Outshined_One

Juan GIDPierre up.

Bleeping Tony Womack.

Let the osprey jokes begin!

I think that's the only reason why no one has been fired yet. Whether it's Rothschild, Clines, Sarge, Dick Pole, or any of the other cadre of idiot coaches, none of them have been fired yet. Typically when a team has been sucking this bad, some one like the pitching coach or hitting coach gets the axe. It might be a useless symbolic act, but it's better than doing nothing. It's clear they gave extensions to all of those clowns.

That might as well have been a bunt.

The groundscrew really are giving the lawn manicures!

Quickly, bunt Murton over!

Clearly... but what makes you say that right now?? He was on with McCarver and Buck, making up excuses for the team.

2002 should be on this list. That was a painful team to watch.

Jim Hendry is full of it.

I don't think anyone in Vegas would take that bet. ;)

:P

...somehow I don't find that comforting.

I enjoy watching Tim Hudson throw popcorn at John Smoltz.

Joe Buck: "Wow, John, you actually added something to the broadcast other than idle banter!" And thus, John Smoltz made a much larger contribution to a Fox baseball broadcast than Joe Buck and Tim McCarver during their own careers.

Sounds odd. They're these purplish ones that look more like something a guy would wear out on the town rather than during a baseball game. I think it might be like those contact lenses that people have been wearing to pick up the spin on the balls better.

Anyone else find it weird that Andruw Jones wears those sunglasses during ABs?

Holy crap, Tim McCarver and Joe Buck are making sense!

Ramirez would have scored anyways. Cedeno screwed up, but that wasn't Neifi-level.

Weaver's numbers in AAA thus far: 4-1, 2.05 ERA, 9 G, 8 GS, 1 CG, 1 SHO, 57 IP, 44 H, 13 ER, 4 HR, 66/8 K/BB, .214 BAA Sexy line. The PCL is a hitter's league, so his only blemish (HR/9) might be more a result of pitching in bandboxes than anything.

Would it be too much to ask if the walks were not intentional?

Remember when people were complaining that this team hit too many HRs? Whoops.

He's best suited to CF, which is currently held by Walker in AA. Miguel Negron, Nic Jackson, and Adam Greenberg are the other OFs on West Tenn and I don't see the Cubs adding Fuld to that shuffle, especially considering they put Negron on the 40 and Jackson needs as many ABs as he can get. Walker's been doing pretty well, to boot. In Daytona, he plays every day, which he wouldn't in West Tenn unless some roster shuffling went down. I could see that happening if Pie gets the call at some point.

Bingo. OBP was the focus of the book because of the particular subject matter it was written about. I think people always get that screwed up about Moneyball; it was not so much a book about baseball as it was about maximizing the profits of a business that does not have much resources at its disposal. The Athletics are a franchise that did not have a whole lot of money to spend on draftees and free agents. They had to find ways to acquire players who would not cost very much, but would also be productive. Thus, the use of sabremetrics and OBP came into play. Oakland felt it was a terrific way to evaluate the potential production of the guys they drafted. At the time, OBP was undervalued. Guys who could draw walks were not receiving nearly as much attention as toolsy potential guys in the draft and free agency. A number of teams focused on other statistics (BA, for example) that drove a player's value up despite him not really being that productive. Tony Womack is a good example of that kind of player. Decent average...but in the grand scheme of things, he doesn't get on base a whole lot. So, the Athletics exploited that deficiency in the market to the best of their abilities while they could. OBP was the main way of doing it for hitters, but there were other ways they went about it. However, whenever a flaw in the market is exposed, other teams proceed to take advantage of it. This instance is a good example, as teams like the Red Sox, Blue Jays, Dodgers (under Depo), and a few others caught on. Thus, the Athletics had to readjust the way they drafted and sought out players. Their most recent draft saw them take six high school pitchers in the first seven rounds, which was a huge no-no in Moneyball. The appeal of Beane is his ability to use a limited budget in order to assemble a competitive team year in and year out. Beane took over in 1998. The team has had a winning record in each year from 1999-2005, a period of six years. In that time, they have won the division three times, made the wild card once, and had two seasons where the A's won 100+ games. Other teams have successfully used other models of drafting and approaching free agency despite budget limitations (Twins). There is plenty to be said for having excellent coaching in the minors and developing players effectively. The Cubs have not shown that yet, but other teams can do it pretty well. While OBP is not the be-all, end-all of offensive metrics, it is a very good way of evaluating how good a position player is at not making an out, which is critical in baseball. It could get replaced in a few years by something else. But for now, it's one of the best metrics we have available to us.