Transmogrified Tiger

Brazoban out for the year Well, at least it's all going to pot early so they don't build expectations.

*SMACK*

Angel Pagan pagan is getting alot of pt thus far. is it just me or does he run funny? it's like he doesn't stride far enough or something. Whatever it is, more people should try it.

Jack Wilson hits second? lol @ tracyball

yay guzman yay epatt

I can't believe that Wilson doesn't start for this team.

flair needs to eat his vegetables. otherwise i like the lineup. I probably should know this, but who's flair? Pierre? yep

I like it.

Dempster is tied for 5th in Saves (2) Lee is 2nd in OPS (1.399)

The best I've got is that I picked up Nick Johnson and Ian Kinsler(stupid injury) off waivers.

We aren't even 2 weeks into the season, let's not rush to judgment.

He's talking about if we win, since Otis won't be able to continue his duty.

And not really "proven." There are lots of 20-year-old pitchers who don't reach their potential, due to injuries or other things (like Doc). Felix has a very high ceiling, but being a pitching prospect means he also comes with a great deal of risk. It's not like you're dealing all of those guys and getting a guarantee that he'll have a Clemens-type career rather than an injury-riddled one. True, I'm very leery of pitching prospects injuries wise however I think Felix's talent is too great not to do the deal. Think about where the organization would be after doing that trade. We'd have basically nothing in the system worth trading, and we'd be up one stud pitcher. It'd take years to get the system back, and the Cubs aren't one Felix Hernandez away from winning the pennant. If you were that committed to trading all those guys, you could probably get better value receiving multiple players in return.

clutchtastic

I agree. One superstar player is not a substitute for a quality team of players. Felix is good, but we would be mortgaging the teams future. To further put in perspective, we'd be giving up a pretty good reliever, plus the #1, 2, 4, 5, and 7 prospects in our system(BA rankings).

haha

Why would that make him uncomfortable? It's not like he's on top of the plate.

unbelievable

Maybe Z prefers pitching to Blanco? I'm just grasping at straws because I don't have a better answer. Perhaps Z prefers run support to catching Blanco.

after the Bagwell affair, does the bolded part assure that Clemens will not be an Astro? McLane likes Clemens better

I for one wasn't trying to say Pierre has been successful, just that there is something to the notion that speedy baserunners can influence the pitcher's performance. You can argue about degrees, but I think it is common sense that something that distracts and divides your focus will likely impact your performance negatively. And clearly a speedy guy will be more of a distraction than a slow guy. It is simple logic. But of course OBP is far more important than the speed consideration. No, I agree, I wasn't referring to your post in the above quote.

Not entirely true. Pierre clearly distracts pitchers when he is on base. The less focussed a pitcher is on the hitter, the better the hitter's chances of getting a pitch he can hit, including homeruns. Those stolen bases may have affected the pitcher, the pitches that are thrown (don't want to throw a slider in the dirt with Pierre on third), etc... Can you prove this? Look at each time Pierre has been on base and see what the results are. It shouldn't be that hard since he's only been on base 8 times this year. probably not the best example since he's scored 6 runs in those 8 times on base. thus lending credibility that something about Pierre being on base makes the batters better / pitcher worse. interestingly, Pierre has not scored a single run after any of the 23 times he did not reach base. (sorry, I just was reading the game thread) Jacque Jones has scored 3 of the 4 times he's been on base, is his speed that much a nuisance? The pitcher may just not be very good(as evidenced by giving up hits to Pierre and his compatriots), or he's less effective from the stretch(true of many pitchers). I'd give both of those more credence than Pierre's speed distracting the pitcher to the point of being noticeably worse. EDIT: But all of this is getting away from the original point that I was making, that Pierre hasn't been good thus far. easy there. I was just pointing out a that there is an anomoly in the evidence you used, and that evidence lead to a flawed argument. as for the part I bolded, simply by saying this, it leads me to believe you are trying to say something more than your original point described in your edit. there's some ax grinding going on here. Using runs to point out an inconsistency is flawed, just because Pierre scored doesn't mean all the hitters around him were more successful than they normally are without him on base. I think you took the bolded the wrong way. I was saying that a pitcher who gives up multiple hits may just not be very good, and that's the main reason for the multiple hits instead of influence from the runner, speedy or not. And again, I'm not the one who took the discussion this direction. I merely pointed out that Pierre hasn't been good thus far, and others are resorting to his baserunning influence to justify that he has been successful.

Absolutely. The same thing happened last year and Ramirez ended up close to Lee's numbers in HR and RBI before he was shut down, so he'll be fine. Actually AR had a 1.033 OPS after the first week of last season. He started out a little slower than that in 2004, though. So there's no real trend for him. Near the end of May last year, Ramirez had an OPS below .730.

There's no one player worth crippling your minor league system that much for.

Not entirely true. Pierre clearly distracts pitchers when he is on base. The less focussed a pitcher is on the hitter, the better the hitter's chances of getting a pitch he can hit, including homeruns. Those stolen bases may have affected the pitcher, the pitches that are thrown (don't want to throw a slider in the dirt with Pierre on third), etc... Can you prove this? Look at each time Pierre has been on base and see what the results are. It shouldn't be that hard since he's only been on base 8 times this year. probably not the best example since he's scored 6 runs in those 8 times on base. thus lending credibility that something about Pierre being on base makes the batters better / pitcher worse. interestingly, Pierre has not scored a single run after any of the 23 times he did not reach base. (sorry, I just was reading the game thread) Jacque Jones has scored 3 of the 4 times he's been on base, is his speed that much a nuisance? The pitcher may just not be very good(as evidenced by giving up hits to Pierre and his compatriots), or he's less effective from the stretch(true of many pitchers). I'd give both of those more credence than Pierre's speed distracting the pitcher to the point of being noticeably worse. EDIT: But all of this is getting away from the original point that I was making, that Pierre hasn't been good thus far.