HarleyQuinn

I grabbed a few players... Joe Thatcher and Lee Gardner are both way more valuable than an iffy starter in Capuano who may not even make the rotation and while I love Braden, I probably wouldn't have kept him and he may not even get a shot down the line this year. Both guys have low ERA, low WHIP, solid number of K's and Thatcher should pitch more than 21 innings this year which will help while also giving me holds and allowing me to not worry as much about the maximum innings limit. They can also help counter a bad outing by one of my SP. Randy Winn was grabbed just to help with the HR and SB although his OBP's been solid. I also like that he'll likely play the whole year so he'll get his share of at bats should an injury strike.

I'm now at 4-5 and it's ironic that the only game I take is the 9-8 slug fest thanks to a last at bat.

That sounds right and ya know... Mike Scott is a horse and can handle it. He had 13 games on 3 days rest and 17 on 4 days rest in 1986. He also went at least 8 IP in 18 of his starts.

I'm hoping my first few waiver wire moves will have a positive impact for my pitching staff after configuring a few numbers and surmising the overall results. Assuming the moves go through.

My team has been great offensively, currently leading the league in Runs Score but I'm also second in Runs Allowed which isn't as pleasing a statistic. I'm also surprised at scoring so many runs considering my team is hitting a combined .232/.322/.409.

Some transaction news from MLB... Florida sent Tagg Bozied down to minor league camp. He's an interesting story because he's still "only" 28 but has been stuck at AAA for one team or another since 2003. He doesn't get on base much but he's a 1B who has decent enough power (32 HR in 611 AB in AAA for the Mets/Cardinals in 2006 and 2007 combined). Pittsburgh optioned Bryan Bullington to AAA. He'll be 27 this year but has had good control (2.80 BB/9) but no overwhelming strikeout ability (6.32 K/9 in minor league career). I'd be curious to see how good he could be if he was transitioned the bullpen rather than continuing to be a starter. The White Sox re-assigned Lance Broadway to AAA. He was one of my favorites coming into the 2005 MLB Draft and hasn't really disappointed. Struggled a little at AAA at 23 (4.65 ERA and 4.53 BB/9 vs. 6.27 K/9) but did well in his brief cup of coffee mainly as a reliever for the ChiSox. I'm curious to see if he'll bounce back this year with a chance at getting called up later in the season.

Some news on Villanueva's role... http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=729108 Right-hander Carlos Villanueva pitched so well in the Brewers' camp last year, the decision was made to keep him on the staff as a reliever. Villanueva pitched in that role much of the season before shifting to the starting rotation for the final month. According to Yost, there is no bullpen duty in Villanueva's future this season. He'll either make the Brewers' rotation or be sent to Class AAA Nashville to start there. "I think we all think of him as a starter," Yost said. "I'm pushing for him to stay a starter. I would pretty much say that's going to be the case. "We all like him as a starter. But we all want him on the team, too. We still have discussions that we have to go through but he's a starter, for me. My mind can be changed if it makes sense. But I don't really foresee it happening."

Man... I was able to score runs but my bullpen completely failed me. I was actually up 9-2 in game 1 at one point. Also sucks that I got 3 injuries in the first 2 games... the hell!?! Blah. At least I managed to eek out the win in the 3rd game of the series though.

I'm so on an Alanis Morissette kick right now but that's an aside... and I have a seriously deep pitching staff but my offense is young and I'll either get great production or do poorly. I also think Floyd in Round 20 is a fucking steal playing DH for Tampa but that's just me. Gotham Harlequins C: Mike Napoli 1B: Daric Barton 2B: Luis Castillo 3B: Kevin Youkilis SS: Carlos Guillen OF: Torii Hunter OF: Gary Sheffield OF: Jack Cust UTL: Mark Reynolds Bench: Scott Moore, Cliff Floyd SP: Carlos Zambrano SP: C.C. Sabathia SP: Randy Johnson RP: Jonathan Papelbon RP: Juan Cruz P: Orlando Hernandez P: Chris Capuano Bench: Yusmeiro Petit, Dallas Braden

Looking at the player cards this has me confused... Example: Chris Brown = 1R but has a 67% vs. RHP and 33% vs. LHP. What does this mean? That he hits RHP 67% better?

My current list of keepers... Tim Duncan Emeka Okafor Mo Williams

Cuban's up since Stephen's pick time has elapsed but Stephen will start off Round 20.

It's been 24 hours so Mr. Slim's on the clock. Milky can pick at anytime.

... ouch! I actually did worse with the DH on? Damn. I'm hoping my designed rotation/lineup will be slightly better than what the computer generated for me though.

Gets my approval.

I'm seconding this. With the ability for people to actually PM their picks to others, there should be no reason why we're laboring the way we are right now.

My team is largely gonna be relying on the pitching staff (a healthy Randy Johnson will help) although after Paps, I have nothing in the saves category. Offensively, I have a lot of young guys who could improve on last year (Mark Reynolds, Jack Cust, Mike Napoli, Daric Barton) mixed in with guys who are decent power options in Sheffield, Youks, and Guillen. I'm hoping to get some more speed but I won't waste my last few rounds just for speed when I'm adequate enough.

Overlooking the site some (and glancing at the Bill James New Historical Baseball Abstract) it really is neat seeing some of these stats. An example... International League: 1919 Baltimore Orioles. They had 5 players hit .320+ and all had a .440+ SLG. Jack Bentley hit .324 with a .528 SLG in 377 AB. He had 24 doubles, 10 triples, and 11 HR. As a pitcher, Bentley went 41-6 from 1920 - 1922 (25-27 years old) for Baltimore. He also hit .378 with a SLG of .591 over those 3 seasons too (including a .412 BA and .665 SLG in 1921 with 24 HR). Oooh... In 1938 Ted Williams hit .366 with 30 doubles and 43 HR in 528 AB for the Minneapolis Millers of the American Association. In 1935 Joe DiMaggio hit .398 with 48 doubles, 18 triples, and 34 HR in 679 AB (172 games) for the San Francisco Seals of the PCL. In 3 years (excluding 9 AB in 1932), Joe had 74 HR and 657 hits in 1816 AB in the PCL.

I'd like to see Kottaras get a shot but the fact that he's hit .210 and .241 in 413 AB at AAA fills me with dread. The fact he went from an .800+ OPS at each level to .647 and .724 at AAA is worrisome given that he's only 24. The one upside is that he in his 413 AB he had 32 doubles, 11 HR, and 44 BB vs. 101 K. 450 AB = 35 doubles, 12 HR, 48 BB vs. 110 K. Equally disconcerting is that Pawtucket is primarily a hitter's park (1.20 HR and 0.99 H despite a 1.00 R). Portland is more of a pitcher's park (0.96 H and 0.95 R) but it also is slightly favorable to home runs at 1.03.

If you mean, Mike Costanzo, probably but I really like Scott Moore. Mike Costanzo - A+ at 22 went .258/.364/.411/.775 in 504 AB with 14 HR. Also had 74 BB vs. 133 K. - AA at 23 went .270/.368/.490/.858 in 508 AB with 29 HR. Also had 75 BB vs. 157 K. Scott Moore - AA at 22 went .276/.360/.479/.839 in 463 AB with 22 HR. Also had 55 BB vs. 126 K. Prorated to 504 AB = 24 HR and 60 BB vs. 138 K. - AAA at 23 went .265/.373/.526/.899 in 321 AB with 19 HR. Also had 48 BB vs. 100 K. Prorated to 508 AB = 30 HR and 76 BB vs. 158 K. Equal numbers a full level higher is impressive.

I feel bad for the Baseball Cube. Isn't that site comprised of just one dude who sits there and manually inputs old minor league statistics? Yeah. He also has college statistics for players going back to the 2002 draft (and some players in the 2001 draft). While the site is devoted to the minor leagues, he also has a great draft section where you can click a player name and see the player page. Neat comparing the college stats of multiple players in the 2005 draft or seeing for yourself why Billy Beane leaned towards taking some of the players he did (i.e. Nick Swisher hit 30 doubles and 25 HR in 358 AB his last 2 years in college and walked 103 times).

The Gotham Harlequins select... 3B Scott Moore, Baltimore after looking at his AA/AAA stats and comparing them to past sluggers.

I'm truly loving the growing dearth of minor league statistics appearing on the internet. Between this site, Baseball-Reference going back to 1992, and The Baseball Cube going back even further, it's just awesome seeing how a Mark McGwire did at AAA in comparison to a Jason Giambi, Frank Thomas, or David Ortiz.

I'm psyched for tomorrow. I DLed the Excel sheet and added in some statistics that weren't there as well as ordering the players by different categories.

Writers like Paul Daugherty though? Dusty Baker gets criticism not only because he disagrees with the general stat community, but because his theories generally collide with what other managers are doing in this era. Washington's Manny Acta and Kansas City's Trey Hillman have recently espoused the merits of OBP in interviews. As far as Joe Morgan, he says some silly things because he gets information second hand. He never managed and as a player, he did as much to contribute to winning teams as any player in history. I would point out that most of the criticism of Adam Dunn comes from sportswriters and a certain tenured radio broadcaster. The front office themselves have never seen fit to trade Dunn. Watching what Baker actually does in Cincinnati will be very interesting. I don't have any kind of problem with not liking Dusty Baker as a manager, or Joe Morgan as an announcer. It's just when people puff out their chest and pretend they know more about baseball than these guys. Does that make any sense? Like, I hate Isiah Thomas, but the guy knows more about basketball than I do. I think that sort of makes sense. Is this aimed at the sabremetric community? If not, my apologies in advance. I know myself, what I'm most irked by is that these general managers and club managers have all these tools and statistics at their disposal to utilize. I was reading "Feeding The Monster" about the mid 2000's Boston Red Sox and this quote jumped out at me, "Epstein's baseball operations crew was providing the team's coaching staff with voluminous reports-on upcoming opponents, on how best to use the players on the team-which Little largely seemed to ignore" (page 208). That kind of sums up what annoys me because there are all these statistics meant to help but managers like Dusty either ignore them or refuse to give them a second thought. It's not like the sabremetric community is trying to be nerdy and come up with complex things. They've been able to approximate how many runs a team can be projected to score over a season. How is that something negative or not worth looking at? Rather than using just batting average, they can tell you how a hitter hits at different counts, against lefties vs. righties, and how he hits against certain pitchers over his career. Why would you, as a manager, not use those numbers to your benefit? As a general manager, why pay a guy $11 Million a season when you could get a similar or better player for $4-$5 Million cheaper and use the extra money for a better pitcher or more depth on the bench? I'm well aware that I'm far from the most knowledgeable guy about baseball but that's why I'm not scouting college/high school players. Instead, I'm a fan who's lucky to have a team with a general manager/manager who understands that these new statistics being developed are done to improve how to see talent as much as possible. I'd hope as a fan of any team, that you'd want to see your team successful and if that means utilizing new stats such as "VORP" or "Adjusted OPS+" than so be it. I'll be the first to tell you that mathematically I couldn't tell you how to do the equations for 1/3 to 1/2 of the sabremetric stats out there but at the same time, I understand how they could maximize efficiency both financially and on the field.