17 Seconds

Theriot needs to bat 8th. why? Because hes not that good? among regulars he led the team in both average and obp last year. if that's "not that good" then what are the rest of the players? better

So he's admitting that he's selfish and kind of a douchebag props to him

Ben would be a second option on good to great teams. Incorrect. Why not? He averages 20 points and is usually the go-to guy on a terrible team. How many players who score 20 a game are not the second scoring option? Citing PPG by itself is getting dangerously close to citing RBIs

lol If you're being unbiased I don't see how you can say there was nothing wrong with what he said. He basically admitted that he sat out on days he could have played because he didn't want his numbers to take a hit because it might cost him money the next season. How is that "telling it like it is"? Shut up Milton. We're tryng to like you. Just shut up.

Only if you're talking about numbers of at-bats

Are you still pretending that it doesn't have a chance? Pretending what doesn't have a chance? The Peavy trade? I never said anything about that. The same reason that I thought everyone understood by now....for money and to "get more left handed". But mostly for money. I didn't think anyone still pretended it was for Peavy

Spring training performance shouldn't really change any opinions

Also what does DeRosa have to do with Peavy? Are we still pretending those prospects were acquired for a Peavy trade?

But you have reason to believe that his OBP will drop over 20 points from where it's been so far? I'd guess he puts up something like .285/.360/.435

Michaels Young belongs in the top 5. He is one of the most overrated players in baseball. He had that one great season in 05 and then a few good-but-not-great seasons and that's it. An .820 OPS SS with bad defense who just turned 30 is not worth 5/80. That's awful. Not to mention the only reason his numbers are even that good is because he plays in Texas. Now you're paying a 15 million a year for a poor defending .750 OPS guy who isn't even at short anymore. Awesome.

Well he doesn't have to hit .300, and there's no reason to think he can't put up a .350+ OBP.

Ben played great for most of the time, but he gets greedy and decides to take 27 foot three-pointers which I am not a big fan of. He will score 40 and give up 40. Who DOESN'T give up 40 to Dwayne Wade. I feel like I'm the only Ben Gordon defender in the entire world. But wait until next year when he's gone and the Bulls are averaging 83 points a game and sitting at 4-17. I think you think Ben Gordon is wayyy better than he is

Yeah and then Harold said the Cubs will miss Cedeno more than DeRosa. I've lost a lot of respect for Harold since this network started.

He's averaging 17 million a year. I don't know how you can even try to argue against that. If he's making less right now, that doesn't mean anything since he'll make up for it later. Like I said, saying "he's earned his contract up to this point" doesn't mean anything if it's going to cost you later... just like if we signed Miles to 5/50 but only 500k in each of the first 2 seasons it would be meaningless to say "well he's earned his up contract up to this point". You could get into those kind of semantics all day long, but he's averaging 10 mil a year just like Soriano is averaging 17 mil.

Harold Reynolds just said the Cubs will miss Cedeno way more than DeRosa. [-(

I hope so On a semi-related note, Fontenot is getting no love whatsoever in fantasy leagues. On yahoo's rankings (not that they mean anything) he's ranked like 850 overall.

play sports

Nope, the fact that his numbers dramatically drop when he's moved from the leadoff spot. His worst two seasons (by far) over the past 7 seasons were the back to back years in Texas where they tried to bat him in the middle of the order. Lou bats him leadoff because of this. We've seen him try him down in the order and have no patience when he struggles there to start out. This is caused by Soriano's track record. I don't like paying 17 million a year for an injury prone .890 OPS power hitter who doesn't bat in the middle of the order. I'm not sure where you get your numbers, but I don't really care. I generally ignore signing bonuses or spread them out over the course of a contract when considering a player's value. I don't like lumping them all into the first year. Doesn't make much sense to me to do it that way, though, with Soriano, it's clear that he took less in Y1 b/c of the signing bonus. Either way, I don't care. I think it's perfectly legit to say he's earned his contract to date based on the way I amortize the bonus of the amounts he's been paid. The big problem most people had with Soriano's contract wasn't the first couple years, it's paying him $18m when he's in his late 30s. If you don't agree, fine, but the bottom line is not that he's getting 17m a year. That's just not true, no matter how many times you say it. As for batting order, in addition to the fact that's it's almost irrelevant where he bats, I strongly disagree that he'd be worse if he were hitting 3-5 rather than first. I know his history. The board had a huge debate about this when he was signed. I just don't agree that his history automatically leads to the conclusion you're drawing. But it IS 17 mil A year. He get a 136 mil contract for 8 years. You can draw it up however you want it, when his contract is up he'll end up averaging 17 mil for every year he plays, period. So okay, it's "well he's earned his contract up to this point, although to make up for that being possible...we're going to get raped annually in the second half of the contract". I think that's more appropriate since it tells the whole story. And I still haven't heard a reason for Soriano's 2 crappy years in Texas (sandwiched between 5 significantly better ones) that is more likely than it being due to him not batting leadoff. I'm going to believe what is most believable. Obviously it was a different hitter those 2 hitters. What was it? He was sick for 2 years? A 2 year brak from steroids? Givne the fact that he's repeatedly said he feels myuch more comfortable batting leadoff, I think it's easy to see what the most logical reason is for him sucking those 2 years. Even if that's not the reason though, it almost doesn't matter....because the reason he's batting leadoff now is because he's given that impression to Lou. Lou doesn't bat him leadoff because he likes him there, he bats him leadoff because he doesn't feel Soriano will produce in the middle of the order. And no, the difference between a power hitter batting behind the pitcher and batting in the middle of the order is not irrelevant.

Milton Bradley? I suppose that's only as long as kfuk is in center instead of RJ. last year for the second half against RHP it was Edmonds and Fukudome occupying CF and RF, now it's Bradley and Fukudome. He's right, the only left handed bat we added to the lineup against RHP is Fontenot, and I bet he won't even get much playing time against RHP.

there's a difference getting excited about the results of the game and getting excited about the way he was pitching. i think people are excited about how he was throwing, not how he was getting outs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02zXy54p7UA love brad miller's reaction

so the last 2 times the bulls have played the heat they've had the ball with a chance to win it and the shot clock turned off, and both times they've not only not scored...but given the other team the victory

what exatly happened? i only saw the play by play online. i know that wade stole it and drilled a 3 at the buzzer...but how deep? half court?

and people wonder why i can't root for this team

normally i'd agree, but when you have a power hitter in the national league hitting leadoff and directly behind the pitcher instead of behind real hitters, it's significant. you don't think it's important that a power hitter is coming up with the bases empty at a higher rate? you don't care that his home runs are usually coming with nobody on base?