danzig6767

Regret is to harsh of a term for a franchise like Boston that prints it's own money Unless he blows out his arm, Boston can easily afford players that under perform their contract numbers

Yea, playing in the same division as the two ultra rich teams in baseball has to be deflating

Outstanding and very intense game tonight, plus beating North Dakota is always extra nice. The team though has got to stay out of the penalty box, especially Craig Smith, the kid had six penalties this weekend.

I know this isn't the way you meant it, but Hawkins's stuff is precisely why I like this addition. This is a guy that, even in his age-36 season, averaged 94 mph on his heater. Furthermore, he hasn't lost any velocity on that fastball -- the 94.2 mph average from 2009 is actually the highest he's posted in his career. And in addition to the FB, Hawkins's slider & curve are solid pitches. This is not just another bullpen arm, he can really bring it. I think it's pretty exciting to think about having two or three hard-throwing relievers (Coffey, Axford) on the 25-man this coming season... four if Braddock gets promoted & used in that capacity. Yea, i'd be much more down on this signing if Hawkins was instead a veteran guy like say Matt Herges who throws lots of junk fairly well. Hawkins is older, but still throws hard and doesn't walk batters. That said, it is a bit odd that he throws hard and has a solid slider, but he doesn't strike out more hitters than he does.

Right, because Counsell has so much pop. I think you're forgetting just how much of an outlier Counsell's season was offensively. By Fangraphs' WAR, Amezaga was more valuable than Counsell in 2007 and 2008, even accounting for the fact that he got more playing time. Counsell's going to be 39 this year, while Amezaga's going to be 32. Counsell may be the better player, but the difference might not be worth the actual difference in value. But, I forgot, Counsell was born here, so he's "important to the city". Too bad we aren't the Ciudad Obregon Cerveceros.Maybe he won't hit as well as last year, but i don't think his sizable change in batting stance can be just completely dismissed as part of the reason for his better numbers. Counsell mentioned numerous times how the change in stance played some role in his ability to slug better.

Yea, just like in basketball, often trades are as much about trading contract situations as it is trading talent for talent. Tampa felt ok assuming the money Soriano will get, Atlanta didn't so they got whatever they could for him instead of just letting him go for nothing.

Yea, if Wolf was a consistent 3.25 ERA guy, we wouldn't have been able to sign him for only 10 million per.

I'm not a stats junkie, so how is bullpen wear and likely having to fill in innings with a poor starter to eat those innings Harden misses factor into all these stat abbreviations i don't understand?

Count me as someone who was very wrong about Counsell when we first signed him a few years ago, the guy is just a quality utility player and i really hope he's back.

Yea, he averaged 5 1/3 innings per start last year Harden generally gives quality innings, but puts stress on bullpens by his fragile arm

This part made me laugh a bit Unlike Suppan - whose repertoire consists of junk and a prayer

Yea, i agree that sometimes SB's get to talked about when it comes to speed on the bases. Fast baserunners are also able to take extra bases via advancing further off hits than a slower runner would. That said, those fast baserunners need to be on base to use that speed effectively and that's a big concern for both Gomez and Escobar.

I really can not understand the reasoning why teams do not have a retractable roof when they build a new stadium. It solves the problem of rain outs and yet it is still an outdoor stadium.Depends on the climate, but obviously Minnesota has a climate which a roof would help more than in other places.

That's why i like this signing. Maybe Lucroy could have handled the main catcher duties without struggling significantly, but he also could have struggled quite a bit as many rookies do. Zaun didn't cost a lot of money and is insurance in case Lucroy struggled. If though Lucroy plays pretty well, then maybe we could end up with some split where Zaun catches 100-110 games while Lucroy catches the rest and next year assumes the main catcher role.

Yea, Evans looks pretty lost right now offensively, but he did a great job guarding Singler in the second half. He had the size, length, and athletic ability to match up better than anyone else on the team.

My daughter's boyfriend was good friends with one of the guys who died in that car accident in Oak Creek. I feel so bad for that family because they had to stand and watch from about block away as their child burned to death in the accident. I can't imagine the life long devastation they'll suffer from not only their child dying young, but having the nightmare of seeing his truck explode into flames and burn to death. How do they ever get over something like that?

Yea it should be a very interesting match up. Prior to the season, i thought Marquette would struggle quite a bit and Wisconsin should win quite easily. After watching Marquette though, they are better than i expected and talk about two completely contrasting styles and roster between UW and MU. Wisconsin is more experienced and a lot bigger while Marquette is vastly more athletic.Wisconsin will be favored and rightfully so, especially with the game in Madison, but it should be a fun game to watch.

Yea it really hurt their depth when both Junior Cadougan and Chris Otule suffered season ending injuries. Who knows if each guy would have got big time minutes, but they'd at least have been able to provide some minutes to give other key players some rest. Otule's injury hurt especially bad because even though he's still developing as a player, he at least was 6'10 and could have provided some size for interior defense. That said, next year Buzz will in effect be adding 4 very talented players to this team and only Hayward will be a significant loss. They add Vander Blue who was a top 25 recruit. Jamail Jones was a top 50-75 player recruit depending on the evaluation service. They just added Reggie Smith who is supposed to be a crazy good athlete that just needs to get better refining his PG abilities. Junior Cadougan hopefully comes back healthy to run the point. The team is going to have tons of talent at the 1-2-3 positions on the court and Butler/Maymon probably have the body types to be ok at the four spot. They'll just badly need Otule and/or Mbao to be solid next year at providing some defensive presence in the paint. If that happens, look out, Marquette will be a very tough team to beat. They also could use some better luck on the injury front. No, it was a big man. Buzzed offered JUCO Monterale Clark and he was a very athletic 6'9 PF that was a rebounder and shot blocker. He was a very risky offer by Buzz given his past and my guess is Buzz learned a lesson from that. Obviously not all JUCO kids are troublemakers, look at what a great kid Butler is. That said, coaches need to be careful because a decent chunk of these JUCO kids are risks and character evaluations need to be in depth so a mistake doesn't tarnish the university.

If Bogut wants to have a breakout year, the best chance for that will be if Redd stays injured. Redd between age, injuries, and him never being one to stay in great shape have all caught up with him. The last thing Bogut and the Bucks need is Redd out there jacking up bad shots that should be going to other players and both Delfino/Bell are significantly better defenders. At best, the team can hope Redd gets his shot back decent enough that he'd be able to provide some scoring off the bench. I don't want to see him anywhere near the starting lineup again though.

Has another catcher ever had a better season offensively?

Hopefully Duke doesn't blow out the Badgers, i'll be happy will a close loss.

Delfino is frustrating because he has some nice skills. He can handle the ball very well for a 6'6 guy, he's a good rebounder, can pass ok, and is a decent defender. His by far biggest negative is shot selection. The guy just jacks up way to many long jumpers given he not a really good shooter. I find myself at times screaming at the TV, stop shooting you moron. Then if Delfino actually hits a jumper, he seems to feel one made shot means he's in a "zone" and thus needs to chuck even more. If he just accepted his scoring limitations, he could be a valuable role player. As for Ersan, i agree. Villanueva was blessed with a lot more natural skills, but he played with zero heart. Ersan though can often look ugly out there, but he just is more productive by being a vastly better defender, works harder on the glass, and is a good three point shooter. Ersan makes less than CV, but is a better all around player. Meeks will soon see lots of pine time once Redd gets back and it's deserved, he's shooting 30 percent from the field. I still have reasonable hope that he'll develop into a quality bench player, but right now he's a brick machine. I should give props to Ridnour also. I really wanted Hammond to dump Ridnour and his contract if possible, but Ridnour has been fabulous off the bench and has played well together with Jennings. That said, Ridnour won't continue to shoot this well.

I really wonder though if Stern will ever actually locate a team in Vegas. My gut feeling is he won't, but he won't come out and say that so he can have it lingering as a threat for teams needing a new building. The big problem for owners and pro leagues is obviously the economy. They lucked out by getting the stadium/arena building crazy done when the country, states, and cities were all pretty much doing well financially in the mid to late 90's. Now though, states and cities are broke all over the place, there is almost no chance to justify spending hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on a facility for a sports team when at the same time services are being cut all over the place. That's a good thing IMO, i just wish years ago that more cities said no to the leagues and dared them to move as threatened. No chance at all that the leagues could have come close to finding new homes for all the teams they were threatening. Plus, in some cases, they'd be moving teams from larger markets to smaller ones. As for the Bradley Center and a new building, the only hope i can envision is if somehow it's funded by Potawatomi in return for a downtown casino. A tax for a new arena just will never pass here that i can see.

He makes one good point. I understand being skeptical about some new statistics, for instance fielding metrics, but it baffles me that people so close to the game can't see past wins and losses for a pitcher. Looper says hello to Burwell and hopes Burwell get's a GM job soon where he values pitchers by wins.

I don't know what's up with the Badgers under Eaves. He recruits well, but the team outside of winning it all has seemed to struggle consistently playing up to their talent levels.