EVIL~! alkeiper

Actually, Anderson played mostly left for the first half of his career, before the Orioles realized that Curtis Goodwin or Mike Devereaux were not going to get them a pennant. Anderson played center for the next five years, before Melvin Mora moved him out of center, and Anderson left soon after.

Some bad Phillies news, as David Bell's back is barking, and Vicente Padilla has mild tendinitis. Polanco can easily move to third so the team is ok there, and if Padilla misses time, Gavin Floyd or Ryan Madson can fill the rotation.

Yes, they played in Mile High Stadium the first two seasons, and drew over 55,000 fans a game each season. Coors Field held around 50,200 at its inaugration. The Rockies still led the league in attendance through 1999. And I'm partial to the road cap. Losses do lead to drops in attendance, more than any other factor. If the Pirates put a decent product on the field, the fans would care.

I can run a random number generator on the new teams if you'd like.

Pittsburgh. They finished 15th in the National League in attendance, drawing just 19,750 a game. They have made no improvements to convince fans to come out to the ballpark. The only reason they could draw anyone is because fans will need to buy one of those snazzy season-ticket packages in order to get first dibs on All-Star tickets in 2006. For illustrative purposes, here is the first-year attendance figures of several expansion teams. 1998 Tampa Bay- 2,506,293 (7th of 14) Arizona- 3,610,290 (2nd of 14) 1993 Colorado- 4,483,350 (1st of 14) Florida- 3,064,847 (5th of 14) 1977 Toronto- 1,701,052 (4th of 14) Seattle- 1,338,511 (8th of 14) 1972 Texas- 662,974 (10th of 12) 1970 Milwaukee- 933,690 (7th of 12) 1969 Seattle- 677,944 (10th of 12) Kansas City- 902,414 (7th of 12) Montreal- 1,212,608 (7th of 12) San Diego- 512,970 (12th of 12) 1968 Oakland- 837,466 (8th of 10) Thirteen teams have been founded or relocated in the last forty years. Of those thirteen, twelve finished under .500 (Oakland finished 82-80), and many sucked in spectacular fashion. Only one finished last in attendance.

It is the product of having Derek Jeter (.370 OBP), Paul O'Neill (.399), Bernie Williams (.408), Wade Boggs (.373), and sometimes Tim Raines (.403) batting ahead of Tino in the lineup. Any scrub hitting fifth in that lineup would knock in 100 runs. The only statistic Martinez led the league in that year was sacrifice flies. And that was his best year. I'm sorry, but zero times leading the league in any important offensive category, and just two All-Star appearances, does not rank a player above "pretty good." This should kill that argument... kinda like how Brady Anderson had one great year (50 Home Runs I think), which meant to everyone in Baltimore that he was the greatest player alive. You can't compare Tino to Brady Anderson. Anderson had one great year, while Tino had 6 out of 7 years of more than 100 RBIs, and 6 out of 7 years of 25+ Home Runs. EDIT: Didn't see Roys post. You're underscoring Brady Anderson here. He did have one great season of home runs when he smashed 50. But while he never came close to that home run total again, he was a very productive player otherwise. In 1992 for example, he posted a .373 OBP, hit 21 home runs, and stole 53 bases. That's pretty damned good. Anderson also played a key defensive position. Career Win Shares Brady Anderson 214 Tino Martinez 209 Martinez will pass Anderson this year, but the margin between the two players is very close. By no means is Martinez CLEARY better than Brady.

Here's an alphabetical list of keepers... Abreu, Bobby Beltre, Adrian Berkman, Lance Blalock, Hank Bonds, Barry Chavez, Eric Crawford, Carl Damon, Johnny Drew, J.D. Edmonds, Jim Giles, Marcus Guerrero, Vladimir Helton, Todd Lopez, Javy Martinez, Victor Mora, Melvin Nevin, Phil Ortiz, David Posada, Jorge Posdsednik, Scott Pujols, Albert Ramirez, Aramis Renteria, Edgar Rodriguez, Alex Rolen, Scott Soriano, Alfonso Suzuki, Ichiro Teixeira, Mark Tejada, Miguel Thome, Jim Wells, Vernon Wright, David Young, Michael Beckett, Josh Clement, Matt Foulke, Keith Gagne, Eric Garcia, Freddy Halladay, Roy Hudson, Tim Johnson, Randy Lidge, Brad Martinez, Pedro Nathan, Joe Oswalt, Roy Peavy, Jake Prior, Mark Rivera, Mariano Santana, Johan Schilling, Curt Schmidt, Jason Smoltz, John

They could lose 115 games and finish out of the attendance cellar. New teams are a box office boon.

No player has come within ten since the end of the dead-ball era. Triples were easier to get when the old parks had deep outfields and unpredictable bumps, and fielding was not quite as refined. I would be surprised to see anyone approach Wilson's record. Alongside a .523 OBP. Hamilton's Phillies scored 1,143 runs that season, good for third in the National League. The 1890s were THE most profilic era for run scoring in history. Teams surrendered an average of two unearned runs a game.

If you've got Giambi on the bench, he could be a pleasant surprise. His value is down, so you won't get much trade value. If he falters, dump him for someone better on the waiver wire.

Was it only four seasons ago that Darin Erstad was among the top five hitters in the AL? .355/.409/.541, 25 HR's, 100 RBI, 240 hits, 39 doubles, 121 runs, 366 total bases. Boy, I remember having him in a Sandbox.com fantasy league, and he was just a point machine. That season more and more looks like one of the all-time fluke seasons. He's essentially the second coming of Willie McGee, except no team was ever stupid enough to place McGee at first so they could play a 39 year old Jose Cruz Sr. in center field.

These rankings are rankings only of the nine players that form each team's projected starting lineup. The Twins have a mediocre offense, but their pitching would easily top the AL Central, and they are the division favorites. Balance does not equal quality. Please remember, again, that this only grades the lineups. The Red Sox' offense is better than the Yankees. But the article grades only the starting lineup, and that's why I ranked the Yankees ahead. It is the product of having Derek Jeter (.370 OBP), Paul O'Neill (.399), Bernie Williams (.408), Wade Boggs (.373), and sometimes Tim Raines (.403) batting ahead of Tino in the lineup. Any scrub hitting fifth in that lineup would knock in 100 runs. The only statistic Martinez led the league in that year was sacrifice flies. And that was his best year. I'm sorry, but zero times leading the league in any important offensive category, and just two All-Star appearances, does not rank a player above "pretty good."

I used projected VORP (Value over replacement player) from Baseball Prospectus to rate the 9 players from each lineup, and totaled them. I'll list the numbers and let you see for yourself... Posada (39.5) Varitek (27.8) Martinez (15.8) Millar (18.9) Womack (5.6) Bellhorn (31.8) Jeter (46.6) Renteria (37.7) Rodriguez (60.3) Mueller (18.6) Matsui (33.8) Ramirez (55.5) Williams (27.9) Damon (33.8) Sheffield (49.9) Nixon (20.5) Giambi (26.5) Ortiz (46.9) Yankees (305.9) Red Sox (291.5) It is worth noting that the Red Sox' projected bench smokes the Yankees' bench, and if we were to add those totals, the Red Sox would finish better overall. In addition, if Giambi does not pan out, replacing him with Ruben Sierra would place the Yankees below the Red Sox.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/stor...yson&id=1999463 Jayson Starks' list... 1. Boston 2. New York 3. Anaheim 4. Texas 5. Cleveland And here is my list of all 14 AL lineups... 1. New York 2. Boston 3. Oakland 4. Baltimore 5. Seattle 6. Cleveland 7. Texas 8. Detroit 9. Minnesota 10. Anaheim 11. Tampa Bay 12. Chicago 13. Toronto 14. Kansas City I cannot emphasize enough how overrated Anaheim's lineup is this season. Darin Erstad is the worst hitting first baseman in the American League. Orlando Cabrera isn't much of a hitter, and neither is Bengie Molina. Only Vlad Guerrero is really a star amongst this group. Seattle will surprise alot of people, because their new acquisitions (Adrian Beltre, Richie Sexson) will replace guys who could not hit at all. Kansas City would jump ahead of Toronto if they let Calvin Pickering hit. A half-decent DH would push Texas into the top 5.

Joe Carter would be the Indians' signature player for all the wrong reasons. He represents the low OBP players the Tribe loved to collect, that made them so terrible during the 1980s.

Frontline starter? The Phillies have the inside track on the first base prospect market.

The Phillies have little front-line talent, but they are deeper than most teams. The Marlins have Valdez fifth and then they fall off a cliff. Ditto the Mets. The Phillies have Ryan Madson and Gavin Floyd in case anyone in the rotation falters.

Encarnacion and Gonzalez are not valuable players to have in the lineup in any position. They're liabilities. As for the 3-4-5 hitters, compare them to the Phillies. As good as Miguel Cabrera is, Bobby Abreu smokes him at the plate. Carlos Delgado and Jim Thome are comparable players, and Mike Lowell is a little better than Pat Burrell. Juan Pierre is a nice player and all, but Jimmy Rollins is a better hitter, and Juan Pierre's poor success rate at stolen bases negates his speed value. Chase Utley should outhit Luis Castillo, and again Castillo's speed does not make up for the advantage in power. Mike Lieberthal's outhit Paul Lo Duca every year the last three years. The only spot the Marlins have an advantage in is number five, where Lowell is better than Burrell. Let's not get excited here. Hermida's a nice prospect, but he hasn't hit AA yet.

It's all nonsense. Every study that has been done indicates that clutch ability is a myth. A study by Dick Cramer indicated that the best clutch performers one year are not the best clutch performers every year. Pete Palmer found that past clutch performance was a poor predictor of future clutch performance, and a player's overall skill was a better indicator of who would deliver in the clutch. A handful of players do perform in the clutch year after year, and this is what we would expect in a random distribution, given a large sample of ballplayers.

And Myers outhit them both. Myers isn't a bad catcher at all, but there's something to be said for consistancy. Of course, in the second half, the Jays just might have the edge anyway.

I just can't see Greg Myers and Paul Lo Duca as comparable talents. Lo Duca's win shares the last four years have been 28, 19, 19 and 21. Myers' over the last four years were 6, 4, 8 and zero. For what its worth, I added up the 2003 Runs Created totals for the 2004 Blue Jays' lineup, and compared them with the current Marlins' lineup. In both 2005 projections, and 2004 stats, the Marlins won out. They even win if I add Josh Phelps to the Blue Jays lineup.

I'll give the civil answer. Essentially, playing in the NBA involves a great deal of pressure, with 20,000 fans screaming, and a defender right in your face. Alot of players can not cut it. A player needs to be cool and calm under pressure to reach the NBA. What is it about late game situations that makes it so difficult. Yes, there is more pressure, but that much more. It boils down to luck. Most NBA players shoot under 50%. Even under normal circumstances, they will miss more than they hit. So when you have a small sample of late-game, pressure shots, it is difficult to determine whether a player "choked," or it is simply the result of bad luck. I am a believer in that talent and ability win out in all situations. When you have players of equal ability, outside forces and intangibles might separate the two. But they do not turn a superior player into an inferior player. Besides, even if Webber was a choker, his skill in the first three quarters would still put the team in a better position to win.

Hmm. You know, this talk about "clutch" situations and such is all a big, steaming pile of crap.

I take it the Nats aren't an option? Nope. The Nationals' last place finish was the only consistancy I got. Well, that and Abreu's MVP award.

I'll give you Roy Halladay who is a true ace that the O's have no equivalent, but I wouldn't rank those other guys any better then Ponson, Lopez, Bedard and Cabrera. Lilly's ERA beat all but Rodrigo Lopez, and David Bush is probably a better prospect than anyone on the Orioles. Just my opinion.