Running 2011 Baseball Thread, Vol. I: Dedicated to spnited

I didn't see this last night, but apparently Brian Wilson had the task of reading the NL lineup on Fox -- and used the occasion to beg Beltran to "come on over."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/giants/index

 

He did. I guess that could technically be viewed as tampering.

 

Nah, players can say whatever they want, it's only management that can't tamper. Besides, if they're going to let Beltran fly with the Giants, they sure aren't going to do anything about this. In fact dating to last weekend with all the questions the Giants and Beltran were exceedingly comfortable answering, I wouldn't be surprised if the Mets have already given him and his agent the green light to talk trade.

 

Milwaukee's bullpen has been statistically effective this season. The Brewers are fifth in the league in reliever FIP, which is the best number to look at for them as it doesn't take into account the team's terrible defense.

 

Tell that to anyone who's watched Kameron Loe. Or Marco Estrada. Or Zach "Sleepy" Braddock. Or Sean Green. Need I go on?

The Brewers' infield defense isn't good (I maintain their outfield defense is fine and catcher Jonathan Lucroy played half his season hurt and is improving on throwing out runners), but whipping out a stat like that is just statistical masturbation.

Defense did not play a role in every single one of the 20 bullpen losses the Brewers have this season. Defense didn't allow 28 home runs to go over the fence courtesy of the bullpen.

That's why I hate stats like that. They never take into account individual game situations. I'm sure there's a situation where Yuni Betancourt didn't get to a ball and it allowed a run to score, but it didn't happen 20 times.

 

Milwaukee's relief corps has 14 blown saves this season. (The pre-humidor Rockies blew 39 in 1996. The 2008 Mets blew 29.) It's not like those guys are a grease fire right now.

 

So the Brewers will give up two prospects from a garbage farm system for a good-to-very-good reliever who might help them in late-inning situations against guys like Pujols and Holliday.

They'll have to pay about $5 million in salary to Rodriguez, but seeing as how Fielder's gone after this year and they're probably going to be one of the worst teams in baseball in 2012, I don't see how you can knock the Brewers for making the move.

 

http://www.camdenchat.com/2011/7/13/2272705/what-does-it-mean-to-be-a-fan-of-a-team-going-nowhere

 

This is the slickest thing the Mets have pulled off in years. They're the ones not getting enough attention for it.

 

Everybody but Fielder is back in '12. They'll miss him, but they won't be anything near the worst team in baseball in '12. Plus, they will have flexibility to use Fielder's salary to fill in holes.

 

Looks like the "dumbass" who gave Jeter the ball back is doing pretty OK for himself. 50 grand toward student loans, 5% of sales of Yankees merchandise at Modell's for a week ... and his own baseball card.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=AhNV8iknfP.xzS9x62AC9xs5nYcB?slug=ap-jeter-fan-baseballcard

 

Finding out he's got 150 large in outstanding student loans makes him an even bigger sucker for giving the ball back.