XZero771679666304

That's just rude

Gallardo.... Oh wait... Even if Gallardo weren't injured, he's far more valuable in the rotation. Torres has done it before, but like nearly all of the the rest of that pen, he is allowing baserunners. If I were Yost, I might take a look at Mitch Stetter. He has looked the best reliever the Brewers have, and does very well against both LH and RH. That said, I hope he turns to Torres, Riske or Mota.

I don't know why Hanley would do this, but if there isn't a NTC, this could be a very self-serving move for the Marlins. The guys on BBTN were praising the move as setting a foundation, but I'm not buying it. All I was thinking was how much more they could get in trade for him with a bunch of years left on a bargain contract. And by bargain I mean bargain for big market clubs. How much could they get for one of the best players in the game with 5 or 6 years left at below market value?

Ah, a rare FOX Saturday Cubs telecast I'll actually be able to see, since I live in New Mexico.

When you look at that staff as a whole, you wonder how in the hell they are in fist place.

Not even close, IMO. You mean Edmonds isn't close to Jones and Griffey, right? Jones is easily one of the best CF ever. Edmonds was a great fielder, but not better than Andruw. Edmonds was very good, but he was never as good as Andruw Jones. You don't need to be biased to see that.

No, it's much easier to ignore them, especially when they don't support your argument. You have to find an angle and stick to it, regardless of whether or not it's completely wrong. And you can't let things like reality deter you. You wouldn't want to be a flip-flopper.

And he has a penchant for attempting to steal when he shouldn't, making the CS that much worse. I don't know if he has just been the victim of great throws this year or the good SB% he had in 2006 and 2007 were a mirage, but I am at the point where I want Theriot anchored to the base.

Clearly. When his OPS is up around .850-.900 in August/September, we're going to want it hidden in the 7 hole.

I could hardly believe Gallardo was left in the game. Knowing what I know now, I don't think it made much of a difference, but since they didn't know anything at the time, it was still really, really stupid. The replays looked ugly, he was obviously in pain, and it's still early in the season. You can't let a player's tough guy act override your common sense.

You have no idea how much this depresses me X2

CAUTION: Small sample size alert... Career at Wrigley Field: .200/.259/.400 for an OPS of .659 I'm just saying... Khalil Greene hasn't matched up well at all with our pitching staff over that time, either. We have had a bunch of wild strikeout pitchers, and Greene is a free swinger who strikes out a lot. Not much surprise that his numbers at Wrigley wouldn't be good. EDIT: A cursory glance at the numbers shows he has been even worse against the Cubs at Petco. True, but strikeouts aren't the entire reason why. He only has 20 K's in 4 years against the Cubs (1 for every 5 AB's, whereas he has 1 per 4.7 against everyone else) and a BABIP of .213. (For the record, his avg against Cubs pitching over that time is .170, and he's hitting .140 against Cub pitching at Petco.) So, he has put more balls in play against the Cubs than he does the rest of the league, on average. He just sucks even when he does. Either way, he has struggled against the Cubs regardless of venue, so his struggles at Wrigley are most likely a result of facing Cubs pitching rather than any problem with Wrigley itself.

CAUTION: Small sample size alert... Career at Wrigley Field: .200/.259/.400 for an OPS of .659 I'm just saying... Khalil Greene hasn't matched up well at all with our pitching staff over that time, either. We have had a bunch of wild strikeout pitchers, and Greene is a free swinger who strikes out a lot. Not much surprise that his numbers at Wrigley wouldn't be good. EDIT: A cursory glance at the numbers shows he has been even worse against the Cubs at Petco.

Freel is hitting 292/327/354 and is sitting so Corey Patterson 213/281/475 can start. Gotta love some Dusty. So Patterson has a better OPS, and is a far better baserunner and defender. Keep. Reaching. I don't have to reach to know Dusty is a bad manager and the Reds will be under 500 at the end of the season. And that batting at the top of the order, I'd much rather have the extra 46 pts. of OBP than the 125 pts of slugging. And Freel is a bad fielder and one of the worst baserunners you will fine. Patterson is a better player. Really Jay Bruce should be in CF, but whatever. Corey's baserunning skills rarely come into play. That's the problem. A sub-.300 OBP from your leadoff hitter isn't even in the remote vicinity of acceptable. Corey has no value whatsoever as a leadoff man. If we were discussing Freel vs. Patterson as your #8 hitter, your points would have some validity. No one is reaching here.

how exactly does Petco disable a player from hitting for average? if he's content hitting flyballs into fielders gloves every home game, he's an incredibly dumb baseball player. i'd like to ask why he hasn't changed his approach at home so that he's not a quintessential detriment to his team. We're not looking at his average. Look at his production. he doesn't have the power hit HRs in petco. we all realize this. it might be a good idea perhaps to try something different at home so you're not punishing your own ballclub. there's really no reasonable excuse for hitting .227 at your home park. San Diego as a team hit .235 at home, .265 on the road. .245 at home in 2006, .279 away. They were first in the NL in road avg in 2006, and dead last in home average. 2005 was close, but again .032 diff in home away AVG in 2004. Offensive numbers across the board suffer at Petco. Maybe Adrian Gonzales (-.030 AVG at Petco vs. road), Brian Giles (-.041 AVG at Petco vs. road) and Co. are stupid baseball players as well.

how exactly does Petco disable a player from hitting for average? if he's content hitting flyballs into fielders gloves every home game, he's an incredibly dumb baseball player. i'd like to ask why he hasn't changed his approach at home so that he's not a quintessential detriment to his team. No one here is going to argue that AVG/OBP are Greene's strong points. His assets are his glove, and his slugging, which he does .100+ points better on the road, at a .500 clip over his past three seasons. The net result (OPS, which is more important then AVG) is good. You don't bat him near the top, you tuck him in the 5/6 slot and let him slug.

You aren't really going to use this year's numbers to tell if a player's good or not, are you? I thought you were better than that. But I guess if you want to play that game, I have a question for you. There's another SS putting up these numbers: .152/.226/.238 Do you think it would be dumb to trade for him? Well if so, you just turned down a trade for Troy Tulowitzki, wtg dude. Tulowitzki as a rookie put up superior production to anything Greene's ever done. And he's not hitting FA next year asking for 8 figures per year. Tulowitzki plays in Coors 81 times, he hit .256/.327/.393/.719 away from home. home games don't count anymore? i guess i havent been keeping up with all these rule changes. damn that bud selig. Garrett Atkins also had a .254/.327/.446 road line too, which seems to indicate this guy blows as well. until you look at his road OPS in 2006 and notice it's virtually the same as his home OPS. but Tulowitzki only has one season of data which to look at and we can all think he's an inferior player to Khalil Greene because of a split which is really often fluky. everything I've seen when watching both players suggests differently. Come on. Atkins is an exception to the rule. If you look at last year's numbers, Colorado as a team had an OPS .123 points higher at home. .101 points higher in 2006. .158 in 2005. Holliday, Helton, Castilla, Bichette....virtually every notable player the Rockies have ever had displayed extreme home/road splits. There is no fluke here. Coors field consistently inflates numbers, and it's a fairly safe bet that Tulo benefited from this. Sure thing? No. But extremely likely. The reverse applies to Petco and Greene.

You aren't really going to use this year's numbers to tell if a player's good or not, are you? I thought you were better than that. But I guess if you want to play that game, I have a question for you. There's another SS putting up these numbers: .152/.226/.238 Do you think it would be dumb to trade for him? Well if so, you just turned down a trade for Troy Tulowitzki, wtg dude. Tulowitzki as a rookie put up superior production to anything Greene's ever done. And he's not hitting FA next year asking for 8 figures per year. Tulowitzki plays in Coors 81 times, he hit .256/.327/.393/.719 away from home. home games don't count anymore? i guess i havent been keeping up with all these rule changes. damn that bud selig. No, but when you play all your home games in park that inflates numbers dramatically across the board (Coors) of suppresses them dramatically across the board (Petco), your road numbers are more indicative of your "true talent". If you move a player from one of these parks to a more neutral home park, you can expect their overall numbers to move toward their road averages. Or if you move them to divisions with more hitter friendly (Central) you may even expect an increase. Damn that empirical sense.

You aren't really going to use this year's numbers to tell if a player's good or not, are you? I thought you were better than that. But I guess if you want to play that game, I have a question for you. There's another SS putting up these numbers: .152/.226/.238 Do you think it would be dumb to trade for him? Well if so, you just turned down a trade for Troy Tulowitzki, wtg dude. Tulowitzki as a rookie put up superior production to anything Greene's ever done. And he's not hitting FA next year asking for 8 figures per year. Tulowitzki plays in Coors 81 times, he hit .256/.327/.393/.719 away from home. And Greene plays in Petco and over the last 3 seasons, he has a .273/.328/.500 line away from home. An .828 OPS from a SS is really good.

only 35? hell- why not 54? or 70? 27 in Petco last year. Go from playing in Petco, Dodger Stadium, Pac Bell, etc. to Wrigley, MMP, GABP, Miller. All great parks for RH pull hitters. He already OPS' .150 higher on the road, almost all in SLG. 25-30 is very realistic, and 35 is high end. Nothing unrealistic there. Also, this isn't a vacuum. Sure, it's depressing to think about Pie being traded fro what could end up being a lesser player, but is it worse than watching him waste away in our system w/o getting a chance? I'm not sure, and I am not the least bit convinced he will ever get that chance with the Cubs.

Trading Pie because you have Reed Johnson is like cutting off your manhood because you have a finger. I'd much rather have Pie out there every day, but it's well within the realm of possibility that Reed could post a .780-.800 OPS playing every day. Obviously Pie could do better, but I doubt this year. Plus he has to find his way into the everyday lineup, which may not happen at this point, seeing as his chances to prove himself are sporadic at best.

Or when Pie puts up better numbers than Johnson over a full season? WE'D HAVE GREENE. Dear Lord, it's not like they'd be trading away Pie for nothing. We'd also have Reed Johnson as a full time CF. I'm not sure Pie + Cedeno is going to wind up as worse than Johnson + Greene. That's without even figuring trading away 2 players with another 9(?) years of team control to go with players with 2(?) years of team control. Greene going to hit AT LEAST 15-20 homers with 70 RBI's. Can Pie and\or Cedeno match those numbers? Put Greene in the central and he's good for 25-30 homers, and possibly 35, IMO. This would be a perfect time to buy low as well.

Every time someone mentions Freeport, it makes me hungry for pretzels.

Yeah, his name is mud at this point.