Emmz

So far he's played about $20M below his contract, and that's pretty significant when you consider he hasn't been "worth it" in any one year. Assuming, ofc, that sabermetrics are correct and that he was really worth 21M each of those seasons, but that's for a different debate.

Would you trade someone your 23M dollars for someone else's 21M dollars? I wouldn't.

Well, actually he hasn't, since he's being paid 23M and not 21M. He also missed half of 2011, and wasn't worth his contract when he did play.

Well, no, that means he's been worth under his contract, even if only just barely. Considering a lot of players who are paid like that have seasons where they're worth 30M+, and that's what the team is usually going for, I still can't really help but think of him as a bust. I didn't think he was going to hit 30 home runs, but I felt like he probably figured out how to hit home runs a little better than he had before, with a slight chance that he could become a top-shelf hitter that he was in 2009. He also has a long time left on the deal, and it's already a known fact that his knees can't handle catching full time. When you consider that he's probably going to become a 1B pretty soon, his power just isn't good enough for him to be worth his money. I also have to agree that Target Field was the most ridiculous idea for a team that, at the time of opening, was an offensive powerhouse with a stacked middle of the order. Being in a pitchers ballpark definitely hurts him, but in all fairness he's really just back to the way he was hitting in the MetroDome before 2009.

Joe Mauer's contact is awful. He doesn't play every day, he's not even a catcher all the time now, and he hasn't hit for power since 2009. He's still just a really awesome hitter, and it's hard to dog a player who hits .320 every year, but I think I always felt he might be able to maintain some of the power he had in 2009. I'd be satisfied if he could managed 15-20 home runs, but he doesn't ever do that and it's kind of disappointing. Is someone who plays in 140 games, hits for .850-.900 OPS and is an elite catcher worth 23 million dollars?

^^^ He probably had a sip of Keystone and got a fake buzz on. In all seriousness though, it's too bad, he seemed like he really wasn't doing that bad aside from the occasional weird string of posts similar to this when he's "drunk". He's always been like that, though, not necessarily blaming it on being drunk, though. I wonder if he really does just get like that when he's drinking, or if he's legitimately struggling with that side of himself all of the time.

Don't go blaming alcohol. He acts like a cock even when he's sober. Always has.

No, but it is society, not that it was offensive or anything. It's not really that creative either, though, and how many Brewers fans are actually going to give Braun his chops about this? It was probably a fan of the visiting team trying to start s***, or at least that's probably what security thought.

In all seriousness, luck is a factor all the time when you're swinging a stick to hit a baseball that's traveling at 90+ mph, and even to some extent the opposite for pitchers. That's how baseball is all year long, and it just gets amplified when the top teams are facing each other. The s***** teams though, they usually get pimpslapped, just like the regular season.

Oh, so you're saying that the WS is harder to attain than having the best record in baseball, which is harder than making the playoffs? Well f*** me sideways, I thought it was the other way around!

So the luck just decides to show up for the playoffs? How convenient. I guess Lady Luck is a big fan of the underdog just like everyone else.

I don't think the MLB postseason is flukey. Isn't that the point? The NBA postseason is less flukey I guess, because there is more consistency in a game like basketball usually, and it's a more direct competition.

There's a great explanation for every single one of those games, though. The Angels had one of the best records in baseball that year, and better than the Giants, for starters. The 2003 Marlins were definitely a great story, but look at who was on their team. Derek Lee, Luis Castillo, Pudge, Mike Lowell, Miguel Cabrera, Juan Pierre, Brad Penny, Carl Pavano, Josh Beckett, Dontrelle Willis, Mark Redman, Braden Looper and Ugy Urbina. That just looks like a WS team to me. 2006 is really the only one that's a true "Cinderella" IMO. They got really hot at the right time and ended up winning it all, and a lot of it had to do with the Tigers blowing it more than anything. 2010 I figured the Giants would win, even though the Rangers were one of my favorite teams. Their pitching was just too much for a team that was so reliant on overpowering offense at the time. Two legitimate aces really, plus Barry Zito was decent and Bumgarner and Sanchez on top of that. They, like the Angels, had the better record of the two WS teams. 2011 the Cardinals were probably the best team for the playoffs. Insane offense to go along with a solid top 3 in their rotation. I thought the Rangers would win too, but the Cardinals were for sure no fluke though. 2012 the Giants really backhanded the Tigers, so I don't think you can really say that the Tigers were the better team, especially considering the Giants had the better record, and shut them out twice. I don't think anyone was shocked by any of these winners aside from the Marlins in 2003 and the Cardinals in 2006, and that Cardinals team was honestly the only one of the bunch that had no business winning the WS.

I don't disagree with you on that, I just think it's lazy to explain it as the crapshoot theory. It's not odds, the best team usually wins, and sometimes a team surprises everyone. Just like every other sport, really.

It's not odds vs. odds though, players don't just walk out there all "Hey guys, hopefully this is our day, otherwise we'll see what game two has for in store for us". The short series really isn't that big of a difference maker. The better team still wins way more often than not, and record isn't really the only way to look at it. Sometimes a team with 90 wins is obviously just as good as a team with 100+, but then there are teams like the '07 Rockies, or like if the Guardians, Padres or Yankees made it in this year, that you just know are going to lose. How many of the "Cinderella" teams do you actually see win the WS?

That's just obvious, but it isn't a crapshoot then if ability is a factor. It's about who's the better team during the course of the series, and odds really have nothing to do with it. If the league ended the regular season and started the playoffs today, you could probably pick the winners pretty accurately. Sometimes there's a surprise run by a team that you didn't think was going to be in the discussion, like the Rockies, but they were red hot and I definitely thought they were in the discussion in '07, but I also thought the Red Sox were going to destroy them in the WS. That was just more likely, and it wasn't just a fan decision, the Red Sox were just a much better team overall, and I'd felt that the Rockies' hot streak had just about run it's course. We'll see when it gets to being October again.

You're making it sound like a team's ability doesn't factor into it, and only random chance comes into play. Baseball is not f***ing blackjack.

A-Rod should just retire, but hopefully after he's done taking a piss on the pinstripes.

I don't think he was living a double life, otherwise you could say anyone and everyone is living a double life. I think being a thug was just his personality, and more or less WAS his life. Who knows how many people he's killed, or for how long he's been doing this kind of s***. He just happened to also be good at football, so he made a career out of it, and I don't really think that being a thug was his "career" as it had probably been before, but if you're that horrible of a person, you can't necessarily just stop being that horrible of a person even if it could potentially ruin a better life as a professional athlete Aaron Hernandez is obviously very troubled, and that's something that he was probably either born with (if you think people are born with personality disorders) or was just raised to be like that. I think a lot of poor people get that way, they have to take advantage of people to get what they want because they're desperate and don't have anything to lose, and I'm guessing Hernandez probably lived most of his life being poor if he was rolling with a gang. When you're doing this kind of s*** for so long, it eventually just becomes who you are I think, unless you make a serious effort to change.

Jarrod Saltalamacchia.

http://kateadach.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/shutup-bitch-starwars.jpg

He's a Yankee. That's not a reason?

He's pitching a full season in the toughest division for pitchers in the entire league. Also, Fenway is a good point. Anyways, I don't know if he's as bad as his Rangers numbers suggest, but I think it's obvious he's closer to that than his numbers with the Cubs.

Mediocre in the NL, last year was an obvious fluke IMO. This dude's getting rocked.

What was he damaged from, if you don't mind me asking. You sound like you know him very well.