lostfan

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ Apr 9, 2008 -> 10:31 AM) I 100% agree with that idea. However, I think we should all agree to be a little nicer. I am trying to pull it back. Truth be told, i hate CLinton far more than i dislike McCain. In fact, I have already put forth the idea of "Clean Campaign '08". So, let's try and stick to the issues. McCains constant gaffs on Al-Quida should be far game, but saying he's an old fart should be disallowed unless there is a story about hos his age impacts his judgement or something like that. He really is kind of an old fart though. Just saying.

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ Apr 9, 2008 -> 10:23 AM) I'd much rather be bashing McCain. There's plenty there to use I actually kind of like McCain, if he wasn't so damn one-dimensional.

QUOTE (Texsox @ Apr 9, 2008 -> 08:37 AM) Couple of givens, unless you are offer your "rocker" chair, you leave every possibility open, and always talk nice about the team you are playing for. There may have been a player who did not send a bouquet of flowers to his team and management as he was leaving, but I can't remember one. So let's discount the usual babble that occures. A couple of points that jumped out at me. Frank Thomas Granted, that was an anomaly, but wow that was ugly

If it's a random bad guy/insurgent dying, don't you cheer? I know I do. No love lost at all. People don't condemn that kind of thing in this part of the world unless they're like Westboro looney toons.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Apr 8, 2008 -> 10:00 PM) Would you trade Egbert and Brian Anderson? Egbert for Harden? Yikes.

Hillary actually asked a very, very good question, I have to give her credit. It sounded something like "if the Iraqi parliament is voting on a long-term troop commitment, is the American Congress going to vote on it too?" She knew the answer was no but she just wanted that to be on the record. I actually never even thought about that. Isn't the Senate supposed to ratify treaties? That would basically be bypassing our laws altogether.

The problem is the fact that we can't close the can of worms we opened. Well theoretically we can, but it's really hard to do now and we have to find another way.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 8, 2008 -> 02:27 PM) The lack of having a speedy leadoff hitter has made Ozzie a better manager. This team should rarely be bunting with all the power we have. If said speedy leadoff hitter got on base a lot and wasn't hurt all the time this wouldn't be such a point of contention.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Apr 8, 2008 -> 01:33 PM) As opposed to Cora waving him around even if he has absolutly not chance and costing us an out. Pick your poison. Cora would get a guy tagged out on a solo HR if he could find a way.

QUOTE (Pants Rowland @ Apr 8, 2008 -> 10:19 AM) 162 game season over 6 months or more, at least half of which is on the road with the other half in a clubhouse full of testosterone. I think there is more to managing that waiting for your horses. I know, this is why I said "strategically speaking." Keeping the club competitive, managing egos, etc. is a big part of it. ScottyDo hit the rest of it before I did.

QUOTE (Texsox @ Apr 8, 2008 -> 01:59 PM) He owns/owned a restaurant and motel about 2 hours north of me and I was lucky to meet him one time I was in there for lunch. Very gracious, very nice. He was one of those guys I was crazy about when I was a kid. Funny that his career started like 20 years before I was born and he was still pitching when I was in the 4th grade.

If you get brushed back by Ryan you'd best to just step back.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 8, 2008 -> 02:33 PM) I really don't think that Clinton's Iraq rhetoric or plans have been that different from Obama's. You can argue effectively that they'll behave differently in office based on their past performance, or based on the quality of their advisers, etc., but I just don't think this is right. I dunno, I mean they both do a lot of pandering to the anti-war crowd in their campaign speeches, but listening to both of them when they're being interviewed and whatnot either there is just not as much focus on her plans and they hit Obama harder because of his lack of foreign policy experience and they want him to answer for it, or I've just been tuning her out lately because she lies and distorts the truth so much. On the other hand, I can say I've heard McCain talk a lot about it in detailed specifics, but what he says is not that different from what I've been used to hearing from the current administration and it doesn't make me optimistic or buy into it.

QUOTE (RME JICO @ Apr 8, 2008 -> 01:29 PM) That is correct, and if you think about it, the guys with less K's are hard pressed to maintain a good K:BB ratio. True enough, but if they're any good, those guys usually have good enough command to where they really don't walk that many guys in the first place. (btw I just looked up Maddux's numbers and he had some obscene ratios in his prime. Late-career Maddux is more like Buehrle, early-career Maddux makes Clemens look like a wild man)

QUOTE (jackie hayes @ Apr 8, 2008 -> 01:06 PM) Even there, Ryan had a better than 2/1 k/bb ratio. Johnson's actually had a fantastic k/bb ratio, except for his first 4-5 years. He's been 3/1, 4/1 or better since those early years. (And imo he's been a much better pitcher than Ryan, too.) I used to look at RJ's numbers and think, See! There's still hope for Daniel Cabrera! I just love watching that guy when he's on. I think one would be hard-pressed to find a pitcher with a sucky K:BB ratio who doesn't range from mediocre to bad. My original statement was worded a little wrong.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Apr 8, 2008 -> 01:28 PM) I agree. K/BB ratio is the better measure than just K isolated or K/9inn. I think K/BB is important for the hitter also. For example, Thome Ks alot but offsets it with BB. Fields doesn't have the BB to go with the K and will struggle at times. Absolutely, only difference really is that guys who are known to strike out a lot are usually going to walk more than they K unless your name is Barry Bonds and you get an absolutely comical number of walks.

QUOTE (jackie hayes @ Apr 8, 2008 -> 01:48 PM) I dunno about that. A fly ball pitcher with a good k/bb ratio and a poor k rate may still struggle quite a bit. If Danks struck out fewer hitters, I would worry about him, but he actually gets a good number of strikeouts. (More than 1 per inning in the minors, last year about 100 k in 140 ip -- that's a pretty good rate.) My own impression is that a good k/bb rate is necessary for just about every pitcher. (Though young pitchers can and do improve that over the first few years. Alas, Daniel Cabrera...) A good k rate is necessary for most pitchers, though not everyone. That much is true, there are exceptions to every rule though. You have HOF guys like Nolan Ryan and Randy Johnson who walked and hit an insane number of batters every year, but their ratio is offset by the fact that it seems like they struck out damn near everyone else. When you can throw triple digits consistently you pretty much get a free pass on the # of walks you give.

QUOTE (almagest @ Apr 8, 2008 -> 12:28 PM) That's pretty selective use of evidence. As a previous poster showed, the pitchers that lead the major in strikeouts are almost always above-average to great. It's not though because it supports the point I was trying to make. Guys like Buehrle and Carmona have K:BB ratios of like 2:1 or even 3:1 and they can impose their will on hitters and be All-Stars, even if neither of them will ever come close to leading the league in strikeouts. Pitchers lead the league in strikeouts because they are great pitchers, not vice versa.

QUOTE (jackie hayes @ Apr 8, 2008 -> 12:27 PM) Well, I don't know if judging "success" is really what people use strikeouts for -- it always seemed more useful as a tool to predict -- if success is sustainable, or if a pitcher might make a jump. Yeah that's what I mean though. If you look at a young pitcher who strikes out a lot of batters but walks almost as many (or more) he is going to have trouble when he moves up a level, or if he's already at that level, it's going to catch up with him. This is why I'm not particularly worried about John Danks in spite of his high ERA, that ratio is like 2:1 for him. Gavin Floyd also in the last year or so has done a lot better in that area, his ratio from Philly blows. I know you know all this, so I don't know why I'm saying it. lol.

I think a better measure of success using K's is to compare how many K's to BB's a pitcher has. Then have a glance over at their ERA.

If you look at sabermetrics I'm pretty sure they will tell you that Javier Vazquez is a much better pitcher than Mark Buehrle because Javy strikes guys out, but when you watch both of them pitch without seeing the numbers, you know Buehrle's more reliable.

Heh, no idea why McCain would do that because if they WERE still a "significant threat" then that would mean the surge failed, or at least didn't succeed as much as he hoped, and it hurts him politically. Seriously, every time McCain opens his mouth I start thinking more and more that he is just on the "stay the course" bandwagon and doesn't understand that confronting terror goes far beyond Iraq. If this was as simple as being sure that staying there would give us a clear victory (a delusional belief shared by waaaaaaaaay too many people in this country unfortunately) then that mentality is fine. So far, honestly the only candidate that seems to "get it" is Obama. He might not have the right plans, at least not yet, but when you listen closely at least he sees the big picture, he knows this is a cluster**** and he knows he needs to be adaptable and change his mind. When I listen to Hillary and McCain it sounds like they are just responding to the partisan rhetoric I was complaining about earlier. The only other candidate that was saying anything different was Paul, but his ideas were a day late and a dollar short, too focused on the past, and therefore impractical.

QUOTE (Texsox @ Apr 8, 2008 -> 12:28 PM) /hijack Strikeouts are also, IMHO overrated for pitchers. I'd rather a guy have a 1-2-3 inning with all ground outs and 7 pitches than 1-2-3 with strikeouts and 18 pitches. /back They do really come in handy when there's a guy on 3rd (or bases loaded) and less than 2 outs though. /end re-hijack

QUOTE (Texsox @ Apr 8, 2008 -> 12:08 PM) Which is why I stated I was more interested in BA and OBP. It starts with BA and OBP. If that is unsatisfactory, then look to the outs and work to get better. Don't look at the outs first. Make sense? We don't disagree.

The testimony looked about like what I expected. Petraeus seemed like he was being mostly straight-up from what I can tell and there didn't look like there was a whole lot of administration doubletalk/lying by omission. The comments I see from CNN readers is pathetic though. 80% of them are either in the "BRING THE TROOPS HOME" camp or the "DEMOCRATS HATE AMERICA AND WANT US TO LOSE" camp. The other 20% is intelligent people who either say "regardless of why we were there in the first place there is too much of a risk to national security for us to leave in a hurry now" or "this is a short-term tactical success in a long-term strategy that has failed miserably, from here on out we need to either develop a better strategy or quit wasting our time." Ignore the 80% and pay close attention to the 20%. If anybody says something like "Democrats just want this to be another Vietnam" then it should be clear they don't understand how complex this is.