danzig6767

My view on closers or high priced relievers in general is,what kind of team is it and what sort of payroll is available to them.Closers may very well be overvalued,but if i'm a legit contender i sure wouldnt want to go into a season with an unreliable one.Playoff berths are often decided by anywhere from 1-5 games,equal teams with unequal closers can decide which team stays home. When your a contender,but have a lower payroll then it can get tricky.With a say 35-50 million dollar payroll,having a 7-9 million dollar a year closer might not be a wise investment.If your not a contender,having a high priced closer seems silly to me. I think you saw Theo change his tune on closers after their experiment semi-backfired on them last year.He though is blessed with a huge payroll,fitting Foulke into that payroll wasnt much of a problem.Beane i'm sure would have loved to keep Foulke,he saw how valuable he was last year.He's a Red Sox now because Theo has money and Beane doesn't,not much more to it than that.It's MLB's economic system at work.

Why wouldn't he sign? Yea it's great he signed fast,but i've never understood why except in rare cases any highly drafted HS pitcher wouldnt sign if drafted in the first round.Given all the pitfalls any HS pitcher faces on his way to becoming a big leaguer,taking a fairly sizable chunk of cash while it's being offered seems sound judgement to me.Anytime i see a HS player turn down a million or more in the hopes of getting extra dollars in a later draft,i think those young dudes have balls the size of watermellons to risk that money. Anything over a million dollars in a bonus is ALOT of money.If it's not pissed away,that amount of money sets up your future in a very positive way even if you do little to nothing after signing.If i'm a top 15-20 pick, i'm signing unless i get a very horrible offer from a team,way below slot value.

The pitching remains amazing I believe i heard Gammons a few nights ago on BBT say since mid-May we had the best ERA in the NL,this before the last two games giving up 1 total run.

Gotta hand it to Davis,in his last 13 starts he's only given up 5 runs or more one time.

Ever seen a guy sweat like Seattles pitcher?? That is crazy,he has sweat dripping off his cap like it's pouring rain on him.

Brady should be banned from stealing,he not only gets thrown out ALOT,its rarely even close.

I think he's got plenty to keep him busy at Indy. If our #5 guy was pitching like Navarro was a few years ago, I'd be all for it. But, Wes has given us quality starts a good % of the time in about 20 starts for us since being acquired 11 months ago, despite being far from "good". I dont know if i'd say Wes has given a alot of quality starts,so far this year IP/ER 5.1--5 6.2--0 2.0--5 5.1--5 3.0--7 6.0--5 6.0--3 6.1--1 5.0--4 6.1--3 In ten starts,half of them he gave up 5 runs or more.Granted most teams have poor 5th starters,but Wes is hardly good enough to hold back any sort of young pitcher who might have a future.Melvin would know better than me if Hendrickson is ready to pitch every 5th day in the bigs,but Wes blocking his path wouldnt be much of the consideration for me.

I just got back am a bit buzzed,but a gereat game.I went epecting an Oswalt shutout,but was a loud fun time for alll.I might go again tommorrow if i wake up early enoug,sun and baseball is a great thing. On a side npte,i'm starting to change m mind on trading Kolb,the dude just gets the juob done.He looked fabulous from where i was seated.

Damn clancy,did you search for the worst picture of JLH you could find?Granted she isn't as naturally pretty in the facial features as other beauties,some pictures she doesnt look that good.With her bod though,it's very easy to look at her from the neck down. Peavey is right on Maddux,to think that staff has been this good its pretty amazing.

I wish we would have taken Sowers and Buckner 1-2. Those are two proven, successful, and healthy college pitchers with four more years of experience to evaluate and project. To me, that makes our projections of them more likely to be accurate. You very well could be correct Bill,Colby loved Sowers and Gammons believes he'll finish with more career wins than any pitcher taken in the first round. I do wanna ask though,dont you think Jack Z/Melvin/scouts spent incredible an incedible amount of time studying all these players?Given all being equal they had to prefer a college guy for the obvious reasons,safer and usually quicker to the bigs.So i think it's fair to assume in scouting guys like Sowers/Townsed,their projections for them weren't all that great or they would have chosen one of then.They have been in this long enough that the risk factor for HS pitchers had to be considered in the thought process. In the end,let's say you were the guy who had to make the choice for the 5th pick.You have narrowed your choices to a couple college arms and one high school pitcher.After 2 years studying them all intently,you like the college guys,but the HS kid really catches your eye.So it's a few days prior to the draft and you have to make a choice.Your mind is weighing all the factors,your content with the thought of taking the college guy you like most.At the same time you can't shake your gut telling you the HS kid is better and has more potential.So your faced with the choice of going the route you know is safer or taking the kid you really fear you might regret big time passing on,even though you know your taking on a bigger risk if you take him. These type of situaions cant be easy calls with so much at stake.GM's in every sport face this dilema all the time when the draft rolls around.Pick the safer guy or the more raw guy you feel has a bigger upside.These kind of choices get GM's accolades and can contribute to getting them fired.I've always thought it would be cool to run a sports team,but i do think if i actually had to make these calls,i could see myself changing my mind 10 times over.These baseball drafts i have such a hard time forming an opinion on.In football/basketball drafts i've actually seen many of the drafted players on the field a fair number of times,these baseball drafts i see a 45 second clip on the internet.I'd feel kinda silly writing that say Sowers has more upside than the Brewers think based on a 45 second clip when they've probably watched him pitch at least 25 times.I do though Bill feel for WHATEVER reason,based on nothing,that Sowers will have a solid career.

Santos has less than dominating stuff and a checkered career,hard for me to think struggles wont be a part of the equation with him.

so should we blame Podsednik's rescent slump on the woman just like Earl Woods' blames his son's slump on his lady friend? If Tiger is slumping because of to much play with Elin Nordegren,i'm sure he's surviving just fine.He's richer than some countries,his slump isn't exactly breaking him.

It would be amusing if we have a 10-8 type of game after last nights game.

Its funny all the teams boards on ESPN are talking about the game to

This is comical

At least there is a hot chick on Stern right now to kill the boredom of this game a bit.That girl is tastier than any sandwich.

Ortiz blows,if we cant score off this scrub,ALL hope is lost.

Ortiz blows,if we cant score off this scrub,ALL hope is lost.

Figgins was safe,amazing how often umps blow the call on steals attempts at second.

Grieve better go yard,cuz the Angels are gonna score in the bottom half.

That fat slob just stole second base after getting a bunt hit? Twilight Zone here

and how bad Moeller has looked all season (save one night), he has not struck out---yet Chad has a bit of Brady Clark in him,when he doesnt K we can count on weakly hit grounders to shortstop.Dont fret though,we may have time to see Chad K before the night is over.

Have we hit a ball really hard all game? Talk about a popgun offense

Just think,if we lose here and Vlad hadnt had his seeing eye weak single,we would have had pitched 11 perfect innings and had it end in a loss. I'd imagine that would be a first in history.

Seems everytime Sheets pitches if he gets 3 runs from the offense it's an explosion.The guy only has 5 wins and has been nearly as good as any pitcher in baseball.