Tracer Bullet

The suspense was killing me, so I went to try to find out who these guys are (I was secretly hoping Marquis had a 1.222 OPS and that I had guessed right). I looked at player stats on Y! back to 2002 and couldn't find anyone with exactly a 1.222 or 1.024 OPS in any year. Guess I'll have to wait for the big reveal...

I love these exercises. I have no idea who these guys are, but I'm sure A is like Neifi and B is Manny or something and I'll say A and then I'm supposed to feel like an idiot b/c I said Neifi was a better player than Manny (of course, I won't feel like an idiot, but whatever). I'll play along. Given the stats you've put up there, I give the nod to Player B, by a pretty good margin. The 100 point difference in each of OBP and SLG, not to mention 22 points of OPS+, makes it an easy choice for me. Now you're going to tell me that Player B is Jason Marquis and I'm an idiot, right?

Football and baseball are too different to use that analogy. Every pass requires two teammates to do their job (to a certain degree - you could throw a bad pass that's still completed). Every AB is an individual battle between the pitcher and the hitter (I don't really buy into the claim some make that runners on base distract the pitcher or whatever). In baseball, you can do a pretty good job of eliminating stats that are team dependent and only evaluate players based on things within their control. ABs don't happen in a vacuum, but why should batters be evaluated based on things that are outside of their control when they don't have to be?

Not. Even. Close. Do more periods constitute more emphasis? I don't understand this style. Neither. Do. I. its an attempt to convey tone of voice in print. Short, staccato, emphasized words. Possibly condescending tone. Not. That. New. I understand what it's attempting to do. I just don't understand it's use b/c it doesn't seem that effective. When you read "Not. Even. Close." is it really any more persuasive or emphatic than "not even close." And by "not that new" I assume you mean, "totally overused" b/c what's his name that got canned at espn.com (Daily Quickie writer) beat it to death and others seem to have adopted it after having seen it there.

Vlad signed when Sosa was still great. Alou is the player that kept the Cubs from going after Vlad. They were paying Moises big money and he was coming off a mediocre year which followed a crap year. That's right -- my memory was off... its still annoying that an impact FA like Vlad hit the market and the Cubs seemed completely uninterested. Alou did have a fantastic '04, but thats still not enough to get over missing out on Vlad. It was Beltran the Cubs passed on because they still had Sosa. Which turned out to work out just fine for us. CF has been a real strength for the Cubs and Beltran has become one of the worst players in baseball. [believing things like this is the only way I can sleep at night]

I agree on Bonds - he's clearly #1 if he wasn't sitting so much. Heck, by the end of the year, he may be #1 even though he sat so much. Ridiculous season.

That's only if you use the old school way of judging production, by R and RBI. R and RBI are team and teammate dependant. They don't show as much of what the player did than as much as what the team is doing. The only thing the player can control is his own production, which is measured much more effectively in AVG/OBP/SGL terms than in counting R and RBI. i guess my definition of "production" and yours are different. To me, it doesn't matter if you're OPS'ing 1.200 if you aren't generating runs (by either scoring them or knocking them in). As I said, the higher OPS player is more likely to create runs in the future, but that wasn't the question of the poll. With the question being "who was the MVP of the first quarter", who would you say was more valuable, a guy who has 40 runs, 50 RBI, and an OPS of .850, or a guy with 20 runs, 25 RBI and an OPS of 1.080 The guy with the 1.080 OPS. The guy with 40 runs and 50 RBI either played in a better lineup, hit in a better spot (say 3rd, rather than 6th), or was very lucky (high AVG with RISP or something). But the guy with the 1.000+ OPS played better that year, which I think is important when you're giving out an award for the guy that played the best. so you'd take an 1.080 OPS guy who isn't actually adding much to the runs on the board over an .800 one who is? This is asninine Um...asinine? Wow. I'll tell you what's asinine. Rewarding players individually for being surrounded by other good players. Using your logic, in 2005, Andruw Jones was at least as valuable, if not more so, than DLee. Jones had a .347/.575/.922 line, but scored 95 R and drove in 128. Lee had a 1.080 OPS, scored 120, but only drove in 107. He's a #3 hitter, so his job is more to drive them in than score them himself. So because Lee had a combination of CPatt, Neifi, etc hitting in front of him, he's less valuable. As if he wouldn't have led the league in RBI by quite some distance if he were on the Braves that year. Don't use this logic and then call me asinine.

I agree that a high AVG with RISP is luck, but when voting for MVP, I think it has to be taken into consideration. For example, Hanley Ramirez is hitting .420 with the bases empty and .160 with runners on. While it will probably even out over the course of his career, during the first quarter of this season he has been a poor hitter in more important situations, and that's a big reason that he only has 9 RBI. All other things equal, a guy who hit better in the clutch should win the award over a guy who didn't hit as well, even though in the long run, it's just luck that will even out. That's why they don't give out MVP's based on 6-8 weeks. 50 ABs with RISP shouldn't determine anything, if you ask me.

Lowell shouldn't be a FA in any league. Drop Lopez for him, like now. I'd keep Konerko b/c he's started slow in the past (as others have said). That said, I'd also want 1 (if not all 3) of those FA OFs. But I'm not sure what to do about that. KJ probably won't play this well all year, but I don't think you have another guy to play at 2B.

If he was being moved to starter b/c he was so good in the pen that they wanted to maximize his innings, I'd agree with you. But when you get moved from one job to another b/c your boss thinks you're not very good at your current job, I wouldn't consider it a promotion. Even if you get more customer contact or something, you're still being moved b/c your boss thinks you're costing the company business (or, in this case, games).

Are we sure Dempster is still closing? Did we ever get a definitive answer on that?

Not. Even. Close. Do more periods constitute more emphasis? I don't understand this style.

If that's the best we can say about a guy, we shouldn't miss him too much.

That's only if you use the old school way of judging production, by R and RBI. R and RBI are team and teammate dependant. They don't show as much of what the player did than as much as what the team is doing. The only thing the player can control is his own production, which is measured much more effectively in AVG/OBP/SGL terms than in counting R and RBI. i guess my definition of "production" and yours are different. To me, it doesn't matter if you're OPS'ing 1.200 if you aren't generating runs (by either scoring them or knocking them in). As I said, the higher OPS player is more likely to create runs in the future, but that wasn't the question of the poll. With the question being "who was the MVP of the first quarter", who would you say was more valuable, a guy who has 40 runs, 50 RBI, and an OPS of .850, or a guy with 20 runs, 25 RBI and an OPS of 1.080 The guy with the 1.080 OPS. The guy with 40 runs and 50 RBI either played in a better lineup, hit in a better spot (say 3rd, rather than 6th), or was very lucky (high AVG with RISP or something). But the guy with the 1.000+ OPS played better that year, which I think is important when you're giving out an award for the guy that played the best.

if by highest SLG of the group, you mean 3rd highest behind A-Rod and Maggs, then yes I meant highest OBP and OPS.

I went with ARod b/c I meant to vote for Vlad, clicked the wrong button and hit Submit before I noticed it. Vlad seems like the pretty obvious choice. Highest OBP and highest SLG of the group. BTW - Posada has no business having a 1.058 OPS. That's ridiculous.

The key word there is simple. You are judging the two based on how their teammates have played around them, as opposed to how they have done themselves. Exactly. It's a near 70 point difference in OPS, and was even more with the numbers used in the poll. Hardy's not even on the same plane. Bonds is a step above everybody, but he's on pace to have about 100 less PA's, so that's why I didn't go with him. the question for the poll, however, is who was the MVP of the first quarter. Despite the lower OPS, Hardy OUTPRODUCED Chipper. Now, Chipper's OPS would indicate that he should have better numbers over the long haul, but I don't care how many more doubles or walks he has, he simply hasn't contributed as much to his team's offense as Hardy has I think you could pretty easily argue that Hardy's teammates outproduced Chipper's teammates. Chipper's OPS doesn't indicate that he should have better numbers. It indicates he had a higher combination of OBP and SLG - which is significantly more important in comparing two players than R and RBI.

I went with Ramirez and I'm glad there's some statistical support that I didn't have to find myself. I was a little shocked that I was the only one to have voted for him. The .953 OPS (including over .400 OBP) with 9 HR and 15 SBs (though I hate to rely on SBs) is a pretty lethal combo.

See, I think that is the biggest criticism of Lou. We busted on Dusty for being a status quo guy to a fault I'll take a guy with guts and a proven track record of getting the most out of his players. Like Lou He needs to tinker BECAUSE 1) guys are not being consistent (he realizes that is a catch 22, some guys need consistent PT to get consistent and 2) he was given too many mediocre/high priced/high potential guys to play with. I wish he had FEWER pieces to move around (namely, Jones and Floyd, frinstance). Do you really think he will tinker the whole year? No, guys have to step up and take what is being offered. And because Lou has b*lls he will stick with them. In the end, I blame management for the team they put together more than I blame Lou. I loved the fact that they spent money, I was/am not so thrilled what they spent it on. I certainly blame Hendry for this mess. But I don't think Lou is getting the most out of things. I'm not Dempster fan (whether as closer or otherwise), but he's basically gotten the job done this year, except for that one terrible inning. So he might lose his job b/c of that one inning? It's the same with the offensive players. It's like - Murton goes 0/4 one game, so he gets benched against the next guy. Floyd goes 3/4, he gets another start. Goes 0/3 with 2 Ks, he's on the bench. You can't base your decisions on the last game, especially when you have years worth of info to assist you. If you want to take Dempster out of the closer role b/c he was bad last year, has only been good 1 year, and has a bad history as a starter - fine. But if you take him out b/c he had 1 bad inning, that's stupid. And it really seems like Lou uses the last game, or maybe the last few games, to decide who should play. That just bugs me. Playing the hot hand is a great way to screw with a team.

Lee's already filling that role. Does ARam have the mental make up to be a closer?

Not a bad idea, but try Murton instead and it might get done. Murton for a middle reliever? Is this a joke?

Rosie O'Donnell? Where do you come up with this?

We have a good manager and have talent....You know what, I don't know what to say. Our offense comes through today and our bullpen (Dempster-Eyre) faulter. We just find ways to lose. I can't explain it. On paper the Stats should balance out to at least a .500 team, but we aren't. We do not have a good manager.

I don't really have a "boss" per se, but I like the person that I work with most often.

Wasn't Walker released a few days ago? Or did they just DFA him a few days ago.