Dipre

Scutaro has been exactly as advertised. He's an average offensive player and average defender. His range is good to both his left and right, what isn't good is his arm.

Justin Masterson career splits: Vs righties: .210 /.292 /.306 .597 OPS. Vs lefties: .309 /.406 /.466 .872 OPS He's best deployed in matchups, but goddamn he owns righties.

Youk is awesome.

Arroyo's not a long relief man, he's an above-average AL East starter. :dunno: My fantasy team approves of Papi's awesomeness.

Plenty of time for that.

Right down the chute to Ellis.

All early predictions looking shaky.

Arizona and LAD are tied 0-0 in the top of the 14th inning.

Five. I'll take the over.

With the draft looming large, i thought it appropiate to begin discussion on who might be the Sox' first round pick (which is number 20) his upside, and who could potentially be picked with the supplemental number 39 pick in the draft. This thread could also be used for future discussion as the draft progresses when it actually takes place from June 7-9. As a source of early info, i tried MLB.com's mock 1st round draft in both its formats (1st 20 picks, entire first round), and found the following two names to apparently be the most likely future Red Sox: Top 20 prediction: Matt Harvey scouting report: Mock 1st round draft: Anthony Ranaudo scouting report: The most interesting thing to me is that, from this information, the Sox seem intent on drafting a pitcher with their first pick. I need to do more research to see just how much upside do some of the bats that could potentially fall to the Red Sox could have when compared to the players mentioned above. Supplemental pick analysis coming soon.

http://pix.motivatedphotos.com/2008/9/1/633558765892568224-Excuseme.jpg

The question was asked because of the clear implications the OP had aired, which resulted in the question above mentioned. It's a foot-meet-mouth scenario. Rebuke of the rebuke point rebuked.

But the person is saying they could do a better job. Point rebuked.

You were saying?

Yup. He said he was a "better evaluator of defensive talent" than the Sox FO.

Never!!111!!!11. There are other ways to prove that the similarities in ERA are not neccesarily a by-product of similarities in overall league offenses: AL/NL OPS+ 07-08-09: 100/94. It's simply because of the pitcher hitting. Runs are runs. Bur facing the pitcher instead of the DH is a boon to any NL hurler.

The problem with the bolded part is, that given the sheer amount of suck of a lot of organizations in the NL (Pittsburgh, Natinals etc) over the last few year, the league average ERA, regardless of the actual offensive strength of each league, has been nearly identical. AL/NL league ERA 07-09: 2007: 4.82/4.73 2008: 4.68/ 4.63 2009: 4.75/4.49 Overall league ERA's (which are used in the formula for calculating ERA+) are extremely similar as a whole when comparing both leagues, so in reality, a pitcher in the AL will not be allowed much leeway in terms of actual ERA value in regards to the statistic with the league ERA numbers being so similar due to the poor roster construction of many of the AAAA circuit's teams, unless i'm actually missing something from the formula.

Come on now, this is interesting discussion, control testosterone levels plz.

But that's pretty much the point. The NL is a weaker league (offensively) than the AL, when you try to compare ERA+ from player to player with such varying degrees of difficulty in the division that they toil in, then unless the NL player absolutely sucks, the NL-AL factor will always present him with a slight advantage, Arroyo being a case in point. Don't get me wrong, he's a decent pitcher, but no way you get away with a 9.9 H/9 in the AL East and sustain and ERA in the Mid-4's. Bill James said it best: "In the AL, the DH alone constitutes a .50 difference in runs scored per game", not to mention the bottom of NL lineups as compared to the bottom of AL lineups. It's a vastly different league, and while i'm not saying ERA+ is a flawed stat (I like it) i usually tend away from using it to compare players who toil in divisions as different as the AL East and NL Central. Answer me this: If you were a pitcher, and you had to choose a division to pitch in to pad your stats, where would you pitch?

Oh, so i "worship" the GM because i don't find reasons to bitch, whine and moan about every move ever while trying to ascertain the fact that i'm a better talent evaluator than the GM of a ML team who has won two WS rings, and has built a consistent 95-game winner for the past decade. Then worship i do. It was a bad trade, but the Arroyo-Beckett comparison is troubling because it's ridiculous. Just as comparing Adrian Beltre to Butch Hobson, or trying to diminish JD Drew's value because of the RBI argument, or calling the team's roster poorly constructed and several other bitch, whine and moan scenarios.

The formula *100(League ERA/ERA) adjusted to the player's ballpark can not be an effective way to measure the difference of pitcher performance if compared to the pitchers in the other league. While i was wrong in the reading of the "League" component, the point still stands. Also, there's no denying the fact that it was a bad trade, but comparing Arroyo to Beckett to raise the point that it was a fleece of massive proportions is downright silly.