Transmogrified Tiger

Michigan State taking control with 24 unanswered points. 24-10 Spartans BC still only up 7 on BYU.

Hand and elbow are too low, ball facing forward, body is ahead of arm. After just noticing those things, I could tell you that he will land on stiff front leg, and will over-stride or land on his heel. I just notcied that he is not using his hips enough. Which puts stress on the pitching arm. So I was right, cool. I haven't pitched in 6 years. What do you think about Sheets in 2004?

Sheets has shoulder problems, right? I stopped pitching after 8th grade, but he's holding the ball pretty low in that picture. My guess is that it puts stress on that shoulder to bring it back up as he drives to the plate. Of course, I'm probably wrong, and yet I can still figure out how good a pitcher Ben Sheets is(a very good one when healthy). BTW, Ben Sheets in 2004: 237 IP, .226 BAA, 0.98 WHIP, 34 starts, 12-14 W-L

Except that without the strikeouts you will not get all the walks and extra base hits that make the player so valuable. Players don't just cut down on their K's and continue to walk and hit home runs and doubles at the same rate. There's a reason that the players with the most K's spend most of the time beating the crap out of the ball and the players with the fewest K's are a bunch of singles hitters(with some exceptions of course). Of course putting the ball in play could lead to a hit, but when you make not striking out the focus, then you end up with weak contact and never hit the ball hard at all.

Dunn is very likely going to be at least a 100 point upgrade in OPS over Murton. Having Murton put up a 780-800 OPS might be more cost effective, but we'd be better off spending to get Dunn to consistently put up a 900+ OPS.

I didn't realize it was a "ever played in the MLS" statement. I thought it was referring only to those currently in the league.

Dear God no !!!!! That's even worse than giving it an MLS coach as far as I'm concerned. I'm with Dave. SGE is the Dusty Baker of soccer managers...his handling of England this WC cycle alone was a joke. He put an 18 yr old Theo Walcott on the team for no good reason, passed up Jermain Defoe, and it it weren't for terrible finishing against Portugal, that decision would have been exposed for the joke it was, as Owen and Rooney were already out for the tournament. They would have started a World Cup semi against France with Peter Crouch and an 18 yr old striker with like one half of pro experience. He allowed his crush on Beckham to affect the team's performance, especially when it was obvious that Aaron Lennon was the better player. Add to that the unneccesary rushing of Rooney back on the WC roster, questionable subbing decisions and you have a nightmare. If he ever go ahold of the US roster it would be a giant step backwards, Agreed completely. Here's what I think would help the USMNT 1. We get Klinsmann or another international type coach not named Erikkson and not involve the MLS in any of the decisions whether it be coaching, training, etc. I feel that MLS cost us a better finish in Germany because of the very lackluster competition that most of them faced here. We need someone who's been successful on the international front or someone who's been an assistant under someone who's been on the international level. 2. Get Spector, Convey, Beasley, and some of the other Americans playing in Europe right now more involved in the team and in a starting role. Convey has played great at Reading and Spector has done pretty well with Man U and now with West Ham. 3. Get some of these guys not named Landy Cakes over in any European League playing against the finest competition in the world. I wouldn't mind if some of our younger players played in the Coca Cola Championship League, the Scottish Prem, Serie B, Bundesliga 2, and some of the other lower level leagues in Europe. Let Landy Cakes keep playing in the MLS and then sit his worthless ass on the bench during the next World Cup and put someone else in his starting role and in the captain's role. I think it's high time that the MLS quit over valuing it's players and let many of them go to Europe. Clint Dempsey and some others belong in Europe instead of rotting in a league that is only viewed as a great league by those who run it. I don't get the MLS vitriol. I agree with letting the best go play in the best leagues, but I can't say I'm on board with sending every player with a prayer of being on the USMNT to any Euro league that takes them. I'd also dispute the idea that MLS players were behind our poor showing in the WC. Donovan was a disappointment for sure, but Pope played as expected(terribly), Dempsey was arguably our best player, and Conrad did a solid job in the back. Who was it that was our downfall because they played stateside?

No, no, no, no, no, no. Just because Dunn is a Three True Outcomes hitter doesn't mean he needs to change. He is an extremely valuable hitter, and most likely any effort to try and change him will diminish that value. Anti-web gems aside, Dunn isn't an abomination in LF. Considering LF is at the bottom of the defensive spectrum, and the Cubs already have a pretty solid defense compared to an abysmal offense, that shouldn't be a deterrent to going after him.

Thank God we get the game, more info at the KMIZ website: http://www.kmiz.com/index2.htm It'll also be broadcasted in St. Louis and Kansas City. Great job by CSTV, ABC, FOX, and everyone else getting this game on TV here. This is excellent news. I think the posters at Tigerboard are directly responsible for getting this game on television here. By the way, I had a dream last night that Mizzou won 49-21. Hopefully it comes true, because I'm kinda nervous. Hopefully the offense shoves it down big mouth Rocky's throat (he's the UNM coach who's saying the UM offense is fluky and fake). Rocky might want to adjust his gameplan to not lose at home to Portland State before calling Mizzou a gimmick offense. Or maybe hold the fluky offense under 35 points which he failed to do last year. EDIT: In other Mizzou news, Michael Keck is going to be a Tiger!

The difference is that the Twins took just about every precaution with Liriano while the Cubs have been reckless with Prior, Wood and Zambrano. Aside from the pitch counts, I don't see any difference in the way the Twins dealt with Liriano's injury and the way the Cubs have dealt with Prior/Wood. The pitch counts are a ginormous factor.

Well Crap.

That's actually not a good thing. Right. Except i meant to say .020 Stupid decimal places. I actually didn't even notice. Point is that Murton has less power because he's more average dependent. This is even more important since Murton outperformed his BABIP by about 20 points thus far in his MLB career. If/when he reverts to his expected levels, then he's Rondell White with even less power, and that's not very good at all.

Loria isn't the GM.

The difference in that OBP is ~20 extra times on base over the course of the year. Off hand I don't know the probability of a player scoring(this would of course vary with how many XBH make up the 20 extra times on base), but if half those times the player scores it's basically equivalent to a full win. I'd consider that pretty significant. EDIT: And a .333 OBP is 3.33 times out of 10 on base(not 3), and a .365 is 3.65 times out of 10(not 3.5)

Edwards, I have no idea if that's a good choice or not. EDIT: Good choice as in a good answer to the poll, not if Edwards would be a good president. Of course I don't know about Edwards to make that distinction either, but you get the idea.

That's actually not a good thing.

I'm not against getting Edmonds just because he's Edmonds. But let's be real here, nowadays the guy doesn't know what day of the week it is anymore.

True, but a team dosent have a chance to go to the playoffs every year. This is probably the Twins year to win the world series. I think their pitching is solid(specially in the bullpen). Their lineup produces enough runs to win a game every day. Twins are my favorites to win the World Series if they make it to the playoffs. Why is this the Twins's year as opposed to say, next year or the year after it? Their core isn't getting broken up, and you could say they'd be adding to it with Garza and a full season of Liriano. Mauer, Morneau, Santana, Liriano, Cuddyer, Garza, Nathan, Neshek, Punto, Bartlett, none of those guys are going anywhere. Granted, they have had a couple guys play over their head(Tyner, Bartlett, some of the bullpen), but that's not a significant difference that it's worth jeopardizing a talent like Liriano to make a run this year.

Awesome. Hey, SSR, F YOU!! NO ILLINIWEK LOVER F U!! It's like a real life Formidable Opponent.

Sucks to be those coaches. I'd be really upset if I were them.

Over who, though?

Sure...Duke was 43-17 with a 2.38ERA and Rich Hill was 19-19 3.90ERA. Why can't you compare the two again? So did you not read what he said, or did you do that on purpose? Duke had a Minor League K/9 of 7.25, Hill's is an obscene 12.59.

Sadly, he didn't put up that performance at high-A. Ack, yeah, I mentally crammed "high level short season" and "short season A ball" together.

He's a 21 year old OF at Boise who put up a sub .315 OBP(with a sub .050 IsoD), and a sub .800 OPS(with a sub .200 IsoP). If he wasn't a high profile pick, there'd be very little to be excited about. That said, he was a highly thought of prospect(probably not as high as we picked, but still up the list), so there's hope for improvement. However, this year has to be looked at as a disappointment. Subpar performance from a college draftee who was old for the level.

well...if he tries, then i don't mind that he's not very good. as long as he tries. He takes a lot of pitches but doesn't walk a lot. He must have about 200 K's, right? Naw man, he's a great two strike hitter. ps in case anyone was wondering its not true