Wedge

Alright, let's try this one: in the history of MLB, no team has had a 10 game in their league/division (whichever it was at the time) prior to the All-Star Break and went on to not win that respective league/division. The Sox had a 10+ game lead prior to the All-Star Break. There is no precedent for them not winning the division. Also, thank God that Oakland is now tied wtih Anaheim for the West's division lead.

Good news: Oakland is tied with Anaheim for the division lead. I'm hoping they win that division!

QUOTE(whitesoxfan101 @ Jul 31, 2005 -> 05:04 PM) Basically you can make trades still, but the players involved have to clear waivers I believe is how it works. The Cards for instance were able to get Walker last August because of his large contract that helped him clear waivers IIRC. Right. Every team (in order from worst record to best record, first in the same league and then in the other league) can pick up the contract of the waived player. If this happens, the waiving team can let that team pick up the contract or cancel the waiving. If the player is not picked up by any team, the player in question may be traded as usual.

Back on task, here's a great quote:

The good news is that we're scuffling. The reason the team finished poorly down the stretch in 2000 was that there were a lot of injuries, especially to the pitching staff. For the most part, the team is still healthy. Having a healthy team in September (especially the rotation) is the top priority, and the team should do fine if that is the case.

QUOTE(cragi @ Jul 27, 2005 -> 08:40 AM) the brewers don't have any obvious holes to fill. If they have no obvious holes, then why are they not competing for the wild card? I guess they're sort of on the border, but I don't think they'll seriously threaten to take it. From the sounds of it, they probably could use a little more pitching and/or a position player to put them over the top. If I were them, I would at a minimum try to get a 4/5 starter/long reliever (a la Ted Lilly) and a very good prospect for Overbay. That sort of deal is more likely in the offseason since a lot of contenders are looking for pitching or want to hold onto the pitching that they have.

I'd love for it to happen... but I pretty sure it will not.

VA's argument was that if Ross Gload played everyday like Overbay, that his statistics would be similar to Overbay's over a whole season. His premise was that if you project Gload 2004 to playing a whole season that his stats are comparable to Overybay 2004 playing the whole season. I added another premise by stating that in two seasons where Gload and Overbay had similar at-bats, that Gload's production compared favorably to Overbay. A comparison of Gload to Overbay isn't completely unreasonable, although I scratched my head at first until I looked at the numbers a bit more. Ask yourself this: what was Overbay in 2003 in Arizona? Was he much more than Gload 2004? I don't think Mark Buehrle was ever considered a prospect, yet I'm sure we could get a king's ransom for him. Hell, I hadn't heard much about Jenks until a week or two before his call-up and then boom, he looks like the real deal. No GM would give up equal value for Gload as for Overbay because Gload has not done what Overbay has over a full season and a half. If Gload had produced in 2004 what Overbay did, then I'm sure there would be comparable offer. QUOTE(daa84 @ Jul 27, 2005 -> 08:02 AM) 53 doubles people. when players get older and hit their prime (which is what overbay is doing now) doubles turn to home runs. brian roberts for example. im sorry, but gloads finaly month and a half of 2004 greatly inflated his BA. If I recall correctly, Gload played more regularly at the end of 2004. Maybe that's indicator of what he would do if he played regularly over a whole season. That's a fair argument.

As much as he's done at the #2 spot in the order, I really wonder what his numbers would look like if he batted #3 or #4 consistently.

A better comparison for Gload to Overbay is Overbay in 2003 with Arizona: G AB HR RBI BB SO AVG OBP SLG OPS 86 254 4 28 35 67 .276 .365 .402 .767 Compare that to Gload's 2004: G AB HR RBI BB SO AVG OBP SLG OPS 110 234 28 44 20 37 .321 .375 .479 .854 In similar at-bats, Gload did put up better numbers. While the premise seems unlikely at first, what was Overbay before 2004? Basically Ross Gload. Now my concerns are Gload's health and ability to play a full season. Also, why did Gload not play in MLB in 2001 or 2003 (my guess is he was in the minors then)?

I think Gload's average would dip, but he does have the trimmings of being a very good first baseman. That said, I'd be fairly uncomfortable going into 2006 with Gload as our everyday starter at 1B, especially with the back issues he's had this year.

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Jul 27, 2005 -> 07:18 AM) I read where the Brewers feel they could get major league players for Overbay if they wait until the offseason, but would probably only be able to get prospects if they traded him now. They apparently would rather have major league ready players rather than prospects. It's probably the right attitude: two guys that can fill holes in 2006 OR three guys that might never make MLB.

If we're giving up McCarthy and/or the other top prospects, I think we need a strong bat more than a pitcher. Hopefully that could be Manny or Overbay.

QUOTE(GreatScott82 @ Jul 26, 2005 -> 07:41 AM) 5 more days till the deadline. Nobody knows what to expect at this point, not even KW. Truer words have never been spoken.

Houston is in the race for the wild card and they're hotter than hell. They might even be charging harder than Oakland for the ALWC.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Jul 25, 2005 -> 01:42 PM) Does it matter, he isnt on the block according to the Mariners. The real question is....Is AJB better than BMAC and Marte? Is JC in the pen better than Marte? Is Lowell a better 3B and 1B backup than Gload and Ozuna? AJB can probably contribute more to this team for 2005 than BMAC and Marte. Beyond that, I'm not sure. I thought JC did poorly in his playoff starts out of the pen? I think Ozuna and Gload are fine back-ups (although Lowell's 3B defense HAS to be better than Ozuna's) and Lowell has struggled offensively all season.

Question time: Is Damaso Marte better, worse, or the same as Eddie Guardado?

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Jul 25, 2005 -> 09:57 AM) Disagree again, Marte walks too many people, and has serious control lapses. Look no further than last year against the cubs when he walked the winning run in. You're citing a one-time occurrence from 12 months ago as evidence of a general problem. Does Polittle have serious control lapses? He walked in the winning run against Detroit last year. I believe by this point that Viz's stats have had enough time to be corrected for since the second game of the season. Marte is better than Viz and you're kidding yourself if you think otherwise.

QUOTE(Ozzie Montana @ Jul 25, 2005 -> 07:36 AM) Hermanson is doing a tremendous job as a closer but I still think a trade for a Billy Wagner would put us over the hump. So this way if we trade Marte we would definately be upgrading with Wagner. Marte has had his struggles one day looking like the left handed phenom from 03 and another day looking like garbage. He is too inconsistent. But we got the luxury to trade Marte because Politte and Cotts have been nothing short of tremendous for us. Plus no one knows when Hermanson's back will start acting up. Except that Wagner is officially off the market since the Phillies feel they are in it.

Is Levine really wrong? As far as I can tell (Trib articles), it sounds like KW has made something like an official offer to the Marlins. They, in turn, are taking their time on making a decision. Something was done in the 24 hour window, it's just that the Marlins have neither accepted nor declined the trade.

I'm glad that people are seeing the light that any deal for Burnett would cost way too much.

Can we avoid extremes here? It seems like every time that somebody screws up we should "fire him" or "trade his ass". There was a thread the other day that Rowand sucks and we need to trade him, RIGHT NOW. Sort of ignored that he has the second highest average of the regular starters. Yeah, the play sucked. I knew Paul was out the second he rounded third. Everybody has brain cramps now and then, hopefully Cora learns from it.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Jul 22, 2005 -> 10:35 AM) I call shennanigans But our shenanigans are cheeky and fun. Yeah, his shenanigans are cruel and tragic. Which wouldn't make them shenanigans, at all, really. Evil shenanigans!

QUOTE(maggsmaggs @ Jul 22, 2005 -> 09:03 AM) Like usual we get nothing new from Bruce Levine. Didn't Levine crack the Ozzie extension story? And it's not like something has gone down that Levine didn't hint at before...

For starters: Shingo, Crede, one of BMac/Contreras, plus a prospect or two?