Balta1701

Lindsay Graham says he won't vote for climate bill now because it may include new regulations/restrictions on opening up additional space for drilling.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 8, 2010 -> 06:10 PM) It's gone pretty much unnoticed, but Pierre has been played pretty good ball for the last 30 games or so. Actually, last 30 days his splits are pretty bad, he just came off a 2-26 streak in late May so that's hurting it. His last hot streak was in early may.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Jun 8, 2010 -> 06:17 PM) How much of a difference in the later rounds is there between arms? Now, that's a question to ask your scouts. Presumably, the guys getting drafted at these levels by each team are guys that the team's scouts gave positive reviews to. It's entirely possible that they just wound up liking the RHP more than the LHP at these levels, or that the LHP that they did like have been taken by other teams, so they're not going to reach for LHP just because of the arm.

QUOTE (Vance Law @ Jun 8, 2010 -> 06:17 PM) Not sure what people saw about Law not liking him. FWIW, Law picked him as the #2 most MLB ready player in the draft behind Alex Wimmers. Everything changed the moment we drafted him.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Jun 8, 2010 -> 06:03 PM) This is a concern about the draft at large. We filled a middle infield need, a pitching need, but not the left-handed pitching need which is a pretty dramatic problem in our organization. When Randy Williams and Wes Whistler are literally our best options, something's gotta give. The answer to that isn't to start spending picks around the 15th round on LHP like crazy. The answer to that winds up being to pick people around the 15th round who develop; whatever position they actually play. You pull off a couple of low draft picks who actually succeed, and suddenly you're a lot more free to spend money to fill other holes that crop up.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 8, 2010 -> 06:04 PM) It is almost worse to take him here than to not take him at all. Isn't that a serious drop from where he was supposed to go?

Do people really think it matters that much whether or not our 15th round pick is a RHP or a LHP? Seriously, if any of the guys after the first couple rounds go on to make the big leagues, I'm happy with the pick.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jun 8, 2010 -> 04:52 PM) I wouldn't necessarily say I'm down on him, but it's not likely he'll be anywhere near as good as Votto. I overreacted a bit, but Votto is just really good and his name gets thrown around here too liberally as a guy who may be available for trade. He's really, really good and the Reds are a pretty damn good team too. I imagine if and when Alonso turns his season around, he'll more likely be looked at as a guy who can be dealt for a piece later on for Cincinnati, not as a guy that will force Cinci's hand into dealing Votto. If the Reds are down at all on Alonso, and they hang in the race this year, it makes a lot of sense to move him at the deadline this year to try to get a major upgrade somewhere.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Jun 8, 2010 -> 04:25 PM) You could easily get a C+ to B level prospect back for Freddy in a trade. And major league work for Daniel Hudson.

South Carolina Governor's race polygraph count: 2.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jun 8, 2010 -> 03:57 PM) So a mediocre AL pitcher (4.50 ERA) can become a #1 or #2 in the NL (3.50 ERA)? I think a half run is a better estimation. On average, it was a full run, or close to 0.9 runs, something like that. After searching a bit more, it seems like it depends a lot on who does the analysis. Here's the NYT quoting 0.9 runs, , here's hardballtimes quoting 0.41 runs.

QUOTE (Brian @ Jun 8, 2010 -> 04:06 PM) Was talking to someone about this today, who did she work for recently? I was guessing the AP but no clue. She was syndicated by Hearst Newspapers, and also associated with the speaking agency "Nine speakers". Hearst newspapers is very unlikely to keep a front row press conference seat.

Feels like a Pierre day.

QUOTE (JorgeFabregas @ Jun 8, 2010 -> 02:17 PM) I heard on the radio that BP will be downplaying their sponsorship just because they are trying to keep a low profile right now. And yet ads keep calling it the BP cup.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jun 8, 2010 -> 01:49 PM) As will ESPN. Actually, I'm not sure they do, it's not listed on ESPN for DirecTV, and ESPN.com doesn't mention it being on their network.

Eek

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jun 8, 2010 -> 01:41 PM) How awesome would it be if the Pirates just took it to him and he barely made it 2 or 3 innings? I'd enjoy that. Is this game on national TV? I think MLB Network has it.

QUOTE (T R U @ Jun 8, 2010 -> 01:35 PM) The owners of these teams are billionaires, if not multi millionaires.. Pittsburgh has a 34 million dollar payroll, they could spend if the owner wanted to.. he just doesn't.. We've seen 2 MLB teams in bankruptcy in the last 2 years.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 8, 2010 -> 01:17 PM) The same Buddy Bell who said Teahen could play 3rd base? When he was with the Royals, he could.

QUOTE (spiderman @ Jun 8, 2010 -> 01:11 PM) Yet another reason for Williams to cut the chord. Is that a new expression for something musical? Is KW taking up guitar in his spare time? KW and Billy Corgan, cutting those chords...

QUOTE (spiderman @ Jun 8, 2010 -> 01:01 PM) I would understand keeping him to split time with Flowers at C/DH, but I think after this season, Williams will want to have more of a set lineup, plus we'll probably need whatever payroll flexibility we can get. AJ has shown zero interest in splitting time with anyone young. Supposedly things were fairly uncomfortable when Flowers and AJ were both around in the ST.

QUOTE (La Marr Hoyt HOF @ Jun 8, 2010 -> 11:30 AM) In all seriousness, anyone worried about his arm-angle or the fact that Brent Lillibridge could clearly kick his a$$? He lost ~10 lb earlier this year in a bout of food poisoning.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jun 8, 2010 -> 11:20 AM) Let's see what happens in the bill that gets passed. If there is little or no work done on alt energy, I'll be upset. There will be money put into it, but it seems obvious that's all we'll get; nothing to make dirty energy more expensive.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jun 8, 2010 -> 11:29 AM) That's not my argument. My argument was that you can't just go from one league to another and become infinitely better or infinitely worse. There will be gains and losses, but it shouldn't be anything extremely drastic, like 2 runs on your ERA. I can't find the article any more, but Verducci did the math a couple years ago and found that the average change in ERA for switching leagues was about a run, and that it was distributed, such that some guys saw larger declines and others didn't. In general though, saying that the difference upon switching leagues is about 1 run in ERA isn't a bad guess.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jun 8, 2010 -> 10:55 AM) That's how you do it up. Nice work. Thanks.