almagest

Maybe we should wait until Allen has more than 8 major league at-bats before declaring this trade a bust?

QUOTE (chw42 @ Aug 20, 2009 -> 01:53 PM) Washburn's been terrible. He's given up 17 ER now in 4 starts. He only pitched well against the Royals. He's been especially prone to the home run, which doesn't make that much sense since Comerica is bigger than Safeco. The park factor is actually about the same homerun-wise, but I'd bet the ball still travels much better in Comerica than Safeco. The ginormous area from the power alleys to center field probably influences the PF in Comerica, but it doesn't seem that hard to hit it out to straight LF or RF since they moved the fences in.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Aug 18, 2009 -> 03:40 PM) The Royals just sent Alex Gordon down to AAA. So, they could bring Kyle Farnsworth off the DL. Never thought I'd have to seriously type these words. Dayton Moore is an idiot.Maybe he'll pull a BA and ask to be traded and we'll get him and move Beckham/Alexei to 2B?

MLB.com link

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 14, 2009 -> 12:27 PM) I agree. Beckham should stay put in the lineup. As far as Pods, even if we say he 100 percent cost us the game, he's won us at least five single handedly so he's ahead of the curve. My only problem with player criticism, is sometimes people forget the player's overall value iin a season. He's been good to very good and I was against bringing him in initially. I guess as long as a ballplayer keeps raking every night (Pujols, Mauer are close) they are pretty exempt from criticism. There was a time not too long ago Pods was hitting and walking so well he was exempt from criticism. Not now. Pods made a huge mistake and it cost us the game but how many middle relievers have cost us games this year with their horrific pitching (walks, base hits)? Those pitchers walking people and giving up hits are failures of execution, not mental mistakes. There's a big difference.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Aug 13, 2009 -> 11:24 AM) Remember Steve in the world of SABRmetrics, speed is evil because they will not use it properly and will be tempted to do evil things. Since Pods is mostly a slap hitter his OPS will not look good enough in the stat pages to warrant any complements what so ever. Thus the SABRs will always dislike him. Sounds like someone who doesn't understand how statistics are used in baseball. Let's re-emphasize: a 67% SB rate is bad. Getting picked off 7 times in 3.5 months is bad. Getting picked off 3rd with 1 out in the 10th inning of a scoreless game with the middle of your lineup at-bat is bad. Podsednik's poor baserunning isn't the only reason we lost this game, but it's one of the biggest.

QUOTE (rangercal @ Aug 13, 2009 -> 01:48 AM) It's not like Bacon was going to hit anything tonight.He smoked what should have been a run scoring single if the ball didn't hit the damn pitching rubber and bounce right to the SS.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Aug 11, 2009 -> 08:08 PM) It might have been misguided, but his teammates will love him for it, and he didn't screw around with scrubs, he went after some big guns. It probably makes more sense, because they have a better chance of getting on base anyway.I think his teammates will be more upset that Porcello got himself tossed out of a game after 15 pitches, burned out the Tigers bullpen, and will be suspended for a couple games at least. They know they're in a pennant race, and something like this can really hurt.

QUOTE (GoSox05 @ Aug 11, 2009 -> 09:46 AM) I was at a game back in 93' with a couple of my cousins. There was two girls sitting behind us, some how George Bell must have seen the one girl and sent someone to the stands to give her a note. It had like his phone number on it and mentioned something about meeting him after the game. We didn't know if was real, but the girl replied to the note and we could see the dude go into the dugout and give the note to Bell. It was really weird. You left out the most important part of the story... was she hot?

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 8, 2009 -> 10:46 PM) I'm done with the thread. He's not atrocious; he's just not. I'm really enjoying my World Series DVD tonight as I sip a Bud. I especially love the part where Jermaine is hoisting his MVP trophy. Not bad for an an atrocious outfielder. Man he really sucks. He won the MVP because of defense? Dude, face it, Dye is a great hitter but is bad defensively. Bringing up his offensive prowess from 4 years ago isn't going to change that. DH-ing Dye is the right move.

QUOTE (Wedge @ Aug 5, 2009 -> 12:49 PM) He was mocking the media for rushing to conclusions. The post was ironic since it was a rushed conclusion based on one game.Exactly. QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 5, 2009 -> 03:17 PM) I got it. My point in reply is; when you're getting basically 10 starts from a guy, if you want good return on him, they all need to be pretty darn good.I agree, and this is another reason why the media shouldn't have fallen all over themselves to praise this trade so quickly. Washburn having a couple bad starts could really hurt their playoff chances in a tight race.

The great Jarrod Washburn wasn't so great today. Looks like the media praise for this deal was perhaps a bit short-sighted.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Jul 31, 2009 -> 01:15 PM) How is Comerica not a pitcher's park as well?Safeco is 16th in baseball with 0.980 runs allowed (1 being the average). Amazingly, Comerica is 14th, with 1.025 runs allowed, ahead of Safeco and even US Cellular somehow. Link. Also, Seattle apparently has a very good defensive outfield, which Detroit does not. That will hurt Washburn as well.

Interesting take on the Washburn trade from Beyond the Box Score.

QUOTE (BearSox @ Jul 30, 2009 -> 04:18 PM) Vaginitis is a south park reference. Overexaggerated might be the wrong way to describe. It seems to me he just doesn't have a high pain tolerance. Based on what?

QUOTE (CWSOX45 @ Jul 29, 2009 -> 09:19 PM) It's been like this for the past 3 seasons. I've never seen a full team trying to pull every pitch. It's so simple it's ridiculous. Look at how good of a hitter Aj was in Minnesota, what did he do? He went opposite field on a regular basis. Konerko in his prime? Opposite field power. This team has no approach at the plate, it's lift and pull, and it's the same old story. Enough already. AJ's hitting .300. Konerko's hitting .285 with 20 hr.

I'm guessing that Guillen figures Wise needs at least 5 at-bats to get a hit, since he's hitting

QUOTE (BearSox @ Jul 23, 2009 -> 10:13 AM) As pointed out just now, he lied in 2007. How do we know he still isn't lying?We don't. But he's only listed as buying shipments from Radonsky in 2003, which corroborates with the story he's telling.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 23, 2009 -> 09:16 AM) Oh spare me the bulls***. The "I did it for my family" thing actually makes me totally lose respect for the guy. What about every other guy out there who is a father playing baseball who made the conscious decision to do things right and not take PEDs because they want their kids to look up to them and respect them not only as a breadwinner, but as a example of the type of person who you want your kids to become. What about those fathers that people like Jim Parque knocked out of the game by taking their places because they cheated to get an extra edge? How does he feel about taking food out of their mouths? Spare me the self-pity and the artificial tears. A lot of fathers face the choice of lying/cheating/stealing for their kids every day, under dire circumstances. Its not like his kids were going to starve. He did it to try to win the lottery, not to save his destitute family.He actually says the realization that his priorities were not focused on his family helped him stop his brief usage of steroids. I don't see how this equates to "doing it for his family". QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Jul 23, 2009 -> 09:20 AM) So basically he wants his cake and he wants to eat it too. Gets to bypass players more deserving who were clean. Gets the big contract. And gets it all absolved because he admitted he did it. Color me unimpressed.Did you bother reading the article? Because he didn't get a big contract because of steroids, at all. He never got a big contract. He used them as a last chance to resurrect his career. QUOTE (BearSox @ Jul 23, 2009 -> 10:09 AM) After you take away taxes, he earned plenty of money by the time his arm fell off. Unless he squandered all of his money, he should have been able to have a nice nest egg where he could have easily gotten by for a while, while he looked for a new job to support his family with. I think Jim is full of crap. "Getting by for a while" when you have a family doesn't work. That money disappears practically overnight. It looks like Jim used most of his money wisely, anyway, since he was able to open a baseball academy.

I'll be there!

QUOTE (SnB @ Jul 18, 2009 -> 09:23 AM) this is the first time in myabe 7 years i'm not picking up NCAA. I haven't been overly impressed w/ any of their next gen versions. I'll probably buy madden this year because the last madden I have is 04 I believe. Things had to improve a ton in those 6 years? right? right? right ea?If '09 is any indication, no.

The quizzes, dear god, the quizzes. Why do so many people want me to know which character on "Real Housewives of New Jersey" they are? I wish I could send live, hate-filled bees to these people via the internet.

The Blackberry Storm has both functions as well, and with the recent firmware update, has become a really nice phone. You lose wi-fi, but Verizon's 3G network is leaps and bounds better than AT&Ts, so you don't mind it as much. The Iphone still has the best software support, though.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jul 14, 2009 -> 11:36 AM) Teahen's one of the nicest players on the Royals...not sure why anyone would want to heckle him or someone like Mike Sweeney.Well, I could see heckling Sweeney, if only because you could call him Mike's Weenie. That's too good to pass up.

Recently got a PS3; been playing Mortal Kombat 2, Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix, MLB '09: The Show, and Madden '09. Madden confuses the s*** out of me -- the last Madden I played with regularity was '05, and it seems like this one has no goal other than to be as needlessly complicated as possible. I play Madden to run backwards 20 yards and hurl up random passes, a la Rex Grossman. I don't play it to use the damn right analog stick for everything in the game. Also been playing a lot of Final Fantasy 4: The After on Wii, and very much looking forward to picking up Blazblue on PS3 when the standard edition comes out at the end of the month. Maybe King of Fighters 12 when that comes out, too. I love me some 2D fighters.