sveumrules

let's similarly compare the last ten super bowls... 08 | PIT vs ARI 07 | NE vs NYG 06 | IND vs CHI 05 | PIT vs SEA 04 | NE vs PHI 03 | NE vs CAR 02 | OAK vs TB 01 | NE vs STL 00 | BAL vs NYG 99 | TEN vs STL so by my count that is 15 of 30 MLB franchises to make the world series in the last ten years and 14 of 32 for the NFL. for you "stat-heads" out there that's a .500 DFAIBG for the MLB vs a .438 DFAIBG for the NFL over the last ten years. is baseball's current system perfect? far from it. obviously the large markets have more financial flexibility and the smaller markets have to be extremely careful. with some minor tweaks (the bill james idea brought up earlier in the thread is a perfect example) it could certainly be improved upon further still. at the same time it is exactly this necessary difference of approach that makes following a small market team like the brewers so appealing for me in the first place. it just seems like being a NYY fan would be really boring. it's also worth noting that baseball has by far the most active and exciting trade market/hot stove action of any pro sports league. the caps in the NBA and NFL have essentially killed that for both leagues with every NBA trade revolving around salary as opposed to talent and most NFL trades revolving around draft picks instead of players for player swaps. how long ago was bailey for portis? i also am pretty sure if during negotiations for the next CBA in the NFL that the players came out and said they'd play for minimum wage their first three years and then go to three years of arbys before hitting unrestricted free agency that the owners would have no problem with getting rid of the salary cap.

i think they should do a pitchers of mexico series and have yo, teddy higuera and juan nieves. if cameron resigns i'd guess he might be a candidate and they'll probably do one for prince breaking the franchise rbi mark. maybe a todd coffey and the limited edition version would be him with ultimate warrior facepaint?

as of june 10th, the start after his injury in florida, david bush had an era of 4.58 as of july 22 jeff suppan had an era of 4.71. his next start he gave up 10 ER and promptly went on the DL. i'd say prior to being injured both of them were pitching pretty much exactly to what expectations should have been coming into the year.

i find it hard to believe someone with a 1.000 career MLB average (2.000 career OPS!) cleared waivers.

3TO UPDATE! BRANYAN .460 the real battle for the 3TO crown is currently between DUNN (.511) and REYNOLDS (.514) it would seem, however.

dennis hopper as frank booth in blue velvet.

could we perhaps see...gasp...THREE starts in a row for rivera?

andrew mccuctchen only had an MLE of 258/303/404 yet he has somehow managed to put up a MLB line of 293/359/488. are the steroids that much better in the bigs or could it maybe be that MLE's are even less reliable than preseason predictions? i still can't believe that the marlins ran hanley ramirez out there to win rookie of the year in 06 after only putting up a 271/335/385 line in his previous minor league season. also, how much damage did it to do cliff lee's trade value getting sent down to the minors?

Just want to throw my two favorites out there that i haven't seen mentioned yet in the thread, Veeck As In Wreck and Only The Ball Was White. I can read and reread these books over and over again. Also liked a couple of Bill Lee books i got from the library a couple years ago, but can't recall the titles off the top.

well if gamel (.336/.407) is never gonna hit in the bigs maybe we can trade him for wieters, since he'll never hit in the bigs either, .319/.386 so far. i guess the two questions i would have for the gamel doubters at this point are what were your expectaions for his first 100ish PAs? and why alter any expectaions you had previously based off such a small sample and fluky K rate in the first place?

i'm sure lots of you have already seen this, but this video does a pretty great job of summing up the attitude most in the NBA have towards the good land of mil-ee-wau-kay.

that is pretty rad. too bad he didn't give you one of his affliction shirts as a wedding present. cool shirts.

crew07, could you be thinking of inspector gadget. as in, go go gadget arm!!! arnett with 1 2/3 ip and 5 strikeouts. that'll help the old k/9.

pull over, sir. it's the small sample police. i'm most disappointed the royals "weren't motivated" to move bannister, myself. we probably could have gotten him without moving any of the BIG three and he'd be under team control/relatively cheap for a few more years.

you'd have to guess heether would get the call. maybe the hurricane or bourgeois, though that'd be a slap in the face of all the hard working proletariat out there. or do they call up axford and go with a 14 man staff?

that seems perfect to me. i predicted Hardy/Schaefer/Brewer earlier in the thread as it gives Jack Z the rangy CFer which seems to be his current MO in seattle and Brewer who is a high upside, boom/bust type who Z liked enough to draft in the 2nd round not too long ago. and i agree with you 100% socal that Thatcher was far and away better for SD than Linebrink was for us in 07. (oddly enough most of his success came against RHB to the tune of a .151/.196/.181 line over 56 PA's) i guess it's just a pet peeve of mine when people say the trade was a failure or fiasco as it was the right move to make at the time. i too thought Inman was too high a price to pay for a 1/2 season of bullpen work but he's looking a lot more Hendrickson than Gallardo at this point and time which softens the blow a bit and only further lessens the COLOSSAL FAILURE of a trade that people still seem to cling to that being.

maybe we could just start pitching YO on three days rest for the remainder of the season?

that's great looking back at this point, but there was no baseline for thatcher's performance to be that extraordinary (based on what he's done since i would say a better adjective might even be lucky). imagine right now if doug had a presser and said "well, we could have traded a few spare parts for an established MLB bullpen arm but instead we're gonna go with this guy who we just plucked out of the indy leagues and hope he throws the luckiest 21 innings of his life."

Bedard for Jones, Tillman & Sherrill. That is a fiasco. Linebrink had the third best bullpen ERA on the team after his acquisition, behind CoCo and Shouse. Inman and Garrison have thrown ZERO mlb innings to this point. ZERO. Thatcher (career 67 IP, 4.18 FIP) was a redundancy with Stetter in the system (career 63 IP, 4.12 FIP). Does anyone seriously think Melvin would even entertain the notion of trading Escobar for Washburn when he wouldn't for Halladay?

i'm guessing the final package ends up as washburn/morrow for hardy/schaefer/brewer.

lots of photography stores offer this service, i believe. or you could try TNT.

with the catcher, pitcher (pinch hitter?) and taveras coming up at least yo is gonna get to face the 8, 9 and 10 hitters next inning.

which defensive outfield previals? upton-werth-hawpe? crawford-granderson-jones?

for any curious parties... bill hall vs lhp 2009 242/262/403! bill hall vs ted lilly career 143/250/143! that is all.

let's give stetter a shot at the rotation. i'm only half serious.