So being bored with rooting against the reds in their long drawn-out affair in Arizona (is it really only in the 10th?), and deciding to google for a "John Rodriguez Memphis redbirds" protest jersey to wear to the games in SD/LA next month, I came across this nice little article:

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I don't have the energy or inclination to do a bunch of research etc, but check out this line for Amaury Marti so far in the AFl:

OBP .486/SLG .848/OPS 1.334

vs left handers.  33 AB, so granted, it's a small small sample size, and he is a geezer amongst babes, but he seems like a perfect platoon partner for lil dunc... and we control him for the rest of his career for basically free.

Overall, he's .378 OBP/.571 SLG/.949 OPS.

Has anyone actually watched him play?  How is he in the OF?  Anyone have his L/R splits from this past season?  I know his overall numbers weren't good, but he's righty and we only need him to hit well against lefties, and MiLB.com only has the most recent team stats.  

At the very least it's nice to see him tearing up the AFL...

some links:
mlb article
marti AFL stats

By now I think that everyone has probably read Brian Gunn's excellent article over at the hardball times.  If you haven't, go read it!  It's great.  However, I don't agree with one of his assessments.

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There have been several comments lately about crowd noise being sub-par and that this brings the team down (or fails to unsettle the opponent, which is the same thing).  Various theories have been posed, from the basic "new stadium lets the noise out" to my favorite "corporate hacks, who are the only ones who can afford/acquire tickets, and who are only there to show off, don't cheer loudly".  J-rod noticed this and posted on his blog about it:

http://johnrodriguez.mlblogs.com/johnrodriguez/2006/10/supp_was_on.html

I do just want to say one thing to the fans, though. I want to hear all of you just a little bit more. We heard them, but not quite as much. I want to hear them a little bit louder tomorrow. I want that red sea to come out. Everybody wear red T-shirts, red sweatshirts, red jackets, whatever. Just bring it all out tomorrow.

I'd like to propose one more - the ushers in the new stadium are jerks.  Check out this comment from j-rod's blog:

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Anyone who paid attention last season heard at least something about Mulder's aversion to the sun.  How bad was it though, really?  

Last year his era was almost 7 in the day, but just over 2 at night, and he gave up more earned runs (47) in just 11 daytime starts/61 daytime IP than he did in 21 night starts and 143.1 IP (36 ER). 5 of his 8 losses came at night, and he only won 2 games all season in the day- and one was against the Astros w/Clemens on the mound in April, which should really only count as half a win, or at least get an asterik.  That game was a 10 inning shutout, so although it demonstrates that the potential exists for him to pitch well in the daytime, if you remove that single game his daytime numbers will look much, much worse- it leaves him with an ERA of well over 9!  

In his other daytime win last season the offense gave him 6 runs, and he still barely pulled it out, winning 6-5 with 3 scoreless innings of support from the bullpen.

Assuming that last years splits weren't some kind of anomoly, this year could be a bad year for him at #2.  I did a quick season breakdown, and assuming that all 5 starting pitchers stay healthy and pitch every fifth game, with no funny stuff, here's how it looks:

#1 day     11
#1 night   22

#2 day     14
#2 night   19

#3 day     10
#3 night   22

#4 day     9
#4 night   23

#5 day     15
#5 night   17

I defined "night games" as those starting as 6PM local time or later.

The worst case is #5, with almost the same number of daytime games as night time games; second worst case is at the #2 spot.  But, if Larussa defies conventional wisdom and starts his classic #2 guy in the 4th spot, Mulder would only have to wake up early 9 times this year.  He could easily be a 20 game winner as our #4, with 23 night time starts, and if he maintains his 2.26 night time era he could possibly give carp a run for his money for the '06 Cy Young.

Slightly less advantageous would be to pitch him in the #1 or #3 slots.  He'd lose a single start in any slot but #1 or #2, but that may very well be a good thing.