badnews

Why should I give a crap about saves? Somebody mentioned batting average, yeah, at least Hall of Famers have the edge there, the all-time saves record is held by MIGHTY BOBBY THIGPEN. Ask me if any record held by Bobby Thigpen is worth giving a crap about. The answer is a resounding no.

The division is winnable to the Indians though. The Indians won't trade if they can win their division. Keeping Sabathia to try and win a World Series now is more valuable to them than trading for prospects. Especially our crappy prospects.

These guys have got to pick one name and stick with it. Alex Wilson, William Wilson? Jay Jackson and who else? Gordon Beckham has how many names? I remember when I spent a year trying to get Santiago Casilla and Jairo Garcia in the same room together. Like, I was at a black tie baseball event and I had Jairo Garcia paged, and all of a sudden Santiago Casilla stood up and excused himself so the two of them were never in the same room. If you ask me Jairo Garcia is just Santiago Casilla with a cape, a handlebar mustache, and a monocle.

And they're getting those guys from us? Huh. That seems dubious to me.

Burnett's got great stuff but you look at his game log and see a lot of mediocrity. 4.90 ERA, 1.51 WHIP... even when he's getting strikeouts he's not really dominating anyone, and the walk totals are pretty high. His away numbers are better though.

Maybe I should put what I was trying to say a little better. In 2007 my impression was that people viewed the RF situation with a lot of scorn and disgust. The aggregate right field numbers for 2007 were: .293 BA .375 OBP .419 SLG .794 OPS 75 walks 80 RBIs 75 runs 5 steals, 3 caught My question would be, if you tack on 10 OBP points (regardless of whether the BA drops or not) and adds 5 slugging points, does what was seen as a "disaster" of sorts then become a monumental success?

I used to be on board with Fukudome batting 5th but now I see I was kidding myself. Now I don't see how it's not a huge benefit to have this guy on base when Lee and particularly Ramirez come up. I don't know how many #5 hitters have a .135 Isolated Power. Whoa whoa whoa, now we're talking up his intangibles like he's Ryan Theriot. Let's not go there. A .400 OBP may impress you but a few more points off his sinking-like-a-rock batting average and he's into the 2004 Hatteberg/2003 John Olerud territory, and I don't remember being impressed with those guys. He has two cheap home runs this month but no doubles. I just don't like the power. He's not Sean Burroughs but if you told me he finishes the season with a .110 Isolated Power I wouldn't be shocked.

I understand we are all required by federal law to bend over backwards to quash any resistance to the idea that this guy is nothing short of amazing. But since his hot start, he's been blah to me. Okay, yes, taking walks is great. Haven't had that type of guy in a while. But where is his production headed? Toward Scott Hatteberg 2004 rates? Now that doesn't impress me. When we acquired this guy all I heard was that he was going to have 15+ home run power and a boatload of doubles. I remember one phrase in particular: "He will have a crap ton of doubles." Well 13 is not a crap ton so far. I'm not going to be impressed if his rate numbers look like John Olerud 2003. I'm even wondering whether Kevin Youkilis 2006 cuts it. Anyway it's a long season and things can happen and people were wrong about Dempster and so forth so far, so nothing much can be said, but I haven't seen one word of anything less than sheer exuberance about Fukudome, so I just wanted to bring it up, if it comes to 100 walks but a .280 BA and an Isolated Power of .140, maybe that and good defense isn't the awesomest thing in the world from a corner outfielder.

I think it's funny on Wikipedia Mariotti's page had to be locked because of vandalism apparently. If you watch Around the Horn he seems like a somewhat reasonable human being but he's a weasel.

There's no reason for you to think so.

ANYONE WE DON'T HAVE MUST BE BETTER THAN WHAT WE HAVE

His numbers look fine but I remember him losing the closing job to Corpas. But that's irrelevant really. The bullpen is not where upgrades are needed and in recent memory reliever trades have been something a rip-off. Furthermore, people have gone from one extreme to another on this board. People have gone from thinking Brian Roberts was worth trading our 6 best trade chips for to people thinking essentially garbage is going to net Fuentes or Fuentes and Cook. You float these names to people who are fans of other teams and they don't cut it. Nobody gives a crap about Veal or Murton or Cedeno or even Ceda really. Let's get serious, we've got virtually nothing of value.

No, it means I can't tell who is anything more than 40th round talent and who is actually maybe something a little better by these reports, they're all written in a way that makes it sound like the Cubs got a steal in every round. I remember actually being excited reading the scouting reports on guys like Jayson Ruhlman, Mike Phelps, Deryck Lewis, Yusuf Carter, man I thought we had a great draft that year!

If you're equating Mike Wuertz to Rafael Betancourt, you're a fool. i agree. betancourt is a middle reliever who's 33 years old and is making $5.4M over the next two years, and has been horrendous this year. his LD% is a disturbingly-high 25.9%, and he gives up twice as many fly balls as he does ground balls, which is really a bad thing if you were to put him in a place like wrigley field. his great numbers last year were mostly a result of an unsustainable BABIP and LOB% (86.4!) along with a really abnormal home run rate - only 6 all year, or just 4.7% of his fly balls. he pounds the strike zone, but his ability to throw strikes hasn't been as good this year. meanwhile, wuertz is a pitcher who allows more ground balls than fly balls. his command is more spotty, but he has had a solid K-rate up to this year, and his velocity is still as good as it has been in previous years. he threw his fastball on 40% of his pitches in 2006 and 2007, but only 26.5% this year, while his slider rate has increased from 42.6% in 2006 to 62.1% this year. his pitching coach and catchers should probably be working with him on throwing a more even mix of pitches, rather than relying so heavily on the breaking pitch that often bends out of the strike zone. Still, given his age (29) and cheapness ($860k), combined with the profile of a ground ball pitcher at a hitter's park, he provides more value for the dollar than betancourt. i'm assuming that's what you meant when you said anyone comparing the two guys was a fool, correct? You're more than a fool, and you're always antagonistic, to boot. Look, relievers are notoriously streaky. You're willing to dismiss Betancourt as a loser due to two bad months, but in the same breath, you're willing to dismiss Wuertz' underperformance--simply because he's cheaper? Betancourt is so far superior to anything Wuertz has (or has even the remotest chance of) accomplishing, it is absurd. Over the last five years, the guy has an ERA+ of 206, 111, 150, 119, and 312. 312!!!!!! You wouldn't take the option of him having a bad couple months is all, in favor of keeping Mike Freaking Wuertz? Yes, you are a fool. So you swap the two, and throw in Colvin, who is a complete bust. So much so, that I'm fairly certain Cleveland wouldn't take him, so we'd need to offer someone with a bit rosier future, like Patterson or perhaps Ceda. And I'd do that alternative in a heartbeat, too. Betancourt, Marmol and Wood = lockdown. Hendry could then do a follow-on trade to move Howry to someone like the Yankees (who could desperately use him), and maybe we could get an Ian Kennedy for the future. Howry plus Pie? You shouldn't call other people fools and then propose that kind of trade with the Yankees realistically, no offense. When you start calling names your post has to be 100% above reproach and yours isn't. The fact that relievers are so up and down is a good reason not to buy into Betancourt's resurgence. What if you bought high after Juan Rincon's 2006? Bob Howry put up some gaudy numbers with the Indians that he hasn't replicated. Betancourt's 2007 looks fluky to me. I want to know what he'll do in the future, not what he did in the past, I think Wuertz probably has a better chance of putting up a 312 ERA+ than Betancourt again. Also you're cheating a little, the year he put up a 206 ERA+ he didn't throw that many innings, the rest of it is some good years and one fluky looking year. I'm not with you on one year, because your argument basically hinges on that 2007. Otherwise we're not blown-away type numbers. Aside from the 2007 year of Betancourt's his ERA+ numbers are in line with David Riske's over the same time period. Are we going crazy over David Riske? Riske ERA+ 192, 117, 135, 122, 191. You're putting too much into one year. Too many relievers put up amazing ERAs to buy that much into one year. Look at 2007: Peter Moylan, J.C Romero, Lee Gardner, Jeremy Accardo, Jared Burton, Justin Hampson, etc. Denys Reyes had an 0.89 ERA in 2006. Neal Cotts 1.94 ERA in 2005. So forth. I guess I'm a fool too. You take out Betancourt's best year and it looks good but not "lockdown."

Like I said, this is a good signing, imo. The problem is all of these scouting reports are hopelessly optimistic, I mean, go back and read the scouting reports on Kitt Kopach, Mike Phelps, Yusuf Carter, Trey Taylor (drafted twice by the Cubs and never threw a pitch for them). Jake Renshaw's scouting report made him sound "badass."

I don't know why everyone loves Gavin Floyd, up until 1 start ago he had more walks than strikeouts and a ridiculous BABIP. It's funny how people said the White Sox had no business trading for Swisher because they were required by law to go for a full scale rebuild have done a 180 now. Swisher hasn't done well but they've shown that no, they weren't required by law to rebuild, Fautino De Los Santos and Gio Gonzalez are up to nothing, so forth. Go look up the Nick Swisher trade topic, that's all it is: "They can't do that! They have to be rebuilding!"

He looks fatter than I remember. No more free pass for this guy,

I'd still like Harden more than Sabathia.

Rickie Weeks was good last year. He's just erratic.

He's only the 25th best prospect from Kansas? What kind of numbers did the other 24 put up? I agree with the other two posters, that's pretty suspicious that a high school pitcher who can throw 96 and no one can even put the ball in play against him is the 25th best prospect out of a "hotbed" like Kansas. If you can pitch it doesn't matter if you're that short, you'll be drafted high enough. Shane Nance went in the 10th or 11th round and he was like 5'6.

What team do you think at this juncture? The Rays look impressive but the Angels look like a very well put together team, and their road record is something else.

Why can't he be PTBNLed?

Josh Vitters is way behind his peers. Not college guys. Look at Chris Marrero's career path. Look at Tim Alderson, Nick Noonan, etc. What level are they at? How about this. What if we drafted Matt Wieters like the experts advised, and what if we drafted Travis Snider instead of Tyler Colvin, like the experts advised? This isn't any kind of crazy prognosticating going on. These were the common sense picks. We could trade those two together for anyone in baseball. Hell, Wieters + Snider = WELCOME TO WRIGLEY LINCECUM. Oh well the draft is a crapshoot, it's not like anybody here knew to pick those guys. Oh wait. You know what gets me? It doesn't even matter really if Snider and Wieters make it in the majors: they're worth a fortune in trade value now.

I agree. But apparently for some people it means anything goes at any time, which I don't agree with. The Ark of Covenant, the Shankara Stones, the Holy Grail, these items and the quests and resolutions are thematically consistent. I think they're also interesting looking at them against the lens of these stories taking place when the world was beginning to shrink in earnest and these journeys unearthed evidence of the truth of religion, literally, not just metaphorically. What do we have here? "Oh yeah all that cornball crap Erich von Daniken wrote is true." Yuh huh. Alright, you can sign off on that if you like. I'll pass.

For the Cubs, on ESPN Sunday Night Baseball (6/8/08). Burnett's name has been bandied about a lot, but Wolf and Meche, does anyone else find the idea of acquiring those two guys totally unsatisfying? Wolf is unconvincing as a season long difference maker. Gil Meche. I just plain don't like Gil Meche. I don't think he's a 3.67 ERA 1.30 WHIP pitcher and he's probably as good a bet to land on the DL as Burnett. Thoughts on these guys?