fromthestretch

He did hit lefties well (.311/.392/.557), but he was even better against right-handers (.368/.437/.686).

The Pirates tried him in the outfield in 2001. It was a disaster.

Appears to be a 30-year old minor league corner infielder who walks a lot and has some extra-base power. Looking at his minor league numbers (career .304/.425/.510), I'm surprised he hasn't been given more of a shot than his 20 major league at-bats with the Dodgers in '05...especially since he bats left-handed. You'd think someone would give him a shot in a Dave Hansen-type role.

I remember someone posting the photo of his glove a year or two ago.

not inlcuding today: 126 ABs, 8 2Bs 6 Hrs .382 .460 .636 1.096 beaten to it . . . except, do my stats look different? My bad. I was looking at this season's numbers instead of career numbers. The stats I posted earlier were just for 2007.

Prior to today: 28 plate appearances .478/.571/.652 with 5 BB and 3 K

Going off memory here, but I think it's 732 in the past 7 days, 680 in the past 14, and 750? in the past 28. No need to call people morons, unless you'd prefer to get banned to protect yourself from people who aren't happy with a 1B hitting like a shortstop. nice play by jones.... anyway... if I get banned for using the word "moron" then I am completely fine with that. i one hundred percent stand by that comment. His August OPS is .784, not .853.

In my mind, there's no doubt the streak is intact, but I can't come up with the clear explanation of "why" . . . It would continue the streak.

same link as above How could he break a finger that was in his glove? It was the most solid contact Offerman has made since the 1999 season.

link Yikes on this picture: http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site96/2007/0814/20070814__bluefish_1_Gallery.jpg I like how you can see the firstbaseman's glove falling to the ground in the background of the photo, but the firstbaseman isn't anywhere in the picture.

yes I don't believe that's correct. It's typically only a caught stealing if the runner makes an effort towards the next base. If the pitcher throws over to first and the runner breaks for second, it is a caught stealing if they get him out. Otherwise, I don't believe most pickoffs are considered a stolen base attempt.

Wasn't Speaker a CF? He only played 18 games in the infield, all at 1B.

I'd probably take McCovey over Eddie Murray.

Did you take anything away from Ben Johnson's or the East German swimmers' "accomplishments?" The Olympics started disqualifying athletes in 1968. It's not like they were turning a blind eye to it during Ben Johnson's years of competing. MLB turned a blind eye to it for a long time, including much of Bonds' career.

Doesn't it also kind of ignore the fact that other cheating has gone on throughout the history of the game? People have been taking greenies for a long time. Spitballs, corked bats, scuffed balls, etc....have been going on for several generations. I'm not saying any of that excuses what's gone on with steroids/PEDs, but a lot of those other forms of cheating never seem to be met with this kind of anger. Cheating will continue to evolve in all sports. The key is whether the governing authorities for those sports can manage to not ignore it for a couple decades when something new comes along. Cheating becomes a bigger issue when the breaking of records is involved, be it the 100 meter dash, the 50 meter butterfly or the greatest record of them all - the career home run record. I think the cheating of Gaylord Perry, Albert Belle, Norm Cash, Don Sutton, etc. would have received greater scrutiny/disdain if they were close to breaking any of baseball more cherished records. That's what I don't like about any of this. People seem to only give a damn about those that threaten to or actually break records (and it certainly doesn't help that Bonds isn't exactly a people person). But no one got up in arms about Matt Lawton taking steroids. Where's the public outrage over Neifi Perez taking stimulants? Out of those you mentioned, does Perry win 300 games without doctoring the ball a bit here and there? That's a pretty exclusive club, so you'd think there would be more outrage over that. That's the thing that I don't like about all the Bonds outrage. If they manage to punish him somehow for all this, it doesn't erase the fact that a crapload of players got away with the exact same thing, and no one will ever care. Hell, no one really ever talks about Palmeiro anymore, and he actually got caught.

Doesn't it also kind of ignore the fact that other cheating has gone on throughout the history of the game? People have been taking greenies for a long time. Spitballs, corked bats, scuffed balls, etc....have been going on for several generations. I'm not saying any of that excuses what's gone on with steroids/PEDs, but a lot of those other forms of cheating never seem to be met with this kind of anger. Cheating will continue to evolve in all sports. The key is whether the governing authorities for those sports can manage to not ignore it for a couple decades when something new comes along.

Justin Upton is 19 and is only 699 homers away from the 700 mark, so watch out. :lol:

Pedro rivals Koufax for having the best single 5 year run. I'd agree with that, but those 5 years were basically all Koufax had, no? Pedro might win out on longevity. I'm pretty sure Sandy's arm was shot Grover Cleveland Alexander has a 5 year stretch where he averaged 27 wins, 200k's, and a 1.64 ERA. Koufax had a 5 year stretch where his ERA was 1.98 But considering that Pedro had an average ERA under 2.20 during a 5 year stretch in the modern game...that makes Pedro look all the more badass. Pedro's career ranking in certain categories: 1st in ERA+ 3rd in WHIP 3rd in K/9 3rd in Win % 3rd in K/BB 3rd in H/9

You're focusing on one thing I said and ignoring everything else. I've said several times that Pagan should have been aware of the situation. Regardless of what Pagan should have done (and I'm not arguing what he should have done), I would feel like I didn't do my job as an infielder if I hadn't been yelling to him about the runner tagging up. In my opinion, there should almost always be someone yelling on just about every play. Runner on first, ground ball to short, someone should be yelling "TWO." Runner on first, double to the gap, outfielder hits the cutoff, someone needs to be yelling to let the relay man know what to do with the ball. Players have mental lapses once in awhile, even at the highest level of play, so having people yelling what to do doesn't hurt. Say you're the runner on third with the bases loaded. The thirdbase coach is most likely going to remind you there are "x" outs and to go on contact. As the runner, you should know this already, but it never hurts to have someone reminding you of the situation. Last night, Pagan should have known there was a fast runner on first, and he should have been prepared to throw quickly. I just think that an infielder has a responsibility to let him know that guy is tagging. Obviously, you disagree. So be it.

Some of the blame goes to the infielders on this one. They needed to let him know that the runner was tagging. I absolutely disagree. If there are less than two outs and runners on base, you get the ball in quickly. That is fundamental baseball -- the kind of stuff you learn in Little League. You don't need the infielders to tell you that. I said "some of the blame," not all. I never said Pagan wasn't without blame. But as an infielder, if you see the runner hustling back to tag up, you sure as hell should be yelling to the outfield. That's also fundamental baseball. Of course, Pagan should be aware of who was on first, and he should have been ready to throw the ball in quickly. If it's true that Lee was yelling, then the blame does fall squarely on Pagan's shoulders. I respect your opinion, but simply disagree. The infielders have no play at all on this. Even if Lee doesn't shout to Pagan, less than 2 outs, man on base....you get the ball in and you get it in quickly. Again, fundamentals. You know who's on, and you know how many outs there are. Castillo was on and he's fast.....Pagan should have known this. Instead of throwing the ball in quickly to second, regardless of the infielders yelling or not, he decided to lob the ball in. This is a huge mental error and I'm sure he got his butt chewed by Lou. Now if Pagan had gotten the ball in quickly and the infielders were standing around picking their nose, then yeah, I blame them. You basically just repeated what I said (see bolded part). To say the infielders have no play at all on this is wrong. With runners on base, infielders need to let the outfielders know what's going on with the runners, so the outfielder can concentrate on fielding the ball instead of watching two things at once. I'm not denying the fact that he should have been ready to throw as soon as he caught that ball. But maybe, just maybe, if he hears someone yelling about the runner tagging up, he does come up throwing. Also, I wouldn't say he lobbed the ball in. He took his time but fired it in once he realized the runner tagged up. Unfortunately, he realized it too late. I'm not trying to defend Pagan here, because he sure as hell screwed up enough times last night.

Some of the blame goes to the infielders on this one. They needed to let him know that the runner was tagging. I absolutely disagree. If there are less than two outs and runners on base, you get the ball in quickly. That is fundamental baseball -- the kind of stuff you learn in Little League. You don't need the infielders to tell you that. I said "some of the blame," not all. I never said Pagan wasn't without blame. But as an infielder, if you see the runner hustling back to tag up, you sure as hell should be yelling to the outfield. That's also fundamental baseball. Of course, Pagan should be aware of who was on first, and he should have been ready to throw the ball in quickly. If it's true that Lee was yelling, then the blame does fall squarely on Pagan's shoulders.

Some of the blame goes to the infielders on this one. They needed to let him know that the runner was tagging.

Kouzmanoff since May 10: .284/.339/.500 That's in 225 plate appearances. That being said, he's hasn't hit well at all against right-handers. Maybe they'll platoon him with Mackowiak.

I'm not sure I'd consider 28 to be "lots," especially when some of the other players who have hit home runs at that rate are thought of as having a little help from performance-enhancing drugs. It's not like there have been a few hundred people in the history of the game that have averaged a home run per 16 at-bats.

He had a similar streak, which spanned 11 starts in 2003. He had a similar streak, which spanned 10 starts last season.