SB Nation User Blog: pageian

Astros get Wolf

pageian — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 21:07:20 -0000

My first reaction was to rofl, I guess this is the Astros response to Milwaukee getting Sabathia and the Cubs getting Harden and Gaudin. Um, Really Ed Wade?

Wades latest folly

Sabathia..........Harden.................................................................Wolf??????????

Someone needs to tell Ed Wade that the Astros ship sailed long ago and that any moves he makes at this point is akin to rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Someone needs to tell Ed Wade that the Astros shouldn't be trying to compete with the Joneses when you're so far away from being a Jones yourself you can barely see them. I'm left wondering where the 'Stros are going to be in two years? They didn't have a great farm system to begin with and now Wade has gutted it for the likes of Miguel Tejada and Randy Wolf among others. Where are those guys going to be in two years? Where are the prospects he traded going to be in two years? If Mr. Wade was smart he'd stop being the Anti-Beane and start trying to stockpile some good, young talent to the organization and stop adding aging players who are on the down hill side of their careers.

Anyway, nothing personal against Randy Wolf. He's descent enough I suppose. He's not going to do a damn thing for the Astros playoff chances though this year and I suspect anyone who's paying attention knows that. Oh well, maybe before it's all said and done Wolf will administer a beating to Ed Wade, ala Shawn Chacon. Might as well get some entertainment from this after all.

If TTTSNBN goes through, DeRosa wants chance to play short.

pageian — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 14:12:01 -0000

Finally, somone with a chance of making something happen has said it. That someone is DeRosa, he's apparently making noise about playing short if Roberts is acquired.

I'm glad it's finally come up within Cub circles, or at least it appears that DeRosa will press the issue so it won't be dismissed too quickly. From what we can tell statistically DeRo will be approximately as good as Theriot on defense, and we know he's better with a bat. This is the best of both worlds, Roberts can join the team and there doesn't have to be so much angst on the part of Cub fan who don't want DeRo to go to the bench. Roberts would essentially be replacing Theriot in the lineup and Theriot would be replacing the 25th man on the bench. Stonger lineup, stronger bench. If DeRo is needed somewhere else due to an injury Theriot can step in at short, otherwise he can be the supersub, pinch runner extraordinaire.

Discuss.

According to Buster Olney:

• Heard this: If the Cubs finish their deal for Brian Roberts, or trade for Felipe Lopez, Mark DeRosa will want an opportunity to compete for the everyday job at shortstop.

Mike Myers DFA'd, Torres bullpen management

pageian — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 23:08:17 -0000

Mike Myers was release by the Yankees because of his inability to get out left handed hitters. I can see the logic in that since he's a lefty specialist and all. What I'm having trouble understanding is WHY he's a LOOGY? Here are his splits:

LH: Avg .301 Obp .369 Slg .438 Ops .807
RH: Avg .184 Obp .259 Slg .303 Ops .561

Looking at that it's pretty clear that Myers has been effective against right handed batters. He's had 76 at-bats against right handers as opposed to 73 at-bats against left handers, a descent sample size for a reliever.

So did the Yankees bring up someone to get left handers out? Nope, they brought up Jim Brower, whose 3-year (2004-2006) splits against lefties are:
Avg .326 Obp .403 Slg .526 Ops .929

Just another case of Joe Torre specifically and the Yankees in general mismanaging their bullpen. Why try to fit a square peg into a round hole and then blame the peg when if it doesn't work? Seems to me that Myers was pretty effective.... against right handers and if he was going to be a specialist (which I don't like btw) then bring him in to face right handed hitters. After all aren't there more of them anyway?

The Cubs could benefit from this I suppose, but now that Kerry Wood is back I'm not sure where Myers would fit in. You certainly can't have too much pitching though and I'm guessing Myers wants a job so why not try to get him cheap and stash him away in AAA just in case? As we witnessed yesterday injuries come when you aren't expecting them and leave you short handed. If Myers can be had at a descent price it might be a prudent thing to do, as long as Lou understands what he is and how to use him correctly.

Wild Card coming out of the Central?

pageian — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 21:40:18 -0000

Interesting point from Ken Rosenthal in this article.

# Don't rule out the possibility of the NL wild card coming out of the Central division. The Phillies and Braves have faded in the East, and the second-best team in the West might not be better than the Brewers or Cubs.

Keep in mind also that the Central includes three of the league's four worst teams -- the Astros, Pirates and Reds. After Tuesday, the Brewers face those clubs 30 times, the Cubs 33. And the other team in the division, the Cardinals, isn't exactly imposing . . .

I have to believe he's got a point. I still think the Cubs have as much chance of winning the Central as the Brewers. Yeah, it'll be tough but it can be done. And really, I don't see the Dodgers or the Diamondbacks as being superior teams to the Cubs or Brewers. I do think the Fathers are a better team than those four and that they'll likely win the West. As far as the East, I'm surprised that the Braves have as good a record as they do, though I think they started out a little better than they really are. Philadelphia probably belongs in the discussion with the Cubs/Brewers/Dodgers/Dbacks but I think they lack the pitching they need given their home park.

So really you could look at it as the Cubs have a 50% chance at winning their division (or maybe 40%) and if they don't then they still have a 25% chance at the wild card.

FYI, for all the haters (you know who you are) who'll accuse me of drinking the Kool-aid (yawn) or want to know who my crack dealer is, you should probably know that I just pulled these numbers out of thin air without any statistical reasoning or logic attached. Let's hear your numbers.

Interesting Jayson Stark web chat

pageian — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 23:07:00 -0000

On June 22nd Jayson Stark hosted an ESPN.com web chat. I don't really care for Stark, not a good writer. It seems to me that he spends the first 2/3 of his column wasting space and writing cliches to tell you about the point that he's going to try and make, without ever getting to the point. Very frustrating trying to read the guys stuff consistently. However, he can't waste so much time during a web chat so it's a little easier to read his stuff there, and I found something fairly interesting in yesterday's chat.....

Here is a link to the chat

If you scroll about 3/4 of the way down you'll find this exchange, which resulted because of an earlier exchange where Stark defended interleague play:

Mr Durden (Seattle): The problem I see with interleague play, which I have never heard in any discussion, is that it disrupts the wildcard schedule. If the Mariners and Yankees are neck & neck for the wildcard they need to play each more than the M's need to play the Padres or the Yanks play the Rockies.

SportsNation Jayson Stark: That's true. But let me ask you something: How come nobody ever complains about the NFL schedule, which has those inequities built into the system? But people constantly complain about the baseball schedule. I'm not saying I understand this year's interleague schedule, which is the most inconsistent I can ever remember. But this seems like one more case of baseball being held to a different standard than the NFL.

Anyway, sorry if this is old news, but I just thought it was pretty enlightening. What I can't figure out is why a Mariner fan hates the Cubs so much???

Clemens to pitch for the Yankees

pageian — Sun, 06 May 2007 19:41:27 -0000

Not much info yet but ESPN is reporting that Roger Clemens will pitch for the Yankees this year.

The impact for the Cubs of course is that he won't be pitching for the astros. I realize it's a little early but I think we can start writing off both the cardinals and the astros, leaving Milwaukee as our likely competitor for the division. The wild card probably won't come out of the central so it looks like we need to start kicking the brewers butts every time we play them from here on out.

Why Tribune won't sell the Cubs

pageian — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 21:06:23 -0000

Not sure if this has been posted yet, I haven't seen it but if it's up already then accept my apologies. This is a nice article on why the Cubs aren't going to be sold. Makes sense on some levels. I for one have wondered about why they would be adding payroll when everyone else slashes payroll when they are getting ready to sell. I think that the article is drawing the correct conclusion in that the reason why the Cubs are spending so much is directly related to no-shows at the park and declining television ratings. Add that to the Sox recent success and Cubs brass has had the appropriate fire lit underneath them. Just my opinion. I don't doubt that something could happen and we may even end up with new owners but I doubt that the Trib is going to decouple from the Cubs and sell them as a separate entity. But hey, that's just one relatively uninformed guys opinion, so take that for what it's worth. No "Voice Of God" prophecies from me about this, just guessing and speculation. Here's the article.

This made me feel better about Soriano

pageian — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 15:44:12 -0000

The quick and dirty is that in present day value Fonsie's contract is worth approximately $12.5 million a year. The contract is backloaded heavily and when we're paying him $18 million a year a few years from now $18 million just won't be worth as much as it is now. Heck, by then Rich Hill will probably be making at least $18 million a year given what mediocre at best guys like Adam Eaton are getting this year.

Link

Details are emerging

pageian — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 04:29:22 -0000

about the Soriano negotiations. In fact I got ahold of a transcript as follows....

Agent: We want 7/$119 and no less,
Hendry: Okay, let's see what we can get done.
Agent: Check that, now we want 8/$136 and not a dime less.
Hendry: Okay, sign here.
Agent: We've already got offers from other team we are exploring.......wait, what did you say??
Hendry: Sign here,
Agent: Oh, all right then (scribbling away)
Hendry: Man, you agents sure do drive hard bargains, I might be out looking for work pretty soon, any chance I could get in the player rep thing?
Agent: No, don't think so.
Hendry: Darn. Hey Fonzi, don't forget to dot your i and we'll be all done here. I think the press is goig to be happy for us after we've suffered so long through by no fault of my own."

A's inside the park home run and Jacque Jones

pageian — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 03:37:54 -0000

I just saw the replay of Hunter's missed dive on ESPN. That was the second inside the park home run in the playoffs in the A's history. ESPN showed the replay of the other from way back in 2002. The previous was also against the Twins, and also because Hunter missed a ball in center field. Hunter said this time that it seemed like it took Cuddyer an hour to get to the ball (he wasn't commenting on Cuddyer's speed, he was commenting on what it felt like to have to watch the ball roll all the way to the wall).

In the replay of the 2002 inside the park home run Hunter missed the ball but this time it was the Twins left fielder who ran to get it. The one and only Jacque Jones. What happened? Jones picks up the ball and throws it back into the infield, except.....(wait for it).....he threw it into the ground about 50 feet in front of himself, just like we saw him do all season.

I thought he was supposed to be playing hurt this year? Was he hurt in 2002 as well? Same injury? Chronic or freak injury? Did I miss something about this or is he hurt or not?

My guess? The Cubs brass new he couldn't throw before they signed him, and they didn't care. This is just more talk with a side of smoke and mirrors thrown in by the Cubs wonderful PR driven spin machine. Thank you for the legacy you've left us, Andy McPhail.