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There, I've combined Star Wars, BeelzeBud, and something pertinent to the signing. I rule!
As for the trolls, I suspect that it's the work of one or two disgruntled slashcode advocates, working to piss off the rest of the population here until we'll agree to take a system that people weren't so keen on when it was proposed. A "Phantom Menace", if you will. Logging and printing IPs with each post would fix it, most likely.
There was talk in the papers. There was this quote from the Chicago Tribune in early November:
"Hendry expects catcher Joe Girardi to test the market. The Cubs might
I admire your ability to put on a happy face in times of adversity.
I suppose the Cardinals were going to have pitcher-like catchers no matter what, and it is otherwise a strong team. If any team can afford a mascot, it's St. Louis. But you'd better hope that the statistical inklings that Girardi has a negative effect on pitchers is no more than that.
Who wudda thunk it woudda taken so long to be said..........again
Why the low calculation of Levine? The Angels have some terrific players on defense around the diamond. The worst players catching balls are Glaus and Salmon, who were both around average this year. Then you have Eckstein was clearly above-average this year and Spiezio, Kennedy, Erstad, and Anderson, *all* of whom have arguments at being the best defensively at their positions in baseball.
I believe a lot of the Angels pitching was in fact, the defense.
Seriously, what does Levine bring to the table other than some junk thrown at an atypical arm angle? He's got one of the worst K rates around, his control isn't particularly good, he gives up gopher balls, and doesn't even have a particularly big platoon split to exploit on the tactical level.
Who you gonna believe, the Oracle or an ESPN ticker?
Would the Oracle lie to you?
Well, maybe, but not in this case.
Also, if you made Dennis Springer a starter, he was good for about 22 strikeouts per game.
Actually, Glaus is really pretty good at catching the ball. Its throwing it that's the problem. And Eckstein has a seriously weak arm.
Maybe Walt and Tony have been playing too much circa 1998 PC baseball this offseason???
WOOHOO Springer/Cardinal Nation!!!
Year ERA+ IP
1997-1999: 6.97 K/9, 3.06 BB/9, 0.90 HR/9, 3.70 ERA
Somewhat surprised Ochoa couldn't get a major league deal.
Spiezio also played 10 games in the OF last year.
If so, he has been the recipient of some seriously crappy advice.
I tend to agree with Drew. Owens may not be as good as Palmeiro, but he is more of a stolen base threat, which is of some importance when coming off the bench, especially since he'll often run for Molina or Salmon. Quinlan is going to be given the first shot at the 5th outfield spot. If the Angels aren't as successful as they were last season, it won't be because of those guys.
Settling an arbitration dispute doesn't have any real effect on things. Win or lose or settle, the player is playing the same role for the same team.
Yes and Yes!!!
I also think Milli Vanilli and the Grammy's where absolutely right for each other.
What wagon? If anything it's been long fashionable to hate Tony. He gets a dispraportionate amount of criticism considering his W/L record (the only stat that counts, really).
LaRussa does some things that piss me off, yes, but he's not the monster public stathead opinoin makes him out to be. He's more incompetent on the Larry Dierker scale than say, on the Tony Muser scale. His accomplishments are NEVER taken IN CONTEXT to W/L record, and positive decisions aren't highlighted (who else would have let Pujols have the 3rd base job out of spring training when there were safer, veteran options available?).
To wit the LaRussa troll above. What pointless platoons? If anything he should've been platooning Lankford long, long before they traded him, his L/R splits were something like .100 pts different.
It would seem I'm now marginalized by Will, our cultural connisseur.
Please Will, please, explain why Public Enemy is any better than Young MC.!
On rap: Will, I sincerely apologize. Getting you to discuss the viability of one form of rap vs. another was a troll. I really shouldn't have lowered you to that level.
On LaRussa: I'm not answering a question in the above posts, my comment was that there never was a wagon with regards to the "I'm just curious when primates starting (sic) to fall off his wagon." Why? My guess is that because LaRussa is likely one of the least charismatic managers (who need all the charisma they can get, frankly, for the disproportionate amount of responsibility they accept vs. the actual impact they can make on a team) in the game he takes more than his fair share of grief. I would acknowledge that he makes more than his share of tactical mistakes (too many LOOGY's, "gut" managing, etc.) but just as it's difficult to quantify the actual Wins Above (Below) Replacement for a manager, it's foolish to discount his W/L track record. I suppose we could track a modified version of Pythagorean expectations for his teams and contrast them with actuals, and that might lead me to believe his success is in spite of himself.
Most critical is the "reputation". Fact is, that I've yet to see a relationship between the Chisox starters he supposedly "ruined" in context to similar pitchers for the era and length of their career. In some other thread I finally got a gaggle of detractors to admit that out of the 5 he's said to have ruined, 3 couldn't be directly linked with LaRussa at fault, and IMHO the other two had fine careers (again the lengths of their careers would need to be measured in context with era similars). With STL, I normally see Morris and Lil' Benes floated (thanks Rob Neyer). Never, in any study on those two pitchers have I seen any more analysis than "well they played for LaRussa, and he has this reputation, see".
I defend LaRussa only for the sake of exposing the hypocracy. You've allowed to reiterate my prime example, Larry Dierker, the democratically (at least within the oligarchy of "stathead-dom") elected hero of 1998. Chris Holt, Wade Miller, Scott Elarton, Carlos Hernandez....
Dusty Baker? He's Livan-irrific!
Like who?
Perhaps they can lure Geronimo Pena out of retirement?
According to Google, no fewer than 40 instances of "and Mike Crudale" exist on BaseballPrimer. Make it 41 now.
Chris Truby's playing history shows the clear danger of becoming an in-joke too early in a career. Mike had better beware.
Delgado is just a warm body to fill out shortstop until the season ends. Figgins is going to be tried out in CF, much to his dismay according to the papers out here.
Brian Specht of Arkansas was the only organizational player being discussed.
It was no trap!
Ah, Lance... you see, *that's* what makes it the most clever and insidious trap of all.
That went in the wrong thread.
A less sophisticated Primate, such as myself, would have substituted "Michael Jackson".
Thanks for the info guys.
Those sure are some clever nicknames.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that one of the complaints about LaRussa is that he gives up too much to get L-L matchups. Since this is actually a lefthanded pitcher who is considerably better against lefthanders, he seems like exactly the sort of pitcher LaRussa can use well.
That's some split. All I saw was the aggregate .35 OBP (frankly couldn't care less about his SLG)
And what gaping hole in LF? Is the move of Pujols to 1B official?
(2) Whoever signs Burks knows that he'll play no more than 100 games. Even so, the man can still hit a ton when he plays.
(3) If signed by the Cards, Aurilia would shift to 2B, replacing Bo Hart. That's a significant upgrade.
Ummm...what group of people? Here are the two most negative comments from the TO thread on that signing:
Is $4.5 million too much to pay for 100 games of bad defense and 0.900 OPS? Maybe. and
<i>AP reports:
I know it's heresy to defend giving a relief pitcher money when any GM worth his salt should be able to go shake a tree and make a Brendan Donnelly fall out, and in the name of Todd Van Poppel you certainly don't sign them for more than one-year, but I'll give it a go anyway:
-His 3.66 ERA in '03 was inflated by one beating by the Cards (.1 IP, 7 ER). Otherwise, he had a 2.92 ERA.
-Of the 457 pitchers with at least 20 IP in 2003, Tavarez had the lowest HR ratio of all of them: 1 HR in 83.2 IP.
-Of the 265 pitchers with at least 250 BFP in 2003, Tavarez was 3rd in opponents Isolated Power. His .063 mark (1 HR, 17 2B in 318 AB) trailed only Gagne and Quantrill and was right ahead of Mariano Rivera.
-He got better in high-leverage situations:
Close and Late: 36 G, 45.0 IP, 31 H, 28/14 K:BB, 1.40 ERA
Gee, mommy, I thought you knew that one year's statistics aren't very predictive, especially for relievers. Sure, last year he had a pretty good year (ERA+ of 116). IN 2000 he was even better and in 1995 he was great. And he was average in 97 and 98 too. Of course, he stunk pretty bad in 99 and 2002 and was below average in 2001 and is below average for his career (relative to relievers). Lord knows we can count on just 1 HR in 84 IP again. And we can certainly count on a guy whose K-rate is less than 5/9 (and falling) and who gives up over a hit an inning for his career will have another season in which he gives up just 75 hits in 84 IP.
The Cubs didn't want him very much; the Marlins didn't want him very much; and the Pirates didn't want him this much. How much more fungible can a guy be?
considering the Cardinals are signing tons of outfielders, most of them good in left field, like Quinn, Vaughn and Lankford. I think Pujols is moving to first.
How good is TLR with platoons? Anderson's got a pretty extreme split, and so did Lankford, when he was still active.
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