoff spot, even though he has 40-HR power. So your lineup is Soriano, Lee, ______, ARam...

Fixed. Look, I really like The Riot. I wish he were the fantastic, .400-OBP type guy you seem to think he is. He's one of the guys I like most on this team, and that's not something I say much about a person having a season as bad as he is. But he really is not that great. He shouldn't be playing everyday and he definitely shouldn't be leading off. So he slumped, everyone does. The last two starts he did well and the one before that he pulled off a difficult squeeze to give the Cubs the win. End argument. You're pretty new here to be throwing around "period" and "end argument" as if your opinions are the only valid ones (b/c that's what they are - opinions) - especially when the argument is whether Theriot should be hitting 1st. I like Theriot and it'd be great if he could play ML SS and OBP .400, but I don't think that's the case (his MiLB numbers don't support such a claim at all). I don't know where you get off saying that there should be no argument about his ability to hit at this level b/c if anything, there's no argument about his inability to hit at this level (I'm not saying that's true either, but if it's one or the other, the evidence weighs against him).

I'm not a fan of Soriano leading off. I'd prefer to use his power later in the order b/c I do feel it's wasted in the #1 spot (Andy - you're not really arguing that we should have him hit first so that the 20% or so of the time that one of the 8 or 9 hitters is on base, he can drive them in, are you?). I can understand the arguments for hitting him lead off and heading into the season, when I thought DLee would be a good source of power and Barrett might come close to last season's power #s, I was ok with it. But Aram has been hurt, DLee has shown very little power, and Barrett is gone (after not nearly matching his power from last year). We just don't have a lot of threats in the heart of our order (and Floyd is not threatening). I agree that we don't have a great lead off hitter on the team if we moved Soriano down, but it's not like Soriano is a great lead off hitter either (no more so than DLee would be with his .400-ish OBP). I'd still prefer to put a guy like Murton first, & as of now, I'd put DLee second. Soriano 3rd and ARam 4. I suppose as long as Fontenot is hot, you could slide him into 2nd and move the other 3 down a spot or something. But right now, we're wasting one of our best power hitters b/c no one is ever on base when he comes up. And we don't have a lot of power to waste.

No it's not a joke. If you could pick any 5 players in the game, one of them would be Theriot? Holy crap. With that sort of raging man love, I'd think your name would be "theriot1" or "ryan4ever"

I like the idea of trading him to Detroit or some other team that needs bullpen help. He's a "proven closer" to some extent and could be dealt now (after he's been back for a little while) for real value.

I'd prefer Dempster to, you know, another team.

Good question. I'm wondering how anyone in a 12-team league has ARod, Pujols, and Vlad, who went in the top 6 in every single league I was in this year.

Cream-colored suit? I guess that's fine if you want to blend in, but I want a first round pick to make a statement with his fashion choices...

oh for crying out loud....did you even read the article. Yes, absolutely. He makes a point to note that the Cubs waited until Barret's value was at his lowest to trade him, which is completely a hindsight argument. In the offseason, when his value was high, there was no need or desire to trade him. Trading him at his highest value wasn't in anyone's thoughts. So its a nonsensical argument. The other notable names in his article (aside from Sosa) are people who have bounced around baseball, playing for numerous teams, and not sticking with any of them for more than 2 years. How much value do these career journeyman have anyway? Has any team received real value in trading for guys like Walker or Bellhorn? Actually, sometime around the end of last season, the poster formerly known as goony and I had an argument over whether trading Barrett at that point was a good idea. Unfortunately for me, I argued that they shouldn't trade him b/c I thought he had another couple good seasons in him (he still might, but it doesn't look great for my side right now).

But a closer?

Santana Utley Mauer Verlander Murton Kidding. Make Wright my last pick.

I'm pretty sure your search could start and end with the Dodgers again.

I've wanted DePo to be our GM ever since the Dodgers fired him (idiots). I'd flip out if he were hired to replace Hendry. A man can dream...

Thats ridiculous. 6-4 4.03 1.10 8-4 3.66 1.23 Guess whos Maddux and which is Lilly. Marquis numbers are comparable to Maddux, but that is only because of how dominant he started the season. Hes been a completely different type of pitcher since his first 4-5 starts. And Hills numbers are pretty comparable to Maddux. ERA+ 111 (Maddux) 108 (Lilly) 126 (Marquis) 139 (Hill) Disclaimer - Marquis should be nowhere near the ASG. He was great for 2 months, but then the real Jason Marquis showed up in June. 5 starts: 1.70 WHIP, 5.09 ERA, .269 BAA. Frankly, his May starts were half good/great and half terrible. And the good ones were against Pit (2) and SD (1), so I wouldn't want to see what the AL studs could do to him. Hill's been great, but his W total will kill him. As between Lilly and Maddux, I think it's a toss up.