Re. Marquis: I forget who was it that pointed out that if you want veteran leadership to mentor a young roster, you bring in a coach for 6 figures, not a junk-baller for 8. So in the rosy-lens scenario, the Nats are spending $21M (plus the opportunity cost of 2 roster spots) on Pudge and Marquis over 2 years for "leadership".
Would the Mets have been in contention if just two of those four had gone down? The severity of the injuries shouldn't gloss over the fact that there *was* a lack of depth.
"There’s a guiding principle in baseball that you don’t lose your job because of injury. To fire Omar Minaya would be to fire him because half his payroll got hurt."
That sounds like you're chalking the injuries up more to luck than anything. Doesn't Will Carroll say that health is a skill? A GM should be at fault in some way if he composes a team of players with injury histories.
Plus, it isn't like there aren't plenty other reasons to can Minaya beyond the team's lack of contention this year.
Yes, I thought Christina might touch on what we can expect from Peavy performance-wise given the rather stark shift in context; or whether his salary was a wise investment to take on.
Interesting piece. I think your conclusion could be evidenced in the rather poor turnout in last Friday's game.
As a displaced Torontonian, I was a tad disappointed that attendance was only 24k according to the boxscore (I thought the TV broadcast had said 21k). Jays fans could only muster barely above average attendance in what could be Halladay's final home appearance as a Jay.
Re. Canada Sucks Field: no need for that now. If memory serves me right, Canada didn't elect an idiot as its president (twice!) and hasn't invaded a country for unjustifiable reason in the last 7 years.
Don't fool yourself, Will. Whoever it is that built RoboMauer, if they can program it to hit .400, they can sure as hell program it to display flu-like symptoms.
The Jays went 20-17 and 17-19 against BOS/NYY in 2006 and 2007, and 25-29 against BOS/NYY/TB in 2008.
Obviously it will be tougher against the big 3 than against the rest of the league. But to say the Jays will completely fold when they start playing them seems rash.
'Modern "closers" require more time to prepare, for whatever reason, than setup men.'
Not sure where you get this from. Does Putz need less time now that he's a "setup man" than when he was a "closer"?
re. Mills: can a pitcher have an especially deceptive delivery and good mechanics? If so, are there any good current examples? Are pitchers with deceptive deliveries more prone to injury?
re. Emaus' Path to the Big Leagues: how much faith do *you* have in Hill?
re. Campbell: does he like to rock the party?
psalveso - I think you used BA because it supported your rather misguided opinion. Let\'s take a look at the 3-year OPS splits for Ibanez (.735/.892 L/R) and for Burrell (.971/.854).
And people defending the deal appear to be completely disregarding the significant age difference. All things being equal - hitting and defense - don\'t you want the player in the middle of his career, five years younger?
ps. I think the term \"professional hitter\" needs to be tossed in the trash along with \"most feared\"
Which statistics, RBI/W/S/E? We\'ve seen which stats the average BBWAA voter values. Voters should be able to do their own research - made that much easier with the internet - as anyone who takes his job seriously would.
I imagine resubmissions would have been necessary if the misplaced 2nd-place votes had made a difference on the overall winner.
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