goonys evil twin

I would have killed to have a GM comes anywhere close to the results Beane has had with the A's. What he has done with that situation is pretty amazing, especially when you compare it to the crap people like Hendry do with twice the resources. It's baffling to me how Cubs fans can look at Beane and say he really hasn't done anything as a GM, and especially to pretend that he's got it so much easier over there. Cubs fans are notoriously receptive to losing. They went bonkers in celebration of such meaningless crap as a wild card victory (98) and back to back .500 seasons. Beane would have Cubs fans eating out of his hand if he got the team to accomplish 25% of what the A's have done under his watch. His worst season the past 6 years resulted in 88 wins. Most Cubs fans were ready to give Hendry their first born for that total. 5 straight 90+ win totals? Are you kidding me? Do you know how he'd be treated in Chicago for that accomplishment? I can only laugh when Cubs fans try to pretend Beane isn't anything to write home about as a GM.

In a way this is true, but in another way, Dusty wanted those players. Dusty wanted speed and defense and bunting and all that jazz. He got what he asked for, and now he's surprised he can't win.

I don't see how Walker is a pure OBP play, but Beane has gone after lots of OBP-centric players. He can't go after all of them. He has stayed away from bigtime OBP guys in recent years because they have been earning more and more money as the rest of the league started realizing the value of OBP. Beane isn't an OBP fiend, he's an efficiency fiend.

I really wish Cubs fans would be a little more patient with a guy who has a half season of ML before making a determination that he is best utilized as a platoon player. people should stop calling for running good players out of town or out of the lineup for the sake of the here and now. one little adjustment and the guy will be a masher. give him a little time, some good coaching, rely on getting corner outfield production from your catcher, and let the kid play and develop. if he has the same numbers at this point of next year or the year after, fine. until then, let the guy keep getting on base at a good clip and develop his power. I think it will take more than one little adjustment for him to be a masher. And I'm nowhere near convinced he could ever be a true masher. Acceptable leftfielder? Sure. An efficient use of team resources? Definitely. I have no problem with Murton as the starting LF, but your other OF have to be much more productive than the current crop, and more importantly, the rest of your lineup has to produce much more. I'd prefer a lineup with a stud RF and never a guy like Neifi starting, not to mention an adaquate CF. Then you can fit Murton in just fine. But when your lineup is as bad as the Cubs, and it has been as bad as the Cubs' lineup has been for so long, you would be much better off platooning a guy like Murton unless you found much greater production elsewhere.

Not making outs/high OBP is ideal for all spots in the lineup. And speed shouldn't even be mentioned in the same sentence as power. It's a great tool that can be pretty useful when used correctly, but it doesn't come that close in importance to being able to rack up extra base hits. In what way has Beane been exposed? His team is in first place with a bottom third payroll (below every team in the division). The Mets are doing it right because they can go out and spend spend spend. Oakland has to be efficient, which is where the true genius of Beane lies. Bigger market teams can take risk and be less efficient by spending on extras. But Beane has had to get by on the bare essentials, and he's absolutely blown away teams like the Mets and Cubs in terms of stable winning over the past several years.

That's probably not true--or even close--but I'm way too lazy to actually look it up. Boston 2004 had Cabrera and Mientkewicz but everyone else was average or worse defensively Bill Mueller was solid at 3b, Trot Nixon was solid in RF, Varitek solid behind the plate, Damon was average in CF. So that was a pretty solid defense. I've heard nothing about Trot Nixon being solid, unless by solid you just mean average at best, which doesn't really say much for the claim that nobody has won without a solid defense.

I was thinking the same thing. It's a 4 team division and he hardly mentioned the Bears. How hard can that be?

then look at both sides of the SABR / traditional debate with a critical eye. I completely agree that traditional anaylsis deserves more critique, but I don't think you have ever said anything critical about any SABR notion or study. you seem to lap up every dish of "traditional is wrong" that is put in front of you, without looking to see if you're eatting horse meat. Nice to see more of that "seem to" crap floating around. Puts a great emphasis on your point.

Because you insulted everybody and then said they must have been at the gay games, drawing a clear connection between the people you are so passionately disgusted with and gay people.

And exercising.

Ignorant bigot.

You made an absurd accusation. I'm pro "learning about the game". I'm not a sabr guy myself, but I've learned a lot from them, a lot more than I've learned from the traditional experts that have poisoned the minds of many followers of the game for years with lies.

Why? The only time I think overpaying makes sense is when you are getting back a pre-prime stud (Cabrera). And who says you have to overpay for Freel, his GM doesn't seem to want full value for his players.

Why? He's awful. Fans should beg to never have to see players like him anywhere near the team.

That's freaking absurd. Your anti-sabr bias completely clouds your ability to have a rational conversation. If you insist on making asinine claims such as this, then there is nowhere else to go with this and any other conversation. A lot of what these guys try to do is to find and exploit inefficiencies in the market.

The problem with his OBP is that it's low and he doesn't offset it with any kind of power. I don't care where he bats. People who insist that he has to be a leadoff hitter because of his speed have a seperate agenda that has nothing to do with simply fielding the best possible 8 position players in order to create the best chance to win. If Pierre hit for a lot more power than his mediocre OBP would be a little more acceptable. His speed doesn't even come close to offsetting the negatives related to his lack of production. With all that speed, he's still not a productive offensive players (and his defense sucks as well).

I agree. Cruz Jr. is a creative platoon option for Jones, but what's the point of him and Wilson? I'd rather start Wilson in left and platoon Murton with Jones. Use the Maddux deal to acquire somebody with a bit of a future. I'm not sure how accurate, or realistic your cost estimates are. What's the total you are assuming? This might be a decent lineup, and pitching has a chance to be better, just not sure of the likelihood of pulling that all off.

That is the most irrational basis for resigning a player I've ever heard. The lineup, including the leadoff man, sucks. So if the rest of the linup stays the same, let's keep the leadoff man. The best leadoff hitter for his offense would be the guy who gets on base most often, and hits for a decent number of XBH. Pierre's speed does not make him the best option. That is the faulty logic that Hendry and Baker used when destroying any chances for a good 2006, and that would only serve to destroy future teams.

Except he doesn't create run opportunities especially well and his lack of OBP is what matters most, much moreso than his speed. His speed does not offset his lack of OBP.

I have trouble believing Hendry when it comes to health because he has a poor track record of talking about health. I believe him when he says he wants guys who can catch the ball because he completely ignored offensive production and tried to field a team that could win the sprint game and catch everything. I'm not saying he successfully did that, he just tried.

Juan Pierre has been horrible this year, a big reason why the offense stunk. There never was any kind of a "need" for him, and therefore, there can be nothing that enhances that need.

And he's acknowledging that. Despite what some want to say, this isn't the way things usually go with him and he's owning up to it. He had an extra crappy day on a team having a crappy day. Yeah, but I wonder if there'd be all this nsbb knob slobbing if, say, Neifi had done the same thing and then owned up to it. Did Neifi ever say anything when he bunted with two outs to the end the game a number of weeks ago? it was a hypothetical. i didn't mean to imply neifi has/would own up to sucking. Even in that hypothetical universe, people would not be at all unfair to give a little more slack to a guy who has helped the team in the past, as opposed to a guy like Neifi who has hurt the club most of the time.

Actually my point is that what "seems to be so obvious" to some often times doesn't hold up to any sort of analysis. Conventional wisdom in baseball has been proven wrong time and time again. And one of those conventional wisdom ideas, shares by the Cubs, is that OBP isn't as important as speed atop the lineup. Somebody is trying to claim that Pierre is the best option for leadoff because of his speed, despite his lack of OBP, due to his teammates lack of OBP. It's just not true. And no convoluted reasoning is going to change that fact. Pierre's lack of OBP hurts this team just like everybody else's lack of OBP hurts this team. His speed is an asset, but it doesn't erase the overall negative effect of his presence in the lineup.

I don't know the answer to that question, but the song I always think of is In the air tonight, which I love, due to its link to Miami Vice. And yes, I know that was a Phil Collins solo act.

I don't think any of these signs is any stronger of an indication than when he picked up Mark Bellhorn. The team has regressed in the walks department, so I just can't share your faith that he's changed at all. He insists on claiming clutch hitting, speed and ball catching ability, along with young pitchers just not doing their job, are the reasons why this team has struggled. He just hasn't shown any interest in significantly altering this team's walk related deficiencies.