Magnetic Curses

I heard it would be a gametime decision. Let's just hope we don't have to wait until tomorrow to find out. the score says that he's likely out again. good.

cordero is good.

yeah, but that begs the question, how does ravech even know to mention marshall?

marshall, what? i hope this is just ravech not knowing anything about baseball.

i don't know why cuban would announce his maximum bid so soon.

i hope it happens, he's one of the best leadoff men of all time. the only one who i can say who has been definitely been better is mr. rickey. Rock Raines and Craig Biggio recently. Off the top of my head: Better: Richie Ashburn (HOF) Cool Papa Bell (HOF) Craig Biggio (HOF) Ty Cobb (HOF) Rock Raines Eddie Collins (HOF) Nap Lajoie (HOF) Roberto Alomar Joe Morgan (HOF) Arguable Either Way: Earle Combs (HOF) Martin Dihigo (HOF) He's better than HOFers Waner, Hooper and Brock. I probably forgot some guys in the HOF and/or added guys who didn't hit lead off most of the time. Did Arky Vaughan hit leadoff? I think he did for awhile. alright alright, maybe rickey isn't the only one ahead of him. leadoff hitters are so hard to keep track of.

If his name didn't appear in moneyball, I doubt anybody would care to defend him. Just because he was in the A's front office doesn't make him smart or a good GM. nobody is holding him up as a genius, here. True, but I think many have given him the benefit of the doubt purely b/c of where he last was employed. He certainly hasn't done much to earn respect at this point . i think people hold more against ricciardi for his association with beane than those who hold it in high regard. people always are looking for holes in the "moneyball" theory. in actuality, there is no "moneyball" theory, and ricciardi is a very different gm in a very different situation. I agree that he is different and in a different situation. It may be the case that he simply does not know how to handle greater resources in light of where he learned his trade. The Burnett signing was a mistake, and he overpaid for Ryan. Now he's got his payroll tied up in knots. I do credit him for re-signing Wells. Hill seems like a solid guy. Glaus is a good 3B (though he's a risk also, given his history of shoulder trouble). Riccardi would have done well to follow his mentor's philosophy of exploiting undervalued assets more closely, particulary in that division. anybody can have overpriced, oft-injured players eating up salary on their roster. burnett was a big fish that free agent year, iirc. ryan's injury couldn't have been predicted, but he was worth what ricciardi paid at the time.

yes, but this goes pretty much the same with every team over 162 games. i think pythagorean win expectancy is pretty good at sifting skill from luck.

If his name didn't appear in moneyball, I doubt anybody would care to defend him. Just because he was in the A's front office doesn't make him smart or a good GM. nobody is holding him up as a genius, here. True, but I think many have given him the benefit of the doubt purely b/c of where he last was employed. He certainly hasn't done much to earn respect at this point . i think people hold more against ricciardi for his association with beane than those who hold it in high regard. people always are looking for holes in the "moneyball" theory. in actuality, there is no "moneyball" theory, and ricciardi is a very different gm in a very different situation.

i hope it happens, he's one of the best leadoff men of all time. the only one who i can say who has been definitely been better is mr. rickey. I'd give the nod to Tim Raines. off the top of my head, so to say. raines was a great player as well, perhaps marginally better than lofton.

If his name didn't appear in moneyball, I doubt anybody would care to defend him. Just because he was in the A's front office doesn't make him smart or a good GM. nobody is holding him up as a genius, here.

what would it take to get them though? i don't think it would take much to get lofton, but gagne will be in higher demand. have to give up some young pitching, most definitely.

i hope it happens, he's one of the best leadoff men of all time. the only one who i can say who has been definitely been better is mr. rickey.

which is why it would be nice to move on lofton immediately and let pagan play in rf against lefties. EDIT: maybe not, just peeped lofton's numbers against lefties, not good.

i have to admit that i was a bit worried in may. they ARE the cubs, most times they just don't follow the rules. now i think the pythagorean numbers show that this recent run of success isn't a fluke.

fixed... i always wanted to do that. no to ward. with derosa at 1st you can play theriot at ss and fontenot at 2nd, if floyd is back by then.

i don't think we'd be in that bad of shape, so long as derosa is the 1st baseman.

i must concur with the idea of adding gagne and lofton. i'd stick lofton in center the rest of the year. the guy can still get on base. that moves pagan to a better role, 5th outfielder. not that pagan is too bad, he's actually a pretty valuable asset off the bench. that's the only deal i'd do.

i fail to see why signing burnett to a ridiculous contract or signing a journeyman ss to a small contract makes ricciardi spectacularly dumb. if his name was omitted from the book that billy beane wrote, i doubt that anyone would be harping on his mistakes.

welcome to professional baseball.

i just don't want steve stone anywhere near our front office. whoever keeps him out of a position of power is alright by me.

that wouldn't really be a platoon.

in wisconsin, every single am station carries the brewers game, it seems like.

there's no set way to build a baseball team, some organizations have success developing high school players and some have success using their available resources to draft and develop more polished players. oakland has done well keeping a short, steady stream of these players flowing onto their big club, but that's not to say that orgs with intricate and able scouting systems can't be successful bringing along younger players and developing them appropriately-especially if they have a strong, consistent philosophy.

nice job marmaduke.