Kalapse

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Mar 9, 2009 -> 02:56 PM) That poll wasnt based purely on "who is the best player". It was more of a who would you want to build a team around. I voted for Hanley but Grady would absolutely be in the discussion. Also, his power numbers (HR/RBI) could and would be a lot better if the Indians hadnt been using him as a leadoff hitter. And you cant keep bringing up the fact that he isnt in Pujols' league, because no one other than 1 or 2 exceptions are in his league. Yeah, that's totally different.

QUOTE (Jenks Heat @ Mar 9, 2009 -> 02:57 PM) Thank the Aussies for the K rate....are those stats in there? No

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Mar 9, 2009 -> 02:32 PM) I'm really surprised at the lack of pushback on me putting a rookie in the leadoff position for this team. If there's one person whom I'm not worried about faltering under the pressure it's Gordon Beckham. He has a stronger constitution than a lot of veteran ballplayers (I'm looking at you Alfonso Soriano).

QUOTE (Melissa1334 @ Mar 9, 2009 -> 02:14 PM) i think he is great, but i think hes overrated. and when i say overrated, i dont mean that hes not good. its that i think some people speak to highly of him, trying to put him in the same category as pujols. someone on this board even said that he the best player in all of baseball. i just dont agree with that. but he is great. If someone actually said that then they're an idiot but it's really only those few that "overrate" him. He deserves to be rated as one of the most valuable players in the game and a perpetual MVP candidate. You can't worry about what a few over excited people say, the fact that he's yet to finish higher than 10th in AL MVP voting may insist that he's actually underrated by those who have a voice.

QUOTE (kyyle23 @ Mar 9, 2009 -> 02:04 PM) you should be as ashamed as I am appalled at this egregious error Or You shouldnt give a damn. Well I couldn't let the poor guy take the blame for my inexcusable faux pas. Of course you can go f*** yourself for being such a snarky little b**** but that's besides the point.

QUOTE (kyyle23 @ Mar 9, 2009 -> 01:46 PM) Davnks is such an awesome pitcher That was actually me.

QUOTE (Melissa1334 @ Mar 9, 2009 -> 10:26 AM) wow, .268, 130 k's from the super star* player Easily one of the most valuable players in the game last year. His .306 EQA certainly stands out. Getting hung up on his batting average or for whatever reason 130 strikeouts is just silly. He nearly walked 100 times last year while putting up a .233 ISO (that's some big time power right there), he stole 38 bases and was only caught 5 times which is an 88% success rate (now THAT is a valuable base stealer as opposed to a s***ty one like Jerry Owens) and he played above average defense at one of the most important positions in the game. His BB/K last year was 0.75, which is quite good. I'll gladly take 98 and 130 over say 30 and 80. Sure he's not as good as Albert Pujols but then again no one is. Hanley Ramirez K'd 122 times last year while walking 92 times. Are you going to tell me he K's too much? People get hung up on the silliest things.

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Mar 9, 2009 -> 12:12 AM) Maybe the numbers from the site I took the thing from are wrong. Here's an article from the time and an excerpt: If the union determines there's reasonable cause to investigate the Twins for being shady, then it is reasonable to suspect the Twins of being shady. Ick. All I know is what the numbers tell me. The 2.104 sounds about right. He got a September callup back in 2005 that accounted for about 25 days of service. He was in the majors for all of 2006 and 2007 so that's about 2.025 right there. He spent most of April and all of August and September in the majors which should account for the remaining 79 days of service. Him not qualifying for Super Two status thanks to the Twins' shenanigans is a whole 'nother story. That right there might be a legitimate gripe. In order to qualify for Super Two status a player has to accumulate 86 days of service in the immediately preceding season and he only got about 80 last year. I'm not sure his production was good enough to qualify him but they may have screwed him out of service time to make sure.

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Mar 8, 2009 -> 11:37 PM) Yep, but it was still for the same reasons. I checked Cot's Baseball Contracts and it has Liriano down for 2.104 years service time, so they probably did it to keep him from accumulating 3 years in 2008 and being arb eligible in 2009. I know an extra arb year may help a team keep a certain player, but that's still pretty bush league IMO and sends the wrong message to the players. What you're accusing the Twins of doing is keeping him in the minors for over 2 months longer than necessary. 2.104 is 68 days short of 3.000 so in order to get that magical 3rd year of service they would have had to recall him about a month after they sent him down. He was optioned to AAA on April 25th and recalled on August 1st, the day you're sent down counts towards your service but the day you're recalled does not, so he didn't get credit for August 1st so we'll have to start there: August 2nd through the end of the season got him to 2.104 add on: August 1st - 1 day all of July - 31 days all of June - 30 days last 7 days of May - 6 days (the day you're called up doesn't count) = 68 days of service and puts him at 3.000 So what you're saying is that Francisco Liriano was good to go on May 25th but the greedy Twins not only left him in the minors for an extra day (if they had recalled him on May 26th he still couldn't have gotten to 3.000, he would have finished the season at 2.171) they let him rot for an extra 2+ months just so they'd have a little leeway in the future?

QUOTE (BearSox @ Mar 8, 2009 -> 09:37 PM) The thing is, Getz has been hitting good as well as Nix. I say unless Beckham clearly shows he's more ready and out preforms them both, you give the spot to the vet and go from there. Unless you wanna go the route of Alexei in CF and Beckham at SS, which might not be that bad of an idea, but I really think Beckham's future is at 2B (or possibly 3B) and I really want to see what Alexei can do at SS as well. Lillibridge is really losing ground fast on the competition. But because he might be the only competent backup SS we will have, we might need to keep him on the roster... We'll see, there still almost 4 weeks left. So what have you SEEN out of Gordon Beckham to make you think he won't be able to stick at short? Sure we've all read "reports" but personally I know I'd never base a strong opinion of my own on what someone else has seen.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 8, 2009 -> 08:18 PM) I haven't watched him play yet in ST, but, I suspect he needs to show something the others don't - his health. His knee, specifically. They will want to be sure it is fully healthy. Otherwise, I agree, the field is pretty much wide open. Though I think Flowers was going to the minors no matter what (needs innings at the position), and Armstrong is the one LH of the bunch. Hey if he's able to go down into his crouch, move laterally while down and spring upwards to throw then he must be in pretty damn good health. Obviously if he's not 100% then he has no shot at the job but from what I've seen he looks just fine. If he's healthy then I can't think of any inherent disadvantage he'd have over the others.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 8, 2009 -> 08:05 PM) So, is Donny Lucy really in the running for backup C? Still seems like a wide open field. Flowers is almost assuredly headed to the minors to work on the defense, but, the other four? Haven't seen much of Armstrong so far. There was really no good reason for any of them to have an advantage over the other 3 going into camp so as you say it should be wide open right now. If Lucy outperforms the others for the rest of March why wouldn't he get the job?

QUOTE (daa84 @ Mar 8, 2009 -> 05:52 PM) that also doesn't take into account his exhibition game he had the other where he went 2-5 with a walk... 8-23, 4 2B, 2 HR, 5 R, 4 RBI, 2 BB, 0 SO, 1 SB, 0 CS, .348/.400/.783/1.183 overall

QUOTE (flavum @ Mar 8, 2009 -> 05:42 PM) Yes, but he's looking a lot better than the average. The ball jumps off his bat. Plus he's just a very confident player. The major league game will not be too fast for him. He's also yet to strikeout. Of players with at least 14 AB this spring only he and Quentin have yet to K.

QUOTE (flavum @ Mar 8, 2009 -> 05:15 PM) Players are arbitration eligible after three years of service time. If they hold off on bringing up a player until later in the season, they essentially will have him for four years before he becomes arb eligible. And you really only need to send a player down for about 2 weeks to keep him from earning a full year of service for a given season. If a player spends 172 days on the 25 man roster he earns 1.000 years of service (DL and rehab time counts towards service time). If he spends 171 days on the 25 man roster he earns 0.171 years of service. You need a full 3.000 for arb eligibility (2.000 if you're a Super Two but that's complicated). Once a player reaches 6.000 years of service he becomes a free agent at year's end. The perfect example of intentionally suppressing a player's service time is the Evan Longoria situation from last year. For the purposes of this example lets just forget that he signed that 6 year deal that includes 2 option years. He was obviously major league ready out of spring training but the Rays sent him down for the first 2 weeks of the season anyway and thus he was only able to rack up 0.170 years of service last season effectively buying the Rays an extra year of Evan Longoria since by the end of 2013 instead of having 6.000 years of service he'll only have 5.170 and will have to wait another season to reach 6.000 and become free agent eligible.

Beckham has 6 hits (in non-exhibition games) on the spring. 4 doubles and 2 HR.

Christ, another double.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Mar 8, 2009 -> 03:54 PM) There's really no reason to believe that he'll make the big club. Everything that's been said makes you think he'll start the year in Birmingham. It's unfortunate really, if he's the best 2B on the roster then he should make the team. Start him at short, move Alexei to CF and let the best man win at 2B (preferably Getz). It would solve quite a few problems. Rollins, Reyes, Jeter, Hardy, Hanley and Tulowitzki all played their first full year in the Bigs as 22 year olds. Beckham has less minor league seasoning than all of them but he also had more playing time in College. QUOTE (frankiethefixer @ Mar 8, 2009 -> 03:59 PM) not one player you listed is a good comparison to play beckman right off the bat this year. jeter, rollins and ramirez all had several years of playing minor league before the came up to the majors. the only two players that went to college were tulowitzki and hardy. tulowitzki did not get called up to the majors until it was in September the year after he was drafted. hardy didn't make the major's until a full two years after he got drafted. by your examples you should have beckman start the year in the minors. I was going strictly based on age. Tulo is the closest comparison, I know. He got 5 extra months in the minors. He also had substantially less playing time in college.

QUOTE (Cubano @ Mar 8, 2009 -> 03:51 PM) I would not be so sure. The way I am seeing things with my crystal ball I see Gordon making the team with zero games played at 2B before ST. 2B is a pretty easy position to learn especially when you're already a pretty good SS. The hardest thing to get used to is turning the double play since the angles are reversed but he's looked great on DPs so far, I believe he just turned one a few minutes ago. It's not like short where you have to deal with the hole to your right or the long throw across the diamond or 3B where you're 85 feet away from a right handed hitter. Second is a fairly simple position.

There's really no reason to believe that he'll make the big club. Everything that's been said makes you think he'll start the year in Birmingham. It's unfortunate really, if he's the best 2B on the roster then he should make the team. Start him at short, move Alexei to CF and let the best man win at 2B (preferably Getz). It would solve quite a few problems. Rollins, Reyes, Jeter, Hardy, Hanley and Tulowitzki all played their first full year in the Bigs as 22 year olds. Beckham has less minor league seasoning than all of them but he also had more playing time in College.

Fatman in to pitch, Restovich in LF, Lucy at C and Santos at third.

Turns out Vlad Guerrero isn't 33 years old he's actually 34, he's been lying about his age. Hardly shocking news.

QUOTE (jenks45monster @ Mar 7, 2009 -> 04:57 PM) So nothing is lost for signing a type B FA? The Yanks would just gain a supplemental pick then? Exactly

John Clayton is reporting that Terrell Owens has agreed to a 1 year, $6.5M deal with the Bills.

QUOTE (jenks45monster @ Mar 7, 2009 -> 04:35 PM) He's not worth a draft pick. He wouldn't cost us a draft pick.