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

I am a Yankees fan but I'd rather have Theo running my team. Cashman has been lousy at developing home-grown talent, the only All-Star to come up with the Yankees since Posada (almost 15 years ago!) is Cano.

 

Not disagreeing over the caliber of people running the show in Boston, but are they any worse to work for than George Steinbrenner when he still had all his facilities and was a stark raving lunatic unsatisfied with even complete and utter dominance? Or dealing with Hank Steinbrenner before he was told to shove a cork in it? Or idiot Randy Levine? Or Lonn Trust, whose mere mention makes people around Yankee Stadium alternately shudder and roll their eyes?

Yet Cashman keeps re-upping, even though he's been in New York five years longer than Theo was in Boston. Maybe it's Stockholm Syndrome. Whatever the reason, suddenly it's Cashman doing all the things Theo used to do--harvesting stars, or at least very useful starters, from within and relying on a small market mentality to fill other holes at the big league level--minus the fawning genius talk that he never does a thing to discourage. Again: If I needed a team rebuilt from the ground up, I'd want Cashman long before Theo.

 

http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/mlb/story/_/id/7149521/mike-scioscia-says-ex-los-angeles-angel-mike-napoli-clash

 

So you figure Epstein has two years for the Cubs to make the playoffs - 5 for a World Series?
Brewers will be down, Cards will be tough, and there is the Reds. Very winnable division.

 

Opinion on baseball teams often lag behind the reality by a year or two. The perception on the Cubs is that they lack young talent, are hamstrung by big contracts, and that their minor leagues are fairly depleted.

They've got young, up-the-middle players at every spot if Brett Jackson takes over CF next year (he should) and we still call Soto young (a bit of a stretch, I'll admit).

The contract issues are just about overwith. Ramirez will be declining his mutual option and hitting the free-agent market. Zambrano and Dempster are free agents after next year (assuming Dempster exercises his $14 million option for this upcoming season). All that's left is Soriano through 2014 at $18 million/year. A big-market team like the Cubs can handle that one bad contract.

The minor leagues are fairly interesting. They are easily near the top of the league in prospects under 20. In the high minors, they have a ton of depth but lack star power. They can graduate plenty of Darwin Barney types in the next few years, guys who can credibly fill a MLB roster spot for the league minimum, which has value. But if they want any star players, they are going to have to go out and buy them.

That's a decent enough canvas for a good GM to build a contender for that division by 2013. They just have to hit on free agents. If they aren't a serious challenger for a playoff spot by 2014, then Epstein and Friends have no one to blame but themselves.

 

http://www.weei.com/sports/boston/this-just-in/21150436/maddon-any-potential-ban-beer-asinine

How about banning the shitty pisswater beer the zillionaire Red Sox were quaffing.

 

I heart Joe Maddon.

 

Phil Hughes

 

Also Alfonso Soriano and Hideki Matsui, though I wouldn't argue if you don't count Godzilla.

 

Yeah, Soriano is a glaring omission from the list. Didn't Wang also make an All-Star team before he broke down?

In addition, you could probably add Mike Lowell and Ian Kennedy since they grew up in the Yanks' farm system and made their MLB debuts with them. I understand it's a slippery slope with those 2, since their actual MLB impact with NYY is minimal.

 

No. Wang won 19 games twice, but was never an All-Star.

 

Really hoping for a Cardinals win tonight so we can get a Game 7.