Bored

And the end of the Rivals.com Preseason countdown. 5. Missouri 4. Oklahoma 3. Ohio State 2. Georgia 1. USC (preview up tomorrow) Myself personally I think it will be Ohio State vs. Oklahoma in the MNC in a battle of schools who shit the bed the last two years in major bowl games. Georgia might be the best team in the country but Jesus tap-dancing Christ that schedule is brutal. And hey we're now less than a month away from the first game of the season!

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/unfiltered/?p=966 It's Will Carroll, so take it with a grain of salt although it had crossed my mind that the only way the Red Sox would trade Ramirez midseason is if they were able to get a third team involved where they received a good corner outfielder in the process. Still doubt he's going anywhere. And the Pudge Rodriguez trade makes absolutely no sense for the Tigers. Doesn't help them now, doesn't help them later, and probably cost them a draft pick as it's very possible Rodriguez would be a Type-A free agent which Farnsworth will not be. Breaking news: Ed Wade keeps going for that championship! He just traded for LaTroy Hawkins. Seriously why haven't Astros fans killed him yet?

ESPN/FOX/TBS Games to Poison Our Youth MONDAY Brewers (Seth McClung) at Cardinals (Joel Pineiro), 7:00/4:00 PM, ESPN WEDNESDAY Phillies (Brett Myers) at Mets (John Maine), 7:00/4:00 PM, ESPN SATURDAY Yankees at Red Sox, 3:55/12:55 PM, FOX Braves at Phillies, 3:55/12:55 PM, FOX SUNDAY Marlins at Cubs, 2:00 PM/11:00 AM, TBS Yankees at Red Sox, 8:00/5:00 PM, ESPN

I say go for it (well in about 15 minutes when eight hours is up) as I did PM Fokai after making my original pick.

God damn I don't know how I missed that. Bob Kuechenberg, Guard Miami Dolphins 1970-1983 6-time Pro Bowl Selection 1-time 1st Team All-Pro

Mick Tingelhoff, Center Minnesota Vikings 1962-1978 6-time Pro Bowl Selection 5-time 1st Team All-Pro

Here's my line up. RICKEY~! CF Jeter SS Gehrig 1B Jackson RF Sheffield DH Matsui LF Soriano 2B Nettles 3B Wynegar C

Only taking players who have played in the Majors this season. Also put players where they would best fit on the field for the sake of this exercise and not necessarily where they play regularly now. http://www.baseball-reference.com/draft/?f...aft_type=junreg Athletics C: Kurt Suzuki 1B: Nick Swisher 2B: Freddie Bynum 3B: Mark Teahan SS: Bobby Crosby LF: Eric Byrnes CF: Ryan Ludwick RF: Andre Ethier DH: Jason Giambi Bench: Gerald Laird, Dan Johnson, Eric Chavez, Omar Quintanilla, Emil Brown, Travis Buck SP: Rich Harden SP: Tim Hudson SP: Jeremy Bonderman SP: Joe Blanton SP: Barry Zito RP: Jonathan Papelbon (kinda cheating since he didn't sign) RP: Kevin Gregg RP: Neal Cotts RP: Tyler Yates RP: Dallas Braden

Highlanders select Hal Reniff.

I'll go with the media sleeper darling North Carolina to win the conference this year simply because I'm easily persuaded by teams dubbed "sleeper teams" in the preseason and due to the overall wackiness of the ACC the last couple of years. They do get the Hokies at home and don't play Clemson in the regular season.

Down to four remaining holdovers and with four on the waiting list, I will not be taking anymore new sign ups. Not that I thought there would be anymore.

Highlanders select Tim Raines.

Rivals.com Preseason Countdown cont. 10. LSU 9. Clemson 8. West Virginia 7. Auburn 6. Florida

In case you were wondering, and you weren't, the worst hitting season by a second baseman since 1901 was by Del Young in 1923 with an OPS+ of 23 (.194/.235/.231 in 386 plate appearances). The top of this list once again shows that a shitty player may one day become a great manager. Also, anybody know who in the Mets' organization was Doug Flynn blowing in the late 70's and the early 80's to maintain an everyday job? (edit: It was Jesus!) Top 25 (or so) Worst Offensive Second Baseman Seasons since 1957 (per OPS+) 1. Sparky Anderson, 1959 - Philadelphia Phillies 43 OPS+ (.218/.282/.249) 2. Tommy Helms, 1970 - Cincinnati Reds 44 3. Billy Ripken, 1988 - Baltimore Orioles 48 4. Hal Lanier, 1965 - San Francisco Giants 51 5t. Mike Lansing, 2000 - Colorado Rockies/Boston Red Sox 54 5t. Doug Flynn, 1981 - New York Mets 54 7. Jose Lind, 1992 - Pittsburgh Pirates 56 8t. Mike Chapman, 1977 - San Diego Padres 57 8t. Julian Javier, 1970 - St. Louis Cardinals 57 10. Horace Clarke, 1968 - New York Yankees 59 11t. Delino DeShields, 1996 - Los Angeles Dodgers 60 11t. Rodney Scott, 1981 - Montreal Expos 60 13t. Doug Flynn, 1979 - New York Mets 61 13t. Sandy Alomar, 1973 - California Angels 61 13t. Glenn Beckert, 1965 - Chicago Cubs 61 13t. Billy Gardner, 1958 - Baltimore Orioles 61 13t. Bobby Morgan, 1957 - Philadelphia Phillies/Chicago Cubs 61 18t. Brent Abernathy, 2002 - Tampa Bay Devil Rays 62 18t. Doug Flynn, 1978 - New York Mets 62 18t. Julian Javier, 1960 - St. Louis Cardinals 62 21. Len Randle, 1976 - Texas Rangers 63 22t. Bret Boone, 1996 - Cincinnati Reds 64 22t. Ted Sizemore, 1975 - St. Louis Cardinals 64 22t. Dave Campbell, 1970 - San Diego Padres 64 25t. Ray Durham, 2007 - San Francisco Giants 64 25t. Duane Kuiper, 1979 - Cleveland Indians 64 25t. Sandy Alomar, 1975 - New York Yankees 64 25t. Sandy Alomar, 1969 - Chicago White Sox/California Angels 64 25t. Tony Taylor, 1958 - Chicago Cubs 64

I've pm'd the seven remaining holdovers to see if they will be participating this year or not. As many as four them appear to be MIA from the board.

A's reliever Brad Ziegler tied a Major League record tonight by beginning his career with 25 scoreless innings. In other news, the A's are really fucking awful.

It's official.

Highlanders select Ron Hassey.

Highlanders select Roy Smalley as backup infielder.

Continuing with more of the worst. Now there are positions in baseball where clubs are very willing to sacrifice defense for offense, middle infielders being most common. If you have an excellent defensive shortstop or second baseman you can often overlook their offensive shortcomings. First base is not one of those positions. Sure a great defensive first baseman is nice to have but if they can't hit, it's not wise to keep them in the line up everyday if you have a better hitting alternative who isn't at least a complete butcher in the field. The worst hitting season for a first baseman since 1901 was by Ivy Griffin in 1920 who posted a blistering hitting line of .238/.281/.274 for an OPS+ of 47 in 505 plate appearances, which means he'd qualify under the modern rules for the batting title. Now Griffin played on a horrific Philadelphia A's team that lost 106 games. On the other hand the man who posted the worst hitting season for a first baseman since 1957 played on a team who made it to the World Series and you might have heard of him too, no offense to Mr. Griffin. Actually there was a tie for first/worst so the tiebreak was who had more plate appearances. Top 25 Worst Offensive First Baseman Seasons since 1957 (per OPS+) 1. Pete Rose, 1983 - Philadelphia Phillies 69 OPS+ (.245/.316/.286) 2. Pete Runnels, 1957 - Washington Senators 69 3. Enos Cabell, 1981 - San Francisco Giants 72 4t. Kevin Young, 1993 - Pittsburgh Pirates 73 4t. Whitey Lockman, 1957 - New York Giants 73 6. Darin Erstad, 1999 - Anaheim Angels 74 7. Dave Stapleton, 1983 - Boston Red Sox 76 8t. Mike Squires, 1981 - Chicago White Sox 78 8t. Tony Taylor, 1967 - Philadelphia Phillies 78 8t. Lee Thomas, 1963 - Los Angeles Angels 78 11t. Kevin Young, 2001 - Pittsburgh Pirates 80 11t. Dale Murphy, 1978 - Atlanta Braves 80 13t. Ron Coomer, 2000 - Minnesota Twins 81 13t. J.T. Snow, 1996 - California Angels 81 13t. David Segui, 1994 - New York Mets 81 16. Bill Buckner, 1973 - Los Angeles Dodgers 82 17t. Cecil Cooper, 1986 - Milwaukee Brewers 83 17t. Vic Power, 1957 - Kansas City A's 83 19t. Ken Harvey, 2003 - Kansas City Royals 84 19t. Keith Moreland, 1988 - San Diego Padres 84 19t. Willie Montanez, 1979 - New York Mets/Texas Rangers 84 19t. Rusty Staub, 1963 - Houston Colt .45's 84 19t. Vic Power, 1961 - Cleveland Indians 84 24t. Pete O'Brien, 1983 - Texas Rangers 85 24t. Frank Thomas, 1960 - Chicago Cubs 85

Highlanders select Ralph Terry.

Baseball-Reference.com Play Index is saving this blog with more useless lists1 Today I list the 25 worst individual offensive seasons according to OPS+ since 1957, who qualified for the batting title in their given year. Why 1957 instead of all the way back to the beginning modern era in 1901? Because I'm lazy and because the current guidelines for qualifying for the batting title were adopted in '57. The current rule is a player must average 3.1 plate appearances per total number of games played by their team which with the 162 game schedule works out to 502 plate appearances. Here's a copy and paste of the guidelines through out the years from Baseball-Reference.com: If we took into account players prior to 1957 it would be littered with early 20th century players, who many of you including myself probably never heard of and wouldn't be able to add comments like "Hey I remember him, he sucked!" In case you were wondering, the worst offensive season ever by a catcher who qualified for the batting title was Bill Bergen in 1909 who had an OPS+ of 1 (.139/.163/.156 in 372 plate appearances). Again like with my last entry a lot these guys played a lot due to superior defense (Bob Boone is on it four times) but some probably shouldn't have been playing much at all. Top 25 Worst Offensive Catcher Single Seasons (per OPS+) 1. Matt Walbeck, 1994 - Minnesota Twins 37 OPS+ (.204/.246/.284) 2. Brad Ausmus, 2006 - Houston Astros 54 3t. Brad Ausmus, 2003 - Houston Astros 55 3t. Jim Sundberg, 1975 - Texas Rangers 55 5. Joe Girardi, 1995 - Colorado Rockies 58 6t. Jason Kendall, 2007 - Oakland A's/Chicago Cubs 63 6t. Bob Boone, 1986 - California Angels 63 8. Tony Pena, 1991 - Boston Red Sox 66 9t. Michael Barrett, 2001 - Montreal Expos 68 9t. Joe Girardi, 1994 - Colorado Rockies 68 11t. Kirt Manwaring, 1994 - San Francisco Giants 69 11t. Johnny Edwards, 1970 - Houston Astros 69 13. Bob Boone, 1974 - Philadelphia Phillies 70 14. B.J. Surhoff, 1988 - Milwaukee Brewers 71 15. Bob Boone, 1985 - California Angels 72 16t. Butch Wynegar, 1978 - Minnesota Twins 73 16t. Randy Hundley, 1968 - Chicago Cubs 73 18. Joe Oliver, 1993 - Cincinnati Reds 74 19t. Pat Borders, 1993 - Toronto Blue Jays 75 19t. Bob Boone, 1980 - Philadelphia Phillies 75 21t. Benito Santiago, 2001 - San Francisco Giants 76 21t. Benito Santiago, 1993 - Florida Marlins 76 21t. Rick Cerone, 1979 - Toronto Blue Jays 76 21t. John Bateman, 1971 - Montreal Expos 76 21t. John Bateman, 1970 - Montreal Expos 76

Someone put in more time than needed on Matt Walbeck's entry on the BR Bullpen (the Wiki of Baseball-Reference.com). I especially like this part of his bio: Hey .417 in four minor league games! And he actually had 138 at bats not 138 games. I mean not even the 2003 Tigers were bad enough to have someone play 138 games and hit .174.

Highlanders select Ron Davis.

Joey Browner, Safety Minnesota Vikings 1983-1991 Tampa Bay Buccaneers 1992 6-time Pro Bowl Selection 3-time 1st Team All-Pro 1980's All-Decade Team