sneakypower

a good cause, if i ever knew one http://www.change.org/petitions/the-detroit-lions-replace-nickelback-as-the-halftime-show-for-the-thanksgiving-game

Best has already been ruled out for this game

i'll never understand the superstar thing if his pitch selection and contact ability improve enough to approaching "just dreadful" levels, he can be José Hernández plus some steals; if not, he can become Ronny Cedeno

man, that was a snoozer of a game

damn.

there's been contact by the DBs all day, and not a single call going our way; real aggravating

you guys are awful

i hate to agree with Spielman, but these Gardner gimmicks are starting to infuriate me

you're daft, these guys just lost to Minnesota

i'm aware of that, but you have to wonder if a significant raise would change his mind, or maybe he's soured on closing some after having just put the final nail in his team's playoff chances this season

Beltre, Andrus, Kinsler, Moreland totaled +34 runs per UZR last season Ramirez, Castro, Barney, Pena totaled -12 runs, and we can't reasonably expect to be much better than average in IF defense next year unless Castro makes massive strides much of what makes CJ Wilson so attractive is his terrific GB rate, which wouldn't benefit him nearly as much here as it did in Texas; he'd certainly underperform his FIP by noticeable amounts signing Wilson at the price he's going to demand doesn't make much sense for us, and even much, much more so especially in conjunction with a Fielder or Ramirez signing

yup

I like the concept of converting the guy, but you'd have to figure 2012 would be an experimental year, limiting his innings and potentially piggybacking him with other pitchers. You'd be spending a lot of money on that experiment. He's only gone past 50 pitches three times in his career. What could you really expect out of him, 25 starts for 100 innings? Guys might prefer to be starters, but if you can make big time money as a reliever and have been a successful reliever for many years, I'm not sure there's enough incentive to take the risk. i'm not so sure about that; Texas has done a great job of this recently, with Ogando jumping from 41 to 169 IP and Wilson jumping from 73 to 204 with no ill effects - the conventional wisdom that pitchers need to be gradually eased into the role of a full-time starter seems to be becoming outdated

on the topic of relievers, i had a somewhat asinine idea looking through the FA stats: sign Papelbon to be a starter you have to figure he's going to max out at about $11M AAV in this closer-rich FA market. could he be bought out of closing (3 years, $47M)? he's got relatively little wear on his arm, is just 30, with his pitches he profiles similar to Rich Harden (bad health aside) and his stats are sensational: 12.17 K/9, 1.40 BB/9 (this season). he could be even better than CJ Wilson at a fraction of the cost like i said, it's probably a terrible idea, but it's still got me wondering a little bit. if the experiment totally failed somehow, you're still just left overpaying your closer by a couple million bucks

You are expecting a lot of .822 OPS seasons out of Jackson? MiLB career: Brett Jackson (20-22) - .884 OPS Nick Swisher (21-23) - .857 OPS

Other stats for Wood are pretty bad. ERA+ is only another version of looking at his ERA, not great. Fangraphs have him worth less than his contract. He's way down the list of relievers and was not pretty darn good. And Pena's decent season doesn't not equate to excellence. WAR and the dollar value that it assigns undervalues late-inning relievers. It's not a good metric to use for them. What other stats of Wood's are pretty bad? He struck out a ton of guys, gave up an average amount of home runs, and walked a few too many. right, WAR looks at relievers like every other player from a purely runs standpoint, which is flawed in trying to assign value to them in my opinion Tyler Clippard had the 2nd highest WPA amongst all pitchers, behind only Verlander; i don't think we really know of a good way to place value on RPs yet

Brett Jackson probably can't hit enough to justify a corner spot. maybe on a .500 team by this stupid (outdated) illogic, the team with the best record in the AL has two corner OFs who can't hit enough to justify a corner spot

1 - What's their profile of a CF? Jackson probably lags behind defensively what they want if that's what you're thinking, and I can agree with that. That said, they have very rangy OF guys with Jennings out there in LF and possibly Guyer out there in RF next year. 2 - The answer to your question is that trading Jackson does not make or break that ultra vague "build from within" plan, Jackson is pretty mid-range for a top prospect, and there are alot of guys who came from within the farm system that are now useable players here. Soto, Barney, the bullpen, and then one of the best young SSs in baseball sounds like within to me. It's such a vague and general description that it's possible to include trading away Cubs' prospects and players for better players when possible in the "build from within" category, isn't it? It's using what they have already to get what they don't have but want. Despite Tampa's supposed MO under Friedman, they are one of the more toolsy organizations in MLB. Jackson isn't athletic enough for what they look for in a CF. Joyce will out there in RF. The Cubs are in a rebuilding mode and while Tampa could very well unload Upton one year early rather than one year late, I still wonder why the Cubs would want to trade for another CF'er beyond valuing Upton more than Jackson (which on the surface, makes sense as Jackson likely won't duplicate Upton's ceiling). That includes factoring some of Upton's numbers falling short of expectations. CFs are allowed to play corner OF positions, too- it happens pretty often now

oh god, please please please don't invite him to make more posts

Gordon as of opening day 2011: 27 years old, career .244/.328/.405 Stewart as of opening day 2012: 27 years old, career .236/.323/.428

man, i was hoping against hope for like three years that we'd be able somehow to steal Gordon from the Royals, the countless times they had tired of his perceived failings

you must note he was a deplorable 2B and a bad OF, giving back 8 runs alone in his poor fielding at those spots (to say nothing of positional adjustments) assuming he had only played at his natural position, where he's been a plus fielder, he'd have been comfortably over 4 WAR in roughly 2 full seasons worth of PA to date

there's also Arenado, who's probably considered the long-term answer if they don't involve him in a trade for Wright (who then would be the answer there) there's red flags with Stewart, but playing it safe gets us nowhere; we lost 91 games last year and we'll need to take some gambles to right the ship - Stewart would have very little downside because he comes with such little cost, and immense potential upside for cost efficiency there were similarly flags with Cameron Maybin and Franklin Morales, for example, and i'm excited for co-GMs who have shown the willingness and foresight to capitalize on other GMs' impatience

Without putting much time into it, Ramirez: 2.5 WAR Baker full-time: 0 WAR Best available $2M stopgap (Betemit/Cairo/Hairston/Chavez): 1.0 WAR i hate all three of these options (well, Ramirez, much less so) the correct answer is signing Ian Stewart and getting 2-3 WAR for $4M(ish) -or- trading (McNutt? Vitters? Szczur?) for Headley and getting 3-4 WAR for $3M

source? is it just Dave Telep's post or something more concrete? edit: now i see the tweet from Clint Jackson (Rivals.com’s Duke, North Carolina and ACC Insider): http://www.umhoops.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/image_thumb.png SO [expletive]ing exciting if this happens; i'll start building a shrine for Beilein to go next to my ones for Mayhew and eventually Theo