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Tuesday, February 01, 2011

ESPN: Szymborski: Domonic Brown is MLB-ready now (INSIDER)

Today, Keith ran down the 20 players most likely to make an impact on the 2011 season. Since more information, whether it’s scouting or sabermetrics, is better, I’m also running down the 2011 ZiPS projections for each of the players on that list. Computers and algorithms don’t know everything about a player, but they do a good job at interpreting at least what the statistics mean and adding a bit of cold sobriety to balance out the natural optimism that we naturally have, as baseball fans. All projections are full-season projections, even though many of these players will only be up for parts of the season.

Keith’s article can be found here. Also Insider.

Also, it’s not worth a whole entry in and of itself, but I pitted MLB 10: The Show for PS3 against Tony Reagins.

Dan Szymborski Posted: February 01, 2011 at 06:15 PM | 41 comment(s) Login to Bookmark
Tags: minor leagues, projections

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1. McCoy Wilfong for Money Posted: February 01, 2011 at 06:29 PM (#3740963)

Was it the Blue Jays that initiated the trade or was it the Angels?

2. The District Attorney Posted: February 01, 2011 at 06:43 PM (#3740979)

Baseball Mogul would probably say "The last time I got an offer that dumb, George W. Bush owned a baseball team."

(Don't blame me, I didn't program it.)

3. Der Komminsk-sar Posted: February 01, 2011 at 06:46 PM (#3740984)

Why Bourjos not Rivera? If Rivera wasn't listed, shouldn't you pick someone else w/ a bad contract for LAA to dump?

4. Lassus Posted: February 01, 2011 at 06:50 PM (#3740989)

You should paste in my photographic response, Dan. ;-)

5. Don Geovany Soto (chris h.) Posted: February 01, 2011 at 06:55 PM (#3740993)

Yeah, OOTP sure as hell won't let me make that trade, either.

6. Dan Szymborski

Posted: February 01, 2011 at 06:55 PM (#3740994)

Oops, I've been using the wrong file! That was my test run (first try, the Angels traded Rivera before I got to him).

7. Dan Szymborski

Posted: February 01, 2011 at 06:59 PM (#3740999)

OK, got the right one there now.

8. RoyalsRetro (AG#1F) Posted: February 01, 2011 at 07:02 PM (#3741000)

He may be ready now, but there are no games scheduled for today on account of snow.

9. Walt Davis Posted: February 01, 2011 at 07:23 PM (#3741019)

the natural optimism that we naturally have

Don't all those $2 mag/insider subs generate enough revenue to pay for editors?! :-)

10. Dan Szymborski

Posted: February 01, 2011 at 07:41 PM (#3741044)

Ouch. I'm usually edited very lightly, but I sometimes have a tendency to change sentences without changing all the required words.

11. Good cripple hitter Posted: February 01, 2011 at 07:44 PM (#3741048)

I'm actually somewhat surprise that the trade wasn't accepted in The Show. IIRC, I was able to trade Vernon and trash to the M's for Ichiro in that game, much to the disappointment (!) of the Toronto fans.

12. John DiFool2 Posted: February 01, 2011 at 07:50 PM (#3741057)

Oh, just keep tossing in fringe minor leaguer after fringe minor leaguer into the deal; once you've put about 20 of those guys into the kitty, the other GM will finally crack!

13. Davo Mastroianni Posted: February 01, 2011 at 08:20 PM (#3741084)

Oh, just keep tossing in fringe minor leaguer after fringe minor leaguer into the deal; once you've put about 20 of those guys into the kitty, the other GM will finally crack!

Damn, I thought I was the only one who'd figured this out!

14. scareduck Posted: February 01, 2011 at 08:22 PM (#3741088)

Unbelievable.

15. zack Posted: February 01, 2011 at 08:41 PM (#3741108)

"Have made the move to reject" is one way of saying "rejected".

16. CraigK Posted: February 01, 2011 at 09:16 PM (#3741143)

Yeah, i'd think you'd rethink a trade after all of Baseball Mogul, OOTP, and MLB 10 The Show all laugh in your face about it from Anaheim's side.

17. theflash141 Posted: February 01, 2011 at 09:17 PM (#3741146)

I think my favorite part is that Hank Conger is already ranked above Jeff Mathis despite playing in only thirteen games in the big show.

God, I hate Jeff Mathis.

18. cardsfanboy

Posted: February 01, 2011 at 09:27 PM (#3741152)

are you able to add money in these trades? Do the players have their current contracts or are these straight up numbers or even game generated contracts? It would be embarassing if these are without contract trades and the Angels still turn it down(although I think they would be stupid personally, from a strict player value standpoint Wells is better than Napoli/Rivera, it's just the contract that makes it a tough sell)

19. DL from MN Posted: February 01, 2011 at 09:37 PM (#3741163)

> i'd think you'd rethink a trade

This was one of those trades to "leak" to Heyman or Rosenthal just to gauge the outside response.

20. Crispix Attacks 2: Swag Airlines Posted: February 01, 2011 at 09:44 PM (#3741171)

You're burying the lead here. Who is this "D'Angelo Molina"? Is he a long-lost fourth brother of the notorious family? Is he the nephew of Avon "Gustavo" Molina?

21. Dan Szymborski

Posted: February 01, 2011 at 10:03 PM (#3741192)

The game generates fictional players to fill blanks. Pretty standard for games, though funny things happen - in a game of Front Office Football, I once got Chili Mac Beethoven in the draft.

22. RoyalsRetro (AG#1F) Posted: February 01, 2011 at 10:12 PM (#3741194)

Damn, and here I was ready to get on Sickels for not listing Sylvester Yazzie in his Blue Jays prospects list!

23. Tuque

Posted: February 01, 2011 at 10:14 PM (#3741197)

Chili Mac Beethoven

That's the best name I've seen in a while.

That was one of my favorite things about the FIFA scouting system in some of those video games - by the end of my managerial career, I'd have a full team of world-class players, with an average age of like 22, and all with names like "Chin-Lu Hernandez" and "Jaros?aw Alphonse de Smith."

24. Greg (U)K Posted: February 01, 2011 at 10:17 PM (#3741201)

The game generates fictional players to fill blanks. Pretty standard for games, though funny things happen - in a game of Front Office Football, I once got Chili Mac Beethoven in the draft.

I once drafed a goalie named Norbert Prommersberger in NHL 2007.

25. BourbonSamurai, vassal of the Harpsburg Empire Posted: February 01, 2011 at 10:31 PM (#3741213)

I'm enjoying famed Washington Redskins cornerback Donkey Drum in my football mogul right now. Which is a pretty stupid game, actually.

26. Walt Davis Posted: February 02, 2011 at 12:39 AM (#3741322)

27. robertvukanjr Posted: February 02, 2011 at 01:41 AM (#3741358)

In tecmo super bowl it used to be QB Eagles for Randall Cunningham, QB Bills for Jim Kelly, etc, however there was no other position that had this problem. I have always wondered how they managed to get the NFLPA's permission to use all the player names with the exception of like 5 quarterbacks.

28. cardsfanboy

Posted: February 02, 2011 at 01:48 AM (#3741364)

didn't the NFL used to have a two tiered system, one for their stars and another for all players? probably remembering that wrong, but it seemed like something used to have a system like that.

29. Biff, highly-regarded young guy Posted: February 02, 2011 at 01:50 AM (#3741367)

Was it an early version of Mogul that hadn't worked out a contract with the MLBPA yet and shifted all the initials by one letter? I recall Hank Blalock was Grant Arion which isn't even a particularly good sci-fi name.

I think I just fell into a time warp. I recalled that Mogul swapped the initial of the first and last name, so I googled "Medro Partinez"...and found a post I made in 2007 about the same topic using the same example I just thought up. I really like Medro Partinez, evidently.

30. Swedish Chef Posted: February 02, 2011 at 01:58 AM (#3741376)

I think Football Manager had all players but Oliver Kahn (who had threatened to sue).

31. RoyalsRetro (AG#1F) Posted: February 02, 2011 at 01:58 AM (#3741377)

In tecmo super bowl it used to be QB Eagles for Randall Cunningham, QB Bills for Jim Kelly, etc, however there was no other position that had this problem. I have always wondered how they managed to get the NFLPA's permission to use all the player names with the exception of like 5 quarterbacks.

According to Wiki, those QBs were not part of the NFLPA Marketing Agreement, along with Bernie Kosar "Browns QB"

32. PASTE Thinks This Trout Kid Might Be OK (Zeth) Posted: February 02, 2011 at 02:28 AM (#3741392)

Man, when Dominic Brown was in Altoona for a series last summer, he was a holy terror. He would launch at least one ball out to the roller coaster past the right field wall about once per at-bat. Fortunately about three-fourths of them were juuuuust foul.

And I stood there and thought, what the hell is this guy doing in Double-A ball?

33. Dan Szymborski

Posted: February 02, 2011 at 02:38 AM (#3741395)

According to Wiki, those QBs were not part of the NFLPA Marketing Agreement, along with Bernie Kosar "Browns QB"

When I was playing it, my sister wanted to know at the time why there was a player named QB Eagles. I told her it was Quentin B. Eagles - not sure if she ever realized it was yet another instance of me messing with her.

34. McCoy Wilfong for Money Posted: February 02, 2011 at 02:58 AM (#3741400)

I once told somebody that the Red Sox play "Sweet Caroline" because Neil Diamond's dad was at a Red Sox vs Athletics game in 1912 in which Carroll "Boardwalk" Brown was the starting pitcher for the Athletics and that the Boston crowd broke out in a "Sweet Caroline" cheer to mock him after he lost 17-5. Subsequently Neil's dad would sing out "Sweet Caroline" after every Red Sox win and that was the basis for Neil's song of the same name. And then to explain away the backstory of it really being about Caroline Kennedy I said Neil couldn't get the licensing agreement from the Red Sox so he made up the Kennedy backstory just like Baby Ruth made up the back story about their name. They believed me.

35. AROM Posted: February 02, 2011 at 03:01 AM (#3741401)

"The game generates fictional players to fill blanks. Pretty standard for games, though funny things happen - in a game of Front Office Football, I once got Chili Mac Beethoven in the draft."

If I were programming a game, I'd have at least every 4th catcher named Molina, and not allow a non-catcher Molina.

36. PASTE Thinks This Trout Kid Might Be OK (Zeth) Posted: February 02, 2011 at 03:02 AM (#3741403)

If there were a new Tecmo, I wonder whether they would just use "QB Steelers" to avoid the awkward "B. Roethlisberg" or such...

37. RoyalsRetro (AG#1F) Posted: February 02, 2011 at 03:12 AM (#3741408)

I once told somebody that the Red Sox play "Sweet Caroline" because Neil Diamond's dad was at a Red Sox vs Athletics game in 1912 in which Carroll "Boardwalk" Brown was the starting pitcher for the Athletics and that the Boston crowd broke out in a "Sweet Caroline" cheer to mock him after he lost 17-5. Subsequently Neil's dad would sing out "Sweet Caroline" after every Red Sox win and that was the basis for Neil's song of the same name. And then to explain away the backstory of it really being about Caroline Kennedy I said Neil couldn't get the licensing agreement from the Red Sox so he made up the Kennedy backstory just like Baby Ruth made up the back story about their name. They believed me.

Both stories are made up. The truth is, Diamond wrote the song just after killing a hobo to get an erection.

38. CraigK Posted: February 02, 2011 at 03:24 AM (#3741416)

If there were a new Tecmo, I wonder whether they would just use "QB Steelers" to avoid the awkward "B. Roethlisberg" or such...

Ben's last name barely goes over the max characters in a last name in Madden, so he's "Ben Roethlisbergr" there.

39. PASTE Thinks This Trout Kid Might Be OK (Zeth) Posted: February 02, 2011 at 03:56 AM (#3741426)

Yeah... Tecmo allows 15 characters, including spaces and periods, and doesn't differentiate between first and last names in any meaningful way. Actually, 15 is the code limit but 14 is the effective limit as of Tecmo Super Bowl III. So it would end up as "B. Roethlisberg" or "B. Roethlisber".

Presumably a modern Tecmo game could allow more characters, but that just wouldn't be as Tecmo, you know? I'd definitely go with the cool retro "QB Steelers" over the clunky "B. Roethlisberg".

40. hokieneer Posted: February 02, 2011 at 04:52 AM (#3741436)

One time during an NCAA dynasty on PS2 as Texas Tech, I landed a 4 star RB recruit who was unusually tall, had blazing speed, and good hands. His generated name was Eric Davis. He immediately was given the #44 jersey and went on to win a Heisman in his years at Texas Tech.

41. Jim (jimmuscomp) Posted: February 07, 2011 at 05:16 AM (#3744990)

Both stories are made up. The truth is, Diamond wrote the song just after killing a hobo to get an erection.

One of my favorite SNL moments with Will Ferrell. Also, Tim Meadows was gold in that sketch. And John Goodman?

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Tuesday, February 01, 2011

ESPN: Szymborski: Domonic Brown is MLB-ready now (INSIDER)

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