EVIL~! alkeiper

Random thoughts on some teams as I input their stats into my program. 1989 Baltimore Orioles: Of course they were extremely lucky to nearly make the playoffs, especially considering Cal Ripken had an awful year. You wonder if they could have made it if they weren't committed to Billy "F.F." Ripken, one of the worst hitters of his era. 1985 Toronto Blue Jays: In 1985, the Blue Jays came one win away from making an all bullpen-by-committee World Series. 1986 Houston Astros: This is a fun rotation. Mike Scott, Nolan Ryan, and Jim "One HOF Vote" Deshaies. 1998 Florida Marlins: This lineup would look good today. Cliff Floyd, Luis Castillo, Derrek Lee, Edgar Renteria, Mark Kotsay, Craig Counsell. The pitching staff however is a cautionary tale about young pitching. Livan Hernandez (23), Brian Meadows (22), Jesus Sanchez (23), Andy Larkin (24), Rafael Medina (23) and Ryan Dempster (21). In 2004, those six pitchers combined to win 14 games.

Something that occurred to me today. Roddy Piper lost to Bret Hart at Wrestlemania VIII. Was that the only clean job Piper ever did in the promotion?

I'm curious about a couple of picks. Kingofthe909, why the '56 Dodgers and not the '55 club that won the Series, or the '53 club that won 105 games? Cartman, what's notable about the 2003 Diamondbacks? You didn't mean the '01 Championship club, did you?

And not to pile on, but Matthews is on the Angels.

Tournament. Not sure what format it will take yet.

I'm going to throw the 1950 "Whiz Kids" Phillies into the mix. 26 Teams are entered so far. Cheech13: '04 Red Sox Vern Gagne: '06 Twins Richard: '98 Padres MarvinisaLunatic: '97 Orioles MJ Styles: '89 Orioles Cena's Writer: '98 Yankees MFerXtreme87: '84 Tigers treble: '85 Blue Jays Criplercrosface9: '01 Mariners vivalaultra: '98 Astros Imarkout3eldandy: '76 Reds Kingofthe909: '56 Dodgers Smeus: '95 Braves CanadianChris: '94 Expos Kahran Ramsus: '92 Blue Jays Mik: '98 Marlins Just John: '86 Astros Bored: '90 Athletics humanoid92: '46 Red Sox Cartman: '03 Diamondbacks UndertakerHart: '02 Angels Cuban Linx: '99 Rangers phoenixrising: '27 Yankees 2Gold: '19 White Sox Fokai: '03 Braves alkeiper: '50 Phillies

Bored already picked them.

Strategic Baseball Simulator 4.8. It's freeware and ridiculously easy to work with once you get the jist of it.

The idea here is simple. I'm running a baseball sim on my computer, but instead of picking the teams myself, I'm looking for help. I'm asking each poster to select a team. First come first served, no repeats. No teams from the same franchise within five years of each other, and post-1900 teams only. You can choose to be represented by an all-time great team like the '98 Yankees, a memorable team like the '59 Go-Go White Sox, or maybe even an awful team like the '62 Mets. So take your picks, and hopefully we'll have some fun with this.

Ok guys. Next person to hurl insults can take a short vacation.

As an aside, these articles demonstrate that the offseason lasts far too long.

In fairness, I didn't see that the "cold plate" represented the worst lineup, just the one on the decline. Which is still silly for those aforementioned reasons. A few teams he missed... Atlanta Braves: Does anyone realize this team led the National League in OPS+ last year? Two Hall-of-Famers and a catcher who slugged .572 last season. Toronto Blue Jays: Lyle Overbay, Troy Glaus, Vernon Wells, and they added Frank Thomas. Philadelphia Phillies: Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, Pat Burrell. Wes Helms hurts the defense but adds pop.

Chase Utley has a .362 career OBP compared to .325 for Soriano. Soriano's career slugging percentage is one point higher. 41 steals is nice, but when he's caught 17 times you're just running yourself out of big innings. And while we're not considering defense, Utley has the advantage of actually playing second base in the past year.

Whose idea was it to dissolve professional baseball in Cuba? This tournament was a big disappointment outside of the first game.

In regards to Sullivan, I got the correct match. The Missing Link is the 1980s version of the Boogeyman.

When coming up with my ideal lineup, I try to avoid wall-to-wall power hitters. I think the World Baseball Classic showed the problem with that setup, being that no one is trying to set the table. CF- Ichiro Suzuki. .376 career OBP, 235 steals with an 80% success rate. SS- Derek Jeter. .388 career OBP, 249 steals with an 80% success rate. RF- Bobby Abreu. .412 career OBP, career 200/200 player. 1B- Albert Pujols. 1.048 career OPS now 5th highest all time. 49 home runs, 50 strikeouts last season. DH- Travis Hafner. .611 slugging percentage over the last three seasons. LF- Jason Bay. .936 career OPS, capable baserunning skills set him apart. 2B- Chase Utley. Again, a player who can not only hit, but steal bases. C- Joe Mauer. Only American League catcher to win a batting title. 3B- Freddy Sanchez. Career .313 hitter. Pure contact hitter. Yeah, Sanchez over A-Rod is a questionable call. I figure this lineup has enough guys who can drive the ball. What I want for those 4-6 hitters are ducks on the pond, so when the power hitters do their thing they do serious damage. Also, at every point except 8-9 I've managed to alternate lefty/righty.

Does this have anything to do with the gun thread?

Arroyo had a good 2004 as well. It was 2005 that was the outlier.

Watching MSG from October '85, goddamn I've never seen a better babyface performance from Ricky Steamboat. That match is really good.

Was it screwed up? I got the idea that it was a ruse to distract Van Dam.

He'd give up money per year, but his new deal would run several years longer.

Why do I get the feeling this show is going end with a beatdown of Matt Stryker?

Just a note. Be sure to check out the players' game logs at Baseball-Reference.com. One of the neat new features is that it will tell you how a team fared with a certain player in the game. For example, the '87 Cardinals were 76-55 when Jack Clark played (19-12 without him). For hitters it gives the number of RBI opportunities he had. For pitchers, the number of times a pitcher started on short rest, as well as his run support. It's all quite interesting.

For all this Tampa Bay is cheap stuff, they haven't wavered when it comes to paying draft bonuses.

A friend lent me his copy of the 1991 Survivor Series. The show reminds me how much fun Heenan & Monsoon were on commentary. They manage to work in a debate over WWF Magazine in the middle of the Rockers dissension angle.