Transmogrified Tiger

Soriano Theriot Lee Ramirez Burrell DeRosa Pie/Soto Soto/Pie works for me. And really, there wouldn't be a lot else to do for the offseason, aside from dealing Eyre/Jones/Murton if you wanted to.

Robert Hernandez is the truth.

Drop one of your backup wideouts for another RB. And on a more personal opinion, I'd be ready to push Smith to the starting QB role relatively quickly.

This ignores any successes or failures at stealing 3rd, but it's quick. From the leadoff spot: Soriano (29 2B + 4 3B + 19 HR + 17 SB - 5 CS) / 442 PAs = .142 Theriot (13 2B + 1 3B + 1 HR + 5 SB - 1 CS) / 151 PAs = .126

he may have been underrated a few years ago, but he's most certainly not now Why? Because people actually realize he's good, or because he's not good anymore? I haven't seen much in the way of the former, and the latter just isn't true. Vazquez is an amazing model of durability, and he consistently puts up top notch K/BB numbers. He's like the right handed Rich Hill, results-wise.

I have a theory about this and it's probably crazy. Is it inconceivable to think that some hitters who struggle at Mesa will do better at Boise? Is it possible that the pitching in the AZL is so unpredictable that it throws hitters off their conceptions of what is normal, especially advanced hitters? Obviously sample size is a huge thing here, but it's something I thought about when Donaldson and Thomas both sucked it up for their (very, very, very)brief Mesa stints, then got promoted and started torching the NWL.

Hey, you made it!

Actually, "us guys" are composed of people that: 1) love to slam young players before they ever have a chance 2) love to slam young players who don't fit a certain profile 3) give too much credit to young players when projecting their minor league numbers to the bigs 4) lots of other varieties of "us" You forgot the all-important category #5, which includes people who are massively sarcastic. When it became clear Vitters wasn't going to sign until late in the proceedings, I knew there was going to be an extraordinarily limited period of time to judge Vitters. Unless he came to Mesa and proceeded to tear the cover off the ball to an extraordinary degree, he pretty much was going to be #3 on my personal list no matter what. Next season is going to be critical for evaluating him. If he keeps in good shape and works hard in the offseason, then comes into Spring Training looking smooth in the field and at the plate, then he should start off in Peoria. From there, we'll have a full season with plenty of guys on this board getting a first-hand look at him. After next season, we'll have a better idea of what he's capable of. He has the potential to deliver in a big way, happily. So O_O is part of the Wait And See Tribe? (C'mon, someone's gotta get the reference.) I think I peed a little when I read that. (Don't worry, I changed right away)

Good question. He walked quite a few in his first stint as a reliever(5 in 12 IP), but made up for it by K'ing 17 and only allowing 4 hits. If his stuff isn't good enough to blow people away when he's not wild, then his ceiling as a reliever is even more limited.

Not only did Vitters not face any competition from the end of the HS season until now, but he was quoted as saying he kept his workouts as light as possible because he didn't want to risk injury. The fact that he struggled in his first week at the highest level of competition he's ever played at after doing basically nothing baseball-wise for several months is not a surprise at all.

As long as he's a reliever, the upside isn't huge. There are lots of players that had great arms and are now relievers because of injuries that teams take chances on, Wood isn't much different than them. Even if it's Spring Training for him now, that means he's still an unknown for next season, which further adds to the similarity between him and the numerous other castoffs that are available. The "we wasted money on Blanco, we can waste money on Wood" argument is a weak one too. It sucks that we're stuck paying Blanco, but it's faulty logic. We don't have unlimited resources, and there's definitely an amount where it's not a smart gamble to pay Wood, even if we add significantly to the payroll. At the same time, it's better to have too many options for a bullpen than too few, and Wood has shown a lot of loyalty to the team that he would conceivably sign a reasonable deal. But we have to put aside Wood's past(in the sense that we're attached to him), as well as previous Hendry screw-ups when talking about whether it's worth bringing him back.

Donovan got stuffed on what would've been a game winning PK in the shootout of the SuperLiga final. Pachuca won on the next pair. The U-17s lost to Germany in the round of 16 this morning, 2-1.

I don't think anything short of retirement would have gotten Rolen back to 100% with his shoulder. It's not something that he just came back from too soon, his shoulder is shot.

"OHIO STATE: Aston Martin that runs on the blood of puppies" hahahaha

Crow, Gibson, and Oliver. Cool.

The Cardinals will be a threat if they continue to get excellent pitching performances from most or all of Adam Wainwright, Braden Looper, Kip Wells, and Joel Piniero. I'll leave it up to the individual to decide how likely that is.

Always, always, always say how many teams are in the league.

Thank goodness those games before the All-Star Break only count for half a game. Good job hitting though Jones, I am glad for games we won because of your hitting.

I don't think the Cubs would "collapse into awfulness" as quickly as the White Sox. The core of the Cubs are still in their "prime" years and the pitching staff has lots of young arms waiting to replace someone who falters. Obviously, the Cubs could regress after winning big, but not to the extent of the White Sox. Ack, I figured someone would think that. The Hendry-Williams comparison I was making only went as far as "not very well built team got lucky and won the world series, GM still not very good". Sorry for the confusion.

Roast and O_O still need to register for the league, although I think O_O is still having some internet access issues for the time being.

Crap, I live with a couple guys who are at practices all the time, and I forget exactly who they said. Woods and Saunders are definitely in the mix, and I think I remember Maclin's name as well as Washington's(might've been Gettis, can't keep them separate in my mind).

? He did and hit .328/.430/.590 Thanks. For some reason thebaseballcube doesn't have anything on him in 2005.

That's going to be disappointing for you. First team to 40 wins. Then it will be the Illini. Their defense will be decent to good. You're forgetting that Chase Daniel is apparently winning like 7 heismans this year. He's not selfish, a half-dozen is fine by him. Wolf, this does a good job outlining Mizzou, except for the inexplicable praise of Brock Christopher. EDIT: And Ricks hurt himself and will be out this Saturday.

That's going to be disappointing for you. First team to 40 wins. Then it will be the Illini. Their defense will be decent to good. Decent defenses get lit up by Top 5 offenses. Facing an offense as high powered and unique right off the bat will give them problems, methinks.

Vazquez is one of the more underrated pitchers in the game. That said, Williams isn't very good. It's great that he won the World Series, but that team's success wasn't the result of his development of the organization, as their collapse into awfulness so soon afterward shows. In fact, you could say remarkably similar things about Hendry if the Cubs were to win big this year.