Transmogrified Tiger

This reminds me, are we past the point where Oswalt is supposed to be taking his John Deere and retiring?

Ching is out for Saturday and Edu is out for several months with a knee problem. Who do you start for Saturday? ----Altidore---------------------- --------------------Donovan----- --------------Adu---------------- Torres------------------Dempsey ------------Feilhaber?------------ ------------Bocanegra------------ Spector------Gooch------Hejduk-- ------------Howard--------------- That's probably really terribly illustrated.

Well, he tries to. He's much like Aaron Miles in that sense.

Please don't get my hopes up.

Why the hell is Zambrano throwing Soto under the bus and dishing gossip to the media?! If you don't look at us, you're a cop. Yeah, I really don't have any idea what you're talking about. So, enjoy putting one over on me. It's a line from The Departed. It seems to me that Z was being sarcastic.

Why the hell is Zambrano throwing Soto under the bus and dishing gossip to the media?! If you don't look at us, you're a cop.

I don't know that his value is clearly reflected in the return the Pirates received here. My guess is it is, but it's quite possible they settled for less than what they could have gotten in another deal, especially if they waited until the deadline. Well there are three possible explanations here: a) this deal accurately reflects the trade value McLouth has around baseball; b) Huntington didn't perform the due diligence necessary to gauge the trade value McLouth has around baseball, and a better deal was out there that he didn't discover; c) Huntington knowingly took less than the best offer for his player. C) is laughable, and b) is highly unlikely IMO, especially when we're talking about the Pirates' marquee player. Huntington himself said it was a very difficult decision to trade McLouth, so I doubt he went about the process haphazardly. Trading McLouth now limits the pool of players they could get for him significantly, there are many more teams actively seeking an outfielder in mid to late July than there are at the beginning of June. Not to mention that those additional teams would drive the price up for him. In a sense you can say they got decent value for him, it is after all two Top 10 prospects in Atlanta's system plus a ML ready starter. Problem is that Gorkys Hernandez is a particularly terrible Top 10 prospect, and the other arm isn't stellar either. That's why waiting until another team entered the fray would've been a smarter move. That deal isn't likely to go away by waiting, and if it does, who cares? It was awful to begin with.

Mantle never had the option of free agency. I don't think LBJ and Rose are a great combo, both dominate the ball. A great big man would probably make LeBron's best pairing.

Interesting contradiction. How do you figure? They had a great chance to add talent to the system by taking advantage of McLouth's inflated reputation coming off last year, and they squandered it by not getting a very good deal, especially considering it's only June 4th.

I don't understand why Gorkys Hernandez is the target when you have McCutcheon and Tabata in your system already.

Chirinos might be closer to coaching for Tennessee than playing for them.

I personally don't really care that Arizona Phil doesn't think Cerda sticks at C or IF, he doesn't have a good history to make his evaluations worth listening to. Really useful recaps and such from Mesa though.

This seems like a pretty terrible deal for the Pirates. Golden opportunity too, because McLouth's reputation far exceeds his actual value right now.

Kosuke did not look out.

Here's the hitters with the 8 most PA's on the team, compared to their ZiPS projections. Player-Projected OPS-Actual OPS Soto - .888 - .599 Lee - .837 - .770 Hoffpauir - .828 - .804 Fontenot - .758 - .698 Theriot - .705 - .789 Soriano - .859 - .791 Fukudome - .757 - .951 Bradley - .907 - .728 The Cubs hitters are AVERAGING 50 points in OPS below projected at each spot in the order. They aren't going to be very good(like any team) with such wholesale underachievement.

I read that Richardson's going to JUCO this summer to try to be eligible for 2010. With his obvious command of the english language, I'm optimistic this can be done.

This is a really awful decision.

Mizzou went 0 for 2 against Western Kentucky, ugh. Good thing they saved Gibson, eh Cubbies75?

Strike 2 and 3 were both easily outside, with the latter being the worse of the two. Can't blame Soto for taking that, it was a half a foot outside.

Sonny decided to bypass the early entry to the majors, and he is now playing for Vanderbilt University. He will be a stud in a year or two, expect first round implications out of this kid. So because he didn't sign last year, he is not eligible to be drafted this year? Yes. As a HS Senior, you have to sign or wait 3 years(in some cases 2). What are the cases for only two years? I knew about waiting three but hadn't heard about two. I'm not sure, but I know there are draft eligible sophomores.

Sonny decided to bypass the early entry to the majors, and he is now playing for Vanderbilt University. He will be a stud in a year or two, expect first round implications out of this kid. So because he didn't sign last year, he is not eligible to be drafted this year? Yes. As a HS Senior, you have to sign or wait 3 years(in some cases 2).

That should be interference, and it's a dangerous and bush league play by Martin. You don't go wide and past the base to leg sweep someone when you were out two steps ago.

Fox can't play 3rd base.

I can't wait for Mexico to get the seed that we deserve and get another cake draw to the elimination stage, ensuring that they continue to get seeds that we deserve.

Why? .255/.316/.319 career minor league mark. I'm not saying I wanted him as the SS of the future, but he's been a guy who got to AAA/MLB at a very young age, and considering he plays good defense, I liked that they picked him up as he might figure something out at the plate.