MLB 2012

[JWIV]

Wow, Braves come back from down 0-9 to win the game in the 11th 11-10, with Strasburg pitching!

That's the game of the season so far.  

Yay Braves!  God I love seeing DC teams lose.

[WayAbvPar]

Ichiro to the Yankees. Glad to see him get a chance for some post season baseball; also glad the Mariners won't have to have the 'yeah, we need you to take a $15M pay cut' conversation in the offseason. Wish the Ms could have gotten it done while he was here. GL to him.

[Teleku]

Yeah, he has certainly paid his dues, and the mariners should be thrilled he stuck around this long.  He's a great player and a good human being.

Which is why it's unfortunate I now have to loathe him for being a Yankee.  

Also, I havent been able to pay as close of attention since moving away.  Why are we starting Nate  schierholtz now?  Along with changing the line up a lot every other game....

[Paelos]

Are the Yankees going for the record of the oldest bunch of farts in their starting lineup?

[ghost]

My college roommate was a huge Yankees fan.  I'll never understand it. 

[Ingmar]

I guess Swisher must be pretty hurt, otherwise I don't really see what role Ichiro actually has on that team.

[Paelos]

Rumor mill circulating that the Braves have a deal with Dempster

[Sjofn]

Why are we starting Nate  schierholtz now?  Along with changing the line up a lot every other game....

Changing the lineup every other game seems to be how Bochy rolls, man. As for Shierholtz, who knows. Maybe trying to show him off since he wants to be traded?

[Paelos]

Rumor mill now saying the Braves DON'T have a deal with Dempster because he blocked it.

If that's true, he can go suck ass on the Dodgers.

[ghost]

The Marlins strategy certainly seems bizarre.  They get rid of all their good players every 4-5 years, yet they have two titles to show for it. 

[Paelos]

They love that new ballpark in Miami.  Everyone in the baseball media and ESPN tells me how great it is, and what a wonderful project they've put together that really identifies with the community. The Marlins went out and spent money in the offseason to bring in Free Agents and talked about how they were going to get a playoff run together. They hired Ozzie to be the face of a crazy franchise with Latin roots and bravado.

The team is 7 games under .500 nearing the end of July, and 12.5 back of the division lead. They are 8 games back of the wild card. They barely average 28,000 a game which is 18th in the majors. In a new ballpark. When Minnesota opened their ballpark in 2010, they averaged 40,000 a game. When the Mets opened the new Citi Field in 2009, they averaged 39,000 a game. Hell, when Washington opened their stadium in 2008, they were god awful and they STILL drew 29,000 a game.

This is one of the biggest financial disasters in professional baseball. That team didn't belong there, and they certainly didn't deserve a new park.

[ghost]

I'm also not sure Hamels is worth all that money. 

[Ingmar]

It is quite expensive, yeah, but barring injury or some kind of Steve Blass breakdown he should be in the ballpark of good value over the course of the deal. Lefties as good as Hamels don't come along all that often so there's a premium involved, and this only takes him through age 34 so there's not a lot of length-of-contract doom involved.

The Ryan Howard contract is the one that is going to be fucking them for years, it was obviously bad when they signed it and managed to somehow get worse when he got hurt this year. Howard is 32, making 20 million this year (5 million per home run, if a bus hits him tomorrow), and it only goes up for the next 4 years. 

[ghost]

I guess I'm looking at the fact that he's played for a good team and doesn't really have a spectacular record.  I know, I know, that isn't everything but at the end of it all you have to win some games, right? 

[Ingmar]

I need a squirt bottle to spray at people who talk about pitcher wins.

[Rasix]

3.38 career era, 28, left handed, good strikeout numbers, about 200 innings a year.  Seems like a good investment. 

[caladein]

In a vacuum, the Hamels deal is solid, outside of the the usual risks with giving a pitcher any sort of long term deal.  Although, I do think it's funny how when Halladay's contract was signed the Phillies were apparently all "oh we never give long contracts to pitchers" and then proceed to sign two slightly worse (but left-handed) pitchers to much longer deals.

But, I can only assume that the Phillies think that this year was just a fluke (and not a consequence of the olds) and they can at least contend for a WC in the following years, because I sure as hell don't see it.

[Paelos]

3.38 career era, 28, left handed, good strikeout numbers, about 200 innings a year.  Seems like a good investment. 

Starting pitchers aren't worth 20M a year. They pitch every 5 days. Hell, baseball has proven time and again that almost nobody is worth even $15M a year on the field.

ARod makes $27.5M a year, and he's been a .275 hitter for the last 4 seasons. Even in his absolute best MVP years, 2007, 2005, and 2002, the Yankees didn't win the World Series.
Cliff Lee signed in 2011 for a $25M a year deal for 5 years. Even with a 2.40 ERA and a WHIP near 1, the Phillies still lost a third of his starts. Now in 2012 he's got a 3.95 ERA, a 1.2 WHIP, and 12 loss results.
Albert Pujols just started his $24M a year deal in 2012. He's batting .277, and slugging .488 for the lowest in his career. There are 22 guys in the AL with better stats.
CC Sabathia gets paid $23.33M a year since 2009. He's been pretty solid as a 3.18 ERA over those years with a 59-23 record, and even though the Yankees won in 2009, he lost his only start in the series.

The best hitter in the league right now is Joey Votto. He's making $9.5M this year.
The 2nd best hitter isAndrew McCutchen. He's making $500,000 this year.

The best pitcher is Jered Weaver. He's making $14M a year.

[Ingmar]

Actually, a good starting pitcher's impact is comparable (or even higher) to a good hitter's impact.

Justin Verlander faced 969 batters last year. That's ~200 more than the all time record for number of plate appearances by a batter.

[Paelos]

Actually, a good starting pitcher's impact is comparable (or even higher) to a good hitter's impact.

Justin Verlander faced 969 batters last year. That's ~200 more than the all time record for number of plate appearances by a batter.

Not debating the impact of a starter. What I'm debating is value of paying them that much money to the detriment of your remaining team. Verlander faced 969 batters, and was the Cy Young winner. He was also paid $13M for that year.

This year, $20M. Will he finish the year as the highest WAR pitcher? Maybe, and if he does, good move for the Tigers. I don't believe he's do it for the next 3 years. Even so, McCutchen's WAR is 5.8 to Verlander's 5.1 according to ESPN. And the kicker is that the Tigers, even with the best sabermetric pitcher in the league, is still tied for their division lead with the White Sox, who are tossing out Sale and Peavy, both of whom combined make less than Verlander.

[caladein]

It's not really fair to compare guys still in arbitration (or before it even, in the case of Sale) to free agents.  Votto's making $19m next year according to Cot's.  And McCutchen's just signed for his entire arbitration period and two years, his last option year doesn't even fit on the sheet.

Rookie contracts always provide excess value compared to the open market.

[ghost]

I need a squirt bottle to spray at people who talk about pitcher wins.

I also pull for baseball teams based on the color of their uniforms.....

[Paelos]

It's not really fair to compare guys still in arbitration (or before it even, in the case of Sale) to free agents.  Votto's making $19m next year according to Cot's.  And McCutchen's just signed for his entire arbitration period and two years, his last option year doesn't even fit on the sheet.

Rookie contracts always provide excess value compared to the open market.

It's sort of my point. Get them in years before they go after the $15M+ payday and dump them. Baseball is full of a lot of "fat and happy" contracts.

[HaemishM]

Somebody please take Ryan Dempster off our hands. He's still got gas in the tank and we need some young starting pitching. I actually think he's a great guy to have around the team (and he's been one of the Cubs' best pitchers when healthy this year) but this team is SO BAD and we need SO MUCH PITCHING.

[Paelos]

Somebody please take Ryan Dempster off our hands. He's still got gas in the tank and we need some young starting pitching. I actually think he's a great guy to have around the team (and he's been one of the Cubs' best pitchers when healthy this year) but this team is SO BAD and we need SO MUCH PITCHING.

Uh, thanks for rubbing it in Haemish. We tried and Dempster told us to collectively fuck off.

[Ingmar]

His full no-trade does make it sort of an adventure.

[ghost]

His ERA is okay, but his Win-Loss record is just so-so.   

Seriously, if you could get this dude and you are a contender it should happen tomorrow.

[Paelos]

Dempster is making a bunch of noise about how he wants to go to LA for family reasons.

Thing is, the Dodgers have fuck-all to offer the Cubs.

[Paelos]

Oh and Lincecum lost again? To the Padres??? 

[Teleku]

Lincecum losing to anybody this year shouldn't be a shocker in the slightest.

[Paelos]

Lincecum losing to anybody this year shouldn't be a shocker in the slightest.

Well I thought he had turned a corner so to speak. He'd gone two games in a row of 15 innings with only 2 earned and 17 Ks. It was his best line all year. I was guessing he would take advantage of a weak Padres club that was 9 games under .500 on the road.

Frankly, I don't understand WTF is going on with the kid, because nobody on this coast covers anything but the Braves, Phillies, Mets, Yankees, and Sawk.

[Ingmar]

Nobody here understands it either.

[ghost]

Lincecum is short.   

[Trippy]

Nobody here understands it either.

He has Zitoitis

[HaemishM]

Didn't Lincecum just sign a big huge contract?

And yes, I don't see how any contending team with young pitchers to trade wouldn't want to rent Dempster. If your offense is even REMOTELY capable, he will win 8 out of 10 starts the way he's pitching this year. You'll be lucky to get 6 innings out of him, but they'll be 6 good innings. Not to mention that whole "leadership" and "great club presence" he brings. I hate to see him leave the Cubs but there's no reason to saddle his last few years in the bigs with a team that's rebuilding to the extent the Cubs need to.