Kalapse

LF: Prado/Constanza CF: McLouth/Schafer/Constanza RF: Heyward 3B: Jones/Prado SS: Gonzalez 2B: Uggla Prado is capable of playing LF, 3B, SS, 2B (though SS is a stretch). Now where is the glaring weakness and the easiest fit? Yeah, CF. In order to take on Quentin they'd have to bench either Chipper Jones or Martin Prado. Yeah, Jones was banged up a lot last year but you can't put him on the bench. It made no sense.

QUOTE (fathom @ Dec 31, 2011 -> 01:23 PM) Who was the team that said they "loved" Quentin. I swear every report I remember reading around the deadline was that teams like Quentin but Kenny was asking for the moon. There wasn't one, it was the Braves and Padres and as I said: the Braves were starting Nate McLouth and Jordan Schafer in CF with no one else that could play the position, Quentin made no sense especially for a club that's no longer comfortable unloading prized prospects.

QUOTE (fathom @ Dec 31, 2011 -> 01:19 PM) The Braves were very interested, IIRC No, no they weren't. It made absolutely no sense, they needed a CF and speed not another corner outfielder, I said it at the time: the only team showing ANY interest was the Braves and even that was being shot down across the board by anyone familiar with the Braves situation.

Heh, yeah there was so much interest in Quentin at the deadline. We could have gotten a haul! We as fans really need to learn how to better evaluate our favorite team's players because Quentin wasn't caring a whole hell of a lot of value whether at the deadline or now.

Kevin Goldstein:

QUOTE (chw42 @ Dec 30, 2011 -> 07:17 PM) That's kind of ridiculous... I imagine he's catering to the hardcore sabermetricians who want to do actual statistical research and not just evaluate players for the hell of it. I would love to have a sabermetrics related stats class at the college level though. That'd be a class worth taking (I'm paying the tuition for 18 credit hours anyways). I think the big selling point is the 2 hour one-on-one workshop with Tango himself via internet/phone. And yeah; he's definitely going for the hardcore sabermetricians, he basically says so with his snarky pitch. This is clearly for people who are looking to enter the field as a career choice.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Dec 30, 2011 -> 07:05 PM) I remember when Ozzie started Jones in center instead of Rios one game (Rios started in right) because they had a vote inside the clubhouse as to who the best OF on the team is. Jones won (probably because he had gold gloves) and Ozzie stupidly went with it. Thank god he's no longer the manager. Amen to that. Speaking of quantitative analysis: did you see that Tom Tango is starting up online classes? A grand for early bird's and $1495 after that, I can't imagine find too many takers at that price (perhaps I'm just naive or cheap) but it's intriguing none the less.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Dec 30, 2011 -> 06:10 PM) Well, to be fair, I was sick 90% because it was Chris Berman saying "Tebow" and 10% because they rhymed "Tebowing" with "Chemoing" I'll allow it.

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Dec 30, 2011 -> 06:52 PM) Fangraph's disagrees. Oh please, it seems everyone is exploiting that site and UZR these days and it's f***ing annoying. When Lichtman developed the statistic he sure as s*** didn't mean for it to be used on sample sizes as small as Jones': ~ 1200 INN in the outfield over the past three seasons. UZR is meant to judge starting position players over a 3000+ INN sample typically over a 3 year span. Any less or spread over too many seasons and you start to develop anomalies and inaccuracies that aren't weeded out by sample size.

Andruw Jones is not a CF in any sense of the word. Let's not pretend like his fat ass can still play the position, please. He's a very good bench play -- perfect fit for an NL contender looking for pop off the bench -- but he's barely an outfielder at this point in his career. DH, PH and the occasional start in the OF is fine but anything beyond that is a stretch.

Eh, when you're battling cancer you kind of look for anything to lift your spirits. If the kid found some kind of comfort in "tebowing" and I assume eventually meeting Tim Tebow then good for him. And yeah, major networks like ESPN run with stories like this all the time, hard to blame them since your average viewer does like the heartwarming s***.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Feb 15, 2011 -> 10:51 PM) I used random.org to determine my projections: Wins: 95 (80-100) Division rank: 1 (1-3) Pierre: 66 SB (40-80), .316 OBP (.310-.360) Beckham: 24 HR (10-25), .837 OPS (.700-.900) Rios: 22 HR (15-25), .748 OPS (.700-.950) Dunn: 40 HR (25-55), .915 OPS (.800-1.000) Konerko: 29 HR (20-40), .981 OPS (.750-1.000) Quentin: 40 HR (10-50), .861 OPS (.700-1.000) Pierz: 12 HR (9-16), .735 OPS (.690-.790) Ramirez: 10 HR (10-25), .766 OPS (.700-.900) Morel: 7 HR (5-25), .815 OPS (.650-.850) Danks: 18 W (10-22), 3.22 ERA (2.30-4.50) Buehrle: 14 W (10-22), 3.45 ERA (3.00-4.50) Floyd: 19 W (10-22), 2.59 ERA (2.30-5.00) Jackson: 15 W (8-22), 3.46 ERA (3.00-5.00) Peavy: 6 W (1-20), 5.47 ERA (2.50-6.00) Sale: 18 SV (1-40), 2.57 ERA (2.00-5.00), 15 GS (0-35) Thornton: 20 SV (1-40), 2.62 ERA (2.60-2.80) 1.067 WHIP (.990-1.100) Crain: 3.76 ERA (2.00-4.50), 1.400 WHIP (1.000-1.500) Santos: 2.34 ERA (2.00-5.00), 1.083 WHIP (1.000-1.800) Pena: 4.96 ERA (3.00-5.50), 1.316 WHIP (1.000-1.800) Looks like my "random" projections didn't do too hot, WAY too generous overall. "+" = generous, "-" = stingy Wins: +16 Division rank: +2 Pierre: +39 SB, -.013 OBP Beckham: +14 HR, +.204 OPS Rios: +9 HR, +.135 OPS Dunn: +29 HR, +.346 OPS Konerko: -2 HR, +.075 OPS Quentin: +16 HR, +.023 OPS Pierz: +4 HR, +.007 OPS Ramirez: -5 HR, +.039 OPS Morel: -3 HR, +.162 OPS Danks: +10 W, +1.11 ERA Buehrle: +1 W, +.014 ERA Floyd: +7 W, +1.78 ERA Jackson: +8 W, +.046 ERA Peavy: -1 W, -.056 ERA Sale: +10 SV, +.022 ERA, +15 GS Thornton: +17 SV, +.070 ERA, +.291 WHIP Crain: -1.14 ERA, -.160 WHIP Santos: +1.21 ERA, +.022 WHIP Pena: +1.24 ERA, +.405 WHIP

New Top Gear special: India! Some of the best television around, the Top Gear specials are not to be missed.

QUOTE (Felix @ Dec 28, 2011 -> 11:26 AM) Adventures of Tintin was a great adaptation of the book, very enjoyable. Definitely recommend seeing it if you've read the books. Well it was adapted by the guy who writes all the best Doctor Who episodes (Moffat), the guy who directed the excellent Attack the Block (Cornish) and Edgar f***ing Wright.

As has been rumored for some time Milledge signed with the Tokyo Yakult Swallows.

meh

Christmas drunk is 100% acceptable. It's about as good as it gets.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Dec 23, 2011 -> 01:30 AM) He's the man...is he in the Luther show? Yeah he plays Luther, the lead. If you love Idris/Springer you'll likely love Luther.

All I've heard about Boss is copious monologues and gratuitous sex that actually takes you out of the story. Seems like a cool idea that's lacking in execution.

QUOTE (Brian @ Dec 22, 2011 -> 10:21 AM) Luther is so damn good. Had to get Series 2 on iTunes for only 6.99. Idris Elba is just an awesome actor, when rumors started circulating of him being the new Bond I got very excited, he'd be incredible in that role. British television in general is very strong right now.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Dec 22, 2011 -> 11:18 PM) I was thinking more about Beltran's health and how his knees will hold up playing CF. So taking that into account he's probably a corner outfielder at this point in his career, no? Hence playing him in CF everyday at $13M a year, he'd seemingly be out of position.

QUOTE (Soxfest @ Dec 22, 2011 -> 11:09 PM) You still may be correct a buddy of mine says it is based on current SOS not at the beginning of the season and IF that is the case IND would still have to win next week then. I just want this whole thing too blow up in the Irsay's face. The info out there isn't totally updated so it's tough to get a good grasp on this things. It'd definitely be based on end-of-season SOS, that being said I don't really see the Bears winning in week 17 so chances are the Colts are getting that #1 pick.

I was going off a Dan Wetzel tweet which was a mistake. So looking at non-common opponents the Colts need these teems to win: CHI, DET, GB, ARZ, WASH, DEN, OAK, SD and these teams to lose: HOU, JAC, TEN, BAL, CIN, CLE, PIT, NE. Dear god, the Vikings getting Andrew Luck would be a disaster. Oddly enough, losing the next 2 weeks would be rather beneficial for the Bears.

The Colts still need to beat the Jaguars next week to lose the #1 pick.

I don't think anyone is of the mindset that Danks re-signed with the sox because of Coop, the fact that he would re-up despite the fact that he supposedly doesn't get along with the man who's in charge of all pitching in the organization shows that there isn't exactly a major riff there.