jjfanec

I am sure Crean would rather be at Marquette this year when they will be really good, but next year this team loses McNeal, Matthews and James. They are going to struggle pretty bad. I would say anything less than a Sweet 16 birth for marquette would be a big disappointment

I tried to find a lost thread a while back but could not find it. I think this season has been very good. I enjoyed last season a lot as well. I am glad they do not seem to be dragging a bunch of stuff out this season. The episodes seem to go so quickly. I am hoping for a couple two hour episodes here and there because they are more satisfying. I think there are a lot of questions still left to answer but I agree with everyone that they are doing a nice job slowly answering some of the smaller questions.

I dont think that is necessarily true. They lost Mota, Gagne, Shouse and Torres and they have to replay them somehow. Hoffman is a start but adding another arm would make a lot of sense even if Riske is healthy.

He is 26 years old and only has one year above AA and that year was horrible. He walked pretty much a guy an inning and gave more hits than he had innings pitched leading to a WHIP over 2! He has a big arm and it would have been nice to keep him but i would not say it is very disappointing to lose him. It is nice to have Wright and Green along with McClung ready to go if something happens. Not that they are great but in the last week and half our depth looks a lot better.

He has been sporting it for a while. Oddly enough the female announcer for espn, i am blanking on her name, said he was one of the few that could pull it off.

Cnnsi is reporting it is 2 years 20 million. So much for the one report I heard that he would have to settle for one year at 5-7 million.

I think this is true and I think we may have made a slight step backward but not nearly as major as people think. I think a lot of national sports people forget how good Gallardo was two years ago. To me he would be more of a question mark coming off an injury if he wouldnt have been able to come back and pitch in the playoffs. I think Yo will put up similar numbers to Sheets overall number from last year if he can stay healthy. Obviously, the loss of CC hurts. However, comparing this team to last it must be remembered that it was only half a season with CC. So, essentially it is half a season of CC vs a full season of Looper. That is a step backwards. We are stronger at closer with Hoffman over Torres and Gagne in the beginning of the year. Riske is coming back healthy so that should help as well. We are virtually the same team everywhere else minus Brayan and Kapler. So our bench is not as good. However I just do not see those as major steps backwards.

Tom is reporting that the deal is for 4.75 million and has a mutual option for the following year. Sounds like a pretty good deal overall numbers wise.

I will give you Rollins, Reyes, and Ramirez, and Drew is about on the same playing field. Tejada is vastly overrated, Escobar has not shown himself to be as good as JJ, especially with the bat, and Tulo put up one nice year hitting at the biggest hitters park in baseball. Escobar and Tulo are great with the glove and could be better than Hardy but so far he has shown more. There have been great points about Hardy positioning himself well and making plays. The reason I said all metrics ranked him high defensively is because each one has their flaws, but one site I linked earlier looked at all of them together and Hardy was right near the top. If you value defense as much as it seems you do how do you view a player like Hanley Ramirez who has a terrific bat but is terrible with his glove or a guy like Reyes who according to most scouts I read really struggled defensively last year as well. Doesn't a guy who is top tier offensive talent (4th and 8th in OPS among all SS the past two years) and who at worst if middle of the road defensively ( i have heard nothing outside of a couple fans say he is less than a good to average defender) have a lot of value. When looking at his stats and his overall game I think he is about the 5th best shortstop in baseball right now, in part because the AL is awful at short. I see no reason to think he has peaked. His BA, OBP, Slug and OPS all went up last year and have steadily went up for the most since he made the big leagues. He is only 26 years old and i actually think his game will age well because he is not an acrobatic type SS. He is a guy who anticipates well and turn outs into outs (as old Ned used to say).

You make a lot of statements here that do not seemed to be backed up by facts. Most defensive metrics have Hardy ranked near the top. I know no defensive rankings are perfect but if he is near the top in all of them there has to be something to the fact that he is a good fielder. No one is saying he is Escobar but he is good and his bat is way ahead of Escobar's. Next. who are five shortstops who are better than Hardy. Beyond the box score ranked the top shortstops in baseball. Hardy is ranked 4th behind Ramirez, Reyes and Rollins and their rankings look at defense and offense. He was 4th in OPS last year for SS and he actually would have been in the top half of 3B so saying he would be below average there is incorrect as well. Lastly, why has Hardy peaked? He was ill to start the year last year and finally started hitting the ball in June. Even with those two months he put up great numbers.

10-8 puts them around 5th in the conference and it is a conference that is actually viewed as being pretty good this year. They do not have to win 2 of 3 against MSU, OSU, and Minnesota. Outside of Virginia Tech last year I cannot remember many teams with above a 10-8 conference record, who have a really strong RPI and SOS who miss the tourney. With very few really solid mid-majors this year and a weak Pac 10, Big 12 and SEC an above 500 record will get the Badgers in (as long as they do not drop a game to a really bad team in the Big 10 tourney). Villanova, Oregon, and Arizona all made the tourney last year with similar and for the most cases worse resumes than the Badgers.

The Badgers with another win today so with a 5-6 conference record they still have a decent shot at the tourney. They play Indiana twice, Iowa at home, Ohio State at home, Michigan at home, and Minnesota and Michigan State on the road. 4-3 makes them 9-9 in conference and probably puts them in the tourney. If they win all the home games and then the Indiana game on the road they will be 5-2 with a 10-8 conference record so they would be in for sure.

Either one of these systems are better in my mind. I like the second one a lot. Get rid of the teams pick all together and then add picks to sandwich round according to who the team lost in free agency. I do not know about removing the arbitration part of it I like that gamble that teams have to take.

I guess you are right with the disparity thing but it does seem that your top tier free agents only have a few places that can actually afford them. The truth of the situation is that with a new stadium for each New York team I could see both of them signing two type A guys in numerous off-seasons. That means this same scenario could play out again. However, on the draft thing I get your point that it is the luck of the draw. Last year I thought the Brewers got a lot for Linebrink considering what he was. The truth is though with the NFL overtime thing I have always hated it because I do not like luck of the draw type things. Sure I like the benefit my team received from the luck just like last year I like that the Brewers got an early second round pick for Linebrink, but that does mean I think it is the best way of doing things. Don't you feel like there could be a better way of doing the compensation system or do you like it as is? The topic is look at alternatives and I think there are some that could work to compensate teams losing free agents better or at in a way that matches the value of the player better.

Honestly though with the disparity in payroll in baseball continuing to grow it seems most of the big free agents only have about 6-8 teams that can afford them at the most so it seems like it is likely to happen again. I mean the Yankees got the one, two and four guys this off-season. I am disappointed about CC but I feel like Jays fans have to be ticked off that they got a 3rd round pick for Burnett. Also the idea that a guy like Ibanez nets a better package of picks than CC or Burnett leads me to believe that a way to pool comp picks and then give them out in order of rankings would be better, but maybe that would be chaos.

What if the team signing a Type A free agent lost their draft pick the same way done now. So if you sign 3 Type A you lose your first 3 picks. My big issue is that teams are hurt by who signs their players and that makes no sense to me. So what I would put in place a system that allots draft picks based on elias rankings so a team like Rual Ibanez would not give the Mariners more than CC gives the Brewers. That is the flaw in the system. What if each team that signs a type A loses their pick and then each teams pick is replaced not by the team who lost the free agent signed but by the highest ranked free agent. So the Angles would get the Mets first round pick for Tex not K-Rod, then the Brewers would get the Yankees pick for CC not the Angels getting if for Tex. As of right now the Blue Jays would get the Phillies pick for losing A.J. Burnett (instead of the Mariners for Ibanez). The fact that the Blue Jays are getting a third round pick for A.J. Burnett is a joke. So, there are probably huge flaws in my system but I think it at least rewards teams fairly for who they lose while still taking picks from those teams that sign a bunch of free agents.

I agree Wolf would be a good option. The fact that he is a Type B free agent is nice

I just do not see what Melvin can get or really could have gotten done this off-season. He tried Smoltz and Johnson but for various reasons they went elsewhere. He tried for CC. The other guys Burnett (lots of injury risk and lots of money), Lowe (too much for not a great pitcher), Garland (really not that great) all had issues especially at their price tag. To get anything we would have to trade a bat and we do not have replacement guys ready yet. Next year we will As for Odalis Perez. He had a nice year last year, but if you are worried about innings with McClung it should be pointed out Perez averaging just over 5 innings per start while getting hit pretty well. As a starter McClung average the same amount of innings per start, had more K/9, less hits/9, but walked a little under 4.5/9 whereas Perez walked a little over 3/9. McClung is younger and has much more upside and even though I would rather have him in the bullpen, I would rather start him over Perez (although I would have taken Perez at a minor league deal).

I second this idea. That would be amazing.

Is Corey Hart really proven? One year with an OPS over .800. Sure he was a 20/20 guy last year but he has only had one good year. Don't get me wrong I really like Hart and expect him to improve a lot, but I just do not see a team giving up much for him. The more I look at this trade the more I see Atlanta would not be giving up too much but why trade a guy when his value is the lowest.

I really did not look at the guys atlanta was trading. Now that I have i do not see how this trade would make us much better, so Atlanta might be up for this trade. i do not see why we would.

Why wouldn't Atlanta just sign one of those guys (Griffey, Abreu, Dunn) themselves and not have to trade Blanco, Morton and Reyes?

I just do not know what we could get for Hart as we would be selling low on him. GM's are not going to be enamored by his all-star appearance they are going to look at his dismal second half numbers and question why they would trade good starting pitching when the could just as easily pick up one of the corner OF out there who do not have a contract. Why trade a pitcher for a guy who was awful the second half of last year when you can just sign a guy like Dunn, Abreu, etc and keep the pitcher. Yeah Hart is better in the field but I just do not see a big market for him right now. Maybe last June there would have been but not now.

The concerns about Salome's height are definitely not a non-issue. They are a non-issue when it comes to his ability to hit and at least profile as a catcher, but it is a huge issue if his defense behind the plate does not improve because he is a man without a second position. A guy like Lucroy could probably play 1B much like other prospects like Clement and Salty are able to. Other prospects who are not catchers only can afford to be bad at one position because they can just be moved like Braun. Salome does not have that option unless he is on a AL team. It is actually a lot like Prince in a couple years. If his defense continues to deteriate he is a DH only guy much like Salome could be if he does not become a better defensive catcher. He has time to become a better catcher. A lot of catchers progress later. Geovony Soto did not start in the bigs until he was 25. Salome is 22 so he has time.

What makes Peavy and injury disaster waiting to happen? Are there questions with his delivery and overuse? I know he missed some time this past year but he still made 27 starts. At his salary he is a great deal and if we can get him for Escobar and others I would be all for it. When he was rumored to go to the Cub there was no way I could get my Cub-hating mind to consider it a bad deal for them (other than the little solice I got from knowing it would destroy their depth and farm system but it was not enough). We have the pieces to make the deal, we maybe could have the money to make the deal, but we just might not be in the right location to make the deal.