Cerbaho-WG

Even though I proved that Valentin is better defensively than Konerko, I have to say that adjusting Zone Ratings is really only plausible with players of the same position. I mean, I could say that Valentin is a better defender than Scott Rolen by adjusting Zone Ratings.

2003 Zone Ratings: Konerko: .792 Valentin: .893 2004 Zone Ratings: Konerko: .843 Valentin: .887 As we can see here, Valentin gets to more balls than Konerko, according to the ZR. Now let's incorporate errors. In 2003, Valentin had 638 total chances to field a ball. If his ZR was .893, he should have gotten to around 714 balls. Now let's just assume Valentin's errors cost 1 base and that's it: the equivalent of a single. Valentin had 20 errors, so we assume Valentin made 0 errors and 618 TC as a result. 618/714= a ZR of .866. With Konerko: He should have gotten to 1227 balls, roughly. 972 TC - 2 E= 970 TC/1227 balls=.790 ZR (adjusted ZR). .866>.790 (2003) Konerko's AdjustedZR this year would be .840, Valentin's .856. 856>840. Now remember, this is assuming each error only costs one base. I could accurately adjust zone ratings by going back to see how many bases each error cost, but with my general assumption of 1 error=1 base, you get the jist that Valentin is a better defender than Konerko, even with his high amount of errors.

Roguhly 10 MPH.

TIM WILLIAMS? IT RHYMES WITH JIMY WILLIAMS, FORMER RED SOX MANAGER LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL Yup.

KW finally realizes that he made a huge mistake by saying Rauch was available for the taking and is trying to create some amount of stock in him. I bet every GM can see through this.

You draft the best player available, not based on need.

Drew won't fall to the Sox at 18, and I bet Billy Beane snags the aforementioned player from UofF.

No, but I am very sick of you slamming on Valentin. He's probably one of the most underrated players in all of baseball, and is leadership cannot be measured by statistics alone. There are much more plausible targets on the Sox (JOE CREDE, AHEM), but Nuke chooses to show his vast amount of baseball intelligence by slamming a guy who has an OPS of .862 I bet Nuke thinks Adam Dunn or Mark Bellhorn sucks ass because they strike out too much, too.

Yeah, let's slam a guy who has averaged over 50 walks for about the past 8 years and has a K:BB ratio of a respectable 2:1. We're smart people.

Just no, dear God. As for C Lee, I've been sick of him for a while. He's getting paid 6.5 million and bringing up an awesome sub .800 OPS. All this for a guy who's highest OPS is a pedestrian .843.

You missed the point completely. The simple fact that he was the MiLPOTY raises his trade stock considerably over someone who wasn't. Nanita is not a "pretty good prospect". While I do like him, I was very, very weary of ranking him so high on the Sox's prospect list because he was a 22 year old destroying the Rookie leagues. While his tools are much better, as of right now he's the clone of Edgar Valera stat wise, who fell off the face of the Earth after demolishing Rookie ball. Once he starts putting up good numbers outside of Rookie ball, then he can be considered a pretty good prospect.

I completely disagree and believe that baseball's draft should be kept on conference call. Face it, the draft itself is already 2 days long and would last forever being televised unless the amount of rounds was cut down dramatically. Secondly, and more importantly, only a very few people know who the heck these kids are being drafted. If MLB is to televise the draft, collegiate baseball would have to garner the same audience and attention as college football or basketball. That ain't gonna happen. If you hear something along the lines of, "With the 10th pick in the MLB draft, the Anaheim Angels select redraft 0174, Nick Adenhart," (yes I know Adenhart is not a redraft and blew out his elbow) 99 out of 100 baseball fans are going to go, "Huh?" Also, baseball players have no guaranteed big league appearence like in Basketball or Football. Sure, the #1 pick of the MLB draft has better odds than the last pick of the draft at making the Bigs, but more often than not these players have to spend 2-4 years in the minors before their contract is purchased (assuming it's non major contract). Do I really want to see some huge celebration and showboat of a jersey with a #1 on it and SYZMANSKI steamed onto the back when no one knows if he is going to pan out? Hell no.

What KW did was f***ing idiotic, to put it lightly. If KW wants to trade him and lambast him privately, go right on ahead. But to publically slam someone and state that he is available to anyone lowers his trade stock considerably. And before any of you say, "Anything for Rauch is good, he has no value!", keep in mind that he was a former minor league player of the year. A lot of teams are probably willing to take the chance on a kind of guy like Rauch, so KW would have been smart to keep Rauch's personal issues private. Now any team can name their price for Rauch, which gives them a huge advantage at the trading desk. From Moneyball, rule #2 of trading: The day you say you have to do something, you're screwed.

Why Bikwoski and Nanita are mentioned in this list is beyond any sort of logic.

If an OF must be called up, the Sox could purchase the contract of J Reed because there is a spot open on the 40 man.

I believe Sam McDowell hit 103 MPH, and I know Eric Threets, SFG prospect, hit 103 MPH in EST a few years back.

Because Meaux shouldn't be in the pen with a mid 80's fastball.

Claimed from the Royals. Started one game against the Yankees and was shelled, resulting in a demotion back to the minors. Don't know anything other than that.

880 MPH, that's awesome! I wonder if the Reds not signing him 3 years ago will come up and bit them in their ass.

Two words: eephus pitch.

Borchard a better arm than Rowand? Rowand has a good arm in CF, and Borchard's arm is hugely, hugely overrated because he was a quarterback at Stanford. I'd take Rowand's arm, and Rowand defensively in center over Borchard, who is built for the corners. Borchard smarter than Rowand? Do you have the Caliper profiles to back this up, or are you just comparing Stanford to Cal State Fulerton? Just dumb. Borchard a better bat than Rowand? Of course. I'd take just about anyone in center over Rowand, bat or no bat. Borchard is a better left handed hitter, and he has admitted this himself. He looks mechanical from both sides of the plate, but worse off from the right side. -- Ok, what the f*** is up wth you and Jon Rauch? You basically slobber all over Joe Borchard, who has been an enormous disappointment in his career up this point, and hate against a guy who was awarded a player of the year award by Baseball America, went through arm surgery which has dropped several MPH off of all of his pitches (including limiting the bite on his offspeed pitches), and was grossly misued by KW and Jerry Manuel. Christ, now you're hoping pitchers are forever banished to the minors because they "aren't nice to you"? Baseball players can be absolute s***heads if they want if they have the talent. Did you think that maybe he's just sick and tired of being dogged? He could have been having a bad day? Come on. Ozzie basically yelled at me during Spring Training, but I still wish him the utmost success. I don't hate Ozzie and love Kris Honel, who was very nice to me, just because of the way they acted towards me. Last time I checked, there were no words in professional contracts that said you have to be a ray of sunshine to fans.

In the MLB draft a club does not draft on a "need" basis, rather the club drafts the best player available that they believe they can sign. I'd love to have Syzmanski, probably one of the best position players in the draft.

I always do

He's a 4th OF on a bad team at best. He should not be starting, end of story.

The Jays will get prospects, most likely in the form of Harnahan, Jackson, or Loney.