Since you made an SNK Baseball Stars reference, what was the name of the lefty sidearming reliever on one of the Japanese teams in the game? I'm pretty sure it started with Oo. It's been driving me crazy (short trip) and no one I've talked to remembers.

Is Devine left handed?

Does ZiPS account for platooning in reading past data or predicting future data? For instance, does ZiPS assume this reliever would see an 'average' number of right handed hitters and an 'average' number of left handed hitters even if the player has seen almost exclusively one or the other?

And yes, "predicting future data" is a contradiction in terms.

I'll take the under on the Kotsay projection. I wish him well, but I'm going to cry if he fails his physical today.

Oomaga on the Japan Robins. The badass sidearmers, however, are the lefty-righty pair on the Ninja Blacksox, Iga and Sanda.

I eagerly await your Emil Brown projection.

dan,
fix the formatting on my NL GG article, please. XOXO.

Oomaga on the Japan Robins.

Thanks Dan. Odd that the Samoan Spike is given with the right arm then.........

What's fun is looking at a few old NES games made in Japan that attempt to make all-time teams of American players and see their perception of our league. Making educated guesses for Baseball Stars, and the more obvious Legends of the Diamonds one, here are MLB's all-time teams:

--------------------
Baseball Stars
--------------------
Sandy Koufax
Cy Young
Denny McLain
Dizzy Dean
"Frank"
Pete Rose
Babe Ruth
Joe DiMaggio
Hank Aaron
Lefty O'Doul
Willie Mays
"Jay"
Joe Jackson
Lou Gehrig
Johnny Bench
Eddie Mathews
Paul Waner

--------------------
Legenda of the Diamond
--------------------
Cy Young
Dizzy Dean
Lefty Gomez
Whitey Ford
Bob Gibson
Steve Carlton
Mickey Cochrane
Lou Gehrig
Johnny Mize
Billy Herman
"Jimmy" Foxx
Rogers Hornsby
Honus Wagner
Babe Ruth
Ty Cobb
Tris Speaker
Edd Roush
Luke Appling
Bill Freehan
Ernie Banks
Willie McCovey
Bobby Richardson
Joe Morgan
Harmon Killebrew
Brooks Robinson
Roberto Clemente
Willie Stargell
Hank Aaron
Billy Williams
Joe Torre

Szym has me on ignore? Not sure what I did...

Devine's righthanded.

ZiPS only takes into account platoon usage to the extent of the player's previous platoon usage.

So, basically, it assumes a platoon usage identical to past platoon usage?

Yes. "Starter" or "reliever" or an obvious different position (like Carlos Guillen to 1B) are the only opinion inputs I'm willing to do at this time.

I always assumed "Frank" was Frank Robinson, but I'm pretty sure he was an IF on that team, no?

All of the Blacksox pitchers had amazing curves. Sasuke, I think, was their main starter.

I always assumed "Frank" was Frank Robinson, but I'm pretty sure he was an IF on that team, no?

Right-handed relief pitcher.

"Lefty O'Doul"

That one's understandable within context, I guess. He was big in Japan.

That one's understandable within context, I guess. He was big in Japan.

Yeah, I assumed that since he did so much in the 50s over there. Plus, he's the only hitter nicknamed Lefty that ever did much.

According to B-R, there have been 169 players nicknamed Lefty in the majors. You'd think at some point it would have dawned on people that they could do better (and frequently did). At one point, there were 19 active players nicknamed Lefty. Just for fun, in the DMB league I was in, I made a whole rotation of guys nicknamed Lefty in 1934.

I thought "Lefty" was his given name.

Oakland A's - Acquired $2 million and P Joey Devine from the Atlanta Braves for CF Mark Kotsay.

Huh? The A's received cash in this deal? That can't be right.

Huh? The A's received cash in this deal? That can't be right.

They were legally required to pay $8 million. Now, they only pay $6 million.

I think that means the Braves are paying 2MM and the A's pay the net.

Did Oomaga have the same problem where he was dominant when he was first introduced as a character, but slowly turned into a wildly glorified jobber who gets himself DQ'd from every important appearance?

Ah, A's are paying $6M of Kotsay's salary. Thanks guys.

I'm happy Denorfia will get a chance to play as much as possible, and it looks like Sweeney will see a lot of time in Oakland. Getting Devine isn't quite divine, but it's a whole lot better than what I thought they'd get for Kotsay--even if they ate his whole salary.

I have the RBI baseball theme stuck in my head now.

Did Oomaga have the same problem where he was dominant when he was first introduced as a character, but slowly turned into a wildly glorified jobber who gets himself DQ'd from every important appearance?

I'll reply in 3 minutes......

I absolutely hate hate hate this. ####### no good panic move.
Kotsay is not even a sure bet to outperform Blanco or Anderson. And to give up Devine is really stupid.
I thought the Wren era was getting off toa good start till now.
So in the past 6 months, the Braves have given up on Feliz, Harrison, Devine, Andrus and Jones. This is dancing between the raindrops here. Seems like they are making a misguided attempt at a last push with Cox at the helm in 2008.

Any word whether the Braves are giving up a low A arm too? As if Devine weren't enough. Devine is going to be a better version of Chad Bradford.

So in the past 6 months, the Braves have given up on Feliz, Harrison, Devine, Andrus and Jones. This is dancing between the raindrops here. Seems like they are making a misguided attempt at a last push with Cox at the helm in 2008.

Not only that, they gave up a first round pick for Glavine to a divisonal rival. That said, the Braves are so good at drafting and developing players, they still have a very good system. Man, I hate the Braves.

############! the Braves are sending Richmond along with Devine. This trade just went from a minor disaster to laughably bad

Devine is going to be a better version of Chad Bradford.

Well maybe, but only if he learns how to throw strikes, start getting out lefties, stop giving up grand slams & season ending poat season walkoff HR's...

Paul Newberry reports Jamie Richmond also goes to the A's. Sickels thinks he's a C+ prospect, which sounds pretty good to me. So that's now 10 prospects picked up in the three trades plus Eveland and two more lesser guys for Scutaro.

Sweet.

Braves are sending Richmond along with Devine.

When I first read this, I thought it was a comment on the franchise's decision to bring their AAA affiliate into the metro Atlanta area after Richmond's lease ends in 2010.

Richmond made BA's 31st team - check it out for a scouting report on him.

To err is human. To give up a game winning home run in the longest game in postseason history, Devine.