EVIL~! alkeiper

Didn't I tell you people the OaO tags were banned? Besides, we already have a thread for this. I merged the two topics.

I think this tournament is something of a joke. Eight games? A team goes 1-2 and all of the sudden they are out. That does not leave a great deal of breathing room. It makes the tournament more of a random process than any kind of real competition.

I just don't understand how a player can play for statistics without playing well. Why would he not feel any need to succeed in the clutch knowing a big hit would help his numbers? Last year a columnist mentioned his lack of hustle. How do you not hustle your way to 40 stolen bases? What's more, his statistics do not follow this theory. His OPS rises over 100 points with runners on base. That's not all. Over his entire CAREER, Abreu is a .383 hitter with a man on third and less than two outs. I am looking all over Abreu's statistics for some indication that he is unclutch, and it is just not there. Philly fans expect him to come through and miraculously tie games in the 9th inning. Guess what? Hitting is more difficult than simply willing yourself to succeed. As for Thome, his OBP entering this season was .410. He's 36th All-Time in OBP, 14th in slugging percentage, 14th in OPS, 35th in home runs, 46th in walks, and 29th in Adjusted OPS. That means only 28 players in the history of baseball of produced a better OPS relative to the league than Jim Thome. Most of the players above him not in the Hall had short careers (Dick Allen, Charlie Keller), are ineligible (Joe Jackson and active players), or played in the American Association (Pete Browning and Dave Orr). Jim Thome didn't just hit home runs. At his peak, he was one of the most difficult outs in baseball. In addition, look at Thome's double play statistics. For a slow slugger who played on an outstanding offensive team, Thome almost never reached double digits.

The National League is so bunched up that almost every team is sitting at or around .500. There's a tendancy when things go wrong to start blaming the best players on a team. Bobby Abreu, Donovan McNabb, Terrell Owens, Allen Iverson, etc. have all been criticized in the Philly media for whatever failures their teams have experienced. The problem with the Phillies isn't Abreu's inability to deliver the clutch hit. It is that the team's bullpen has been terrible and its rotation questionable. Losing Randy Wolf may have hurt their confidence the last few weeks. There is no easy answer to the Ryan Howard situation. You can not just cast aside a Hall of Fame first baseman after half a season, and considering Ryan Howard is 25 now, his potential as a prospect is limited. It would be nice if there were an opening, but if not, Howard's best value lies in a trade. The worst case scenario is that Thome flops and the organization needs to find another first baseman. Fact is, first basemen are easy to find. I see some promise for the Phillies. Carlos Ruiz looks very good at AAA, while Cole Hamels recently progressed to AA. The team is one good starter away from the postseason, in my view. There is no team ready to jump far ahead in the wild card race, and the Phillies are still very much in it.

When will people realize that Bruce Chen is legitimate?

But is the guy that's only hit 2 home runs so far in a 5 year MLB career really naive enough to think that "'roiding up" now is going to give him a HoF career? I'm sure there's scientifically-researched limits to these drugs... You've got to have something to work with to enhance, right? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> That's the misconcepcion. These players would not take steroids to become great players. They take steroids because without them, they are kicking around the high minors earning far less than they would in the Majors.

Because he was a pain in the ass to deal with, derailing nearly EVERY thread with tales of woe about his oh-so terrible Yankees. We turfed him and the baseball discussions immediately improved.

That's why I keep wondering... I'm glad that Bud put some beef into the drug-testing policy. But the whole idea that it's finding only minor leaguers, relievers of no "big deal", and bush-league hitters... I guess I'm one of those folks that won't be happy til they nail someone with a name that at least means something to me. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Well, of course there is some doubt. But when you think about it, the most likely users are the guys who have the most to lose by not taking drugs, in this case, guys whose very existance in the league is on the cusp.

And your team proceeded to pound the holy crap out of my team. Good times.

Clement was the next deserving starter, regardless of team affiliation.

A false positive is not something that might show up if a person unknowingly takes a banned substance. The way I understand it, steroid tests can not detect the drug itself, but detects abnormalities in a person's hormone level. If you group 1,000 players in a normal probability curve, a few will have high levels of these hormones ovvur naturally, and the system will flag the players even if they have not taken illegal drugs.

Well, I never said they could not win the National League, or even that it was unlikely. I said the worst thing would be for them to win the National League, but that was an Anti-Jeff Loria statement more than anything.

Quite frankly, they were overrated to start the season. Juan Encarnacion and Alex Gonzalez are hitting way better than I expected, so the underachievers are matched by the overachievers. The team lacks bench depth, bullpen depth, and starting depth. Scott Olsen is excellent, which merely makes up for the latest Josh Beckett injury. This team is another example of the talking heads mesmerized by the front-line talent and not noticing anything else.

After some thought, I've decided to attempt to get my own baseball blog up and running. This had been in consideration and actually created in February, but I had not put much effort into it. In any case, check it out for my latest column, and hopefully, I will update every other day or so with new insights... cultofabreu.blogspot.com

Olympic baseball was essentially the equivalent of AA baseball last season. With the exception of the Cuban and Japanese national teams, there is really no reason to watch. I would rather see baseball set up its own international competition.

Well, with the team missing their regular first baseman and shortstop, they are short-handed right now. Ryan Howard needs time to adjust to major league pitching.

From what I heard on the radio, since Izturis was a player's selection rather than a fan or manager vote, they had to replace him with whoever finished behind him in player voting rather than say, someone more deserving *cough MorganEnsbergcough*. That doesn't explain why the players' selections are protected like this but fan selections aren't, but oh well. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> My guess is that Bud Selig only allowed enough money for one phone call.

It is probably because fans are looking for a specific name, and can not just scan rows of registered hotel guests. Hence when Lofton was interrupted by Whitaker fans, they were also hotel employees.

Just the media's love affair with him. Nothing personal.

Perhaps, but somehow I will survive.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story...e=rovell/050706

That rumour's been going around for years, but it's never amounted to anything more than an owner spouting off hot air. Much like the Expos, I'm sure it'll happen eventually (especially now that they're Baltimore's AAA team, and the O's probably wouldn't mind moving them closer to Baltimore), but there's no point putting any stock in the rumour in any given year. Oh, and Vancouver now has a single-A team in the Northwest League. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Certainly, it is too soon to draw any conclusions. I could not help but notice the Ottawa rumors this time because if they moved to Allentown, they would be within an hour's drive. Still, the attendance figures of the Lynx draw a dismal picture. An average of 2,331 fans a game, for a total of 76,950 so far this season. Charlotte is the only team in the International League that draws less than double of what Ottawa takes in.

I hope it works. I don't think giving shuffling relievers is going to make them any better, but it is nice to see some innovation.

Speaking of relief shenanigans... http://www.sptimes.com/2005/07/06/Rays/Lou...to_starti.shtml Somewhere, Earnshaw Cook is smiling.

Better than Vlad Guerrero? I don't see that. I'm not even sure he's better than Jim Edmonds. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> This year yes. Career wise Abreu wouldn't rank the highest, but he is certainly in Guerrero's league.