EVIL~! alkeiper

Agreed. Looking at Win Shares, Brown has outpitched Pettitte seven of of nine seasons.

Philly wins again. Great outing in relief by Ryan Madson. The Phillies have as deep a pitching staff as any team in baseball right now.

Brown IS an elite starter. Except for 2002, he hasn't posted an ERA above 3 since 1995. His adjusted ERA+ is 131, 7th among active pitchers.

On a side note, this is another example of the value of K and BB rates. Two pitchers with low ERAs despite bad peripherals, Kirk Rueter and Nate Cornejo, have been shelled this year. Darren Oliver is getting hit, and Damian Moss still can't put it together.

Oliver was never a particularly good pitcher, and its only because he's a name that he's stuck around for so long. I don't agree with using Wayne however. That hit rate is not sustainable, and he's never really impressed in the minors.

Blue Ridge Cable was helpful enough to carry the Phillies feed. I can currently listen to the audio, accompanied by images of the community calender.

Love to hear the Yankees' announcers blather on about productive outs, and the Moneyball philosophy. Then they mention the A's and Red Sox are LAST in productive outs, and the Yankees are third last. Yet these teams win ballgames. Do you see the subtle connection here? I get the feeling 95% of the analysts who bash Moneyball have not read it.

Its not Yankees-exclusive. I just heard it on the Tigers game. Its brainless, pointless, and highly annoying. Tigers up 5-2 in the third. Not a good start for Bartolo Colon.

I wish they'd cut out that "Day-O" crap over the speakers. Is that supposed to rally the team or something? Jeter's standing in the on-deck circle and hears the crowd's braindead response of Day-O and thinks to himself, "I am a highly trained hitter, among the best in my field. Now that I've heard 50,000 idiots* say Day-O, I can get a hit!" It boggles the mind. *They are not idiots because they are Yankees fans. They are idiots for chanting along.

Yankees score 3 in the first. Angels/Tigers tied at two after one inning.

Good slate of games tonight. A's/Yankees on the YES Network (or ESPN), Angels/Tigers on ESPN, and Cards/Phillies on CN8. Thankfully, my cable company picks up the CN8 feed for Phillies games. Also need to keep an eye on the Flyers/Leafs game.

I'm looking to trade Kevin Mench, Joel Pineiro, or Woody Williams for a DL'd player. I've got Lieber coming off the DL and I'd like to make a move rather than dropping a player. My pitching staff is looking quite good thus far. Three pitchers (Clemens, Big Unit, Sheets) ranked in the league's top 12 players.

The only reason Wood is suspended five games is that its the only way to make it effective. If Wood was suspended one game, he'd simply take it on a rest day. So MLB needs to make it five.

Hopefully Dusty's suspension comes on a day Zambrano pitches.

So Bad Its Good (Baseball Edition): Bill "Spaceman" Lee, Carl Everett, Roger McDowell, Reggie Jackson.

I feel sorry for the Expos. They're 5-16. So far, they've scored 36 runs, 30 LESS than the next team. They've got a team OBP of .260, and a team Slugging Percentage of .288. All are last in the league by a wide margin. If Nick Johnson and Carl Everett don't make it back soon, this could be the worst team in baseball history. And I blame Bud Selig. On a bright note, Philadelphia pitchers lead baseball in not walking anyone.

Drama brewing in Kansas City. ROyals down one in the bottom of the 9th. Bases loaded, one out.

This is misunderstood all the time. I am NOT arguing that players should get voted on based on their past. They should get voted on based on their current level of ability. The problem is, you can NOT measure that based on a single month of play. Would you trade Edgar Renteria for Jack Wilson, straight up? If not, then why should Wilson start above Renteria in an All-Star game?

I'd put Darryl Dawkins in.

I wouldn't put a third of those guys on the team no matter how good they are playing. I know the All-Star game isn't a career appreciation day, but by the same token, 100-200 at bats does not make you an all-star. All-Stars should be ESTABLISHED big league players.

If they haven't checked the page in that long, I'd gather they are doing poorly. After watching Day on Sunday, I hope you didn't.

Just remember, fans that come up with these type of shirts are not indicative of fans as a whole.

I had a recent discussion on TSM concerning DIPS (Defense Independent Pitching Statistics. For those of you unaware of the concept, the DIPS theory states that pitchers have virtually no control over balls hit in play. I don't think I was able to defend the theory as adeptly as I could of, but I found the original article, and I figure I'll throw it out here for you to peruse..... http://www.baseballprospectus.com/news/200...3mccracken.html

The Braves traded Russell Branyan to the Cleveland Indians for a PTBNL. Branyan played previously in Cleveland from 1998-2002. Branyan is a career 227/318/472 hitter.

Looking over some stats. Mariano Rivera has walked 6 batters in 11 innings. That might not sound bad, until you realize he hasn't walked more than 12 batters in a season the last three years.