chw42

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Oct 23, 2010 -> 10:49 PM) True. Though we get our first real look at Dominic Brown next year. And they've still got a really good system. I hope we don't have to hear s*** about Cliff Lee. The Phillies simply didn't hit like they have in the past. It really wasn't the pitching. Howard and Utley didn't do anything.

QUOTE (beck72 @ Oct 23, 2010 -> 10:02 PM) Grady Sizemore would also be a Lefty bat that could be on the block. Whether they'd trade him to the sox, who knows. They'll more likely compete with the Royals for last than fight for 1st in 2011 so it's not like they're competing with the Sox. They need to shed salary and get more talent. With his knee injury, though, the Indians would be selling very low. His contract is reasonable if healthy [2011:$7.5M, 12:$8.5M club option ($0.5M buyout)]. Hell, a swap of Quentin for Sizemore could even be in the Indians interest, as they'd control Carlos through 2012. They could likely get more power production, at a cheaper salary, with Carlos in LF for them. I would do that deal in a second.

I have a feeling this might have been the last time the Phillies have a super legit chance at winning it all. They'll still be a playoff team next year, but they probably won't get Werth back. That rotation of theirs is still really good, but this is not a young team and I think we might see some regressions from a lot of their position players (Rollins, Ibanez, Polanco, maybe even Utley).

Ryan Howard has to be the most overpaid player in baseball.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Oct 23, 2010 -> 03:55 PM) Little Sqwert, which was me, used to watch lots of horror films as a kid. It's probably why I turned out so strange. My god, you are very strange indeed.

QUOTE (nitetrain8601 @ Oct 22, 2010 -> 06:25 PM) Guys I consider elite: Cliff Lee Doc Halladay Felix Hernandez CC Sabathia Jon Lester Out of that list, only three have won the Cy Young. Yet, Lincecum won two in a row. And he did that as recently as one year ago.

Great to see a team like the Rangers winning the pennant. They've been built the right way (through their farm system and some smart signings) and they've never come this close before.

QUOTE (T R U @ Oct 22, 2010 -> 09:42 PM) Well of course you have to have the multiplayer, otherwise you are spending $60 for a 6 hour or so campaign.. Call of Duty is and will always be about the multiplayer.. thats why its replay value will last a good year or so.. Now all you need is to ditch the lousy PS3 and you will be in business.. There's nothing wrong with the PS3...?

QUOTE (T R U @ Oct 22, 2010 -> 01:12 PM) gave in? that game is going to be awesome It was either just play singleplayer on the PC (no way in hell I'm paying 60 bucks for a PC game...) or get the whole thing on the PS3 for multiplayer. I had my options.

Finally gave in and pre-ordered Black Ops. Friend had a $20 game credit from Amazon he didn't need, so it was $34.44. Decent deal IMO.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Oct 19, 2010 -> 08:57 AM) Which in itself is valuable, wouldn't you say? I think its strange, people are saying he's so overpaid at $14M/year. I think they are looking at his 2010, and where he fit into the Sox rotation (as a more or less 3/4 guy), and think he's not worth it. To me, he's still a bargain at that price, unless you think he's going to head downhill from here. Looking at his career numbers, he's pretty consistently a 3.75-4.00 ERA pitcher who gives you 200+ IP every year, and defends his position well. On most AL team's, looking at his typical numbers, he's a 2/3 guy, and could be better in the NL. That's worth a lot, given his durability. Yeah, I wasn't saying him pitching 200 innings is a bad thing. Value comes from playing time.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 15, 2010 -> 07:36 AM) Mark Buehrle is 5th in WAR among all pitchers in the 21st century. I felt like noting that somewhere. Pitching 200 innings pretty much every year helps.

Well this wasn't what I expected. There's home runs everywhere!

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Oct 15, 2010 -> 06:34 PM) Fixed. I like Danks, but he's not untouchable. I would definitely do Danks for Rasmus.

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Oct 15, 2010 -> 05:47 PM) How can that guy suggest Rasmus for Stanton? That's insane. He also doesn't know the difference between there and their. So there's a possible reason why he thinks that way.

QUOTE (bucket-of-suck @ Oct 15, 2010 -> 12:36 PM) I think Kenny will be targeting Colby Rasmus. He'd be that left handed bat to help balance the lineup and his .860 OPS and .366 wOBA were first among full-time NL CFs. It would take a serious haul to acquire him as he is cost-controlled for 4 more years. Here is a nice article on Rasmus and his value: http://pinetarandpocketprotectors.wordpres...us-trade-value/ In that article they suggest a few possible deals: To the Yankees for: Brett Gardner, Manny Banuelos To the Braves for: Craig Kimbrel, Arodys Vizcaino, Omar Infante (one year until free agency) To the Blue Jays for: Shaun Marcum, Zach Stewart To the Marlins for: Mike Stanton straight up I think you can get a good feel for his value with these somewhat generic proposals. I would say to the White Sox for John Danks, Gregory Infante, Brandon Short I write for that blog and the guy who wrote that isn't exactly the brightest... I had to edit the article to hell to make it look at least semi-professional. Half of those proposals don't make sense.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Oct 14, 2010 -> 06:10 PM) Money is a big part of it, especially if its the White Sox and not the Yankees or Boston. Quentin made $3.2 million this year, and a lot of this board hated him. They want him gone. Dunn gives you a little bit more than Quentin did this year. About 10 more homers, about .050 in OBP, he hit about .020 better and about 100 more strikeouts. As much as several here say they would love him, he would be quickly turned on, especially considering the kind of money he's going to make. Thome hit a lot of homers with the Sox, yet people were doing cartwheels when he left. Dunn offensively isn't too much different from what Thome gave you with the Sox his last 3 seasons. Edwin Jackson, pro-rated, had the best numbers of any Sox pitcher, yet people around here are crying about his $8.5 million price tag. Dunn created 45 batting runs last year in a pretty neutral park. Quentin created 12.4. The difference in their offensive production is about 3 win shares. That's quite the difference.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Oct 14, 2010 -> 05:30 PM) Yes but hits, regardless of what some sab guys will tell you are different from walks. What Dunn gives you is the same amount of hits as Quentin. He just walks 3 times a month more, so really no RBI chance without the bases being loaded. Plus, Dunn doesn't run very well anymore, so those 3 walks a month really doesn't add all that much considering you're talking an extra 100 strikeouts per season.You made it seem like they are nowhere near close. I disagree, and think the difference in salaries would make me think Quentin plus $10 million in other players is a significantly better option. Who said walks are better than hits? Quentin will also get a raise in arbitration. Especially with his home run and RBI numbers.

QUOTE (Buehrlesque @ Oct 14, 2010 -> 03:29 PM) I agree that one game is way too small of a sample size, and best-of-three is as well. Heck, I think best-of-five is too small for baseball. The only reason I am OK with a short series (one game or best-of-three) for this 2nd Wildcard idea is that I am OK with the Wildcard winner being somewhat random and uncertain. I feel like "eh, they didn't win their division, so they don't get that kind of security." If they want the "easy/fair" way in, they have to win the division. I don't think they can do a best of 5, takes too much time. If it were up to me, I'd try for at least 5 or 7. Hell, even 7 games isn't enough to really tell which team is the better team sometimes. There's still a lot of randomness going on, even in a 162 game season. As tangotiger once said, if you gave all 30 teams with equal talent, let them play in the same stadium, against the same number of teams, in the same weather conditions, etc etc. Not all of them would be .500. In fact, there will be 10 teams above .500, 10 around .500, and 10 well below .500. Now if all those teams played each other a million times, all of them will be at .500. Just goes to show you how much of a crapshoot the playoffs are. If even 162 games isn't enough to separate teams, how can 5 or 7 games be enough?

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Oct 14, 2010 -> 03:43 PM) He gets on base 17 more times per 500 AB, so 3 times more a month. Its really not huge. If Quentin rebounds back to 2008, he's better. If he doesn't he's worse, but really not $10 million a year worse. Plus he hit 30. I don't know how many 285 pounders continue to produce at the same level as they did in their 20's. Some have remained productive, Frank Thomas, but I don't know of many more. Dunn was about as awful the second half of 2010 as any White Sox hitter, although he popped a few homers. There's a lot of red flags with this guy. If the Sox signed him and he was a bust, however, I'm sure it would be a certain coach's fault. If you think about it that way, then a .300 hitter isn't much better than a .250 hitter since the difference between them is only 25 hits per 500 ABs. And he'd only get maybe one more hit per week. But obviously, that .300 hitter is a hell of a lot better than the .250 hitter (assuming they do everything else similarly). And as bad as Dunn was in the second half, he still managed a .803 OPS in the second half. His .337 OBP and .466 SLG aren't Adam Dunn good, but they were still pretty good. Plus, with the way Dunn's season went (he had a really high BABIP for a majority of the first half), you really expected his luck to falter sooner or later. His second half swoon had more to do with the law of averages than his inability to hit. And as you said, he did hit his fair share of homers, even with a poor OPS for him.

QUOTE (Buehrlesque @ Oct 14, 2010 -> 12:40 AM) According to Phil Rogers, it looks like MLB/Bud Selig really is going to consider some playoff changes for next year: http://www.chicagobreakingsports.com/2010/...ts-way-out.html I'd prefer the one-game playoff to the best-of-three series, (in which case the true Game 163s might not have to be replaced with NFL-style tiebreakers), but in either case it will be very interesting to see how owners respond to this proposal next month! I like the best of 3 series idea. One game is nowhere near enough of a sample size to determine which team is better.

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Oct 14, 2010 -> 11:11 AM) Players that I'm seeing on the list that could outperform Pierre (not necessarily in the traditional leadoff way): Crawford Crisp Damon Kearns Magglio Ordonez I'd like to see Kearns on this team. He'd make a lot of sense financially. Stick him in right field and DH Quentin. As a DH, Quentin would actually be a 2 WAR player.

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Oct 14, 2010 -> 10:23 AM) So i went to trade in a couple games yesterday to pick up Fifa '11 and couldn't because I didn't have my ID on me. They said it's a state law (NY). Why? Is that the case out in IL too? Never happened to me.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Oct 14, 2010 -> 12:31 PM) Much better? Have you looked at the numbers? Quentin actually has a higher lifetime average and is trailing in OBP by .034. He also strikes out about 100 times less a season. Dunn is a better hitter, but not by much and it wouldn't be surprising if Quentin is the better hitter in the next couple of seasons. Its amazing the fascination this board has with players who perform about the same or worse for other teams. Jim Thome was hated around here. Dunn gets on base less, hits about the same amount of homers, strikes out even more, and actually will play a position horribly which is actually worse than being a DH where the lack of defensive prowess, regardless of what Ozzie thinks, won't hurt you. A .034 OBP is the difference between a bad hitter and a mediocre hitter and a mediocre hitter and a good hitter. I can go on and on. Point being, that is a pretty big difference. Plus, you totally forgot to mention slugging percentage, which is at .521 for Dunn in comparison to Quentin's .488. Point being, Quentin may have the potential to be better than Dunn, but he's only shown it once and in spurts. He also has a injury issue and is incredibly inconsistent. Compare that to Dunn, who has been producing at a very good and stable rate for most of the past decade and you really don't have much of a comparison.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Oct 13, 2010 -> 08:41 PM) He clearly must have traded in some games. Their prices are regulated by corporate. I think you're right. But doesn't it also depend on inventory sometimes for used games?