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At 7/23/09 05:00 PM, MultiCanimefan wrote: Congratulations to Mark Buehrle!

36holla is having a field day right now

Congrats to Buehrle for the Perfect Game,as Hawk would put it "YOU CAN PUT IT ON THE BOARD,YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!"

Who would've thought that Dewayne Wise would get action right as he came into the game into the 9th inning? Hell, he saved Buehrle's perfect game, much like Aaron Rowand saved Jonathan Sanchez's no-hitter back a few days ago.

I liked the interesting fact I heard about today's game. The umpire that called today's ball and strikes was the same umpire that called the balls and strikes for Buehrle's no-hitter in 2007 against Texas.

At 7/23/09 08:38 PM, Molotov wrote:

At 7/23/09 05:00 PM, MultiCanimefan wrote: Congratulations to Mark Buehrle!

36holla is having a field day right now

I heard about it late, but it's still awesome for him to accomplish it not once but twice now. Probably the least known pitcher who has accomplished this feat too. 20 years from now, when someone looks at the list, most will probably ask, "Who was Mark Buehrle?"

Oh and Sox are tied for first going into the series with Detroit. Nice to go into it on a high note.

I had a feeling that all the RedSox needed was a nice trip home. Also, don't count Tampa Bay out just yet, as it'll be an interesting AL East race, right down to the wire.

At 7/17/09 06:09 PM, phileeguy wrote:

At 7/15/09 10:03 AM, Molotov wrote: Also Pedro Martinez has signed with the Phillies for 1 year/$1 million and goes straight to the 15 day DL,big risk there.

Meh, I don't think it's a risk. It's only $1 mil, with incentives for performance I believe. If he doesn't pan out, it's not like they shelled out an arm and a leg for him. I mean it's not like they gave up prospects for him.

It's a little-to-no risk situation. They're paying $1m for a guy who might not produce. They have lost no prospects, nor have the urgency to rush prospects into the major leagues and potentially have a negative psychological effect upon them, by having them pitch poorly in a big game situation. They can come up next year instead and pitch from the start of the year, when no pressure exists.

At 7/24/09 01:22 AM, Gooch wrote: Who would've thought that Dewayne Wise would get action right as he came into the game into the 9th inning? Hell, he saved Buehrle's perfect game, much like Aaron Rowand saved Jonathan Sanchez's no-hitter back a few days ago.

That is one of the most amazing pieces of management that I've ever seen. Ozzy Guillen looks like a genius!

I liked the interesting fact I heard about today's game. The umpire that called today's ball and strikes was the same umpire that called the balls and strikes for Buehrle's no-hitter in 2007 against Texas.

Hmm, nice umpire for Buehrle. Can he keep him?

At 7/24/09 02:11 AM, 36Holla wrote:

I heard about it late, but it's still awesome for him to accomplish it not once but twice now. Probably the least known pitcher who has accomplished this feat too. 20 years from now, when someone looks at the list, most will probably ask, "Who was Mark Buehrle?"

I'll just put it to you like this,only 3 pitchers in the history of the game have gotten a no-hitter,a perfect game and a world series win and that was Cy Young,Sandy Koufax & now Mark Buehrle.

Also all pitchers who have thrown both a no-hitter & a perfect game are in the hall of fame except for Randy Johnson and we all know he is going in unless a "Rocket" comes under our noses before he retires. =P

Johnson won a WS too.

At 7/25/09 03:00 PM, Idiot-Finder wrote: Johnson won a WS too.

Yeah, we have some stats for you on that:

No Hitter - June 2nd 1990, Vs Detroit Tigers
Perfect Game - May 18th 2004 Vs Atlanta Braves (Oldest player in mlb history to pitch perfect game)
World Series Championship 2001 - Arizona Diamondbacks.

Johnson is the only member of the 300 Win club to have beaten every MLB team at least once.

When will Billy learn to stop getting prospects? I swear, its time for Chavez to get the boot. He is just a filler in the lineup now.

At 7/27/09 08:21 PM, Crashman wrote: When will Billy learn to stop getting prospects? I swear, its time for Chavez to get the boot. He is just a filler in the lineup now.

Billy Beane ran the team like the Kansas City A's, only difference is that unlike the previous incarnation...this edition gives away players to many other teams.

At 7/27/09 08:21 PM, Crashman wrote: When will Billy learn to stop getting prospects? I swear, its time for Chavez to get the boot. He is just a filler in the lineup now.

He's gone after the year anyway. He'll probably retire.

The system works pretty well though. If he got even just a moderate increase in payroll, I think down the line he could assemble a WS-caliber team. He knows how to work a fucking trade, I know that much.

The only bad trades I can say he's ever made were the Andre Ethier for Milton Bradley trade, and the Tim Hudson for Juan Cruz, Dan Meyer and Charles Thomas trade.

At 7/28/09 03:16 AM, Buddhist wrote: The system works pretty well though. If he got even just a moderate increase in payroll, I think down the line he could assemble a WS-caliber team. He knows how to work a fucking trade, I know that much.

I think that in terms of revenue, the team is handcuffed. When I was watching the Yanks and A's last week, the commentators were on about potentially opening up the San Jose market for the A's - whether or not this means a potential move for the club, I think that the San JosA's might have a better chance of keeping their decent players when free agency comes around, as they would eb able to generate more revenue.

Either that or MLB needs to follow suit of the other major sports in the area and put a fucking salary cap in place. None of this "luxury tax" bullshit, where big budget clubs can just dig deeper and buy their way out of trouble, but something that actually works.

At 7/28/09 03:16 AM, Buddhist wrote:

At 7/27/09 08:21 PM, Crashman wrote: When will Billy learn to stop getting prospects? I swear, its time for Chavez to get the boot. He is just a filler in the lineup now.

He's gone after the year anyway. He'll probably retire.

He needs to get healthy or yes retire.

The system works pretty well though. If he got even just a moderate increase in payroll, I think down the line he could assemble a WS-caliber team. He knows how to work a fucking trade, I know that much.

How far down the line though. He gets good deals but I'm tired of all the damn prospects

The only bad trades I can say he's ever made were the Andre Ethier for Milton Bradley trade, and the Tim Hudson for Juan Cruz, Dan Meyer and Charles Thomas trade.

I forget, who did they get in exchange for Harden and Haren?

Anyone see those Dodgers lately? They're practically running away with the N.L. West.

At 7/28/09 12:51 PM, MultiCanimefan wrote: Anyone see those Dodgers lately? They're practically running away with the N.L. West.

Yeah, but if they were playing in a competitive division, they'd have a more difficult time of it, I'm sure. Hopefully the trading that the Giants have done recently will add to their power and give them a chance to chase down their local rivals.

At 7/29/09 04:09 AM, Coop83 wrote:

Yeah, but if they were playing in a competitive division, they'd have a more difficult time of it, I'm sure. Hopefully the trading that the Giants have done recently will add to their power and give them a chance to chase down their local rivals.

Not sure why you say that the N.L West isn't competitive,other than the Phillies the Rockies & Giants have the best records in the whole N.L and they are in the Dodgers division.

At 7/29/09 10:17 AM, Molotov wrote: Not sure why you say that the N.L West isn't competitive,other than the Phillies the Rockies & Giants have the best records in the whole N.L and they are in the Dodgers division.

By the same token other than the Nationals the Diamondbacks and Padres have the worst records in the N.L and the Dodgers have had little trouble going 30-12 against divisional opponents.

MLB needs to follow suit of the other major sports in the area and put a fucking salary cap in place.

There needs to be some sort of reform in baseball for sure, but I'm not sure if a salary cap is the way to go. Maybe a soft cap like the NBA has where you are allowed to go over cap in order to resign your own players. Thus enabling teams to keep there homegrown talent and somewhat thwarting teams like the Yankees from raping and pillaging the bright spots of hope from small market teams every winter.

Not surprisingly Ortiz's been named

Not even Mitchell can cover that one up!

Okay to certain Red Sox fans who trolled the Yankees message board and spammed up the N.Y. newspapers, don't accuse us of cheating you hypocrites! Bad enough you guys whined about "buying players" when many have done the same and don't tell me they pay in cookies either!

Oh and Manny took more than just some pregnancy drugs as well...

What they should do is test all the players and be done with it, seriously it's getting ridiculous, just get it over with!

It's not going to happen however unfortunately...

Also notice I said "certain" so I'm not lumping all of them together.

Not surprised at all about Papi. Take a look at how his career progressed starting in Minnesota, and it just becomes the more obvious.

Either way, the amount of schadenfreude exhibited by anti-Sox fans actually bothers me a little, and I don't like the Red Sox at all. Really just because every team was lax about 'roiding, because as I've said before, baseball is a game in which cheating is more than commonplace...it's almost a right of passage. It's been done for nearly 130 years. I've gone in-depth about it before, but I'll abstain for the moment.

Suffice it to say that eventually (and it appears at a slow pace), all those names of the 100 positive tests from '03 will come to light, and I guarantee that one major player from every franchise is going to be shamed by the media and the fans. In my opinion, they shouldn't be, but I'm sure we'll have plenty of people talking about "the cloud over the game" or "[insert year]'s World Series Champion [franchise here] being tainted". It's already happening now.

I wish people (ESPECIALLY Congress) would realize that baseball is a game not suited for level-playing-field purists. I can't recall a decade in which it's ever been that way...can you? (And if you can, I'm willing to bet I can disprove it)

Lastly, as I've said so many times before...if it ever comes to light that Griffey used 'roids, THEN my hope for the game will be raped. For every era there have been merely a handful of blessed talents who did not cheat the game (at least too much) to get to where they got. I put Griffey at the top of the list of the 90s and the beginnings of the steroid era.

Same with Jim Thome, and to a degree Chipper Jones, but I wouldn't be completely shocked if one or both of them at least tried it (due to injuries, etc.). Griffey though...that would be a heartbreaker.

At 7/28/09 04:20 AM, Crashman wrote: He needs to get healthy or yes retire.

He was already planning to previously this season when faced with the possibility of another surgery. Dunno if he'll go forward with it after this year, although he should if he'd like to walk somewhat normally the rest of his life.

How far down the line though. He gets good deals but I'm tired of all the damn prospects

That's the problem for all small-market teams...but hey, the Twins pulled it off, and they almost ended up being contracted. The A's play fairly close to that model of player development, so I think they have a shot down the line, but they need at least one legitimate superstar. All franchises do, and that's part of why the Pirates and Nats get nowhere.

I forget, who did they get in exchange for Harden and Haren?

Harden trade - Harden + Chad Gaudin for Sean Gallagher (traded to SD for Scott Hairston), Matt Murton (traded to Colorado), Eric Patterson (just called up, hopefully learns plate discipline, unlike Corey), and Josh Donaldson (somewhere in the farm system, I think AA or AAA).

Haren trade - Haren + Connor Robertson for Dana Eveland, Carlos Gonzalez, Greg Smith (traded with Huston Street and Carlos Gonzalez to Colorado for Holliday), Chris Carter (AA or AAA, top prospect, played in the MiLB Futures Game this month) and Aaron Cunningham (solid prospect, has to prove he can hit at the majors level).

So really, not GREAT trades, but those prospects eventually managed to get flipped for more production. Smith went with others for Holliday, Holliday went for Brett Wallace. Harden went for Gallagher, Gallagher landed Scott Hairston, plus Eric Patterson.

double post

At 7/29/09 10:17 AM, Molotov wrote: Not sure why you say that the N.L West isn't competitive,other than the Phillies the Rockies & Giants have the best records in the whole N.L and they are in the Dodgers division.

Don't get me wrong, they're a good team, with a good manager and some good players. The thing I see about them is that they should be running away with the division with a much higher winning percentage than they've got.

At 7/31/09 12:59 AM, Buddhist wrote: Not surprised at all about Papi. Take a look at how his career progressed starting in Minnesota, and it just becomes the more obvious.

It's almost as obvious as it was with Barry Bonds. Give it time, we will get to the bottom of this situation.

First, remove Selig, then get to the root of the problem and actually give meaningful suspensions. Losing Manny hasn't hurt the Dodgers as much as it would if he was caught in August / September, for example.

At 7/31/09 07:10 AM, Coop83 wrote:

At 7/29/09 10:17 AM, Molotov wrote: Not sure why you say that the N.L West isn't competitive,other than the Phillies the Rockies & Giants have the best records in the whole N.L and they are in the Dodgers division.

Don't get me wrong, they're a good team, with a good manager and some good players. The thing I see about them is that they should be running away with the division with a much higher winning percentage than they've got.

At 7/31/09 12:59 AM, Buddhist wrote: Not surprised at all about Papi. Take a look at how his career progressed starting in Minnesota, and it just becomes the more obvious.

It's almost as obvious as it was with Barry Bonds. Give it time, we will get to the bottom of this situation.

First, remove Selig, then get to the root of the problem and actually give meaningful suspensions. Losing Manny hasn't hurt the Dodgers as much as it would if he was caught in August / September, for example.

Well back when they gave those random drug tests in 03 they promised the players that they wouldn't get suspended if they tested positive.

I do agree that they need to get rid of Selig though. He is the root of the whole problem since he was there in the beginning of the steroid era and didn't do anything because after the 1994 season (strike year canceled World Series for God sake) they weren't generating enough revenue compared to the past years. Then came 1998 and Mr. Selig saw these hulking men carrying their bats like tooth picks and he turned a blind eye to it. Which made them do stronger steroids and then hgh.

Not only do they need to get rid of Selig they need to get rid of the President of the Players Union too. Since he is to blame for not wanting the players to get drug tests.

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Trade roundup
Jake Peavy to the White Sox; Aaron Poreda, Clayton Richard, Dexter Carter and Adam Russell to the Padres.

Depends on how he comes back from his ankle injury, but he ios locked up for the long term and I'll still say it's a good acquisition.

Victor Martinez to the Red Sox; Justin Masterson, Nick Hagadone and Bryan Price to the Indians.

He'll spend most time at 1st now, Varitek will stay behind the plate, with Kevinb Youkilis moving to 3rd to cover Mike Lowell.

Never shy of making an acquisition on deadline day and to stop me feeling ill, the Yanks acquired Jerry Hairston Jr, for utility work in the infield for minor league catcher Chase Weems.

At 7/31/09 05:28 PM, Coop83 wrote: Trade roundup
Jake Peavy to the White Sox; Aaron Poreda, Clayton Richard, Dexter Carter and Adam Russell to the Padres.

PEAVY! I'm ecstatic that the White Sox acquired him, though I hate having to wait until the end of August for him to pitch. Kenny Williams does it again.

At 8/1/09 12:24 AM, 36Holla wrote: PEAVY! I'm ecstatic that the White Sox acquired him, though I hate having to wait until the end of August for him to pitch. Kenny Williams does it again.

Glad that you're happy about it - I'll wait to reserve judgement, as he did live at PETCO, which is a hitter's graveyard, to be honest.

I know that pitchers don't play every game at home, but it's the best place to judge them, don't you think?

At 8/1/09 08:10 AM, Coop83 wrote: Glad that you're happy about it - I'll wait to reserve judgement, as he did live at PETCO, which is a hitter's graveyard, to be honest.

I know that pitchers don't play every game at home, but it's the best place to judge them, don't you think?

Peavy career splits:

Home - 45-31, 4 CG, 1 SHO, 2.83 ERA, 1.09 WHIP, .219 BAA, 3.67 K:BB ratio (779 Ks to 212 BBs), 51 HR
Away - 47-37, 3 CG, 2 SHO, 3.84 ERA, 1.30 WHIP, .246 BAA, 2.55 K:BB ratio (569 Ks to 223 BBs), 84 HR

So there is definitely a slight uptick in playing outside of Petco. The W-L is about the same, but he's roughly a run higher in ERA, almost 40 points higher in BAA, garners far fewer Ks, and has allowed 33 more homers.

Plus, he's now pitching half his games at US Cellular, a hitter's park, and he's facing AL hitting (granted, the AL Central is not the East, but it's not the NL West, either). He's never pitched at US Cellular before, otherwise I'd throw those stats your way.

In other news, can someone please fucking get rid of Dusty Baker now? It's more than obvious that he's a piss-poor excuse for a manger, yet somehow NL teams continue to think it a good idea to bring him on board. He's now ruined the prized arms of Kerry Wood, Matt Clement, Mark Prior, Jerome Williams, and Edinson Volquez. On top of that, he doesn't even believe in the usage of OBP/OPS and other sabermetric statistics as a means of adjusting lineups/rotations/bullpens. Maybe that's why his dumb ass had Corey Patterson patrolling center field for more than half of last year.

For real though. Let's break this down for a second. If you have a player with a high OBP (say, .400 or better), you want him in the lineup over a guy with an OBP that's lower (say, .300 or so), right? Even if the one with the high OBP is a slow runner (a la Adam Dunn, over-35-Barry-Bonds, etc.), because he's more likely to get on base through a walk, HBP, or a hit than the guy with a low OBP (for example, Neifi Perez, Corey Patterson, etc.).

However, Dusty seems to think that if they're not fast, then they're merely "clogging up the bases", which literally makes my head hurt trying to conceive what the fuck he is thinking when he says that. It's really very basic: High OBP players = better likelihood of getting players on base; more players on base = more improved chances to score runs; more runs = better likelihood of winning games, even games where the pitching falters.

Yet somehow, for Dusty, putting slow, high OBP guys in the lineup actually means sacrificing runs, because they're slow and (I guess this is his thinking) more likely to make an out on base. However, if you don't put low-OBP players in the lineup in the first place (especially since it generally correlates to having a low average, as well), you're less likely to have players frequently grounding out and causing forces at 2nd/3rd/home, or grounding into DPs.

But that doesn't matter, because Dusty is "old-school" (read: fucking stupid), and faster players always means better chances at scoring runs...even when the fast players can't hit at all (Joey Gathright, Corey Patterson, Willy Taveras, etc.).

Fuck Dusty Baker.

At 8/3/09 10:34 PM, Buddhist wrote:

Fuck Dusty Baker.

I agree with this rant completely.

He has no presence in that lineup though besides Brandon Phillips and Joey Votto currently that can actually hit worth a lick. Maybe Jay Bruce will be better down the line (was barely hitting .200 before he broke his wrist), but right now it's all hell in Cincinnati.

Back to what you're saying though. Take a look at the Chicago White Sox. There's days in that lineup where if they bases are loaded, you possibly have the slowest bases loaded trio in baseball running (meaning Jermaine Dye, Jim Thome, and Paul Konerko). Does that mean anything really? Not at all. Why? Because they can hit and get on base more often than a speedy guy who only gets a decent hit a couple of times per 10-15 at-bats.

I think Dusty's approach to managing a team is too old-school. He really needs to change up his style if he ever wants to become a successful manager again. I just feel like he's not going to be able to show that he can change it up with the Reds. It's not going to help his case any that Volquez's arm is fucked now and he'll probably end up screwing over Johnny Cueto by the time the season's over.

Thank goodness for Rajai Davis, he's been on a streak lately

At 8/4/09 05:26 AM, Gooch wrote: I think Dusty's approach to managing a team is too old-school. He really needs to change up his style if he ever wants to become a successful manager again. I just feel like he's not going to be able to show that he can change it up with the Reds. It's not going to help his case any that Volquez's arm is fucked now and he'll probably end up screwing over Johnny Cueto by the time the season's over.

Dusty would make a good bench coach. I just can't see him being suitable for any other franchise with a prized arm or two in their system...I mean, he's done it now to far too many pitchers (again...Jerome Williams and Jason Schmidt in SF, Mark Prior and Kerry Wood in CHI, Volquez in CIN). And not even just minor injuries...like, preludes to complete arm blowups.

Schmidt tops out at about 85 now, and even recently Chipper Jones said he couldn't honestly tell the difference between Schmidt's fastball and his changeup.

Jerome Williams is laboring away in the minors for Oakland.

Mark Prior just got released two hours ago from the Padres (the fucking Padres) minor league system, and hasn't pitched in the bigs in three years. Do you have any idea how fucked up your arm has to be to get released from the minor league system of the San Diego Padres?!

Kerry Wood's ERA is the highest it's ever been, his WHIP the highest since 2000, and is laboring in the bullpen as a closer for a team that's arguably the worst in the AL, the Indians.

And now Volquez.

All I'm saying is...he'd make a good Don-Zimmer-esque kind of bench coach, a good motivator...just don't let him near your top pitching prospects by any means. There is literally not a single team that I would look at and go "Dusty Baker looks like a good fit here", because of his issues with young pitchers. Not even Washington, not even Pittsburgh, nor Kansas City, nor Cleveland.