Transmogrified Tiger

Is that updated with today's outing? No. And yeah Truffle, I wasn't trying to say that makes him an MVP candidate, although it puts him right there with Lincecum for the most valuable pitcher in the league.

Hitting + Pitching VORP Dempster: 45.7 Zambrano: 53.9

How many starting hitters hit .366 let alone pitchers? How much more valuable does 70 ABs make Zambrano than say Dempster? Much.

I tried to spread the word with my campaign to get him 2005 Minor League POY, but that fell on deaf ears.

It's a postgame quote where he's upset that Fukudome didn't drive in a run where he should have been able to. The quote only talked about the specific situation, didn't talk about the offense as a whole, and there was nothing from before or after the quote to give context to it. It's definitely indicative of Lou's continued frustration with Kosuke(however justified it may be), but to blame the whole lack of offense on Kosuke? He didn't even say anything about that one run making a difference, he only talked about the lack of execution.

No one is saying Lou is blaming Fukudome for the entire lack of offense. But we lost by 1 and he clearly called out Fukudome's AB for not picking up the RBI with a guy on 3rd and less than 2 outs. It's not a stretch to say he's putting a hefty amount of blame for the loss on Fukudome. I think that it is quite a stretch unless there's more context than the snippet provided in the first post. You don't know what question he's responding to, or if he talked about other failures before or after that quote.

I think it takes quite a bit of extrapolation to say that Lou is pinning the loss or the lack of offense last night on Kosuke.

Canzler was also 2 years older at Boise, hit .264, and struck out 22% of the time. Vitters is 18, hitting .335, and K'ing 16% of the time.

throwback

No pinstripes, blue piping, make it happen

Yes, but not really. There's loopholes abound to get Hoffpauir on the playoff roster if we want him there.

Seriously.

I am King of the Diamond! There shall be a great feast, with all the finest meats and cheeses of the land!

Another good outing and I'm gonna start calling him The Famous Jay Jackson.

What is it that allows Kaman to play for the German team?

Reed's defense is every bit as good as Fukudome. I can't think of a proper way to say that this is not true at all.

hahahah, his WPA in that game was lower than Jeff Mathis, who went 0 for 4 with a run and 2 K's.

The AL might be a little better, but the AL West(where there are more games played anyway) is significantly worse than the NL Central. The 4th place team in the NL Central would be in 2nd in the AL West.

I don't think I am. Mendenhall got nearly 300 touches last year and averaged over 6 yards a carry. That's more than PJ Hill, Knowshon Moreno, or Jamaal Charles. Juice was the QB and only got about 430. Juice's completion percentage and INTs were not appreciably better as the season progressed, and he'll likely be facing more passing downs without Mendenhall. I don't doubt the ability and athleticism of the Illinois receivers, I doubt the ability of Williams to consistently get them the ball. I think counting on marked improvement from Juice without as strong a running game is pretty optimistic.

And called again, unbelievable.

Gameday has strike one to Fontenot being in Cuba.

All he throws is the hard fastball, this shouldn't be difficult.

Colvin is 2 for 3 with a double and a triple.

He's bringing in the left hander when you have Kosuke(our best LH v. LHP) followed by probably 5 straight right handers? That's not the smartest idea.

of course you do. but seriously, i think mizzou wins in a close one again. I think it's going to be a back and forth shoot out this year, with one team getting a late score to win by 14 or so to make it look not as close as it really was -- unlike last year, which was all Mizzou until the 4th when Illinois made a frantic comeback. It should be a great game. I can't wait. take into account that their starting qb was out for most of the game, and the offense is largely based on what juice does, i think the illini win last year's game. but it's conjecture. i'd like to see the illini fly under the radar again this year, it will just make it that much sweeter when we win. I don't think Juice makes some of the throws that McGee made in that game. He may not have fumbled the ball away for a TD at the 1, but overall I don't think the end result would've been terribly different. When it comes to this year's game, especially as an opener, I think Mizzou returns more than Illinois, and they were a better team last year as well. Illinois lost their best player on both sides of the ball, and as such I think it's fair to be unsure of their ability to return to last year's levels(especially offensively where Mendenhall took a ton of pressure off Juice). To contrast, Mizzou returns 10 starters on defense, and the most vital pieces to their offense. The biggest concern for me is the O-Line playing together as it is for the first time against the Illini D-Line, but that's mitigated by the fact that Williams tore his ACL, Mizzou runs a lot of quick hitters, and they're deeper in the gun to begin with(your favorite Sulley). I guess it boils down to the fact that I like Daniel running the show with what he's got(or doesn't have) against the U of I defense a lot more than Juice running the who with what he's got(or doesn't have) against the Mizzou defense.