Sammy Sofa

It's not a slam dunk in and of itself, but it makes you wonder if the decline will continue, and where the point is when it will start to seriously impact his performance. He has proven he can pitch and not succeed solely though just blowing people away, but I don't think he's Greg Maddux, either. I think you'd have to see if last year was indicative of an actual downward trend before making the conclusion Tim is; 2008-2011 can hardly be called a steady decline.

*Weeps* Love that man.

Yep. This goes to what I've been repeating about pitchers going through a huge adjustment during their mid-late 20's. Here's Felix's average fastball velocity by year: 2007: 96.3 2008: 94.5 2009: 93.8 2010: 94.4 2011: 93.4 2012: 92.4 Disturbing trend for a guy you're handing out a seven year contract to, isn't it? If that's so cut and dry as you're trying so hard to make it seem then why did he actually get better in the middle of that? His strikeout rate has steadily increased, his walk rate has steadily decreased. Are you hinging this on the idea of him suffering a catastrophic injury/breakdown? Almost across the board he's actually improved as his velocity has gone down. xFIP's during that same period: 2007: 96.3 3.27 2008: 94.5 3.83 2009: 93.8 3.37 2010: 94.4 3.14 2011: 93.4 3.15 2012: 92.4 3.20 So, pretty much equally effective. He has been able to adjust to the loss of velocity so far. Will he be able to maintain that level of performance if the velocity drops down to 90? Are you willing to bet $175M on it? What if the velocity loss signals wear and tear that is the precursor of an injury? I'm all for spending money on star players and even overpaying for the right ones. But if I'm going to lock myself into seven year contracts, I'm doing it for hitters. Yes, with a pitcher this talented I'm willing to bet big money that this is more due to a pitcher (and ideally his coaches) realizing he doesn't have to blast past everyone to succeed. Nobody is thinking he's going to maintain the velocity he had when he started, but to present the decreasing top speeds on their own as if that's a slam dunk argument that he's cruising for a breakdown is as disingenuous as that list you posted on the previous page.

Yep. This goes to what I've been repeating about pitchers going through a huge adjustment during their mid-late 20's. Here's Felix's average fastball velocity by year: 2007: 96.3 2008: 94.5 2009: 93.8 2010: 94.4 2011: 93.4 2012: 92.4 Disturbing trend for a guy you're handing out a seven year contract to, isn't it? If that's so cut and dry as you're trying so hard to make it seem then why did he actually get better in the middle of that? His strikeout rate has steadily increased, his walk rate has steadily decreased. Are you hinging this on the idea of him suffering a catastrophic injury/breakdown? Almost across the board he's actually improved as his velocity has gone down.

Well, yeah:

http://images.wikia.com/glee/images/3/3e/Scared_troy_community.gif

That would be a terrible trade.

It's not like they can just flat-out lie about his health. It's one thing to prop up a player's performance or mechanics or attitude or whatever to try and entice a team; it's another to stupidly try and make something up that would just be exposed in the physical.

Not much, since someone has been saying that for years now.

You're called BeerHere.

Yeah, he really doesn't seem to have much use at this point, unfortunately. But [expletive] it; I'll always love the guy. I got to see him take one back in person and it's one of my favorite sports memories ever. This was it: *Siiiiiiiiiiiiigh*

I usually love trainwreck stuff like that, but it was too awkward to keep on. I bailed after about 15 minutes.

http://www.fangraphs.com/not/index.php/john-kruk-is-having-a-rough-morning/

Well, they cut away from the whole thing and went to the national feed early because he couldn't stop swearing. They had a delay going, but it couldn't keep up with him...the rest was just insane near-gibberish. He sounded like he'd be in tears one second and then rambling about how asking what playing Jordan was like was like asking what sex with your wife was like...and somethingsomething blacks and Jews somethingsomething.

Dennis Rodman is on that Lunch with a Legend thing on ESPN 1000 right now and it's insanely uncomfortably because he is insanely drunk/high out of his mind and just rambling about nothing and everything.

Ball State is balls nasty.

i think the walking bear is better, that looks like a raccoon Yuuuuuuuup. At least with the walking bear I can pretend he's about to do this: http://globalpunisherarmy.com/owned/polar.jpg

Neither was Murton, really.

GOOD CALL.

Durrr. Me read good. Marmol, you [expletive].

I'm inclined to always think the worst of athletes in these situations, but the accuser has a lawyer stating this and didn't file any criminal charges?

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/breaking/chi-carlos-marmol-chicago-cubs-abuse-20130131,0,6356945.story

Is your default position that most five star college players are paid off to go wherever they go? Honest question. Just trying to get a bearing on your opinion of college football recruiting. I just assume the worst when it comes to this kind of thing; I'm really not a fan of college sports at all and I've not been shy about that, and that's largely due to the widespread corruption and hypocrisy of it all.

So they paid him off six months ago.

Some of the print looks...weird. Look some areas are way too sharp/bold given the quality of the photo.