MJLiverock

This is almost literally word for word what I was just thinking. Very kind gesture from Bonds. The article I read said he just made a promise to the family over a month ago and their attorney just now is telling the press. It isn't like Bonds held a press conference to announce it to the world. http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big_league_stew/post/Barry-Bonds-will-pay-college-bills-for-Bryan-Sto?urn=mlb-wp7656&bcmt=11396974#mwpphu-comment-11396974

I thought about that scenario too but wouldn't Counsell actually announce it at the same time as the pick up so they wouldn't have to shuffle the roster so much? As others have said, this move is baffling. Boggs can at least play outfield defense better than Kotsay and is a switch hitter. A third poor hitting middle infielder for the team doesn't add a lot to the bench or flexibility. Morgan comes back and either Boggs or a catcher goes. If Nieves is gone, RR probably won't use Rivera as a RH pinch hitter so without Boggs the bench is very LH'd and poor with Counsell, Kotsay, Morgan, or when Morgan plays, Gomez as the RH pinch hitter with Wilson. Kotsay by default would be the top PH'er which isn't too bad and is the role I envisioned him in, not much power though. But after that? Yuck. Especially when Morgan is playing, leaving Gomez as probably the next best option.

I'm not sure Counsell should be pinch hitting for anyone except a reliever at this point.

Is the Dice-K era over? http://sports.yahoo.com/m...ke_matsuzaka_bust_052411

I too liked a lot of the cast of Mad Love, but after watching a couple episodes I didn't like the characters and stopped watching the show. I've caught a few of the Cougar Town espisodes, my wife records them on the bedroom DVR, and I don't mind that show. It has its moments and isn't the sterotypcial couples sitcom.

Yesterday on the drive home I caught part of an interview with RR, talking about Hart. He mentioned that on Monday during BP, Hart changed his hands in his swing/stance because he just felt so uncomfortable in the batter's box. Hart did it right at the end of BP and had some success so he went with it. Of course Hart went out and hit 3 bombs but what was interesting to me was RR talking about Hartsaid he felt uncomfortable in the box, and Hart said he was really in a funk. These are the types of things that lead a manager to give a guy a day off, like Hart on Sunday, which may not always come up in the pre game/post game interviews, but lead fans to think the manager is crazy or ask why isn't Hart playing everyday. Hart should be playing nearly every game over Kotsay but if Hart tells the manger he doesn't feel comfortable in the box or feels like he is in a funk then a day off may not be such a bad thing. The players aren't robots and I think sometimes the manager has to be given the benefit of the doubt on why a guy is sitting for a game. When Morgan comes back it will be interesting to see if he consistently stays above Kotsay in the CF pecking order.

Here was one list of cancelled shows I recently ran across (the bolded stuff was for my wife- shows she watched)Better With You (ABC) Breaking In (Fox) Brothers & Sisters (ABC) The Cape (NBC) Chaos (CBS) Chase (NBC) The Chicago Code (Fox) The Defenders (CBS) Detroit 1-8-7 (ABC) The Event (NBC) Friday Night Lights (NBC) The Good Guys (Fox) Human Target (Fox) Law & Order: Los Angeles (NBC) Lie to Me (Fox) Life Unexpected (CW) Live to Dance (CBS Mad Love (CBS) Medium (CBS) Mr. Sunshine (ABC) No Ordinary Family (ABC) Off the Map (ABC) Outsourced (NBC) Perfect Couples (NBC) Running Wilde (Fox) $#*! My Dad Says (CBS) Smallville (CW) Traffic Light (Fox) V (ABC

Ryan also managed to follow that .340 up with a .279 OBP in 2010 in nearly the same amount of PA's and has managed a paltry .288 in so far this year. His career is .313 including that one year abberation of .340. Plus he can't hit the ball out of the infield. He is one of the worst hitters in baseball. I would say Ryan is a lateral move at best with slightly better defense and worse offense, certainly not enough to make a difference.

Maybe I was too harsh on the arm comment, I just remember some his 110% effort rainbowed throws to first in a few games. I tend to put him in the Eckstein, Theriot, category of guys that for some reason fans glom onto and inflate their ability because they are the little utility guy who gets some bloop hits but really can't hit very well at all. Sort of the catcher idea where if a guy can't hit he must be good at defense or calling a good game. I'll admit I am biased and hate all three of those players, along with Skip Schumaker, Fontenot, Punto. My Cardinal fan friends hated Ryan as well because he was apparently a knucklehead on top of not being able to hit worth a lick.

Just say no to Brendan Ryan. He has the OBP skills of Betancourt but with less power. His range at SS is limited by his rag arm. I dont' think the Cardinals mind seeing him gone at all.

Make interleague a match up of divisions and dump the "rivalry" team concept. It would even out the scheduling so that teams fighting for a divison crown would play the same teams from the other league. The few intercity matchups like Yankess/Mets, Cubs/White Sox, Dodgers/Angels, that ESPN tries to convince us that everyone is soooo interested in will still happen every third year and maybe energize the fans a bit more. Keep the one wildcard team, four teams is enough for the playoffs. I wouldn't be opposed to going back to the 154 game season, just to get the playoffs done before snow flies. And for most teams those final 4 home games that would be lost probably aren't big draws once eliminated from contention, school is started, and football season has begun. I'm OK with the split rule on the DH, but if they change it, I would guess the only direction they would go is to add it to the NL. The union won't give it up and as mentioned pitchers are brutal hitters and teams would probably rather not risk it. World draft or at least if you sign an international player over X dollars you lose a first round pick, or Y dollars costs a 2nd rounder. Fix the compensation picks for the free agent signings. As someone in another thread pointed out, it is ridiculous how many supplemental picks are awarded before the 2nd round begins, this only punishes teams like the Pirates, or others trying to rebuild since they have to wait for nearly an entire extra round of players drafted, mainly by the teams who play around in the big money free agent market. Figure out a more equitable way of sharing TV revenues. Obviously the Yankees draw a huge audience - - they have a huge market to draw from-- but without another team on the field there is no game and the audience would be much smaller if they were stuck watching Yankees BP, or an intrasquad game. It doesn't have to be 50/50 split but the big market teams need to realize the popularity of the sport depends on more than just a couple big market teams existing. Make some subtle changes to the blackout rules for TV. Technology is much better today than years ago, they have to be able to figure out a way to slice and dice the blackouts better by zip code or something. Just because a game is on WMLW in Milwaukee over the air doesn't mean I shouldn't be able to watch it on ESPN or MLB Network, I really can't get the OTA broadcast from Milwaukee in Madison or elsewhere in the state. Or subscribers to the MLB package being blocked out on the other team's broadcast at times when the game isnt' available locally. Or rules about the national game having exclusive rights to any baseball at a given time. I get you want to drive the baseball audience to the "National Game" but really, I don't want to watch another Cubs/Cardinals game or Yankees/Red Sox game so I just choose something else. Baseball needs to realize that making it impossible for fans to watch the games doesn't increase business or interest. Casual fans can still watch the National Game, even a few specific team die hards might check out a new team for a night but plenty of others like myself just find something else to watch.

Punt is not a SS period. He has barely played there in his career and very little again this year. Trying to say he is some defensive whiz at SS is pure speculation and laughable in my opinion which has just as much veracity.

Exactly my feelings as well. I really don't care about the Cubs/Red Sox and may instead enjoy firing up the grill and the radio.

And Punto the the DL again.

My point is that regressions on players of his age probably aren't very accurate since the sample is so small and at some point it doesn't become just a smooth downward progression but rather a brick wall of inability to play because of age slowing reaction times and recovery ability. Counsell could very well outplay those projections but those projections are by no means some concrete expectation for a 41 year old player, if his bat speed is gone it doesn't matter what he hit last year or the year before. Projections are a tool that rarely gets a guy right, they often are too low or too high. Look at the Kotsay arguements, one side wants to discount his production because he has outperformed his projections, acting like actual production is somehow less important than projected performance while with Counsell an arguement is made that just because some model projects him to be better than he has been. I would guess the accuracy of a projection system starts taking a big hit in older players like Kotsay or Counsell because trying to gauge the affects of age on person is pretty difficult and not something easily just smoothed over time. And since the regression is just a line of best fit the data points might be all over the place, i.e. just because a regression exists doesn't mean it accurately predicts anything.

I'm not sure Counsell could put up those zips projections for the rest of the year. With a 41 year old ball player those projections are just guess for the most part because that age factor can hit hard and suddenly for a player and it doesn't matter a bit what some model predicts based on decline and few other guys that had a handful of AB's at that age. If they want to play Counsell 2x a week versus RH'ers, fine, but I wouldn't bet that the results are any better than Bettancourt, he might very well end up with a sub .300 OBP with zero power if his bat has slowed as much as some have suggested due to age.

I think that is the problem, a lot of hindsight is used in baserunning which is typically a snap decsison by the player and base coach, not necessarily the manager or a probablilty study done by the runner.Sending runners and making outs always is met with groans and moans of stupid play and runners that are safe are heady base runners or good aggressiveness. Same thing with stolen bases, even if a guy is safe 80% of the time someone always complains about how terrible it is to make outs on the basepaths or derogitory remarks about stolen bases come up. Braun ran through Sedar's stop sign at 3rd earlier this year versus Philly when Halladay was on the mound, Braun was safe so there wasn't an outcry of poor baserunning or blaming the manager for a guy making an out at home. Being aggressive and being stupid are two different things and making some outs being aggressive doesn't bother me, especially if it takes a perfect throw to get guy and its still close, or running a guy like Johnny Damon or Juan Pierre vs. Rick Ankiel. The stupid outs like Gomez getting picked off second or LuCroy getting doubled off second after Gomez was in a run down or a few of McGehee's gaffs this year are the frustrating outs, but I'm not sure how the manager can control those outs short of standing next to the player and telling them not to be stupid.

Don't forget Ankiel complaining about the pitcher throwing breaking balls late in a game with a big lead. I can't remember who was beating them but the lead wasn't that big and I had never heard that unwritten rule. Sure enough LaRussa agreed with him. I asked a Cardinal fan friend about it and he stuck up for Ankiel and tried to convince me you can't throw breaking stuff late in a game with a decent lead. Another great classy Carpenter move was last year yelling at an infielder for making him wait 30 seconds before throwing the first pitch of the game because he had to change gloves. Yeah Chris that was why you gave up a few runs in the first inning. Sanctimonious hypocrits is the first thought when I think of the Cardinals.

Gomez has looked about as bad as anyone can at the plate tonight. Just fouling a ball off is like a success for him tonight.

Oscar Gamble and Bake McBride take issue with your statement.Not sure what the original post was about, but I can honestly say Coco Crisp has the best haircut in baseball right now. Didn't Gamel have a big mop of hair under his helmet for awhile? I seem to remember thinking of South Park a few times last year-- like if he took his helmet off his hair would explode out.

I'm not disagreeing with you. I do disagree with the complaints that tend to pop up whenever a guy makes a first pitch out. Even when Braun makes a first pitch out, someone complains about not taking pitches. A guy like Betancourt hits .300 if he swings at the first pitch, which is better than his other situational hitting so when he swings at pitch one he is more successful than trying to work the count.

I"ll agree with not swinging at bad pitches but like Ender and his peeve with people worrying about K's, I don't put a lot of stock in the taking first pitch strikes just to take a pitch and fall behind 0-1.

Exactly so if he swings he likes it and the result is better than letting a groove ball go just to take a pitch.

His batting average is over.300 when he swings at the first pitch so I say swing away.

I don't see anyway Schafer is the opening day starter next year in Milwaukee. He barely played last year, hasn't played this year and hasn't really played above low A ball. I would guess Nyjer Morgan.