cwolf2012

If you read my earlier post, I did vote for Braun. He's my favorite player in baseball, but that doesn't make me think he's better than he is. I want to see him play in the allstar game, so I voted for him 25 times. The argument here seems to boil down to what the allstar game is actually supposed to be. The best overall players or the guys people most want to see. I voted for the best player at each position except for Braun. My ballot went:1B: Berkman 2B: Utley 3B: C. Jones SS: H. Ramirez C: McCann OF: Ludwick, Burrell, and Braun And I wrote in Branyan for 5 of my votes too. But that was just for fun.

That's a completely different part of the argument. If you ask me if Braun should be ahead of those 3 jokers, then my answer is a very loud "YES, YES, DEAR GOD YES!" But that's not really the argument. In fact, I don't think anyone from either side of this debate thinks Fukudome, Soriano, or Griffey deserves the allstar bid.

I want to stress this again for the people who are opposing the stat-heavy people. We aren't looking at just OBP. OBP is just one part (albeit a very important part) of a big equation. The reason it is stressed so heavily is because he is doing so poorly at it, and it is a very important stat to total team production. There is something to be said for counting stats, but most of them rely heavily upon your teammates, and not you. EDIT: "Even with Adam Dunn's .400 OBP he has scored 4 less runs than Braun and his .325 OBP. Dunn has also knocked in 12 less runs despite being only 2 HR's less than Braun." The problem with Dunn isn't him, it's the lineup they've put together. Dusty Baker has little to no knowledge about modern baseball analysis, and relies on old timey crap. Dunn fits best in the 3 spot, ahead of Phillips and probably Griffey. That way he can drive in the highest OBP guys that hit in front of him with his HRs, and allow the other guys who aren't as talented at getting on base but can hit the ball very hard to move him around when he walks. EDIT 2: If you care to read about how OBP and SLG are related, check this link out. I was wrong in my earlier estimation of 1.8x as important. It's actually more around 1.6. But anyhow, that's related to total team OBP and SLG, and not individual players. Utilized correctly, the extra SLG could probably generate a few extra runs over the expected value, but still not be worth as much as OBP.

I think we're coming from two different sides of the coin here. The "statheads," if you will, are arguing that while Braun has had a very good season (.908 OPS is great) , several other players have had far more productive seasons overall (Burrell, McLouth, Ludwick, etc) just by the numbers and overall effectiveness for their teams. He probably has the numbers to be a top 3 OF in a different season. This season, though, there are guys who are better. The way I perceive it, you're coming from a more of an "I enjoy the action of the game" kind of perspective, which is absolutely okay, in which Braun tends to be far more entertaining than a player like Pat Burrell. The allstar game is not about who is actually playing the best, it's about who the majority of fans want to see. I may not agree with that, but it is what it is. Ryan Braun is my favorite baseball player in the entire world. I voted for him 25 times. If you asked me to objectively say whether or not I thought he was in the top 3 overall outfielders in terms of production rates and what I consider to be the more important stats, I would say absolutely not. OBP is generally coorelated(sp?) with 1.8x as many runs produced as SLG. If I had my choice, I would drop 50 points of Braun's SLG to add 30 points of OBP. But if my choices for Braun are 80 points of SLG or 20 points of OBP, I would take the SLG for sure. Now, please don't take me wanting him to walk more as me wanting him to walk instead of hitting a home run at a 1-1 rate. A home run is the absolute best outcome for any plate appearance. But if you offer me him talking 3+ walks instead of one HR and 2+ outs, especially with Fielder and Branyan behind him, then I would take it.

Utley by a fairly significant margin. His VORP is 40.9, while Hamilton sits at 31.9. It's kinda crazy how the AL only has three guys (and only 4 in the top 20) in the top 15 for VORP and they're all on Texas. Source

I think a better game would be Milwaukee Allstars vs. Madison. At least then you'd have a chance (but not really).

You'll be lucky to get Hossa. Malone is reachable, but it's almost impossible to afford 3 superstars with the current cap. Crosby, Malkin, and Hossa would eat up almost 2/3 of the cap, and you still have to resign several key players. If they can convince Hossa, Malkin, and Malone to take a couple mil below their total values, they may still be the top team in the East next year, but I wouldn't hold out much hope. With Malkin, Crosby, and Fleury they'll be in contention, though. By the way, way to go Wings! Datsyuk may not have scored a lot of points in the finals, but he was absolutely amazing. Best player on the ice (except maybe Lidstrom).

How would everyone (and Bill Hall) feel about dead silence when you approach the plate? I feel like that would be more disconcerting.

And if you could manage to score more than 7 runs, that would probably help too. Maybe the Madison team (averaging 16.75 runs per game) should teach you guys how to hit.

I understand the projections, but what else are we going to do? I have a hard time believing Jackson, DiFelice, or Tavarez project any better than that, and Gagne is Gagne right now (and probably the same when he gets back). He's not on the 40 man roster right now: Could that be a reason we haven't done anything with him?

Career stats His age is actually 32, but he's been pretty consistently good in the major leagues. Why isn't anyone talking about bringing him up and seeing how he does? He has to be a better option than Julian Tavarez. Is there something about him that I don't know? Injuries? Unstable? EDIT: Here are his current Nashville stats.