Transmogrified Tiger

Can you name 3 of said guys? Many people here aren't huge fans of Huff at all. EDIT: I'll start the list. Adam Dunn,....

Bummer, the Hula Bowl(in which Brad Smith is participating) is the same time as the Mizzou B-Ball game.

Actually, they're tied for 9th right now.

Michigan state is laying the lumber to Iowa in East Lansing, up 21 at the under 16 timeout in the second half. Ohio St. leads PSU by 5 at the half in Happy Valley. Wisconsin is apparently without Butch, Stiesma, and Landry for the forseeable future, and is getting beat 30-16 at the half to North Dakota State in Madison.

He's FA eligible after this season, but the Sox have a team option for '07.

BK seemed to think that the metrics suggested he wasnt that great. BP's metrics indicate he's easily above average. While I'm not going to cling to BP's fielding metrics as gospel, I probably won't spearhead an argument either way.

Repost: Neifi's defense is above average, but his terrible offense neutralizes that, and in accordance with his age he is entirely replaceable, and most certainly not someone you give 2/5 to with Dusty as manager.

Batting Average on Balls In Play (H-HR)/(AB-K-HR) EDIT: From an article from last April that approaches BABIP from the pitcher's perspective...

Aside from his time at Colorado and Colorado Springs, which are two of the most notorious hitter's parks in professional baseball, Neifi has put up an OBP over .300 ONCE, and that was his first professional season at rookie ball. Wrap your head around that for a second, repeat it aloud or do whatever is necessary to fully grasp how truly awful that is. Then consider that Cedeno's career numbers are deceiving because of the upward trend in his offensive development, and consider that Cedeno is also a plus defender, and there is no excuse to play Neifi over Cedeno. None.

Hairston had a bad year stealing bases last year, but he hasn't been terrible in the past. That said, his base stealing ability, his bunting ability, and his non-sign missing ability aren't very high on the list of things I find important in a player.

Unusual. Hairston seems to have a consistently lower BABIP than you'd expect from someone with his style of play. Looking at first glance, I would've guessed his .300 AVG in '04 was BABIP inflated. While it was easily his career high, it wasn't astronomical(.332). That said, after 2000+ MLB PA's, it may be something of a trend. Hairston may bounce back this year, but you'll probably see something closer to his '03 line(.271/.353/372/.725) than his '04 marks(.303/.378/.397/.775). There's also the matter of him never putting up an OPS above .705 with over 300 PA's in a season.

Of Shortstops with 300 PA's, Neifi was 22nd of 32 in SLG and IsoP. He's not a good slugger. His defense is above average, but his terrible offense neutralizes that, and in accordance with his age he is entirely replaceable, and most certainly not someone you give 2/5 to with Dusty as manager.

He's not an excellent backup at all. He's completely replaceable. He has a plus glove and a big minus bat. He had a career year last year in every sense of the word(offense and defense), and he was still one of the worst hitters in the game. Neifi is not good, and considering you can acquire someone with a similar skillset who will be younger with the possibility to provide some offensive value, there's little reason to have him on the team. Giving him a TWO year and FIVE million dollar contract, on a team that DUSTY manages, crosses the line into the incomprehensibly stupid.

One of the few things I can't stand worse than having Neifi on the team is people who think people's opinions are based on fantasy baseball. Neifi is terrible. He's one of the worst offensive players of our generation who got the amount of PT that he has. He shouldn't be on a roster that wants to compete.

Wuertz needs to get a beer belly or something so he doesn't look like he can handle having 50 outings by the All-Star break.

Corey turns 27 in August. Jacque will turn 31 in April.

WoW! :shock: But I think Grieve could do a .260/.350/.440 line. .350??? WoW :shock: Aside from his 16 AB's with the Cubs, Grieve has never had an OBP below .353.

Grieve would be a bad everyday option. Jones isn't great, but he's better than Grieve.

Michigan State just picked up two highly regarded wings for the '07 class, Allen(4 star) and Summers(5 star), to go along with top PG Kalin Lucas(5 star). Next year's class is strong as well, with three 4 stars(a wing, F, and a C).

Is that line Pinch Hitting?

As a State fan, it is my moral obligation... http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v464/Cappeeler187killa/Amaker-radio-movie.jpg

For crying out loud, he doesn't think that PSU = Illinois, and somewhere in this thread or the other NCAAB thread he showed himself to be a fan of U of I.

I'm not going to claim that the Astros have an amazing outfield. While it's not spectacular, it's pretty respectable. Taveras .291/.324/.341 Pierre .276/.326/.354 Statistically, Pierre and Taveras were pretty much equal at the plate last year. Pierre's had better years so he could improve. Taveras as a rookie got his feet wet so he could improve as well. He needs to get on base at a better clip. Seeing as though he skipped AAA and in his 409 ABs in AA his OBP was .402, I expect he'll make some improvements. He's a very good centerfielder with a great arm. Wilson .261/.329/.443 Jones .249/.319/.438 Again, not a huge difference statistically last year. Wilson's knees are a concern but if he can stay healthy. He and Jones should be equals at the plate. I'm not going to do a statistical comparison of Murton and Lane. Murton's stats over 140 ABs as a rookie don't translate to a full season. I haven't seen the guy play but seeming as though he spent all of 2004 in A ball hitting 13 HRs in 460 ABs, I'm a little skeptical that he can hit anywhere near what he did last year for the Cubs. Anyway, my point is not that my player is better than your player. My point is that for Cubs' fans to be dogging on the Astros OF is, how do you say...Pot meet Kettle. As far as the bullpen goes, Qualls and Wheeler are EXCELLENT relievers. The Astros have so much faith in Qualls that Lidge almost was traded to Baltimore. Rumor has it if the Astros can get a quality bat, he's the bait. The rest of the bullpen is nothing special: Two decent lefties in Miller and Gallo and a veteran righy in Springer. The Astros bullpen should be excellent again. Other than a couple of monumental homers given up by Lidge, the Astros pen was fantastic in the playoffs. My biggest concern is that one of the young starters needs to step it up, especially if Roger doesn't come back. I'm also not convinced that Ensberg can keep up his allstar production. In short, the bullpen is really solid, the outfield is respectable, the offense is mediocre and the bottom of the rotation could pretty bad. First of all, the Cubs have a terrible outfield. I don't know who's is worse between ours and the Stros, but ours is anemic at best. On Taveras, he put up a .400 OBP at AA because he hit .335 with a .400+ BABIP. Needless to say he's not going to do that at the major league level. He hasn't hit for any power since Rookie ball, but he should improve some plate discipline in the coming years. Problem is, he's much like Pierre in that his performance is very much BABIP driven, and he had a very high BABIP last year. He'll be a below average offensive player his entire career most likely. On the relievers, Qualls had a good year last year, but his minor league career doesn't inspire confidence to be able to consistently do that. Maybe he's made an adjustment, I dunno. Wheeler was very fortunate last year, as evidenced by is FIPERA and BABIP numbers. He's older with a worse past than Qualls, so I'd say he's a strong candidate to regress. How far, I don't know. That's my take, and please please please do not respond with comparisons to Cubs players or the like, which you did with the outfield in the previous posts(although I see why with the 'worst OF' comment). They aren't relevant to the discussion, and there are a multitude of threads where we can discuss how crappy the Cubs will be this year.

Don't recall any quotes like that. Regardless, DB's comments in the article are high praise, more than any other rookie I can recall under his managerialship. From those comments, and JH's previous praise, it seems pretty clear to me that LF is Murton's job to lose, which is very comforting considering where we were last year with Dubois. The proof will be in the playing time pudding though. Still, as a fan, you have to be excited to see if Murton can become a solid big leaguer for Chicago. Didn't Hendry talk up Dubois as a ROY candidate last offseason? And yes, I'm excited and interested to see what Murton does in full time action.

Admittedly I haven't seen much of Dusty's remarks in a while, but I read in another thread that he characterized Murton's year last year as "lucky".