Cocos Disciples

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Yes he was miserable, but he shouldn't be called upon to do it in 2009 very much, if at all.

IMO it's overrated. Kottaras has done it before and will do it in ST, he'll be fine.

Yeah, not even close between Sheets and Penny.

It's different, the Belli/Bard deal was because Bard could not catch Wakefield. I really hope the FO would not make that mistake again.

Wasn't it because of adam123?

Hall of Fame voting is currently taking place and the new entries will be announced January 12. It's a pretty slim picking this year, with Rickey Henderson being the only clear cut entry. The other two potential candidates (and their notable stats): Tim Raines: .294/.385/.425; 808 SB; .309 EqA; 46.8 HOFS; 89.5 HOFM Jim Rice: .298/.352/.502; 382 HR; .293 EqA; 42.9 HOFS; 147 HOFM Note: HOFS=Hall of Fame Standard (Average HOFer is 50); HOFM=Hall of Fame Monitor (Average HOFer is 100). Both are Bill James figures. I'm going to focus on Jim Rice. Pretty soon, CHB (Shaughnessy) will come out with his annual column on why Rice should get into the Hall, since he was a dangerous and feared hitter. Looking past the fact that the feared Rice had as many intentional walks in his career as the immortal Geoff Jenkins, I still do not believe that he deserves Hall entry. Rice played a ton of games in Fenway, where the Monster affected his numbers for the better. Rice posted a .320/.374/.546 at home, as opposed to a .277/.330/.459 away from the Fens. Even in 1978, his best year by far, his road numbers were .269/.325/.512/.837, as opposed to a .361/.416/.690/1.106 at Friendly Fenway. Rice was certainly one of the better left fielders of his generation. But if you compare him to the other nine left fielders chosen by the BBWAA who are in the Hall of Fame, he would not be on the top half in any of the following categories: BA, H, HR, RBI, OBP, SLG. While he does not pull the rear in all of these categories, Rice's entry lowers the Hall of Fame standard. It dilutes the Hall of Fame to vote someone in just because he has better numbers than a select Hall of Famer in a select statistic. For an even better comparison with these other nine left fielders, I'll use OPS+, an era and league neutral statistic. The average OPS+ is 100. An OPS+ of say, 130, means that the player is 30% better than the league average player. Rice's top ten seasons in terms of OPS+: 158, 154, 148, 141, 137, 131, 128, 123, 123, 121. Lou Brock: 146, 128, 124, 123, 119, 115, 114, 112, 111, 109 Ralph Kiner: 184, 184, 173, 156, 146, 140, 132, 121, 117, 116 Joe Medwick: 180, 156, 151, 142, 140, 132, 131, 128, 123, 119 Stan Musial: 200, 183, 182, 180, 176, 175, 172, 169, 167, 166 Al Simmons: 176, 176, 171, 159, 149, 145, 142, 136, 130, 129 Willie Stargell: 187, 187, 168, 164, 164, 163, 158, 147, 144, 139 Billy Williams: 170, 157, 147, 147, 139, 136, 130, 130, 127, 122 Ted Williams: 235, 233, 217, 215, 205, 201, 192, 189, 189, 178 Carl Yastrzemski: 195, 178, 171, 156, 148, 141, 139, 137, 126, 124 The point of showing this is to point out that all but one (Brock) of these HOFers have posted better, with 2/3 posting three better seasons than Rice's 1978. Rice's peak was simply not as impressive as these other players. While Rice was one of the best players in baseball from 1975-1979, almost every other Hall of Famer's peak was longer, and more productive, than Rice's. He does not deserve HOF admission.

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Michael Barrett signed a minor league deal with the Blue Jays. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3798451

This is going on Dusty Baker's tombstone.

Does not having the utmost confidence in the team make us worse fans?

And you said this in our discussion Kilo, but David Price should be a significant improvement over Edwin Jackson.

Well, we're all rooting for the same outcome. I hope you're right, Dojji.

Realistic means that this team has not done anything to improve besides a couple band-aids. The Yankees drastically improved and the Rays improved too. At this point, realistic means that there's a decent shot we don't make the playoffs.

Just trying to be realistic, Dojji. It's going to be harder than other years, since we have three teams with legitimate shots at the East, and then another .500+ team in Toronto. I'm optimistic, but also cautious.

That was fast with Mangini. Crennel and Marinelli were also fired today.

Predictable, considering the Bard signing and their splits.

I'm rooting for Minnesota. I don't know why but I've always kind of liked them. I'll also be pulling for Arizona because of the turnaround. Not sure about a prediction, I guess Carolina looks good.

I am also rooting for Miami because of the turnaround. I think the Colts win the AFC.

Playoff Schedule Saturday: (5) Atlanta Falcons @ (4) Arizona Cardinals 4:30 ET NBC (5) Indianapolis Colts @ (4) San Diego Chargers 8 ET NBC Sunday: (6) Baltimore Ravens @ (3) Miami Dolphins 1 ET CBS (6) Philadelphia Eagles @ (3) Minnesota Vikings 4:30 ET FOX

Mark Hendrickson, pending a physical, will join the Orioles. http://masnsports.com/2008/12/hendrickson-could-be-an-oriole.html

And before the draft picks are even real players.

Nady for Harang is a nice deal for you guys. His 2008 struggles seem like kind of a fluke; he threw four innings in an extra inning game, wound up on the DL and was back to normal at the end of the year. Considering the division shift, he can probably post a low 4 ERA and a 1.25-1.30 WHIP in the ALE, fantastic from a back of the rotation guy. EDIT: From the Cincy perspective, I would hold onto Harang/Arroyo, since Bailey and Cueto are not proven yet. Plus, you have a pretty solid LF candidate in Chris Dickerson.