Funketown

The complaint about the heaters in the article above is pretty funny. Probably hard for a southerner to understand that Wisconsinites don't mind 60 degrees and breezy.

With how terrible Matthews has been over the past three years, the Angels should be happy that the Mets were willing to pick up so much of that salary. If he were a FA, and the Brewers were to offer him a minor league deal with an ST invite I'd be infuriated.

I'm much more optimistic about Escobar than many on this site, but I think there are many reasons to be worried that Escobar won't hit. I, for one, am confident that he'll be able to put up an average of .280+, but that will likely be supplemented by a 4%-5% walk rate and an ISO around .100. His minor league track record is solid, but there is always a legitimate concern that players like Escobar, who have yielded hits on 35% of balls in play in the minors, will not continue to do so in the majors with the higher level of defending. Besides, if Escobar is the defensive wizard we're all hoping he is, he'll be quite a good player hitting even a modest .290/.330/.410/.740 down the road. The same holds true for Gomez. From everything I've heard, he's a phenomenal center fielder, and UZR certainly seems to agree. Also, as has been pointed out, there is reason to believe Gomez is significantly better than his numbers last year show. From 2008, where Gomez hit .258/.296//.360/.657 to 2009, where he hit a Kendall-esque .229/.287/.337/.623, he saw his line drive and ground ball rate increase, his fly ball rate decrease, his BB% increase, and his K% decrease. If Gomez can swing the bat like he did last year, I don't think a line like .265/.315/.385/.700 is unreasonable to expect.

Looks like Dayton Moore found an ace to complement Greinke and Tony Pena Jr.

I remember this June 2006 game where the Sharpie had 11 strikeouts, then Derrick Turnbow gave up two runs in the 9th to let Washington win. But I enjoyed the 11 strikeouts immensely. (Keeping this on topic is feeling like driving a car with no power steering.) I'm sorry, but I do not seem to remember Derrick Turnbow giving up any baserunners, much less runs, while pitching for the Brewers. You must be mistaken. My only memory of Derrick Turnbow is when he struck out the side in the 9th inning of a tie game against Pittsburgh, setting the stage for a Prince Fielder walk-off. His second career homer, all set up by the bow. Oh, Turnbow.

Good call, we should get back on topic. Anybody else remember the time Doug Davis hit a bases clearing opposite field double off Carlos Zambrano in the second inning of a (2006?) game, giving the Brewers an 8-2 lead? I was at that game, and it has to be my favorite DD memory. There is nothing quite like seeing Carlos Zambrano curse his way off a mound.

Why does it matter whether or not Cameron hits home runs in bunches, and what evidence do you have to back this notion? Certainly, when speaking about individual games, the first HR is the most value, the second less valuable, the third even less, and the fourth even less (at this point, the game has probably been won). But what difference does it make if he hits a homer on April 6th versus June 7th? Besides, here are Cameron's HR's by month while he was a Brewer: 5/08: 7 6/08: 5 7/08: 3 8/08: 9 9/08: 1 4/09: 5 5/09: 6 6/09: 1 7/09: 3 8/09: 4 9/09: 5 Make of it what you will.

Using Chone projections, with some of my rough projections for plate appearances, here is what I punched out: C - .237/.333/.378/.711 (Zaun 300, Kottaras 150, Lucroy 200) 1B - .294/.387/.577/.964 (Fielder 700) 2B - .256/.351/.414/.766 (Weeks 400, Counsell 150, McGehee 100) SS - .287/.333/.384/.717 (Escobar 600, Counsell 50) 3B - .261/.327/.408/.736 (McGehee 400, Gamel 200, Counsell 50) LF - .303/.365/.552/.918 (Braun 600, Gerut 75) CF - .267/.329/.402/.731 (Gomez 500, Gerut 150) RF - .270/.332/.453/.785 (Hart 500, Gerut 150) It looks marginally worse, but nowhere near as weak as many on here are making it out to be.

It really isn't reasonable to use WHIP to compare Washburn to Davis. The fatal flaw with WHIP is that it values a walk the same as a single, double, triple, or a home run, when a walk is the least detrimental of the lot. It typically underrates pitchers like Davis, who walk a lot of batters but do a decent job of keeping the ball on the ground, and overrates pitchers like Washburn (or Looper for that matter, who also had a lower WHIP last year than Davis), who tend to give up fewer walks but painful amounts of gopherballs. Washburn is a year older than Davis and has a career xFIP nearly half a run higher. He has benefitted from playing in two parks that tend to give up fewer home runs than either Miller Park or the BoB. As for Garland, do we really need to get into that again?

Wrigley Field does not host football games.

I've heard before that the average ump gets paid $200,000 per year. I have no sources to back that up, though. I wonder if they still have that stupid clause in the contract where they can't show replay in the stadium on close plays. That really irritates me.That's not a half bad haul, if it's accurate. I understand why the umps have that clause in the contract, but I for one think umpires deserve to be ruthlessly heckled when they make asinine calls. Nothing drives productivity like a little good ol' fashioned public humiliation!

http://www.mlbtraderumors...hoice-is-the-angels.html Pending physical. Cue the Randy Wolf and Doug Davis comments

I don't understand this comment. Chone projects the rotation of Gallardo, Wolf, Davis, Bush, Parra to be good for a 4.45 ERA, and that's with Gallardo only throwing 145 innings. It's certainly not elite, but definitely competitive.

A little bit off-topic, but does anyone know how much MLB umps typically make?

Does anybody have an idea how super-twos are typically paid, given the supposed 40-60-80 framework of arbitration? Is it more like 30-50-70-90 for them?

Posted by Tom Haudricourt. http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/82067747.html This is a $300,000 raise from last year. Also notes that Gomez agreed to a one year deal, though the terms are still unknown.

Where Gomez differs from Rodgers is that he has nearly two seasons worth of plate appearances under his belt. Maybe he hasn't proven anything yet, but I'm inclined to believe that he will at best flash a mediocre bat, and likely show some greatness in the field. That's interesting that you talked to Twins fans who were upset about the deal. Every Twins fan I talked to was extremely excited to have Hardy coming their way and didn't seem too upset about losing Gomez.

I don't get the love for Ankiel. He looked completely lost at the plate last year and is not a strong defensive center fielder.

Has anybody else been reading about "The Contest" over at Fangraphs? I think Moore just won.

I'm actually somewhat disappointed with the banter over at gatewayredbirds. Over/under on the length of the standing ovation he gets on opening day?

I guess I don't feel like USA's performance at spring training tournament is any more indicitave of their true talent level than the performance of an MLB team in only 10-15 games.

I think the notion of a drop off due to culture shock is reasonable, but overblown. As a hockey fan, this was given the ultimate test when the Soviet Union fell. Players who defected to the NHL (Pavel Bure, Alexander Mogilny, Sergei Federov, Viacheslav Fetisov, Sergei Makarov, etc.) were immediately stars in the NHL. For those unfamiliar with the strength of Soviet hockey, most people believe CSKA Moscow would have been a strong NHL team. Looking back, it seemed that the NHL needed to adjust to the agility and finesse of these players as much as these players had to adjust to the toughness of hockey across the pond. Makarov is a great player to compare to the Japanese baseball players: he came over at age 32, won the Calder Trophy (rookie of the year), and saw his production steadily decline from age 33 - 36. I know baseball is a different sport, and going from the Soviet Union to North America is different than going from Japan to the U.S., but I still believe this to be strong evidence that athletes do not struggle as much with culture shock as it is often said. The transition from the Japanese game to the U.S. game for pitchers is somewhat similar to the transition from the Soviet game to the North American game: Compared to the Japanese pitchers, North Americans rely much more on power, while the Japanese pitchers typically rely on craftiness, just like the Soviet hockey players relied on finesse, craftiness, and agility rather than the brute force of the Canadians. I'll reiterate that baseball is a far different sport from hockey, but I see little reason to believe that if the two leagues were even close to equally matched, there would be little more than the typical drop in production that comes at that age (see: Makarov, Sergei). As I noted, the difference in playing style should not always hurt the Japanese players, as the MLB'ers must also adjust to their game.

I really doubt a GM would have taken him after Strasburg. I think people are getting way too caught up in 'what Chapman could be' rather than what he is and what he is likely to be. There is simply too much of a risk that Chapman's control issues are never solved to pick him ahead of Strasburg.

Wow, all I can say is that I'm happy the Brewers didn't sign him to that contract. I would be very surprised if Chapman proves himself to be a strong MLB pitcher within the first two years of the deal. As endaround said, this really is like an insane contract for a first round pick. It will be fun to have him in the division, but I wouldn't have minded him being a Cub at that price.

Right, but even just comparing their last season in Japan to their first season in the MLB, there is typically a major drop in production, far more than the typical .3-.5 win which is normal for that age group.