EVIL~! alkeiper

Freddy Garcia for $9 million a season?! What the hell are the White Sox thinking here? Garcia's extremely homer-prone, and New Comiskey Park is one of the most prevalent home run parks in the majors. His ERA was below the league-average the last two seasons. He's put together 100 decent innings, and the Sox gift-wrapped $27 Million. This is the true principle of Moneyball. Think your investments through. Don't throw money out the window without considering the principles of career patterns and sample sizes.

Same as yesterday. Select the best manager in the history of the National League, for next week's All-Time All-Star Game.

I could come up with worse scrubs than that. To me, the scrubs are the guys who put up gaudy first half stats that are out of line with their career marks. If we're playing an ACTUAL game, the snubs will beat those guys easily.

Ted Lilly's got the best peripherals on the Jays staff. 8.21 K/9 ratio. 44 walks in 98 2/3 IP.

Managerial ability. You can interpret that as results, but if you take that to extremes, you would just pick the managers fortunate enough to manage great teams. Joe McCarthy had Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe Dimaggio, Red Ruffing, Phil Rizzuto, Ted Williams, etc. on his teams, and when you have those guys you aren't going to lose alot of games.

I actually have a $5 bet with an associate at work that Al Leiter won't get traded to the Yankees.

Rhodes' struggles began last year, when he wasn't a closer. The A's took a gamble and lost.

No. I'm pointing out that Torre needed to make a representation pick for the Orioles, and he took Tejada over Mora.

Except for Tom Gordon and Carlos Guillen, all of Torre's picks had to fill the team representation rule (this includes Tejada). Many fans mistakingly believe the manager decides all of the reserves. This doesn't happen anymore.

Quite frankly, I can't find a pitcher quite like Jimmy Gobble. He's combined his low K rate with an even lower BB rate. I can't find a pitcher with such a low K rate, but I don't have any better research tools than simply combing through lists of pitchers. LaTroy Hawkins K'd 9 batters in 27 innings when he was 22, but I doubt you'll find that convincing. Still, there are several reasons Gobble's K rate is low. He might be overmatched in the majors. He could be nursing an injury. It could be a result of his pitching coach, ballpark, or defense. Almost all of the Royals' pitchers have abnormally low strikeout rates. His HR rate isn't abysmal, and his walk rate is excellent. There's alot to like about Gobble, and the only negative is that K rate in the majors. That's contradicted by his minor league stats, and if the AA numbers were troubling, neither John Sickels or Baseball Prospectus indicated any concerns. With pitchers, I can't say if they will succeed, they are a tricky breed. However, I do think Gobble should become a solid contributor in a year or two.

First off, you can not judge a pitcher solely based on about 90 big league innings. Gobble has five years of minor league we can examine. In 2000, as a 19 year old in the South Atlantic League, Gobble struck out 115 batters in 145 innings. In 2001 in the Carolina League, he struck out 154 batters in 162 1/3 innings. In 2002 in the Texas League, he struck out 52 in 69 1/3 innings, before suffering injuries. Again in the Texas League, he struck out 100 batters in 132 2/3 innings. In his minor league career, Gobble struck out 429 batters in 516 innings, while walking just 131. He's a 22 year old prospect who is leap-frogging AAA into the Royals rotation, where along with the low K rate, he's walked just 24 batters in 89 2/3 innings, coming into today. Now, with all that data, what is the problem with Jimmy Gobble? A. He sucks, and will never make it in the big leagues. B. He's overmatched. I tend to believe option B. He's young, and with more experience he'll learn how to beat big league hitting. He has a terrific minor league pedigree behind him.

Gobble's just 22. It's too early to write him off just yet. Maybe not this year, but somewhere down the line he could be a good starter.

IIRC, I think that was done to clear room in the outfield so that one Richard Hidalgo could get playing time. And we all know that they made the right choice there. Oh, wait... Another theory is that Abreu had a reputation for something or another, and the Astros had cooled on him as a prospect. He had a poor year the previous season, slugging just .387 for AAA New Orleans.

Who's catching?

As part of the All-Time All-Star simulation, I need to select managers for each team. Cast your vote for the most deserving manager for the American League. The National League vote will run tomorrow. The choice of manager will affect the strategy used for the All-Star squads somewhat.

Oh yeah, the new column is up. http://thesmartmarks.com/artman/publish/article_1508.shtml

The Phillies have toasted Tom Glavine for six runs so far in just two innings. A rough calculation indicates his ERA is up to 2.72, dropping him from 1st to sixth on the ERA leaders list.

My God, I hope he isn't selected. Just to watch al rip his hair out. And to keep tradition. I'm a big traditionalist. If you really want to get back at the Astros for signing Clemens and Pettitte, voting Abreu in will help remind Astro fans that they let Abreu go in the last expansion draft.

Richard Hidalgo hit his 8th home run in 16 games as a Met.

It's in jest. But the point is its difficult to fairly bash Pena when he does not have much to work with.

Melvin Mora went on the DL today, so the (deserved) bitching about him missing the squad is muted a bit.

See, if I saw a middle infielder in right field in any lineup, I'd call for your head.

Rob, out of curiosity, how would your ideal Royals lineup look?

That's misleading, because he pitched in middle relief for half the season. A middle reliever is credited with a blown save if he gives up the tying run in the 7th inning, when he never had a chance to pick up the save. I don't believe in the closer mentality. A good pitcher is a good pitcher, regardless of the inning. Hawkins since June 1st has pitched 17 2/3 innings, given up 19 hits, 7 earned runs, 0 walks, 10 strikeouts, and has saved eight games in ten opportunities. 80% God-boy of closing, Danny Graves, has saved 81.5%. Now, Graves has saved 81.5%, and Hawkins 80%. If a team won 100 games, the difference between Graves and Hawkins would mean a single win, or at MOST, two wins. Because of two wins, Graves is an All-Star, and Hawkins is unfit to close games?

Too many relievers are in as it is. Danny Graves is an average reliever who made the squad solely because he got a ton of save opportunities. He's blown 3 out of his last save opportunites. Personally, I'd take Eric Gagne, and that's it. More starters should make the All-Star team.