sneakypower

this is good thinking i mean, the Teixeira and Sabathia contracts have just killed the Yankees

First Impressions - Bills @ Bears

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/blog/shutdown_corner/post/Ndamukong-Suh-learns-that-Andy-Dalton-8217-s-he?urn=nfl-wp5035

7-9 (record)

right now Castro's on pace right now for 217 hits, a mark that's been reached in the NL only once in the last 13 years ('04 - Pierre)

for those that love power rankings http://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2011/08/11/pre-preseason-power-rankings/

Lions broadcaster Rob Rubick, after a personal foul penalty call on Suh: "You cannot pick up the quarterback and try to body-slam him. This is not the 1950's."

huh, you don't say

Reyes is the most analogous example amongst those guys, and his previous best season was .841 and he's still liable to finish the year much closer to that mark than .900

ESPN's grade: I'm amused that Aromashadu is a key loss, but Manning gets no mention. i'm amused that he thinks Marinelli is exceptional at anything, besides sounding like a jackass when he speaks

i realize that, but you're shining more light on how it's incredibly unlikely for Castro to do that the (15) players with an OPS between .875 and .925 collectively average BB% of 10.18%, ISOs of .214 and BABIPs of .325 Castro's at 4.1% , .120, and .350, respectively; he's got a ton of progressing to do, and i'd love for it to happen - just doesn't seem like a safe bet

don't you think that hurts your argument?

please then tell me how you expect that's going to happen

he's got a .767 OPS now with a lofty .350 babip even assuming he could keep his huge 2Bs and 3Bs totals the same as they are now, if on top of that he tripled his HR rate and doubled his walk rate and still hit .330, he'd be hovering around .880 i can't even dream of any possible scenario where he'll ever reach .900

PFF's Free Agency Grades

Completely agree. If he can get his SLG up over .450 this year and closer to .500 in the future, you're talking about a perennial all-star and MVP candidate. he'd also need to drastically improve his defense to warrant mentioning as an MVP candidate

Szczur hit as many HR in fewer than 300 A-ball PA alone, as Revere hit in 1654 PA during his milb career so, no

and that makes sense the low total of sacks the OL gave up becomes more impressive when you take Drew Stanton's mental retardation into account whilst on the topic of pass blocking, PFF rated Omiyale and Webb 4th- and 1st-worst at their positions and Williams and Garza 8th- and 17th-worst (amongst all guards). Kreutz ranked 9th-best for centers, however

Football Outsiders ranks McNabb, Hill, Henne ahead of him last year. FO counts sacks as passes. Which obviously is a big hindrance for Jay, given the OL. Okay but Detroit's pass protection was worse (last in the league) and Washington's was only 5 spots ahead of the Bears. that's moronic and indisputably wrong i'd definitely buy our run blocking being amongst the worst, but pass pro was actually a relative strength from an offensive line standpoint

who's being racist?

That's a blockbuster. Interesting trade. i'm pretty thrilled about it. kolb wasn't going to play, so we basically got a second round pick and a CB who made the pro bowl in 2009 for nothing. I think it was an obviously great trade for Philly, but Vick isn't invincible... didnt he miss a good amount of time last year with a broken shoulder? Any other injuries? Now your backup is Vince Young, arguably much worse than Kolb. I guess what I'm saying is, saying that you got those things "for nothing" is not quite the truth. And now I sit back and hope that Vick goes down before playoffs and Young blows it in the NFC title game vs. the Cards. :wink: i'd argue VY is the perfect backup for Vick, in that now they won't have to adjust their offensive gameplan much even if he misses time

Yup. Was going to bring that up, too. He's not walking because he's swinging at a ton more crap. Maybe he's pressing to get a big contract, but the dude is swinging at more junk than ever before. "A ton" in this case = 0.7% more than last year. that's a bit of a dishonest way of framing it yes, he's swung at 28.2% of pitches outside the zone this year compared to 27.5% last year, which isn't a big deal until you realize his previous worst rate was just 22.9% (the year before) and that his career average is 20.8% PleasewinCubs' statement about Pujols swinging at more crap is very defensible, and makes his low BABIP look like less of a fluke; still, it's pretty rash to discount him altogether based solely on this His entire argument has been about Pujols being different this year, so unless he was ranting about him last year it's not super relevant. Yes, Pujols has swung at more out of the zone the last two years, but I'm not sure how that points towards a declining skillset(especially since he's getting better at making contact with those pitches). If anything, that would make me wonder if something external was driving that jump, be it hitting coach or run environment. Anyone know where to find those swing% numbers league-wide? i think the FG Show Averages link under plate discipline shows that (edit: looks like it does - it's the same for each player page) http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=1177&position=1B#platediscipline if that's correct, league-wide O-Swing% has in fact increased the last two years, by a substantial margin: 30.1% and 29.3% after hovering right around 25% the previous four years hadn't really considered it, and i wonder what would cause that effect

Yup. Was going to bring that up, too. He's not walking because he's swinging at a ton more crap. Maybe he's pressing to get a big contract, but the dude is swinging at more junk than ever before. "A ton" in this case = 0.7% more than last year. that's a bit of a dishonest way of framing it yes, he's swung at 28.2% of pitches outside the zone this year compared to 27.5% last year, which isn't a big deal until you realize his previous worst rate was just 22.9% (the year before) and that his career average is 20.8% PleasewinCubs' statement about Pujols swinging at more crap is very defensible, and makes his low BABIP look like less of a fluke; still, it's pretty rash to discount him altogether based solely on this

re the Eagles, i don't think people appreciate how bad they're going to be at trying to stop the run. aside from Cole and Fokou, the whole defense is comprised of guys who are bad-to-awful in that area, including the two worst run defending CBs in football and they lost one of the best in the box safeties in the league and just traded away a premier run stopping DT they'll be impossible to throw against, but i really expect physical teams to dominate their defense for stretches

two Bears DL who are polar opposites in tackling prowess