Fantastic game to close out the home games for Washington this year. It was a thrill to be at.

This post demonstrates clearly why Atlanta has trouble drawing fans, as there is little actual intelligent thought in this post. Maybe you are still living in the 80s, but a pitcher making 11M who puts up an ERA+ of 145 and struck out 230+ with a 1.03 WHIP is not a salary dump. If they trade him, it's going to be to pick up a big bat since what they really lacked was power (21 HR leads the team??? for real??). It also depends on Hudson, because if they decide not to pick up Hudson's option (12M) it obviously leaves money free. Now Kawakami is a bit overpriced at 8M or so, but he also posted a sub-4 ERA (not bad for a projected 4th starter who struggled early). Clearly can hold down the back end of the rotation. And if being "weak" behind Vazquez means having Jurrjens (ERA+ of 160) and Hanson (ERA+ of 140), and Lowe, a guy who historically has been above average, then I don't know what your expectations are.

McCann's OPS of .817 after the break was disappointing, but there's nothing to suggest he's a bad player, I'm certain there are plenty of teams that will take his 120 OPS+ for a catcher. And historically, there is nothing to suggest that Diaz and Prado will be worse next season. In fact, Prado's OPS+ of 113 this season is around the same as his part time duty last season of 120 and he actually had nearly 500 PA too. And Infante is a bench player who his .301 this year and .293 last year, but of course as a bench player he may not be so consistent so who knows.

The only thing I agree with is that the OF is shitty. McClouth is average, Anderson stinks, and Diaz is above average but could always regress. The problem with the Braves is not that they were playing above their heads, it's that they played horribly for the first half because Cox gave significant playing time to people like Anderson, Schaeffer, Francoeur, and Johnson, who were clearly not deserving of it. And the Braves bench stunk worse than poo. Norton, Blanco, Gorecki, Diory Hernandez, these guys were beyond terrible. It got to the point where Javier was being used as a PH just to bunt.

I understand the vitriol and hyperbole are your schtick, but at least you can pay attention to the team you are bashing so your arguments hold water.

I'm feeling good about Atlanta's chances in 2010. I hope they let Hudson go and keep Vazquez unless they get blown away by a trade offer for Javy. I wonder how reasonable LaRoche's contract demands will be though. Freeman struggled in AA during the second half so if they don't get LaRoche they'll need a stopgap and the rest of the free agent class looks weak at that position.

Wow big relief from the Tigers pen to get out of a bases loaded jam, then the Twins mishandle a routine pop up to start the bottom of the 7th.

Tigers must capitalize with the middle of the order coming up!

Carpenter with 6 RBI's!

I'm still mad at the Bravos for passing on Dunn and thinking Anderson would be a solid replacement. Dunn's defense, while terrible, could have been partly negated by putting him at 1B and allowed them to pursue a guy like Abreu who went unsigned for a while. Obviously, they were seeing the Anderson of 6 years ago or thought the team would stink anyway.

There are some decent FAs this offseason like Holliday, Ankiel (meh), Bay, Beltre, Delgado (double meh), but clearly these are upgrades for the Braves. They have nothing much in AAA and not too much power in AA as well. They did manage to be 6th in the NL in runs without a big bopper, but it would be nice to have an actual threat batting 3rd or 4th rather than above average guys that are there now.

Well fuck you too.


If it was to get a big bat, that might be a different situation, but that doesn't seem nearly as likely as removing the 2nd most viable starter they've got in order to avoid eating other bad contracts & getting whatever the hell they can in return. Every GM in MLB knows, since there's been very little secret made of it, that the Braves are going to move a pitcher for strictly financial reasons. Who has the upper hand in that scenario, it damned sure isn't the Braves. For me, that's salary instead of improving the team driving roster moves, whether you choose to call that a salary dump or use some other phrase.


The general expectation is that they'll keep Hudson & move Vazquez because, well, he's Hudson & has more local connections and has indicated he would consider some sort of renegotiation with a hometown type discount. Comments about them moving Vazquez are rather obviously based on that expectation, but hey they could surprise me & do the right thing here and failing significant renegotiation (or finding someone to take the $13m/2 yrs left on Kawakami) move the guy with arm problems that has performed below expectations since his arrival ... but I don't count on any positive surprises with this organization at this point.


The baseball move is to either decline Hudson's option or ultimately do something with Kawakami - bullpen, deal, buy him out (which I think he'd negotiate as he was clearly unhappy about being dropped from the rotation from his comment through the translator after the move was made). The salary driven move is to move Vazquez, whose clearly better than either of them at this point.

Again, if you prefer a phrase like "financially motivated move" instead of "salary dump" I'm happy to change the phrasing for you, but I was essentially using them interchangeably but I'll concede it might not be the most apt description. But whatever that deal is, giving up your clear cut #1 or #2 guy in a rotation that otherwise has one legit top guy (Jurjens, who I think we can say that about at this point) followed by a guy who has looked great but still doesn't have a full season under his belt, a guy who is coming off a major disappointment in Lowe, a guy with a TJ surgery in his resume & whose best season with Atlanta in five years was not as good as what Vazquez just put up, and a guy that you could reasonably say the jury is still out about in Kenshin.


Nor have I suggested he's a bad player, just that he didn't show signs of continued progress but rather appears to have plateaued. He's still a borderline all-star guy, but I really believed going into the year that he was on the verge of becoming a premier player in MLB as opposed to a borderline/occasional all-star. Sue me for actually being optimistic about a guy I guess.


I already revisited & largely withdrew my comment about Prado, so that's been covered. With Diaz, I'd love to believe that he's capable of his second half production over a full season, but it's still an unproven at this point simply because he's never had been/gotten the opportunity to do it. I don't know how anyone could put the odds of that success over 500 AB's at better than 50-50.

Meanwhile we seem to be largely in agreement about the OF situation so I'm not sure what ground there is for us to cover there.

In short, I see nothing I've said (absent the level of initial concern I expressed about Prado which I withdrew already), that doesn't have a perfectly reasonable rationale behind it. If you can deal with that great, if not, feel free to refer to my opening reply makes not one bit of difference to me either way.

So, there were some interesting shenanigans in the Cards-Reds game last night... I am too lazy to link to it, but the jist is that John Smoltz and Dave Duncan claim that Bronson Arroyo was doctoring the balls and/or that the balls were doctored in general and THAT is why Smoltz walked 5 and gave up 6 runs in 3 innings last night... Not only that, but Smoltz glared into the Reds dugout when leadoff hitter Drew Stubbs stole second with a 6-0 lead in the 3rd inning.

Dusty Baker, idiot though he may be, did yell out to Smoltz that it's the "3rd fucking inning" (I can read lips).

Need something interesting to happen to make these last few Reds games entertaining, aside from the fact that they have been ON FIRE lately.

I heart you.

Way to go Tigers!!! Assuming they win this division, they will need a ridiculous effort from their pitching to have a chance against the Yankees. This team is just so up and down.

Here's an interesting scenario:

If the Rockies (who clinched their playoff spot today), sweep the Dodgers over the weekend, the Phillies only win one of their next four and the Cards win only 1 of their last three, then Colorado will have the NL's best record and home-field until the World Series.

I would not want to play the Rockies in the playoffs. I would love to play the Dodgers, however.

Dola:

But since I'm a Giants fan, the only thing they'll be playing is golf.

Reports coming out that Sabean and Bochy will both be offered extensions. Sigh.

I just don't get how the Twins can have 4 errors and walk 6, yet we only score 3 runs. :banghead:

BTW Granderson made another bone headed play in the OF today, trying to throw a runner out at third when he had no shot of getting him...allowing the runner on first to advance to second.

I'm having a sad. I'm actually less concerned with Sabean coming back as I am with Bochy returning. He's shown absolutely nothing this year that he's the right manager for a team that should be getting younger next season and beyond. Young position players not named Eugenio Velez are probably sobbing uncontrollably as we speak.

Me neither. It's like every other game they play like they want to win.


I think this was the least of their problems. Losing by 5 runs, at home, in a potential division clinching game is unacceptable. I wonder if any fingers should be pointed at Leyland?

In fact, losing 3 of 4 at home in a series this important has to put at least some of the blame on the manager, does it not?

Pirates and Cubs get rained out today. Looks like god only wanted us to play 161 this year. I guess the Pirates go into this weekend needing only to win 1 of 3 to avoid 100 loses.

I agree wholeheartedly. While I have no major qualms (plenty of minor ones though) about Sabean staying...I absolutely hate Bruce Bochy's managing style with a passion. Let's just take a look at the way the Giants' skipper has handled the team's best position player prospect in decades:

• C Buster Posey is called up September 2nd, reportedly because of Bengie Molina's lingering Quadriceps injury, thus starting Posey's arbitration clock ticking.
• Bengie Molina starts September 2nd.
• For the next month (up to and including today), Giants Catchers totalled 105 Plate Appearances.
• Buster Posey has seen 10 or those plate appearances.
• Eli Whiteside (turns 30 this month, hitting .228 with an OBP of .269 and an OPS of .611 this year), over the same span had 31 plate appearances.
• The reason for Whiteside to be in the lineup is obviously his bat, which has been incredibly hot in September - .233/.281/.400.

This is just a microcosm of the managerial idiocy of Bochy. Bengie Molina hitting 4th all year, his inability to give ANY young player (not named Eugenio Velez) a consistent shot, his horrid sticking with veterans who are terrible...ugh. I'm stealing from my favorite blog (www.mccoveychronicles.com), but...

If Bochy is afraid to play the young players because they may turn out to be the worst hitters in the league...GUESS WHAT? THEY'RE REPLACING SOME OF THE WORST HITTERS IN THE LEAGUE.

Edit - In defense of Whiteside, he reportedly calls a great game and the pitchers supposedly love him. But really...if that is what is keeping your star prospect on the bench, give me a break.

That Freddy Sanchez trade looks pretty bad too. Really they didn't need him. Then he was injured when they got him. So they get 102 at bats, and a sub .700 ops out of him.

Of course, the Pirates will figure out a way to mess up Tim Aldersen, though. So it'll invariably be a nothing for nothing trade 10 years from now.

See, it's tough to rag on Sabean for not putting together a good offense - he's put together one of the best pitching staffs any one of us has seen in decades. But you are indeed correct - the two deadline deals were atrocious.

The only reason the Freddy Sanchez deal was necessary was because Renteria is so god-awful. Because of that Bochy needed to play Juan Uribe at SS (which he didn't do anyways) which left the Giants in need of a 2B - and Eugenio Velez's D is atrocious.

Then there's Garko - dude has a career .280/.352/.442 line and a 106 OPS+, and Bochy wrote him off after 109 ABs. He's obviously better than the .239/.314/.339 line he put up, but Bochy hasn't given him ANY option to correct the mistake.

So the Giants traded away their #2 and #3 pitching prospects for two rent-a-players who did absolutely nothing for them. And now, even though he's damaged goods, Sabean has hinted that the Giants are likely to pick up Sanchez's option.

Then again, Sabean DID sign Uribe, and DID put together an amazing bullpen this year. Good with the bad...but the bad is pretty atrocious. Aaron Rowand, Edgar Renteria and Barry Zito are worth about $60M next year in the books - if they were paid based on their contributions, they'd struggle to crack $5M as a group.

Picking up Sanchez's option would be such a huge mistake. Then again, he is a type A free agent. So decline, and then offer him arb and hope for the best.

I guess if they do get comp picks out of Sanchez, then it was actually a shrewd move. The Pirates wouldn't have been able to bench him(and help him avoid 600PAs) for being injured. But as his new team, the Giants really can do whatever they want with him.

You can always second guess the manager but overall I think he's done very well this season with the players he has been given. I didn't really see a whole lot that Leyland could have done different in the series, at the end of the day the players got to make plays. Guys are still swinging for homeruns when all you need is a ground ball to get the runner home, instead he pops up or strikes out. Leyland has commented on that several times this year, guys like Inge just don't get it.

Overall though I think Leyland has done very well, however I'm going to blast him if he really starts Figaro on Saturday instead of pulling ahead Verlander and going with Porcello on Sunday.

Greinke's final start is tonight. Hope he finishes up with another great start.

Edit: Whoops. Looks like his start was bumped back a day due to the Thursday off day. So it won't be until Saturday.

Granted, I don't follow the Tigers as closely as I did in the past. I always thought of Inge as very one-dimensional. He tended to hit a home run or strikeout, with very little in between. Is this assessment correct, or am I way off?

You're thinking of Rob Deer.

You pretty much nailed it. Throw in a lot of pop outs too. He had some big hits during the last series but overall he's been a bum since the All Star break. He leads the AL in errors at 3B but for some reason everyone thinks he is a great defensive player. He would have a hard time finding playing time for any other team in the AL.

Damn, I forgot all about that guy. He struck out, what, 300 times a season? :lol:

I still wonder why Inge didn't go back to catcher. Especially after they traded Pudge. I kinda questioned why they traded for Gerald Laird too...:confused:

I have no idea if these are exactly correct, but I'm almost positive I remember stats like this popping up on the screen when he came up to bat in a game vs. the Royals on TV.....

Current Stats:

.179 AVG, 26 HR, 70 RBI

Very close to his numbers in 1991:

Rob Deer Statistics and History - Baseball-Reference.com

Wow, a career .220 hitter. Nice.

That's probably correct. It was just an image burned in my mind for some reason. I was awe-struck by the fact that a guy was able to have a .179 average and still be a regular starter. He either hit it out of the ball park or corkscrewed himself into the batter's box on a swinging strike three.

This made me laugh out loud. :D

And yet, a career 109 OPS+, meaning he was 9% better than the average hitter during his career.

No, hitters that strike out too much and have low batting averages are not good.

dola-

Do I need to put a smiley in there?

You should probably start talking about how you know this by watching him play, rather than what these new fangled statistics try to say...

Let it go dude.

We are just tweaking you :p.

Yeah, I love me some stats. At least now that I know where to find them. :)

Inge didn't want to, he was actually mad when they asked him to bring his catching equipment to the all-star game. He is a great guy and an asset to the community but a below average player at best.

I like Laird. He's been very solid defensively

Haven't really watched him so I will take your word for it. Let's hope they can hold off the Twins and win that division.

I think he is leading the league in RTO% and I think he's done well managing the pitching staff. His offense is pretty weak though.

Anyone else see this bizarre story? WTF???

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/10154142/Book-claims-Ted-Williams'-frozen-head-abused

The guy never even got a funeral because of that weirdo (now dead) son of his.

Just read this, freaking nuts.

Blue Jays fire Ricciardi. Thank God. About 3 years too late.

Any word on who will replace him?

Isiah Thomas.

fixed

Step up from JP Ricciardi.

Towers is reportedly out in San Diego as well.

Zack Greinke's last start suddenly has a lot of significance. Detroit is one game ahead of Minnesota in the Central. KC is tied with Cleveland for last place. A win by Greinke over Minnesota allows Detroit to clinch the division and may get KC out of last place with a Cleveland loss.

Can't believe Leyland started Figaro tonight over Verlander on 4 days rest then having Porcello tomorrow on 5 days.

Really hope the Pirates do one more job tomorrow. Or if they win, I hope the O's do as well. Would be nice to have the 2nd pick.

Amazing that the Tigers have all but thrown in the towel for the playoffs. I just don't understand how a team in the middle of a pennant race can lay so many eggs right now. If they don't get in, Leyland HAS to be accountable for some of this, along with the players of course.

Leyland is the most overrated coach in the game.

He constantly tinkers, over-manages and rewards mediocrity because of seniority. I fucking despise him.

Leyland is a turd floating in a cesspool. With a cigarette in his hand of course.

Just an interim for now. Hopefully not Pat Gillick. I like him, but...that's not really building for the future. Hope they give Kim Ng, the Dodgers Assistant GM a shot at a gig. She'd be the first woman GM, but that's not why I think she deserves the job. Interviews with her shows she knows her stuff and while she doesn't have a scouting background, I think if you get the right people to do their jobs, then the management folks have the info they need to make things happen.

She should replace Cito with a different voice too. Someone out of the organization, maybe a younger guy who can get through to the players. Or if not that, someone who has Blue Jays pedigree who can teach the team now how to carry the banner of a once proud franchise. But I can't think of anyone offhand who'd fit the bill and could come in and do it well.

He was the right pick last year, but at this point, that team needs total regime change.

Now that's no way to speak of the city of Detroit. Hasn't that place been beaten up enough already? :D

Over in the NL, with Philly and St. Louis both losing again today, the NL West champ will get home field in the NL playoffs. If Colorado can pull off the sweep (scoreless in the sixth as of this writing), it'd be quite a capper to the incredible turnaround from being 20-32 to the best record in the NL.

20-32 to pushing the West to the last day is incredible enough.

I'm glad we managed to hold them off. Now we can worry about the postseason.

Ha, I thought about that after I wrote it. Leyland sucks though.

Tigers win 5-3, Twins are spanking the Royals. Looks like there will be a game on Tuesday, I'm guessing Leyland gives the ball to Porcello.

Also there are some rumors out there that Miggy Cabrera was in a bar fight or some sort of altercation last night, he's got some serious cuts to the side of his face.

Nice to have some excitement to the last day of the regular season. (As opposed to just wondering who half the players in the Phillies starting lineup is...)

Hey, if you are a Mets fan, you could have played "wondering who half the players in the Mets starting lineup is" like 2 months ago! ;)

Oh, and btw, apparently this is the third straight year of do or die in the final day:

One-game play-ins are nothing new | MLB.com: News

So you just haven't been paying attention ;).

Regardless... Tuesday should be fun.

Thank God the Blue Jays and Cubs have been put out of their misery. What a debacle.

The Nationals finished with a bang. Seven straight wins to end the season, and a 15 inning 2-1 win over the Braves on the last day. In the land of useless statistics, they are the first team to ever start the season witha 7 game losing streak and end it with a 7 game winning streak.

Now it's time to see who the manager is, who the assistant GM is, if they can address the bullpen and starting rotation, who will be the starting fielders and whether Strasburg is the second coming of Walter Johnson.

My wife and I may go down to Viera in the spring -- she has a good (female) friend that loves baseball, and she's trying to talk her into going down. My wife and a friend can go to the beach while we go to spring training. :)

So with the season on the line, Miguel Cabrera comes stumbling home drunk at 5am? Bravo to his "dog." He needs his ass kicked.

Based on the most recent report in the Detroit Free Press, Miguel Cabrera was out Friday night until quite late/early Saturday morning, partying with his friends from the Chicago White Sox. He gets home very late, is drunk (he blew a .26, three times higher than the legal limit for driving), he is loud, talking on his cell phone, he wakes up his 4 year old daughter, his wife gets pissed, they get into a fight, her lip is split, he's got cuts and bruises on the left side of his face, his phone is broken as is the gold chain around his neck.

His wife calls the police at 6 am Saturday morning, they come and pick him up and taken him to the police station, because his wife demands Cabrera leaves the house. The Tigers pick him around 8 am or Saturday.

That's great. Biggest series of the year and he's out getting hammered with players from the opposing team until 6 in the morning.

He went 0-11 in the series.

Good job, Miguel. You, sir, are a true professional.

Don't forget the apparent spousal abuse and the 4-year old potentially watching all of this.

What a douchebag.

I don't have all the details here, but he may be doing the Tigers a favor.

I mean, one Tiger player out partying with a bunch of White Sox. If he can get 3-4 of them to be performing as poorly as he is then advantage Tigers right...

He's just taking one for the team. Didn't quite get it done in time for game one of the series, but helped them get a split Saturday/Sunday ;)

Here's the story:

Police: Cabrera was drunk during fight with wife | Detroit Free Press | Freep.com

Nice rollover job by the Royals there.

I am a Miggy slappy but Christ this is bad. I'd hate to be him if the Tigs lose Tuesday because the public outcry is gonna' leave Leyland (to an extent) and go right to him. He better have the game of his life Tuesday to save face.

But that's what happens when you become a drunken asshole.

Sounds like an alcoholic if he can handle being .26 and still functioning.

Fuck him. I hope they trade his ass and bench him on Tuesday. I don't care if the Tigers lose because of it, although they might be better off with his drunken, piece of shit, ass out of the lineup anyway.

I'll never cheer for that bum again.

Unfortunately this does not happen nearly enough.

This whole Cabrera thing is eerily reminiscent of the Detroit Red Wings "Goose Loonies" affair back in the day.

Considering his ability, they will not bench him on Tuesday, nor should they. The day to have benched him should have been Saturday. Tuesday they need to let him know his performance will have a great say as to whether he is a part of the team in the future, and his conditioning needs to be a part of it as well.

Personally, I'd sell him to the highest bidder. They could restock the team based on a trade. I'd have done it last year though...

There aren't going to be high bidders. If you offer him, it's because of this so that hurts leverage. Then, he has 125 mil left on his contract which means, oh, I don't know, 5 teams can afford him? Of those teams, the Yanks don't need him, Boston might, the Mets have nothing in their farm system and the Dodgers have a good 1B already.

I could see the Red Sox being interested. However, the combination of his contract, his conditioning, and his work ethic questions means that the Tigers would likely be getting FAR less than you would probably expect. I doubt they'll be able to restock anything from trading Cabrera.

I'd say his conditioning isn't an issue. The partying obviously is but he doesn't miss games and has performed at a high level all season for the most part. Boston would be the only team that makes sense but like you said, the return isn't worth it.

Let Miggy ride it out. He fucked up huge but I'm all for giving him a second chance when you consider there aren't but a handful guys better then him in all of baseball and he isn't even in his prime.

Well, what I mean to say is with his body type and the fact that its pretty obvious he's not going to be improving it, who wants to pay him $44M in 2014 and 2015?

Quite right. The guy did have a 142 OPS+ this season.

In a move that should surprise no one, all sorts of things are coming out now. The latest is that Cabrera almost got into a fight back in August with some guy and a teenager at the same bar. Apparently, Cabrera was drunk and was mocking the teenage for being fat (he weighed 300 lbs.). He then got beligerent and challenged the teen and man to a fight.

It's not surprising that what happened last weekend wasn't the first time. If anything, hopefully this getting out into the public will shame him into getting his life in order and stop this kind of nonsense. Hopefully he will take these humiliations galore to heart.

From the description of the two events, becoming a "mutual combatant" with his wife and picking on a fat teenager, he really sounds like an ass.

well, the Sox made the playoffs. Despite my public pronouncements earlier in the season that I didn't see it happening.

I still don't think they necessarily have what it takes to go all the way, but I'd be happy to be wrong about that also.

Anyways, if anyone wants to take shots at me for not believing, go ahead.

especially when you consider that he was probably a pretty chunky teenager himself :D

Albert Belle calls in advice: don't trade your stars

http://www.cleveland.com/tribe/index..._advice_d.html

Thank you, Albert. At least we can all have a laugh now that the season is over. That last month in particular was pure agony.

I'm willing to GUARANTEE he's been waiting a full 6 months to say that.

Good stuff from Belle in that article. Regressive Field :D

Hopefully Detroit wins tomorrow, they're the only team left that I sort of like. Everyone else I'm either apathetic towards or slightly dislike, but don't really hate them like I do the Mets so it'd be kind of boring. I used to hate the Yankees as well as the Mets but after several years of them not winning the Series (or even making it there) and acquiring a few players I like it's just mild dislike now. It being the playoffs I'll still be watching a lot of it either way though.

Strasburg makes his pro debut.

Strasburg sees first game action as pro | nationals.com: News

how'd that whole contract-thing resolve itself? i must have missed that

I didn't realize it but apparently I missed it too.

From an LA Times blog

so Boras buckled hmm?

The previous record was $5 million. So while $15m ain't $50m like they were saying, they made a smart move because going to Japan would've been a disaster, independent ball is shaky at best and well...the road there would've strewn with dudes who did that and of whom have never been heard from again.

Smart for him to sign, even if it's with the Nats. ;)

Sooner he gets to the majors, sooner he can become a free agent.

I presume you meant to type that the previous record was $5m less, not $5m. :) That, however, was in 2001 for $10.5m. With inflation that's around $12.7m with inflation. so the Nats upped the previous record by about $2.5m. Considering everyone thought it would be around $20m, they didn't do half bad. Of course, perhaps that was Boras's plan all along.

I think everyone knew that short of the nuclear option Boras had little leverage. And Strasburg going elsewhere would have been VERY risky for him, especially being offered the record.

PING: DETOX
 

Eat my ass, cockboy.