imb

Come on Mark! http://hosted.ap.org/photos/N/NYET15601232145-big.jpg

Talk about committed. Usually the players just drop by the rooms for a few minutes to talk with the kids, sign some autographs, check out how hot their moms are and then move along. Michael is so committed to being a part of these kids’ lives that he actually had surgical procedures and spent weeks at a time rooming with some of the lucky patients. Suddenly, being born without a cleft palate has incredible benefits. You can sleep just a few feet from a guy who couldn’t beat Brian Schneider out for a job in Montreal! These guys are high-larious.

What's so weird about it? Am I missing something here?

1-1) Albert Pujols 1-2) Jose Reyes 1-3) Johan Santana 1-4) Alfonso Soriano 1-5) Alex Rodriguez 1-6) Carlos Beltran 1-7) Ryan Howard 1-8) Miguel Cabrera 1-9) Carl Crawford 1-10) Chase Utley 1-11) Derrek Lee 1-12) Chris Carpenter 2-1) David Wright 2-2) Lance Berkman 2-3) Grady Sizemore 2-4) David Ortiz 2-5) Vladimir Guerrero 2-6) Manny Ramirez 2-7) Mark Teixeira 2-8) Travis Hafner 2-9) Derek Jeter 2-10) Carlos Lee 2-11) Matt Holliday 2-12) Carlos Zambrano 3-1) Jake Peavy 3-2) Aramis Ramirez 3-3) Justin Morneau 3-4) Joe Mauer 3-5) Paul Konerko 3-6) Miguel Tejada 3-7) Jason Bay 3-8) Hanley Ramirez 3-9) Jimmy Rollins 3-10) Roy Halladay 3-11) Brandon Webb 3-12) Dan Haren 4-1) Garrett Atkins 4-2) Ichiro 4-3) Vernon Wells 4-4) Brian McCann 4-5) Roy Oswalt 4-6) Felix Hernandez 4-7) Ben Sheets 4-8) Bobby Abreu 4-9) Jeremy Bonderman 4-10) Andruw Jones 4-11) Victor Martinez 4-12) Jermaine Dye 5-1) Michael Young 5-2) Robby Cano 5-3) Rafael Furcal 5-4) Francisco Rodriguez 5-5) Bill Hall 5-6) Cole Hamels 5-7) Brian Roberts 5-8) Joe Nathan 5-9) Adam Dunn 5-10) Ryan Zimmerman 5-11) Carlos Guillen 5-12) Chone Figgins 6-1) Daisuke Matsuzaka 6-2) Jim Thome 6-3) John Lackey 6-4) B.J. Ryan 6-5) Carlos Delgado 6-6) Billy Wagner 6-7) Rocco Baldelli 6-8) Rich Hill 6-9) Troy Glaus 6-10) Justin Verlander 6-11) Aaron Harang 6-12) John Smoltz 7-1) Ian Kinsler 7-2) Johnny Damon 7-3) Mariano Rivera 7-4) Jered Weaver 7-5) Huston Street 7-6) Brett Myers 7-7) Matt Cain 7-8) Scott Kazmir 7-9) Curt Schilling 7-10) Felipe Lopez 7-11) Hideki Matsui 7-12) Nick Swisher 8-1) Bobby Jenks 8-2) Jason Schmidt 8-3) Rickie Weeks 8-4) C.C. Sabathia 8-5) Dan Uggla 8-6) Juan Pierre 8-7) JJ Putz 8-8) Randy Johnson 8-9) Howie Kendrick 8-10) Rich Harden 8-11) Prince Fielder 8-12) Michael Barrett 9-1) Brad Lidge 9-2) Chris Young 9-3) Chipper Jones 9-4) Jeff Francoeur 9-5) Pat Burrell 9-6) Scott Rolen 9-7) Erik Bedard 9-8) Gary Sheffield 9-9) Trevor Hoffman 9-10) Richie Sexson 9-11) Barry Zito 9-12) Dontrelle Willis 10-1) Todd Helton 10-2) Takashi Saito 10-3) Mike Piazza 10-4) Delmon Young 10-5) Chad Cordero 10-6) Josh Beckett 10-7) AJ Burnett 10-8) Jonathan Papelbon 10-9) Tom Gordon 10-10) Julio Lugo 10-11) Barry Bonds 10-12) Corey Patterson 11-1) Chad Tracy 11-2) JD Drew 11-3) Francisco Cordero 11-4) Ervin Santana 11-5) Chris Ray 11-6) Coco Crisp 11-7) Stephen Drew 11-8) Bronson Arroyo 11-9) Jason Giambi 11-10) Brian Fuentes 11-11) Brandon Phillips 11-12) Alex Rios 12-1) Michael Cuddyer 12-2) Jason Isringhausen 12-3) Chien-Ming Wang 12-4) John Patterson 12-5) Magglio Ordonez 12-6) Eric Gagne 12-7) Tadahito Iguchi 12-8) Ryan Freel 12-9) Torii Hunter 12-10) Frank Thomas 12-11) Kelvim Escobar 12-12) Adam LaRoche 13-1)Willy Taveras 13-2) Joel Zumaya 13-3) Raul Ibanez 13-4) Adrian Gonzalez 13-5) Scott Podsednik 13-6) Bob Wickman 13-7) Nick Markakis 13-8) Nomar Garciaparra 13-9) Mike Mussina 13-10) Brad Hawpe 13-11) Dave Bush 13-12) Russell Martin 14-1) Mark Prior 14-2) Eric Chavez 14-3) Kenji Johjima 14-4) Anthony Reyes 14-5) Ramon Hernandez 14-6) Roger Clemens 14-7) Lyle Overbay 14-8) Scott Olsen 14-9) Nate Robertson 14-10) Derek Lowe 14-11) Jonathon Broxton 14-12) Chuck James 15-1) Hank Blalock 15-2) Aubrey Huff 15-3) Jorge Posada 15-4) Chris Capuano 15-5) Javier Vazquez 15-6) Octavio Dotel 15-7) Joe Crede 15-8) Josh Willingham 15-9) Josh Barfield 15-10) Brad Penny 15-11) Ivan Rodriguez 15-12) Jhonny Peralta 16-1) Adam Wainwright 16-2) Andy Pettitte 16-3) Jose Valverde 16-4) Alex Gordon 16-5) Anibal Sanchez 16-6) Solomon Torres 16-7) Keith Foulke 16-8) Bengie Molina 16-9) Dustin Pedroia 16-10) Pedro Martinez 16-11) Moises Alou 16-12) Ryan Dempster 17-1) Ray Durham 17-2) Josh Johnson 17-3) Mike Gonzalez 17-4) Chris Young 17-5) Ted Lilly 17-6) Greg Maddux 17-7) Mark Teahen 17-8) Jon Garland 17-9) B.J. Upton 17-10) Clay Hensley 17-11) Scott Shields 17-12) Edger Renteria 18-1) Eric Byrnes 18-2) Jeff Kent 18-3) Kevin Millwood 18-4) Philip Hughes 18-5) Chad Billingsley 18-6) Jason Varitek 18-7) Tom Glavine 18-8) Freddy Sanchez 18-9) Adrian Beltre 18-10) Orlando Cabrera 18-11) Nick Johnson 18-12) Ken Griffey Jr. 19-1)Tim Hudson 19-2) Edwin Encarnacion 19-3) Todd Jones 19-4) Freddy Garcia 19-5) Jose Contreras 19-6) AJ Pierzynski 19-7) Dave Roberts 19-8) Jim Edmonds 19-9) Morgan Ensberg 19-10) Matt Garza 19-11) Jeremy Hermida 19-12) Mark Buehrle 20-1) Shane Victorino 20-2) Brian Giles 20-3) Curtis Granderson 20-4) Corey Hart 20-5) Conor Jackson 20-6) Jeremy Sowers 20-7) Joe Borowski 20-8) Kevin Youkilis 20-9) Zach Duke 20-10) Kerry Wood 20-11) Akinori Ostuka 20-12) Joel Pineiro 21-1) Taylor Tankersley 21-2) Mike Jacobs 21-3) Gary Matthews Jr. 21-4) Seth McClung 21-5) Ian Snell 21-6) Cliff Lee 21-7) Troy Tulowitzki 21-8) Dan Wheeler 21-9) Chris Duffy 21-10) Ricky Nolasco 21-11) Bobby Crosby 21-12) Craig Monroe 22-1) Luis Castillo 22-2) Brandon Mccarthy 22-3) Kenny Rogers 22-4) Chris Burke 22-5) Homer Bailey 22-6) Kei Igawa 22-7) Kent Mercker 22-8) Jeff Francis 22-9) Brandon Wood 22-10) Carlos Quentin 22-11) Jonny Gomes

Steal of the draft.

Why do you equate not trying to steal third with having a manager who sits around and does nothing? You coach, you know that there is more to game decisions than just "should I steal or not". I want a coach to worry about lefty/right match ups, defensive positioning, pinch hitting, etc...not to attempt a steal when it's likely harmful. But when you throw away a possible option you are limiting yourself and I just don't understand why you would make the opposing managers/teams job a lot easier. Again for the extremists....I'm not advocating to steal the whole time but to use it wisely and especially when you see a good matchup for success. I also don't understand the extremes of one way or another. You mix it up....maybe a slant one way or another but to say to steal all the time or to never steal is foolish to me. I have admitted, in this thread even, that there are times when I'm not against an attempted steal of third. However, the times when it's a good idea is greatly outnumbered by the times people actually do it.

Problem solved, let's do the damn thing

It's key for every pitcher. First pitch strike is the best pitch in baseball. I disagree, I think it's important to get behind in the count. Is it also important to get 3 outs in an inning and score more runs than the other team?

Wow, I thought it couldnt get more meaningless than the actual gold glove.

He needed to take advantage of this opportunity to remind us that he is a community college pitcher, ok. Give the guy a break. (I would have put it in transactions)

I came prepared for a sentence on mechanics. I was not disappointed. (Well, I was, but that's a different story.)

He may have made arangements anyway. Just because Sullivan or whomever hasn't explicitly said so yet doesn't mean that Ramirez is skirting his repsonsibilities. I know we're all dying to talk some baseball, but jesus christ. Either way I don't really care. As long as he hits and is healthy. People ragging on the guy because he's not early to camp is just silly. Oh, I agree. I wasn't directing that at you, I was just piggybacking your post. I know, sorry if it seemed like I was getting defensive with you. Haha, I didnt want you to think I was getting defensive with you. Most worthless tangent ever?

How many more rounds are we doing? When Craig Monroe and Luis Castillo go back to back, its time to move on.

He may have made arangements anyway. Just because Sullivan or whomever hasn't explicitly said so yet doesn't mean that Ramirez is skirting his repsonsibilities. I know we're all dying to talk some baseball, but jesus christ. Either way I don't really care. As long as he hits and is healthy. People ragging on the guy because he's not early to camp is just silly. Oh, I agree. I wasn't directing that at you, I was just piggybacking your post.

Actually, they're similar but it's probably more acceptable to compare Daniel Cabrera to Carlos Zambrano. Both guys have good K rates, poor walk rates and are traditionally groundball pitchers. However Zambrano doesn't walk as many and gets more grounders, so while their skill sets are similar their production from the skills are dissimilar. I meant it more from the "they're the same age, but Carlos has 5 years of major league success to draw from, while Cabrera has never had any" angle. So it would be terrible to compare Rich Hill to Barry Zito last July? I am sure you and I both made those remarks. Rich Hill was having Zito-esque success though, I haven't gone through the game logs, but I doubt Cabrera had a 12 game stretch of Zambrano-like dominence. This is sort of a tangent anyway, the writer wasn't using Daniel Cabrera as an example of what might happen to Carlos Zambrano, he was just pointing out just how bad Zambrano's K-rate was. (I think we both agree on Big Z's red flags)

He may have made arangements anyway. Just because Sullivan or whomever hasn't explicitly said so yet doesn't mean that Ramirez is skirting his repsonsibilities. I know we're all dying to talk some baseball, but jesus christ.

Actually, they're similar but it's probably more acceptable to compare Daniel Cabrera to Carlos Zambrano. Both guys have good K rates, poor walk rates and are traditionally groundball pitchers. However Zambrano doesn't walk as many and gets more grounders, so while their skill sets are similar their production from the skills are dissimilar. I meant it more from the "they're the same age, but Carlos has 5 years of major league success to draw from, while Cabrera has never had any" angle.

Why do you equate not trying to steal third with having a manager who sits around and does nothing? You coach, you know that there is more to game decisions than just "should I steal or not". I want a coach to worry about lefty/right match ups, defensive positioning, pinch hitting, etc...not to attempt a steal when it's likely harmful.

Turning against him? Who's doing that? He hasn't shown up early to spring training, and it immediately turns into "well he looked out of shape to me" and "he's not early? that's not impressing anyone". It's useless garbage and it hasn't even been a week yet.

You know how badly I wanted to say that if we signed Finley, Dusty would play him? I won't believe he's not managing until I see Lou on TV with my own eyes.

Link zambrano's only signing because jim lied to him about what happens if he doesnt accept the offer Hahahahaha, awesome.

Aramis leaves money on the table to stay with us and fans are turning against him less than a week into spring training?

Again though those are flat line stats...DeRosa at 35%. What if it's a pitcher he is 22% successful against along with the next hitter? I think if I can get Soriano over to third on a steal and DeRosa can battle and get a ground ball or flyball I get a run instead of 2 ground outs in a row and nothing. I understand that you're playing the percentages but sometimes as a coach or manager you see something and you take advantage of that...IMO the good ones do. I'm not talking a gut feeling but to notice a pattern or weakness and take advantage of it. I don't care if DeRosa is 22% successful against the pitcher or 12% successful or 7% successful because for one thing, that number is likey based on a handful of at-bats where the 35% number (which is likely best case, mind you) is based on a far larger sample. Let's say that he is 22% rather than 35% for the sake of argument. You're willing to risk a losing a runner in scoring position based on a few at-bats that show the hitter at the plate is 13% worse than normal against the present pitcher?

Even so, if Soriano gets thrown out at third, it's a bad thing. Regardless of whether DeRosa hits a 550 foot homerun or weakly grounds out to the pitcher. In your scenario, DeRosa reaches base safely, something he will do, best case scenario 35% of the time, and it was a net failure because we lost a man in scoring position during his at-bat. Had Soriano stayed at second, and DeRosa struck out, we're still in better shape, runner on 2nd and 2 outs as opposed to a runner on first and two outs.

It was obvious that by 99% I was just saying "vast majority" and not referencing some advanced statistical study on base stealing. That didn't really need any explaining. Are you implying that this is an actual opinion that you hold? I'm confused. Anyway, this is a stupid offshoot of the actual argument, so unless you have anything else to add, I think we can both agree that this is going nowhere. My point is that if something has a low percentage of working why keep doing it? I think we agree then? Attempting to steal third has a very low rate of success/usefulness, and should only be tried during extreme circumstances. I don't know what point you're bringing up with the 9% homerun thing, though. I don't think the percentage of batters that go to the plate trying to hit a homerun every at bat is very high, but the amount of runners attempting to steal third when they attempt to steal third is probably 100%.