fromthestretch

He had been a good starting pitcher the past two seasons and is still young. His first start of the year was solid. Essentially, they moved him to the bullpen after two bad outings. So just to be clear, you're saying that because of those two outings, moving him to the bullpen was the smart thing to do...that those two starts show more than the past two years? No, that isn't my point at all. Here is my point... Manuel made a move and put Myers into a role at which he was excelling. His numbers as a reliever have all been better than any of his numbers at any point during his career as a starter. There. That's it. That's my point. Myers was pitching better as a reliever than he ever has as a starter. And, I would take 75 great innings over 200 decent innings any day. That's not entirely accurate. He's thrown 20.2 innings as a reliever, and yes, he did very well. However, I can point to stretches of 4-5 consecutive starts in his career where he was just as good, if not better. Oddly enough, his WHIP as a reliever was worse than his WHIP as a starter in either of the past two years. Let's assume he's going to keep up his pace as a reliever and give you 75 very good innings. Shouldn't you also take into consideration who's going to throw the 200 innings as a starter in his place in the rotation? Let's say his replacement posts a 5.00 ERA/1.45 WHIP. Is Myers still more valuable to your team out of the bullpen when he could reasonably be expected to put up a 3.70ish ERA/1.20ish WHIP as a starter?

He had been a good starting pitcher the past two seasons and is still young. His first start of the year was solid. Essentially, they moved him to the bullpen after two bad outings. So just to be clear, you're saying that because of those two outings, moving him to the bullpen was the smart thing to do...that those two starts show more than the past two years?

IF the run is counted, but the player did not tag, then the manager of the defensive team would need for his player to step on the bag, explaining that this is an appeal. At that point, the umpire must then rule whether or not the player left too early, discounting his run. According to the rules: Therefore, as long as the defensive team touches third or appeals to third, even if they've technically already recorded the third out at second, the run would not count.

How is he continually taken out in the 4th? Well, if he cramps up around 60 pitches then I'm sure there would be multiple times where he wouldn't make it out of the 4th/5th inning. I'd rather not have a starter who cannot make it past the 60 pitch mark. I saw Guzman pitch here in Memphis when he was getting "stretched out" to become a starter and he threw almost exactly 100 pitches and they took him out. He looked pissed. Let's not try to make too much out of his cramps. I would think any competent medical staff could aleviate this problem. Seriously. If it's dehydration, make sure he's drinking water or gatorade regularly between innings. If it's something more serious, get it checked out. And for the record, he's made it well past the 60-pitch mark in each of his three starts.

Jack Cust is jealous of Andy LaRoche's walk rate: 12 walks in 41 plate appearances (27 official at-bats).

I don't believe this is true. An official scorer can refuse to give a reliever a WIN when he qualifies, if the official scorer feels another reliever pitched more effectively. This is specifically spelled out in the scoring rules for awarding wins. However, I don't believe the same applies to saves. As long as a pitcher meets the criteria for the save, he will get it, no matter how badly he pitched. To answer the original question...a pitcher cannot be credited with a blown save if it is not a save situation to begin with.

Exactly. Grace's best year was '95 with an OPS+ of 143 (.911 OPS for the season). Lee's '05 OPS+ was 177 (1.080 OPS for the season). Lee's the much better choice.

Brad Radke pitched last season in pain with his shoulder hanging on with chewing gum and duct tape and had a stretch in May/June where he was over 100 pitches for six straight starts. Yes, I understand he's nowhere near the same style of pitcher as Zambrano, and by then Radke probably knew it would be the final season of his career. But this is an example of a guy pitching through pain. Zambrano's a proud guy. He could very well be having pain, but he just might not deem it significant enough to say anything about it. He also might not want it to be known that he's having pain as it could affect his ability to get a long-term deal from someone.

I'm curious how someone who throws that hard and is that wild can manage to give up nearly a hit an inning, including two home runs in less than 40 innings. Did he really throw enough strikes to allow that many hits? You'd think that either A) hitters wouldn't feel comfortable in the box against him or B) they'd just go up there with a bat on their shoulder knowing that there's a good chance they'll reach base if they don't swing the bat.

*raises hand* He's 7 for his last 12. Glad to see the beaning didn't cause him to start bailing out.

I would have scored it as an error and a sacrifice. No official AB. There is no error. The fielder (in this instance, the catcher) made a choice to throw to second. It sounds like the throw was on target, just late. It may have been a mental error on the catcher's part, but not a physical one. The hitter gets credit for the sac for moving the runner safely to second. The fielder's choice is how the hitter reached first. It's not all that rare of a play. Edited to add: If the official scorer thinks the hitter was bunting for a hit and not for a sac, AND if the official scorer thinks that the catcher would have easily thrown the hitter out at first if the catcher had not thrown to second instead, the official scorer can rule it a straight FC with no sacrifice awarded to the hitter. However, you'll rarely see any official scorer do that.

With all of the suckiness over 25 years, it would be too difficult to pick the 25 worst. So many are worthy of that title. You'd probably have to set a minimum number of plate appearances for hitters, innings for starters, and games for relievers. Otherwise, you're going to end up with the 1999 version of Micah Bowie in the starting rotation (9.96 ERA in 47 innings). oh, i think Anthony Young, Ozzie Timmons and Shane Andrews got enough playing time to qualify I don't know if Shane Andrews and his 109 OPS+ is bad enough to make the team though. Willie Greene on the other hand...

With all of the suckiness over 25 years, it would be too difficult to pick the 25 worst. So many are worthy of that title. You'd probably have to set a minimum number of plate appearances for hitters, innings for starters, and games for relievers. Otherwise, you're going to end up with the 1999 version of Micah Bowie in the starting rotation (9.96 ERA in 47 innings).

Just realized I don't have anyone from '88, but I have someone from '82. This could be tough, since the '88 team doesn't offer much promise. EDIT: Replaced Proly ('82) with Nipper ('88). Yuck.

Dernier's OBP's sucked. Brian McRae would have been a decent option. But then I'd have to take someone else from 1987, since that was Dave Martinez's year. The only good options that year were Dawson (Sosa was the better option in RF), Durham (Lee is the better option at 1B), Moreland (Ramirez is the better option at 3B), and Frank Dipino. Edited to add: If I used '03 Lofton, I couldn't use '03 Prior.

The toughest parts about this is that you can only take one player per year and you have to use someone in the role they played. In other words, I couldn't take the 1987 Andre Dawson and use him off the bench. He'd have to be the starting right fielder. I was trying to find a way to get Hector Villanueva on the roster as the backup catcher, but it would have made another part of the team weaker.

I wasn't sure if anyone had posted this before, but I thought it was a neat idea: http://www.armchairgm.com/index.php?title=Can_You_Beat_The_All-25-Year_Mets_Team%3F (You may have to scroll down a bit to see the content on the page.) I'd be curious to see what kind of rosters people would put together for the Cubs. Basically, take a 25-year period (in their example, they used 1983 through 2006) and build the best team you can. Following the rules that were listed on the site and using the same 25-year stretch, I put together the following Cubs team. Starting Lineup *CF Dave Martinez (1987): .292/.372/.418 (106 OPS+) 2B Ryne Sandberg (1990): .306/.354/.559 (141 OPS+) RF Sammy Sosa (2001): .328/.437/.737 (201 OPS+) 1B Derrek Lee (2005): .335/.418/.662 (177 OPS+) *C Rick Wilkins (1993): .303/.376/.561 (146 OPS+) 3B Aramis Ramirez (2006): .291/.352/.561 (126 OPS+) LF Moises Alou (2004): .293/.361/.557 (128 OPS+) SS Ricky Gutierrez (2000): .276/.375/.401 (105 OPS+) Bench ^2B/3B Mark Bellhorn (2002): .258/.374/.512 (133 OPS+) OF Glenallen Hill (1999): .300/.353/.581 (125 OPS+) *3B/1B Dave Hansen (1997): .311/.429/.450 (130 OPS+) 3B/SS Chris Speier (1986): .284/.349/.452 (113 OPS+) *OF Thad Bosley (1985): .328/.391/.511 (140 OPS+) *C Tyler Houston (1996): .339/.382/.452 (119 OPS+) Starting Rotation Greg Maddux (1992): 166 ERA+, 1.01 WHIP Rick Sutcliffe (1984): 145 ERA+, 1.08 WHIP Mark Prior (2003): 175 ERA+, 1.10 WHIP Kerry Wood (1998): 128 ERA+, 1.21 WHIP Frank Castillo (1995): 127 ERA+, 1.23 WHIP Bullpen Lee Smith (1983): 231 ERA+, 1.07 WHIP Les Lancaster (1989): 278 ERA+, 1.03 WHIP *Chuck McElroy (1991): 198 ERA+, 1.28 WHIP *Paul Assenmacher (1990): 147 ERA+, 1.22 WHIP Al Nipper (1988): 119 ERA+, 1.33 WHIP Jim Bullinger (1994): 116 ERA+, 1.21 WHIP *left-hander ^switch-hitter Edited to replace Mike Proly ('82) with Al Nipper ('88) since I didn't have anyone from 1988.

Checking everyone is not practical. It seems like they are targeting former or current Orioles. Do you think there is a slight possibility that there may be a reason (or leads) to substantiate why they are targeting Palmeiro, Grimsley, Sosa, Tejada, Tatis and Jerry Hairston, Jr.? Oddly enough, four of those six played in Texas, too.

And then if nothing is found in his records, people will be asking about the portions that are blacked out.

There's absolutely no way in hell that Barrett is responsible for Z's inability to throw strikes. Unless the calls are coming from the dugout, Z can shake Barrett off anytime he wants. Regardless, it's the pitcher's job to throw the ball to a particular spot. You can make the argument that Blanco might be better at keeping Zambrano's emotions in check for whatever reason, and if that's actually true, it could impact performance. However, Barrett is not responsible for Zambrano's disastrous start to this season. Any pitcher who blames his catcher for the pitcher's poor performance is simply trying to shift blame away from himself.

An update: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2849747

Yup, today's homer broke McGriff's record and Sosa now has gone yard in 44 ballparks. Does anyhave a list of parks he has homered in? Or parks he hadsn't homered in? I'd like to see how much higher he can push this. http://www.baseball-reference.com/pi/bsplit.cgi?n1=sosasa01 Scroll to the bottom of that page.

But the fact is Dusty abused his guys more than any manager abused theirs. Lots of them are bad. But Dusty is the worst. I'm looking through the game logs from 2003 and he has so many 100+ ptich outings. He had 2 stretches when he had a long string of starts with over 100 pitches. One stretch was 12 consecutive starts with over a 100 pitches and another was 10 starts. These streaks were separated by 2 starts. Unreal. Out of the 30 starts he made, he was under 100 pitches in only four of them. It wasn't just that he was over 100 pitches...he typically went well beyond that. He had 19 starts where he went over 110 pitches. Out of those 19 games, he was over 120 in nine of them. Out of those nine, he was over 130 in three of them, including his last two starts of the regular season. He averaged just over 113 pitches per game that year. Over his last 10 games of the season, he averaged over 120 pitches per game. None of this includes his three post-season starts. This was all as a 22 year old.

Seriously, let's just condense the entire freaking board into one thread. Lighten up. If there's already a thread discussing this, I have no problem with merging them or locking this one.

Oops...my bad.