SABR Gamer

Not necessarily. It's above median, though! Which can technically be called the average. if you want to be technically wrong If you have ever taken a statistics class, you should know that the mean, mode, and median can all be technically called the "average." The mean is just what has become most associated with the word. If you want to be a smart ass, you should at least make sure you are right.

It requires an unbelievable skill set to be this special.

It's as if you have no clue what you are talking about!

Not necessarily. It's above median, though! Which can technically be called the average.

All of this. I really hate how much this seems to add up.

CJ going to start at Daytona next year? Any chance he starts in Tenn? Apologies if this has already been discussed.

why? we'll likely have a protected pick also, Lincecum gave the Giants replacement-level performance the last 2 years; i'd be pretty surprised to see him get QO'd To be fair, that's really not true at all. He hasn't been very good, but he's still been worth 2.5 wins since the start of 2012. He's posted xFIPs of 3.82 and 3.53 the last two years, so there are reasons to believe he could bounce back. However, I do agree that it would be surprising to see him get QO'd due to the recent perception of him. i don't really want to sidetrack the thread, but i'll just say i don't fully subscribe to the theory that every pitcher should expect to be hit equally hard; over the same timeframe, MadBum & Cain have had low BABIPs (.264, .260) working with the same defense while he's been over .300 i was referring to his RA9-WAR when calling his performance replacement-level That's fair, and an especially good point with the BABIP comparison, even more so given the steady decline in his velocity in recent years, leading to a huge increase in his LD%. I do think Tim is pretty broken at this point and will never return to his previous glory, but I was just saying I don't think he's completely hopeless, or nearly as bad as his ERA has shown the last 2 years, given that he's still striking people out and xFIP (despite it's flaws) still seems to be a fan of his. As I type this though, I realize that his HR/FB rates should be higher now than they used to, because of the velocity, and explains why xFIP has been easier on him. Anyway, this is a mess of a post and you are basically right after further review.

why? we'll likely have a protected pick also, Lincecum gave the Giants replacement-level performance the last 2 years; i'd be pretty surprised to see him get QO'd To be fair, that's really not true at all. He hasn't been very good, but he's still been worth 2.5 wins since the start of 2012. He's posted xFIPs of 3.82 and 3.53 the last two years, so there are reasons to believe he could bounce back. However, I do agree that it would be surprising to see him get QO'd due to the recent perception of him.

Jones. So last week's no show was just a fluke?

Pick one: Denarius Moore vs JAX Rueben Randle vs DEN Ahmad Bradshaw vs MIA James Jones vs WAS PPR League.

The Cubs spending spree did not get them in trouble. Fair point, but the Soriano contract was still pretty bad.

Yeah, this is like judging the Cubs' spending spree right before the 2007 playoffs started. Plenty of time for a lot of what LA has done to go wrong.

James Jones' 0 point day, combined with terrible efforts from MJD and Marshawn Lynch, left me down 10 points with Owen Daniels as my only player to go. Thankfully he came up big last night and picked up the slack. 1-0.

Great win. Great way to start the Trestman era.

Does anyone have a stream they could pm me?

Need help with a flex. Ahmad Bradshaw vs Oak. James Jones vs SF.

Fangraphs and Baseball-Reference already standardized replacement level. That's not a factor anymore. If I recall, this was for offensive players only? I'm not neccesarily prioritizing FIP over ERa, I'm just pointing out that his FIP is just as good as his ERA. Verlander has a 3.59 ERA 3.50 FIP and a 3.86 xFIP and is only 0.3 fWAR behind Fernandez. [expletive]... Doug Fister has a 4.0 fWAR and he's at 3.66/3.27/3.52 Replacement level isn't going to be different for pitchers or hitters, it's the same winning percentage (.294 or 47.7 wins). The career WARs of both hitters and pitchers changed when they standardized it. The article below states that Jack Morris had a 56.9 career fWAR and 39.3 rWAR before and now has 52.5 fWAR and 43.8 rWAR. Differences in pitching WAR are now a result of the way each site calculates their WAR (FIP vs RA), and not replacement level differences. http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/unifying-replacement-level/

Fangraphs and Baseball-Reference already standardized replacement level. That's not a factor anymore.

For Chicago - Walter Payton MJ Ernie Banks for the Cubs - not sure who for the White Sox. Frank Thomas? Don't know the Blackhawks' history very well so someone else can chime in there. Bobby Hull? Esposito? Walter Payton Michael Jordan Ron Santo (Highest career WAR of any player in Cubs history other than Cap Anson who played his entire career in the 1800s. 9 WAR higher than the next closest, Banks, in 400 fewer games.) Frank Thomas Jonathan Toews (Already more Cups than Hull and he's only 25 years old. Will go down as an all-time great. Patrick Kane, for similar reasons, could also be considered. Bobby Hull is obviously in the discussion as well.)

All very good points. I think it's very reasonable to expect a drop off, but considering how great they were last year I think that drop off could happen and they could still end up as a top 3 seed.

why, because 27 year old pitchers with good stuff who have been close to league average for most of their career never get signed to league minimum non-guaranteed deals? It happens. And if he was willing to take such a deal, I'd take him in a heartbeat. I'm not saying that we have a set rotation. I'd love to see Vizcaino and Arrieta have first crack at the 2 open spots, and even if they look like aces in Spring Training, both are guys we'd need a break glass in case of emergency backup for. What I am saying is that if we do seek rotation help that we either aim big, such as Price or dig into the reclamation bin for guys that would take a deal like that. Personally, I think he should just focus on being the future relief ace.

Haha, you don't usually get in on the action. I like it.

I'm concerned about the commitments being made to guys who aren't the difference makers on this team. Taken by itself this signing isn't disappointing, but giving Crawford and Hjalmarsson a combined $10+m per year is a little perplexing to me. Perfect summary. You don't let Kane walk away to keep either Crawford or Hammer. Do you seriously think that Stan plans on letting Kane walk away? That the Toews and Kane situations aren't a factor in every signing they make? No I'm sure that is a factor in every signing. I think they are planning on Hossa and/or Sharp not being on the team when it comes time to resign Kane and Toews. I don't think Hossa will be going anywhere for a very long time, unfortunately. Kane and Toews will most definitely be extended. There's no way that Stan would do any of this if it had any impact whatsoever on his ability to re-sign those two.

Out of the Crawford, Bickel, and Hjalmarsson deals, the Hjalmarsson deal seems the least embarrassing to me. Hammer deal > Bickel deal >>>>> Crawford deal.