RegulusBlue

I am part of that Brigade. That guy is a joke and a douchebag. I strongly dislike him in several ways. If he's gonna add regular blown routine OF plays to his repertoire of crap at the plate (well in 85% of his ABs), that would be wonderful. I also believe he's a prima donna who refuses to play anything but leadoff and LF.

And Lilly slams the door after four runs! Stone cold star.

Where the hell did 2007 Lilly go? 2008 Lilly is not a very good pitcher.

/yelling at the top of my lungs MATT MURTON.

He mistitled the piece. It should have read: "Players who I don't like that happen to be old."

Idiotic list at the top two spots. Bonds should retire? He's still a top 3 hitter in baseball, and the AL doesn't require defense. Thomas did just fine last year, and they prevented his option from vesting. Complaining doesn't keep the ball from going over the fence, and Frank's numbers have proven it. The A's have a very cheap, possibly powerful piece back in their lineup suddenly.

His BABIP reveals that Braun is not quite the hitter that he was in his rookie year, and his patience is garbage right now. This move stinks to high heaven for several reasons. It would have been like us giving CPatt a 6 year deal after his one good August.

Me.

Hopefully. I don't doubt he'll come around, but he is very frustrating to watch right now. I certainly can't argue with that. But, at least he appears to be frustrated as well, and hopefully that leads to something good resulting from it. All it takes is for his young player skills to taper even a bit, and we'll have a 138 million dollar mistake on our hands. He completely lacks any semblance of discipline at the plate, so we're in trouble if age begins playing a role this early in his deal. He shows no ability to adjust, and his refusal to bat lower than first shows that he has no desire. I fear this signing more than ever, and I hated it even one year ago.

Its very hard to watch him run into outs like that. May have cost us yesterday's game.

[ned yost]Believe it![/ned yost]

Just a bad, bad player who is going to cost us dearly when he continues to play, even though he has finally fallen back to earth.

Matt Murton says hey.

Yes, but who are you proposing lead off instead? Lee, Ramirez and Dome aren't going to budge from their spot in the lineup. No way Lou uses Soto or DeRosa as a leadoff hitter. So you're really talking about using Theriot, Johnson or Pie as the leadoff hitter. Theriot had a lower OBP than Soriano did last season; Pie isn't exactly an on-base machine either. And Johnson, at BEST, is a league average OBP sort of hitter. Over the course of a full season, we're not talking about such a huge difference. Obviously, it's not optimal to have Soriano hitting leadoff for a variety of reasons. But it's probably not in the top five of things that could be changed to improve this team. Exactly. 99% of the people here would probably prefer if Soriano didn't lead off. The rub is that the realisitc alternatives are worse. If Soriano isn't leading off, then who is? Colin's right, it's likely to be either Theriot, Johnson, or Pie. Moving Soriano down to replace him with a vastly inferior hitter isn't improving the team. Soriano is one of the more productive hitters on the team. If the back of the order continues to get on base, he'll have his opportunities. Batting him in the leadoff slot really isn't worth getting your panties in a bunch over. His name is Kosuke Fukudome, and he's in his first season with the Cubs. He plays LF and he's third in the MLB in OBP. He can also steal a base. He is from Japan.

Its absurd? Isn't the best statistical lineup in baseball that which puts your OBPs in descending order? Isn't Soriano's OBP lower than Lee, Fuku, and Ramirez at least? I believe Theriot, Fontenot, and Soto have higher OBPs right now, as well. How about this: Why does Aramis bat fourth? Is it because he's a "RBI-guy" that hits for power and doesn't do much running? Sounds feasible so far. So how much running should the hamstring of Soriano be put through? Didn't he just tweak it on a hop? Why not just have him hit taters with people on base, or is that absurd? I think its far more absurd to have him batting first, right behind the pitcher, when his power dictates that hitting safely can advance runners to home more often than other players with lower SLG%, while at the same time putting good OBP guys ahead of him to make this "runners on base" a reality. Maybe I'm not headed to the asylum, after all.

I'm skeptical. I do not like what Soriano brings to the table, and he doesn't get on base enough for me. I hope Lou finds his balls and banishes him to be the best 5-7 hitter in the MLB. I agree. Getting a guy who will hit you 30-40 HR's a year less AB's is exactly what this team needs. Better than giving more to a guy who makes an out around 67% of the time he comes up. Soriano has his warts but let's not try and pretend he's not a very valuable player. Guy put up a 42.1 VORP last year and a 7.6 WARP. Advocating that he get fewer at bats is more than a little silly. I thought this was easy to understand, but I'll lend a hand to those who stray from the path. Soriano is valuable, but he doesn't get on base at a high rate to merit batting first. His power allows his value to be increased by batting him BEHIND those who do get on base. For instance, putting him behind Lee/Aram/Fuku makes him into an RBI superhero once he starts hitting. Also, he needs to stop this whining act that he needs to bat first. Man up and help the team. As someone already said, 20 ABs isn't that big of a deal, so why not trade that for several more RBIs? I got really tired of seeing solo leadoff homeruns. Why not try to put someone on base ahead of him? I hate him batting leadoff, I like him at 5. Nobody here wants to bench him.

I'm skeptical. I do not like what Soriano brings to the table, and he doesn't get on base enough for me. I hope Lou finds his balls and banishes him to be the best 5-7 hitter in the MLB.

Hey dude, nice graph. How is Israel?

Lou is not a horrible manager. Talk about hyperbole. Horrible is simply a relative term. You two are probably just looking at it different ways. Relative to the moves a manager should make, Lou is horrible. Relative to other managers, not so much. This is correct. Lou IS a terrible manager who misunderstands the statistical impediment that his own decisions place on the squad (like all the other ones not working for Billy Beane). Even "baseball men" know not to bunt or give up an out when you're in full tilt rally mode, or having a good offensive day. Its sad, but simply by following the numbers, I could make much better in-game decisions than Mr. Piniella. That said, I've taken dumps better than Dusty.

I started the "Official Get rid of Theriot Thread" and I'm currently dining on some broasted crow with a garlic lavender sauce. He's helping us win, so its quite good. I just hope Extreme Ryan The Hurricane Theriot can keep some semblance of this going for the year, or at least fall off so fast that even Lou can't play him through it for very long. Good stretches like this are dangerous when you have a horrible manager (ie- hit and runs and bunts yesterday) like we do. It makes them lean on a bad/fair player too long and the club loses games. That said, he's playing well, and I have garlic breath.

And that means what, exactly? It's basically an overgrown zit. This is what it might look like. http://www.irishhealth.com/content/image/249/Image1.jpg Note: This is not Kosuke's actual eye. I repeat, this is not Kosuke's actual eye. That's [expletive] nasty.

Lou just showed he's the worst manager in baseball. We're smoking on offense, Pitt can't do anything right, we're churning in runs, our 3 for 3 SS comes up and we bunt! The previous batter was a dumbass hit and run! Lou Piniella is an embarrassment to baseball.

Justice is served, for now.

DH = Fake Baseball We're letting flawed athletes (ie: no glove) replace other flawed ballplayers (ie: can't hit) and its BS. It's akin to having a big fat 45 year old man shoot free throws for the Bulls because he shoots 96% from the line, but letting him take a seat so he doesn't have to defend, run, or rebound. Aren't professional athletes supposed to be superior all-around athletes, and not lumbering bigmen who can hit a ball to the moon, but can't field it? If they were good enough athletes, they'd find a position anyway. Adam Dunn, anybody?

His OBP is .442. If you had to pick slugging or OBP to add to this team, which would you pick? Thanks for playing.