sbrylski

We were 5-for-6 from behind the arc about halfway through the first half, and he dropped their defense into a 2-3 zone.

Cold Bench League Yup, I'm starting it. I've set it up on ESPN. The details: Up to 15 teams: NL Players Only More than 15 teams: All MLB Players *I'm pooling interest elsewhere than BF.net as well Hitting Categories: OBP, R, HR, RBI, SB Pitching Categories: W, ERA, K, WHIP, SV Rosters: C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, CIF, MIF, LF, CF, RF, OF, OF, SP, SP, SP, SP, SP, RP, RP, P - 8 DL spots Scoring: Rotisserie Draft: Online Auction To Sign Up: State your interest here or via PM, and send me your email address.

I guess we know why DM hates to go to arbitration - he stinks at it. Wouldn't be surprised to see another holdout or two next season just to keep testing him.

Tremendous.

Yay! I did some minor editing for it this year, and I work part-time for the website.

So if I want to start a league, I suppose I'll put it here. I was only in one league last season (BF.net Keeper, Year 5 on Yahoo!), and I would feel too guilty to play again - I lose interest setting daily lineups and usually miss month's of the season once the summer hits. So I'm going to start a league tailored perfectly for my play style. The two founding concepts of my league will be: (1) No bench spots, many DL spots. (2) NL-only, unless I get a bunch of people who want to play. I think I'd also prefer rotisserie over head-to-head, but I'd be willing to go with what people want to do. But here's the reason for the two rules - no tedious lineup changes, yet to succeed your player knowledge will need to be deeper than in your average league. Put another way, I'm favoring long-term investments in players rather than continually picking up and benching guys on hot streaks. At minimum for starters, I was thinking: C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, CIF, MIF, LF, CF, RF, OF, OF ... 5 SP, 3 RP. I would add more spots if we want to make the player pool even deeper, but remember it will probably be NL-only. Any critiques? Anyone want to play? I'll probably run it on ESPN, Yahoo, or RotoWire.

I thought he was already deceased. Odd.

I'm sorry to report that I think Weeks' repeated injuries have just about drained his upside. I think he can still be an average everyday player, but I am no longer expecting big things from him. He just relies on his wrists too much. I think he ends up playing out his remaining two years of service with the Brewers as a .260 / .340 / .420 guy, and we hopefully have a smooth transition to Lawrie.

You can get them just about anywhere in Green Bay, even convenience stores. I'm actually surprised you have to ask. Maybe Milwaukee isn't so great after all.

Pending physical?

I used to like Conan a lot, but he's just decent now. I'm really warming up to Craig Ferguson, he might be the best of all the late shows right now. Thumbs up on Conan to Comedy Central.

Am I way off or would it be correct to think Leuer would be able to return around the start of the conference tournament? That's the beginning of March, a good seven weeks.

Whether or not they are motivated to move him doesn't enter into my point. I'm talking only about targeting an injured player in a trade, and that the team that owns an injured player or one coming off injury has an advantage at the negotiating table because they have much more complete medical information. Therefore, we shouldn't be targeting Liriano or Slowey. Baker I like, but I don't agree the Twins want to move him to save money - like fleehaw said, they just signed him to an extension.

What about his other 62 major league starts? Should we count those? I do think you're right though, that Blackburn trumps Swarzack, especially in the Twins eyes.

I think the Twins valuation of Liriano and the Brewers valuation of Liriano wouldn't match up and allow for a trade. Expanding on that, same thing with Slowey, because of the injury. On Liriano and Slowey, the fact that the Twins would agree to trade either of them should raise a flag. From the outside looking in, with incomplete information on the injuries they have had, we can only play the odds - 75% chance Slowey picks up where he left off, 50% chance Liriano become an ace again, or whatever. The Twins have a much better idea of those odds, maybe 90% for Slowey and 5% for Liriano, for example. If the Twins offer Slowey, for what we believe is fair (remember we believe he's 75% likely for a full recovery), doesn't that signal that the chance of him actually recovering (as known by the Twins) is either 75% or lower? That means there's a decent chance we are buying a lemon, and should probably stay away. But the Twins, in this example, think that Slowey has a 90% chance of recovering... they are going to want to be compensated that full amount. Why would the Brewers pay for 90% of Slowey when our best guess is that we are only buying 75% of Slowey. Hell, the Twins can ask for whatever % of Slowey they want to, can't they? And its always going to be higher than the actual %, because they can take advantage of our incomplete information. That was not very articulate, was it? Just trying to demonstrate the advantage of having the better medical records on a player in trade talks, and why injured players don't get traded much.

Thank you but no thanks. Swarczak would be OK but not what I would expect in return for Gamel. Blackburn is a 4+ ERA pitcher no matter what league you put him in. I do not see why you would target Blackburn in return for Gamel. Liriano makes more sense to trade for than Blackburn does. At best Blackburn is a #4 type of a starter while Liriano at best is a #1 and at worst would be a #4 or #5 type of a starter. Liriano definitely has more value to the Brewers and other teams than Blackburn. Blackburn is nothing special while Liriano can be an ace.I'm speaking from the Twins perspective, and what I think they would offer. I think the Twins valuation of Liriano and the Brewers valuation of Liriano wouldn't match up and allow for a trade.

Slowey's coming off wrist surgery, so I think that makes him considerably less of a realistic target. And Liriano's fastball just isn't the same after his injury. (EDIT: Just read the Liriano thread and saw the updates. Still don't think they would want risk going after a guy like that with Gamel.) I think we'd be looking at a Blackburn or Swarzack in return for Gamel.

This would be a great low-risk signing.

Yeah, but they already have an expensive 3B on the roster. So they paid that not for Beltre, but for Beltre's value minus Lowell's value. Lowell over the past three seasons has seen his WAR go from 5.3 to 3.2 to 1.2. Beltre has been from 3.0 to 4.1 to 2.4. So let's say Lowell would have been a 2 win player for them this season and Beltre will come in and be a 3 win player. $10 million for an extra win is hardly a tremendous pickup. They need to shed at least around $5 million of Lowell's $12 million salary in a trade to make this worthwhile.

I second the Lineville exit. If the park-and-ride is full, that Shopko parking lot (just a quarter-mile west of the highway) is enormous because they're preparing for more retail construction.

Wow, they did an excellent job on the snow removal. Is that a heated field or something?

His career GB:FB is 2.26. His new home park shouldn't effect him too much.

Yeah, we should be convinced he can start before we offer anything substantial for him. He still has strong value as a reliever, but the price should drop.

Morrow's rather capped given his poor FB ratio, something unlikely to improve without adding a new pitch. So even if he drops his BB/9 rate, I tend to see him max out as an inconsistent 4.00 ERA pitcher, fluctuating as his HR/FB blows in the wind. Now that's not a bad ceiling at all, though I would think (and hope) we could get him without Gamel. I'd think Salome and Hart (if they don't get Bay) or another prospect could be enough.

Are the Mariners really a Cliff Lee away from competing in the divisinon? Seems like Jack Z is jumping the gun on the rebuild just a little. It'll be interesting to see if he also is able to bring in Jason Bay.