This Week In Baseball 8/13-8/19

[mike546 0]

Maybe I just don't know much, but what makes Scott Boras so good? Why don't all agents just ask for a lot of money and hold out until the last second.

[Smartly Pretty 0]

Hanley bats leadoff right? He needs to strike out less. He'll finish with 100. He'll fix that though.

 

This is the new Jeter/Nomar.

[Brett Favre 0]

Who's A-Rod? Tejada? Vizquel? Who are Jimmy Rollins, JJ Hardy, and Rafael Furcal? Where's Tulowitzki fit in this?

[Smartly Pretty 0]

Shut the hell up.

 

I can't believe the mets are going to lose this game.

[Brett Favre 0]

It's pretty believable.

 

BTW, Bonds is suing Schilling.

[strummer 0]

Guillermo Mota *Has* to go. No more fucking around. He is complete garbage.

 

Worst loss of the season.

 

And you would think Heilman or Peterson would realize that hitters are sitting on his change ups and make some adjustments. It's not 2005 anymore where he was fooling hitters

[KingPK 0]

Jason Giambi isn't going to face any punishment from MLB for his admitted steroid use. Terrible. If the only guys getting nailed on this stuff are minor leaguers and the occasional part-time player, what the hell is the point?

[Smartly Pretty 0]

Does anyone know what relievers on waivers? I don't even know if there's anything the mets can actually do about the bullpen at this point.

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

I figured out why the Os caved in to Boras on Wieters deal..

 

Boras is Teixeira's agent..it all suddenly makes so much sense!

 

 

 

 

[NYU 0]

Then again, I had been saying here as early as June that the Mets needed to rehaul their bullpen, insisting that Mota and Heilman and Schoenweis were not going to cut it....only to be told that I was wrong and the bullpen was not a problem for the Mets. When the trading deadline came, I again made it clear that the Mets sorely needed to trade for some relievers, and once again, I was told I had the wrong idea.

 

If only I could be happy that, once again, I've proved I'm always right and everybody else who disagrees with me is always wrong.

[strummer 0]

I really hope the Mets look into trading Heilman in the off season. They've seen his best. His reached his full potential.

 

Get on the phone with Ted Hendry Omar

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Jason Giambi isn't going to face any punishment from MLB for his admitted steroid use. Terrible. If the only guys getting nailed on this stuff are minor leaguers and the occasional part-time player, what the hell is the point?

Giambi did not test positive for steroid use and the proof resides in court testimony that should have been sealed. Giambi's steroid use came out because he was candid about it. If we punish a guy for speaking out, forget about ever finding any good information regarding steroid use in baseball.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Sometimes you see a sight you never expected in a baseball game. Tonight in Scranton, Sal F'n Fasano stole second base. It was the first time he stole a base at any level since 2002.

[USC Wuz Robbed! 0]

I really hope the Mets look into trading Heilman in the off season. They've seen his best. His reached his full potential.

 

Get on the phone with Ted Hendry Omar

 

Who?

[strummer 0]

Jim Hendry, sorry. Watching tonight's game may have melted my brain a bit.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

Hanley bats leadoff right? He needs to strike out less. He'll finish with 100. He'll fix that though.

 

Is this sort of thinking ever going to stop?

[TheDevilAndGodAreRagingInsideMe 0]

Strikeouts, while not productive, aren't GIDPs at least.

[Mecca 0]

All 30 1st round picks have signed. Teams had until midnight.

 

You should be here Boras is essentially distancing himself from his player (Mike Moustakas) by making all sorts of comments such as "it was his decision". He has stopped just short of calling the kid a moron for signing a contract he didn't like, Boras had demanded 7 mill guaranteed the kid signed for 4.

 

I wonder how long he will remain the agent for this guy....

 

The Os didn't get Wieters signed til like 11:45 or so and he got $6 million signing bonus (largest ever) and he was only the 5th pick..and guess who his agent is..

 

And we wonder why the Os have often avoided drafting players who had Boras as their agent. I dont care who the guy projects out to be, he hasn't played one professional game yet and they just hand him $6 million..

 

I almost expect them to deal Ramon Hernandez and have Wieters starting at catcher Opening Day next season at this point..

 

The deal Moustakas accepted with the Royals had been the same one on the table for the last 3 months, 10 minutes before the deadline Boras called and said it was accepted. He apparently is not happy that Moustakas took the deal....

[Vern Gagne 0]

Hanley bats leadoff right? He needs to strike out less. He'll finish with 100. He'll fix that though.

 

Is this sort of thinking ever going to stop?

 

Nope. Ramirez could mix in more walks though.

[Smartly Pretty 0]

I don't even know what the hell you're talking about. He's on pace for 100 strikeouts as a leadoff hitter. Are you going to tell me that's a good approach for a leadoff hitter?

[Longdogger_Pete 0]

For the record, MLB.com now has Buchholz starting game 1.

 

The Red Sox report that they will clear space for Buchholz prior to the game, and will option him following the game to call up "a reserve outfielder, such as Jacoby Ellsbury."

 

Most likely Ellsbury though Kielty is still a possibility.

 

And I still think Pena's getting DFA'ed today.

 

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

I don't even know what the hell you're talking about. He's on pace for 100 strikeouts as a leadoff hitter. Are you going to tell me that's a good approach for a leadoff hitter?

If he has a .395 OBP, it doesn't matter how many of those outs are strikeouts.

[Dandy 0]

I argued for strikeouts being worse than other outs before, and I probably didn't get my true argument across. I was talking about Adam Dunn at the time.

 

If a hitter is at least putting the ball in play, it means he is making contact. Dunn misses BADLY a lot of times. However, the main problem I see with it is a lot of his strikeouts should be walks because he is swinging at pitches way out of the zone and missing badly on those. I agree an out is an out and I see where you guys are coming from on that. There are key times in this game when contact is needed, like for a sac fly, and if your hitter is missing the ball by 6 inches, that isn't good.

 

I don't think it's out of the question to want a player to cut down on his strikeouts so he could accumulate more walks, make the pitchers throw him more strikes, and increase his chances of being on base a lot more.

 

Take Dunn's 194 strikeouts last year and let's say, oh 1/6 (arbitrary number) of them he could have drawn a walk by not swinging at horrible pitches. That would have decreased his outs by 32 and put him on base 32 more times. His batting average would have gone up (from .234 to .248) and his OBP would have gone up as well (.365 to .411).

[cd213 0]

It was just reported on Mike & Mike that The Cubs have signed Carlos Zambrano to a 5 year extension worth $18 million a year.

[Boon 0]

Jason Giambi isn't going to face any punishment from MLB for his admitted steroid use. Terrible. If the only guys getting nailed on this stuff are minor leaguers and the occasional part-time player, what the hell is the point?

Giambi did not test positive for steroid use and the proof resides in court testimony that should have been sealed. Giambi's steroid use came out because he was candid about it. If we punish a guy for speaking out, forget about ever finding any good information regarding steroid use in baseball.

And which information coming from current players has been good?

[The Man in Blak 0]

Well, that's kind of the point. Nobody has been forthcoming about this information in the past, for fear of punishment. By seeing Giambi walk away from cooperation unscathed, so to speak, offenders may be more enticed to come forward.

[Boon 0]

So it's cool if players take 'roids, so long as they rat on other players. What a system.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

I don't even know what the hell you're talking about. He's on pace for 100 strikeouts as a leadoff hitter. Are you going to tell me that's a good approach for a leadoff hitter?

 

 

An out is an out is an out. Doesn't matter if he's grounding to first, hitting a long fly ball, popping up or striking out. They all count as outs and they all hurt the team. As Bauer said, at least he's not grounding into a double play.

There is nothing inherently wrong with a strikeout. Hanly has a .395 OBP this year. He's doing precisely what is asked of him as a leadoff hitter... getting on base.

 

I know that some people think that by cutting down on strikeouts you will become a more successful hitter. It just doesn't work that way. Most of the time the batters with the highest strikeout totals are the best hitters in the league. Why? They're aggressive. They work counts, take big cuts and make pitchers pay for mistakes. If you lay off good pitches or try to make contact on bad ones just to avoid strikouts, the pitchers will adjust the next time.

 

The hitters with the most strikeouts this year? Ryan Howard, Adam Dunn, Dan Uggla and Grady Sizemore. Not exactly bad company to be in.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

It was just reported on Mike & Mike that The Cubs have signed Carlos Zambrano to a 5 year extension worth $18 million a year.

 

 

It's more like 6/$111 total because the last year has a player option.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

So Wily Mo Pena is not in Boston today and his locker has been cleaned out. But get this, they still haven't announced whether he was designated for assignment or traded.

 

On a sidenote, is there anything worse than being stuck at work on a Friday afternoon during a doubleheader with pennant implications? And just to make matters worse, your favorite team is debuting their best pitching prospect in 20 years. Yeah, such is my life.