Transmogrified Tiger

Here's an analysis of just how bad Fox would have to be defensively at 3rd to be worth his projected bat. The conclusion? He'd have to be the worst defensive 3B in the league to be worth it, and it's not too likely he's even that good. Link

Waddell for his career seems to give up harder hit balls to left handed hitters for a slightly higher BAA, but with more K's, fewer walks, and far fewer HR. It's a weird combination. I've always kinda liked Blanco. For as long as he's been around he's only 25(nearly 2 years younger than Fox, for example), maybe he can make something happen while he's up here and keep Freel away from right handed pitching.

I'm pretty sure that was after practice. The Magic are a tough matchup for the Cavs. They're a very good team that has more size than Cleveland in the middle and at the guard spots, and they're one of the few teams that defends better than the Cavs. Cleveland doesn't have much to be ashamed of so far in this series though. 3 of the 4 games have come right down to the wire, and they've been on the short end of 2 of 3. Hopefully they can bounce back and win convincingly in Cleveland, and maybe get that equalizer close game in Orlando. Another way of saying this is that outside of a miracle shot by Lewis, this series is 2-2, going exactly as projected, and the Cavs are still in control.

I think the Affliction T-Shirt might be worse.

Cales is not adjusting very well to AA.

His BABIP (Batting Average on Balls hit In Play) is horrifically awful (as are most of the BABIPs for our offensive regulars), so he's hitting into some terrible luck (balls are going right at players far more often than they should). He does need to start hitting the ball a little harder, but even the hard hit balls are right at people right now. I'd think he's likely to break out of this funk. He has a LD rate of 14.1% and a BABIP of .221. While that's a little low on the BABIP, it's not completely out of line. His expected BABIP is either 20 or 30 points higher, that qualifies as out of line, especially when he's done much better the entirety of his career at both hitting line drives and on balls in play.

Reasons to like Kouzmanoff as a trade target: Slow start this year means he comes relatively cheaply Age is such that it wouldn't be unusual if he broke out Strong Minor League pedigree First year arb-eligible means he's cheap in terms of money(important considering the financial constraints of the offseason) Good defender at 3rd Good road numbers the last few years Not such a big name or contract that he couldn't be benched upon Ramirez's return Not much of a platoon split so he's not useless coming off the bench Good defender at 3B means he could potentially fill in at 2B if his bat demanded it

As much as I hate his presence on the team, Miles has been the unluckiest hitter in a team full of unlucky hitters so far. He has a 23% LD% and a .241 BABIP, that's amazing.

Y'all are lucky as hell that Bittle is hurt. As far as offense goes, Ole Miss softballs people to death with singles like Team Japan or something. Don't worry about any power (7 HR is the most by any player) but this team can hit like crazy. Our starting nine have a BA of .332 and an OBP of .420. The overall team avg is .315 with team obp at .404 What kind of game does Mizzou play? Offensively, Mizzou plays for the big hit, they won't do a ton of small ball stuff. Their 2-4 hitters, Lollis, Folgia, and Senne, are the best in the lineup(Coleman would be another, but he broke his hand), although they aren't terrible as you go through Mach, Gray, and Ampleman. Folgia's the best hitter on the team, a switch hitter, and the biggest power threat(12 HR, next is the injured Coleman with 6), so Mizzou needs to string together hits most times to get runs. Pitching is the most unique part of Mizzou's team this year. You probably know about (Cubs fan!) Kyle Gibson, he'll be a Top 10 pick this year, he's the one true starting pitcher on the roster. After that, Ian Berger is a mediocre senior right hander, and Nick Tepesch has great stuff(BA had him as a potential 2010 first rounder) but very mixed results. If there's a 4th starter, it's super soft tossing lefty Scooter Hicks, who barely touches 80, and has only started a few games and never gone past the 4th or 5th. In almost 1/4 of their games this year, Mizzou has employed a Johnny Wholestaff approach, throwing at least 6 pitchers intentionally, sometimes not letting anyone go more than an inning. They didn't try it this week at the Big 12 tournament, so it may not come up in regional play, but it means that everyone in the Mizzou pen has a good deal of experience, and that they're not afraid to run a ton of pitchers out there if they think they can create a LaRussa-esque matchup advantage. I'm interested to see who Jamieson throws in Game 1. He could use Gibson to try and wipe out WKU, save the pen, and have Gibson available in relief for a championship game. Or he could use Berger or (more likely) Tepesch, and hope that's enough to use Gibson on the best team in the bracket, then hope the rest of the staff is enough to win one of two. Last year he chose the former, and Crow got the win against Ole Miss, but 2008 Gibson blew a lead in relief against Miami and the next day against Ole Miss.

I like Kouzmanoff as a target quite a bit.

NCAA Tournament field was set today. Mizzou heads to Oxford as the 2 seed in the Ole Miss region, with Western Kentucky and Monmouth as the 3 and 4 seeds. I like it.

I'm not sure that's the case. Uggla's already nearly 30, plays awful defense, and isn't hitting right now. Lee plays very good defense, is hitting right now, and has a much better track record to fall back on. There is the age gap, and the fact that Uggla makes his attempt at defense at 2B, but if a team thinks Lee has his stroke back, I can see them potentially valuing him as highly as Uggla.

Please not another college reliever in the first.

I'm afraid that's not the case.

His OPS is now .993, with a 1.159 mark for the month of May.

Yeah, but the Phillies only lost 6 in a row, maybe we just threw away the season by losing today. In all seriousness though, these things happen. There's nothing drastic that can or should be done right now.

Jackson's last 5 starts: 32 IP, 24 H, 4 ER, 35/11 K/BB; 1.12 ERA, 1.09 WHIP, 9.84 K/9, 3.18 K/BB

That sounds about right. Dustin has two titles(was he up in '04?) and an undeserved MVP. And a glove, don't forget he has a glove.

I don't really think there's a ton of people waiting to post in a College Baseball thread in social. NSBB's population is overwhelmingly centralized to places with little following for college baseball and college baseball teams that aren't all that good. I mean, I guess I could make fun of Kansas' ridiculous hats and Snood could try and defend them(impossible, even for him), but there's not a ton of potential for dialogue, it'd just be people who care about one school recapping what happened to their school with very little back and forth that the Football and Basketball threads have.

Kosuke has reached base 13 times in the last 8 games.

That sounds about right.

Fading away, over turkeyglue. Amazing.

The Cubs have lost 5 in a row, 3 of them to the Cardinals, so no one is happy. Lot's of people are really irritated with the team, so let's look at exactly what's caused it. To begin, the starting pitching, which is convenient since it marks a full rotation. Harden: 6 IP, 4 ER, 6 H, 7/3 K/BB, 1 HR Lilly: 7 IP, 3 ER, 4 H, 5/3 K/BB, 1 HR Dempster: 7 IP, 2 ER, 6 H, 3/2 K/BB Marshall: 5 IP, 2 ER, 4 H, 3/1 K/BB, 2 HR Zambrano: 4.2 IP, 3 ER, 3 H, 7/4 K/BB That's an average of about 6 IP per start and an ERA of 4.24. That's not super, but far from a disaster. None of these games have been a blowout from a starter getting rocked, and with the exception of the most recent game with Zambrano coming off the DL, the starters haven't taxed the bullpen. Speaking of the bullpen, they've been excellent in this stretch. 11.1 IP, 2.38 ERA, and a 12/2 K/BB ratio. Blown leads haven't been the problem here. That leads us to the obvious problem of the offense. 7 runs in 5 games, and 2 in the last 4, won't win you games. It's just not going to. However, if there were a stretch where the offense would be to sputter, wouldn't it be this one? The offense scored 5 runs against Moehler and the Astros, not a bad showing. Since then, they've faced Jake Peavy, Chris Carpenter, Adam Wainwright, and Piniero. That's 3 top notch pitchers, and another who stuff-wise had the game of his life. The Cubs only had 7.1 innings against pitchers besides those 4. Looking inward, the offense isn't going to consistently do well against top shelf starts as they currently stand. They don't have their best and most consistent hitter, and while some of the slumping bats are starting to come around, it's been mitigated by having sinkholes at 2B and 3B. So what do you take from all of that? The Cubs picked a bad time to have to face Carpenter, Wainwright, and Peavy in succession, plus have an awesome version of Piniero before that(I know some will think that Piniero's outing is more the fault of the Cubs than his, but the point remains), especially since there were no super duper starts from the rotation to help steal a game. Considering that guys like Lee, Bradley, and Soto are making strides, Fukudome, Theriot, and Hoffpauir continue to hit, and the bullpen is in very good form, I don't think it's cause for huge concern. They really need to have a nice offensive day to get things going though, giving the opposing starting pitchers an abundance of credit loses a lot of steam if Josh Geer goes out and dominates tomorrow night. So if you've made it this far, the moral of the story is don't freak out. Losing without scoring runs sucks, but it's been to good pitchers and we haven't dug ourselves a hole in the standings. These types of aberrations happen, even to good teams.

Don't look now, but Angel Guzman is having an awesome year.

You can't extend your arms outward, especially to the side away from his body where he hit LeBron. And the Magic win because they hit an endless streak of contested jumpers, lame.