Ozzie Ball

Sauer and Edwards are ground ball machines. 17/3 GO/FO for Edwards, 12/3 GO/FO for Sauer.

QUOTE (AWhiteSoxinNJ @ Aug 9, 2009 -> 01:43 AM) JD is out because his defense has sucked lately. Lately? He's sucked basically his whole career.

Charlotte at Indianapolis Egbert starting Birmingham vs. Tennessee Winstom-Salem vs. Frederick Edwards starting Kannapolis vs. Greensboro Sauer on the mound. Bristol at Greeneville

Phegley homers again. His power is legit.

Charlotte @ Indianapolis Birmingham vs. Tennessee Winston-Salem vs. Frederick Kannapolis @ West Virginia Bristol vs. Greeneville (Continuation of suspended game) Bristol @ Greeneville Great Falls vs. Missoula

Junior Williams hit a 3 run double and scored. Kannapolis up 4-0.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Aug 6, 2009 -> 11:32 PM) Do the stats on fangraphs use the same pitch location/velocity system as Gameday and all the other online live scoring systems? I think Pitch F/X is just a universal system, the data of which is then displayed by Gameday/Brooks Baseball/FanGaphs etc. I may be wrong on that though.

Charlotte @ Indianapolis Harrell starting, Gartrell making his debut. Birmingham vs. Tennessee Winston-Salem vs. Frederick Kannapolis @ West Virginia Griffith starting. Bristol vs. Kingsport Sweaty G on the bump, Trayce Thompson in the lineup. Great Falls vs. Missoula Garrett Johnson the probable.

Seems like Gartrell has been promoted also. http://twitter.com/FutureSox/status/3161649440

QUOTE (EvilJester99 @ Aug 5, 2009 -> 04:01 AM) Hopefully we go for Gomez and Yasser. You can never have too much good talent. I'd prefer Marti personally, I think he could fill out our rotation quite nicely.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Aug 6, 2009 -> 03:51 AM) A .313 OBP and an OPS of .677 wasn't good. SB aren't the end all stat. You got that right, working off of The Book's run values for the stolen base (0.175) and the caught stealing (-0.467), Pods' 70 steals in 2004 were only worth 6.175 runs, which if my runs to wins translation is correct, comes in at less than 1 win.

Trayce Thompson in the lineup for Bristol, playing CF, batting 6th. Never mind, Bristol game now PPD also.

QUOTE (chisoxfan09 @ Aug 5, 2009 -> 02:14 AM) Is there a plan to bring him up? I had not seen that. Rick Hahn did hint towards him being an option at some point this season, but I haven't heard anything outside of that.

QUOTE (bighurt4life @ Aug 5, 2009 -> 01:51 AM) This is why i was ok with the deal, I don't think that we gave up much to get a true #1 pitcher. Carter is dominating at a low level but he's also too old and experienced to be pitching at that level, Richard is inconsistent but could be a good #3 or even a #2 if he reaches his max potential, we all know what Russell brings to the table, a big fastball and thats it. Poreda just doesn't have anything other than a great fastball. I didn't want to jinx him when he was in our organization or be overly critical of him but I've always seen him as a reliever. He really just doesn't have anything other than one dominant pitch with flashes of a decent slider. Even if he could add a changeup he still just doesn't have enough offspeed stuff to be a starter. If however we had included Hudson in the deal I would not have been very happy. He has 4 pitches right now and has the potential to be a top of the rotation type guy. He has a huge ceiling while none of the others really do. San Diego got quantity, not quality in their return haul for Peavy. No way in hell Richard becomes a #2, at absolute max he's an average #3 but it's far more likely that he ends up a passable #4/5. Don't be blinded by the good stretch he's on because his stuff is very mediocre. I definitely agree with your last statement though.

QUOTE (Greg Hibbard @ Aug 3, 2009 -> 04:43 PM) I think too much emphasis is put on OPS when evaluating players like Getz, and even players like Beckham (as he currently stands). A bases loaded double is clearly worth more than a solo shot homer, for example, but a player with 30 homers and 10 doubles is going to have an OPS of .850-.950 whereas a player like Getz who is capable of the opposite gets evaluated at best in the high .700 range, which makes him look like a much worse prospect in some ways than he really is. OBP is much more important to me than OPS is evaluating Getz's value, and as long as he's .360 or better, I'm happy. Really great discussion, btw True, just like how a bases loaded home run is worth more than a bases empty double and I fail to see your point. A hitter can't control the situation in which he hits, he can only control what he does at the plate. Now if Getz could will 3 men on base so he can drive them all in with doubles then yes, hitting doubles would be perfectly fine, but this is obviously not the case. Of what they can control the best thing that any hitter can do in any situation is to hit a home run, but yet people still make excuse for players who don't do this, "oh, they're small", "oh, they're grindtastic", "oh, they can run fast", it's BS, the best outcome is always the home run, then the triple, then the double and that is why OPS and other more relevant statistics such as wOBA value power hitters more highly than non power hitters. Power is the best correlation to runs which in turn is the best correlation to wins (from the offensive standpoint). As for your second point, a .360 OBP would be OK for Getz, but that isn't Getz, now I see you've edited it to a .325 OBP which is inadequate even for a number 9 hitter. I really don't see why anyone is getting hung up on Chris Getz, he's a decent plug for now because he's cheap but he will need to be replaced soon. Getz doesn't get on base and his track record doesn't suggest he will ever get on base. In order to be considered an "on-base guy" he'd need to double his walk rate, a development I could see happening if he was an 18 year old playing rookie ball, but unfortunately he is a polished almost-26 year old playing in the Majors. Getz doesn't hit for power, and as we've already seen, power= runs= wins/ Getz's track record also suggests he is unlikely to ever hit for power. Getz doesn't hit for a high average nor do his track record, contact rate or batted ball rates suggest he will ever consistently hit for a high average (.300+). Getz isn't playing good defense (-6.9 UZR per 150 games), his Minor League track record suggests he can play above average defense at 2B (in the Minors), so therefore I can see him becoming an average defensive 2B. So, in essence, what we have here is a below average offensive 2B and an average (at best) defensive 2B and people are actually against the idea of replacing this guy? Talk about overrating ones "assets". As for Beckham, he CAN play the middle infield, statistically it is much harder to find good hitting middle infielders than 3B's, so therefore logic tells us he should be moved to the middle infield. I would then look to bring in a cheap but effective third baseman, preferably Adrian Beltre, who's defense is so good that he doesn't even need to hit to be an average player, this would also aid our pitching staff and Beltre should/could be available at a slashed price coming off an injury.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Jul 31, 2009 -> 10:12 PM) Some people think we overpaid? Really? We managed to grab an ace with out giving up Huddy, Flowers, Danks or Viciedo. This wasn't even close to an overpay, this was a genius move by Kenny. Absolute genius.I completely agree, I love that they sold this high on Richard.

From the Barons clubhouse manager Jeff Perro:

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jul 29, 2009 -> 07:28 PM) Its one thing to trade for a Happ, who has proven he can pitch in the majors, or even Drabek, who is at AAA and so close. Knapp is 18 years old, and I dont care how highly touted he is, he is still a LONG way from the majors, and a lot of weird stuff can happen, like injuries, or it can just turn out he was overrated the whole time. Happ hasn't proven s***, is Kyle Kendrick a proven Major League pitcher? No, but he had one good year (ERA wise). Happ's stuff and peripherals don't match his results, he's due for a BIG decline. I agree on Knapp though, he has some great K rates but his command is bad, as are his mechanics and he's been injury prone, those guys fail, often.

Shoemaker does keep the streak alive with a 2 out 9th inning single.

Fernando Hernandez pitched the 9th in the Barons game, Hudson only threw 82 pitches, it barely seems like they're even stretching him. The radio guys called it the most impressive start of the year.

You’ve been playing on a Barons team that was stacked with prospects the first half of this season, how much fun has that been for you and who was the most exciting player to watch? There’s been a big spike in your power production this season, has something clicked for you or is this just the result of years of hard work coming to fruition? You were drafted in the 31st round, was it tough to see teams passing on you again and again and how did it affect you mentally?

QUOTE (knightni @ Jul 17, 2009 -> 01:39 AM) His name is Seven? Unfortunately not, it's from Seinfeld.

QUOTE (2OutRally @ Jul 16, 2009 -> 04:57 AM) Getz is the only legit one.... The Anderson one is hilarious though, definitely worth a follow.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jul 16, 2009 -> 03:11 AM) Except he had a high AVG at Kanny, and last year at GF too. He's been consistently high average all along. BABIP is a way of measuring luck, an average player will have a BABIP around .300, it can be positively or negatively affected by a players GB%, FB%, LD% or IF% and Kuhn does have a particularly high GB% which would raise his expected BABIP (ground balls historically go for hits more often than fly balls), but not to .424. When Kuhn's luck levels out his average will fall to his actual ability level of around .285-.315. His stat line at Kannapolis is much more realistic than his line at W-S.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jul 16, 2009 -> 02:27 AM) Tyler Kuhn now hitting over .400 for W-S, OPS approaching .900, in 73 AB. It's all batting average inflated though that's the problem, his IsoP and IsoD's are pitiful at .069 and .019 respectively. When his insane .424 BABIP inevitably comes back to earth his numbers will look decidedly mediocre.