Kalapse

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ Apr 20, 2010 -> 05:14 PM) for an offense that's floundering what difference does it make to move him down, take some pressure off and hope that he straightens it out? Because there's no reason to believe he's cracking under the pressure of the 3 hole considering he just had his best game of the year just 4 starts back. Do we just rotate players in and out of the top of the lineup from week to week? Pierre, Beckham, Quentin and Konerko are all struggling right now, should we go with a whole new top 4 for a while?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 20, 2010 -> 04:58 PM) It's also a fanbase that has languished behind the Yankees and Red Sox for >15 years now and who had their team's equivalent of Mark Buehrle dealt for prospects in the offseason. If you're contracting the Blue Jays, you have to take the Orioles too. The Pirates have finished higher than 27th in attendance only once since 2002 and that year they were 22nd. The team is 7-5, drew only 13,860 fans yesterday, 14,000 on friday night and is still 24th in attendance this year, why haven't we contracted them?

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ Apr 20, 2010 -> 04:51 PM) .111 in his last 7 games, 3/27 I just think Rios is swinging the best bat. He's also hit Price pretty well. That doesn't change the fact that he's your most talented and important offensive player and 3 starts back his overall numbers were still very good and he was coming off a 6 RBI game. You can take chunks of games and make someone look horrible, it's not hard. Konerko's hitting .130 over his last 6, why are we leaving him in the 4 hole? Rios has a .316 OBP and .649 OPS over his last 5, doesn't sound like a 3 hole hitter to me. Personally, I want Teahen hitting 3rd as he's sporting a .438/.550/.750/1.300 line over his last 6 games.

The Blue Jays finished 18th in attendance each year from '06 to '08. They were 22nd last year. The thing is; Red Sox and Yankees fans make up at least 60% of those in attendance when their teams travel to Toronto.

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ Apr 20, 2010 -> 04:14 PM) you wouldn't rather see rios or jones there? Going into the final game of the Toronto series he was sporting a .281/.439/.563/1.002 line. You don't move him down in the order because of 3 bad games.

Lance Berkman is in the Astros lineup today.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Apr 20, 2010 -> 12:44 PM) I've heard all kinds of guesses...Z, Wandy Rodriguez, and Johan... Man, how big of a disappointment would it be if it turned out to be Wandy Rodriguez? A 31 year old starter on the worst team in the game with 2 good seasons under his belt and negative star power if that's all possible. Does anyone outside of fantasy baseball participants and Astros fans give a f*** about Wandy Rodriguez? I need a name with a little sizzle.

QUOTE (flavum @ Apr 20, 2010 -> 12:08 PM) MLB dropped Cliff Lee's suspension. I guess he convinced them his injury caused his wildness. Not sure if he's ready to come back this weekend against the White Sox. He's not supposed to be back until May.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Apr 20, 2010 -> 07:52 AM) But his overall defense at the position is (or was) awful, since he seemed incapable of throwing to first base. Yeah, I don't get how he can now be considered "solid" after being atrocious with us. He's only had 15 opportunities to field and throw the ball since leaving Chicago (3 this year) and he does have 1 (fielding) error in the 15. For his career he's only had to make 41 throws in the field, he's failed to make the throw with a resulting error 5 times: that's an .891 fielding percentage on throws in the field.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Apr 20, 2010 -> 12:30 AM) Total agreement that there's no comparison between Pierre/Ellsbury right now. However, I don't think using career SB% as a point for Ellsbury applies considering the massive difference in sample size. I get that but if I'm forced to compare the 2 I don't have much of a sample size in any category. If you use the last 3 years Ellsbury (529 SB opportunities): 85%, Pierre (630 SB opportunities): 78%.

QUOTE (Jenks Heat @ Apr 19, 2010 -> 02:58 PM) Quentin is >> Drew and you leave Jones of of the equation for some reason. I will also say that I do not think elsbury is >> then Pierre. Jon Lackey was lit up today. JD Drew has put up .900+ OPS's each of the past 2 seasons, and an .890+ OPS in 3 out of the past 4 seasons and an 8.1 UZR/150 over the past 3 years. He's consistently banged up (137+ GP in 3 of the past 4 years isn't too bad) but he's one hell of a baseball player. I'd say he's better than Quentin given just how much Quentin has to prove and what JD Drew has produced over the course of his career. Ellsbury put up a .350 OBP, .770 OPS and 70 SB with an 85% SB% last year in the AL EAST at the age of 25. Those are awesome numbers. The last time Juan Pierre had anything near a .355+ OBP in a full season's worth of PA? 2004. A .770+ OPS? 2004. 70 SB? He had 64 in 2007 with an 81% SB% but he holds a career 75% SB% compared to Ellsbury's 85%, Juan is consistently in the mid 70's, there's a huge difference between that and mid 80's. Now Juan is 32 and has put up a .289/.334/.364/.698 line over the past 5 seasons (and that's including his obviously anomalous 2009 season) Pierre just can't compete with the likes of Jacoby Ellsbury who is a significantly more valuable offensive ballplayer.

QUOTE (WCSox @ Apr 18, 2010 -> 01:52 PM) Pierre isn't nearly as bad as some people here think he is. He has no power, but will hit .285-.295, put up a .300-ish OBP, and steal 30-40 bases. He'd be a good #9 hitter on a lot of teams. For what the Sox are paying him, he's not a bad investment. It's just too bad that he's leading off. I don't think you'd see many complaints about Pierre if he were the #9 hitter, he'd be quite valuable in that role. On the plus side Mark Teahen is now hitting .276/.432/.483/.915.

QUOTE (Brian @ Apr 17, 2010 -> 08:45 PM) No hitter and 6 walks? That is AJ Burnett like. Wasn't that bad, Burnett walked 9 and hit a batter. Both Verlander and Sanchez walked 4, Doc Gooden walked 6 and only struck out 5 in his no hitter back in '96. In 1965 Jim Maloney no-hit the cubs while walking 10 and hitting a batter.

QUOTE (MHizzle85 @ Apr 16, 2010 -> 05:13 PM) Actually Kotsay has gotten on base a few times this year & they've won when he's been in the lineup. Your math seems a little faulty. We're 3-2 when he's in the starting lineup. Coincidence? I think not.

QUOTE (Jenks Heat @ Apr 16, 2010 -> 01:53 PM) Come on Wells can at least play defense and is an ok hitter. Soriano has no baseball skill any longer. 5 years $90M.......WOW Over the past 2 seasons only 3 players in baseball have a UZR/150 of -20.00 or worse, those players: Brad Hawpe (-36.1), Jermaine Dye (-22.9) and Vernon Wells (-20.9). He has the 6th worst UZR/150 over the past 3 years at -13.5. +/- has him at -26 over the past 2 years which is the 4th worst in baseball regardless of position. Regardless: Wells is 3 years younger, has shown some signs of life at the plate and should be able to play a mediocre corner outfield and won't destroy you with just horrendous mistakes late in games. It's a $14M difference over the next 4 years (2011-2014).

QUOTE (SoxAce @ Apr 16, 2010 -> 12:53 PM) Now that is surprising. I thought Detroit would be far and away in that stat. We're tied with Detroit in FBv and we're slightly ahead of the Yankees in SLv.

We have the highest average fastball and slider velocity of any pen in the game.

QUOTE (JorgeFabregas @ Apr 16, 2010 -> 12:14 PM) I always thought Injuns was appropriate, considering their racist mascot. Lucky for them no one knows their organization exists so they're able to get away with it. To their credit: they haven't fully done away with the smiling Indian cartoon but they use the "I" logo for about 70% of their signage these days. They're slowly but surely moving towards the "I" as their primary logo.

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Apr 16, 2010 -> 11:59 AM) Boooooo politically correct...booooooo!! Hurray for racial slurs . . . hurray!

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Apr 16, 2010 -> 11:54 AM) 2-1 you mean. And what's w/ the thread title edit? Injuns and Failbot aren't bad! Sure, if you're 7 years old.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Apr 16, 2010 -> 09:55 AM) I don't understand trading for Gonzalez for basically just one season (doubtful on the possibility of an extension like Garcia signed right after being traded in 2004)...you know he's going to test the market with how underpaid he is. Buddy Bell on the subject of Tyler Flowers "We are trying to transition him back to the basics to get back to where he was last season....Too many thoughts, you just can't play [the game that way]." On his offense "We think the world of him offensively. Very intelligent kid." Let's say the deal was Santos, Flowers, Hudson and Shelby/CJ/Sergio Morales/M. Gonzalez, would anyone pull the trigger on that one? So the 3 to 4 months that would remain in the 2010 season don't count?

There's been a lot of talk about the Blue Jays making a couple bullpen guys available, the Phillies and Indians have been 2 of the most likely suitors mentioned in reports. This is likely why there would be an unusual number of scouts at a Blue Jays game.

I haven't intentionally seen even a second of an ESPN program that wasn't a baseball game in about 2 years. My life is significantly richer because of this. I can't think of a single reason to watch any of their original programming; it doesn't really qualify as "entertainment" in my world, I think "shrieking for the stupid" is a far better description of what you're really getting. So I suppose if you're dimwitted and enjoy being lied to and screamed at you could find some entertainment in a few of those shows. And anyone who gets MLB Network and is still watching Baseball Tonight there's something seriously wrong with. I'll put Mitch Williams up against anyone who's ever appeared on Baseball Tonight with confidence that Mitch will significantly out entertain, inform and hold your interest over multiple shows.

QUOTE (knightni @ Apr 15, 2010 -> 06:01 PM) Who was the last right handed hitter to hit .350? Looks like Pujols a few years ago. Most guys who hit for high average are lefty batters. Since 1980 12 different right handed hitters have hit .350+ and 12 different left handed hitters have hit .350+. Difference is: Boggs and Gwynn both did it 5 times, Suzuki and Walker 4 times and Bonds, Olerud and Helton all did it twice so that's 29 total. For the righties only Garciaparra and Pujols have done it multiple times (2 each) so that's 14 total. So over the past 30 years the number of unique instances is equal but lefty hitters do it more consistently.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Apr 15, 2010 -> 03:29 PM) You might want to occasionally loosen up the chin strap and relax. I was not being facetious, I actually find you humorous.