Clem Fandango

I wanted McCarthy badly when he was a FA. I'd still take him now. Once he overcame his limitations from his injury he was a solid guy. He's be good going forward. Plus he's hilarious.

Why was Darvil even sent to the AFL with his numbers? Is he a defensive wiz or something?

not necessarily after soler was solid but not eye poppingly spectacular in high A while puig made MLB his bitch for 3 months in swaggerific fashion To be fair, he "made MLB his bitch" for about one month, and was merely pretty good after that. Arbitrary endpoints. 4 WAR in 100 games is plenty for me. 5.0 rWAR, too. That said... 96 K's in 104 games and a .383 BABIP. He'll fall back down to Earth and be probably what Cespedes is now, IMO.

There's nothing irrational about bonering over these prospects.

If that's the case then they're idiots because this was completely out of the Cubs' hands. There was nothing they could do with Girardi until the World Series is over, it's not their fault he opted to re-up with the Yankees before the championship series even begin.

On one hand, kudos to him for being honest. On the other, how does he not play it up to the listeners and fans and say the Braves will win? Perhaps he's positioning himself to be an analyst somewhere.

Is Canseco lobbying for the managerial job via Twitter? That's cute.

Is there any video coverage of the AFL at all? I want to see visual evidence of our prospects destroying that league.

http://i.imgur.com/TvceW.gif

http://i.imgur.com/3VGmN.gif

Yeah Frank is a tough one. He'll get in eventually but maybe not on the first ballot. I believe if he got in he'd be the first member who played more games at DH. That may hurt him with the meatheads more than him being a large guy in the roid era. I don't think there has ever been much speculation about him and roids. He was a hulk of a man back when he played at Auburn. Thomas was always a staunch opponent of steroids even before they became a major issue in baseball, iirc. It would suck if his defense and DH'ing kept him out, he was arguably the biggest offensive threat throughout the 90's. And if they're gonna let Jim Rice in because he was a tough out in the 80's, I don't see why they keep Thomas out when he dwarfs anything Jim Rice has ever done with a baseball bat.

Yes, there are more than 10 worthy guys, and I'm not arguing with the logic, I'm just saying it's dumb. No one on that ballot is more worthy than Maddux. If I'm handed my ballot with the list of names the first thing I'm doing is marking Greg Maddux down, then moving on with the rest of my list. I don't want to be the guy they out as not voting for Greg Maddux because I wanted to spend that vote on Lee Smith instead cause damnit I've been voting for him for 8 years now and I ain't gonna stop!

From the article Maddux obviously topped everyone with 98.5% -- brilliant reader Av wrote in with a reason why someone might not vote for Maddux that actually makes some sense. He wondered if someone might not vote for Maddux because the limit is 10, and maybe the BBAWAA member has 12 or 13 or more people he believes deserves the vote. The BBWAA person might pass on Maddux knowing full well that he will get elected anyway and use that vote for Tim Raines or Edgar Martinez or someone else who might be worthy. I don’t go along with it entirely -- I think it kind of cuts against the spirit of the Hall of Fame vote -- but I can see the argument. I suppose that theory makes sense, but it's shitty logic. If you want to give votes to Tim Raines and Edgar Martinez, then give them votes, and then vote for Greg [expletive] Maddux you idiots. - 4 time Cy Young Winner, 9 times in the Top 5 - 13 consecutive Gold Gloves, 18 total Gold Gloves - 6 times received votes for MVP, 2 times was Top 5 - 8 time all-star (should be at least 9... in 1993 he won the Cy Young and was killing it at the break, yet didn't get voted in somehow) - 3.16 career ERA / 3.26 FIP - 355 wins - 3,371 K's (despite a 6.1 career K/9) - He made less than 33 starts just three times in his career (not counting first short season). Those years he made 25, 27, and 28 starts. Two of those years were strike shortened seasons of 1994 and 1995. The other was his first full year when they used him 3 times at reliever. That means in 19 of 22 years he made 33 starts or more. Had it not been for the strike seasons, he probably would've made 30+ starts. He was a pillar of health. - 104.6 rWAR/113.9 fWAR - Had an ERA+ of 260 or higher TWICE (1994 [271], 1995 [260]) - Spent 20 of his 23 years playing for only two teams - People look at Koufax's 5 year run as one of the best stretches of pitching ever. Koufax's ERA+ during that stretch was 167. Greg Maddux had a SEVEN year run (1992-1998) with an ERA+ of 190. His ERA in that time span was 2.15 with a 0.96 WHIP.... that's his cumulative numbers over a SEVEN YEAR SPAN. If anyone would choose to NOT vote for this man because "Oh he'll get in anyways I should give me vote to a borderline guy that I like instead" should have their voting rights revoked forever. And they should also be branded on the face with the letter "D" for douche.

If Greg Maddux doesn't get in with 100% of the vote, whoever votes against him will surely die a horrible, long, and painful death.

The Dodgers are starting Kershaw on 3 days rest despite being up 2-1 in the series just so they can have the luxury of closing out the series at home. That seems... unnecessary.

Who is Renteria?

But it is a professional, responsible, and logical response to getting fired despite being in the playoffs 3 out of the last 4 years.

He was the first Cubs catcher I remember seeing when I first started watching the Cubs. Until I just recently looked up his stats (as in 30 minutes ago), I thought he was serviceable offensively. He was not. He was pretty awful. Like really awful. Like he has to be on a list as one of the worst offensive catchers of the last 30 years to get regular playing time type awful.

If I recall, Jay-Z did pass whatever exam/process is required to receive the license to represent clients in the industry and was approved by MLB and the NBA.

Maddux, I presume?

The problem is he's falling back on the hate mail angle (which isn't the first time this has happened) instead of taking accountability for his shortcomings as a manager because he comes off as thinking he's never wrong. He wasn't wrong for abusing Wood and Prior. It wasn't his fault he didn't have "all his horses". And now that he's been fired it's not "Despite 3 playoff appearances in 4 years, I've been unable to lead our team to the World Series and I need to take accountability for that failure" and instead it's "Well the hate mail is getting pretty rough lately so maybe I should go"? He's the worst.

Cubs apparently aren't interested despite him showing interest. Hadn't heard about that, then BN popped up on my Facebook feed with this article, for those who are interested... http://www.bleachernation.com/2013/10/04/obsessive-new-manager-watch-mike-maddux-reportedly-more-interested-this-time-around/

Maybe he hit big on a scratch-off lottery ticket. Maybe he's waiting for this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNo1-AqU61A

It's lawsuit Friday! http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/mlb/story/_/id/9769100/albert-pujols-los-angeles-angels-sues-jack-clark-steroid-accusations

You think he'd learn by now to have a low level employee or something screen his fan mail.