Author Topic: MLB & Division Watching (2012)  (Read 164649 times)

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Offline MarquisDeSade

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Re: MLB & Division Watching (2012)
« Reply #100: February 10, 2012, 12:17:47 PM »
I'm sure his wife and daughters are proud

Which ones?

Online JCA-CrystalCity

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Re: MLB & Division Watching (2012)
« Reply #101: February 10, 2012, 04:22:48 PM »
Combining two of this Board's most hated players:
Quote
Julie Brady
A source close to Kevin Youkilis (right) confirms that the Sox third baseman is engaged to Julie Brady (left), sister of Patriots quarterback Tom Brady.
http://www.boston.com/sports/other_sports/gallery/82510_first_ladies_of_boston_sports?p1=Upbox_links&pg=2

Offline PatsNats28

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Re: MLB & Division Watching (2012)
« Reply #102: February 11, 2012, 10:56:45 AM »
people hate brady?

Online JCA-CrystalCity

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Re: MLB & Division Watching (2012)
« Reply #103: February 11, 2012, 03:52:10 PM »
people hate brady?

Sure.  he's too pretty, whines to refs any time he gets touched, his wife blasted his receivers (must have learned that from Tom), tuck rule, wears uggs, etc. . .   Some people always hate.

Offline Nathan

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Re: MLB & Division Watching (2012)
« Reply #104: February 11, 2012, 03:52:42 PM »
Sure.  he's too pretty, whines to refs any time he gets touched, his wife blasted his receivers (must have learned that from Tom), tuck rule, wears uggs, etc. . .   Some people always hate.

To be fair, a lot of those are good reasons to hate.

Online JCA-CrystalCity

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Re: MLB & Division Watching (2012)
« Reply #105: February 11, 2012, 03:59:44 PM »
To be fair, a lot of those are good reasons to hate.

Me, I hold him up on a pedestal and am waiting for his book on how to [have fun with] actresses and models to come out.

Offline imref

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Re: MLB & Division Watching (2012)
« Reply #106: February 12, 2012, 07:37:39 PM »
Mlb on xm is reporting AJ Burnett to the Pirates for prospects is done. Yanks to cover 19-21 million of his salary.

Offline Vega

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Re: MLB & Division Watching (2012)
« Reply #107: February 16, 2012, 06:45:38 PM »
Detroit is going to give Brandon Inge a shot at second base, where he has never played once in his career. Are they trying to be the worst defensive team in the MLB?

Offline imref

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Re: MLB & Division Watching (2012)
« Reply #108: February 16, 2012, 08:41:48 PM »
Detroit is going to give Brandon Inge a shot at second base, where he has never played once in his career. Are they trying to be the worst defensive team in the MLB?

if they win, rizzo will have to change his entire philosophy.

Offline HalfSmokes

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Re: MLB & Division Watching (2012)
« Reply #109: February 16, 2012, 09:51:08 PM »
I'm pulling for it to work, though the free press article makes it sound more like Leland is letting him give it a shot in st since he's heading for the bench this season

http://www.freep.com/article/20120216/SPORTS02/120216055/brandon-inge-detroit-tigers?odyssey=nav%7Chead

Online JCA-CrystalCity

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Re: MLB & Division Watching (2012)
« Reply #110: February 16, 2012, 11:34:58 PM »
Inge started out as a SS.  He is an incredible athlete.  I'm thinking it'll be his bat and not his glove that stops this.

Offline DPMOmaha

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Re: MLB & Division Watching (2012)
« Reply #111: February 16, 2012, 11:49:49 PM »
if they win, rizzo will have to change his entire philosophy.


Why?  Because someone did it differently than he did?  There's more than one way to win.

Offline Obed_Marsh

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Re: MLB & Division Watching (2012)
« Reply #112: February 17, 2012, 05:59:04 AM »
There's more than one way to win.

I will be happy when Rizzo finds any way to win. So far all he has shown us is one losing season after another and a lot of self congratulatory swagger. Sure we look better on paper but after this nightmare freight train clown show, I want results and I want them now, this season, not in 2014. Play meaningful games in September dammit.

Offline houston-nat

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Re: MLB & Division Watching (2012)
« Reply #113: February 17, 2012, 10:00:56 AM »
I will be happy when Rizzo finds any way to win. So far all he has shown us is one losing season after another

...and a 21-win improvement on the team he started with.

Offline The Chief

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Re: MLB & Division Watching (2012)
« Reply #114: February 17, 2012, 10:09:22 AM »
...and a 21-win improvement on the team he started with.

I mean, that's nice and all, but improving from utter dogcrap to mediocrity shouldn't be a terrible challenge for any competent GM.  He has yet to prove that he can take us the rest of the way.  I know you were trying to be glass half full about it, but Obed's take on it isn't wrong, either.

Offline JMUalumni

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Re: MLB & Division Watching (2012)
« Reply #115: February 17, 2012, 10:14:56 AM »
Inge started out as a SS.  He is an incredible athlete.  I'm thinking it'll be his bat and not his glove that stops this.

I would agree with this statement... a few years ago.  His knees have been pretty much reconstructed and it took him down a notch.  This was also the reason they stopped using him in the OF and at C after 2008.  He fits in perfectly with the current set of players in terms of his speed (sloooow) and his bat has always pretty much been sub standard.  With that said, he still handles 3B very well and is a max effort type of guy, hard to hate on him too much because of that.  He also comes up pretty regularly with some clutch hits.  Them trying him at 2B is more an indication of their lack of depth up the middle defensively coupled with a desire to find a spot for him to get some at-bats now that 3B has been claimed by Miggy.  In all likelihood, Detroit's MI is going to be Santiago and Peralta with Inge probably getting a limited # of at-bats at second.

Online JCA-CrystalCity

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Re: MLB & Division Watching (2012)
« Reply #116: February 17, 2012, 10:58:44 AM »
Rationally, you are right, JMU, but I hope it works.  I'm waiting for the game in which he plays all 8 positions and pitches, too.

Offline JMUalumni

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Re: MLB & Division Watching (2012)
« Reply #117: February 17, 2012, 11:28:18 AM »
Rationally, you are right, JMU, but I hope it works.  I'm waiting for the game in which he plays all 8 positions and pitches, too.

LOL, I could see it happening, but don't they already have a guy that can do that (i.e. Don Kelly)?  I guess they could be the first team ever to have TWO guys do it in one game.

Offline PANatsFan

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Re: MLB & Division Watching (2012)
« Reply #118: February 17, 2012, 12:27:31 PM »
Mlb on xm is reporting AJ Burnett to the Pirates for prospects is done. Yanks to cover 19-21 million of his salary.



Unreal that Selig let them buy prospects for a crappy pitcher who is a jerk.

Offline hammondsnats

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Re: MLB & Division Watching (2012)
« Reply #119: February 17, 2012, 01:23:24 PM »
i hate youkilis

Offline Lintyfresh85

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Re: MLB & Division Watching (2012)
« Reply #120: February 17, 2012, 01:30:45 PM »


Unreal that Selig let them buy prospects for a crappy pitcher who is a jerk.

Buying two prospects?

These guys are bottom of the barrel guys that will likely never see the majors. They're selling Burnett, they're not looking for anything in return.

Offline PANatsFan

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Re: MLB & Division Watching (2012)
« Reply #121: February 17, 2012, 02:09:35 PM »
Buying two prospects?

These guys are bottom of the barrel guys that will likely never see the majors. They're selling Burnett, they're not looking for anything in return.



The quote just said "for prospects", it didn't say for good ones.

Online JCA-CrystalCity

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Re: MLB & Division Watching (2012)
« Reply #122: February 17, 2012, 02:46:31 PM »
i hate youkilis

i hate the price of gasoline

Re: MLB & Division Watching (2012)
« Reply #123: February 22, 2012, 05:10:09 PM »
Really? The former O's player who looks like the Deliverance banjo kid? RT: @mlbtraderumors: Brewers Sign Jay Gibbons

Offline JMUalumni

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Re: MLB & Division Watching (2012)
« Reply #124: February 23, 2012, 10:40:50 AM »
I thought this was an interesting piece by Stark on Howard:

Quote
Strike One -- Howard's Real Achilles' Heel
Ryan Howard spent 24 minutes Wednesday in the Phillies' camp, talking about his Achilles' heel. That would be the Achilles tendon he blew out on the final pitch of last October's National League Division Series.

But before Howard ever made it in front of the cameras and microphones, his manager, Charlie Manuel, spent nearly as much time dissecting Howard's other Achilles' heel.

That would be the one that drives Howard's many detractors insane.

And what would that be? Every darned year, dating back to when he hit .313/.425/.656 in 2006, this guy has negated much of what he does best by swinging at fewer and fewer strikes.

Here are the facts, courtesy of FanGraphs: From 2005 to '09, Howard's first five full seasons, he chased only about 26 percent of all pitches outside the strike zone. But over the past three years, he has hacked at almost one-third of all nonstrikes -- including 33.1 percent of the time in 2010 and 31.8 percent last year.

Want to know how that's worked out for him? You can probably guess. According to ESPN's pitch data, Howard batted a piddly .143 (31 for 217, with only four doubles and two homers) last season -- and slugged just .189 -- when he swung at pitches outside the strike zone.

But when he swung at strikes? Slightly different result. He hit .324 (110 for 340, with 26 doubles and 31 home runs) -- and slugged .679.

If we subtract strikeouts, those numbers inflate to .410, with an .862 slugging percentage inside the strike zone -- versus a .265 average and .350 slugging percentage on pitches he made contact with outside the zone.

Sooooo … we don't need to call in Tom Emanski to tell us what this guy needs to work on once his other Achilles gets healed. Do we? It couldn't be more obvious if we slapped it on every billboard in Florida.

And Ryan Howard's manager knows it all too well.

"It's a matter of him getting more selective," Manuel said Wednesday. "When he first came up, he looked for balls he liked to hit. … Then the pitchers studied him and let him get himself out."

The year Howard hit .300, "that was the most disciplined and selective he's ever been," Manuel said. And the manager thinks he could do that again if he rediscovers that level of selectivity.

But when Howard was asked if he thought he could hit .300 again, he had a fascinating response: "Personally," he said, "I feel like I hit .300 every year. I don't know how many hits get taken away every year by the shift. … But I feel like sometimes I'm doing the same things [at the plate that he was doing when he hit .300] … because I'm playing on a different field."

So is that true? Well, ESPN's pitch data shows he hit .107 last season (12 for 112) on ground balls to the right side. The only left-handed hitter with a lower average on pulled ground balls was Prince Fielder (10 for 101, .099). Both those guys are among the most shifted-on hitters in baseball. But guess what? Fielder still managed to overcome it and hit .299. Howard, meanwhile, batted .253.

So how big a disadvantage is Howard really at? He should know that the average left-handed hitter batted only .176 on ground balls to the right side. Adrian Gonzalez and Joey Votto, two guys who use the whole field, hit just .165 and .160, respectively.

We're talking, in other words, about only a handful of hits a year. We're not talking about the 28 additional hits Howard would have needed to be a .300 hitter last season. And we're certainly not talking about the shift alone being responsible for the nearly 60 points Howard has lost off his on-base percentage since 2006.

That isn't about the shift. That's about selectivity. But I think we already mentioned that, didn't we?

And so did Ryan Howard's manager.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/blog/_/name/stark_jayson/id/7604015/big-bopper-edition