sbrylski

Cabbie?

Just curious what this is based on? He only has 13 career plate appearances, so you couldn't draw any conclusions either way, but even if you relied on that small sample he has a .250 OBP and .200 SLG in those limited opportunities. In the interview he did with Toronto radio, his tone was very apprehensive about batting regularly and he described his career at bats in an almost fearful-sounding way. "You couldn't get me out of the box soon enough ... I don't know how hitters do it." (paraphrase)Probably his college numbers... Sophomore - .354 / .419 / .511 / .930 (223 AB) Junior - .280 / .332 / .427 / .759 (246 AB) That was back in '02-'03. I'm guessing he'll be above average for a pitcher, but that's about it.

Stop yelling, NWS.

Pretty neat facility. I like the beach beyond the fence in left and center. http://www.brownmarine.com/graphics/mp02.jpg

Beast... If Pitcher X had a 4.50 ERA in the American League. Pitcher Y had a 4.50 ERA in the National League. Which player would you pay more for?

Love it. 11:$4.25M, 12:$7M club option ($2M buyout), 13:$9M club option ($1.5M buyout), 14:$12M club option ($1M buyout) Those club options have performance bonuses, however, which could balloon the price to $44m over those four seasons (but if he's winning Cy Young's, which is part of the bonus structure, I don't think we'll care.)

Maybe he speaks both English and Spanish.

I googled the text and found the scouting report portion also on this site: http://www.baseballrumormill.com/players/mike-minor/ Probably not where he got it from though, given the extra text in his post. The only reason I'm telling you about this site is so I can post the single comment made by a reader on that page: We gotta get him!

A favorite baseball anecdote... (it's a true story, but for the life of me can't remember who this is about.) An observed asked a baseball coach how he planned to construct his team. Would he favor players with good bats, or players with good gloves? The coach responded, "When does a player use his hitting skills?" "When his team is on offense," the observer replied. "And when does a player use his fielding abilities?" "When his team is on defense." "But when," the coach asked, "is a player able to use his speed?" "On both offense and defense," the observer admitted. "Correct. I am going to build my team to be fleet of foot." And sure enough, the coach signed all the speedsters he could find and created the fastest last-place team the league has ever seen.

Very glad DM is holding out for Minor, if the demand is Cain. I highly doubt the Braves would cave on that though.

The bad part is they are going to sign a terrible player to a major league contract, likely indicating serious interest in giving him at-bats.

His 23.9% CS rate isn't very impressive either. This is a head-scratcher.

That's a Ziggy.

Though I think he's talked up a little too much by some here, Garza is definitely a nice target. However, I don't really think he's worth going after if we have to do a Cain-Upton swap. Apart from the money Upton will start to earn, his OBP the last two seasons was .313 and .322. Also, don't forget this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEgmW8IPb88 I don't really want anything to do with him.

To trade essentially trade Fielder for another player with just one year left on his contract would just be counterproductive. Melvin's in a bit of panic mode right now, I fear. I'm afraid he's not even willing to accept prospects that won't help this season in return for Prince.

If he's cheap, sure. But he is what he is. High projections for him would be .290 / .360 / .430 / .790. I don't think he would really be an improvement over a Gamel-McGehee manned corner IF.

Prince for Lawrie and Villanueva?

Well there's the Brewers' #1 prospect and then there's guys like Mike Stanton. Stanton is on an entirely different plane prospect wise than Lawrie. Also, Marcum is better that a #3 starter.

To extend Marcum? I think you're talking something more like $60 over four.

Marcum is a flat-out good pitcher, despite lacking velocity on his fastball. His changeup is absolutely sick. Fangraphs advanced metrics had it ranked second in the league behind King Felix last season. Marcum was 7th in the entire MLB in swinging strike rate at 10.9%, so he's excellent at making hitters miss. He also had a 1.98 BB/9 rate last season, good for 5th in the entire MLB. That's a heck of a combo. Finally, he also sported the 11th best out-of-zone swing rate, so gets people to chase too. He's not just pounding the zone which could lead to some ugly innings. Also, consider the fact that it was his first full season back from Tommy John surgery. In 2009, he tossed just 15.2 innings. So, we should have expected Marcum to probably hit a bit of a wall in 2010 at some point, right? In his first 125 innings, he had a 3.24 ERA. And, sure enough, over the final two months of the season he had a 4.35 ERA, though even that's not bad considering his schedule. (Yankees, Boston x3, Tampa x2, Rangers) I'm not even sure you could call that stretch hitting a wall either, because the only rate that really changed was his HR rate, despite his GB% staying about the same. K/9 and BB/9 were nearly exactly the same over the last two months of the season. One thing I can say for sure is that he's healthy as an ox at the moment. Marcum's a 98 mph blow-you-away fastball away from being a Cy Young candidate every year. That's never going to come, but it doesn't have to. He'll slot in wonderfully as our #2. I'm excited to have him. Questions to ask... Was the price we paid too much for just two seasons of Marcum? You'll have to debate what you think Lawrie truly is to answer that. As in, can he handle second base? Would his bat be anything special in a corner outfield spot? Secondly, is Marcum still a health risk? He has a bit of an "inverted w" delivery in that picture above. Hopefully that's pre-TJ surgery and he's fixed that post-op.

Oof.

KC Star's Bob Dutton suggesting a Greinke-for-Braun swap: http://www.kansascity.com/2010/12/04/2497673/speculation-on-greinke-deals-should.html I'm guessing that will have a very cool reception here.

HOw did Qatar lose a vote between rounds one and two?

This is a good article that explains the decision to award Qatar pretty well: Qatar: From obscure desert kingdom to World Cup host Solar-power cooled stadiums. Some will be modular and be dismantled after the Cup, and then transported and reconstructed in developing countries.

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