JoeHova

People said he was a potential Gold Glover though. I remember people talking about his defense being MLB ready almost as soon as he was drafted. Also, I don't recall anybody ever saying he had a Jeter-esque lack of range, or even subpar range. That seems to be some revisionist history you are throwing out there if you are claiming JJs defense wasn't hyped as being excellent, not "fine".

It makes some sense, but I don't like it that much. The Brewers need some OBP from somewhere and Beltre is not a source of that. He supposedly is a good defender though, so I guess it might still be a worthwhile swap. I don't know if Seattle would be into it though.

The only thing that worries me is that people said that JJ was a plus defender with Gold Glove potential when he was in the minors. I hope Escobar's defense is not being oversold like JJ's was.

If you demand a trade, it is a guarantee that you will be booed. It won't last forever though, especially if you start playing well. LA fans booed Kobe for the first few games of the season but it's all love now. Fans don't like being rejected, even if a player has a legit gripe (I'm not saying Bill does). I would have booed the first time he came up, but given it a rest after that unless he reiterates his demand publicly at some point.

Yeah, judging from that list, the sport to go into is definitely basketball. 26 of the top 50 earners are NBA guys. The only problem is that there are even fewer spots available in the NBA then there are in MLB or the NFL.

.350/.450 is definitely reasonable for Joe D. as a platoon guy, imo. Then again, ZIPS had Bill projected even better than Dillon and he's crapped out so far. Anything can happen, I guess.

They should add in all the international guys as well. I know Valentino Rossi would rank somewhere between 10-20 and I'd have to think some F1 guys would be up there, along with maybe some soccer players from the Premier League, Serie A, and La Liga too. edit: never mind, I see they have a separate list for international guys. I thought it was determined that Beckham's contract with the LA Galaxy was phony in terms of the huge dollars?

Giving up two very useful young guys and a serviceable veteran for half a year of a guy without great career or 2008 numbers when the team isn't even within a few games of 1st, is just too risky, imo. If they would have done something like that for Santana down the stretch last year, sure, but this far out, for a guy not nearly as good, I just think it could set the team back a long way. I hope they don't make a move like that. Actually, if other teams were offering packages like that, I'd prefer they deal Sheets, rather than deal for Sabathia.

Last year, according to BP, Kazmir was 7.9 wins above a replacement player. Prince was 6.9. That would mean the Brewers would have gained one win with Kazmir over Prince, in a vacuum. However, that's not the whole story. 2007 Brewer pitcher WARP: Sheets: 5.9 Gallardo: 4.6 (7.6 including his AAA numbers) Bush: 4.9 Vargas: 3.6 Villanueva: 4.6 Suppan: 6.3 Capuano: 3.4 So, Kazmir would have been replacing one of those pitchers, who were all well above replacement level. Prince would have been replaced by somebody too, probably Overbay, which would have cost the team Bush (but we'll leave that aside). Let's say, with the benefit of hindsight, Kazmir would have replaced Capuano, who had the worst year among starters. That gives the Brewers a net of 4.5 wins. Then let's replace Prince with Overbay, who had 2.2 WARP last year. That gives us a net of -4.7 wins, leaving the Brewers .2 wins worse than they were last year. I think any time you draft 7th in a draft and you end up with one of the top 4 players in the first round (Prince, Upton, Kazmir, Cain, it's up to personal preference how to rank them because they are all so young), you've done well. It's not really fair to point to guys not in the first round, I feel, because nobody felt those guys were on the same level, even though many turn out to be stars (Piazza, Pujols, etc.). Also, among those top 4 guys from 2002, I would take the hitter over the pitcher (assuming they are on a similar level) 100 times out of 100 because of the injury risk inherent in pitchers. I realize you can't do that all the time because a team realistically needs some pitchers, but given any one choice, I'll take the hitter. So, with the Brewers getting the top hitter available to them in that draft, I am quite pleased with how the 1st round turned out.

I'll have the Mets. I follow them pretty closely because I like a lot of their players.

I just heard Bo Diddley died yesterday. I know Bo was old, but the news still makes me sad. Apropos to the discussion we had in the "Amen Break" thread, Bo was heavily influenced by artists who preceded him, but his influence on those who came later is pretty much incalculable. A lot of people may know him best from his funny role in the Bo Jackson "Bo Knows" campaign, but he was so much more than that. Bo's first album (which came out in 1957), appropriately titled "Bo Diddley", is an album in the 50s and early 60s sense: a collection of a couple years worth of singles. However, all 12 songs are excellent. The first track is "Bo Diddley", one of the most influential songs ever, featuring a "shave and a haircut" style rhythm. If you haven't heard this song, you've got to get onto iTunes or Amazon and download it. The 2nd song on the album is "I'm A Man", which is perhaps the tune most people think of when they think of the blues. The song was influenced by Muddy Waters' songs "I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man" and "She Moves Me", but was subsequently covered by Muddy himself. He altered it a bit to be a response to Bo's version. George Thorogood and AC/DC both recorded very popular songs that are basically the same, but feature different lyrics. Those 2 songs were the a-side and b-side of Bo's first single, released in March 1955. I feel that it is arguably the strongest single of all-time, though it failed to chart on the main Billboard chart. The other 10 songs on Bo's debut are also excellent. The album as a whole is very strong, likely better than any (non-greatest hits) album by fellow rock progenitors like Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, etc. (though "Chuck Berry Is On Top" would have a case). The highlight among the other 10 is probably "Who Do You Love", another much covered classic. Bo's 2nd album, "Go Bo Diddley", followed the next year and featured his only Top 40 hit, "Say Man". The Journal Sentinel (in their obituary) claimed he had no top 40 hits, but that is incorrect as far as I know. I believe it charted at #20 sometime in 1959. "Say Man" is a spoken word piece that features Bo and his maraca player (Jerome Green) insulting each other in a playful manner (sometimes called ranking, snaps, the dozens, etc.). The background music is impeccable, of course, and the song is very enjoyable, as is the rest of the album. another of Bo's most important songs is "Road Runner" (also known as "Roadrunner"), which appeared in 1960 on his 4th album, "Bo Diddley in the Spotlight". This song influenced everyone from Jonathan Richman to Jr. Walker to The Who. Richman and Walker didn't record direct covers, but there versions were clearly influenced thematically, lyrically and musically by Bo's version. Bo also recorded some serviceable comeback material in the '90s. I'm partial to "That Mule" from "A Man Amongst Men". Bo is a guy who, like James Brown, despite being old when he died, I still felt a lot of sadness about his passing. They had a quote in the JS from one of Bo's old compatriots that I thought summed things up nicely: "A guy like Bo, you think he's eternal. And, of course, his music is." I think some people really seem almost immortal because of their influence and when they die, no matter how old they are, it is a blow. Bo was one of those guys for me. I've been listening to his songs non-stop since I heard that he died. I recommend that anybody else who has one (or more) of his records play it, and play it loud, as a small tribute to Bo.

But isn't Melvin not a reliable source on that kind of thing? After all, his job (and the jobs of all GMs) depends on the perception his boss has of him and how successfully he does his job. Wouldn't it be better to try to set the bar a little lower, rather than higher? Of course a guy who drafted Rickie Weeks is going to say "if we get a Weeks in a draft, it's a success", because to say otherwise would be to say that he's been failing at his job. I'm not saying he has been failing, just that it wouldn't be in his or any other GMs interest to say that a team should come away with a high number of good players from a draft. Even if the owner were to disregard such statements, other people wouldn't. Look at what happened to Beane when Lewis made it seem that Beane thought all the guys he drafted in 2003 would be stars. There was a lot of schadenfreude going on among other execs and commentators when many of those guys washed out.

Maybe because people are talking like some dubious theory is actually conventional wisdom, which is provoking other people to reply?

The Weaver fascination is nearly as perplexing as all the calls to deal Prince. He's just not any good. One serviceable start in AAA doesn't change that.

How is LaPorta more ready than Crabbe, Iribarren, or even Salome? Those guys have at least been playing the positions that they project to play in Milwaukee. LaPorta has played one game at first and his D was poor there even in college. I doubt he'd be ready to step in there tomorrow. I feel Prince, despite LaPorta's presence, is still one of the 2 most valuable players to the team. Don't forget, when Prince was as old as LaPorta is now, Prince was dominating MLB to a greater extent than LaPorta is dominating AA. I dunno, I just feel trading young, premium players is stupid. You hope to get one back in a trade, so why trade them in the first place?

this Prince bashing is getting almost ludicrous, Francoeur's bat is piss-poor for a corner outfielder. He's still young, but he's nothing close to a star, despite whatever hype he's received. As of now, he's Jose Cruz Jr. with worse plate discipline.

huh? I don't understand this level of backlash against Prince. Now Weeks is more valuable to the Brewers? Kendall and Cameron too? 2 guys in their mid-30s coming off of down years are more valuable to a team that fancies itself a contender than a guy who finished 3rd in the MVP voting last year and turned 24 3 weeks ago? What the heck is going on here, I just don't understand it.

No, I think that's a common nickname for people named Russell, though rluz could shed more light on that. There are a bunch of radio DJ's nicknamed Russell the Love Muscle.

MLE's aren't projections of what will happen in the future, they are approximations of what a player would have done if they were in MLB instead of the minors. For that reason, sample size is a huge issue, just as it is for judging major league guys this early in the season. Still, interesting stuff.

Nintendo.com sells the composite (ie, one video, two audio) cables, but depending how long you are at the cabin, that may not be an option.

No, what I meant was, has the inventor of an instrument ever also been a great artist on that instrument? I've no doubt the first guy that tuned up the bottom of an oil drum was a good drummers. However, is a steel drum really totally different from any other drum? And if it is, did that same guy create great art for it?

Here's my interpretation of Russ as Goya's Colossus. You'll notice the fleeing hordes of Cubs and Cub fans in the valley, as Russ looks on, unconcerned with the havoc and destruction he has wrought. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v143/chief119/russascolossus1.jpg please excuse the poor quality of, especially, Russ's uniform, its 2 in the morning and I had already wasted an hour or so looking for an appropriate photo of Russ. I didn't feel like trying to put an actual uniform on him and match the fonts and everything. The end result already took longer than I'd care to admit. I also was going to add famous Chicago people into the crowd, but at this size, it would be impossible to tell who was who.

The crazy thing about Huntsville is that even with how well they are playing, they are only tied for first. Must be some good teams in that league this year.

Sabean is a buffoon and the Giants are a joke, at least imo. That's where we differ I guess. The Twins, meanwhile, are a good organization that have not had very good offenses lately but have had good pitching and defense. Cuddyer is hardly a great example of a good power hitter. He;s had one year in his career where his SLG has been better than .020 above league average.

Here's the Helen Lovejoy-esque section on the children: "No one wants to watch (heavily-tattooed players) play basketball. It's uncomfortable and disconcerting. You don't want your kids to see it. You don't want your kids to think they should decorate their neck, arms, hands, chest and legs in paint. You don't want to waste time explaining to your kids that some millionaire athletes have so little genuine self-confidence that they find it necessary to cover themselves in tattoos as a way to mask their insecurities."