ORS

I'm in. ORS = Hitman 2 Actual

One, I don't think anyone is f***ed when they can add Adam Dunn and just forget to tell Juan Pierre when the bus to the airport leaves. Two, Cinci is extremely unlikely to just let him go when he's 1.5 month from being a FA that nets them 2 top-40 draft picks. It's strange that LA let him through.

I don't think what you are talking about fits the argument here Gom. You are talking about being less careful with a comfortable lead and throwing a sure strike in lieu of a borderline one. FTR, this is exactly what CB did yesterday and the ball got hammered. Kilo and Dojji are talking about a specific skill, one might even call it "clutch", where some pitchers are better than others at holding leads despite what their pitching line suggests about the quality of their pitching.

The Giants are a tough call going into the season. The NFC East is going to be tough this year, even for the Cowboys, who I feel are certainly the best but not so good to walk away with it. Philly got better where they were weakest, defense. The Redskins, my team, got better on both sides of the ball. I don't think the Giants improved anywhere, although I do see how improvement could come from individuals, like Manning. For the 'Skins it's essentially the same defense with the addition of Jason Taylor and the continuing emergence of Rocky McIntosh, who I think is on the way to being a star. One of their big weaknesses last year was a lack of edge pressure. Taylor should change that, both with his ability to create pressure, and with his ability to draw extra attention. Andre Carter, the lone rush threat, managed 10 sacks while drawing all the attention last year. It will be interesting to see what he can do if he's not the focus of the opposing OC. Griffin and Montgomery, backed by Fletcher at MLB, are solid up the middle. They rated 3 in YPC against. The secondary was OK last year, but I think they'd didn't realize their potential due to their 28th ranking in percentage of pass plays that go for negative yards, and they be better in terms of personnel with Carlos Rogers playing the whole year and not going on the IR (hopefully). The offense addressed it's 2 main needs, and will get better by return from injury. They lost RT Jansen in week 1 last year. He'll improve the talent makeup of the line this year, who is largely unchanged from last year. They ran the ball well with Portis and Betts last year, but not great. I think this was Gibbs, and replacing him was need #1. He was so predictable it was almost funny. Zorn is a WC offense guy, so while they won't run as much, it should improve in terms of how effectively they run. Need #2 was a big target WR. They drafted 2 on the first day. WR is probably 2nd to RB in terms of being able to contribute immediately. So Thomas and Kelly should be able to start getting reps and opening the field for the corps of slot-type receivers they appear to have cornered the market on, lead by Santana Moss. This is a big year for Campbell. No, I'm not saying I think he has a big year, although he could, but that it is an important one. He played reasonably well in Gibbs' system last year, but Gibbs' system does not match his talents. Look at the best statistical seasons by Gibbs' QBs and you'll notice a common trend. They could all throw a beautiful long ball, like Mark Rypien. Gibbs was from the pound it, pound it, pound it, chuck it school of thought in terms of strategy. Campbell's biggest weakness, IMO, is his deep ball. He's got the arm, it's just not very accurate. He's much better suited to hit the short to mid timing routes that the WC offense is predicated upon, something that Mark Rypien was horrible at. Campbell will have a system that fits him better this year, but he needs to do something with it. They drafted Colt Brennan in this year's draft, and the kid is drawing some attention in the preseason, albeit against guys just trying to make the roster. Still if he keeps this up, there will be pressure to give him a look if Campbell should falter.

And the WS MVP is overrated in terms of what it means after the trophy is given to the winner. Look, toolbag, the point is that neither of them mean dick a year later when the player who accomplished them is a big contributor to losing ball games. Again, the fact that you can't recognize these types of simple facts and then try and justify the idiotic opinion with some "define you forever" ******** is a big reason why nobody takes your posts seriously. It's called hypocrisy. I'll give you another that I let pass in the Manny trade deadline thread. You said Bay was a loser because he stayed in Pittsburg and they never won anything, yet you also said you wanted Adam Dunn. See the contradiction there, or to have to tell you what it is Barney-style?

Yet, according to you, we should get rid of Buchholz. Didn't he do something special 11 months ago? Is it the 1 extra month that makes the difference? Don't get me wrong, I'm in favor of moving him down because he's still got options, but I still think he's got a promising future. I'm bringing this up because it's a good example of why nobody takes anything you say seriously.

In. EDIT: And with the invite, please send me your address as well. I should probably put it in my address book since we do this twice a year, but I'm bad about that stuff. I sowwy.

It's nowhere near that bad. That team featured an unrejuvenated Eric Hinske in LF when Manny was out, not Jason Bay, Doug Mirabelli when Tek was out, and as bad as Tek has been this year, he hasn't sunk to Mirabelli level performance yet, Trot Nixon in RF, Wily Mo in CF, Mark Loretta at 2B, Alex Gonzalez at SS. All that awesomeness and they didn't lead the AL in starter ERA like they do now. This is still a playoff caliber team. It just needs some tweaking. The weak link in the good rotation needs to be sent back down for further development. Lowell needs to be moved way down in the order, or convinced to take a stint on the DL (I feel he's playing hurt). The guys in front of him are getting on base, but he is a cavalcade of suck right now. I don't know what it will take for Francona to make a move to drop him in the order, but I have to suspect the FO has their eyes on this and a conversation will come from it.

TBS reported an interesting stat earlier today. They haven't won a game started by the 5th starter since June 18.

This is the post I had que'd up when the site went on hiatus for about 2 hours. " They are unfortunate, but also something that drew attention to something that magnifies his main weakness. His FB command is pretty bad from the wind up, but it's complete s*** from the stretch. I watched the first, and I have to say, I was pretty amused by everyone's optimism just because he went 1-2-3. Tek's glove was moving all over the place when it wasn't an offspeed pitch. I knew this inning was coming. This is why he needs to move back down to where he can't hurt this club. He needs to spend however long it takes in Pawtucket, regardless of his stats, to consistently spot his FB, because it's not an overpowering pitch he can miss with. " And Mike Lowell is just garbage at the plate right now. Don't point to the 3-run HR he hit today as a counterpoint, seriously. Watch the replay of that and tell me if he "got" that one. That was medium range fly-ball that was very high and rode its way just barely out of the park with a 14mph wind pushing it out. I'm curious to know just how far that really would have gone and will check hittrackeronline tomorrow to find out. I suspect it doesn't even get out of Fenway.

Seattle has commenced with the bed s***ing. Although, Crawford looked out on his 2B that scored the 6th run, and the play occurred before Upton crossed the plate. So, the score should be 5-5, not 7-5.

With tonight's performance thrown in, the MLE of his AA line is .282/.364/.470. An OPS of .834 is good for 12th among all qualified 1B in MLB. He turns 21 in Sept. Does he crack BA's top-10 (provided he keeps this insane rate up through the end of the year)?

Garza is having a hard time getting hitters out tonight. Perhaps he needs to a more animated spitting routine.

Just in case?

I'd agree if it were earlier in the game. But those marginal runs are big late in the game. If Jeter DPs, the win expectancy drops from 86.1% to 80.6%. If Abreu singles them both home, it goes up to 95.1%. When I've got a guy at the plate proned to the GB and DP this year, I move them over and put my hotter hitter up. Abreu's hitting .361 in the second half. Given the circumstances, I go for that easier to get 10% jump in win probability.

I disagree about having Jeter bunt. I think that was the right move. Jeter has hit into 18 DPs on the season, and Lackey is a pitcher who generates a fair amount of GBs. The expected runs change from 1.49 to 1.39, so you lose a little probability for the big inning, but when you are up 3-1 and you can make it so that a single scores 2 in the 7th, with your 3 and 4 coming up, I think you do it. I didn't see that as a mistake at the time.

And it kind of draws attention to the foolishness ARod2212 posted upthread about the bullpen numbers being indicative of how good a manager Girardi is. Those numbers were good because nobody had s*** the bed yet. It was the players who should get credit, like you posted. Otherwise, one can only infer that Girardi is a complete fool after today's mess. I think he's been a bit overrated, but I'm not ready to call him a fool.

Since the ASG... .171/.222/.211 Yup, that's a .433 over his last 81 PA. How low can it go? Mind you, I'm not suggesting this is just because it's the 2nd half. He showed last year that he can hit after the ASG, but how long to you keep that guy hitting behind your best guys at getting on base?

Ignoring the psychobabble - and I'm not trying to insult you there, I just don't think we should take coddling to the level of worrying about feelings when making roster moves based on performance - I have a couple of problems with what you posted. One, if he's struggling from an injury, it makes more sense to me to have him recover to his normal level of play where a sub .300 OBP doesn't contribute to losing baseball for the Boston Red Sox. Two, if he recovers in the minors, then he gets called back up. You make it sound like you lost him for the season. You'd lose about a week's worth of normal production out of him. Unless, he's only good a week at a time, which means he should probably be in AAA anyway. You make whatever assumptions and comparisons about me you need to in order to get yourself through the day.

Figgins is a freakshow in the field against NY.

Everything is getting hit to the track. This is in first ups against him.