goonys evil twin

Basing your opinion on a player on the couple bad times that stand out doesn't make sense. Kyle had his issues. However, I find it's much more valuable to look at the entire picture. In my opinion, Kyle brought plenty to the table. Others disagree. Regardless of where you stand, form your opinions on the total package, not the very best or very worst appearances. Every closer has nightmare outings.

--- FINAL --- DETROIT 8 CHICAGO WSOX 6 PITCHING: DET - WP: Nate Robertson VS. CWS - LP: Freddy Garcia WP: Nate Robertson (5-7); LP: Freddy Garcia (9-4); Save: Craig Dingman (1). ** CONFIRMED ** After giving up a series of walks and singles, and 3 runs, Kyle leaves with 2 on and 2 out, and some dude named Dingman gets the save.

Also in 7/20 news, the Pirates are still terrible. And in even more 7/20 news, the White Sox gave up 4 in the 9th and trail Detroit 8-3, with Farnsworth on the mound.

I'd be willing to bet $200 that situation won't come up 10 times.

How many of them are 25 or younger with a .900 career OPS? There has got to be dozens, if not hundreds.

Yeah, he posted earlier a while back... he's skeptical like many of us are. Just wondering...how does Hoops always seem to have the insider info? Is he just really smart...or does he have a job which enables him to inherit information of some sort? It just seems like whenever rumors come up everyone wants his input...and I saw he was poster of the year before. His legend grew when, prior to the Lee/Choi deal, he started a thread titled something like, "Does anybody have Lee for Choi on their radar." Plus he's the favorite of a local columnist.

I seriously DOUBT Junior is going to the Yanks. If there is ONE team Junior holds a grudge against it is the Yanks. I don't know how they treated his father when he was a Yankee, but Junior has stated several times, he won't ever play for the Yanks, and has used they way they treated his father as the reason why. So I highly doubt it will be Junior to the Yanks. He has maintained that anti-Yankees stance in the past (for which I greatly admire the man), but reportedly backed off those comments within the past year.

I listed the quote about Mike and the Mad Dog and Verducci saying the Cubs are desperate for a closer because I thought it was so ridiculous. I don't think it's ridiculous to look for relief help. However, at this stage in the game, I think the cost will be way to high. Relievers get overvalued at this time, especially proven ones. Bullpen guys are so volatile, it's impossible to guarantee you're getting a great pitcher. What you need to do is trade for guys in the offseason who may have fallen out of favor with their team but still bring a lot of quality to the table at relatively low cost. Assuming for a moment that Florida stays at the bottom of the East and fades from the playoff picture, I wouldn't mind seeing the Cubs try and spin a deal for Pierre, then send him to NY for Gordon. Tom's been an extremely effective reliever for a few years. He's not a longterm solution, but he might be affordable. I have no interest in Pierre on the Cubs, as I never trusted his game even when he was playing well, and now he's playing poorly. But NY would go bonkers for the guy they think beat them in their last WS appearance, and I think they'd be willing to give up the guy they think let them down against Boston. One key would be to play the middle man in this deal, and only giving up a couple of mid-tier prospects at most, while possibly even sending Remlinger (a playoff tested proven veteran reliever) to NY. The other key would be to not overuse Gordon. He's a guy capable of a sub 1.15 WHIP, sub 3 ERA, and sub .200 BAA, but he's also old and somewhat fragile, so I'd keep from using him 3 days in a row or for multiple innings. Ideally he and Williamson can trade duty, with Wuertz and maybe Novoa filling in when possible. Before this happens though, my main goal is to solve the LF issue. The recent offensive surge is great, but I'm not convinced it's permanent, as we've seen burts before.

In 7/20 other game news, Jock Jones just hit a walkoff homer to give 'sota the win over Baltimore. The Twins are currently 1/2 game ahead of the Yanks for the Wild Card.

Where are all these questions coming from? He's made only 7 errors at 2B this year, and Baseball America said "his athleticism makes him a potential plus defender at second base." I don't think that really describes either one of those guys. Murton is 23, which isn't too old for a college guy in AA. Cedeno is 22 and actually fairly young for AAA. This was their first season at WTenn and Iowa, respectively. Your concerns about them are valid, though. When I said they somewhat fit the bill, I meant as possible #2 guys, not old AA players repeating the level. Sorry for the poor layout. I've never seen Patterson play. I've just read multiple times that he's only average defensively, and his faults might be exposed as he climbs the ladder. If he was a fabulous, flawless defensive 2B, it might be a little easier to bump him up. However, you have to remember that to date, all he's done is perform very well at low A at the age of 22, while the guy you want to leapfrog performed exceptionally well at low A, at age 20. I have a hard time moving a guy up when something like that stands in the way. And I completely agree with your plate discipline concerns.

Go see Hustle & Flow by yourself.

My concern with Dopirak and Harvey is that Dopirak's numbers (.242 .298 .363; 339 AB, 71K, 26 BB) are very bad, and have been bad all season, while Harvey's (.262 .314 .489; 313 AB, 84K, 19BB) have not been very impressive for such a high pick and highly rated prospect at such a low level. The only thing Harvey is doing exceptionally well is hitting homeruns, and HR totals in and of themselves, do not impress me. I'd feel much more comfortable if the supposed best hitting prospects not named Pie were actually hitting the ball. Nobody can claim they have been impressed by either of these guys' production this year. I haven't listed my top 10 yet. Basically ever since I saw this thread I've been thinking of a way to drop these guys down the preseason list. They have been that disappointing. However, it's been pretty difficult to find guys worthy of leaping them (and that is incredibly disappointing). Outside of Pie, nobody impressive and without an asterisk stands out. To me, EPatt is a guy who has raced up the list, however, he's doing it at a low level, and there are still questions about his limited defense, and upside. I can't put him #2. I'd much rather see an age appropriate AA player putting up solid numbers take that spot. And while the Cubs do have some AA players putting up numbers, they are either somewhat old, or repeating the level, or both. The two guys that somewhat fit that bill are Cedeno and Murton. Despite Ronny continually proving me wrong, I still have questions about his upside as well as his ability to even be a mediocre regular. And as a corner OF, I don't see Murton ever being a star, or close to it, so it's really difficult to accept either at 2nd. But I think I'd have to put those guys 2/3 if I did a list, if only for the fact that they've proven much more at higher levels than the supposed stars in waiting.

For what it's worth, Tom Verducci was on Mike and the Mad Dog today. They went through most teams needs, and they mentioned the Cubs are desperate for a closer. Desperate. Mike also talked about Corey to the Yanks, although Verduch said something to the effect of "the Cubs won't trade him now with his value so low."

It makes it very difficult to believe the Cubs when they talk about letting guys earn jobs. There is just no way to deny that their favorites get the benefit of the doubt. The interesting thing to me is that Hendry went after Grieve, and did it again this year, when it doesn't appear some people like him at all. He's done everything they could have asked, so what's the problem?

Yeah, but how many lefty starters would he face every 10 games in the NL? One or two? Fine. Let Murton start those games. Point taken - If I had a gun to my head right now and had to decide, I'd make the trade with Mitre or Rusch + Remlinger + Hairston for Nixon. I'm just almost positive the Red Sox would want "real" arms to give him up and I don't think I'd do that. We gotta stop thinking teams will be happy to take on a load of our crap for one of their good players :-) Mitre and Hairston aren't crap. And Remlinger is still a servicable reliever.

.289 .367 .545 325 AB .320 .410 .495 275 AB Much more?

What about sending Walker instead? Boston loved him. Personally I could deal with losing Hairston. Slip Walker into the leadoff role. I think Dusty has at least given up the idea that Neifi is a leadoff candidate. Personally I think Gerut will be taking away lots of Jerry's PT anyway. And it's not like Hairston is an OBP god, he's merely an adaquate OBP guy playing on a team that's not used to it. He's replacable.

I've thought for a while there was a way to get Nixon. With Bellhorn going down, and Boston struggling of late, I think the chances are even better. I also think Hollandsworth could go back in that deal, filling a part time bottom of the order role for them.

He started out unbelievably hot, putting up numbers that not only exceeded expecations for him, but exceeded most expectations for even Nomar. But it was unsustainable. A guy who has been that bad for that long doesn't get that good over night. He has been dropping, and that was to be expected. Nobody could have thought he was going to put up a 900 OPS for the season.

The main problem is that he is Neifi Perez. Despite brief spurts of great play, he's just not that good of a major league baseball player.

I wonder if 1 more trip through the rotation with long outings would be enough to convince people that 7 relievers is a waste. Remlinger has 4 IP in 4 outings in July. About 4 guys have had just 1 inning of work since the break. This is seriously not good for the bullpen.

Okay tough guy. Like I said, I must have been the only person who thought Nomar was an injury risk. Crazy gut instincts.

Okay, maybe I'm wrong. I was probably the only one who thought he had a good chance of missing a lot of playing time in 2005. Crazy me. Damn, you're fast on the replies. You're right, you're far from the only one who thought he was gonna miss time this year, I just still can't figure out why. At the time of the season starting there wasn't really any overwhelming evidence IMO that he'd get injured. You turned out right after the fact and everyone seems to have jumped on the "shoulda seen this coming" bandwagon, but I really don't see why we should've seen this coming. Should we stay away from anyone coming off of a half season from now on because they're injury prone? Nomar has been beat up for nearly 5 years. He's played through a lot of stuff, and his game has suffered tremendously. It's more than just half of last year. Don't you remember he was supposedly healed, and then got injured again after the trade, a totally "new" injury. He's had wrist, ankle, achilles, knee, groin and other ailments. There's a reason nobody signed him longterm when every two-bit SS was getting looks at 4/$32 million offers. There's a reason his one year make good deal was layered with incentives.

Okay, maybe I'm wrong. I was probably the only one who thought he had a good chance of missing a lot of playing time in 2005. Crazy me.

You can call Nomar's injury new, but to call it unpredictable is intellectually dishonest. Nobody could have thought Nomar would play all year. There was a pretty good chance he'd get hurt, and a decent chance he'd be out a long time. Based on what? The greatest predictor of future injury is past injury. Nomar has been a wreck for the past 4-5 years. Anybody who felt confident that he would make it through 2005 unscathed was either Nomar himself, or somebody who made a conscious effort to ignore his past.