Leave some scrap for the rest of us!

As part of your local contingent of FJM wannabes, I find this absolutely hilaroius. The White Sox have lost 15 of 18 and have the second worst record in the Major Leagues. Obviously the team needs to find more in underskilled and overrated hustle players. So Kenny Williams has determinied that the Sox number one offseason priority is signing David Eckstein. I think the Sox should bat Posednick, Erstad and Eckstein 1-2-3 in the lineup. They would have a combined HARP (Hustle Above Replacement Player) of like 423.8! ...and they would still be last in the AL in runs.

Is it just me, or are GMs and Managers so arrogant that they believe that when things go awry and the team loses consistently, its not the team they put together, its that the players aren't hustling enough? Its a simple misunderstanding of causality. GMs often believe that the team loses because the players don't hustle, thus the team sucks. What happens in real life, as far as I can tell sitting here at my desk, is that the team sucks so the players stop hustling. I see this every year in Pittsburgh. The team stinks to start out, and nose dives when players stop caring. Then they get a few lucky breaks and put together a win streak. Morale jumps up a notch and players hustle during the streak. Inevitibly the suckiness returns and the players stop caring again, complete with a second nose dive. Circle of Life, bitches. Circle of Life.

This is especially true in the case of the White Sox, as they are back in one of those nose dives. The Sox got rid of some of their better pitchers (McCarthy, Garcia), kept the bad ones (see: Contreras, Jose) and a large chunk of thier lineup are light hitting hustle guys (Posednick, Erstad, Owens, etc.). The last thing they need is another hustle guy. What they need is talent, not hustle. Its not the players fault the Sox suck, Kenny Williams, its yours.

People Are Basically Stupid

ESPN is dumb. Its internet fanbase is dumber.


ESPN is dumb because it posted a question about baseball players that even the extra-casual fan of baseball are clueless about:

2) Which player who spent most or all of his career in the pre-Rawlings Gold
Glove era was the best overall defensive player?

Its internet fanbase is dumber because they very clearly picked based on name recognition alone [as of 11:41 EST 8-22-07]:

17.4% Joe DiMaggio
15.7% Jackie Robinson
15.0% Honus Wagner
10.1% Phil Rizzuto
10.0% Pee Wee Reese
7.8% Roy Campanella
5.5% Tris Speaker
3.5% Buck O'Neil
2.8% Larry Doby
2.7% Dom DiMaggio
1.8% Joe Tinker
1.6% Johnny Evers
1.6% Rabbit Maranville
1.2% Frankie Frisch
1.1% Eddie Collins
0.9% Frank Chance
0.8% Oscar Charleston
0.7% Al Simmons

Also: c'mon. Tinker, Evers, AND Chance? I mean, that shit is all anecdotal, right? Someone wrote a goddamn poem and all of the sudden they qualify as the best glove-men in the history of the sport? What a fucking travesty of a toadshit butt-poll.

I voted for Rabbit Maranville, because that's the sweetest name of them all. Which I figure is just as good of a reason - in a poll that's based on defensive prowess - as voting for Joe D. because of a 56-game hit streak and a Simon and Garfunkle song (there's some pop-culture for you- it's just like the ESPN guys do it!).

"A panel of baseball experts chosen by Rawlings" is actually half-way intelligent because they left Craig Biggio off the 50 player ballot, realizing no doubt that he only won his 4 Gold Gloves because he was popular and a good hitter whereas 3 of those probably should have gone to pre-steroid Bret Boone who at the time was just a slick-incredible infielder who was busy setting fielding percentage records (0.997, 1997) and, irrelevantly, probably being a dick because that's what he was purported to be.

I know fielding percentage is a shitty way to measure defense, but here we go anyways:

Fielding Percentage 95-97
Boone: .994, .991, .997
Biggio: .986, .989, .979

AND, even though Biggio put up a respectable 13 FRAA in '97, Booney bested him with 17 FRAA.

Thusly, ESPN's fanbase is negative all-the-way intelligent because they voted Biggio as the biggest omission from the 50 player ballot.

Moving on.

"A panel of baseball experts chosen by Rawlings" loses all validity it may have gained by keeping Biggio off by placing Derek Jeter on the all time best 50 GG winner party ballot. Because the newest and hottest defensive metrics all indicate that Jeter is a piece of crap as a fielder. Look it up yourself.

ESPN's fanbase is negative at-all intelligent to the bajillionth power because Derek Jeter recieved any votes at all as the "biggest snub" from the All-Known-Mostly-For-Their-Offense team.

On the other hand, major kudos to those who voted for choosing some guy I never heard of - Wes Parker - at first base. Because I can only assume that if I haven't heard of him, he was probably legitimately good at defense.





I'm dumbest for hoping that the poll would yield historically accurate results.

Fuck Baseball

How in the fucking fuck are the Cardinals within 2.5 games of first place?

What kind of piece of garbageshit assbitch team is the...effing...AH...GOD.


AHHHHHHHHHHH

Only veterans know how to play baseball in Pittsburgh

Mondesi's House makes a great point:

The Pirates passed on top hitting prospect Matt Wieters to take relief pitcher Daniel Moskos. Moskos signed for about $2.5 MM. Wieters wants $10MM. Assuming Wieters gets what he wants, the Pirates saved $7.5MM by drafting Moskos.

Today the Pirates traded for Matt Morris. He will pitch in Pittsburgh for either 1.33 seasons or 2.33 seasons depending if the Bucs pick up his 2009 options. For 1.33 seasons the Pirates will have to pay $15.7MM or for 2.33 seasons they will have to pay $23.7MM. The Pirates are notoriously cheap and think 2 + 3 = cheezbrgr, so most people expect Morris to be around only through 2008 for the $15.7MM. Hmmmm.... lets break this down.

Scenario A:
1.33 years of Matt Morris on a 42-62 team.
+ 6 years of a guy whose ceiling is Huston Street

or Scenario B:
6 years of a guy whose ceiling is Joe Mauer
+ $8.2 MM to spend on middle relief and utility infielders (DL tells me these are the two most important positions on a baseball team) or, perhaps, on a league average pitcher who will produce at the exact same level as Mr. Morris.

Being a baseball GM isn't rocket science. I think Steve Phillips proved that. Though, wouldn't it be a reasonable demand for a GM to have 5th grade math skills?

How Tuesday afternoon went down:

Tracy calls DL: "Woof woof woof veteran woof contend woof woof"
DL: "You're right, we better get some veterans to turn this team around before we both get fired!"
Tracy: "Woof!"

DL calls Sabean: "I'm jealous of your team. Its all veterans. It must really be nice to work with all veterans. Looking to trade anyone but that crappy Matt Cain guy who is 3-12?"
Sabean: "Since you don't like Cain, how about Matt Morris, his record is 7-7."
DL: "All I want is someone who can get us to .500, I'll take him."
Sabean: "All of him, including his contract of $15.7 MM through 2008?"
DL: "You said he has a .500 record, right?"
Sabean: "Yes, he also won 22 games in 2001"
DL: "Sold! I'll take him and I'll pay his entire salary"

DL: "Just bought us Matt Morris, he won 22 games in 2001! Combine him with Izturis and this team is right back in the wild card hunt!"
Tracy: "Woof woof pitching woof woof defense woof woof speed woof clutch woof woof woof!"
DL: "We are so smart. We talk other GMs into giving us thier best players. There's no way those fireworks monkeys stage another protest now."

Parking lot, bitch. Go Indians.