Outshined_One

Billy Beane's fantasy. Yup. This is not a knock against anyone in particular in this thread, but I hate how people have mischaracterized Billy Beane since Moneyball... The book was about economics and exploiting markets more than anything else. Beane's philosophy as A's GM is about exploiting undervalued parts of the market, not just about finding guys who won't be selling jeans any time soon. At the time, on base percentage was grossly undervalued in the market and allowed Billy Beane not only to acquire these productive players, but also to pay them less than they should be paid for their production. That last part is critical to his philosophy, especially considering the Athletics operate on a limited budget. You have to find ways to work within a market to get a relative bargain. Considering OBP was one of the things Beane and his people thought was undervalued at the time, the book spent a good portion talking about OBP. However, as anyone who has ever taken Econ 101 will tell you, markets will move to correct these deficiencies. OBP has become a much more acceptable metric to gauge a player's productivity. Guys Beane could once acquire for a relative bargain are now valued at a level closer to what they should be paid. For this reason, Beane has to find other ways to exploit deficiencies in the market. I don't know what standards he is using to determine value and future productivity for players these days, but I'm willing to hazard a guess that OBP is not nearly as important in making those determinations as it was when Moneyball was written.

I'd do Deng for Kobe straight up. :P This is the likely lineup if the Bulls were to trade Deng, Thomas, and spare parts (let's say Sefolosha and a first rounder) for Kobe... PG Hinrich SG Bryant SF Nocioni PF Noah C Wallace That's a pretty good team, but two obvious problems come up: 1) Gordon's essentially useless. Granted, Gordon is not on Kobe's level, but he still is a pretty good player. He'd have some trade value, but the Bulls would not be able to use him. I think that would seriously hurt his trade value. 2) The team's depth would be shot. While this team would be an upgrade over the current Lakers, everything would still fall to Kobe. Nobody on the team would really be good enough to pick up the slack if he's having an off night. If anyone in that starting lineup is injured (with the exception of Kobe), it'll just kill the team. I don't think that team can compete. Let's replace Deng with Gordon in the above deal and project the lineup. PG Hinrich SG Bryant SF Deng PF Noah C Wallace That's a much better team. Deng complements Kobe quite well and is good enough to take over on days when Kobe is having trouble. I think this team would compete with the top teams in the East and even win an NBA Championship. That's why I wouldn't want to part with Deng in a deal.

What do you call Bono? Or Cher?

http://www.nypost.com/seven/10232007/sports/keeping_kobe_in_line.htm I want to say this is a NY rag's attempt to drum up some half-crazed "Kobe to the Knicks" rumor, but given the current state of the Lakers, I don't know what to think. I'd be all for the Bulls dealing for Kobe as long as the Bulls hang on to Deng.

I'd love to have Fukudome, but I worry about how much money the Cubs have to spend this offseason. If they can pick him up, I'm curious as to the kind of trade value they'd find for Jock, Pie, and Murton on the market. I don't expect all of them to be traded, mind you, but Fukudome gives this team flexibility in the OF.

As memory serves me, he's heavily involved in the various programs to increase baseball exposure to young African Americans in the US.

He looks like a prime Dusty candidate, doesn't he?

Blame Adam Morrison for making it acceptable.

I fully expect the average combined score of those games will be around 20.

That's game over.

Hit it to the deepest part of the park with juuuuuuuuuuust enough under it to get caught. Ouch.

If Garko comes through here, guess who Public Enemy #1 will be in Boston?

Here comes the fun part...

Welp, looks like I won't be going to Cleveland this coming weekend to visit my friends. I'm not going to be in the mood to visit a bunch of catatonically depressed people.

Suicide squeeze plz.

Good call, my bad on that one.

Third base coach threw up the stop sign. You sure? I saw his arm windmilling when the ball was called fair.

He was waving Lofton in from the moment that ball was called fair. Lofton never picked him up.

Now THAT'S how you scew up an inning!

He didn't pick up his third base coach. Whoops.

The highlighted portion is probably the best thing I heard from this interview. I really believe there are some terrific players waiting to be discovered in Europe and the parts of Asia which haven't been scouted very heavily. Granted, baseball is not as big there as other sports, but if you can find quality players for cheaper than the going rate for comparable talent from places like the Dominican Republic and Korea, that's a good thing. We'll see if anything comes from it, but I think it's a great thing for this organization to be doing.

I'd love to have him, but Boston's smart enough to know that the issues Manny brings to the table pale in comparison to some of the other problems their team is having. They're not going to sell him for 80 cents on the dollar. Considering that factor, I'd rather the Cubs not make that trade.

During his time in the minors, Jackson was a highly-touted prospect. Most people thought that he and Carlos Quentin would end up becoming two of the brightest young stars in baseball. Both of them put up some impressive numbers down in the minor leagues. Murton, on the other hand, didn't receive much recognition until the season after he was traded to the Cubs. Even then, he didn't receive nearly as much hype or recognition as Jackson. I think these perceptions, in part, stem from that.

So, I guess Kenny Williams backed off his proclamation that he'll never deal with another Boras client after he used the White Sox to land A-Rod his contract with the Rangers? Seriously, I just don't see it happening.

I wish I knew how to quit this thread.