Funketown

Segura has been great this year and looks to have a very bright future. Saying it's Trout and it's not even that close isn't a slight to Segura, Harper, and Machado. Trout has been historically dominant. The following is a list of the greatest age 20-21 seasons of all time. Mike Trout is halfway through his second season, so most of the guys on the list have 200-300 more PA's than him. He's 3rd in WAR and 4th in wRC+. The top ten players on the list for WAR age 20-21 (lifetime fWAR rank in parentheses) are: Mel Ott (15), Rogers Hornsby (9), Mike Trout (TBD), Alex Rodriguez (14), Ted Williams (8), Al Kaline (25), Ty Cobb (3), Jimmie Foxx (19), Frank Robinson (18), and Ken Griffey Jr (39). I have no clue what Trout will end up doing, but what he's done up to his age 21 season is absurd. Segura, Machado, and Harper all have a chance to be great. Trout already is, and he's 21 years old. http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=bat&lg=all&qual=600&type=8&season=2013&month=0&season1=1871&ind=0&team=0&rost=0&age=20,21&filter=&players=0

I imagine this probably is just a spot MLB start for him, as a couple of Narveson, Estrada, Burgos, and Figaro should be back within the next two weeks. I'm curious to watch him, but his AAA numbers are pretty underwhelming. Perhaps his low K%/low BABIP could be explained by MiLB players just trying to make contact off a guy who has far nastier "stuff" than they're used to seeing, though I'm skeptical of that. But any way you slice it, walking worse than 5 per 9 innings is not good in AAA or anywhere.

Trout. A better question is Trout or Segura and Machado.

Game - whereabouts are you moving this time around?

We've lived in Chapel Hill for the past two years and we really like it. I haven't spent a lot of time in Raleigh but it's supposed to be a pretty nice city for a larger city. It has fairly low crime rates and the populace is very well educated. I suspect that public schools in Raleigh are fairly good because of this, but I'm not quite sure of this. As far as culture, I don't think Raleigh feels particularly Southern these days. It's ballooned from just over 200,000 people about fifteen years ago to well over 400,000, with many of those migrants coming from further north (Cary is Raleigh's largest suburb, and is nicknamed "Containment Area for Relocated Yankees"). The weather is really nice if you don't like the cold (I lived 22 years in WI/IA and had enough of snow!). July/August can be pretty brutal, but it's worth it to be able to watch a NCAA baseball game on a 65' sunny day in mid-February! I really have no idea what goes on in Raleigh as far as "stuff to do" outside of sports, but if you like hockey, Hurricanes tickets can be had pretty cheap just about any time they have a home game. From downtown Raleigh, you can be on the campus of UNC, Duke, or NC State within about a half hour, so it's hard to beat the area if you're a college basketball fan. Also, UNC has one of the best college baseball programs in the country right now (Matt Harvey!) and you can get great seats for a family of four to an ACC clash for about $30. Tampa Bay's AAA affiliate is the Durham Bulls and they have a really nice ballpark, so Bulls games are pretty fun if you like baseball (I'm assuming you do). Another thing we really like here is the proximity to the coast. It's only about 2 hours from Raleigh to Wrightsville Beach and a few more minutes to Topsail Island, and I love going down there for the spring and fall fishing seasons. It's also only about four hours to the nicer/non-touristy areas of the mountains as well.

Rulebook question: After a start less than five innings, I've always heard that the win is given to the most effective reliever. Usually when a starter is pulled before five innings he hasn't been effective. But, could they technically award Hand the win in today's game? He certainly deserves his first major league win with this nice performance.

Mike Fox has done an incredible job with UNC's baseball program since his arrival (UNC only appeared in 4 CWS before 2006; they've been in six of the past eight). But I just don't see the point of leaving Johnson out there in a blowout. He was only at I think 110 pitches or so when they took the 6-0 lead. I'm sure the kid had his adrenaline pumping and wanted to get back out there, but the game was in the bag at that point. Same thing goes for Rodon in the first UNC-NCSU game, he threw 110 pitches despite the game being over by the end of the 6th inning or so. I honestly have no idea how college players hit eight HR's off Carlos Rodon this season. I'm already excited for his trip to Chapel Hill next season!

This is great news, because I'm probably next on the depth chart after Donovan Hand, who has started only four games from 2010-2013.

I always enjoyed El Caballo. If the Brewers had known before the season that Hart would be out for 3+ months, it might have been worth it to make an offer to Lee for two years at $3-4 million as a bench guy and 1B, but I don't know what type of money he was looking for.

He caught Doug Melvin selling US military secrets to Dayton Moore.

Hobbs Johnson starting for Carolina tomorrow vs. NCSU in an elimination game at 7 central.

I'm pretty much just interested in good beers that are new to the past year or so. Basically anything good which isn't an IPA variant, Stout/Porter variant, preferably something good for the 90+ degree July heat down here (hence why I'd kill for a Berliner Weiss). I bought a Sam Adams summer pack because it was cheap and I'd only tried the Boston Lager. Probably not a good purchase. Usually their samplers have one stinker and the rest is solid, but their shandy tastes like Lemon Gatorade (I've had two prepackaged Shandys now, Leinie's taste like RealLemon). Their blueberry fruit beer was just cloyingly sweet and sticky.

Halton has outhit Morris this season in AAA and he's a year older and has already spent over a year in AAA. I'd like to see Morris continue to get some time in AAA so Halton seems like a pretty decent option right now for the next few weeks (or months...) until Hart gets back. He's pretty much guaranteed to be an upgrade over what they've thrown out there.

wRC+ by year: 2011 (A+): 104 2012 (AA): 99 2013 (AAA): 88 It's not really a matter of opinion, he has pretty much been an average hitter in the minor leagues. Yeah, he hits for a high average, but he has almost no power and draws very few walks. His MiLB production is nowhere near Hart's: Hart (A+, age 20): .288/.356/.573/.928 --- .300/.334/.406/.740 (A+, age 21) Gennett Hart (AA, age 20-21): .296/.340/.450/.790 --- .293/.330/.385/.714 (AA, age 22) Gennett Hart (AAA, age 22-24): .296/.363/.516/.879 --- .297/.342/.376/.719 (AAA, age 23) Gennett

Okay folks, my parents are driving down to NC to help us move in a few weeks and I'm looking to have them bring us down some beer. I've already got them bringing a couple of sixers of Dancing Man and a bunch of NG Berliner Weiss (love that style, had theirs first time around and remember it being great). Anyway, does anybody have any recs for really really good Wisconsin beers that are relatively new or limited release? I'd like to have them grab a couple of variety sixers so I can keep up to date with the beer of my homeland!

His name is also auto corrected to fatties.

In 2012 the Rays were 6th in UZR and 25th in Fielding %. The Indians were 9th in Fielding % and 29th in UZR. So I don't think it's that uncommon for teams with a low fielding percentage to be above average defensively.

Anybody following? Rough weekend for top seeds. Vanderbilt, Florida State, Virginia, and CSF are all out already. UNC and Oregon State still have elimination games. I'm going to try to make it to UNC's game tomorrow, but even after two rainouts and the final being pushed to tomorrow, tickets are going for $50-$100. Not too many top picks still in the tourney. Colin Moran (6th, UNC) and Hunter Renfroe (13th, MSU) will hopefully both be in Omaha. Hobbs Johnson (UNC) and Ryan Deeter (UCLA) are the only two Brewers draft picks remaining.

His batting line this season is .240/.319/.500. Granted his BABIP is far below his career norms but I can see why the Brewers brass might rather keep him in AAA for the time being. IMO, the big mistake with the 1B situation was not acquiring an Ishikawa type of player.

FYI, Hobbs Johnson is starting for Carolina today against little Carolina.

He would be Lance Armstrong Extra Lite. Throwing the collector under the bus was bad, but Lance Armstrong ruined a lot of careers, and by all means was a pretty brutal guy. What Braun did was bad (assuming he was even partially dishonest) but nowhere in the realm Of Lance.

Big 3 points on the road. Couldn't stay up to midnight for this ne but sounds like a thriller at the end. Four games in, three on the road including Mexico, and seven points is quite good. A couple of home wins vs the likes of Panama and Jamaica and they'll just about be in.

I never knew Colin Moran is BJ Surhoff's nephew. Huh.

Dear Bud Selig, I think I just saw Joey Votto, Shin-Soo Choo, Brandon Phillips, Homer Bailey, Matt Latos, Mike Leake, Matt Carpenter, Yadier Molina, Carlos Beltran, Matt Holliday, Jaime Garcia, Adam Wainwright, Lance Lynn, Andrew McCutchen, Starling Marte, Russell Martin, Jason Grilli, AJ Burnett, and Francisco Liriano buying HGH from Yuniesky Betancourt. Sincerely, Anonymous Brewers Fan

This made me chuckle, from deadspin: "The text of the drug agreement between labor and management can be found here; page seven spells out punishable acts, among which “Be accused of buying drugs from a wellness quack with his head in a hangman's noose” is not to be found."