frostwyrm

That team is depressing. It's like a hospice for baseball careers.

Hill is a starting pitcher. It bothers me when people see a lefty starter and right away they want to put him in the pen as a LOOGY.

I hope Ronny can get it together but I'm not optimistic. He's sat too long and has to be very rusty by now. The time to use him was immediately after his callup. It may be too late now.

Nah, lefty starting today. Wait til we hit a stretch of righties. Murton will be glued to the bench same as Cedeno, who is in a really bad situation, as he's getting skipped even vs. lefties That's too bad for Cedeno too, because about the only time that Neifi even resembles a useful offensive player is when he's facing lefties. He's got a .480 SLG against them this year, as opposed to a .350 range against righties. Against lefties, he's actually borderline useful, since he definitely has proven himself defensively with his great range. Against righties, Neifi is beyond helpless. Too bad Ronny doesn't bat lefty. Actually, even as a righty, he can't be any worse than Neifi right? Not that Dusty would be astute enough to even notice Neifi's splits... Neifi vs. Righties April: .367/.392/.490/.882, 51 PA's May: .258/.280/.348/.628, 92 PA's June: .224/.239/.282/.521, 87 PA's July: .194/.188/.226/.414, 31 PA's Neifi vs. Lefties April: .375/.412/.813/1.225, 17 PA's May: .263/.263/.474/.737, 19 PA's June: .250/.250/.417/.667, 24 PA's July: .286/.333/.387/.720, 15 PA's While he has been better against lefties, I'd still say that Cedeno could at least produce the low 700s OPS v. LH that Neifi is likely to put up the rest of the season. Sample size vs. lefties for 2005 is too small. Looking at Neifi's 3 year splits shows that he can hit a few more homers vs. lefties, and by "a few" I mean few enough to count on the fingers of one hand. Otherwise there's no real difference. Neifi just plain sucks.

Why do people care about this guy?

Another reason to hate him is that his crappy pitching let Neifi have his first good game in a long time, making it even less likely that Ronny Cedeno will ever play.

Nah, lefty starting today. Wait til we hit a stretch of righties. Murton will be glued to the bench same as Cedeno, who is in a really bad situation, as he's getting skipped even vs. lefties

We've faced lefties the last 2 games and Ronny's sat for both. He needs to go back to Iowa now.

Neifi is Domincan.

I didn't say he should turn down the Rays, I just pointed out that having to settle for the Rays is usually a very very bad sign for a veteran's career.

So does Hendry want to lock up Wilson longterm? I hope not. I don't even want him for half a season.

Wow, dude. I'm not meaning this as attack, but that's one of the stupidest comments I've ever read. It's the MAJOR FREAKING LEAGUES. Kids DREAM about playing in The Show. You CANT be serious. I dont care if the Rays lose 150 games, they're still in the Bigs. Tell that comment to a kid who followed baseball his entire life, collects baseball cards, played prep league, etc - you are out of your mind!!! Good thing you didn't mean it as an attack. Joe is not a kid, nor is Randall Simon, Tom Goodwin, Fred McGriff, or Robbie Alomar. For guys like Joe Tampa is typically the last stop on the way to the golf course.

I doubt Hairston will be excited about coming back unless he's guaranteed playing time like Walker and Hollandworth were. He has also said he prefers 2B to the outfield.

W-L is actually worse than useless, because not only is it devoid of meaning, but it serves to confuse and misrepresent.

I remember Eric Karros couldn't hit any decent RHP to save his life, but he could hit some of the bad ones.

I wish Joe well, but the Rays have a habit of acquiring used up vets that absolutely nobody else wants. Getting signed by the Rays is not much better than a AAA contract from a real team.

My only theory to explain the Hill-doubting is that people might be skeptical of high minor league strikeout totals from a pitcher without overpowering velocity.

Kearns has regressed, and being a righty batter he very likely could get stuck in a crappy platoon situation. Dusty is more open-minded about young pitchers, and he has stated that he likes to have lefties in the rotation, so Hill is likely be more useful to us than Kearns.

I came up with a label for all those rabid Neifi boosters who personally insulted us non-believers. It was "Neifiends", and I actually used it once or twice. Unfortunately Neifi's fan club scattered like chickens when Neifi started sucking.

Hill has a good chance to be in the rotation for opening day 2006 and actually be reasonably effective too. Kearns doesn't look like he'll provide any value comparable to that.

Getting away from the Dusty topic for a moment, thank you. I was going to post a comment on the very subject, but felt it would come across as whining if I did it. So we're all guilty of groupthink here because we don't believe that before-and-after stats prove that Dusty helped Ramirez and Lee? Groupthink is NOT why we don't believe it, the reason we don't believe it is because it's a dumb idea. If you want a message board full of dumb ideas go to Cubs.com.

In the Red Sox series Dusty said he started Dubois against the righty Wakefield because he was afraid Wakefield's knuckleball might mess up Hollandsworth's swing. That's about as clear an example of coddling a veteran as you'll ever see. And as Rotoworld pointed out, Dusty was unafraid of messing up Dubois' swing.

How else would you prove it? So I guess Dusty ruined Sammy Sosa.

I don't think Neifi will get benched this year, regardless of how he hits. Cedeno should be back in Iowa.

This quote kills me. Dusty will not hesitate to let a rookie sit for more than "almost a week" between starts, but if it's a vet in question then "almost a week" between starts is "a long time". And someone needs to tell Dusty that Holla got 2 at bats last night.