EVIL~! alkeiper

Teams are always in a habit of grabbing names. It's a 50 round draft and most of the players after the 25th round or so are just warm bodies. Last year the St. Louis Cardinals grabbed Jesse Schoendienst, grandson of Red, in the late rounds. I don't think there's anything wrong with it. The problem is when the GM/manager promotes the player beyond his means. Marc Sullivan is a famous example. His father Haywood worked as the Red Sox' GM, and Marc played parts of five MLB seasons with a .186 batting average to show for it. (And for the record, Sullivan also sported a gaudy .224 average in the minors.)

Much worse. There's a difference between 80-82 and 60-102. Moreover, there are ways to clearly evaluate players between good teams and bad teams. Now, I supported Alex Rodriguez in 2003, but I believe it takes an exceptional season for a player on a non-contender to deserve MVP status. But a player should not be automatically disqualified. Because of all the Yankees that win the award? In the last forty years we've seen Thurman Munson (1976), Don Mattingly (1985) and Alex Rodriguez (2005). That's IT. There is no pro-Yankee bias in the MVP balloting.

Joe Mauer would be my choice for A.L. MVP. You've got a catcher who's on pace for the batting crown and contributing plus defense. I think that's far more valuable than a straight DH. Does being a DH hurt? Yes. It's not that it's easier to hit as a DH or anything. It's that defense is a plus in the same way offense is a plus. A DH is only earning points on one side of the board. Mauer has nailed 16 baserunners. That's a huge credit. Also, to clear up something Cheech said, the DH is not just an American League innovation. The NL is practically the ONLY league in the world that does not use the DH at the point.

Blackout rules. It's no biggie because I get the Phils and NYC teams on tv anyway. The only weird one is the Pirates, who are six hours away and not broadcasted in my area. Yeah I know about the blackout rules, I just don't understand how you would get Penn and NY games. They seem far away from eachother. I live an equal distance from both cities. In fact, both Yankee Stadium and Citizens Bank Park are exactly 84 miles away.

Blackout rules. It's no biggie because I get the Phils and NYC teams on tv anyway. The only weird one is the Pirates, who are six hours away and not broadcasted in my area.

I noticed MLB.com is offering their MLB video service for $14.95/month. With two months left, I figured this is a reasonable deal. Does anyone else have this service? The only teams I would lose by blackout are the Yankees, Mets, Phillies and Pirates.

Nah. Like any fan of a sports team, I cheer passionately for them but often question their front office moves. I can understand the motives of the Bobby Abreu trade, even if I don't like it. Carrying 13 pitchers however is a stupid move by any team. Just for the sake of having warm bodies it severely limits a team's strategical options. Yes, they can match up pitchers. They just can't pinch run, pinch hit, make defensive substitutions, etc. You can get away with it when you have eight locked-in starters, But if you're going to trade Abreu and start platooning, you HAVE to carry a proper number of reserves. When you have crap, you should acquire more of it. Much like Ed Wade's strategy of adding bloated contracts, right? In all seriousness, it's overkill. You get six relievers to get you through a game, and you carry a mopup man to sponge up innings in blowouts. That is EXACTLY the ideal role for Fabio Castro. Let him make multi-inning appearances, and carry the load for the other relievers. What frustrates me is that I get the feeling the teams are eventually going to ask for larger rosters at some points and get them. One of the most enjoyable aspects of minor league baseball is that teams don't endlessly shuffle relief pitchers into a game. Two inning appearances are normal. It sucks the fun out of baseball games to see so many pitchers who have nothing to offer that the other pitchers don't.

The Phils in their infinite wisdom are carrying 13 pitchers and just 12 position players. They had used Dellucci leaving them with just Chase Utley (who pinch hit for Abraham Nunez in the 9th), Mike Lieberthal (pinch hit for Sandoval, and can't run regardless), and Chris Roberson (in the on deck circle for Jon Lieber). If they used a pinch runner, they would have had to let Abraham Nunez (.162 batting average) or Danny Sandoval (about 10 at bats in MLB career) hit for themselves. Meanwhile, of their 13 pitchers they needed exactly one to pitch eight innings. But I guess pitching wins ballgames, right?

If you're going to make fun of someone try and make sure it's the right one. Cartman has said nothing of the sort in AT LEAST the last two months, maybe ever for all I know.

Fernando Tatis once hit 34 home runs in a single season. Is it really worth getting worked up over? Especially since they WON. Tatis did that in 1999. Last time I checked it was 2006. Tatis also has been out of baseball since 2003 and is a shell of his former steroid self. I thought the Yankees' entire team building philosophy was based on what happened in 1999.

Fernando Tatis once hit 34 home runs in a single season. Is it really worth getting worked up over? Especially since they WON.

Utley's hit streak is dead unless the Mets tie the game.

The Blue Oyster Cult?

You know, I'm glad the Phils don't have Bobby Abreu's awful defense anymore. I mean, no other outfielder would allow Orlando Hernandez to triple, right? Especially one that hustles and runs into walls. A lot of good THAT did.

It depends on if Ronny Cedeno develops as a hitter. Izturis is a good enough fielder to punt defense, and if Izturis's bat is replacing Neifi's in the lineup, it's an upgrade. I think they should look into upgrading their bat at second. Is Mike Fontenot a possibility or does his high OBP and average speed disqualify him from a starting job? Like Czech said, Fontenot's 26. His minor league stats look good, but his MLE is about .255/.317/.372. What's the NFL?

It's quite possible. Remember that any team that claims Jones is potentially responsible for his contract.

I doubt it. Remember Johnny Bench hit 45 Home Runs when he was 22. I suspect Mauer will eventually move from behind the plate.

It depends on if Ronny Cedeno develops as a hitter. Izturis is a good enough fielder to punt defense, and if Izturis's bat is replacing Neifi's in the lineup, it's an upgrade. I think they should look into upgrading their bat at second.

I'd say with 90% certainty that it won't. The teams won't work out a deal and Jones will remain a Brave.

ESPNNews's bottom line indicates the Lopez to Boston trade is official.

I've been putting this off for several days. As some of you might imagine, I am somewhat steamed by the trade that sent Bobby Abreu to the Yankees for four prospects. Abreu was one of my favorite players, and the Yankees are my most hated enemy. But sometimes good baseball sense requires that you set personal feelings aside and make decisions that win games. So I would like to be as fair about this as possible. First off, the trade is terrible, value-for-value. The Phillies sent a player away with a .301 career batting average, .412 OBP, 261 career stolen bases, and two All-Star appearances. I could recite statistics all day. The players the Phillies got in return include a 20 year old shortstop in Low A known more for his athleticism than his production, a 27 year old middle reliever currently in AAA, and two prospects with potential but too far away to even project. All the circumstances in the trade point to a pure salary dump. That the Phils got little in return and did it at the trading deadline gives the impression that they wanted (or perhaps needed) to clear Abreu's salary as quickly as possible. Let's face it. Attendance at the new Citizens Bank Park has settled back to 2.6 Million after spiking to 3.2 Million its first season. Pessimistic messages by G.M. Pat Gillick will not help season ticket sales. The previous payroll of $95 Million is probably not sustainable in the eyes of the club. (It probably is, but I'm not going to turn this into another essay about club economics). The trade aside, does this move make the Phillies better? Payroll flexibility gets thrown around alot, but that implies that the Phillies will both spend the savings, and that there are players worth buying. Maybe by spending the money on two players you come out ahead by plugging holes. That's entirely possible, but we will not see that until the offseason. In the meantime, improvements in the Phillies play will no doubt be attributed to some sort of clubhouse chemestry, the idea being that Abreu was some sort of curmudgeon whose mere presence forced Ryan Franklin to throw multiple gopher balls. That of course is nonsense. But defense is not, and Abreu's play in right field has declined over the last two seasons. You can punt defense in one corner, but putting up with Abreu in right field AND Pat Burrell's declining range in left field has worsened the defense, and might be responsible for some of the Phils' inability to prevent runs. I feel fairly comfortable even as an Abreu fan working under the assumption that switching right fielders will improve the defense. Does that make up for the lack of offense? Most fans assume that adding/deleting a star makes a greater difference than it really does. David Dellucci has actually posted a better OPS the last two years than Bobby Abreu. Abreu has a higher OBP, by perhaps 70 points. Over the last two months of the season, that works out to reaching base about 14 times more. Now, Dellucci's offense is largely based against right handed pitching. By a happy coincidence, Shane Victorino is crushing LEFT handed pitching this season. If you get a right-handed hitting platoon partner for Dellucci, you've replaced 80% of Abreu's production at about a third of the cost. The Phils play only a fourth of their games against lefties, so Dellucci's lack of production against lefties isn't a serious problem. You know, I actually like this deal a bit. I don't think the Phillies are much worse without Abreu, and they should be able to pick up some help over the offseason. The Phils have some young pitching coming up the system, and I think they'll contend next season. Other Phillies Notes: The last Phillies notes on MLB.com reported the outstanding batting line of Branden Florence in Class A Clearwater. What the article didn't mention is that Florence is a designated hitter and sometime left fielder, and that he's 28 years old. In his prime, he's posted an MLE (Major League Equivelency) of .252/.283/.323. In context, Peter Bergeron's a better prospect.....SS Adrian Cardenas is ripping up the Gulf Coast League. He has an excellent chance of showing up on my postseason top 30 prospect list....The Red Barons are six games up on the playoffs with 32 games left.

I'd say Maddux is more likely to be jinxed by having to retire nine batters in a row. The odds of that happening on its own are somewhere around 7%.

If you're scoreboard watching this early you'll drive yourself to a premature stroke.

Correct me if I'm wrong but, since this is Reyes' fourth year in the majors, doesn't this contract buy out his first year of free agency, as well as his final three years of arbitration eligibility? I think that's correct. NYankees reported Chris Russo's information. There's no way Reyes is anything more than four years at the end of this season. And the way it works is that if Reyes reaches six years the third day of the season, he still doesn't get free agency until the end of the year. Reyes would be a difficult arbitration case because there really aren't that many comparable players. This move saves the Mets some money, but it also provides Reyes with security. If he goes into the tank, he still gets $20 Million. Plus, he'll just be 27 the next time he's eligible for free agency. To answer the original question, it's a different market for players before free agency, which is why he got less money. I thought every player is secretly put on waivers. Teams do it to see what kind of interest they can get for their players. You can put a player on waivers one time and reclaim the player if they are taken. If you do it a second time and the player is taken from another team then he is gone for good. A team isn't going to publicly announce that they are putting so and so player on waivers. They are for the most part. There's usually no list posted publicly, but some names might get leaked. Damnit, I was hoping Mike Lieberthal would get traded. Don't kid yourself. If the Phils trade Lieberthal they'll get a warm body, if that. Personally, I don't understand the Lieberthal hate. Yeah, he's declined, but he served the organization for over a decade. Why not partition his playing time and let him ride out gracefully?

Mateo's really an underrated prospect. He had a fantastic year in the Florida State League last year. St. Louis took him in the Rule V draft but gave him back. The only concern I have is that it may be early yet for him.