Vance Law

I love this horse s***. Rosenthal- "See this trade that isn't going to happen. I'm filling up space describing the details of this trade that won't happen. Pointing out the logical reasons why this not-trade isn't going to happen. You can't say I haven't written an article when you look at all of these words. Can't say I'm not filling up space in a column. The Mets with $16 million 1st baseman Delgado aren't going to trade for another $12 million first baseman. Words, words, writing, space fill, space fill, see I did my job."

QUOTE(Jeremy @ Mar 5, 2008 -> 07:11 PM) A lot of "win now" teams don't have barren farm systems though. I mentioned it earlier and I'd love to see someone who knows the farm systems well, go through on a team-by-team basis and look at the reasons for this. At first glance, it seems to me, they include 1) Have a ridiculous amount of money (Yankees/Red Sox), 2) Go through multiple seasons of being terrible (Tigers, Indians, Rockies, DBacks, Rays), 3) The L.A. Way = Have a lot of money in an uncompetitive division, and block your young players with veterans (Dodgers, Angels).

QUOTE(CanOfCorn @ Mar 5, 2008 -> 04:08 PM) The problem is when they see contracts like Tulowitzki's where they buy out the non-arb and some arb years. I don't blame them for complaining You know who wouldn't be complaining if he didn't have a multi-year deal now? Tulowitski. It's one thing if deep, deep down you have a tiny bit of jealousy that somebody got a big multi-year deal while you're just making $500,000 or $600,000 and won't get to see tens of millions for, gosh, another 2 or 3 years. But if you have that boiling over the surface such that you are immediately complaining TO THE MEDIA and you're not totally embarrassed by yourself, then you are a complete s***head.

QUOTE(StrangeSox @ Mar 5, 2008 -> 12:25 PM) You can build a decent farm system while still having a top-tier ball club with the payroll KW has. Not totally disagreeing with you. But interesting to look at. Which teams have managed to do this, and how did they go about it? Yankees and Red Sox have infinity dollars to buy free agents and sign all of their own free agents- have less need to trade lots of prospects for MLB players. Tigers went through several years as a horrendous team while they built their farm system, brought people up, and now have traded away the remainder of their system to try to win it all immediately. Indians, Rays, DBacks, Rockies all go through several years of being very bad while they bing up a mostly in-house young team. Other people know farm systems better than me. What percentage of teams have managed to be consistently good major league teams all while having a good farm system (excluding fake teams the Yankees and Red Sox)?

QUOTE(Jeremy @ Mar 5, 2008 -> 11:40 AM) Obviously not a surprise. The link is below but it's subscriber content only. http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=7188 I'm not a subscriber, but does he consider there to really be much of a difference between the Sox, Tigers, and Astros.

QUOTE(LVSoxFan @ Mar 5, 2008 -> 12:03 PM) And then I remembered: what young guys? Swisher Quentin Fields Danks Richar Ramirez Jenks Floyd maybe others. Plus whomever we'd get from "dumping" everyone else.

Prince Fielder, Cole Hamels, now Nick Markakis (others?)complaining in the media that they didn't get as much money as they wanted. Does this always happen this much (the complaining) and I just haven't noticed. Anyway, to all of them, I say, "shut up, dips***s."

QUOTE(Jenks Heat @ Mar 4, 2008 -> 11:10 AM) Based on early reviews this team is in much better position to sustain an injury than last season. I really hope I never have to watch a talentless player like Andy Gonzalez again. Sox didn't sustain an injury last season. They sustained 3 to the guys on the major league team who play 3rd base (Crede, Ozuna, and Cintron), and traded the other (Mackowiak) midseason when the season no longer mattered. This was more or less a moot point at third as Fields took over there as expected as plan B once Crede went down. Andy Gonzalez didn't see regular time until the very end of the season when Fields was being tried out in left. Any Guy who Disagrees: "Gonzalez was worthless out there. I should never have to see my Sox put that kind of crap player on the field." Me: "Yes you should. When the season no longer matters at all, when 3 potential 3rd basemen are down with injuries and a 4th is traded, when the starting 3rd baseman from AAA has been moved to left field, you should see the starting AAA shortstop (the 6th option down the list after Crede, Fields, Ozuna, Mackowiak, and Cintron) get some playing time."

Lowry walked 9 batters in 1+ inning?

QUOTE(JoeCoolMan24 @ Mar 3, 2008 -> 03:28 PM) Sucks we traded for Richar because I hope Alexei can take over at 2B. Could have kept Cunningham. > Getting way ahead of ourselves, but potentially we could have Alexei and Richar covering SS and 2B to the tune of about $1.5 million next season.

QUOTE(JFields27 @ Mar 3, 2008 -> 03:27 PM) nice 8 posts for A-Ram I propose combining nicknames "Sexy Lexi" and "A-Ram" to make "Sex Ram".

QUOTE(Princess Dye @ Mar 3, 2008 -> 03:25 PM) ooooooo Alexei 3 RBI triple Wow. You gotta kinda like Alexei so far. Not just getting some lucky hits for a high batting average. He's hitting the ball HARD.

QUOTE(lvjeremylv @ Mar 3, 2008 -> 12:33 PM) There are players out there who have long-term contracts that are just as stupid as Juan Uribe's 1-yr $4.5M deal. Yes. The title of this thread should be BTOS= Baseball Teams Operate Stupidly. We examine and scrutinize every single detail of every single thing our favorite team does. We conclude that there are things that are less than optimal. We examine the other teams with 1/1,000th the attention. What's dumber, paying Uribe $4.5 million when maybe he's worth $3 million, or paying JD Drew and Julio Lugo $22 million to put up a combined OPS of about .715. How about paying Garrett Anderson and Gary Matthews a combined $21 million this year, when neither one will be a full time player, and they will likely put up numbers right around league average. $21 million for 2 Mackowiaks. $21 million for Juan Pierre and Andruw Jones to block Matt Kemp who is probably a superior player all around than either of them. And talk of getting Brandon Inge, to go along with Nomar's $8.5 million to block LaRoche. How smart is the team that has to pay Inge $19 mil over 3 years in the first place unless they pay someone to take him off their hands?

QUOTE(Kenny Hates Prospects @ Mar 1, 2008 -> 12:00 PM) Seems more like they're in win-never mode. Thank you. Neyer had a blog post about this the other day. I couldn't read it because it's Insider Only, but the title is "Inge to Dodgers Makes No Sense." Would love to hear what he has to say. If the Dodgers really are stupid enough to not give the job to LaRoche/Nomar, I can only hope this Inge talk is bs and they're waiting in the weeds to snag Crede.

Is this on the radio anywhere?

QUOTE(almagest @ Feb 29, 2008 -> 07:26 PM) I've often wondered why these guys have such problems throwing strikes consistently, when they know (at least, I hope so) it's the key to success. Is it a mental block, or is it mechanics? With MacDoug his delivery is so violent and all over the place that he's unable to repeat it consistently.

QUOTE(heirdog @ Feb 29, 2008 -> 03:32 PM) How in the world did Thome get a SB? I would have thought that the day I saw Thome get a SB, he would have been traded and running against the battery of Contreras and Pierzynski. These 2 years I've thought Thome was surprisingly fast for his size and age. He seems clearly faster than Konerko, Crede, and A.J. to me. I think he can go 30-30 this year (written in green).

Less inside the stadium, but more in Bridgeport bars before and after games, I imagine there will be some brawls that might get out of hand.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Feb 26, 2008 -> 04:09 PM) No closer Marmol. Guy looks pretty sharp actually.

QUOTE(Whitewashed in '05 @ Feb 25, 2008 -> 09:36 PM) DTrain will be inconsistent. Roberts has had one season with an ERA under 4 and has never won more than 13 games. Rogers' arm is about to fall off and Bonderman needs to get it back together. Yep. With those 4 I'll predict one good, one mediocre, and two bad seasons (performance and/or injury). I feel like our bullpen now is better than theirs. We will have a better overall pitching staff than them as measured by team ERA+. Not sure by how much. And I expect them to have a better offense than us. Not sure by how much. But I expect declines this season from Magglio, Granderson, Renteria, and Polanco. I don't expect the Tigers offense to be enormously better than last year. Cabrera over Inge is a huge improvement for that one position. Renteria over Casey is not huge. Then factor in some expected regression toward career averages. If we run the 2008 season 100 times, how often do we finish where? 1st 15 times, 2nd 25 times, 3rd 35 times, 4th 15 times, 5th 10 times? Guesses. The Indians and Tigers don't win 1st and 2nd 50 times apiece. Which season will happen?

QUOTE(Haarold @ Feb 25, 2008 -> 02:05 PM) Your list is a joke. How many of those guys are wearing rings right now? Pitching and defense win baseball games. Period. Nice. Nice. For "evidence" of their relative quality of overall play and value as baseball players, you might also have mentioned Crede's hair and, I don't know, how strong his dad is.

QUOTE(Haarold @ Feb 25, 2008 -> 12:59 PM) Mediocre? If Crede is mediocre at third who do you consider to be good? Third basemen that every single GM in baseball would rather have right now than Joe Crede: Alex Rodriguez Miguel Cabrera David Wright Aramis Ramirez Ryan Zimmerman Chipper Jones Garret Atkins Adrian Beltre Alex Gordon Evan Longoria Mike Lowell Kevin Youkilis Josh Fields Brandon Wood Kevin Kouzmanoff Andy LaRoche and probably more. In addition to having only one offensive season that is better than average, Crede just had, um, major back surgery

I'd give a slight nod to the Cubs over the Brewers because of their pitching. And I don't think all of the Brewers hitters can match their performance from last year. I still do not buy the Fukudome addition. He's projected to put up an OPS of something like .820 which, in my opinion, is about right. The Murton/Floyd platoon put up an OPS of about .795 for $8 million less in 08, and more in future years.

QUOTE(chwhtsox @ Feb 23, 2008 -> 07:22 AM) herpes or genital warts? Herges.

Best: Quentin Worst: I fear will be Linebrink over the life of the 4 year deal, not necessarily 2008.