Kalapse

QUOTE (southsideirish71 @ Mar 7, 2009 -> 04:13 PM) Its been said before, but moving Alexei to CF would solve a lot of problems. Derek Jeter, Troy Tulowitzki, Jimmy Rollins, Jose Reyes, Hanley Ramirez and J.J. Hardy all played their first full season in the big leagues as 22 year olds . . .

According to Cowley Nix is nursing a right quad injury.

QUOTE (JorgeFabregas @ Mar 7, 2009 -> 03:55 PM) Kroeger has not played many games in CF in the minors. I'm sure there's a reason for that. I'm thinking guys like Michael Bourn, Chris Roberson and Felix Pie might be a larger factor in Josh Kroeger's playing time in centerfield than his own defensive prowess. Those guys are going to take precedence over a minor league free agent signee or waiver claim like Josh Kroeger.

QUOTE (daa84 @ Mar 7, 2009 -> 02:47 PM) as much as i hate boston sports figures....kevin youkilis is one hell of a ballplayer He and Pedroia are legitimately good.

He's a bad baserunner. I feel it needs to be said each time.

Sutcliffe is wrong, Schmidt only took him deep 6 times not 8. Yeah, I looked it up. So what? Who are you to judge me?

According to Cowley Colon and Contreras each threw 55 pitches today with no issues. They'll both participate in live batting practice Monday. So far so good.

I do love Matt Thornton. Hopefully he's done for the day.

My love for Brian McCann is immense. He's an incredible baseball player, you just don't here nearly as much about him as you do Mauer, Posada, Soto and Martin.

QUOTE (daa84 @ Mar 7, 2009 -> 02:12 PM) haha im glad someone called sutcliffe out on that....i literally wanted to reach through the tv an punch him in the face when i heard that...though i think he said it about the mccann sac fly, not youk Was it? I guess I was only half listening. I find pretty much all ESPN employees loathsome.

QUOTE (Tony82087 @ Mar 7, 2009 -> 02:06 PM) I'm rooting for the DR, because I like the makeup of their team more than anyone else. I take no national pride out of the these exhibition games. Thats not what it's about for me at all. My argument is just based on people saying they won't watch because of how stupid it is, and MLB is just out to make money. While that may be the case, I would rather watch Hanley and Ortiz back to back than Owens and Wise back to back, like we are going to witness in the Sox game later today. Why not watch? For March 7th, it's good baseball. Oh, for sure. No matter how retarded and potential detrimental to the game I may believe it to be I'm still likely to watch. It's the only game in town.

QUOTE (daa84 @ Mar 7, 2009 -> 02:05 PM) the fact that hawkins is on this team is a joke....jeter over rollins? Dude, he's Derek Jeter. According to Sutcliffe, just taking batting practice with Derek Jeter before the game inspired Kevin Youkliss to drive a single into right field in the 1st. Remember Jeter ain't far off from Jesus.

QUOTE (Tony82087 @ Mar 7, 2009 -> 01:56 PM) While I understand some of the complaints, I really don't understand why 99% of baseball fans don't enjoy it. It's March 7th. The alternative to watching the WBC is watching the Sox and Rangers play 4 innings of decent baseball, followed by hot garbage. Give me Canada vs. USA over any ST game. It's a lot more watchable with only one Sox player participating, there's really no way I could enjoy watching John Danks throw competitive pitches at the start of March or Alexei Ramirez get bowled over by Adam Dunn at second base. I'll enjoy it because I get to see some decent baseball at the beginning of March but I don't feel like there's anything on the line.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Mar 7, 2009 -> 01:18 PM) It has been a problem for sure since Rowand's 2004 season. We haven't had above MLB average production (offensively and defensively) since then from that position. Heck, I'll go all the way back to Lance Johnson to the last time we had a CFer I really liked...or Mike Cameron, warts and all. Lofton was good for six weeks in 2002. We've run through Jeremy Reed, Chris B. Young, Anthony Webster, Rowand, Ryan Sweeney, etc. One of the biggest miscalculations KW ever made was thinking Brian Anderson would be ready in 2006. Whatever he was doing in the minors (and he put up some good seasons statistically), they should have realized his swing has significant holes that would be exposed, especially to breaking balls and sliders low and away. Rowand was well above average on both sides of the ball in '04 and given how many runs he saved with his glove in '05 (best defensive CF in the AL that year) I'd say he was an above average contributor. I don't really understand your definition of "run through" seeing as how Jeremy Reed never played for the White Sox, Chris Young never made it past Birmingham and Anthony Webster never made it above A ball with the White Sox. Perhaps you're just including anyone who was at one time or another a top 10 prospect over the past 7 years though that hardly seems apt.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Mar 7, 2009 -> 01:15 PM) "Big Game" Peavy is at it again...For being such a skilled pitcher, he never pitches very well in big games... Well if he falters down the stretch this season at least he'll have an excuse, racking up abuse points in early March is the perfect excuse for a poor September.

Turned on the Netherlands vs DR for a second, Hanley Ramirez is at the plate in the 9th inning with the DR down 1. The brilliant Steve Phillips says "If there's one player in the National League you want at the plate in a big moment, it's this guy. He's the best player in the National League." f***ing hack. Hanley is easily the most talented player in the game but the best f***ing baseball player I have ever seen in my life resides in the NL and it's not Hanley Ramirez. Willy Taveras just ran the DR out of the game, f***ing stolen bases, they can kill a team.

Andrew Sisco signed a minor league deal with you guessed it, the A's.

QUOTE (bighurt4life @ Mar 7, 2009 -> 04:14 AM) That's a pretty bold statement. I'm not saying that he's going to win any gold gloves but you can see that he takes great routes to the ball and gets good jumps which makes up for his diminishing speed. He also still has a good arm. Just because he's old doesn't mean that he can't play defense. I think that he's head and shoulders above many other starting RF's in the game right now- Abreu, Vlad Guerrero, Magglio, Mark Tehean, Geoff Jenkins and Milton Bradley are the ones that come to mind who I think JD is better than overall defensively. His jumps are mediocre and he doesn't utilize his strong arm one bit. There's no way you or I could possibly watch and retain enough of all the righfielders in baseball to put together an accurate ranking based on memory alone, you'd have to watch every inning of about 100 games a season for every team in baseball and I know for me personally, that's just not realistic. The numbers are very clear, over the last 3 years only 1 RF has had a worse arm than Dye (Brian Giles) and no rightfielder has covered less ground. Geoff Jenkins is considered to be one of the very best corner outfielders in the game so I do find it ironic that you mention him and Milton Bradley has played a grand total of 79 games in the outfield since 2004 so that's hardly apt. The best rightfielders in the game over the past 3 years according to the numbers? Austin Kearns (definitely has the reputation for being a terrific defender), Alex Rios, Jeff Francouer, Nick Markakis and JD Drew (when he plays, he's good). Maggs is pretty close to average and the bottom 4 are Vlad, Abreu, Hawpe and Dye. This all sounds about right, the young, quick, athletic outfielders are at the top and the old, slow guys (sans Hawpe) bring up the rear. Jeff Francouer is way out ahead in the arm department which definitely rings true since it's the one plus plus skill he does have. Jermaine is just slow as s*** and even if he's somehow getting better reads than his younger counterparts (I highly doubt it) he just can't move quick enough. As for his arm, it blows. He catches EVERYTHING flat footed and as a result he's unable to get anything on the majority of his throws, his arm may be strong but it's not nearly strong enough to make up for some of the worst throwing mechanics I've ever seen in an outfielder.

Neal Cotts sucks, pining for his return is silly. He's a 29 year old lefty with 2 pitches, both of which are unimpressive who can't get lefties out and hasn't posted an OPS against lower than .884 in high leverage situations in any season outside of 2005. Neal Cotts's are a dime a dozen.

QUOTE (fathom @ Mar 6, 2009 -> 04:13 PM) What did Slayer do this AB? BB

QUOTE (wsgdf_2 @ Mar 6, 2009 -> 04:04 PM) I don't know... salary dumps are pretty easy deals to make when you're one of the few contending teams with salary space and a team like the Pirates is desperate. That deal was a no brainer. Regardless of the circumstances surrounding the deal. Getting Aramis Ramirez, Kenny Lofton and CASH for Jose Hernandez, Matt Bruback (never made it to the majors) and Bobby Hill is just ridiculous value. You make it sound like any team with some money to spend could have made that deal, well of the teams with the necessary resources the Cubs pulled it off.

QUOTE (BFirebird @ Mar 6, 2009 -> 04:05 PM) I knew it was something ridiculous like that. Do you remember where you saw that? It's on fangraphs.

QUOTE (BFirebird @ Mar 6, 2009 -> 03:59 PM) I remember reading somewhere that he was the highest value player for what he was paid last year. (Maybe the year before) I will have to see if I can find that. He was valued at $20.6M, he was paid $9.7M.

QUOTE (fathom @ Mar 6, 2009 -> 03:49 PM) Isn't he hurt already this ST? It's not supposed to be serious but he missed a start.