EVIL~! alkeiper

We've had our melodramatic posts already. Honestly, it should not be a surprise that any particular athlete uses steroids at this point. I don't see why it should spark some kind of moral outrage. It is an unfortunate part of the sports culture. But it does not do good to vilify individual athletes.

Hard to believe that Eckstein, who sucks, is an offensive upgrade, but it's true since the Jays insist on starting John McDonald. I'd save the money and just start Marco Scutaro to tell you the truth, or deal one of those young pitchers with decent upside to the Rockies for Clint Barmes. Clint Barmes? He's worse at the plate than McDonald.

Yes. Feel free to start a new one.

I'm sort of glad I'll miss the circus being at work. People are getting way too worked up over all of this.

The six-hour WCW All Nighter special from 1994.

I think 90% of those names are old news. Benito Santiago was named in the original BALCO article, but no one bothered to actually read the damn thing.

219 plate appearances. You can't possibly draw an accurate comparison with an established major leaguer based on that. And what the heck is Rate2? I know it's a BPro statistic, but their explanation is inadequate. And again, you're drawing a conclusion based on 58 defensive games. A 26 year old who can't slug .400 is a bench player.

Why? The O's dealt an unhappy player and got some prospects in return. The Astros got a legitimate bat and while defense is a concern, they don't have many lefty pitchers on their roster. Quite honestly, I really like what the Astros have done this offseason. Offense? Their 3-4-5 is Miguel Tejada, Lance Berkman and Carlos Lee. I think Michael Bourn can be a capable leadoff hitter. If J.R. Towles plays, they have eliminated the three worst hitters from their lineup. At the same time, they improved their outfield defense by moving Hunter Pence and acquiring Bourn, a legitimately good defensive player. The pitching is a concern, but they haven't dealt a single player who was likely to help beyond Brad Lidge.

And their top prospect happens to be a catcher.

Real interesting trade there. I surmise that puts Luke Scott in left field, Mike Costanzo to AAA Norfolk for a season and the three pitchers into the Spring Training competition. I'll have to take a look later and get an idea of where they rank in the Orioles system. I imagine Tejada moves to third base in Houston, but that's iffy yet. Houston suddenly has seven infielders (Tejada, Everett, Matsui, Burke, Wigginton, Loretta and Lance Berkman).

Today's Most Liked: http://www.amazon.com/Goosebumps-2007-Phil...1406&sr=1-1 Includes the clinching game! I actually got to order it Monday and it arrived today.

He's not.

Estrada's pretty near worthless. Forget his low OBP, he seems to have attitude problems. You can get away with that if you play like Milton Bradley. Not Estrada.

Liked: -The most glorious day of baseball in my lifetime, as the Phillies win the National League East on the season's final day. -50 live baseball games attended, including a 30-3 historic blowout. -Jim Rushford and other class acts on the minor league baseball circuit. Disliked: -Steroids controversy. -Never ending playoff games, with late starts. -Yankee-ization of Scranton baseball

Jack Korpela gives us Hogan/Savage. Ugh. Not that the match isn't good, but it's been available for two weeks on the WWE Championship program.

I think he previously wrestled as Sivi Avi.

Bought myself "The Pitch That Killed" at Borders last night. Seems to get a lot of praise as an under the radar book, so I'm giving it a shot.

Can't really answer that as an adult. It does make it easy to determine who GETS christmas gifts though.

Because he'd do the same for me, right? RIGHT?!

Have you tried rebooting your box? I get errors from time to time. Hold down the power button until it boots, and wait a few seconds. See if it works then.

I actually agree with you on this. It's like "OK, this guy our team has sucks, let's trade for his replacement. Oh wait, there isn't one." That's not quite the theory. The idea is that the replacement level represents the production you would get from freely available talent, guys you would not have to give up appreciable talent to acquire.

I should do a separate essay on statistics one of these days. I think the big danger is that there are no end all, be all statistics to judge a player. You can translate WHIP, yes. But you still have the problems that it's limited sample sizes, it's only marginally useful when evaluating future performance, it includes hits which are subject to wide variation, and such. A statistic is only a piece of evidence towards the larger goal of judging a player. I am at the point where I will cite a statistic when necessary. But the audience generally doesn't understand or particularly care about the statistic. They can do the legwork themselves if they need. What's important is the opinion or evaluation provided after the statistics.

Enough with the translated statistics. They are really only marginally useful.

The problem with those Yankee Stadium stats is that all but four appearances come from 2003 or earlier. You can't honestly bring up Hawkins' failed stint as a starter in the late '90s as proof that he's an ill-suited pitcher for the Yankees. I'd be worried about his strikeout rate myself, but at least he doesn't walk many batters.

I don't see why they should have taken it. Helms is much, much better than he showed in 2007. Nestor lacks control and I seriously doubt he'll have an MLB career. Looking over news, I see Rotoworld.com criticized the non-move, citing Pat Gillick's "unwillingness to admit mistakes" and Helms' 2007 batting line. And what, a new third baseman is going to materialize out of thin air?