Jehrico

Apparently, Pierre's camp is not interested in negotiating right now. Furcal's contract seems to have them believing the market for his services will be higher. I wonder how far apart they are with Lee, and what Lee's asking for? On Pierre, they're mistaken. Colletti is one of the biggest morons in the sport. He bid against himself for Furcal, but he shouldn't be in the market when/if Pierre his FA this winter. I don't think the other GMs are suddenly going to raise their willingness to pay for a leadoff man by 3-5 mil per year because one of them was an idiot the year before.

I don't know if even the most optimistic of us see that happening. I'm trying to keep my optimism up!

1. Ryno 2. Donny Baseball (if you don't know who I'm talking about, then you're too young to understand...) 3. Bill Buckner 4. Kerry Wood (how likely is it we'll never see another dominating performance like his 20K game against Houston?) 5. That's a tough one...how about a tie... 5(t). Sammy 5(t). Hawk 5(t). Gary Matthews Sr Honorable mention: Prior. For all of his setbacks, no other pitcher in the game elicits the anticipation for an upcoming game as when I know Prior is going to be starting. For some reason, I expect domination every time he takes the mound. And I mean no pitcher I've ever watched in my life provokes the kind of anticipation of a special performance like he does. Hard to describe...

Good thing they put them on the DL now, rather than waiting for the season to begin. If either are ready before the 15th day of the original season, they can come off earlier.

coughcough2005bravescoughcough

I don't see how we could be picked to win fewer games this year. As much as I think Hendry failed to have as good of an off season as he was capable of (considering talent availalble to be traded, roster spots open, and amount of cash available to throw at the market), the team is improved from last season. And correct me if I'm wrong, as bad as last years team was, if you look at what the runs scored vs runs allowed was last year, we should have projected to finish .500 last year. I don't like the team, but I don't think there's a doubt that, barring incredibly bad luck and catastrophe, that we should at least project to being a .500 team this year.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't he in Daytona his last season in our system. I don't think Willis even had that much AA time.

I haven't? Maybe you missed it. Spring training numbers don't tell you anything because: A) Small sample size B) Varied competition (NRI, rehabbers, other minor leaguers, washed up vets going for one last try, B squads) C) The games aren't for real, and players have different levels of intensity (you can face a guy trying to crack a rotation who is throwing his hardest, or a vet who doesn't carry and is just loosening up) D) The game conditions themselves are completely different. High skies affects outfielders, lesser quality infields affect ground balls, atmosphere affects long outs/homeruns, breaking balls don't break. E) Preparation does not equal better numbers. One guy can work his butt off all winter, play in the caribbean and do well against quality pitching, then suck in spring training (Ronny Cedeno), and another guy can just prepare like an average guy and just run across one week of hot streak which would completely skew his spring stats. I don't care what some MLB execs say about what they think of spring stats. Baseball people do a lot of irrational stuff. One of them is putting unwarrented emphasis on spring stats. If you want me to admit they have some small meaning fine. If you have a mediocre prospect who is 0 for the spring, then it's pretty safe to say he shouldn't get a major league job. But then again, you can have a mediocre prospect who has an ungodly spring, and it doesn't mean he's ready for anything. You never can tell. Spring stats do not correlate to readiness for the major league baseball season. I don't see the point in discussing this further. Spring training stats don't tell you anything. They don't tell you who prepared better or who is more ready for the major league season. They can't tell you who deserves a job. If you believe they do, go ahead, put your faith in those stats. Give Fox the backup catcher job, give Moore a spot on the bench. Give Aardsma and Koronka bullpen jobs, and send down Ohman, Williams and Wuertz. Because you can't pick and choose and say spring stats are meaningful in certain spots and meaningless in others. Your reasons above aren't reasons for NOT using ST stats to make decisions. They are reasons why you shouldn't use ONLY ST numbers. Are you suggesting that whether a rookie is ready or not for his first crack at the majors should be made based on where he was at the end of the previous year in the minors? Do you agree with Marshall being considered for a spot in the rotation? Do you also think a rookie could hit .050 with an OBP of .060 in spring training, but if he was a leading prospect to make the team at the beginning of ST, he should still have the role handed to him?

You're making statements like "if you say it enough, it's still wrong," but you still haven't presented one valid reason why ST stats have no value when evaluating if one rookie is more prepared to make a jump than another. In the quote above, you're spinning my statements before to make it sound like I'm advocating making a decision SOLELY on ST stats and performance. I wish you'd stop spinning the debate to your advantage, because I've never implied such a thing. If you have two guys who have the potential to be successful major leaguers and one roster spot, ST stats can help determine who to give it to (hence, see Marshall in consideration for a roster spot over Koronka). Most here thought Marshall has the talent to someday be a major leaguer. At the end of last season, no one was advocating he get a spot in the roster in '06 based on his performance. He was good, but not lights out enough to justify such a jump. His success here in ST is making people think he might be ready now though. According to your logic, there is no justification for him to be considered for the spot. Lets see if you'll put your money where your mouth is. I bet a years premium on this site that the next guy Tim can get on here for a Q and A associated with any professional baseball organization would take my side that ST stats have some value and should have at least some degree of weight in the process.

Nice recovery after a shaky start, I still don't like him as a starter though. He seems to have done that alot (start bad then recover with a few nice innings) between last year and this spring. Please keep him away from the pen....

If you're comparing two rookies, the same applies to both guys. If you can't tell that one rookie is more prepared for the season than another with a comparable skill set from spring training, then you're not trying. You're just plain wrong. You don't understand my point at all. I'm not saying that ST stats are that valuable as far as judging prospects, but you're saying that they have absolutely zero value to any manager or GM whatsoever, and that's just ludicrous. I bet if you asked ANY GM or manager in baseball if they thought there was absolutely NO VALUE in ST Stats as far as comparing to see which prospects are more ready for the show, that every single one of them would not agree with that statement. Pagan isn't a career minor leaguer. The guy is 24. The average ball player breaks into the bigs at about 24-25. If they're in the minors when they're 27 or so, that's when the career minor leaguer label comes in. How do you know Grissom doesn't have anything left in the tank? He was hurt last year, hard to judge by that. Are you making that assumption off of ST? I thought you said ST doesn't matter. Bonds was hurt last year too, I guess that means he has nothing left in the tank. As for Restovich, he's 27, and hasn't been able to stick in the majors yet. He's a failed prospect. He's a 27 year old with a total of 220 some at bats over 4 years in the majors. He deserves the career minor leaguer tag more than Pagan, who has only been in one organization that has already proven to be one of the worst run in baseball. Restovich had a chance to get his break with both the Pirates and Rockies last year after failing to stick with Minnesota, and failed to do so again.

Pagan? maybe Hendry? Better? I don't know. I doubt Pagan's best will ever match Corey's best, which was in '03. He's likely to be more consistant though, and his average, IMO, will surely be better than Corey's worst.

No, they don't. Just because you say it enough doesn't make it true. Spring training stats are not close to a good measure of how a guy can handle competing against major leaguers. Much of the time you aren't even facing major leaguers. Another good chunk of the time your facing guys who aren't in game shape. And further more, hits in Arizona are not the same as hits in most major league parks. The numbers are meaningless. Good spring training numbers do not tell you if a guy can do anything good for your major league team. It's a bad way to make personel decisions. So what make you so right and me so wrong? I can use the same argument to say your full of it. If you're going to post a statement like that, you'd better follow it up with some hard facts to back your statement up. You don't have any more credibility than anyone else on the board, so don't think because you say it's so means it is. Do you even understand what I'm saying at all? Your whole post above is dedicated to why ST numbers do not correlate to regular season major league numbers. I already agreed that ST numbers don't translate to Major League performance. What I'm saying is that ST numbers can serve to tell who is more ready to make the jump to the majors between two or more young guys who have never tasted the bigs before. You said that ST numbers don't matter because most of the competition isn't in game shape. So what. The guy he's outperforming that he's trying to beat out for a roster spot is facing the same competition that isn't in game shape. Should attitude and preparedness be considered when choosing the roster? If a young guy who never has played in the show before shows up to camp unprepared, out of shape, then that says something to me. That guy should be showing up in the best shape of his life, and should have been playing in any off season league he could get into to keep himself in game shape going into ST. If someone isn't doing that who hasn't made the team yet, I'd be concerned about putting someone like that on the team. But I'm not arguing that there's no room for concern if someone like TWalk has a bad spring, because we know what he's going to do during the regular season. ST stats are absolutely relevant when choosing between two comparable rookies for one roster spot.

He stunk to start the season. That is why ST doesn't matter. Regardless of how Sandberg always did in ST, he almost always stunk in April. What's the point? Using ST to evaluate vets with track records is useless, they're track record speakers volumes more and is much more reliable. Minor league experience doesn't translate to major league success much better than ST. So if you're trying to choose a couple of 22-24 year olds with no major league experience, I don't see why ST can't play a part in it. Everyone wants to see Marshall get a shot based on his spring. What if he had an ERA over 9.00 for the spring so far? Denying Pagan because of the low correlation between ST numbers and MLB numbers is hypocrisy if you think Marshall, Guzman, or Hill deserve a shot based on their spring performances.

I would have preferred him over Restovich as a PH outfielder with power.

No, those numbers don't mean a thing actually. Using them to determine who makes it is just as good as arbitrarily pulling a name out of a hat. No, it's not. ST stats are good measures of who can handle competing against major leaguers. Some young guys have the ability, but can't handle the pressure. Some aren't affected. ST stats are about as useful as a similar period of minor league performance, which also doesn't necessarily correlate to major league performance (see Choi, Hill, et al). But it's not useless when determining if a young guy is ready enough to be given a chance.

Wow...two good transactions in one day, with Wellemeyer bringing someone with potential, and Grissom declaring what we've all known all along. Maybe there is some hope for this season...

I haven't seen anything from anyone that suggests there are expectations for him to hit like he has in ST. However, his ST numbers should be useful to compare him against the guys he's competing with for a roster spot (Grissom, Restovich, Theriot, etc...). In that respect, he's got the best numbers, and should be ahead of those guys on the list. His numbers obviously shouldn't be used to compare him against guys who have done well in the majors recently who have enough of a track record to reasonably predict how they'll do this year, like Walker or Hairston.

[puts away personal bracket]What a Moran. That does it, we should trade him. Who wasn't smart enough to have GMU in their final 4?[/puts away personal bracket]

Out of players? Sounds like an excuse to me. He could have gone another inning or two. He didn't use all of his pitchers, and they have the DH, so they aren't burning bench players when they change pitchers. BOOOOOO!!!! HISSSSSS!!! I was thinking the same thing but they said he didn't bring all of his pithers. He only brought 3 pitchers? He may not have brought them all, but I have a hard time believing he only brought 2 relievers.

Out of players? Sounds like an excuse to me. He could have gone another inning or two. He didn't use all of his pitchers, and they have the DH, so they aren't burning bench players when they change pitchers. BOOOOOO!!!! HISSSSSS!!!

Is it just me, or has there been a LOT of ground rule doubles lately?

Grissom didn't fly out, strike out, ground out, foul out, or line out...he MADE an out. That almost sounds intentional. I think he's conspiring against us.

Sorry I'm catching up on this thread, but... I didn't know the Bears were playing... their offspring are. Silly me...

Sorry I'm catching up on this thread, but... I didn't know the Bears were playing...