Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
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1) using profanity or any euphemisms for profanity
2) personally attacking other commenters
3) baiting other commenters
4) arguing for the sake of arguing
5) discussing politics
6) using hyperbole when something less will suffice
7) using sarcasm in a way that can be misinterpreted negatively
8) making the same point over and over again
9) typing "no-hitter" or "perfect game" to describe either in progress
10) being annoyed by the existence of this list
11) commenting under the obvious influence
12) claiming your opinion isn't allowed when it's just being disagreed with
You might fret over the possibility that the Dodgers will start Ryan Rupe in the season's first week (how am I going to explain that one to my Dad?), but San Diego isn't having a much better go of things. After ill-advisedly pinning their hopes on Darrell May, the Padres have already begun to look elsewhere.
If Monday's acquisition of Tim Redding is any indication, San Diego's search isn't going well. In his career, Redding has allowed 13.6 baserunners per nine innings, and his strikeouts have declined sharply since his 2001 rookie year.
Meanwhile, Rupe's numbers are almost as bad. Though his accomplishments are limited to the minor leagues, Dodger Thoughts is still rooting for Buddy Carlyle to be the Brad Penny placeholder...
Still, I don't know what Rupe's DIPS ERA is, but he's going to out-Lowe Lowe to get his conventional ERA down to something wieldy. His strikeouts and walks are decent, but the guy just seems to get hit hard. In under 500 innings, 81 homers allowed? All this for a guy who turns 30 on Thursday. Just hard for me to get excited.
Overall, Rupe has better career minor league numbers than Carlyle, but 2003-2004 look better for Carlyle to me on the walks and strikeouts front. What happened to Rupe's 2004 season, anyway?
1) Is there some trick I don't know about that will prevent me from having to re-log in to Baseball Toaster every time I visit?
2) Does anybody know why, exactly, Kelly Wunsch was dumped by the White Sox? Three of his four major league seasons have been excellent, and in addition, he had a good year in AAA last season. Why did the White Sox decide all of a sudden last May that he wasn't a major league pitcher?
Did you catch Tom's comments? Could be "one of the ten best first basemen" in the game. (erp!)
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On topic, I got a buddy in SD, hates the Dodgers. He's actually part of a Padre fan club--bunch of guys get together and rap about baseball. According to him, they are somewhere between panicked and desperate because of the Padre's rotation problems. They all think this is a two-team race: Dodgers and Padres and they all say they like our rotation better than theirs.
For what it's worth...
That must have been a lot of fun to see.
1) The Padres' spring training home is at 1,000 feet, high enough for elevation effects. The air is also hot and dry, further amplifying the hitters' advantage.
2) Kauffman was a hitter's park; Petco, while the data is still slim, looks to be playing as a fairly extreme pitcher's park.
The Pads aren't panicking just yet, but I will say that at 32, May has a very, very short leash.
Incidentally, my two Padre-fan friends tell me that they saw Andy Ashby poking around the Pads' minor league roster. Ducksnorts says he'll be eligible to join the Pads' 25-man roster on May 1:
http://www.all-baseball.com/ducksnorts/archives/018043.html
I can't get worked up about whoever is going to be our 5th starter. It is not like he's going to be there long. 1 or 2 starts at the start of the season by our 5th starter is not going to amount to a hill of beans during a 162 game season.
Guzman's homer was in his second AB. He started at first base, batting second, and switched to short in the fifth, I think.
one out, none on in the first
ball, strike, flyball out
two out, izturis on first in the third inning
ball, HR!
leading off the sixth
foul, foul, foul, ball, ground out
bases loaded, two out in the seventh against RHP Gary Majewski
first pitch swinging flyball out.
Incidentally, I was in attendance at the only game in which Mike Piazza ever played 1B for the Dodgers... we pasted the Giants 13-1, if memory serves.
It's pretty easy to log in with Firefox at work.
On Baseball Tonight tonight, he said, "I think they really messed up big time in LA...this is a team built on defense, the only starter that's still there is Izturis...yes, Jeff Kent & JD Drew will provide offense, but Lowe & Weaver are sinkerball pitchers, and you have no D...It goes all the way back to last year when they got rid of Mota, Martin and Lo Duca...they don't sign Beltre...it's amazing...they took a team that was close to being a contender all the time and made it a very poor team."
Yep, DePodesta messed up big time when he got rid of Tom Martin.
Just to be clear, my "problem" (if it can be called that) has nothing to do with turning the computer off... I have to re-do the login every time I leave Baseball Toaster and then return again, even if it's 10 seconds later.
If it ever does, I know a rich guy who'll buy you a new carpet... goes by the name of Lebowski.
My browser also seems to not like the Paypal cookie that appears on this page.
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