ORS

The idea, which has already been explained, is to ignore the league and park impact. You are drafting the player, not the player + the arbitrary setup that either hurts or helps his performance.

You got over your gag reflex a long time ago didn't you?

Good for Hector NobodyGivesAShit. 2009 Charleston River Dogs You would have had to look down the list like 5 whole threads to find the appropriate place for this.

John Baker, C

Don't Stop Believin'? http://images1.fanpop.com/images/image_uploads/BASEketball-Steve-Perry-baseketball-842516_75_75.jpg

No, he's not a sure thing. Speaking of which, what exactly is one "sure" of with Masterson? League average SP? Alert the press. Above average RP who might need to avoid good LHH? Shiver me timbers. Look, I think Masterson is better than that, but there's no surety of this belief. What's more, he's expendable. They have one of the best 'pens in the league without him in it. They can compete this year without Masterson in the BP. They have more than enough starters to fill the 5 rotation spots once Matsuzaka returns (and they need to find a way to get Buchholz in there - then Smoltz is around the corner). It's wasteful to have an expendable player replace the mop-up guy, Hunter Jones, in the bullpen when you could "expend" him for a guy who, while no sure thing, has shown siginificant potential for being an above average offensive catcher while being excellent defensively, especially when you have no catchers coming through the pipeline at the moment and your starter is one month away from pulling his annual corpse impersonation. I don't care if trading Masterson for Teagarden is 1 for 1 in terms of trade value. If that's what they want, and I'm not saying it is, you do the deal. You do it if it's Bowden too. You don't need both to move forward, but you need options at catcher. You are better, IMO, with Teagarden in the mix and one of them than you are with both of them, for the simple reason that both of them aren't likely to get enough opportunity to be significant contributors given the current roster. Moving on to subsequent years, it will be easier to replace an above average RP or 5th SP than it will be to find a catcher.

His .886 in 2007 in the Texas League is average, for a catcher? His .277 BABIP at both levels combined in 2008 is average? His small sample at the only level that really matters is average? Hardly. BTW, how's the Kenji Johjima watch going? If they can pry him away from Texas with a prospect from the position of organizational depth, then they should. Especially if the long-term value of Masterson is in the 'pen to the team.

Lester is at a career high in K/9, and a career low in BB/9, both good things. What's hurting him is another career high in HR/9, with an extremely high, for him, HR/FB rate. The K/9 suggests he's tougher to hit. The BB/9 suggests he's throwing it where he wants to more. I don't think the HR/9 and HR/FB keep it up if the other rates stay where they are. Anecdotally, in his last outing, the Longoria HR was exactly the pitch DipreG is looking for. It was at the knees and on the outer edge of the plate. Longoria went down and got it. Tip your cap. Also anecdotally, it feels like every GB finds a hole and/or every bloop is falling in (hello, .393 BABIP). Like a700, I'm more worried about Beckett, who appears to have no out pitch.

The FSM mocks religion as a manmade fairytale devoid of reason and logic. "Clutch" is a similar bit of hocus pocus. Reason and analysis have determined it is most likely a manmade fantasty. I sense internal conflict. Anyway, the point is, if you like Dunn and want to make a statistical case for him, that's all good. Just leave the fantasy at the door.

Talkosx? OS X? Did Microsoft come out with a new operating sytem? Is this site now dedicated to discussion of the new operating system X? What does OS X do? How much will it cost me to upgrade? So many questions.

Confused?

I'd love to see him miss a few more bats. Results have been nice, but he's had Joe Saunders levels of fortune with BABIP to this point.

From an article I read, can't speak to degree of accuracy, using this drug as a sexual enhancement is off-label and not the approved FDA use for the drug. His excuse to use it appears rather thin.

I'm not saying the sentiment is correct, but it does exist.

I don't think anyone has a problem with the act of celebration, but it is worthy of ridicule when you are celebrating a personal achievement during a game in which you are losing in part because of how you performed an inning or two earlier. This is exactly what happend in NY against Boston, and now he's getting his earned response from other players. He made this s*** sandwich, now he has to eat it.

There's no way he has another season like this, and it's coming in his walk year. Then, add what he said about the Yankees being more loyal to their stars, putting PR pressure on them to resign him, and you are talking about the Yankees signing him through his age 36-38 seasons. This is not an all-together bad thing.

What's wrong with openly discussing the elephant in the living room? We have some good young players. When/if they reach the FA market, some of them will fill a need for the team with the deepest pockets. Acknowleding this is confronting the facts. Ignoring it is an act of denial.

You've been around this board long enough to know that is the only way Gom has it.

I don't think the bit about Strasburg is right. When asked, Kilo said you could draft future prospects. Anyway, since there's been a run on pitchers, this guy might not make it back around to me, Edwin Jackson.

I think defense is more than a slight edge to Tampa. Their OFs are superior at tracking down fly balls in LF and RF. Their IF defense features a GG at 1st, like ours, a 2B that is about the same as ours, a much better SS, and a 3B with superior range and arm. However, what Theo apparently needs to do is shove shamrocks up the collective team's ass or something. Well, at least the pitching staff's. Our pitchers have suffered to a .368 BABIP against them this year, the highest by far of any team we've faced. You ever recall thinking, "Damn, everything falls in for this team against us"? Well, it kind of does. Their HRs become killers because people are on from their s*** finding a hole. DipreG is right, our pitchers could pitch a bit better, but they could use the other side of the luck coin coming up in their favor also.

I'm pretty sure Lugo and his career .335 OBP requires no work to match the Brett Gardner .290 OBP level of transcendent out making awesomeness.

The O's can really hit. Their phuture looks bright. Imagine when Reimold and Wieters join this crew.

Manny Delcarmen's change up has become quite a nice pitch.