Running MLB Thread 2007 #1

He was identified in this thread as the most overrated player.

He is not that. He is quite good.

But while he's not Jesus in spikes, I can see why they feel that way. Guy was the youngster and a stalwart on four title teams.

 

The Blue Jays are in trouble. Johnson, Ryan and Glaus all go on the DL on the same day. Ryan is hurt worse than the organization is letting on, Johnson should have been on the DL to start the season.

More Moneyball genius.

The first rule is to know everything about your fucking players.

 

.........I'll still take A-Rod.

 

No doubt these are big hits for the Jays but do you really think this has anything to do with Moneyball or a lack of information? Or are you really saying you don't like Ricciardi, at least in part because he comes from the Alderson/Beane school of GMing (code name: Moneyball)? The Jays are a pretty loaded club and they got hit by two key injuries (and one relatively minor one) early on -- Reed's back, B.J. Ryan's elbow and Glaus' bone spur/hammy. Players typically try to play through injuries and these guys were no different. I'm not a huge fan of Ricciardi, frankly, but the Rich Griffin-fueled, anti-Moneyball brigade up in Toronto is getting a little stale with the constant use of the term Moneyball every time it wants to attack Ricciardi.

 

Who wants to take a guess at how the Trenton Thunder left-hander does against Cleveland tonight?

I'll say 3 innings, 9 hits, 4 runs, all earned, 2 walks and 3 strikeouts.

 

Wow, Casty, if all the runs are earned that means you're predicting Jeter will make it through 3 innings without an error.

 

Piniella will actually put out a lineup with a lead off guy that might have a decent on-base percentage. With Soriano hurt, Felix Pie was called up and will lead off and play center field.

 

Well what the hell do you want for $100 mil-plus? You can't get a versatile player for that price.

 

cranberry, I'm going to avoid Moneyball because it opens up a can of worms here that always gets nasty. If the most significant moment in history was Henry's break from Rome, the most significant moment in the last 35 years of baseball history was the arrival of these goofballs on the scene. Leave it at that.

Ryan was hurting in camp and it was known. Johnson shouldn't have been on an Opening Day roster with that kind of injury. These are things baseball people spot and bring to people's attention, not guys buried in their spreadsheets upstairs.

This is a good team with enough talent to compete for a playoff spot. If the Jays can't get it done with this group, then it's time for Ricciardi to go away.

 

I hate this fucking team.

 

BYH, what's the over/under on number of times he uses that line this season? Whatever it is, I'll take the over.

 

Wow, that's a stretch. The Blue Jays obviously knew Ryan was hurting during Spring Training and he took a good bit of time off because of it. According to Ryan at the time, the pain was in his back, not his elbow, though maybe one caused the other. Still, it didn't get lost in the stat sheets. The training staff was involved and the team decided he was ready to pitch. Teams get that wrong all time time and blaming Moneyball is just ridiculous. If anything, blame the pitcher for refusing to admit it as soon as his elbow started hurting.

These things can go the other way, too. There was some concern in Pirates' spring training about Tom Gorzelanny. His velocity was down and he was getting pounded. He improved to 2-0 and dropped his ERA to 1.33 by holding the Cardinals to one run in 8 1/3 innings this afternoon. Yeah, sticking with their plans to keep him in the rotation looks stupid now, huh?