- 07:56 AM
- 04/24/24
What happens when these players that are drafted in the late rounds realized that they’re good? They are likely to demand more money. Then what happens? They either get the money which the market demands (set by the Chicago/NYC/LA teams) or they leave town via a trade or free agency. and you keep on developing talent to replace them, bag man. it's time for teams to quit complaining and just do. if you stop developing talent and you begin to lose, you've no one to blame but yourself. i never said everything is perfect. the steroid testing agreed upon by both the player's union and MLB is pathetically weak. but with regards to "competitive balance," i'd rather teams try to be more creative rather than whine about their cashflow. it's worked for oakland: by now there's no excuse not to follow their lead. i'm sick of hearing about this crap, quite frankly.
posted by moz at 02:33 PM on August 13, 2002
bag man: Moz, while it is true that any farm system does constantly produce talent, constant talent production does not translate into competitiveness. neither does keeping your "best" players. the yankees thought they ought to keep chuck knoblauch, didn't they? how about sterling hitchcock? Further, the Yankees might not be able to afford to draft stars in the first place and or the Yankees would have to trade them a away after their deafted talent developed. you know, bag man, there's a reason why MLB's draft is 50 rounds: it's unpredictable. do you know how many stars have flopped on the way to the majors? chad hermanson? chat hutchinson, for that matter? rick ankiel? travis lee? josh hamilton looked like hot shit in the tampa bay organization: after two straight years of injury trouble, though, his major league career is in serious doubt. forget about drafting the big money stars: sometimes it works out and sometimes not. even the yankees have been victims of that (remember wily mo pena?).
posted by moz at 12:19 PM on August 13, 2002
That's easy to say, but what happens when you can't afford to do that? you keep developing new talent. baseball isn't sex, and the playoffs aren't an orgasm. you don't ever stop producing talent in your farm system. Moz, it’s irrelevant that the Yankees developed most of their talent because they’re one only a few teams in baseball that could afford to keep such talent. why is it irrelevant? even if they lost their good players, they should (and do) develop more of it. new york's style is to use its good players in the minor leagues as trade bait: the jeff weaver trade is a good example. both john-ford griffin and john arnold were well thought of in the ny organization. i don't see the difference between keeping good players and developing more as one being better than other: i see them as simple preferences. like i said, new york's preference is to keep its talent; like i said, it isn't always the best philosophy. If the Expos/Royals/Tigers developed those players would be gone in a few years. Moz, if you want a perfect example, look at the Expos teams of early and mid 1990s. If the Expos were blessed with cash they might kept D. Martinez, R. Johnson, L. Walker, M. Alou, J. Wetland, T. Torrasco (Sp.?), M. Lanscing (Sp.?), M. Grudzielanek, and others. That woud have been some team. and whose fault is that? why, the dumbass teams that stopped producing such talent. even with the parity of the NFL, teams in that league must still be well-run to succeed consistently. the only consistency of the royals has been their gross stupidity. randy johnson was dealt for mark langston at a time when the expos were contending (1989), i thought. in which case, that's certainly their fault. and... tony tarasco?
posted by moz at 11:14 PM on August 12, 2002
you know: it's too bad that steinbrenner has so much money to play with. it is, because in spite of that, his organization is managed by some good people who understand how to develop great teams. a lot of the good players on the yankees were developed by the organization itself: mariano rivera; derek jeter; jorge posada; bernie williams; alfonso soriano; andy pettite. it's staggering what the yankees have done for themselves. new york made choices that they did not have to make. new york chose to keep players it developed, like jeter and williams, rather than continually develop new players and thus keep their payroll low. is that the best decision? it isn't always. it's just the preference of the organization, and i don't think it's right to rake ny over the coals for it. personally, i think detractors should get over the amount of money that steinbrenner spends. a smartly run organization, such as the oakland athletics, can contend: billy beane and his people have proven that. don't give me examples like the brewers and the royals: they're run like shit. if you gave them money, you'd have the mid-late 80s version of the yankees. there is a revolution in MLB. it started with oakland, and with new york; people stopped worrying about batting average and started worrying about OBP. people stopped worrying about strikeouts and started worrying about SLG. the revolution is spreading, finally. it hasn't caught up with the royals: they still think they live in the mid 80s, when many teams had astroturf and no-slug wonders like the cardinals could perennially contend. new york strays, because they have the money to make mistakes, but oakland can't afford to. when kansas city realizes that they needn't pay roberto hernandez if a joe borowski can put up better numbers, they'll have made progress. give them all the money in the world, and it probably wouldn't matter.
posted by moz at 03:57 PM on August 12, 2002
i've always like former pittsburgh pirate "Dick Groat."
posted by moz at 09:12 PM on July 12, 2002
notice amonte's points have suffered from year to year; the trend continued, despite a better team playing with him this year (and a standout center in zhamnov).
posted by moz at 09:10 PM on July 12, 2002
according with, i should say.
posted by moz at 10:39 AM on July 08, 2002
i'll give the cubs credit for signing alou. despite his many injuries, alou has always played at a high level; his early-season dropoff was very unfortunate and not according to his history. (for the months of june and july, alou is hitting .316 with an OBP of .376 in june and .350 in july. his SLG in those months have been .490 and .737 respectively. the blunders this season was trusting jeff fassero to anything other than long-relief mop-up duty and trusting mcgriff would still hit. mcgriff, in particular, was brought in to win last year and not this year, but he has been batting better lately.
posted by moz at 10:39 AM on July 08, 2002
i think that's a no about shane matthews. take it from someone who knows.
posted by moz at 10:31 AM on July 08, 2002
the luxury tax is a dollar-for-dollar penalty on a team over the cap, adam. if you are $10 million dollars over the cap, you must also pay $10 million dollars to the NBA in tax.
posted by moz at 04:43 PM on July 05, 2002
today's game against the cubs has been cancelled, and tomorrow's may be as well. Kile was once the ace of the staff, but had been relegated to #2 with the emergence of Matt Morris. His career ERA, 4.12, is high only because of his association with the Colorado Rockies. practically speaking, the cardinals may now promote Bud Smith and may do well with his talent. i don't know what will happen with the team's hopes. if they soldier on for their teammate, they could still win with Smith. if they remain in shock over what's happened, they may drop into the middle of the division. they have reached a turning point; that much is true i think.
posted by moz at 03:40 PM on June 22, 2002
all i know is that mexico's team consists of a bunch of really sore losers. i don't know if that's prevalent througout the world cup teams. but, please. whining that the US team "didn't really play to win, but not to lose (they just got lucky)"? whatever.
posted by moz at 02:59 PM on June 18, 2002
yer: i was thinking that a player that uses steroids would likely be a fairly big person that has also had a history of injury (since steroids supposedly cause the body to break down). what about rondell white?
posted by moz at 02:08 PM on June 07, 2002
i wouldn't be surprised if eric karros is one of the steroid users. perhaps mo vaughn (or, for that matter, greg vaughn)?
posted by moz at 11:44 AM on June 07, 2002
i have realized that i don't really respect anything with the term "cyber" in it.
posted by moz at 12:15 PM on June 04, 2002
this isn't quite a veeckian promotion yet, mostly because it lacks the mike (who is now with detroit: fear!). it's a great idea, though.
posted by moz at 10:25 AM on May 28, 2002
an article on baseball prospectus did mention a past drug bust in december with jeremy (pot). and either neyer or bp did mention that this trade was so spectacularly lopsided that it was, in a way, intentionally a message that they were unhappy with giambi. that is to say, it wasn't the usual kind of bad trade teams make (jason lane for pat mahomes? why, i shall make that trade with you, sir!). most teams don't understand how easy it is to find relief help, but they mostly all do understand how easy it is to find bench help, and certainly oakland does.
posted by moz at 12:41 PM on May 24, 2002
mark grace doesn't wear batting gloves (unless it's really cold).
posted by moz at 12:44 AM on May 24, 2002
the giambi for mabry trade is the worst trade of beane's i've ever seen. the only saving grace could be if giambi has a very large contract, and i don't believe he does. on first blush, it looks really, really awful. awful the way that anakin's actor in episode two performed.
posted by moz at 10:24 PM on May 22, 2002
the bulls will be much improved next year, with or without jay williams. jerry's been "salivating" over yao ming, actually, but it's been my experience that krause sends out smoke screens to the media regarding who he wants. personally, i think he should trade the pick for either baron davis or wally sczerbiak, and personally, i think he's been so burnt on sticking with the draft lately that he may well do so.
posted by moz at 02:18 PM on May 20, 2002
did i mention that the cardinals beat the cubs in that game? this is weak.
posted by moz at 05:08 PM on May 09, 2002
well, i suppose the alternative would be to not retaliate. but who'd think of doing that? (seriously.)
posted by moz at 10:52 AM on May 08, 2002
hmm...
posted by moz at 10:52 PM on May 07, 2002
rupe sounds like he was having some control issues. was this game the one that castillo went 8 IP? doesn't sound like he had any control problems (if so).
posted by moz at 08:10 PM on May 07, 2002
i love that he used the word "fornicate." i should try that at my next party. "hello, miss. you sure look nice. i would like to fornicate with you most earnestly." perhaps she would answer "yes. fornication is a joy for me. let us to the back, frolick and fornicate."
posted by moz at 12:33 PM on May 06, 2002
i do not like marv albert saying Oh! He gave them a facial! please stop him from saying that. ever. otherwise, i like the kings over the mavericks (defense and offense beats lots of offense and no defense). i think boston will beat detroit; i'm hoping anyway (i realize both are underdogs in a sense, but after all those years of the pistons blocking out the bulls from the finals, the pistons can piss up a flagpole for all i care). new jersey over charlotte (kidd, van horn, martin versus baron davis and hmm...). and LA takes the spurs. downtown. but not with a facial!
posted by moz at 12:10 PM on May 06, 2002
i think this is crap of the mariners. if you ever watch a broadcast of or go to a game between the white sox and the cubs, you see "CUBS SUCK" and "SOX SUCK" tee shirts all over. no one at the parks care.
posted by moz at 01:08 PM on May 02, 2002
they aren't so desperate that they want bledsoe's contract, tieguy.
posted by moz at 01:00 AM on April 23, 2002
the "security purposes" was merely politicese (not that i blame the cubs -- in this case, i think they're right to fight the property owners). i think embarassing a pitcher in front of several thousand fans is pretty low class, and -- like i said -- good riddance. i think the idea of the cubs or the sox are bush league is many years outdated.
posted by moz at 02:26 PM on April 18, 2002
jay gibbons was a good pickup for the orioles; the batista one is not all that great. batista has a very nice SLG, but terribly poor OBP. i agree with you; i think the orioles have made some awful free agent signings, largely because anyone they enter into contract with right now for much money will be gone or useless by the time the orioles field a good team again. the orioles have made a lot of trades to try to get talent in return, but they did not get any upper-middle tier or better prospects. in fact, they practically gave one away to the Blue Jays (Jayson Werth) and that was back when the Blue Jays were still being run by Gord Ash. i wish i could tell you reinforcements were coming for the orioles. all that can really be done is to cross one's fingers and pray some of their ok guys turn out well in the future.
posted by moz at 11:02 PM on April 10, 2002
i'm not sure how the orioles could possibly have fielded a good team with Syd Thrift as a general manager. there's just no talent in upper management with the team. i'm sure angelos would love for there not to be a team in DC, but Kornheiser et. al are accusing the village idiot of faking it when, in fact, the idiot's just being himself.
posted by moz at 11:03 AM on April 10, 2002
rcade: Cal Ripken (Sr.) was fired after the same number of games in Baltimore. i think the year was 88? randy smith had over 5 years to make a bad farm system better, but detroit hasn't really brought up the caliber of players smith should have developed. bad trades are one thing, but detroit never had a great and large group of young players. it seems to me their most recent success story was jose lima; before him, travis fryman; before him -- john smoltz. (am i missing anyone?) the thing which makes me laugh is that garner was hired in the same year as don baylor. when garner signed with the tigers, i remember him saying to the press that he chose the tigers over the cubs -- for he had interviewed with both teams -- because he felt the tigers had better talent in their farm system and a brighter future.
posted by moz at 10:42 PM on April 08, 2002
michael jordan has done excellently to ensure that his team will have a low draft pick and maybe remain a bottom-to-middle-of-the-pack for a year or two longer.
posted by moz at 12:23 AM on April 04, 2002
Pippen clearly should be in the hall of fame, in my mind. i think that whether or not his stats were somehow padded by jordan's presence is irrelevant -- was Cosie (sp?) penalized by Russell's presence? indeed, whatever pippen is now isn't all that relevant (just as Jordan's diminished minutes should have no impact on his hall-of-fame status); as far as the HOF goes, all that matters are career stats, and pippen's got a bunch.
posted by moz at 05:11 PM on March 26, 2002
i'm all about the 9-0 pitching masterpieces.
posted by moz at 12:16 AM on March 25, 2002
paste: i'll be honest; i'd rather see doubles and home runs from my team than i would see dinky singles hit off of bad or borderline pitches. that's what patience helps you get; hard-hit balls dropping in for extra bases or dropping outside of the field of play on the fair side for homers.
posted by moz at 09:36 PM on March 24, 2002
Oakland won't be back this season, because they just lost their best player and clubhouse leader. according to BP, giambi's replacement (Carlos Pena) had a minor league Equivalent Average of .310 and would have had a major league EqA of .264 had he played a full year in the majors last year. i expect something league average or better this year, and for a first basemen, "league average" looks pretty good on the back of a baseball card. don't be so quick to dismiss Oakland.
posted by moz at 11:23 AM on March 15, 2002
what about baseball? the strike zone seems pretty subjective to me.
posted by moz at 10:16 PM on March 14, 2002
there is a relevant article on the Yankee's winning pct. and its spending on Baseball Prospectus.
posted by moz at 03:20 PM on March 14, 2002
rcade: Having a great minor league program isn't enough, though. You need the money to keep them. it doesn't take so much money to keep those players, either. look at the athletics and the indians; sign young players to multi-year contracts now rather than have their salaries explode to unmanagable amounts. most players seem to appreciate the $2 million dollar security now that they are willing to lock themselves in for four years at around that mark. the key is not having much money but spending what you've got wisely. with jason giambi, you must keep in mind that the athletics had giambi signed through his prime (27-30). now that giambi's in his '30s, his production is likely to remain stable at best and suffer at worst, with the chances of suffering production and/or injury increasing as each year goes by. giambi's loss is not as great as it could have been; likewise, the yankees gain is not so great as some would hope. i expect that when giambi's age limits his effectiveness in the field beyond a point, torre will DH him and place johnson at 1B. grum: is it just me, or wasn't the braves drafts much better when bobby cox was at the helm in the front office? in the early '90s, when cox was doing work as a GM for the braves some years before, they'd had chipper jones (his last 1st round pick as GM i believe), dave justice, tom glavine, steve avery, and swiped john smoltz from the tigers. schuerholz has had some success, particularly in latin america, but otherwise i think he's been a disappointment.
posted by moz at 02:22 PM on March 14, 2002
what did the guy do to cause controversy? why would he need to apologize to his wife?
posted by moz at 01:21 PM on March 13, 2002
skip bayless seems to have a beef with chicago in general. he spent all of one or two years at the chicago tribune. his hiring led to the departure of bernie linicome, and bayless' not-to-distant departure left the tribune sports section's editorial department a bit thin (though rick morrissey is turning out well, sam smith needs help). i have seen bayless "rip" sosa on jim rome's show about a year ago -- after he left the tribune -- and i was struck by the same thing; sour grapes.
posted by moz at 12:28 PM on March 12, 2002
Little, coming from Cleveland, should be better than Felipe "Walks are for sissies" Alou; I think this is a good move for the Red Sox, despite the concern that "Boston is no place for a rookie manager" (unless you mean to protect the sanity of said manager, i can't imagine why Boston wouldn't be the place for the man judged to be qualified for the job).
posted by moz at 02:49 PM on March 11, 2002
CJ Nitkowski, left-handed reliever (for the astros i believe), has his own website.
posted by moz at 11:11 PM on March 08, 2002
sam smith of the chicago tribune wrote a good article about chamberlain. the nba was really different back in those earlier decades...
posted by moz at 09:52 PM on March 04, 2002
my favorite injury would have to be ricky bones breaking his arm while watching tv in the marlins' clubhouse.
posted by moz at 01:15 PM on March 04, 2002
espn and fox sports both make it a habit of hiring color analysts that are familiar faces rather than in addition to being good at analyzing game situations. exhibit a: espn's rob dibble.
posted by moz at 06:48 PM on February 26, 2002
he should join thomas' coaching staff at indiana, so that when artest gets in a fight with someone, laimbeer will be on hand to lend a helping fist -- just like the good old days in detroit.
posted by moz at 12:17 PM on February 26, 2002
it's rather important that you draft well in the lower-rounds, jacknose. for example, it's not such a big deal if your 1-5 round picks flop, because there are 50 draft rounds in baseball. i believe only ten years ago, baseball permitted drafts to last as long as a team was willing to extend it; mike piazza, if i remember correctly, himself was drafted in the 70-something round. the braves picks cited in the article are not necessarily the direct choice of ladnier. since those drafts have taken place some years ago, i think it would help to consider who from '90s came from the braves domestic draft. andruw jones and rafael furcal, though developed by the braves, were undrafted free agents (jones is from a carribean island, if memory serves). the players i can name off the top of my head are kevin millwood (maybe not even); kevin mcglinchy; well, that's about it. dave justice, ryan klesko, tom glavine, chipper jones, javy lopez, steve avery are all thanks to former general manager bobby cox, not schuerholz. smoltz was fleeced from the tigers for a bag of baseballs, and lightenberg was signed as an undrafted free agent (i believe). the braves foreign scouting has always been pretty decent, and while they have some neat looking pitchers coming soon, their track record in domestic scouting and development in the '90s has indeed been shite.
posted by moz at 10:48 AM on February 26, 2002
i think that if the IOC had not given the gold medal to sale and pelletier, russia would not be crying as fiercely as it is over pulling out. that crap has now given russia the perfect excuse to claim slutskaya was robbed as well as an automatic excuse should russia fail to win the gold in men's hockey. and, russia: you know how you resent when americans and canadians claim europeans play don't play "hard" hockey and focus only on finesse? this shit's not helping.
posted by moz at 01:07 PM on February 22, 2002
paste, jacknose: i don't mean to burst your bubble, but i have been reading some commentary that the pacers won the trade and i'm not sure i agree. you have to understand that miller and artest were playing a lot of minutes, too; will they play as many minutes in indiana? miller may not, and since artest plays rose's position, would he get as many minutes as rose did? artest didn't come on offensively until cartwright became coach (he has really exploded lately), so hopefully for you guys he can maintain some intensity. i would like rose at point guard, if that's where he plays. since rose would be playing in the triple post offense, he'll get his opportunities to score the same as everyone (pure PGs aren't as important in the triple-post, since everyone needs to be good ball-handlers). crawford, i am not so concerned about; i think, and i recall baron davis saying the same thing, that he could be awesome at shooting guard. he runs the floor and he loves to drive, according to davis, and that's definitely a dimension the bulls NEED (mercer, and at times miller, seemed to settle for jumpshots). i can't wait for tomorrow's game against the knicks. it was winnable to begin with, but i am stoked to see rose play. sorry to have broken the news to you about mercer, jacknose, but it's true: look at his stats on espn (he has a sub-.400 fgm pct). he takes a ton of shots. like i said, some people are surprised by all the people the bulls gave up, but i think the talent is about equal overall and i think both teams got something they needed.
posted by moz at 02:44 PM on February 19, 2002
jalen rose has an excellent ppm score, i think, and if chicago increased his playing time i think his ppg would increase in turn. as a bulls fan, i am not sure what to say. jalen rose fits well at SF, and it's been a while since chicago had a great SF, but what about eddie robinson? the free agent from last summer is also a small forward. would eddie feel fine with being a backup? could someone possibly move positions (maybe eddie to SG?). moving ollie opens up a spot for guyton, whom i think is a better shooter than ollie though not necessarily a better FT shooter. (i am not sure of the stats on that, but ollie was good at the freethrow line.) jamal crawford is tentatively scheduled to come back on march 1, and then the bulls would have to make a decision on what position to play him (he seems suited for either guard position). i like this deal for both teams, now that i think about it. getting rid of mercer opens up the SG spot for crawford, robinson et. al and you get a consistent scorer in the lineup with rose. (mercer scored some points, but he takes a LOT of shots; his shooting pct. rivals iverson, in that both are pretty bad percentage shooters.) while it's nice that krause could tell oakley to stuff his thumb up his butt by way of not trading him, i have a feeling oakley will be his "professional" self by whining and whining like only he and small children can do.
posted by moz at 12:09 PM on February 19, 2002
you're probably right, paste. K/BB is one good indicator of control, however, for those of us who haven't seen the pitcher personally.
posted by moz at 09:25 PM on February 13, 2002
i should say he was a mini-sosa of the pre-'97 version.
posted by moz at 12:49 AM on February 13, 2002
sorry, djacobs: i suppose i should have explained my references. all of the players i noted (caruso et. al) were at times considered to be excellent prospects but who fizzled. all three had horrible walk/strikeout ratios. rivera was a sort of mini-sosa: slightly less power and slightly less average. and if i were a GM, of course i would question the impact gonzalez versus sosa would have on my team. after all, wouldn't that be my job?
posted by moz at 12:44 AM on February 13, 2002
good GMs are statheads. they know about the value of OBP; they understand why the K/BB ratio is so important for pitchers. like billy beane, they rob you blind should you have the misfortune of calling them to inquire about a trade. the important question has yet to be answered: can minaya demonstrate he has such ability? i don't know. i do know this: sosa, when he was first in the league, he could not take many walks. gonzalez has never been able to take many walks. while gonzalez has prospered, many players unable to show their plate discipline through high numbers of base-on-balls fade into obscurity. (see: mike caruso. see: ruben sierra. see: ruben rivera.) hopefully, minaya can do well -- but don't assume he will. at least, not based on the track record given.
posted by moz at 07:52 PM on February 12, 2002
another odd, historical fact i never knew: originally, a ball was fair if it landed between the foul lines before it landed outside of them. thus, if a ball were hit fair before it reached third-base and then dribbled foul, it was still considered "in play." according to the story i read, a cubs (then chicago white-stockings) player specialized in hits that would bounce fair and then foul. he hit over .400, i believe. the rule was changed pretty soon after the season.
posted by moz at 07:47 PM on February 07, 2002
George Steinbrenner lectures small-market teams
KC has a fighting shot at success, if they'd like to follow through. they need to quit playing scrubs like neifi perez and start playing some guys who can hit -- preferably who can walk too. they need to draft more college players and more college pitchers, and they need to hang in there, because if they keep at it, they'll make it. you don't have to be brilliant to succeed in baseball. it's a sport of copycats, anyway. just start copying oakland (the way that toronto is doing) instead of the mid-80s cardinals. and i'm a cub fan.