f13.net

New year, new thread, pitchers and catchers report in 22 days!

Let's start off with something that seems like it should be an Onion article: first recipient of Bud Selig Leadership Award to be ... Bud Selig.

http://www.baseballnation.com/hot-corner/2014/1/21/5332138/commissioner-bud-selig-leadership-award

The award should have Lady Justice blindfolded, injecting herself with HGH.

Tanaka to the Yankees, 7 years $155M. Not the Dodgers!  :drill:

Quick, tell me how awesome the Jays will be this year.

Not the Dodgers! Yay!

This is their year, man. They are finally gonna club those overspending Red Sox and Yankees.

Yankees will be lucky to keep their starting lineup unhurt, mind you. Rays and Os can still be a problem as well, though.

Even so, bottom line for the Jays is they could still contend for a playoff spot with fewer injury problems (esp. on the left side of the infield) and bounceback years from their pitchers. I wouldn't bet a lot of money on it, but they have a shot.

Angelos is too busy attempting to take that extra 25 million he got last year to the grave with him for the O's to do a whole lot this season.

Balfour and now Colvin both fell through due to "concerns with their physical" and we traded away JJ (which my liver will probably appreciate) for a AAA infielder.

In total salary this year, the O's are projected around $82 million. By contrast, thanks to Selig letting the Yankees off the hook for A-Rod, that freed up the Yankees wallet to go ahead and pick up Tanaka, who combined with four other Yankees will have a payroll of 92 million for just the five of them, ignoring the rest of the roster.

  :argh: :argh: :argh:

Well yes, but that kind of ignores that several of those guys aren't worth nearly what the Yankees are paying to get them. Being a rich team is more about being able to afford to make stupid mistakes than it is about being able to buy good players.

It's a fine line. The Yankees are notorious for throwing money out the wazoo and overpaying players without any type of real repercussion.  And hell, we saw that last year when I think they basically bought a new team by the All Star break due to injuries.

It really comes down to two things - either you draft well and have a solid farm system to develop players (the Rays) or you buy like money is going out of style (Yankees and to a lesser extent, the Red Sox).  The O's have tried both things and done a piss poor job of it, which is why they are what they are right now.

Speaking of Yankees and bad deals:

http://grantland.com/features/mlb-worst-contracts-alex-rodriguez-albert-pujols/

More Yankees stuff (http://www.theonion.com/articles/derek-jeter-retiring,35253/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=SocialMarketing&utm_campaign=LinkPreview:1:Default#1)

Goddamn I love the Onion. #2 was especially cutting (and made me laugh the hardest).

Harold Baines.  :why_so_serious:

Okay - since the O's decided to go ahead and spend money like it's going out of style this week, I have to take back what I've said.  Jimenez, Cruz, and Yoon, and there's talk they may pick up another bat in the next day or two. Craziness.

Spring Training starts on Wednesday for the Braves. About damn time. I hate February.

I'm almost excited to live close enough to see some Orioles games this year.  But I'll stick with the Nationals in the meantime, they're definitely going to bounce back.  Right?

Hard to say. You'd think they would be better, but they weren't exactly awful last season at 86 wins. If they get 4 wins better, they could easily get back in the playoffs.

They upgraded their pitching, and one assumes Bryce Harper won't pick any fights with outfield walls this season.  Should be interesting.

Sadly, I expect the Pirates to regress significantly.

With weekend MARC service, I'm even tempted to travel down to DC when we do the Beltway series this season.

I didn't expect the Pirates to finish, let alone do it again. Who knows?

Nats have no excuse why they can't win the division. The Braves upgraded literally nothing. They just resigned all their young talent.

Dat Cabrera deal. I have a feeling that's going to look awful in ~5 years.

If they didn't, someone else was going to throw that money at him in two years.

Doesn't matter if they did. Baseball GM's still haven't learned anything apparently. They are just as dumb as the people who signed every A-Rod deal.

I think Cabrera is a fantastic fucking player. But holy shit... baseball GM's deserve derision for being THIS FUCKING STUPID. The dude is turning 31 in April. This contract is valuing him at age 39 as valuable as he is now at 31. That's just crazy. Not even the best players in the world were that good at that age. Hell, even juiced as shit Bonds had down years at that age. There's just no way he remains that valuable that long and when he declines and you have some hot young stud begging for playing time in Triple-A and Miggy has to be the DH part-time, you can't fucking trade a contract like that. It's just insane. I thought the 10-year Fielder contract was not great but acceptable but he's 4 years younger.

What is wrong with letting a great player walk at 32? Honestly. I don't know what metrics GM's are looking at when they want to pay more for a guy's production from 32-37. It's insanity, and it's going to hamstring Detroit from this point forward. They've already managed to completely piss off Max Scherzer.

Here's what I want GM's to realize. You're better off cutting a guy a deal for $35M and 4 years.

It's not so much the money as it is the length. I could understand a 7 year deal for a guy like Cabrera.

Without collusion (illegal) you're never going to see 4 year deals become the standard. Some other team is always going to give the guy the extra year(s) to get them to come there if the player actually hits free agency.

Yeah, a 7-year deal, while still not going to be a great deal, is a helluva lot better than 10. The deal is actually an 8-year extension on his current deal which runs for 2 more years, so a 7-year would have ended when he was 36. MUCH better economics on that one.

But the player knows that some dumbfuck will give him 10, so that is what he will get eventually. Or collusion, I guess.

My point is that if you're willing to pay a guy 290M over 10 years, why not make him a $200M deal for 5 years. Yeah it's $40M a year, but you're getting the best years, and you're not hamstringing the team with $90M on the back end that's pointless.

Make it so the player would have to be almost crazy to turn you down for that amount per year. There's no cap here.

Because of cash flow. If you're paying him 40 million a year for 5 years presumably you just pushed the market up so you'll be paying some other guy a significant fraction of that for the next 5 years, etc., so you end up raising your payroll by a bunch.

At some point, the salaries need to swing the other way, that's my point. We need to stop paying steroid era salaries to 30 year old players.

Fuck it, we all know they need a cap. This is all because baseball is the only sport still doing this pay-to-win nonsense. If you're not in the big dollar club, your chances are shitty of taking home a title.

Pay to win works less well in baseball than other sports, as far as I can tell.  They need to go to an NFL type system in both the NBA and MLB, in my humble opinion. 

Of course they're better off cutting a guy a small money deal for less years. But they're worse off if someone else decides they will pay them a large money deal for more years because players prefer that.

Preliminary numbers seem to indicate that the deal is not nearly so bad as people make it out to be depending on what happens to the guy

http://regressing.deadspin.com/okay-so-miguel-cabreras-contract-is-bad-just-how-bad-1553701023/@marchman

Ingmar and I really disagree on this, but I believe there should be a way to pay a vested percentage of a guy's remaining contract and be done with him.

There's just too many examples of guys stealing money in their 30s from teams and the fans, hamstringing organizations. His argument is to GM better or not sign the deals, but the market forces with no cap hurt other teams who can't simply buy their way out of problems. That's the real issue with no cap. These high dollar teams wreck the salary curve, then can just absorb terrible decisions, while the smaller market teams may have 1-2 contracts that submarine the franchise for a 5 years.

Braves get shut out on opening day. Fitting, considering it's the Brewers, who shut us out more than anybody in the NL.

I'm not sure if I'm encouraged or discouraged by each of the NL Central divisional games being 1-0 settled by home runs.

Mariners win Opening Day (as usual- helps having Felix pitching every OD). Now we get into the rest of the rotation, which is varied degrees of terrible, so I expect the win streak to end at one. Nice to see some offense though.

Iwakuma and Taijuan Walker will be back eventually.  Hold on, friend!

Bruce Bochy needs to learn how replay challenge works.  :why_so_serious:

So maybe the Angels are just shitty  :awesome_for_real:

I think that's a 10-4, good buddy.  :why_so_serious:

Trying to stay awake through the Pirates-Cubs game, but 15 innings and 16 pitchers later, I need to sleep!

Get your affairs in order, friends. The apocalypse is nigh. The Mariners have started 3-0 with a road sweep (first time in club history). This will make the inevitable 17 game losing streak all the more poignant.

I find it funny that the Cardinals and the Reds both have exactly 1 run for, 1 run against, and 1-1 records after 2 games. Pitchers duels indeed.

Tim. Timmy. Tim. Shave that fucking mustache. It's killing me.

For a second I thought you meant Hudson, and I was like...

Then I saw Lincecum.  :ye_gods:

(http://i.imgur.com/iSUp73h.jpg)

(http://1-media-cdn.foolz.us/ffuuka/board/tg/image/1391/78/1391784975422.jpg)

/replaces "Larry Bird moustache" with "Tim Lincecum moustache" as go-to sick moustache burn

Braves beat the Nats! Now we need to go do that 14 more times.

It is seriously the worst thing. The worst.


edit: also suck it dodgers

Maybe he's using it to distract opposing batters?

They aren't close enough to him to see it!

I wonder if he drives his 'Free Candy' van to the ballpark?

In other Bay Area clusterfuck news- The same shitty stadium that flooded the visitor room with sewage last year? Forgot to put the tarp over the infield overnight during a heavy rainstorm and they had to postpone the game tonight because of it. Class act, the As.

I think that's on AEG, technically.

Its the worst park in the majors

I have a feeling replay is going to show just how inept the umpires were for all these years.

Apparently in the Astros game yesterday, the batter wanted them to check the count, and won. The umpire had the count wrong. I mean really?

I can't wait to for the CB Bucknor and Angel Hernandez screwup highlight reel at the end of the season.

One of the local dipshit sport radio derps was whining that replay ruins the flow and emotional investment one has in any given call. If I could punch someone though the airwaves, I probably would've done it.

Josh Hamilton needs thumb surgery after diving headfirst into first base. Why do these idiots keep doing that? It is demonstrably faster to run through the bag, less likely to cause an injury, and puts you in a better position to advance if there is an errant throw (since you are standing up and not laying on the ground trying to pick bits of dirt out of your teeth with your thumb that suddenly points a completely different direction).

Oops.

(http://i.imgur.com/TtfytHa.jpg)

Yeah bombs bursting in air gave proof through the night that OH SHIT IT'S ON FIRE.

Photo of suspected arsonist-

(http://www.born-today.com/btpix/sherman_william.jpg)

Harold Reynolds proves me wrong, is in line for a Nobel Prize in physics (http://deadspin.com/harold-reynolds-announces-revolutionary-findings-in-phy-1562244942)

This makes me sad. I have met Harold 2 or 3 times (ran into him at a nightclub in Bellevue back when both of us were young enough to bother hanging out in nightclubs) and he was very accomodating and patient with my drunken early 20-something self. Unfortunately every time he opens his mouth he seems to be determined to prove he is a retard.

So dumb. It's been proven so many times it's not faster to slide into first, I just don't even know why they bother.

Does Usain Bolt slide across the finish line? No? Conversation should be over with even the dumbest baseball player if you point that out.

But would he if he could without seriously injuring himself? I.e. what if they were on dirt tracks*? :awesome_for_real:

* Not the gravelly stuff that a lot of high schools have, that shit hurts to fall on. I have a permanent scars on my knees from sliding on that stuff.

I think there may still be a small rock embedded in my knee somewhere from sliding on that stuff.  Ah, poor rural High School....

Pitcher grand slam, woop woop!

Braves beat the Nats on a walk-off bloop that scored our pinch runner from first!

My fantasy team got an award for that grand slam, it took me a while to figure out what the hell happened.

Aaron Harang had a no-hitter for the Braves through 7, but they had to take him out on 121 pitches and 6 walks. First time I've seen fatigue be that much of a factor over the no-no.

Is Matt Cain struggling, or is this just bad luck?

2 bad starts and 3 strong starts in 5; not sure I am drawing any conclusions yet. He's been very good when he's been good (although lacking in run support, as is traditional for Matt Cain.) Also Coors Field and the Rockies offense is looking good so far, etc.

I don't know how they get pitchers to actually play for Colorado.

"Play here for a couple of seasons, then look incredible after we trade you to a team with a pitcher's park in the National League"?

They trade for them with all their "really good we promise" hitters who promptly drop 80 points in a pitchers park. /not bitter at all mariners fan

Braves finally won again after losing 7 straight. They are streaky as hell.

Four teams are on my bricks list after the beginning of May, meaning they have no shot at making the playoffs: Houston, Cubs, Dbacks, and Padres.

Uggla, man.  Uggla.

E:  At least B J Upton remembered how to hit once he got glasses that let him see the ball.  Has anyone in Atlanta started calling him Wild Thing yet?

Actually with the glasses BJ had on before, they were calling him Urkel.

(http://media.cmgdigital.com/shared/lt/lt_cache/thumbnail/615/img/photos/2014/04/28/97/a5/bj_upton_glasses.jpg)

But yeah it's very Rick Vaughn.

So the cubs walk Justin Upton to get to the braves best hitter. Walk off!

It's the Cubs. It wouldn't have mattered if it was the pitcher. Their bullpen is a fucking trainwreck masquerading as an extinction level event.

Speaking of intentional walks:

http://joeposnanski.com/joeblogs/the-intentional-walk-rage-system/

Congratulations to the Cubs for 10,000 losses!

Samardzija going 7 scoreless and getting a no-decision was the icing on the cake.

I hate interleague.

LOLLostToMariners. John Buck ffs. Wow.

I feel like there's no shame in losing to Iwakuma.

He is amazing. If they could get another bat or two and have one of their big 3 pitching prospects not have his arm fall off they might be able to hang around on the fringes of the wildcard race for a while.

I watched a bit of the Tigers/Mariners game on Saturday. Fuck, I thought the Cubs had some shitty batting averages in their starting 9 but fuck me. And yet, the Mariners have a better record. TBF, Cano wasn't in the lineup but it looked like a whole bunch of non-hitters and guys brought up too early from the minors. And they won because their pitcher (Chris Young) threw a pretty good outing. Just looking at their stats, their starting pitching looks pretty solid. How do you assemble a lineup of sub-.250 hitters?

It's not just losing to Seattle, it's losing 6 games in a row now to the AL teams because the Braves can't hit when the pitch well, and can't hold leads when they hit well.

Saturday night was probably the worst lineup they can throw out there. Any time you see Willie Bloomquist doing anything other than stuffing sunflower seeds into his long face the lineup is suspect. The management built a fucking terrible team with no redundancy. If James Jones hadn't come up (with few expectations) and had a very solid year so far they would be even worse.

I don't like interleague, but that's mostly because I don't like the DH.

I like playing the A's but it isn't really worth having to play a bunch of other teams we have no real history with or reason to care about.

The answer is twofold

1) The M's don't spend enough and their general management is probably incompetent. We trade people who hit 280 in Safeco for people who hit 330 in denver and think we're going to come out ahead on that.

2) Safeco Field is aptly named (http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/parkfactor)

Not only does Safeco have one of the lowest total park effect but the effect is larger on the types of hits that people actually get (singles/doubles) they are the hardest and third hardest respectively. This means that overall batting averages plummet in Seattle

So if you take a look at the offensive Wins over Replacement for say, the Rockies (http://espn.go.com/mlb/team/stats/batting/_/name/col/cat/offWARBR/colorado-rockies) you won't find it much higher than the Mariners (http://espn.go.com/mlb/team/stats/batting/_/name/sea/cat/offWARBR/seattle-mariners) even though 8 starters on the Rockies are hitting over .285 and 5 hit over .300 while only one person on the M's hits over 300 and the rest are below .285. The only outsized OWAR is the one guy hitting .350 and has 15 home runs.

To really see this effect, compare Cano's OWAR to say Corey Dickerson. Cano's OWAR is 1.8, blowing Dickerson's 1.1 out of the water. But Dickerson hits better than Cano (.345 to .330), has more home runs than Cano (7 to 2) on half the at bats and a lot of that has to do with just how easy it is to get hits in Denver.

Things are getting better though, our batting averages are going up since we replaced our hitting coach (this year?) so there is hope, if only so that the Mariner's can dash it, but hope nonetheless.

Toronto is actually good now. Didn't somebody keep wandering into threads last year asking if Toronto won the World Series yet?

MAYBE THIS YEAR!

Fordel

The time is nigh Fordel!

Toronto was supposed to dominate last year after the big trade for pitching, and they totally shit the bed. This year, no one expected anything going in.

They've got six guys with 9+ HRs and fricken Mark Buerle is on pace to win the Cy Young.

Two biggest reasons for the improvement?  Way less injuries, and they picked up a Catcher that actually knows how to call a game.

Also don't underestimate the fact that the rest of the division is shitting the bed in everything but Interleague so far.

(http://nexuszero.net/img/begin.jpg)

Jays beat the Tigers today 7-3 to sweep the series. 

Start the Bandwagon, Fordel.  I'll be riding shot gun. :grin:

Toronto needs to go shit the bed and join the rest of the AL East in being mediocre.

A Wild Orioles fan appears!

Just an insanely frustrating season. Even ignoring the Hunter closer experiment (which was fun in a lets load the bases and see what happens type way), our #1 pitcher  Tilly pitches a complete game shut-out and then we get this type of crap for his last few starts -

Tonight's line
Final line on Tillman: 1 inning plus 5 batters, 6 H, 5 R, 3 BB, 1 K, 1 HR.

Dammit I'll be in the trunk

If only it were enough to help Toronto finally get over the Leafs.

Maybe at this point Toronto will take what it can get.

Giants are doing really well, I am going to be super sad when they go into a random deathspiral after the All-Star Break.

I'm sure between the lot of us we can pass as one real fan  :why_so_serious:

There are teams doing well right now that I think have staying power.

Toronto - They are second in team OPS in the league, first in scoring runs, first in homers, but 20th in team ERA. The only question is if they can continue to outhit their pitching. I think yes.
San Fran - 3rd in pitching, 8th in runs, 14th in OPS. The pitching is carrying the Giants, as usual. I think the team can hit better as well, and they control their division.
Oakland - There's nobody functional behind Oakland atm. They are 3rd in OPS, 3rd in homers, and 1st in ERA. They aren't going anywhere. The only question is can they win in the first round? History says no.

Then there are the teams I think are bound to fade if they don't get their shit together

Atlanta - Great pitching, but the team can't score. 29th in runs, only ahead of the pitiful Padres. The fact Atlanta is tied for a division lead is an indictment of the division.
Detroit - Dead average in runs scored, but 4th in OPS. For some reason they aren't pushing runs across. Their main problem is a staff ERA over 4.00, and a Verlander that isn't very Verlander.
Milwaukee - They've feasted on an easy schedule thus far, but when Milwaukee plays good teams (top 2 of their division), they are 9-10. They are feasting on crap teams right now and I think that won't last.

I want to believe that the Pirates can still do something.  That Polanco fixes their ability to score or that their starting pitching tightens up.  But as someone who remembers more than just last year, I'm counting on more of the same.

I think the Pirates are suffering because their bullpen, which was lights out last year, isn't so very dependable this year. Bullpens are so fragile year to year.

I've been watching Oakland a bit the last few days. Since my Cubs suck so hard, this may be the team I root for this year. Something about the beardiness and the fact that of the guys were considered scrubs by other teams.

It's not that Oakland's players are considered scrubs, it's just that if you play for Oakland you get ZERO pub. Nothing. That team almost never shows up on national broadcasts no matter how much they win.

Oakland has Josh Donaldson, who is arguable the best 3B in baseball. He gets no deals, no pub, no storylines. Oakland without Donaldson is a mid-tier 3rd place team.

Let's also remember that where Oakland plays is a shambles right now. They can take advantage statistically of every team in that division, many of which are hamstrung by dumbass contracts.

Outside of Oakland, SF, and Toronto? The MLB is awful this year, and the OPS numbers have taken another huge drop. Nobody can hit!

I think Toronto can keep doing well only if they stay healthy.  Everyone was seemingly hurt at one point or another last year.  Their pitching has gotten a lot better since the beginning of the year, so that 20th ERA is a little misleading.  Besides, in the AL they're their pitching is average.  Only 2 AL teams have an ERA under 3.50.  The third place team's ERA is 3.80, which isn't really much better than Toronto's 4.02.  Their starters have been fairly decent, esp. Buehrle, while Drew Hutchison has and ERA of 3.50 in 12 starts.  Dickey and Happ both have an ERA around 4.00 and I think Happ's might be under 4.00 as a starter.  The 5th starter spot has been a hot mess all year but it usually is with most teams.  As for the hitting, it seems like everyone is hitting the shit out of the ball this year.  Even Lawrie and Reyes, both of whom got off to really slow starts, are hitting a lot better now.  Like I said, the only thing that I can see derailing the Jays would be injuries.  If they can stay healthy I honesty think they can make the playoffs for the first time since 1993, esp with the AL East being weaker than its been in years.

Machado needs to ride some pine after today's antics. He could have gotten someone seriously hurt with his bullshit.

Just saw the replay of that. What in the hell was he thinking? He's going to get fined and suspended by the league.

Actually I would say the hitting is carrying us more than the starting pitching, at least. (The bullpen has been fantastic). We have a top 10 WAR guy at almost every field position right now - I think it would be literally every position except 3B if Belt hadn't gotten hurt, and Pablo is 11th and still climbing.

You're still 6th in starter ERA, so we're splitting hairs on why you're in the NL lead.

The answer is the Giants are good at every facet of the game right now.

Well, yes the starters have been good generally, but if you're going off non adjusted stats you're missing a pretty big swing due to park effects.

He should eat a suspension for that. Especially after blowing up when he got tagged "too hard" in the base path.

That guy is a complete piece of shit. I'm sure he'll keep it up and I hope one of the dirtier/meaner teams hits him so hard with a pitch it ends his career. What a scumbag.

Yeah - I seriously don't know what the hell has been up with him this series. I get he might be sensitive over his knee, and frustrated that he's scuffling at the plate, but it doesn't even come close to justifying how he's behaved.  Don't like being thrown in and tight? Don't deliberately overswing to clip their catcher twice or act like a child because you got tagged on a FC going to third.   

I'm not sure how to feel about the ballpark effects stats. I understand that some are way different than others (Coors, Citi Field), but I don't know how much of it is truly the park and how much of it is the psychological effect of the park, especially when it's the home park.

I just watched the video of that. FUCK HIM. Machado should be suspended for a long time for that shit. Give him 50 fucking games (same as the first positive steroids test). Tossing a bat at someone like that could do some serious fucking harm and there's just no fucking excuse for it. So a pitcher tossed you a brush back pitch (and I'm not even sure it was that - those are usually aimed at the head or upper body). Pitchers pitch inside. Get over it. If they couldn't pitch inside, you might as well get rid of the pitcher and put the ball on a tee for the spoiled man babies.

That shit makes me angry. Bad enough the whole Donaldson brouhaha happened after he got tagged but that shit is unacceptable. IMO, the pitcher shouldn't have gotten tossed for that - he did nothing wrong.

I'd give him 16 games minimum. That's the kind of thing you have to nip in the bud. You can't let other players think you're going to get a slap on the wrist for actually flinging the bat into the field of play on purpose.

Why would you care? There is either a measurable effect or there is not.

Personally I find the smacking the catcher in the head shit just as bad, no way that is unintentional. He tried and just missed then did it again. That guy is complete fucking scum.

Everything, from the size of the park, to the amount of foul territory, to the cut of the grass, to the lip between the infield grass and the base path, to the batters eye, to the prevailing winds and humidity effects how hard it is to hit various hits in a field.

Here is an example:

Compare Chase Field

(http://espn.go.com/i/mlb/clubhouses/stadiums/ari.gif)

to Safeco

(http://espn.go.com/i/mlb/clubhouses/stadiums/sea.gif)

Compared to Chase, Safeco is positively cavernous in the power regions(left center/right center), especially with regards to right handed hitters. The area behind the plate is larger, making it easier to pick up pop ups. I am not sure about the prevailing wind in Chase(Chase appears to be open front to back, which means prevailing winds will push balls further out or closer in, but not foul), but in Safeco the wind comes in from left field and pushes balls on the right side foul and on the left side closer in. Because the field is so large on the left field side when the wind is blowing out that way its not even particularly damaging to a pitcher.

To see the effect of this, just look at Felix Hernandez's perfect game in 2012. The very fist ball hit is a fly ball to right field which is caught. It flies about 380 feet, long enough to have been a home run in Chase, but eaten by the power alleys in Safeco.

Chase is 1.05 park effect on runs, safeco is .86 so about 22% more runs are scored in Chase. This is even considering that the image above is inaccurate after 2012 (at the end of the season the walls were brought in significantly in the power alleys)

I understand there are differences in parks. That's not my point. Some of them are very very obvious due to weather and dimensions. Most of them basically bunch up in the middle and change positions year to year based on the data.

So yeah I think there are certain parks where you certainly care, but I don't think it's a huge deal for about 20+ of them. If I'm buying a player from Colorado, I'm going to get concerned about his ability to play in Citi Field. I'm not really going to worry that much about getting a guy who plays in Turner Field going to Miami.

EDIT: But the other thing I wonder about is how park factors are effected by club philosophy. Would the Cardinals be the same if they played in Turner Field? Is the Braves philosophy of pitching first the reason that Turner has some of that effect? Perhaps the factors take those kinds of things into the calculation, but everything I've read about park factors says it's "really complicated" which makes me wonder.

(http://sports.cbsimg.net/images/visual/whatshot/Cespedes-throw-2-061014.gif)

Who needs Bo Jackson?

Why the heck is he playing left field?

So far this is happening with Atlanta. They are about to get swept by the shitty Phillies, they can't hit, their fielding is suspect, and they aren't scoring runs when they get good pitching efforts. The rest of the NL East has caught up to the Braves, and they look lost at times.

Detroit has totally gagged, and the Royals are the new hot team in the AL Central. Detroit has as many wins as Cleveland. That division in general really sucks right now.

Milwaukee hasn't let up yet, but the Cardinals are closing in. After they leave Arizona, we'll see how they fare with 10 games against Colorado and the Nationals, 2 against Toronto, 3 in Cincy, 4 against Philly, and 3 against the Cards. I don't expect that close to .600 winning percentage to even be .550 by the All-Star break.

Giants are suddenly in the shitter as well. Good thing we had that start.

Ms lost 5 straight, but are getting healthy with home and home 2 game series with San Diego (WTF, schedule makers), who somehow make the horrible Seattle offense looks competent. And they get to face Felix tonight. Enjoy!

A lot of outfielders have cannons(there are plenty of video's floating around of various strong throws). Its a different kind of throw from a pitcher and isn't done as often. He is playing left field likely for historical reasons (I.E. its what he has played) and because he isn't as mobile as a center or right feilder needs to be (right field, while usually a bit smaller has more dinks due to more right handed batters and so you usually have to run a bit further) and because the left field throw is one where there is the highest likelyhood of getting people out to maximize the strength of your arm. In center the distance is just too great for the most part and close bases are where you're more likely to throw. In right if you're throwing to second its not going to get someone and third is a long ways making that harder as well

The most impressive is probably Bo Jackson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIqtDykn0l0

Watch at 58:20 for him throwing out Herold Reynolds a year after he won the stolen base record, on a a hit and run, from the warning track. That entire documentary is actually pretty amazing actually.

edit: http://m.mlb.com/video/v25868281/cwsnyy-bo-jackson-throws-out-mike-gallego

Here is another good one. Bo throws a guy out at third from standing flat footed 300 feet in right field.

IIRC Bo bounced the Reynolds throw, not that you can see it on that footage, which is why my instinct is that I'm more impressed by the Cespedes one. They're both absurd, in any case.

I meant why is he playing left field instead of right field. Outfielders with those kinds of arms (and not a lot of speed) usually play right field cause it increases the risk for runners trying to get to third on a hit to right field.

My favorite throw out a home growing up was the one Dave Parker threw at the All-Star game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PH6XJypKno

His -5 arm in Strat-O-Matic baseball was well deserved :awesome_for_real:

Tim Lincecum apparently decided last year's no hitter versus the Padres wasn't as pretty as it could've been (and it wasn't, it was like 140-something pitches, etc), so he threw a much prettier one today (one walk shy of a perfect game, alas). I still hate that fucking mustache.

Are you kidding?  That mustache is fantastic.

it is the worst thing that could happen

Well, it looks like, at the very least, Oakland has wrapped up the AL West.  They just made a trade with the Cubs for starting pitchers Jeff Samardzija and Jason Hammel for 3 minor leaguers.   
http://www.cbc.ca/sports/baseball/mlb/jeff-samardzija-jason-hammel-reportedly-traded-to-athletics-1.2697298

Fuck's sake. Let's trade the only two pitchers we have that are consistently worth a shit for a shortstop prospect we don't fucking need (since we already have a starting MLB shortstop AND one of our system's best prospects, Baez, is a shortstop), a SINGLE-A outfielder hitting .241, and a fucking pitcher that got sent down to Triple-A for sucking ass on the team with the major's best record.

CUBS 2020!

The Jeter stuff at the All-Star game was beyond annoying. We have to listen to knob-gobbling about a guy who should have retired 5 years ago, barring one good season.

And yet, not one thing about Tony Gwynn.

And Gwynn never handed out herpes to dim Hollywood starlets like it was a business card. Or if he did, he did a lot better job keeping it quiet.

All season... Why is every team having retirement ceremonies for this guy, right before they play him? It's so weird. Never seen something like this in any other sport.

They did it for Chipper Jones, too. It was strange to me as well. Many times it was like, here's a weird present and a handshake. Like the Astros got him a hat.

http://www.si.com/mlb/photos/2012/10/01chipper-jones-retirement-gifts

As usual, Drew Magary is inside my head again-
http://deadspin.com/the-hater-s-guide-to-derek-jeter-1605937020

There has never been so apt an explanation of why ESPN makes me hate these guys. It's so true. They overexpose the hell out of them to the point I just want to be like THEY AREN'T THAT GOOD. Even if they were that good, they aren't now. Why is ESPN still doing this? Monkey grinder, fuck you that's why.

I went to play poker last Saturday night (the day LBJ announced he was going to back to Cleveland). After the Mariners game ended, all the TVs in the poker room were tuned to ESPN. I literally saw nothing but LeBron for 3 or 4 straight hours. It was fucking nauseating.

Good news/bad news:

We just won an awesome 14 inning game against the Phillies to take sole possession of first place again! But our second baseman sprained his ankle and UGGLA is waiting in AAA.

Also this happened today. While it did happen last night, this picture turns out to be from last year. Can't find a picture of last night's version, but imagine it happening at first base instead and Freiman wearing the number 35.

(http://i.imgur.com/MCgAvcS.jpg)

Houston's contracts are based on height.

I would love to get that guy somehow, but our trade bait is kind of terrible right now.

Yeah he can flat out play.

He can play AND he's just so fucking adorable eeeeeee. <3

Lester and Gomes to the A's for Cespesides? (sp)

I'm going to laugh if Lester signs with someone other than the Sox after the season.

gawd the A's are stacked

if they're really going balls deep here, wouldn't be surprised if they package Gomes + prospect for a better replacement for Cespedes

Was just coming to mention that.  I love this trade.

Probably will sign elsewhere. In the NHL you get a lot of these rental trades every year, and guys almost never sign back with their original team once they are in free agency off-season, even former lifers. I can only think of a couple of instances, none recent.

All the history is quickly forgotten, especially with the euphoria of a playoff run on the new good team contrasted with the dim prospects of old bad team that's not going anywhere (why they had to trade the player off in the first place).

The A's got Jeff Samardzija and now Lester? Fuck me. The thought of facing that rotation in a seven game series should make any manager shit their pants.

The David Price trade makes no fucking sense.

Also I think we just traded the Cubs magic beans for a lefty reliever and a lead off guy.

For which side?

Works just fine for the Mariners, as far as I am concerned. They get a clear upgrade in the outfield for a guy who has no place to play at the ML level. Jack Z didn't step on his dick for once!

For value. I feel like that was light for Price. Maybe that was his value, but I feel the Braves could have done better.

He is going to get $20M next year, so Tampa was pretty excited about getting rid of him.

And if they'd kept him, there was still a good chance they missed the playoffs and got nothing at all for him in return.

Can't believe the Pirates did nothing at all, though.  Cripes.

Oh I can... the owner is a tight wad. Winning doesn't matter, being just good enough to fill the seats while making bank and not having to pay anyone on the team is what counts. At least that is the rumor here.

Fuck me, you did. Cash and a single-A catcher. THE FUCK?

Seriously, I have no fucking idea what they are up to there. Bonifacio was one of the surprise hits of the year, can play a ton of positions and manages to hit well no matter where he's playing. Also has speed. Russell isn't a bad reliever either.

I'm not sure when Epstein thinks the Cubs should be winning, but it ain't next year.

Well yeah, but sooner or later the "hey, we're over .500 again!" glow will start to wear off and people will want to actually achieve something in the playoffs besides beating the Reds in the wildcard game.  This year, they'll probably have to beat the Cardinals there.

ESPN was jumping on the Price trade today. Seems like it was pretty common amongst those "analysts" that they questioned if Tampa got enough for him.

Adam Dunn pitched the 9th inning for the White Sox last night. (http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-league-stew/adam-dunn-thrills-white-sox-fans-with-first-career-pitching-appearance-in-rangers-blowout-142101193.html)

I love Adrian Beltre. Wish he was still a Mariner. Very good player, and seems to have a good perspective/outlook on things.

It's one of the things I always enjoy most about baseball - a lot of players seem to keep a pretty even perspective and sense of humor about things.  Obviously not all of them, but enough to serve as a reminder as to how the game is meant to be played.

So how are my June predictions looking in mid-August? Well Toronto's pitching has caught up with them, and they are now fighting for a wild card slot, with almost no chance at the division. I should know better than to bet on hitting over pitching, but oh well. San Francisco has shit the bed completely because they suck at home. So that's another one where they are fighting for a wild card slot. Oakland isn't going anywhere I could have picked them to win that division in early May, and I think they will.

I was right on the money with Atlanta. They can't fucking score and it's murdering the team. They aren't in the division lead and aren't in the running for the wild card. They are done unless they can cobble together something fast. KC has overtaken Detroit, and I feel like I'm right on them as well. I don't trust their pitching at all, and I think they end up missing the playoffs. I am wrong so far on Milwaukee, but that division is really tightening up. I think by the end they may take a hard tumble.

It's not 'because we suck at home' it's because we're not a good team period.  :why_so_serious:

Touche, but you're under .500 at home for the first time since what? 2008?

Something like that. I think it's just you've got the cause and effect backwards.

Because they suck then. Also at home.

Toronto's pitching hasn't been the biggest problem. It's mediocre, but not a killer, and bullpen has been solid after a very rough start to the season where they blew a lot of games.

The hitting has actually been a problem with Encarnation out, and Lind too (can't hit lefties, but hitting .369 vs righties so starts those games or a big threat off off the bench). Melky and Bautista are great but teams have been pitching around them without the additional meat coming after. Been relying a lot on heroics from guys who are borderline major leaguers.

Where's our resident Orioles fan? Is he afraid of jinxing things?

Just a bit. Honestly, I don't even know what to say - it's been a completely crazy season, and the tear this team has been on since July has been absurd. Especially coupled with the AL East deciding to collapse spectacularly.   We haven't had a five game lead in the AL East since 1997.

We've gotten really lucky this week though with injuries - both Hardy and Machado's MRIs turned out to be sprains instead of something much more dangerous and the loss of both of those players would have decimated the Orioles infield defense (which is a large part of their success right now).

Just to add to this - what I love most about the past couple years of the Orioles (outside of Buck Showalter) is the amount of goofy shit they do.  The pie thing during MASN interviews, Chris Davis fucking with the batting order every game, Tommy Hunter being a complete loon in the bullpen - this is a team that understands that this is a boys game played by men.

Kinda shocked that Ingmar didn't come in here to discuss how the Giants won the first MLB protest since the 80s.

Pretty hilarious that the Cubs fucked it up that badly.

It would be more exciting if we weren't just going to lose in the continued game anyway.  :why_so_serious:

But yeah, terrible, terrible grounds crew work. It makes me wonder if that franchise is really taking care of their historically significant facility in the way they should be in general.

If you'd seen their roster earlier in this season, you wouldn't have had to ask that question.  :why_so_serious:  :cry:

Good crystal ball there.

Did the Jays win the world series yet?

They may be having one of the worst August months in baseball I've seen in a long time. I mean FFS they are 6-14 on the month.

They were tied in the win column with Baltimore on July 31st and one of the wild cards. Now 8 games back, in third place, and 5 back of the wild card.

In a month.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhXjcZdk5QQ

It's amazing how they keep doing that.

Awesome. Mariners have a nice road trip, get into the thick of the postseason talk, and then make yet another dogshit journeyman look like Cy goddamned Young the first game back at home. Want to draw crowds? Try not shitting the bed so often against the worst goddamned teams in the league.

Just fail all around from the Jays at this point, bad baseball.

The top of the order is dangerous again with Encarnacion & Lind back, but the bottom of the order regressed to mean after carrying the team with hot bats in July. Just too many bad starts, to many fails from the bullpen, too many running stranded in scoring position in close games all result in that sub . 500 record. They can't say their destiny wasn't in their hands as you pointed out.

Going to Toronto this weekend to catch a couple of games, one last chance to boo Jeter. I see the NY Post getting excited about a Yankees miracle run, hopefully get to witness live some ice water tossed on that.

Chris Davis was just suspended 25 games for taking Adderall of all things.  He'll miss their first 8 playoff games if they get that far.

I was reeeeally hoping when I read "suspended for amphetamines" that he had been hanging out, taking molly with Wes Welker.

wooooooooooooooooo

The Nationals are garbage. I can say this as a Braves fan, and our shitty team owned them for most of the season.

The Giants should stroll to play the Dodgers in the NL finals.

Half right!

Fucking Cards always win in the NLDS. Why the hell can't the Braves channel that?

Giants v. Cards. I like the Giants based on history. The Cards didn't fare well last time they played them in the NLCS.

It's official. I hate both of the National League teams. I can absolutely root for either American League team. So... GO AMERICAN LEAGUE!

Awww, how can anybody not from LA possibly hate the Giants!


 :why_so_serious:

Anyone but the Cardinals, really.  Hunter Pence is pretty cool.

Baltimore looks like a World Series champ at the plate to me. If they get to the series, I think they win convincingly.

They have better pitching and better hitting than any of the remaining teams. Which probably means they get swept by the Royals because playoff baseball is a fucking crapshoot of all crapshoots.

Another Giantsy ending. Someday we'll win on an actual hit again.

I'm OK with the Royals sweeping the entire playoffs.

Part 2 of my earlier statement is looking truer. The playoffs make no sense in baseball. Ask the Sabermetrics guys who end up there and the last teams they'd likely tell you would be the Royals and the Cards or Giants.

When was the last time the World Series was two wild card teams?

I have already reserved my throne on the Royals bandwagon.

Angels and Giants in 2002.

We win despite Paelos invoking the rally monkey. Bumgarner tomorrow - might try to grab a pair of the same-day tickets tomorrow morning...

I've been betting on the Giants in every game. It's been easy money.

Giants are definitely the lesser of two evils here (fuck St Louis with a garden gnome), but I am firmly entrenched on the Royals bandwagon. I rooted for them the last time they were in the World Series too  :grin:

Part of it is that the Mariners were neck and neck with them all the way through August and September, so there is a bit of 'Hey, look what could have happened to the Ms' going on.

Wow I don't think that could have ended any more obnoxiously for Cardinal fans.

Good. Their mayor is a smug douchenozzle.

Predictions.

kc hasn't lost really, the giants are more experienced in these matters. Hot young team against the seasoned pros.

I back experience in these things. Giants in 6.

I'm rooting for the Royals because fuck the Giants. 1989, bitches.

Definitely rooting for the Royals. Giants have been there too often now.

I think George Brett is going to have a big series.

Wait, what?

How many times do we have to beat the Cardinals before you forgive us?

Andre Dawson says, "Infinity." His knees say "OW."

What did I miss? I see there was a series versus the Cubs but who cares? It was 4-1 how do you get to hold a grudge about being trashed?

Cubs fans have to hold grudges to make us think we're important enough to matter in the MLB. Hint, we're not, but we'll still get more fans than most teams.  :why_so_serious:

woooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

That game almost killed me.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 :drill:


Can't wait for the 2016 season now.   :awesome_for_real:

We had this discussion earlier in the year. Yet, the Giants are World Series champions again.

Between this and the Braves collapse, I'm just going back to being a casual fan of baseball. I'll enjoy it watching my Braves, and I'll enjoy the beginning of the season. But the way the playoffs are designed now, they don't reward the best teams at all, and it's just becoming more and more obvious every year. The addition of more wild cards has just turned it into an even bigger crapshoot than it was a decade ago.

Not that I begrudge the Giants for winning, they are obviously a team that can turn it on late, and they've created a even-year dynasty out of that fact. It's just, I don't think we should be able to see sub-90 win teams win the World Series. I don't think they should even BE there. Between more playoff spots and the money factor, I guess I'm just more disillusioned than ever that certain teams will ever win the World Series consistently ever again.

Better get used to it, it's not going to go back to just division winners which are often settled by late july (only 2/6 divs had serious pennant races this season).

The wild card races attract interest in a dozen extra cities whose teams are still in striking distance of the two spots even in late September, thus a money maker for MLB.

If the goal is more viewers for their product? They aren't getting it. People don't watch baseball just because their teams are in races. They watch baseball because it's part of a summer routine, and it because it mostly runs unopposed until football starts. There's no new shows in the summer worth anything, and there's no other major sports competing for time. It's not going to shift suddenly due to the wild card. The one-game playoffs do well, but the dirty secret of TV is that Americans mostly hate series to decide things when it comes to TV. This is something the NBA struggles with as well. The finals only netted an average 9.3 rating in the NBA.

Meanwhile run of the mill NFL regular season games crush them.

I NEVER watch regular season baseball apart from my team. I can't imagine anything duller. Hell, I barely kept an eye on the playoffs. The only reason I cared at all was because my team was so close to making it in the first place. If the Mariners had been eliminated by the trade deadline as per usual, I wouldn't have watched any of it.

Did see a funny Tweet last night about celebrating Giant fans rioting in the streets and unplugging a Tesla  :awesome_for_real:

I disagree. I was looking at media for a few teams like the Yankees and Blue Jays that still had some theoretical wild card hopes mid-Sept (4-5 or so games back, but on winning streaks), there was a lot of chatter still around the teams. That not be the case at all if they 10 back on Orioles and playoff chances effectively dead a month before.

Speaking as a Cubs fan, whose team is usually out of it come May 1st, I can definitely say that wild cards increase viewership overall. I wouldn't have given two shits about the playoffs had it not been for the Royals and A's appearances (well, maybe I'd have given some interest because of the Orioles or Nats). But most of the division winners? I couldn't give two shits about seeing them in the playoffs. I would have checked out of the entire thing and only paid attention when someone won. As it was, I actually watched a playoff game for the first time since the last time the Cubs were in the playoffs. It not only keeps interest up in markets that aren't traditionally competitive, it also makes baseball fans whose teams suck interested in other teams who used to suck but might be dark horse contenders.

Speed up the fucking games. Then I might actually watch. Arizona Fall League is experimenting with a 20 second pitch clock again.

I'm the reverse. I watched zero games of these playoffs. Just don't care. But even if you are watching, the numbers aren't that great in the playoffs.

I can see how it might impact attendance to a degree, so they will keep doing it. But baseball is wondering where their viewers are coming from and they have three major issues to combat.

1 - The games are perceived as slow and dull, with an absurd amount of down time. Do not, however, point out that the actual dead time is less than an NFL game, or the length of games are shorter than a standard NFL game at the moment. That's why it's a perception problem. An average NFL game last year was 3 hours and 12 minutes. An average baseball game was 3 hours and 9 minutes.
2 - The game doesn't do a good job of connecting fans with players, and this has a few spokes on the wheel. An increasing number of players aren't Americans, the fanbase of baseball doesn't really see the players much before they get to the majors, and MLB has never handled the "star" national player thing well in promotion since baseball is seen as a regional game. Which is part of the final point.
3 - Because baseball plays daily, it removes some of the hype to the product, and it creates regional loves while spurning national interest. A Cubs fan can see 162 games a year of their team. A Bears fan sees 16. There's an opening for the Bears fan to give a shit about other games going on because he's not inundated with daily game after game. There's no build-up to baseball like there is to football. Nothing is decided quickly. Not every game is important or has potential impact. There is literally nothing they can do about this other than take advantage of the fact that baseball runs unopposed in the summer. They need to move the season so that it's ending in August, and the playoffs run in September. If you're adding on all this playoff shit, the season needs to be done in time to get it in before football has completely taken hold.

Just as another point on this, the World Series in 1960 was done by October 13th, and it went 7 games. It's almost two weeks now of continued baseball that just goes on and on. There's also reason Spring Training can't be two weeks max.

Baseball won't cut down their season length, but yes, they absolutely need to.

It's moreso they just need to shift it and cut down on training. By March 15th we should be playing ball.

Well - part of it is that playoff baseball is different than the regular season in some ways other than 'anything can happen in a short series.' You can effectively shorten up your pitching staff because you know they're going to get a long break. Ned Yost milked the hell out of that with his best relievers, he could use them more aggressively and more often and the Giants basically did the same thing with Bumgarner.

The Giants also just had a weird damn season. Their injury problems were significant and I didn't think they'd recover from them in time. Belt and Morse both came back basically juuuuust in the nick of time and we were lucky that they didn't need much ramp up time to get back to being effective.

Not in NY, Detroit, Minnesota, Boston etc etc you won't be.


Also comparing the NFL to MLB ain't a good one. Yes a football can be tedious but one, as you pointed out, there is only one game a week. Two, there are maybe 100-120 plays in a football game while there are upwards of 300? (pitches) in a baseball game.

Really they don't "need" to do anything. They're making more money than they ever have, their move to an essentially regional model in terms of media instead of a national one has been enormously successful.

Also spring training is tons of fun to attend, cutting it to two weeks would suck and I'm not sure what you think it would accomplish in the first place. It isn't like the NFL preseason where they're trying to show it to you on TV and charging you full price for tickets to watch guys who are going to get cut the next day. You'd also see a lot more awful pitching in the first part of the regular season without it, I think.

As long as attendance stays up, MLB will do nothing positive. That much is clear.

That much got us in trouble in the first place with the PEDs. I question whether or not it's good for the long-term vision of the game to turn a 162 game season into the NFL playoff format. Because you know if 5 playoff teams is good, why SIX is better. And we can have byes then for the top two division winners! NFL!

I'll believe it when I see it. The 2 extra playoff teams amounts to a whole one extra day. I don't think they'll get to the point where they're like the NBA or NHL.

The NBA used to be only 6 teams. Then 8. Then 16. It kept creeping as the league expanded and the best of 5's became best of 7's.

I see a similar creep happening here, but much later. It won't be long until the NLDS is a 7 gamer in my mind. That's the first change that will happen. Then they'll want to get rid of the one-gamer. I don't think anybody really likes one game deciding things long term.

Braves traded Jason Heyward for Shelby Miller.

I ain't mad.

Jesus.  Miami signs Giancarlo Stanton to a 13 year $325 million deal. :ye_gods:.  This guy will probably have over $350 million in the bank before he turns 40.

By 2022, this will be A-Rod 2.0 type of a deal.

MLB GM's refuse to learn. You don't pay a guy $25M a year in his mid-to-late 30s. That era is gone.

By the time he's in his late 30s stars will be making 40 million a year.

Does anyone think he'll actually be on the same team by the time he's 35? Some idiot signed him to this retarded deal, some other idiot will trade prospects for him on the hopes of 2-3 years of 20 HR production.

Disagree. I think this labor agreement is going to be brutal when it comes up soon.

I kind of doubt it. MLB teams are flush with new TV money.

Also note he has an opt-out 6 seasons in, and that's with the contract heavily backloaded. I don't think he bothers with that if the agent doesn't think there's a good chance that star money will be even more than the 30 million a year the deal is in the final 7 years.

I hope you are right, I think we're in for a strike.

Braves just traded Justin Upton for prospects and magic beans.

Meanwhile, the Padres now have a pretty impressive batting order with Upton, Kemp and Wil Myers.  The last week of trading has been fascinating.

Padres over the Dodgers for the division now. SF collapses under the weight of it being an odd year.  :grin:

I wouldn't exactly crown the Padres division winners yet. That ballpark is going to continue to swallow a lot of potential home runs. Not that what they got isn't a huge improvement over what they had, mind you.

Also, the Braves gave Markakis $44 million? Really? Not sure those numbers justify that.

Of course they don't justify it. Fucker just had neck surgery. But full steam ahead on the rebuilding failboat while we coast through 3 more shitty years of BJ Upton on our way to a new stadium and some actual revenue.

Wasn't BJ the Upton that couldn't hit shit all season long? They kept him and traded his brother?

... the fuck?

Would you pay for BJ Upton?  There was probably no one who wanted to touch that contract.

The Braves have tried everything to unload him. He's fucking untradable.

I said this deal would go horribly wrong when we did it, and it has. The Justin deal was fine, but he's a rental now and the Braves need a farm system.

The park swallows visiting HRs too. It's pretty much always an advantage to play in a pitcher's park because your pitchers get used to it and the visitors don't.

Forgot that they picked up Derek Norris, too.  Wonder why they're not looking at their pitching more, Cashner can't carry them all the way.

Cashner-Ross-Kennedy is a very good 1-2-3 in whichever order you put them in, and they have a bunch of other decent options to pick from for the rest. Although hopefully not Despaigne because that's annoying to type.

Mr. Cub, Ernie Banks, has passed away at age 83.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/23/us/ernie-banks-obit/index.html

Hall of Fame guy, not just a hall of fame player.

Amen. Sad day.