HarleyQuinn

The Rangers inked Blalock to a long term deal... Rangers signed third baseman Hank Blalock to a five-year, $15.25 million contract with a club option for 2009. Blalock apparently overruled his agent in signing the deal, which could cost him $6 million-$10 million during his three years of arbitration eligiblity. He must have figured that if he asked for any additional money, the Rangers would have paid the Yankees a few million to take him off their hands.

These are the cats I'd propose: BA/OBP(Essentially takes care of the Walks vs K's while telling the manager how many times the player gets on base)/R/H/2B/3B/HR/RBI/SB/E(Not sure how essential this is considering the other cats would be more offense based) That's still 9 categories. If you have 2B's, 3B's and HR's as categories then essentially, hits just stands for singles if you take out the 2B's, 3B's and HR's from the total of the hits. Pitching looks fine although I think having an ER category might be unnecessary if there's already an ERA since that's just an average of a pitcher's Earned Runs.

Gotta agree with Al, I think it's a bit overbearing and would make scouting a bit harder, maybe slim it down to 5x5 for the categories or something

I'm #7 which is a good spot. IMO the top pick should be Soriano since he's without a doubt the best 2B available in terms of power(HR's & RBI's). Granted, OBP'll kill him but he's playing in Arlington which should only help his numbers.

Is there anyway to estimate the number of AB's for a player in correlation to the actual games played & actual AB's he had for the season? I'm trying to figure out how many HR's Babe Ruth would've hit in 1927(Hit 60 in 540 AB's in 151 games) if he played in 162 games. My problem is figuring out how to estimate the number of AB's he would have in 162 games while taking into account the number of actual AB's in the actual games he did play. If anybody can give me an answer I'd greatly appreciate it.

Really Marv? They actually any good?

Sent to ya Flikker...get it, Flikker(Flicker)...Clever? I'm bored out of my skull right now so uh, yeah just sent in my stuff. I demand to be #5!

Well say it's a 162 game schedule like in 2003. Let's say Barry Bonds hits 9 HR's in 178 AB's playing in 45 games. Is there anyway to estimate the # of AB's he'd get if he played all 162 games taking into account the fact that he had 178 AB's in 45 games? I could always estimate him getting 550 AB's or 600 AB's and figuring the estimated HR's he'd have from that but it wouldn't be as accurate as getting a concrete number of AB's and figuring the HR's from that right?

Yippee! WooHoo! So what's the order chief?

Clemens is a master liar...look at his bolting for Toronto just so he can later play for the Yanks(Ironic in that he burns them for the Astros)

Will it be straight or serpentine(1st: 1-16, 2nd: 16-1, etc.)?

Some news...from my usual source Free agent Jose Canseco will attend a Dodgers' open tryout in Vero Beach on March 1. The 39-year-old Canseco hasn't played in the majors since appearing in 36 games with the White Sox in 2001. The Dodgers don't appear to have any interest in signing him, but they won't stop him from trying out if he wants to. Comment: They could use some offense but the guy's 39 years old. If he can hit for some power then sign him to a minor league contract and see how he does down there for a possible mid-season callup or something. Giants signed first baseman Damon Minor to a minor league contract. Minor is returning to the Giants after being traded to the Phillies last May. He didn't see any time in the majors last season, and he's not going to be involved in San Francisco's plans for this year. White Sox invited RHP Francisco Campos to spring training. Campos, a veteran picked up from the Brewers in the minor league portion of the Rule 5 draft, will get a chance to compete for a job after going 10-2 with a 2.19 ERA in 14 starts in the Mexican Pacific League. He might be a sleeper for the White Sox Athletics signed pitchers Justin Duchscherer, Frank Brooks, John Rheinecker, Mike Wood, Justin Lehr and Chad Harville; infielders Bobby Crosby, Graham Koonce, Freddie Bynum, Dan Johnson, Mike Rouse and Marco Scutaro; outfielders Bobby Kielty and Matt Watson and catcher Adam Melhuse to one-year contracts. Duchscherer was projected to be Oakland's fifth starter before Mark Redman was brought in. Instead, he's going to have to compete with Brooks and Harville for bullpen spots. Manager Bruce Bochy said yesterday that David Wells probably will start the Padres' home opener April 8 against the Giants. Wells probably would have started on Opening Day if he wasn't returning from back surgery. As is, Brian Lawrence is expected to get that assignment. He'll be followed in the rotation by Jake Peavy and Adam Eaton. Either Ismael Valdes or Sterling Hitchcock will act as San Diego's fifth starter. Curt Schilling said he is working on a new pitch, which he hopes to add to his fastball, split-fingered fastball and slider. Schilling wouldn't reveal what the pitch was, but we'll know soon enough. In other news, Schilling said he has spoken with manager Terry Francona about not facing clubs in the AL East this spring to prevent division rivals from getting familiar with his stuff. He did the same thing during his time with the Diamondbacks. Comment: Curveball? Changeup? Hell maybe he took tips from Wake and is gonna be throwing a Knuckler...hah Mariano Rivera, who said earlier this month that he'd like to play "maybe three more years," now says he wants to remain a Yankee through 2007. "I want to play three more years after this and finish with the Yankees," the closer said. Rivera would like to receive an extension this spring, but the Yankees don't seem to be in any hurry to give him one. If he isn't signed, he'll become a free agent in November. Comments: I wouldn't expect the Yankees to let him walk away and would be quite surprised if they did. Angels signed RHP Francisco Rodriguez and catcher Wil Nieves to one-year contracts. Rodriguez is still two years away from being eligible for arbitration, so he'll make $375,000 contract. Nieves will compete with Jose Molina and Josh Paul for a spot as Bengie Molina's backup. Reds pitching coach Don Gullett confirmed yesterday that Danny Graves will be used as a closer this season. Graves was pretty much given the job for this year the moment he was put back into the bullpen last season. "Early in spring exhibition games, you may see Danny pitching in different situations, earlier in games, but that's just so he'll face good hitters when they are still in games," Gullett said. "He is our closer." Comments: He was decent as a starter but was probably more effective as a closer

An amusing sidenote from last year: Despite leading the AL with 138 errors, the Tigers also led the majors in double plays with 194... 2003 Numbers vs AL East teams Yankees: 47-29(62%) Red Sox: 41-35(54%) Orioles: 31-45(41%) Blue Jays: 37-39(49%) Devil Rays: 34-42(45%) Looked like every team came out pretty even with the Yankees pretty much winning away but not by that large a margin

Personally, he could do great if Dodger Stadium's park factors match what Comerica Park was in 2002 before the trade and remain consistent as a pitcher's park. Over 100 favors hitters or pitchers, 1st # is hitting, 2nd # is pitching. 1999 - 176 hits in 163.2 IP, 27 HR's(Tiger Stadium was a 101/101) 2000 - 205 hits in 200 IP, 26 HR's(Comerica Park was a 97/97) 2001 - 235 hits in 229.1 IP, 19 HR's(Comerica Park was a 99/99) 2002 - 112 hits in 121.2 IP, 4 HR's(Comerica Park was a 93/94) in Detroit and 81 hits in 78 IP, 12 HR's(Yankee Stadium was 98/98) 2003 - 211 hits in 159.1 IP, 16 HR's(Yankee Stadium was a 96/97) His Walks & Hits Per Inning(WHIP) #'s are... 1999 - 1.42 2000 - 1.28 2001 - 1.32 2002 - 1.19(with Detroit) and 1.23(with New York) 2003 - 1.62 Past 5 Years(Park Factors for Dodger Stadium) 1999 - 96/97 2000 - 92/93 2001 - 90/92 2002 - 91/92 2003 - 93/94

Yup, my AIM name's SMGMJHFan so ya can invite me

Raw @ 9 ET or Saturday at 4 ET

Next couple of weeks: 3:30 PM(In case of traffic when driving home) ET - 12 PM ET(Sleep + School = Running on 6-7 Hours already)

Uh...AS the freakin' president of the MLB(Selig) ordered Henry to not respond so Henry's smart by not defying him and getting slapped with a hefty $5,000 or $10,000 fine for a response that won't be worth it. And since when does it matter if a team has national appeal? Pretty much any team that makes the playoffs has some sort of national appeal somehow(Bonds winning the WS in 2001, Angels upsetting the Yankees en route to the WS and then upsetting the Giants, Yankees beating the Sox in a heart breaker, Cubs possibly making it to the WS and Florida upsetting the mighty Yankees in 2003). It's all a matter of what spin the media puts on the playoffs/series that year.

Definitely, maybe a little sooner like the 7th or so(We'd still have roughly 2 weeks or so until then) that's 11 AM ET? *isn't good with these darned time zones*

The Sox/Yankees feud will continue to carry the Sox in terms of people caring for them. When it comes to the Cubs, it'll probably be more damaging but the fans will still want them to keep on winning more World Series championships which keeps their appeal going.

ah, nm. I was mixing up the AM & PM due to a lack of brain function and weariness. So I'm assuming we're still going for the offline draft then?

Yeah, the Bruins & Celtics are pretty interchangeable but I was considering all 4 teams on a year round basis in terms of fan support. IMO, Boston will always be a baseball city just because of the history and closeness that the fans have towards the Red Sox which transcends any of the others team in the city.

The hook is to see which team will get their curse broken... Also the Sox still have an advantage because if they don't beat the Yankees to get there then that'll remain an appeal. That appeal being will the Sox ever topple the evil empire?

Yippee! *anxiously awaits the draft* It is offline right chief? Also what's with the changing it to 12:45 PM!?! I'll be asleep by then

See the thing of it is, is that Boston has ALWAYS been baseball first, basketball second, hockey third and football last in terms of importance and no matter how good a team does in hockey or football during the season at the end the focus will still be on the Red Sox and Celtics. We celebrate the Bruins and Pats during their seasons but we celebrate the Sox and Celtics year round. You could probably put the Celts/Bruins as #2 but I chose the Celts because they're a bit more popular.