LouisEly

My parents sent this to me with the subtitle, "Sure wish someone would invent something to keep the sun out of my eyes." http://images.yuku.com/image/jpeg/7dc255d98c8333a713eccb121cbd2e2446a7403.jpg Couldn't help but notice that they are Cubs fans. http://images.yuku.com/image/gif/4bd15994833519c190381b639410cf6310ba54f.gif

Braun led the league in hits? I had no idea...

Nevermind - issue resolved (clogged vents - not getting air to the fire). As for me not chipping in - my roommate owns the house, not me. I pay him rent, he pays the mortgage.

Edit - nevermind, issue resolved Our dryer crapped out this morning, and my roommate being the cheapskate that he is never buys anything new, only used. So he bought a used gas dryer off of Craigslist for $100. The lady said it worked find, and we hooked it up. It runs, but very little heat is getting to the drum. I opened up the bottom to look in, and when I hit the start button there is a type of coil that gets bright orange hot for about 10 seconds and then cools off. Being a gas dryer I expected to see some type of flame down there like the old one. Could it be that the gas is not getting there? Is there a "pilot" light with gas dryers that needs to be lit? Since my roomate won't buy anything new, he certainly won't pay a service tech $100 to come out and look at it. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

Bard is a guy whose name has come up in the trade rumors section a few times. This postseason was the first time I've actually seen him pitch, and the thing that immediately stood out to me after only one or two pitches was that his delivery, and stuff (fastball, curve) is almost identical to a current Brewers pitcher. Can you guess? I thought it looked exactly like Seth McClung. Did anyone else notice that?

Anyone know of any photo sharing websites that don't require people to register in order to view your pictures (and don't have a lot of ads/pop-ups/spam/etc.)? Kodak and Snapfish now require people to register just to view photos that someone is sharing with you. I don't want people to have to register just to look at my pics from Europe. Thanks.

Generally speaking I'm with you Al - a 4.30-4.50ERA is a lot better than what Suppan/Looper gave them. The thing that scares me about Davis though is that he was the only guy who walked more people than Gallardo this year. Not sure I want both the #1 and #2 guys in walks in my rotation. My bet is Hardy+prospects to BOS, or McGehee+prospects to FLA, for the starting pitching to replace Looper, and Narveson taking Suppan's role.

Thanks for doing the computations on runs saved by a better ERA Al. And Suppan was worse than a 5 ERA, so they could save 20 runs just by plugging in a pitcher who can give them a 4.30-4.50 ERA. As far as signing a pitcher to a one-year deal, well, no good pitcher is going to sign for a one-year deal. But it will be 2-3 years before the legit pitching prospects in the minors arrive so I wouldn't be surprised if they sign a free agent pitcher to a 2-3 year deal. With the economy the way it is, players are going for the shorter contracts with higher per-year salaries than longer deals at lower per-year salaries; part of this is that teams are evaluating the risk of longer-term contracts and reducing the per-year amounts on longer deals. The question is not what Cam's $10M can buy you for one year; it is what can 2yrs/$20M or 3yrs/$30M buy? I think in this market, judging by what players signed for last offseason, at least a 4.00 ERA starter. Yes, but you're not factoring in a very important component. I'm guessing 2.5 of those 3 chances per 9 innings are routine plays. In fact, I bet that number is even higher. Good point FV, and I'll take it a step further. Most hitters are right-handed, and when a hitter pulls the ball it gets hit hard and gets to it's destination very fast. (There's a reason why 3B is called "the hot corner"; once while playing it I almost got knocked over backwards by a screamer right at my head.) There are fewer left-hand hitters, but when they pull the ball it is to RF. The harder the ball is hit the less time it takes to get to where it lands, and the less chance that the fielder will catch it. Thus why I think UZR is biased against left-fielders and biased towards CFs; granted, LFs are generally the worst fielders overall but due to righties pulling the ball they have the least amount of time to get to it to catch it. Where I'm going with this is if you watched a lot of baseball games and calculated the average time that a ball was in the air to LF or RF versus CF, I would be willing to bet that it would be a significant difference. You see very few screamers up the middle to CF; centerfielders have a lot more time to get under the ball and catch it because it is in the air longer. Thus I don't think that a good CF saves as many runs as UZR and Fangraphs thinks they do. (Any system that has Nyjer Morgan as being more valuable overall than Ryan Braun is flawed.) As for Braun, remember, he never played OF until two years ago. It's not like he played OF in the minors or college or high school and is just bad. He's inexperienced, but athletic; I think he will improve significantly each year with experience. Once he gets a few years of experience playing the OF I think he's athletic enough to play CF, but not for at least 3-4 years. Personally I think they can win on both fronts; I think Narveson can give them the 4.50 ERA and the 20 run improvement over Suppan at league minimum salary, thus freeing up the cash for Cameron. Parra gets his shoulder cleaned up and gives you at least a 4.50 ERA, and throw out Bush's injury starts and he's a 4.50 ERA. Between those three that has to be at least 50 runs saved over this year. I think the other starter they acquire is via trade; add in a 4.00ERA starter via trade and it's up to 65 runs. Narveson is the "free agent" guy. They get the pitching improvement without the increase in salary and can keep Cameron. Dump Kendall and Looper and save $10M there; trade Hardy and it's up to $14M.

But my point was that you just can't get rid of pitchers based on an IP count, because the majority of SPs not reaching that inning mark were worse than Gallardo. That fact can not be ignored, and that fact clearly would push Gallardo's numbers into the top quin-tile, especially in ERA But I did that - I lowered the threshold to 100IP from "qualified". So it included those who were "worse than Gallardo" in innings. It also included some pitchers who shouldn't be included - those who started the year in the minors, and didn't have a chance to accumulate as many stats. And he still only was in the top 25% of NL starters in only one category - strikeouts. I defined an A as the top 25% of NL starters - very liberal. The median - half were better and half were worse - was a C. Yo had the second most walks in the NL - I generously gave him a D for that. Russ, would you please post some statistics that Gallardo was in the top 25% of NL starters? You have yet to do that in this thread, despite insisting that Gallard was better than a B (I gave you a B for him instead of the original B-).

Yes, but how do you get to the "off site"? It's not uncommon for some hotels to have rental car centers in them or next to them, and if the hotel has an airport shuttle you can get there easily and cheaply. Also there might be a bus that takes you near the location. The fare may only be $10-15 per day less, but my experience has been that airport locations often charge an additional $10-15 in fees per day (SFO it's closer to $20), so the real difference may be $25/day, or $150 for a week.

Lots of things going on here: Sounds like Ricky is in line for 2nd base still. But then he says "may have to sacrifice some offense to get some pitching." Does this mean having to sacrifice Cameron to free up his $10M to sign a free agent SP? I mean, how good of a SP will someone give up for JJ Hardy? If you package him with two of Peralta, Anundsen, Rivas, and Merklinger, probably a decent one. They will have a ton of pitching at AA and below next year, and given the question marks about Peralta becoming a starter I would bet that they unload him while he's young and other teams think he can still be a starter. Lots of guys 2-4 years away... they need someone now. I like any plan that puts Parra back in AAA to become part of our 'depth' personally. It was revealed recently that Parra was pitching with shoulder discomfort most of the season, and will have off-season surgery to correct it/clean it up. People have been inquiring who the next "Edwin Jackson" is... and it might just very well be Manny Parra.

I think Gallardo would fit in the bottom third of the top quin-tile, therefore he would get an A- on the season. One might assume that, but such is not the case. You have to look just at NL pitchers though because AL pitchers have to face the DH about 130 more games than NL pitchers do (and vice versa - NL pitchers pitch to pitchers a lot more than AL pitchers do; plus NL pinch hitters are generally much inferior to AL DH's). This alters the pitching stats so that AL vs. NL pitchers are not an apples-to-apples comparison. Notice how on Monty's list there were only two AL starters - the other 8 were NL. Whether I compared to just "qualified" pitchers or lowered the bar to 100 innings, the only category that Yo placed in the top 20% or even top 25% of NL starters was strikeouts. See the rankings I posted above for the categories; trust me, when I compared him just to "qualified" starters, Yo looked even worse.

For those of you not on the West Coast, North Korea can hit Alaska with a long-range missle, possibly LA. Other than that, yoshii hit the nail on the head.

Never said there was anything wrong with white tube socks - just pointing out a fact! http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif (I believe they have the Nike logo on them, so I doubt they are for blood flow support. Generally speaking though, if you wear white socks with jeans you should wear white sneakers.) (Hawing - by all means, if that was a subtle hint at permission, go ahead and use the photo. I was thinking the same thing myself.)

As far as adjusting for playing time that was part of it - durability was a factor that I took into consideration. The fact that he got shut down early, regardless of whether it was expected, was a detriment. 95% of it was the fact that I could only find one stat that had him amongst the top 25% of NL starters. And again, as mentioned, the salary component for Suppan and Looper was very minimal, in reality only gave me consideration of giving them a D+ instead of a D, but I went with my initial reaction of a D. 95% of it was numbers. Sorry if I didn't make that clear.

Not only are rental cars cheaper off-site ("neighborhood" locations not at airport), the airport locations charge a lot more fees. I've seen almost $20/day more in fees at some airport locations. The other thing is type of vehicle; SUVs and convertibles are cheaper during the week, and midsize cars are cheaper on weekends. There is more of a demand for midsize cars from business travelers who usually return them by late Thursday afternoon. Weekends technically start around 5PM for rental cars, so try a pickup after 5PM on Thursday or on a Friday. If you don't care who the vendor is, try Priceline. Edit - just checked Expedia and with pickup the morning of Friday 3/12 and return Tuesday 3/16, Enterprise, Thrifty, and Dollar had midsize cars for $47/day from PHX. Some company called Advantage has midsize for $35/day. I'd check offsite though, as the facility fees and other airport fees can add $15/day with airport pickup. Edit 2 - just checked Avis and an off-site location (3233 E. Chandler Blvd), and a four day midsize rental from 3/5 to 3/9 was $166 including taxes and fees, or about $40/day.

It's value - salary, right? No - I said the only place where I took salary into any type of consideration was for Suppan and Looper, and it barely affected their grade. I had suggested that for Cameron, but I amended my grade for him to B+. But now we are going to measure his rate stats against some guys who may have pitches 50+ less innings? I did that because if we only looked at qualified pitchers it made Yo's stats actually look worse - his rankings in terms of those stats would have been even lower (more C's, less B's). Someone would have griped that I wasn't comparing him to enough pitchers, or that he deserved a better grade because a number of other starters didn't get enough innings to be qualified. Bottom line is whether you look at 100 innings or "qualified" pitchers only, the only stat where Yo ranks in the top 25% of NL starters is strikeouts.

A "B" grade means "above average", a "C" grade means "average". If you drop the "qualified" status to only 100 IP, there are 67 pitchers in the NL who met that criteria. Thus the median means #33 and a "C". If we say an "A" is the top 25%, that means being in the top 17; so I would need to see him in the top 17 in multiple statistical categories to earn an A. For those with 100IP or more in the NL he ranked: Innings - 28th (B-), ERA - 20th (B+), K's - 5th (A), walks - 2nd most (D), quality starts - 28th (B-), quality start % - 32nd ©, WHIP - 26th (B), K:BB ratio - 28th (B-), OPS-A - 19th (B+). Sorry Russ, but if his name were Bob Smith, you would be grading him as a B/B-. Amongst all of those categories, for NL pitchers with 100 or more innings pitches he is in the top 25% in only one statistical category, and that gets canceled out by having the 2nd most walks. Please show me some statistical categories that he ranks in the top 25% of NL starters to show me that he earned an A.

I'll grant you a B Russ (splitting hairs), but no way does the entire body of work for Gallardo for this season justify an A. His performance was a bit above average, but not a lot.

You make some good points Flood Pants, and welcome to the board. I think the Red Sox were one of the first teams to recognize the value of free agent comp picks, which helped build the value of their drafts. I do think that some of the trades (specifically Beckett and Lowell) were taking advantage of the Marlins shedding salary, and it cost them Hanley Ramirez, a potential MVP candidate. They were one of the few teams who had the ability to take on the salary of Beckett and Lowell, so they were one of the few teams who could take both off their hands in one deal. A classic case of a trade that helps both teams, but if they didn't have the finances they do they wouldn't have been able to pick up both.

Now is a great time for this, because it won't be long before guys start getting released: 1) Gallardo 2) Braun 3) Stetter 4) Riske 5) Coffey 6) Fielder 7) Weeks 8) Rivera 9) Hoffman 10) Parra 11) Bush 12) DiFelice 13) Gerut 14) Narveson 15) Hart 16) McGehee 17) Catalanotto 18) Escobar 19) Cameron 20) Axford 21) Vargas 22) Hardy 23) Ricky Nolasco 24) McClung 25) Salome No, they won't keep 13 pitchers, but at least one of those 13 will be on the DL, I just can't figure out whom. Yes, I think they will keep both Hardy and Escobar, with one of them taking over at 2B when Weeks has his annual injury.

On the way out... http://images.yuku.com/image/jpeg/e6c15e95843c12cf0a0a30a9e38dc75007c93de.jpg The scene of the crime the night before: http://images.yuku.com/image/jpeg/eba25689f68d934e103c106c6f0811681051d26.jpg Some Dodger signing autographs: http://images.yuku.com/image/jpeg/6ae25079d283b37711fcf65ca968785cc6989b2.jpg Mark A's backside - I said, "Thank you Mark!" when he walked by and he stopped and briefly turned around to acknowledge me: http://images.yuku.com/image/jpeg/d4f155988c3b1bc6a676b41fa8b9dca89bc050d.jpg Manny post-game... the oversized jersey hides his physique: http://images.yuku.com/image/jpeg/15635ce29b26806a3e221086c3b25febe1b84ee.jpg Uecker walked right by me too, but I was looking the other direction and couldn't snap a pic in time as he walked towards the Brewers clubhouse. Karma is a good thing, because when you go out of your way to do good things for people they sometimes reward you with incredible gifts like this. Thanks "Buddy"!

After the game On-deck circle: http://images.yuku.com/image/jpeg/11125ad9b78703ba186cf4997f7369c8d3b8e68.jpg I snuck over to the dugout - Braunie post interview: http://images.yuku.com/image/jpeg/9c41559f833116c22c0247d922d9cb1d1711c48.jpg Coffey giving an interview: http://images.yuku.com/image/jpeg/bbb1559b83381cc99bfa3441dac7fd328cbfcc1.jpg

Finally getting some time on my hands, so here's some pics that I snapped from my cell phone (forgot to bring the real camera, thus the blurry quality) from section "Lah Dee Dah". Fielder at the plate: http://images.yuku.com/image/jpeg/39735935958f84e230fd1be8cb28b8d4ad5a1d5.jpg Fielder and Braun in the on-deck circle: http://images.yuku.com/image/jpeg/3903573c9ef6854230c41054cd0f414b01ec3f6.jpg Larry King wears white tube socks: http://images.yuku.com/image/jpeg/7c3252d9368b23e01efcebd0d0a62a2f27b75f9.jpg Hoffman warming up; there's a slight delay from when the pic is snapped to when it actually takes the pic, so I couldn't get his high leg kick: http://images.yuku.com/image/jpeg/1181559286391bc9793b0e73e6f3ff6396506cf.jpg

Hopefully Welch has figured out whatever it was in the beginning of the season that caused his poor performance and can be counted on to be adequate depth at AAA next year. Post All-Star game he was 4-1 with a 2.15 ERA and 1.06 WHIP; in June he had a 2.51 ERA, in July a 3.57 ERA, and in August a 2.32 ERA, all very good numbers for AA, and it looks like he carried that over into the World Cup. Here's to him carrying that over into 2010 and beyond.