mcgoobs

3 years and $40 MM left on his contract along with a mediocre injury-filled season makes trading Dempster difficult.

.741 OPS overall, .682 in the last three innings of a game. Only Colorado falls off more: .775 OPS overall, .710 in the last three innings of a game.

Someone smarter than me will say whether this is indicative of anything or the result of a small sample size or luck. LAD .786 STL .766 PHI .757 ARI .753 WAS .729 FLA .714 HOU .712 ATL .711 COL .709 MIL .708 SFA .698 PIT .684 CIN .682 CHI .682 SDP .667 Link

This link indicates that while that the stated dimensions are the same, the actual fences are shorter, specifically in right field.

Not to get all Peter Gammons, but how cool is it looking at the ages of the top 10 in ERA in the NL and AL? Matt Cain 2.12 ERA, age 24 Tim Lincecum 2.18 ERA, age 25 Dan Haren 2/19 ERA, age 28 Jair Jurrjens 2.69 ERA, age 23 Clayton Kershaw 2.76 ERA, age 21 Josh Johnson 2.87 ERA, age 25 Zack Greinke 2.08 ERA, age 25 Edwin Jackson 2.64 ERA, age 25 King Felix 2.78 ERA, age 23 Justin Verlander 3.16 ERA, age 26 Brad Bergesen 3.43 ERA, age 23

Will Cliff Lee be that much better than Kershaw or Billingsley this year and next? To the tune of $8 MM better next year?

Pedro, hands down. I'm pretty sure if I had 500 at bats against 1999 Pedro, I would be crying either out of embarrassment or pain within three minutes.

If you know it's coming, you just cheat and start your swing early. And if you get much of the bat on it, you have a decent shot at getting a hit. You can't cheat on a sweeping slider or hammer curveball. I played against guys in HS who could bring it at 90+, but they usually had no other pitches. I could hit them (at least make solid contact). Hell, at that velo you don't have to take a full swing - just choke up a bit and try your best to "catch" the ball with the barrel of the bat. I was lost against anything with decent movement or contrasting speeds. If the fastball has good (just about any) movement, then yeah, that's a different story. EDIT: of course, this is assuming you have a respectable level of hand/eye coordination. For that reason, I would pick a two-pitch pitcher like Harden. Sit on his fastball, and let his change-up, assuming I can pick it up, go by.

::Slow clap::

Not my favorite, but I've always been partial to the 1980s jerseys. http://www.freewebs.com/hodgesautographs/Keith%20Moreland%20001.jpg

He's not the best 3B on his own team. Maybe not it's AA team.

Z?

In the U.S. I would think it was Elvis, but on the global scale it had to be Michael Jackson.

Bartolo Colon is on that list. http://www.chatterbalks.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/colon_bartolo051011.jpg That's rich.

When I was in high school I spent a couple of hours one afternoon getting the Willie Mays Hayes bat bounce down, giving myself a blister and hitting myself in the junk a couple of times to boot. Completely worth it.

His 2007 season was a fantasy dream, when he out-Jose Reyes'd any of Jose Reyes' seasons. Avg: .302 H: 185 2B: 38 3B: 23 HR: 23 RBI: 74 R: 122 BB: 52 SB: 26

It's not official evidence, but google "Piazza bacne" for evidence from professional journalists.

The Cubs have been terrible recently at hitting with runners on/in scoring position. The Cubs are 28th in baseball in BA, R and OPS with RISP. Last year we were 4th in all 3 of those categories I think. It's a major major problem and a huge reason why our offense is nowhere near as good as last years. I was talking specifically for the BDI and LOB stats Fred has.

Fred I'm not fully familiar with the stats around clutch, and don't know what a good ratio for batters driven in vs (batters driven in + left on base) is. Was Ramirez off the charts good before getting injured? Are the rest of the Cubs performing lower than normal this year?

This thread is now very funny.

I have been to both in the same week before. 5 Guys is good, but it's not In N Out good. Word.

Home: .348/.492/.761 Away: .233/.361/.367 His away numbers are still miles ahead of his last year's embarrasment of .158/.256/.249. He's on pace for 113 walks vs 578 PAs, which would be his highest total in his career by far. In 2002 he had 83 walks in 659 PAs.

I think you need 10 years of MLB service time to get pension. and he's got 9? He's smart to hang around for almost free just to try to get that additional service year and get the sweet pension package. He's also smart enough to begin dating the manager's daughter to get on his good side.

To save or come close to saving the $11 MM that Peavy's contract costs this year, the team would have to move Brian Giles - who nixed a deal to the Red Sox when they were contending - and one of Adrian Gonzalez, Chris Young, Jody Gerut, Heath Bell, or Scott Hairston. That seems like a tricky thing for the Padres to do right now. Link Additionally moving Peavy will remove the albatross for the coming years, as has been noted on this board many times. I don't think they have to shave Peavy's entire contract, I think they just need to drop down to or below $40 million in payroll. I'm not sure of the specifics, but Cot's has the 25-man roster at roughly $43 million right now, meaning they need to get $3 million off the books. That doesn't change your scenario much, though. If Peavy stays, one of Adrian Gonzalez, Brian Giles or Chris Young will have to go. They could also put together a combination of Heath Bell, Scott Hairston, David Eckstein, Henry Blanco and Cliff Floyd. Three to four of those players would do as well. You're right. They could move enough of the lower-salaried players this year to get to $40 MM in payroll. At that point they would have $26 MM committed to next year and could try to fill in the spots on the roster not held by Peavy, Young and Gonzalez with cheap fillers.

Even better: Lincecum: 24 years old Greinke: 25 years old Verlander: 26 years old