SB Nation User Blog: entropic soul

World Baseball Classic: USA vs. Venezuela

entropic soul — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 02:51:22 -0000

6th Inning

USA 6
Venezuela 7

Jeremy Guthrie started this game and gave up 6!!!! runs in the 2nd inning:

Single, Single, Adam Dunn Error, Out, Double, Out, Single, Double, Double (and then Guthrie was pulled) and Out. 6 runs.

LaTroy Hawkins pitching and he gives up a 3 run bomb as I'm typing this right now. Now it's 10-6... Looks like Venezuela might win this one.

Maybe we can muster another comeback.

Important Press Conference?

entropic soul — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 23:44:19 -0000

LAKELAND, Fla. -- Club owner Drayton McLane is on his way to Kissimmee, Fla., where the Astros will hold "an important press conference," according to a press release, on Wednesday at 9:45 a.m. ET at Osceola County Stadium.

The Astros did not indicate what the news conference is about, except to confirm it has nothing to do with the pending signing of Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez.

That's from the Astros official website by the way. It doesn't say anything else. Posted by Alyson Footer.

Anyway..

Any idea what this could be all about? Important Press conference? Maybe he wants to tell everyone we can still be champions even though we have not won in 17 straight games.

2009 Standings Prediction

entropic soul — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 07:42:01 -0000

I thought it would be fun to just kinda guess how the standings would look at the end of the 2009 season without doing much research. I want to see if I do better than stat based prediction systems like CHONE just by doing a (slightly) educated guess. :)

NL CENTRAL
Cubs: 94-68
Astros: 87-75
Brewers: 84-78
Cardinals: 82-80
Reds: 75-87
Pirates: 66-96

NL EAST
Phillies: 93-69
Mets: 86-76
Marlins: 80-82
Braves: 74-88
Nationals: 66-96

NL WEST
Dodgers: 84-78
Diamondbacks: 80-82
Giants: 76-86
Rockies: 75-87
Padres: 62-100

AL WEST
Angels: 98-64
Rangers: 80-82
A's: 79-83
Mariners: 68-94

AL CENTRAL
Indians: 80-82
White Sox: 87-75
Twins: 83-79
Tigers: 75-86
Royals: 74-88

AL EAST
Yankees: 100-62
Red Sox: 96-66
Rays: 92-70
Blue Jays: 84-78
Orioles: 69-93

Oswalt Angry Over PED "Cheaters"

entropic soul — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 01:53:02 -0000

Another article was posted today with an Astros star calling out PED users. This time Oswalt expresses his anger, saying cheaters could have cost his team wins or even a spot in the World Series. He's pretty cut and dry about his opinion of these guys.

“I feel that going out there natural against these guys that are taking the drugs is not fair to me. They’re already All-Star players and they’re taking drugs. That’s not fair for me. They’re cheating.”

You can read the article here.

Berkman Pissed About A-Rod PED Use

entropic soul — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 04:44:29 -0000

I may be using the word 'pissed' liberally, but it seems the case to me.

The Chronicle posted an article today where Berkman speaks his mind on A-Rod's admission to using performance enhancing drugs. For course, like always, he goes off players who use PEDs and demands stronger drug testing.

“The problem with this whole sordid mess (is) now everybody (is questioned),” he said. “Even today all of a sudden my name gets brought up in an article about steroids, and I’ve never even been anywhere close to that. What happens is you get a few guys basically throwing a taint over the game and the rest of us are suffering for it.

Anyway, go ahead and see for yourself.

We need a dedicated page with salary figures

entropic soul — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 07:36:14 -0000

Since we all think Wade and Drayton are full of shit with their $107m payroll figure, I think someone needs to make an easily accessible page here with all the AStros' salary figures. It should have a column for garuanteed money and colomn for garuanteed plus incentives. And then at the bottom it has the totals - one for each the 25 man roster and 40 man roster. For example (i'm making up the numbers)

Player          Salary   Potential Salary
Berkman     $15m    $17m
Lee               $18m    $18.5m
Minor 1         $400k   $500k
Minor 2         $400k   $600k
-----------------------------------------------
Total (25)      $33m     $35.5m
Total (40)     $33.8m   $36.6

I would do myself, but I can only make a fanpost and I have no idea how salary works for guys not on the 25 man roster, but are on the 40 man roster.

Then we can see what the real numbers are.

Good News for Michael Bourn Fans

entropic soul — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 22:48:41 -0000

Everyone agrees, Michael Bourn was pretty much a disappointment last year. He was, I believe, one of the worst, if not the worst, qualifying offensive player in the game last season. Since Bourn will be our starting center fielder next season (unless something drastic happens) his production will make a difference to an Astros team looking to compete.

It looks like he could be making some progress. Bourn has been playing winter ball for the Aguilas Cibaenas in the Dominican Winter League. I know it's a small sample size, but it's all we have to go on at the moment.

In 12 games and 50 at bats, Bourn is hitting .360 with an on base percentage of .458. He is OPS'ing .978. He's got 4 stolen bases and 15 runs scored in 12 games, so he's pretty much turned into the Carlos Beltran of the Domincan League. Well, it is Winter Ball so who knows what that means for his game in the majors, but it should be noted that he hit .255 with an on base percentage of .323 after the All Star Break. And while, that's not exactly good, it IS an improvement over the .218 average and .273 OBP he was sporting before the break. It's a step in the right direction, at least.

How could we not keep Tejada?

entropic soul — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 05:01:47 -0000

How could we not keep Tejada after he has said such nice words:

http://blogs.chron.com/baseballblog/archives/2008/11/tejada_optimist.html

"I'm going to the Dominican next week, but I'm not going to play this year," he said. "Because as you know I want to dedicate myself more to this. I look and feel real good. I'm doing a lot of leg exercises. Right now I'm focused on this. They made me a program for spring training. I hope that Houston sees in me this year what everybody has seen in me so I don't go anywhere. I hope Houston has the same love so I don't have to go. I feel good in Houston and I think that's what I want. I hope that's what Houston thinks."

Just to curb any arguements on this before they start: He was not BAD last year. He was bad for $13 million. As a shortstop, he was a little above average all around. Not great, but still not bad. I would use "good" in the blandest form of the word.

When the Astros announced last week that they were freezing ticket prices, I called Ed Wade and...

entropic soul — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 19:07:37 -0000

When the Astros announced last week that they were freezing ticket prices, I called Ed Wade and asked him if this meant they were slashing the payroll. He said, "We're raising the payroll."

http://houston.astros.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20081103&content_id=3661016&vkey=news_hou&fext=.jsp&c_id=hou

The Dodgers?

entropic soul — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 09:07:13 -0000

The Dodgers? Are you kidding me? The fucking Dodgers? Seriously? The Dodgers? The goddamn Dodgers? Really? You mean the Dodgers that were 7th in the NL in wins? Worse than the Mets and the Astros and the Cardinals? Those Dodgers? Surely, you jest. So you're telling me (let me get this straight) the fuckin' Dodgers are in the NLCS? The same Dodgers that OPS'd 11th in the league? The team that barely managed to win the weakest division in the league? Might go to the World Series?

We better get a shot of a topless Alyssa Milano orgasming on camera for this.