frostwyrm

Olney is far more impressed with Eyre and Howry than I am.

.247/.370/.617? That looks fantastic. Wait, what three stats are you comparing in that line? Usually it's AVG/OBP/SLG Jones v. LHP 2005: .201/.247/.370/.617 3 year: .238/.295/.363/.658 Jones lifetime vs. LHP: .227/.277/.339 /.616 Those numbers would embarrass Jose Macias. They're not even acceptable for a utility infielder. I can't for the life of me figure out why Jones has been allowed to face LHPs for so long.

Well, no, it's not really like that. Nazi Germany was definitely worse, and would be a top-5 pick in the Bizarro Fantasy Government draft. And also, Mabry doesn't get as much playing time as Neifi because it's a lot easier to find random corner outfielders than middle infielders. No, the USSR under Stalin was way worse than Nazi Germany, but that's another topic.

The rating system is idiotic. For hitters they are using junk like runs scored, RBIs, and strikeouts, and they totally overvalue stolen bases. For pitchers they heavily weight wins and saves. Nuff said.

Sure they can. Any theory can be disproved simply by proving another theory which contradicts it. The theory of a round earth contradicts the theory of a flat earth, thereby disproving it.

It is physically impossible to demonstrate something does not exist. One can only demonstrate that something exists. Convential wisdom often gets people in trouble. So the earth's still flat? Different question. A theory can be proved or disproved by logical analysis of collected evidence, but non-existence of any particular thing can never be proved because for us mere mortals the collected evidence will always be incomplete, since it would require an encompassing knowledge of all things presently contained in the universe to state authoritatively that something does not exist. Non-ominiscient beings can never have more than a subset of the evidence required to prove non-existence. We do, however, have enough evidence to disprove the theory of a flat earth.

It is physically impossible to demonstrate something does not exist. One can only demonstrate that something exists. Convential wisdom often gets people in trouble. True. For example, it is impossible to prove that Santa Claus doesn't exist. You can only say that there is no known credible evidence that he does exist. Only an omniscient being could state authoritatively that something does not exist.

Rotoworld's take is kinda funny Only 3 teams? Macias' agent said 6 teams were interested. That took some guts.

Or you could throw gobs of cash at middle relief and hope it lets the manager pull the SP's earlier.

I can't imagine how many blown steals Pierre will have when Neifi fouls off a pitch in the dirt after Pierre is almost standing on second. There is still no doubt in my mind Perez will be the starting SS. Are we all talking about the same Juan Pierre? Or are some of you assuming he's going to all of a sudden start stealing at an 80% success rate? I won't mention that he needs to also improve his OBP for any of this concern regarding the #2 position to be relevant. I loathe the idea of Perez starting at second, but if neither Walker nor Hairston clearly beats him out statistically then that's more of a slam on Walker and Hairston. I'm not a big fan of Baker to say the least. But I'll give him a little more of a chance since he'll have no excuses this year. After all, he finally has more speed, a leadoff man, a good bullpen and better defense up the middle.... something he's been crying about since the end of 2003. Now he has no excuses to fall back on. I don't remember writing about him having a 80% steal rate but I'll read my post again to see if I did........nope, I didn't. My point is that Perez will take away steals from him because he swings at every pitch. And again I will say that Perez will be starting at SS and play in at least 140 games. At 3.23 pitches per PA Neifi ranked 146 of 148 qualified MLB batters in ESPN's stats. I doubt Dusty knows that. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/stats/batting?seasonType=2&type=exp&sort=pitchesPerPlateAppearance&minpa=0&split=0&season=2005&pos=all&hand=a&league=mlb&ageMin=17&ageMax=51&qual=true&count=109

If he convinced Jacque to use them, Juan could perform a great service to the team. ...by either: A) enhancing Jaque's performance or B) getting him baninated from the team My thinking exactly. Not a big Jacque fan? :D What was your first clue? Heh heh. Me neither. As a measure of my non-fanhood, I would have preferred to see Burnitz' $7M option picked up, and I'm one of Burnie's biggest anti-fans.

If he convinced Jacque to use them, Juan could perform a great service to the team. ...by either: A) enhancing Jaque's performance or B) getting him baninated from the team My thinking exactly. Not a big Jacque fan?

It has to be the 114 RBIs. I don't know what else it could be.

If Hendry believes Tejada is the 3rd best player in baseball why didn't he try to sign him in 2003? It's not like Tejada was a well-kept secret back then. Was getting Greg Maddux more important than getting the 3rd best player in the game?

I agree there should be restrictions on the size of the armor. Thanks to the armor Bonds gets away with leaning out over the plate and shrinking the zone, and it also lets him use a tiny bat while still covering the whole plate. Then he gets all hissy when a pitcher throws inside. There are restrictions now however when the rule was created Bond's armor was grandfathered in. :? When did he start using the armor? It's possible that depending on his start date of the armor, that it had just as much an effect on his HR totals as the juice did. Could be. It is so wrong that he can cover the whole zone with a little league bat. That should never have been allowed to happen. If you take away his armor he'd have to stand off the plate and use an adult-sized bat.

GM's have gotten into the habit of giving out huge $$ based on one good year. Lee is going to command at least as much as Furcal.

I agree there should be restrictions on the size of the armor. Thanks to the armor Bonds gets away with leaning out over the plate and shrinking the zone, and it also lets him use a tiny bat while still covering the whole plate. Then he gets all hissy when a pitcher throws inside.

I heard this a long time ago: Q: Why does Paris have so many tree-lined boulevards? A: So the Germans can march in the shade. Good joke for its time, but I think the answer should be updated to "so the pro-infidel-beheading protesters can march in the shade"

I'm as paranoid about Dusty as anyone but I didn't read anything in his quotes to make me believe Grissom will be a big threat to Murton's status as starter. Sounds like Dusty views Grissom as a specialist to be used vs LHP. The one thing that does scare me a bit is that Dusty loves batter v. pitcher matchup numbers and Grissom has spent an eternity in the NL, and consequently has a ton of matchup data vs. veteran NL pitchers. I can see Murton sitting vs. a particular pitcher because Grissom had a good game against him back in the days when grunge ruled the airwaves.

That looks a little optimistic for the Pirates and Reds, but the others look reasonably accurate. I think if you take their predicted records as a starting point and then watch for an outstanding rookie to catch fire or a season-ending injury to a key player and adjust the predictions accordingly, they will be very accurate. Maybe BP thinks the NL sucks in general, and that's why 80 wins for the Pirates and Reds. I noticed ESPN only had 3 NL teams in the top 11 in their power rankings.

By late July they will be a combined 123 years old.

Has there ever been a worse defensive OF than Bonds/Finley/Alou?

The pictures of Z are amazing. I read he had lost an estimated 15 lbs. but it looks more like 30 lbs. to me. Unfortunately Eyre and Rusch look like fat slobs. Are there any pics of Williams? I thought he had a little too much junk in the trunk last year. http://ak.imgfarm.com/images/ap/CUBS_SPRING_BASEBALL.sff_AZNH109_20060216145455.jpg

Randy Quaid is way funnier than Robert Wuhl. I like his character in the "Vacation" movies. A better poll would have been Wuhl and Paul Reiser. They suck.

Dusty and Sammy don't like each other. If the Cubs fall out of contention it would be really cool to bring Sammy back so he could hit his last homer at Wrigley but Hendry won't do that while Dusty is here. Why would it be cool? If the Cubs fall out of contention they should bring up some minor leaguers to prepare for next season not worry about aiding Sosa's selfish quest for 600. If Sosa manages to make his way to Cooperstown it will be as a Cub (the numbers are overwhelming while with Chicago) they don't owe him the chance to reach any milestones. I didn't say he should play every day. I'd give him enough chances to hit a few dingers, that's it.