Balta1701

Now you own this site. congrats.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Sep 29, 2011 -> 09:04 PM) What the f*** is your problem? I'm just throwing a fun prediction out there. Cmon man, it's no good to put out crazy predictions where no one will remember it if you're wrong. Verlander will throw one no hitter and give up 12 runs in his other outing! Well find out that he's pine tarring the ball too. See? I demand consequences!!

Lets drop you in the Alps and learn you something.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Sep 29, 2011 -> 08:42 PM) Another thing is Martinez's experience with young players. The Rays, as everyone knows, are built from a nucleus of young players and more and more are continually shuffled through their system and into the Big League roster. His experience in understanding how to work with young players, how to incorporate their talent and skills into the team instead of trying to incorporate the team into their players...that is what excites me. Martinez, by almost all accounts, should be everything Ozzie was not, on a lot of levels. Nothing against Sandy, but that's why I'd rather have Dave Martinez. Cleveland has been marching through young players too, and a lot of them stepped up this year. Not trying to knock Martinez here, just sayin'.

QUOTE (Wanne @ Sep 29, 2011 -> 08:30 PM) Personally I always thought Konerko was the face of the franchise. Is Francona the face of Boston? Girardi of the Yanks? If Charlie Manuel is the face of the Phillies...they need a facelift. You sure hold that position to a lofty expanse. And that Mark! guy.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Sep 29, 2011 -> 08:53 PM) I'm sure that Crawford will come back to normal, at least closer to his norm. It might not be in Boston, though. No one is taking that money on. Not for rios + Dunn.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Sep 29, 2011 -> 08:36 PM) I'm going to make an absurd prediction and say that the Phillies' rotation bombs this series. So, if somehow you're right you get to brag, what happens if you're wrong?

Link

CF, this is really some of your best work. You're making us all proud.

Enjoyable EPI piece summing up all of the evidence (Not just polling) for why "regulatory uncertainty" has almost nothing to do with the current employment market.

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ Sep 29, 2011 -> 05:44 PM) You could say that about any team that is looking for a manager. That is why they are looking for a manager. All GM's have large egos or they suck, all rosters are flawed and all teams except (Boston, the Yanks and the Phils) could go cheap. I think Chicago is a wonderful option and will be sought after. Even if you're a quiet guy, Chicago is a great outside-endorsement city for the managers of the baseball teams, and they have an owner who is loyal to a fault. No one is turning down the job because of "The Adam Dunn Problem". There are 30 of those jobs in existence.

QUOTE (Jenksy Cat @ Sep 29, 2011 -> 05:39 PM) What All-Stars surrounded him in Oakland? Didn't he carry the Yanks for a while in the begining of 09 too? He had a pretty darn good cleanup hitter in 2006 (his best Pre-Ny season).

From an article in the American Economic Review.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Sep 29, 2011 -> 05:25 PM) Well, Marty "The Genius" 34. We finished 9-10 games back of the Twins in 2004. Clearly they were more talented, they'd crushed the White Sox in 2003 and won three consecutive division championships. So tearing apart the entire organization and dumping everyone to rebuild at that point in time would have been the prudent move from a financial standpoint in order to protect JR's pocketbook. Oooops, they did that, well, sort of....getting rid of Ordonez, Lee and Valentin. But KW clearly didn't trade away every talented player left for "prospects/suspects," like you're suggesting with Ramirez and Santos. And we actually won the World Series the following year. What do you know? A clever retort besides we finished 15 games behind the Tigers would be nice, but I'm not expecting much...thanks in advance for your time and consideration. So Marty, how his 2011-12 any different for this organization with KW in charge than 2004-2005? Because we finished 9-10 GB instead of 15 and were OH SO CLOSE (seemingly) to the juggernaut Twins?

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Sep 29, 2011 -> 05:18 PM) My question would be, when is it exactly when we have superior talent? We've almost always been a below avg offense. And almost always have above average talent on defense.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Sep 29, 2011 -> 05:12 PM) Well, sometimes it works. Surely, it will end up with a brief, pithy one or two sentence deflection about Kenny "The Genius" Williams.

QUOTE (TaylorStSox @ Sep 29, 2011 -> 05:09 PM) Yeah, but Rios is a lazy POS who doesn't throw his bat enough for my liking. Plus he's an awful interview. Dunn is an awful interview too. Every 4th word he tries to utter is interrupted by the phrase "you know".

I bet you can't even climb.

QUOTE (TaylorStSox @ Sep 29, 2011 -> 05:01 PM) Rios vs. Crawford might be a more fair comparison. Alex Rios was worth -$2.9 million in the fangraphs world and is paid $12 million. He underperformed his contract in the fangraphs world by $14.9 million, and thus is the bargain of the trio.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Sep 29, 2011 -> 04:34 PM) Reed, I forgot to add to the core, but Ramirez isn't young. Neither are Lillibridge, De Aza, Humber, or Santos. That core would be better if the Sox had $25M to spend to supplement it, but they are probably going to cut payroll by $25M. You're just being stubborn now in what you define as "Young". The reason you want "Young" talent in MLB is the MLB arbitration schedule. The fact that they're closer to their prime ages and actually still cheap is a pretty darn good thing for the Sox...it means that the Sox should hold their prime years at very low cost. For a guy like Viciedo, it's going to be costly to hold him through his prime years.

Go tell it on a mountain.

QUOTE (Jenksy Cat @ Sep 29, 2011 -> 04:29 PM) Defense taken into consideration I assume? Although CC's defense might have cost them a playoff spot last night. Yes, defense is counted, although Crawford was a slightly below average LF in terms of UZR this year. Dunn was a -5 run player at 1b. Crawford was also a more effective baserunner. Big difference also is that Dunn played 1b and DH while Crawford played LF. You're supposed to get better production from 1b and DH than you do from LF.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Sep 29, 2011 -> 04:28 PM) Wow. I read it right, yet I still can't believe it. Dunn's defense, baserunning, and positional adjustments were all much worse than Crawford's, and that adds up.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Sep 29, 2011 -> 04:27 PM) The Sox current core of young players isn't one you can build around. Sale, Viciedo, Morel, Beckham just isn't enough. Of course not, but you left out half the roster! Ramirez is signed forever and is cheap, Humber is under team control forever, Flowers, Lillibridge, De Aza, Santos, going farther to guys like Reed and Stewart, none of them are even to their Arbitration years yet.