Balta1701

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Aug 2, 2010 -> 10:53 AM) But you have to give the Twins the edge tonight with the rookie going tonight against Pavano (8-0 in last 10 starts). I'd like to note...in this post, you used the phrase "The rookie" as opposed to other phrases you could have chosen. For example "Hellickson" or "the Rays top prospect" or "one of the top prospects in baseball coming into this year" or "The 23 year old who has gone 18-4 with an ERA of 2.5 at AAA Durham over a year there".

QUOTE (Chet Kincaid @ Aug 2, 2010 -> 10:56 AM) People seem to overlook that Coop was supposedly salivating over the chance to get Jackson. Think about it: if you're Kenny, and Coop comes to you and tells you that he feels he knows Hudson's ceiling and Hudson won't be very helpful down the stretch, but he's confident that he can turn Jackson into a stud, what would you do? In Cooper I trust. In Kenny I trust Even in my Anti-Jackson rants, I kept including the clause "unless Cooper's been begging for this guy for a couple years and can turn his career around in 12 minutes a-la Thornton".

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Aug 2, 2010 -> 10:51 AM) Can you just email this post to Kenny and Ozzie? I can make it a Soxnet post.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Aug 2, 2010 -> 10:43 AM) And we can better utilize that flexible DH bull crap with Viciedo in the mix. He can alternate 3B duties with Omar based on pitching matchups as well as get into the DH rotation with Teahen and Jones. I just don't see any value in keeping Kotsay at this point. You know the thing that strikes me as absolutely remarkable? Right now, when Teahen gets back, we'll have exactly the setup for which a rotating DH makes sense. You have a handful of older guys in the field, or guys who are injury-prone and could benefit from extra time off (Q, Konerko, Vizquel). You have several guys on your bench who are flexible defensively (Jones, Teahen, the Stealth Elf) or who happen to play the same position as the guys you like giving extra rest to (Viciedo). You have a young guy who clearly is benefiting from big league at bats but who might struggle a bit more than you'd like as an everyday player (Viciedo). This is the situation that cries out for the rotating DH and a lineup set by matchups. You get Viciedo into the game every other day or so, but shield him from the toughest righties you face (i.e. he doesn't see Verlander). You get Vizquel into the field every other day, or at most 2 out of 3 days, and you take advantage of his defense and what he's brought to the lineup. You use Jones regularly to keep the guys in the OF rested and healthy, especially if there's a LHP on the mound. You use Teahen as your lefty counterpart to Viciedo and Jones, giving Konerko extra rest. It's almost as good of a "rotating DH" situation as you could want. But sadly, we're going to throw that away.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Aug 2, 2010 -> 10:29 AM) I like our chances to take 3 of 4 in Detroit with the way the Tigers offense has been playing. However, looking at the pitching matchups in Tampa, the Twins might be able to take 3 of 4. Even though the Twins looked really good beating up the teams at the bottom of the AL...I think you're seriously underestimating how good the Rays are, esp. at home.

The Chinese real estate market sounds ridiculous.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Aug 2, 2010 -> 10:19 AM) He is the lefty bat and back up to Konerko Mark Teahen can do the first at a level Kotsay can't even dream about with a .330 BABIP, and he can do the 2nd adequately enough that it won't kill us.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Aug 2, 2010 -> 10:23 AM) Lost 5 straight. And at the time of the deadline, they'd lost 3 straight...and they still took on salary.

QUOTE (Real @ Aug 2, 2010 -> 10:21 AM) fwiw, mlbtr says manny would only be owed about 7m from a team acquiring him Are they just quoting Rosenthal on that?

QUOTE (balfanman @ Aug 2, 2010 -> 10:08 AM) I would tend to agree with you on the Thome thing, however, at the time Kotsay was coming off a fairly good last 2 - 3 months of the season and they might have seen something with Jones. I was still thinking that okay, let's give them the benefit of the doubt, maybe they know something that I don't. In this case though, Kotsays' numbers flat out suck. almost anyone in the majors, and most anyone on this team (dare I say pitchers included) would be a better choice than Kotsay at DH. Even in my mind, there would be no defending this decision. I have zero problems with Jones. He's been better than expected at his role; backup OF/defensive replacement. He's given a low batting average but made up for it with power numbers that are right about where we'd hope, and that's pushed his OPS+ to right around 100 (he's an average player, basically). He's ideal for the role he's been given. Hell, he'd be an ideal guy to basically put in a platoon with Thome...every time there's a lefty starter on the mound, you put Jones in 1 of the OF positions, put Quentin/Pierre/Rios at DH, and your lineup is well setup. Planning on Kotsay's career to ignore an 8 year trend for 2 months of high BABIP performance was just silly, and they should have known it at the time.

I really enjoyed this read, on the collapse of the American Middle Class. It left me with a couple conflicted emotions though. The families that they profile, you have to feel some genuine sympathy for them. One of them, for example is dealing with an autistic child, and they've been put through the ringer of the health care system repeatedly screwing them over. On the other hand, both of the families they profile have incomes that are nearly a factor of 2 higher than mine, and somehow I've managed to put tens of times as much in savings as they have. I'm trying to figure out whether they just happened to be unlucky and not be rich enough to deal with our health care system, whether they just planned poorly financially, or whether it's both.

QUOTE (balfanman @ Aug 2, 2010 -> 09:22 AM) I am one who will generally give K.W. & Ozzie the benefit of the doubt when it comes to baseball decisions, I am quite sure that they know much more than I do. However, I may have to rethink that train of thought if anyone but Kotsay is gone when Teahen comes back. After January 22nd of this year, where they decided it was a good idea to call Mark Kotsay their DH and then let Jim Thome walk when there was open talk of Jim Thome winding up in Minnesota...I feel much, much more willing to question their baseball decisions. They can know stuff behind the scenes, like Cooper salivating over Jackson or mental problems with someone else they trade...but that one, there really was zero possible excuse for it. It was just outright wrong.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 2, 2010 -> 01:45 AM) But if you pick up those players on a claim, teams like like the Mets or Cubs would simply let those guys go just to get their contracts off the books. There wouldn't be any negotiating...the only place that would come into play is if the teams wanted someone to take the contracts AND talent in return. Not saying that's the case with either Beltran or Fukudome, just that if they didn't want to make the trade SOLELY for the salary dump, they could also pull that player back. There's 1 other thing that can happen Caulfield...if a player like Beltran isn't claimed by anyone (possible), then the 2 teams can work out deals, including sending along money. The issue for the Sox would be...the only players they could send back would be players that can clear waivers themselves or players that aren't on the 40 man. Their best chip, Viciedo, is already on the 40 man roster and thus would have to clear waivers himself. He wouldn't. The best chip the Sox could offer would be either Morel or D2.

QUOTE (justBLAZE @ Aug 2, 2010 -> 07:29 AM) Dodgers GM said specifically he rather put Manny on waivers to see if anyone claims him therefor accepting his salary. The only thing I can't figure out is how does Ramirez situation work since $30M of his contract has been deferred, who is responsible for that once Manny is claimed? AT this point, we really don't know, it depends on the deep details of how his contract is structured. If the Dodgers were required to escrow some of the funds in an interest-bearing account, then those funds have likely already been deposited for the majority of his contract and only a small chunk would be remaining. If it's set up instead as continuing payments after the end of his contract, then the team assuming the contract would assume all remaining payments.

Well, this was the one exception I was willing to make to my hatred of this deal. Let's go out and put up an ERA of 0.73 the rest of the year, Edwin.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 2, 2010 -> 01:55 AM) Scott, Dunn, Fielder, Ramirez, Hawpe, D-Lee and Figgins are some of the prominent names being mentioned.... Half of those guys will get claimed early and pulled back.

QUOTE (Y2Jimmy @ Aug 1, 2010 -> 07:58 PM) No. Tonight they are airing two new episodes back to back. Now you tell me.

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 2, 2010 -> 08:43 AM) I liked the draft episode a lot. However, last night's episodes featured like 5 minutes of stuff behind the scenes, and 18 minutes of game highlights, etc. I thought it would have been interesting if they showed the meeting when it was discussed who would be called up for Peavy, etc. They haven't gotten to the Peavy injury yet. The thing I thought was glaringly missing from last night was reaction to the Zambrianless meltdown. Like, for example, the Sox dugout in real time during that.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Aug 1, 2010 -> 08:46 PM) When he comes back, I bet money he is wearing one of those space cadet helmets like David Wright wore At least IMO, anyone in MLB who isn't wearing one of those for "fashion" reasons is out of their minds.

In the minor leagues, if Strasburg was pitching on an innings limit and had a perfect game going, they'd pull him at the limit. I think that actually happened to him earlier this year in fact, on a no-hitter. The only exception might be with say a 28 year old journeyman pitcher or something like that

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Aug 1, 2010 -> 08:15 PM) Yea Im an RA on campus and that is what I would do if I saw anything like that there because we have a Suicide Prevention/Awareness team, but I dont know any resources here, guess Ill have to look it up. Without knowing your campus, I'd call it highly likely that your health center has some sort of setup for counseling/depression issues, because they're going to likely see that a lot. Any school that doesn't have that setup is crazy. That's who I'd try to get them to. It's also noteable that the schools I've been to will also allow and encourage anonymous "referrals", such that, if you think an acquaintance of yours has a problem but you don't want them knowing it was you that referred them, you can tell them "this person needs your help but I don't want them to know that it was me" and they'll find a way to get in touch with them. That's a fairly common situation as well...their main goal is to get themselves in touch with the people that need to be in touch with them before something really bad happens, and they usually won't care how the contact starts.

QUOTE (bucket-of-suck @ Aug 1, 2010 -> 08:00 PM) If The Dodgers fall out of it, they are likely hoping KW tries to acquire him so they can get financial relief. They are bleeding money these days. the dodgers took on $3 million or so in salary at the deadline and gave up some really solid talent to do so.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Aug 1, 2010 -> 07:59 PM) I still think Lillibridge will end up going down since Viciedo gets a lot more playing time. I think both will, one goes for Torres, one goes for Teahen. You can't call a guy back up for 10 days after he's sent down, so unless there's someone else in AAA we'd callup, Torres will hang around for about 10 days after his start.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Aug 1, 2010 -> 07:58 PM) So it's feasible that we could even get a bat this week via this process? Yes...it's plausible, but the odds are that it would require taking on a bad contract (a-la Rios last year). For example, if you wanted to assume Alfonso Soriano's contract, I'll bet the Cubs would be absolutely thrilled if you claimed him.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Aug 1, 2010 -> 07:57 PM) It would probably be Lillibridge that goes down since his option has already been used. Viciedo's had an option used as well.