Mephistopheles

No I could see them making a move like that. They've soured on Baldelli the last couple of seasons and eventually they are probably going to have to make a choice between Kazmir and Crawford long term. Dealing Kazmir and Baldelli opens up Crawford to play CF and then theyre switching Murton for Baldelli in LF, which is a wash. With Hill and not Kazmir they get a similar pitcher for an extra year. They could probably buy Hill out of a year of free agency as well. That'll give them two extra years with Hill.

Here's a trade to consider: Rocco Baldelli + Scott Kazmir for Rich Hill, Matt Murton, plus choice of {Veal, Gallagher, Marshall, Marmol, Guzman (lol)} Probably wouldn't be enough to get it done, but our teams a lot better quick. Then dump Pie for Peralta, Greene or real shortstop and dump Jones for prospect(s). Sign Fukudome, and we have a minimal increase in payroll and field: 1. Alfonso Soriano, LF 2. Kosuke Fukudome, RF 3. Derrek Lee, 1B 4. Aramis Ramirez, 3B 5. Rocco Baldelli, CF 6. Mark DeRosa, 2B 7. Khalil Greene, Jhonny Peralta, SS 8. Geovany Soto, C 1. Carlos Zambrano 2. Scott Kazmir 3. Ted Lilly 4. Jason Marquis 5. Sean Marshall/Sean Gallagher We'd get Kazmir for three years btw. Or possibly a deal I like even better: Matt Murton for Rocco Baldelli Sign Fukudome Felix Pie, Sean Marshall for Jhonny Peralta Sign Randy Wolf or Matt Clement 1. Alfonso Soriano, LF 2. Kosuke Fukudome, RF 3. Derrek Lee, 1B 4. Aramis Ramirez, 3B 5. Rocco Baldelli, CF 6. Mark DeRosa, 2B 7. Jhonny Peralta, SS 8. Geovany Soto, C 1. Carlos Zambrano 2. Rich Hill 3. Ted Lilly 4. Jason Marquis 5. Randy Wolf/Matt Clement We'd have the best defensive OF in history for one of the biggest fly ball staffs in history. In another note, also throw in stuff and try to pry Elijah Dukes away from the Rays.

ishii was perfectly fine until he took a batted ball at 120 mph to the head. Perhaps because the elites had already moved on? I've heard nothing that says this guy is potentially special. Everything I've heard is potential 4th/5th starter. That's fine, but there isn't a good history of Japanese pitchers coming over and providing solid stable production. Glimpses, sure. A couple positive outliers, yes. But by and large the group has been shaky. no one is saying hes special. everyone is saying he has back of the rotation upside. and no, the elites hadnt move on. not a single one.

he was the best pitcher in the league last season.... and no, ishii produced just fine.

What? You completely missed the boat. It's the other way around. Hitters have a relatively shaky history and pitchers have been nails when coming over. The only pitchers to struggle are Irabu and Igawa. Every other one was perfectly fine. Even Irabu had success initially before the injuries piled up. The only pure bust is Igawa, and that is a sixty inning sample size. That's what I was thinking too. None of the Asian pitchers have been dominant (outside of maybe Nomo for a couple years), but only the ones you named have been bad. I don't know that hitters have been a bust either, because I can't think of too many hitters that have actually come over other than Matsui's, Ichiro, Iguchi, and the dude in Tampa. Choi and others have, but they haven't been in their prime as the original post stated. Hitters haven't came over. Choi didn't suck, but he's like Park. He doesn't count. We're talking about translating NPB players to US. Choi was signed out of high school in Korea. And Wang, etc. They're success or lack of it should not matter. The hitters who have came over off the top of my head: Hideki Matsui - Career .300 EqA Kazuo Matsui - Average offensive SS in the US Tadahito Iguchi - Top Ten 2B in the US (this guy has been REAL good since coming over) Kenji Jojima - Top Ten Catcher in the US (oh man if he could ever learn to walk) Ichiro Suzuki - Career .300 EqA Akinori Iwamura - .284 EqA - By my math his EqA should have translated to about a .280 EqA in the US (based on his last three seasons and his PECOTA was .284) Tsuyoshi Shinjo - .245 .299 .370 in US .254 .305 .432 in Japan. Basically hit the same. So Taguchi - .283 .336 .391 in US .277 .333 .387 in Japan. The same.

Shaky history? Well, Ishii sucked, Igawa is terrible. Matsuzaka was good this year, but I don't think he was as good as advertised. Nomo and Park each had pretty nice careers, but were extremely inconsistent. I'm fairly confident in a solid hitter contributing in the majors, I don't have a ton of faith in pitchers, especially ones that aren't considered the best of the best. Ishii sucked? He was pretty much as expected. In Japan he was a strikeout pitcher with walk issues. In the US he was a strikeout pitcher with walk issues. His first two seasons were fine: 4.27 ERA and a 3.86 ERA. Granted he was lucky, but he didn't suck. He was as expected. Matsuzaka was fine this season, inconsistent and pitched in a tough division. Nomo had a very good career. Park has as well, but he shouldn't count. He was signed out of high school. We're talking about translating guys who have had success in NPB and guys who came here. Park is irrelevant.

What? You completely missed the boat. It's the other way around. Hitters have a relatively shaky history and pitchers have been nails when coming over. The only pitchers to struggle are Irabu and Igawa. Every other one was perfectly fine. Even Irabu had success initially before the injuries piled up. The only pure bust is Igawa, and that is a sixty inning sample size.

Aside from complete homerism, what is the justification for having Florida #7? And ahead of Georgia and Auburn, for that matter. http://www.usatoday.com/sports/sagarin/fbt07.htm Far right column. You don't seem to put much faith in the far right column otherwise. West Virginia is 2 spots ahead of LSU in that far right column, but you have LSU 6 spots ahead of WV. Michigan is only 21st in that far right column, but you have them 10th. The far right column has Boston College at 24th, but you have them 9th. Why are you willing to trust the far right column when it gives Florida a good ranking, but not when it is so far off for half of the other teams in your top 10? sample size. i use those as a basis and work from there.

they spend a lot of time developing their own talent. they just go gaga for tools and despise actual ball players. we field the best track and field team every year though ... and that counts for something. ill wait until i read the book to comment on how much james trips over himself (the guys NOT that good. hes a good writer and was the first to do these things, but hes fallen behind by miles since then).

Poor comparison on a couple of levels. Igawa walked fifty-sixty guys a season in Japan. Kuroda hasn't walked fifty in a season since 2000. Igawa played in one of the best pitchers parks in the Central League. Kuroda, on the other hand, pitched in the biggest offensive park in Japan. Igawa's fastball sits in the high 80s, a decent fastball in Japan, passable at best in the US for a southpaw. Kuroda sits around 90-91, and he's much more of an "american" pitcher than Igawa. Igawa is also a bounce-back guy. There's a very real possibility hes a decent pitcher the next few years if he's given the opportunity. Igawa was always up and down from season to season in Japan. He was a flyball pitcher with walks in a pitchers park. Kuroda's fairly nuetral. He's certainly capable of going 200 innings with in ERA in the 4.40 range. Not great, but if he's your number four or five, you're ecstatic. There is also something to be said that the guys who have other Japanese players on their team have transitioned better. The really have only been two busts, Matsui and Igawa. Ishii, Ichiro, Jojima, Iguchi, and others have been as good as advertised.

C'mon Renshaw isn't much of anything. His ceiling was Rocky Cherry.

Ko-Skay Foo-Koo-Dough-May the u in su is usually silent in japan (not tsu though)

LT also lost 42-12 to Cal and LSU would probably beat Cal by at least a touchdown. LT also lost 21-0 to Ole Miss, which will probably get crushed by LSU something like 41-7.

To those who want a challenge. You pick the difference and then we can compare on Sunday to see who did the best. Come on, I know you want to! It'll be fun.

(18) Auburn at (10) Georgia -- Auburn by 3 (12) USC at (24) California -- USC by 5 Illinois at (1) Ohio State -- Ohio State by 17 (5) Kansas at Oklahoma State -- Kansas by 7 Louisville at (6) West Virginia -- West Virginia by 17 Florida State at (11) Virginia Tech -- Virginia Tech by 3 (13) Michigan at Wisconsin -- Michigan by 5, more if Hill's out Texas Tech at (15) Texas -- Texas by 3 (16) Connecticut at Cincinnati -- Cincinnati by 5 (17) Florida at South Carolina -- Florida by 10 Wake Forest at (20) Clemson -- Clemson by 10 Arkansas at (22) Tennessee -- Arkansas by 5 (23) Virginia at Miami -- Miami by 7 Top 25 mismatches ------------------ Louisiana Tech at (2) LSU -- LSU by 30 Baylor at (4) Oklahoma -- Oklahoma by 35 Texas A&M at (7) Missouri -- Missouri by 17 (8) Boston College at Maryland -- Boston College by 7 (9) Arizona State at UCLA -- Arizona State by 7 Fresno State at (14) Hawaii -- Hawaii by 14 (19) Boise State at Utah State -- Boise State by 21 (25) Kentucky at Vanderbilt -- Kentucky by 7 New Way to split games If I see something with <= 10, then that's a good game. If I see 10-20, so so game and 20+ is a blow out. Bolded games are in the wrong section. We'll compare these predictions on Sunday of next week. Be prepared.

C'mon. Meph has been spot on on all his other predictions for mismatch or not, though. Just like how he said that the Michigan-Illinois game would be a blowout too, right? Whoops. Illinois probably won't win, but they'll keep it within 10-14 points. Hart was out and when I said that I thought Hart would be fine. I think I said it on a Monday or something. Since you want to frame me again, I'll oblige.

at the lowest. The google avatar advertisement image has a width of 140 pixels and there are at least a five pixel buffer beyond that, so a 150x150 avatar wouldn't stretch the column. This would be a good idea.

Not really, other teams are smarter and know he's worse than that.

I'll throw in Florida, USC, West Virginia, and others. I'm not so sure they'd be the favorite against teams like Auburn or California. Ditto for BC, although the ACC has actually done decently in nonconference games (mainly beating up on the Big East).

C'mon. Meph has been spot on on all his other predictions for mismatch or not, though. so? That means I'm not dumb? I'm actually agreeing with the idea it's not a mismatch. I'm just pointing out the faulty logic. I don't understand it (actually I do and it's because they are Big Ten schools).

C'mon. This is the opposite.....I am not flip-flopping on the issue here. This is just a case of the Little Ten Bias --- the only major conference without an out-of-conference win vs a top 50 team. because teams like Penn State knew that Notre Dame was going to suck this year. THAT is why they scheduled them. Get it? Little Ten? LOLOMFGBBQ!!111!ONE!1 It still doesn't take away the fact that the conference is unproven (even more so than last year and look what happened to OSU and Michigan). I'm just saying there's no reason to believe that OSU is better than say, Hawaii on the basis of their schedule. They probably are better, but there's little reason to believe it.

Aside from complete homerism, what is the justification for having Florida #7? And ahead of Georgia and Auburn, for that matter. http://www.usatoday.com/sports/sagarin/fbt07.htm Far right column.

C'mon. This is the opposite.....I am not flip-flopping on the issue here. This is just a case of the Little Ten Bias --- the only major conference without an out-of-conference win vs a top 50 team.

THERES NO WAY THAT OHIO STATE AND ILLINOIS IS A GOOD GAME. If you use the same (erroneous) logic that you have used the entire season the Illinois OSU game is by far a mismatch. C'mon

because the player is being paid the most when he is likely to be playing the worst, making him that much more impossible to trade but at the same time yearly escalating salaries will minimize this effect.