Hello,

I am a frequent reader (usually once a week), a sabermetric novice, and a passionate baseball fan. 

I recently got into the debate with a very smart baseball friend of mine over the subject of momentum in baseball.  We are both stubborn, and we are both persistant in our argument.

My personal opinion is that there is momentum in baseball on the individual and short term level, but over the long run as a team, everything balances and goes back to the point of whether the team is actually talented or not. 

My friend goes by the belief that when a player says "the homerun in this inning was a real shot in the arm for the team."  He believes momentum is a huge aspect of the game.

I have looked at a few fanposts (most notably one from 2005), online, and through various others sources, but can not find substantial evidence either way. 

I was wondering if anyone could provide some insight on the subject. Good articles, arguments, and papers providing either statistical or empirical evidence would be awesome.

Thanks!

http://www.cleveland.com/sports/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/sports/122310904655540.xml&coll=2

I guess the CC trade is complete as the Indians have aquired Michael Brantley.  Now the Indians have aquired Matt Laporta, Brantley, Zach Jackson, and Rob Bryson.  Excellent for both teams in my opinion, even with the Brew Crew down 2-0.

What are all of your opinions on Brantley.  It says that the Indians had the choice between him and Taylor Green.  Who would you have chosen?

When do you think the Royals will give Kyle Davies another shot in the big leagues?

I really liked this kid when he came up with Atlanta a few years ago.  After showing some decent stuff, I thought he could at least be a #2 and a very good pitcher for the Braves. (Sickels rated him a B+ and the number 2 prospect way back when for the Braves.) 

He has gotten beaten up since and was traded to the Royals for Dotel.  Now in AAA Omaha, it looks like he is doing pretty well: 6-2, 2.06 ERA, and a .228 BAA.  I know his 37 ks to 20 BBs is not impressive, but why don't the Royals give him a chance.  Except for Mr. Grienke, the rest of the Royal staff is not impressive.  And even if you want to let youngins like Hochever or Bannister develop, Davies has to be better than Brett Tomko.

Am I crazy to think this?  Especially when it looks like the Royals are going to have another steller season (21-32), you might as well give this guy a chance.  He is still only 24.

What are your thoughts on Mr. Davies?

Am I the only baseball junkie who is thrilled to see some live action tomorrow?  I can't wait to turn on Mlb.tv and watch the Mets (hopefully) beat the Wolverines. Although I know no one will be in top gear, its my first look at the 2008 'Amazins, a season of high expectations.  And who knows, maybe Umich will reverse their App. St. upset by beating the Mets.  

We also have Detroit, Philly, and Florida playing.    

I was debating this with a friend of mine, but I was wondering what the minorleagueball.com consesus would be.  I chose Fracisco Liriano because although he had his recent surgery, his upside is as good as anyone.  Before his surgery, he was the best pitcher in the game.

Compare stats:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/l/liriafr01.shtml

http://www.baseball-reference.com/h/hugheph01.shtml

I do not know too much about Kennedy as a person, but 28 is too young.  Truly a shame as another member of the baseball family is lost.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3124303
"Major league pitcher Joe Kennedy died early Friday morning while at home with his family in Florida, agent Damon Lapa confirmed to ESPN.com.

The cause of Kennedy's death could not immediately be determined, Lapa said.

Kennedy, 28, compiled a 43-61 record in seven major league seasons with the Tampa Bay Rays, Colorado Rockies, Oakland Athletics, Arizona Diamondbacks and Toronto Blue Jays.

A left-hander, Kennedy broke into the majors in 2001 with the Devil Rays. In three full seasons with Tampa Bay he made 72 starts, compiling an 18-31 record.

Since 2004, Kennedy had two stints each with Colorado and Oakland. He started the 2007 season with Oakland, was claimed off waivers in August by Arizona, then designated for assignment before being signed by the Blue Jays on Aug. 29.

Kennedy had a career 4.79 ERA, pitching 908 2/3 innings over 222 career appearances.

He made his last appearance in relief on Sept. 29 in a 5-3 win over Tampa Bay. "

Here is a list of my all-minor league free agent team:

1.    Kenny Kelly-CF
2.    Gookie Dawkins-SS
3.    Jackson Melian-LF
4.    Jason Stokes-1b
5.    Joe Borchard-RF
6.    Lance Niekro-DH
7.    Jake Gautreau-2b
8.    Tony Blanco-3b
9.    Dane Sardhina-C

C: Ryan Christianson
UTL: Luis Montanez
UTL: David Espinosa
OF: Nic Jackson

SP: Matt Riley
SP: Jerome Williams
SP: Jesse Foppert
SP: Brandon Claussen
SP: Eric Dubose

SP: Dennis Tankersley
RP: Joe Torres
RP: Kenny Baugh
RP: Vladimir Nunez
RP: Brad Baker

CP: Chad Harville

P/OF: Rick Aasordian

Here's a piece I wrote for the radio I work at:

10. With the Mets out of the playoffs, we can put all our concentration on the hockey season, which recently played its first games on American!
9. The Mets are the franchise that brought you the sports clichés such as "you gotta believe" and "it aint over til its over." Karma is on our side.
8. The Mets have three outfielders in their farm system that have been called future all-stars (Lastings Millege, Carlos Gomez, and Fernando Martinez). Chances are that one will meet his potential (or be traded for a pitcher).
7. "Meet the Mets" is probably the greatest theme song in all of sports. It can convert even the biggest Yankee fan to a Mets maven.
6. Without Shawn Green or Tom Glavine, a lot of money has been freed up to spend on quality players not eligible for AARP.
5. Mr. Met is still the best mascot in baseball. And of course, when there is Mr. Met, his foxy wife Mrs. Met has to be near.
4. In 2009 a new stadium will open, replacing the dump currently known as Shea Stadium.
3. When worse comes to worse, at least we are not Cubs fans.
2. David Wright could have been MVP if the Mets made it to the playoffs and Jose Reyes has all the potential in the world despite a poor second half. Oh yeah, both are years from reaching their prime and are a great core for success.

I know this may sound like a silly question.  I know that the first year player draft is known as the "Rule 4" draft, and the draft of certain players not protected from the roster during the winter meetings is known as the "Rule 5" draft.  My question is, are there drafts for Rules 1-3?  I know this may be a silly question, but I was just curious if there was a reason behind the numbers to the draft.  Thanks

I know the Ivy Leagues is not the same talent producing conference as it was 75 years ago, and it is no where close to having the talent as most other division conferences have.  The Ivy's have produced a few good big leaders recently such as Mark Derosa and Chris Young (the pitcher), and B.J. Szymanski was a highly touted prospect coming out of Princeton.  Is there anyone in this year's draft to keep an eye on? Last year I think 5 players from the Ivy Leagues were drafted.

Once a top of the line prospect, has now bounced around like Bruce Chen this season.  I remember people saying he could make a comeback to regain his prospect status, but did not make the Twins rotation....which was only the beginning of his journey....

After not making the Twins, Durbin was left out of options on March 29, and the D-Backs claimed him off waivers.

April 5, He stinks in his only appearance, and the D-backs recall Micah Owings.  Durbin designated for assignement, but this time the Red Sox claim him.

April 11, I am not sure what happened with the Sox, but again designated for assignment.

April 13, Durbin is claimed by the Phils.

What is Durbin's fate?

http://cbs.sportsline.com/mlb/story/10058206

It looks like the competition for the Mets, fifth spot in the rotation is a little more clear, in that no more Alay Soler.  If you remember, it seemed like it took ages for the Mets to bring Soler to America from Cuba due to Visa problems, and they signed him for a hefty amount. I wonder if that time off could have affected potential development in MLB.

I looked on espn.com and saw under the Mets "Announced a two-year affiliation agreement with New Orleans of the Pacific Coast League (AAA)."  I knew this would be inevitable considering relationships with the Norfolk Tides were on shaky waters (I guess the pun was intended).  As a Mets fan, I have visited the Tides many times when going south, having good memories and getting many autographs and talking to many different players.  And even historically, the Tides have been afilliated since the Mets won their first World Series.  Anyway, it just saddens me :,(

Today I have been playing around with the draft tracker on mlb.com (and I am probably not the only one :) ). I know when I look at the NFL draft online, you can see the players drafted from a certain school...like I always enjoy seeing all te University of Michigan players and where they are drafted instead of looking through all the rounds and picks.  Is there anyway to see what players from a certain region/school have been drafted in the MLB draft?

AAA voting for their all star game premieres today.  I am having trouble finding the ballot though online.  Every website I seem to click on brings me back to http://www.minorleaguebaseball.com/app/milb/events/asg/y2006/ballot.jsp ...from here i can't seem to find the ballot.  Any help would be apprecitated.  Thanks

CHOOSE WISELY

The player is Mets pitcher Yusaku Iriki, who the Mets signed this offseason from Japan and was currently pitching at Norfolk.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2425777

The player is Mets pitcher Yusaku Iriki, who the Mets signed this offseason from Japan and was currently pitching at Norfolk.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2425777

late last august i remember the mets signing a cuban pitcher by the name of alay soler.  Well, I was pretty excited about the Mets picking up a young pitcher that was supposed to have some upside.  Then during spring training i heard he was having visa problems.  After that, I completely forgot about the guy until i was talking to a friend of mine yesterday.  Out of sight, out of mind i guess.  Does anybody know what happened to him?  Will he ever pitch in a Mets uniform?

I recently bought a box of 2005 Bowman.  For all of you that are not baseball card collectors, Bowman is a set produced by Topps that is known for its rookie cards. (Topps is the only card company that can make more than one set featuring players not on the 40-man roster.)  This years roster is one of the better rookie card classes.  I have listed some of the better prospects of the group.  I was wondering: what are the top ten prospects of this year's class? (so i know who to invest in when Bowman Chrome comes out)

Tony Giarratano
Manny Parra
Glen Perkins
lan Kinsler
Pedro Lopez
Jeremy West
Justin Verlander
Melky Cabrera
Ryan Sweeney
Andy LaRoche
George Kottaras
Tyler Pelland
Billy Butler
Chuck Tiffany
Hayden Penn
Chuck James
Russ Martin
Brian Bannister
Brandon McCarthy
Jeff Niemanm
Wladimir Balentien
Philip Humber
Ryan Garko

Please add names of those worthy from the checklist that I have left off.

While watching the Diamondbacks defeat the Mets last night I began to ponder.  Would the Diamondbacks be this good if Wally Backman was the manager?  One thought led to another and I began asking myself: are there stats for managers other than their record?  I, being new to the world of statistics, would really appreciate if there was any other quantitative way of measuring a manager other than looking at his record.

Did anybody read John Sickel's cruel joke at minorleagueball.com http://www.minorleagueball.com/story/2005/4/1/85048/80127#commenttop .  When I first read it it, my heart almost dropped.  The only jokes that could have been worse would have been if Reyes was also traded and Beltran was out for the year.

Casually looking at today's baseball transactions at espn.com, I noticed the Pittsburgh Pirates released their long-time catching prospect JR House.  At one point House was the top propsect in the Pirates organization, and he even made it to #21 in the top-100 prospects list compiled by Baseball America in 2001.  Despite missing a ton of action because of several injuries, House seemed to have a solid 2004. He hit .288 with 15 homeruns, a .344 OBP, and a .504 SLG. He was called up last September for the second straight year.  

Does anyone know why he was released?  I figured with the aging Santiago behind the plate, House even had a chance of making the opening day 25-man roster.  What is the next step in House's career?