ZoomSlowik

I know you're a WHIP guy, but just to play devil's advocate, here are the ERA leaders... 1) Jose Contreras- 1.41 2) John Thompson- 1.87 3) Chris Carpenter- 1.98 4) Bronson Arroyo- 2.03 5) Mike Maroth- 2.18 6) Tom Glavine- 2.19 7) Mike Mussina- 2.56 8) Brad Penny- 2.66 9) Brett Myers- 2.73 10) Roy Halladay- 2.74 11) Brandon Webb- 2.78 12) Chris Capuano- 2.83 13) Brett Tomko- 2.88 14) Scott Kazmir- 2.94 15) Derek Lowe- 2.98 16) Wandy Rodriguez- 3.02 17) Tony Armas- 3.02 18) Greg Maddux- 3.10 19) Pedro Martinez- 3.19 20) Jason Schmidt- 3.20 A few comments... 8 players made the cut on ERA but not WHIP, while 10 made the cut on WHIP but not ERA. The biggest anomalies for low ERA/high WHIP were Wandy Rodriguez (1.20), Brand Penny (1.23), Brett Myers (1.23), John Thompson (1.29), Mike Maroth (1.40), and Scott Kazmir (1.43). Kazmir, Penny, and Myers are probably able to allow fewer runs because of good stuff. All of them strike out more than 6 batters per 9 innings. Penny and Myers have high but not ridiculously high WHIP's, while Kazmir's is pretty bad. He strikes out almost one batter per inning to compensate however. They might be able to keep it up. Maroth appears to be gettting extremely lucky right now. He has a very low ERA despite a high WHIP and low strikeout rates (3.70 K/9). I'd expect his ERA to climb eventually. Thompson and Rodriguez are somewhat in-between. Thompson has a pretty high WHIP, but he's got a fair strikeout rate (6.44 k/9). Rodriguez's strikeout rate is a little lower, but so is his WHIP. Just going on first instinct, I'd say both are flukes, but who knows what will happen if they can keep those rates constant. As for the low WHIP/high ERA people, Jake Peavy (3.61), Jeremy Bonderman (3.74), Curt Schilling (3.76), Javier Vazquez (3.88), Jarrod Washburn (3.91), Dave Bush (4.17), and Josh Beckett (4.24) are a bit unusual (there are others higher than Peavy, but his ERA is relatively higher given he plays in the NL in a pitcher's park). I find these especially interesting becuase only Washburn has a strikeout rate under 6 k/9. The logical conclusion is that these guys get hit hard when they do give up hits, and that generally seems to be the case. Washburn has allowed 5 homers and 11 doubles, Schilling has allowed 7 and 9, Bush has allowed 7 and 12, Beckett has allowed 8 and 8, and Peavy has allowed 5 and 10. Vazquez and Bonderman haven't been hit as hard, allowing 2 and 9 and 3 and 11 respectively. The last two seem to just have been a bit unlucky. I'd expect Bush to slip out of this group because he gets hit pretty hard when he does give up hits, suggesting that people just need some time to figure him out. The rest should either improve or stay relatively the same, although Washburn probably has the least leeway given his low strikeout rate. Pedro Martinez has a ridiculously low WHIP, but his ERA is a lot higher than one would expect. He's allowed 8 homers already, most on this list.

QUOTE(knightni @ May 13, 2006 -> 10:53 PM) Blue Jays may be fired again. I take it that means he hasn't been too active since trading his only 2 good prospects and his first round pick to Soxpranos?

QUOTE(rangercal @ May 12, 2006 -> 11:28 PM) We might be full after the 2 potential signings today No kidding, you guys fired 3 or 4 GM's since the end of last season. Mets, D-Backs, Brewers, Blue Jays for sure. Any others that I'm missing?

QUOTE(LosMediasBlancas @ May 11, 2006 -> 12:06 PM) That's the one. The 'experts' chime in. http://chicago.citysearch.com/bestof/winners/2005/pizza There is no way that Gino's East belongs in the top 5, and I'd argue it shouldn't be in the top 10. I'd also bump Giordano's down a few places. I honestly haven't tried some of the ones toward the bottom.

I got a 4 gig nano recently, and I have no complaints so far. It works great, and has a ton of space. The one major thing is make sure you follow the instructions, otherwise things get messed up pretty badly. Aboz's situation is an example, I've been extra careful to make sure that I don't do that. Regarding space, theoretically 1 gig is roughly 250 songs (at least for ipods), assuming like a 4 minute average. I've got 461 songs on mine, and it takes up 1.8-something gigs.

Pizzeria Due is the best in my book, although Uno's and Lou Malnati's are very similar. Make sure you don't go to one of the Pizzeria Uno chain restaurants though. They're owned by the same guy, but the pizza is drastically inferior to the two original locations. Home Run Inn is another favorite of mine.

QUOTE(J-MAN @ Apr 28, 2006 -> 09:14 AM) I am surprised by your service complaints. My son went to the U of I Champaign and used the Illini Express for four years and in all the trips he made their service was exceptional - never a late bus (in fact often a few minutes early even when there was road work being done). I'm pretty sure I always used Suburban Express, one of their competitors. That seemed to work well. My only complaints were about the stupid ticket machines that wouldn't take a bill smaller than a $10 and always dispensed change in $1 coins. I had about 40 of those suckers lying around by the end of the year, and people (especially bartenders) give you dirty looks when you try to use them.

So much for my late round steal in my keeper league. He's still so talented that I almost have to keep him on the roster, because he's going to produce whenever the D-Rays finally give him a shot. Incidents like this certainly won't speed things up though.

As good as we look right now, it'll be tough to keep winning at this kind of pace. We've only played one team that is projected to finish above 3rd so far, and we lost that series to Cleveland. Our team looks very good on paper, but I have a hard time envisioning our offense being this good all year, and I'd feel a lot better if we could add another solid bullpen arm. I think I said about 98 at the beginning of the year, which still seems about right.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Apr 24, 2006 -> 11:28 AM) Ha, ya I'm almost positive that's what he meant. Shannon would probably be a 2nd round pick if he enters the draft, he should stay in school. If he were 6'6", he'd probably be a top 10 pick though.

QUOTE(whitesoxfan101 @ Apr 24, 2006 -> 09:03 AM) Shannon should really hire an agent, he's a great player and is MORE than ready for the NBA. He's a little small though, there aren't too many 6'3" SG's in the pros. He might make up for it with his athleticism, but my gut feeling is you just want him gone so the Illini don't have to deal with him.

Damn, missed it because I wasn't online this weekend. Anyways, happy belated birthday man!

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Apr 21, 2006 -> 01:03 PM) They still have an awful pitching staff and aren't exactly the strongest defensive squad (although they do have some guys with pretty good range). This is why they aren't going anywhere anytime soon, unless they can acquire some decent pitching for one or more of their hitters.

QUOTE(My Dixie Normus @ Apr 20, 2006 -> 10:12 PM) Well I guess it will take a 4-0 sweep with great pitching and clutch hitting in the WS for the Sox to make the cover of SI. Oh, wait, that won't do it either. To be fair, they were on the cover the previous week (Pod's homer) after going up 2-0 in the series.

I hope to god that they've tweaked the discipline system. It seems like no matter what happens you get a few suspensions a year, even if you're at Northwestern with a lot of intelligent, highly disciplined players and you throw the book at one of your guys early.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Apr 19, 2006 -> 10:47 PM) You should be able to get a very good 3.0 SP for him along with like a 4.5/5.0 well rated spect. There's a pretty big difference between a 2.5 and a 3.0 SP. A damn good prospect is a 5.0 spect with high talent ratings. Alright, thanks for the advice. So far I seem to be a little short of that.

Their rankings definitely never make sense. I don't think the US can beat several of those teams.

I noticed the money thing, that is ridiculous. Everyone has at least like $80 mil, and I've got like $25 mil. What constitutes a "damn good prospect." Like 4.5 stars? Is getting a 2.5 star major-league SP worth the effort?

Alright, I have a question for some OOTP veterans. I just inherited a pretty bad team. In an attempt to pick up some young talent, I'm trying to trade Andruw Jones, who's still a pretty solid player despite some drawbacks (31 years old, 4-48 contract). What kind of talent should I expect to receive in return? Can I get two strong, near-major league ready prospects with high star ratings? If I can get two high star guys but one of them is an A-ball guy with a ways to go, should I go for it? What about one decent major league pitcher and a roughly AA-level 4 star prospect? I could use whatever advice you guys can give me.

Thomas is definitely a risky pick. He could be very similar to Stromile Swift. Gay is likely to be the better pro, even though it sounds like he will go about 5 picks later.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Apr 17, 2006 -> 01:56 PM) God, you are right. I mean, how could Briggs even be second on the team in tackles, man is he worthless. Misplaced sox=crazyman7 I wouldn't go that far. I think Briggs is a bit overrated, but he's still a pretty good player that we should probably try to retain.

I think as long as we do our thing we can take all of them. We've got the best starting pitching by a good margin IMO (early stats not withstanding) and our offense is much improved. Our bullpen might be a concern, but it seems like the Twins have the only really impressive bullpen. I think the biggest threat by far is the Indians. Their offense is putting up some good numbers without major contributions from Sizemore or Perralta. I'm still not a huge fan of a lot of the individual players in their lineup, but it's hard to argue with the numbers. They also have some competent starters, but none of them are even close to dominant, or at least not for long stretches. Their bullpen is a bit of a mixed bag. I personally have no faith in Wickman and Cabrera looks bad, but Miller and Mota look solid. I don't expect the Tigers or Twins to be a major threat to win 90. Santana is a beast and the pen is solid, but the rest of the rotation is pretty pedestrianm unless Liriano gets a spot and pitches like a front of the rotation starter. Their lineup also doesn't impress me all that much. They either need Mauer to develop more pop or Morneau to be more consistent and get some walks. The Tigers just don't have enough pitching. Robertson and Maroth are just mediocre, and despite his talent Verlander is going to be inconsistent. Plus the pen lacks experience, although they have some good arms.

Thomas is going to have some nagging injuries, so I think he ends up with somewhere between 15 and 25. Thome can get an awful lot more than that if he stays healthy, and I think the odds are decent that he does.

I'll give it a shot, but I don't really know what I'm doing. How do I even sign up to manage a team on this thing? Do I just submit an application and see what happens?

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Apr 15, 2006 -> 09:56 AM) You think Pittsburgh would love to have him at first instead of Sean Casey right now? Shelton could wind up hitting 30 HR's very easily. However, since he still has to hit at Comerica, I think he'll tail off sooner rather than later. Supposedly Pitt was seriously worried about his power development. He was a non-factor in AA as a 23 year old before he was taken in the Rule 5 draft. He put up some pretty impressive numbers before that though, so you'd think they would have protected him. I think eventually he's going to cool down a bit, and the park won't help. He's not going to totally suck though. I expect him to finish with 30-35 homers with about a .300 average.