SB Nation User Blog: Saberilliterate

What is wrong with Kei Igawa

Saberilliterate — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 22:04:40 -0000

I gotta ask. What is wrong with him as a player?

MLE Splits 152 IP, 4.81 FIP, 1.27 WHIP, 5.53k/9

What is wrong with Kei's AAA line?

Looking at his 2007 BR Game Log, he had three bad outings (7-8 runs), two shut outs and four outings of 2 run ball. It is almost Dave Bush like. It really is hard to say that he is a wash out or that he sucks something bad.

Would anyone trade for Kei Igawa and on the assumption that we aren't paying all of his salary?

I really wouldn't mind having him in the rotation as the fifth starter.

What would I give up for him - a mid level, might be a prospect if the stars aligned kind of player and the Yankees picking up half of his remaining salary. I would not trade Cam or Hall straight up.

Cubs Filed Bankruptcy

Saberilliterate — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 21:45:23 -0000

Cubs Filed Bankruptcy

At the bottom of the article under "Corporate Movers" is a note that the Tribune Co filed Chapter 11 this afternoon.

Tribune Co., which owns the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and Chicago Cubs, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Monday afternoon. The company, which has a very high debt load related to when Samuel Zell took it private, cited a "perfect storm" of declining ad revenue, tough economic and credit conditions.
What if any impact will this have on the Cubs and Free Agency?

Will Mark Cuban (or other buyers) want to go through Bankruptcy court at their current bids for the team or will they be able to lower their bids?

Arbitration and FA Question

Saberilliterate — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 14:15:41 -0000

I just don't get it and I hope someone else out there may be able to explain it to me?

What is the deal with arbitration and FA? More importantly - WHY? I don't understand why a team HAS to even offer arbitration to get the compensation picks.

Gagne is a free agent (thank the almighty baseball gods) - so if Milwaukee wanted the compensatory picks they had to offer arbitration? I wouldn't mind bringing him back for $3-4M but that would break the arbitration rules. He will sign somewhere else with another team that sees value in him - so why shouldn't Milwaukee get the draft picks regardless of whether arbitration was offered or not?

It just seems pointless and quite frankly stupid to offer arbitration to free agents

Torres Retiring

Saberilliterate — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 19:54:54 -0000

Torres Retiring

Per TH - Torres is saying goodbye... hopefully it is like the Brett Favre deal and he will want to unretire before pitchers and catchers report.

Ben Sheets Worth

Saberilliterate — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 13:39:30 -0000

Ben Sheets Worth

What is Ben Sheets worth? Is he worth (to any team) a 4-6 year contract at $15M plus?? Or will he sign for 2-3 years?

Embarrassed

Saberilliterate — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 13:38:21 -0000

How absolutely embarassing.

After the 5 unerned runs, when Bill E Hall came to the plate the crowd was booing him for his error. Jim Powell in all of his ignorance said something to the effect of "Why are they booing - if you have to look at the standings, you will see that we are leading teh wild card."

Yes Jim we are - that is WHY they were booing. The team leading the WC was losing bad to the worst team in baseball. This was a series that Crew should have swept and at worse gone 3-1. The run diff for the series should have been +15 brewers - Not fu%$ing minus 10.

Apparently the Crew doesn't want to make the playoffs.

We Need a New Stat

Saberilliterate — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 12:35:31 -0000

Since this is the board that came up with the invaluable stat "KUG" maybe after a few cocktails and some thought, some of the more intelligent and creative people on this board can come up with a special stat for Rickie Weeks.

Something along the line of DiPSHiT - Double Plays that Should Have been Turned.

Rickie cost the team and CC (and most importantly my fantasy team) a run last night and forced CC to throw a few more pitches because of his little 'bobble' turning the DP in the 4th.

I know that for some really retarded reason, you can't assume a double play so it doesn't count as an error - but Rickie has cost the team a lot of outs this year with his inability to turn the routine 6-4-3 or even 4-6-3 DPs, and those errors should be tracked. Yes they are errors - they cost the team outs.

For the record, I think that the easiest solutions would be to assume the DP when tracking errors. As absolutely subjective as an error/hit call by the official scorer is already, I don't see how assuming the DP is any less subjective. Besides, this isn't 1908, it is 2008 and when you have a middle infield clearing 6-7 figures a year, I know that everyone in the stadium, dug out, press box, bar, and couch assume the DP on a one hopper to the SS. The official scorer should too.

Baseball out of the Olympics

Saberilliterate — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 16:23:07 -0000

Baseball out of the Olympics

So as many of you know this is the last year for Olympic baseball but Synchronized F#$%ing Diving is a 'sport' - and there are 4 different medal events. There are even 6 medal events for equestrian sports - Do they give a gold medal to the horse and the jockey? Do they drug test the horse? Baseball & Softball are out - Synchronized F#$%ing Swimming is in....

Rivera to Split time with Rottino & Palmisano

Saberilliterate — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 17:16:13 -0000

After getting on base 5 times with a clutch double netting 3 RBI, Mike Rivera is back on the bench. Why? Because that is what Ned Yost does. He rides the 'hot hand'. And since Riveria's last AB resulted in an out, he obviously isn't 'hot'.

At this pace, the next time Kendall will not be starting, the September callups will have started and Vinny Rottino will get the start instead of Rivere

So Counsell starts at 3rd instead of Branyan and Kendall gets the start instead of Riveria.

Last 30 days

All Position Hitting Stats, Last 30 Days 2008												Next Stats>>

	Select up to 5 players Picks left	Player	TEAM	POS	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR		RBI	TB	BB	SO	SB	CS	OBP	SLG	AVG
		1. M Rivera	MIL	C	2	7	0	3	2	0	0		4	5	3	0	1	0	.600	.714	.429
		2. R Branyan	MIL	3B	14	29	6	7	3	0	1		1	13	4	6	0	0	.333	.448	.241
		3. B Hall	MIL	3B	17	55	10	11	2	0	2		6	19	9	19	1	1	.308	.345	.200
		4. J Kendall	MIL	C	24	84	10	15	7	0	0		7	22	8	11	0	1	.266	.262	.179
		5. C Counsell	MIL	SS	15	38	0	7	1	0	0		1	8	4	6	0	0	.256	.211	.184

All Position Hitting Stats, Last 30 Days 2008												<< Previous Stats

	Select up to 5 players Picks left	Player	TEAM	POS	SF	SH	HBP	IBB	GDP	TPA	NP		XBH	SB%	GO	AO	GO/AO	OPS
		1. M Rivera	MIL	C	0	0	0	0	0	10	41		2	100.0	3	1	3.00	1.314
		2. R Branyan	MIL	3B	0	0	0	1	0	33	121		4	0.0	5	10	0.50	.782
		3. B Hall	MIL	3B	1	0	0	0	0	65	285		4	50.0	10	16	0.63	.653
		4. J Kendall	MIL	C	0	0	2	2	0	94	331		7	0.0	31	26	1.19	.528
		5. C Counsell	MIL	SS	1	0	0	0	0	43	168		1	0.0	12	14	0.86	.466

Ohhh... I see the hot hand that Ned is riding - Kendall has been hit by more pitches and Counsell has dirty pictures of Ned and a Donkey....

Broken Bats from a Wood Workers Perspective

Saberilliterate — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 20:08:28 -0000

Besides following the Brewer's, I am a novice (very novice) wood worker. As such I also am subscribed to some wood worker's blogs/feeds. Since this crosses over between my two loves, it caught my eye and thought that I would share - The Mystery of the Dangerous Flying Bats

The last paragraph sounds like a rookie prank too...

Given these guys [Baseball Players] probably lack much woodworking know-how, I have this mental image of the rookie hearing about shaving the handle to improve his performance. I see this kid with his bat all lathered up and his razor stropped and ready to shave.