EVIL~! alkeiper

Rosters are 27 players apiece. They play three games, take a week off, play three more, another week, and then two for the championship. Quite honestly, I don't know how you can possibly overwork a player under those conditions. The Netherlands team could also include Sidney Ponson! I'm not entirely thrilled with the format, but it should be interesting to watch.

I've always felt closers are overrated. Getting an elite closer is worth a few wins on the margins, if that. The Phils lost two games against the Astros in a series when Wagner blew saves. Winning just one of those games would've meant the playoffs. If the NL's best closer can't lock down that, what's the sense of having him? I'm probably bitter. I likely overrated Jacobs. You're right on the Delgado point. I'm still hesitant to pick the Mets. I honestly feel people are underestimating the Braves again. Well, the media is. ESPN's Sportsnation poll indicates the fans know better.

Rick White's not a world beater. He's 37, still has some mileage left. He'll give you a league average ERA and won't hurt you much with walks. It doesn't sound like much but considering the pathetic state of both teams' bullpens, he would've been an asset last season.

What's so bad about Rick White?

In fairness, the Mets pythagorean record was 89-73 last year. They are going to contend for a title the next couple seasons at least.

Don't forget the Marlins will also lose A.J. Burnett, Jeff Conine, Juan Encarnacion, and Alex Gonzalez to free agency. Right now, only Juan Pierre and Miguel Cabrera are still under contract from last year's starting lineup, and Pierre's likely on his way out as well.

Looks like the trade is Paul Lo Duca to the Mets for Gaby Hernandez and someone else. The Marlins' firesale continues and the Mets continue to throw away money while not significantly improving their team. In their pursuit of a championship, the Mets have now traded away three of their top four prospects and thrown in this year's first round pick to boot. In return, they received a reliever, a first baseman slightly better than the first base prospect they gave up for him, and the worst second half hitter in baseball.

I have my doubts. The Yankees may have lost money. I doubt the YES Network loses money. When you consider all of Steinbrenner's baseball related holdings, I have to believe he turns a profit.

Furcal's a tremendous shortstop. He's 28 now, so he's hardly likely to decline over the course of the contract. This is a much better deal than the $9-10 Million some closers have gotten in the market.

One Andre the Giant/Flair match finished third runner up in PWI's match of the year voting in 1976.

The first thread is up to 30 pages and we have three full months to go. Time to start a new one, I believe. I've been in and out the last few days so I haven't had time to fully look over the Phils' latest acquisitions. No big names, but a few role players. The roster looks fairly well stocked, barring a trade. Catching: The Phillies signed free agent Sal Fasano as a backup to Mike Lieberthal. At surface this is Pat Gillick's most puzzling move, as Fasano is not a particularly great defensive catcher, and the club has a defensive catcher waiting in the wings with Carlos Ruiz. The Phils needed to stock their AAA team, so if Fasano can be sent down if Ruiz earns a shot, everything is well. The significant consequence is that the Todd Pratt era is over. Infield: Abraham Nunez signs, apparently to platoon with David Bell. So instead of one replacement level third baseman, we have two. The Phils lacked a threatening bat off the bench last year, and when your up the middle talent is so good (Rollins and Utley), how many utility infielders do you need? Outfield: Aaron Rowand will save a few runs this season. The Thome trade moves Jason Michaels to the bench, where he either becomes a high-OBP bench threat, or trade fodder. The Red Sox and Yankees both need a center fielder, so this one is worth watching. ESPECIALLY if Johnny Damon signs elsewhere. Shane Victorino becomes the fifth outfielder, with excellent defensive skills, speed, and pop. Right now the club can claim three switch-hitters on their bench. Starting Rotation: Hasn't been touched. The Phils are a better pitching team than people realize. They lack a true ace but they're consistant, and the high HR output at Citizens' Bank Park hurts the raw statistics. Lieber, Lidle and Myers make up the front three. There has been talk of non-tendering Vicente Padilla, but with this season's market the Phillies would be crazy to make such a move. For number five the team has their choice of Ryan Madson, Robinson Tejeda, Gavin Floyd and Eude Brito. There has been talk of moving Ryan Madson to the rotation, which I endorse. Randy Wolf could return July or August. Bullpen: Tom Gordon for three years? Some have suggested that age is not a critical factor for pitchers as much as it is for hitters. We'll see. Rheal Cormier will have a better year. Then we have Julio Santana, Aaron Fultz, Geoff Geary, Aquilino Lopez, and whoever loses the Tejeda/Floyd/Brito/Madson sweepstakes. Pedro Liriano and Franklin Perez have been cut loose. I think the Braves are still NL East favorites, particularly with Andy Marte coming up. That can move Chipper Jones to first base. It's amazing that the team with eleven straight titles still has the best young talent in the division.

My mistake. Since the Giants finished in the bottom half of the league, they'll lose their second round pick instead.

I'd take Millar. His 2005 line is completely out of context with the rest of his career. He could be a bargain. As for Fasano, as long as Carlos Ruiz gets a fair chance, I'm fine with it. The Phils have no catching depth, and will need two AAA catchers in the system. Today's dumb signing comes courtesy of the Giants, who signed Tim Worrell to a two year deal. Not that it's dumb to sign Worrell, who will bounce back, but the Giants give up their first round draft pick for the privilege.

The only real sensible destination for Manny is the Angels. I think the Mets and Red Sox are fairly far apart on this. There's no deal the Red Sox can make that will actually improve the team unless they get Beltran, and the Mets giving up Beltran would negate any positive of acquiring Ramirez.

Patrick's terrific to listen to along with Buck Martinez in the morning. They won't start blindly bashing players, and Martinez is quite knowledgeable. They seem to have real fun doing what they do.

I'm simply ranking them by win shares. Here's each player over the last five seasons... Giles: 29, 31, 25, 23, 32 Furcal: 9, 20, 25, 20, 26 Giles beats Furcal each year. Furcal is second though. Off the entire free agent market, only Giles, Furcal, Johnny Damon and Roger Clemens have averaged 20+ win shares a season. Furcal's a decent hitter, great defender and basestealing threat. Giles had a .423 OBP in the toughest hitters' park in the league.

Man this is a weird offseason. Billy Wagner is only six months younger and has a history of arm trouble, and he makes $13 million more than the best player on the market? Color me shocked at this deal. HUGE bargain for the Pads.

I think all things considered, the Braves probably saw Furcal as a more pressing need. They have Andruw Jones and Jeff Francouer. All that's left is left field, and a Langerhans/Kelly Johnson platoon takes care of that. As for left handed power, Chipper Jones crushes right handed pitchers, and their new young catcher (Brian McCann) is a lefty as well.

I love how Wagner rants about being on a winning team, considering that if he didn't give up a home run to Craig Biggio in that September series, the Phillies are at worst in a one-game playoff with Houston for the wild card. I've been impressed with Gillick's work as well, especially that the 2 signings he's made haven't made the Phils give up any picks. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> They'd be in the playoffs outright. Getting Biggio out would've won the game, giving the Phils an extra win, and the 'Stros an extra loss.

It's that kind of thinking that led us to the Thome contract situation in the first place. Wagner is 34, and has twice missed significant time thanks to injury. Paying $10.75 Million a season for a guy to pitch less than 80 innings a season is, in my opinion, the height of stupidity. Not only is it a bad deal 3-4 years down the road, it's a bad deal next year. You can collect a bunch of live arms and find a closer that way for much, much less money. And besides all that, the Phillies farm system just acquired two first round draft picks in return. Yeah but Thome is an upgrade over Carl Everett at DH and it was nice insurance in case they couldn't resign Konerko. I've heard they have some prospect ready to play Center who they feel is better than Rowand. I don't know much about their system... maybe Al can fill in the blanks. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Two prospects actually. Brian Anderson played 118 games at AAA Charlotte, hitting .295 with 16 home runs and 44 walks. He appears MLB ready. The club also has Chris Young coming off a successful season at AA Birmingham. Young hit .277 with 26 home runs and 32 steals. Both can play center field. If neither work out immediately, the club can easily move Scott Podsednik to center and perhaps play Ross Gload in left field.

I have been very impressed with Gillick's work so far. He's addressed almost every concern on this team and done so in an efficient manner. He cleared the first base logjam while adding a solid center fielder and minor league pitching depth in the process. He found an inexpensive platoon partner for David Bell. Now he's picked up a middle reliever for less than a million while everyone else goes nuts. Santana pitched much better than his ERA would suggest last season. Other than occasional control issues, there's nothing not to like about this signing.

Zito in Fenway? Zito gave up 26 home runs last year and 28 the year before. That's while playing at the Oakland Coliseum. If you take a lefty flyball pitcher like that and stick him in a park with a short left field, you're inviting disaster. I think Floyd and Ramirez are indeed closer than people think. Using runs created, Floyd created 98 runs last year, while Ramirez created 119. Add 19 runs to the Mets' offense, and they pick up about three wins or so. That's good, but that's before you factor in defense. Ramirez is reaching a stage in his career where he may need to be phased out of the outfield and into a DH role in due time. Since I have the park data in front of me. Fenway Park is essentially a neutral home run park. It's neutral in the sense that if you have one foot in a bucket of ice and one on hot coals, on average you're comfortable. Fenway is a tough home run park for a lefties, but a very good home run park for right handed hitters. Fenway also allows more doubles by far than any park in baseball. I honestly think Minaya has done little to improve this team. Wagner will pitch 60-65 innings, assuming he's healthy. Delgado upgrades first base, but the Mets will have a downgrade at catcher. I don't think their next acquisition is posting a .452 slugging mark. They still lack a good second baseman, and they downgraded their defense.

Don't forget about Eude Brito. And Cormier's still with the team. I just got in the 2006 Bill James Handbook, a tremendous statistical reference. Ryan Howard's projected 2006 line caused me to do a double take. .322/.397/.628, with 44 HRs! Daniel Cabrera is baseball's new fireballer, throwing 37 pitches over 100 mph. Tim Wakefield threw 2,305 pitches under 80 mph. Scott Podsednik led the AL in stealing third with 17, while Jimmy Rollins led the NL with 13. Wily Mo Pena hit the two longest home runs of the season, at 492 and 490 feet respectively. The longest home run in the AL came off of Alex Rodriguez, who hit a 485 foot shot on August 13. Bobby Abreu took more pitches than any batter in the majors. There is just a tremendous amount of info here.

You're looking at the Cubs' NLCS versus the Marlins. Take a good look at those games. Farnsworth allowed six earned runs in that series. Five of those came in the final two games. The first one of course was the Bartman inning (Farnsworth came in after the foul ball). Farnsworth allowed three runs in that inning. The last game saw Farnsworth leave the game for Dave Veres with runners on first and second with two outs. Alex Gonzalez scored both runners with a double. Farnsworth pitched six innings, allowed six hits, no home runs, two walks and seven strikeouts. If you were to run a component ERA on that, you wouldn't expect him to allow six runs. Game six was a bad outing, but otherwise he was unlucky. If the Yankees wanted Endy Chavez, I wouldn't even wait to see what would come in return. Michaels for Eric Duncan would draw my interest though.

Farnsworth handled the media pressure in Chicago just fine. What he couldn't handle were the prevailing winds in Wrigley.