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
Brett Tomko's command tonight was as bad as any Dodger starting pitcher I can recall seeing this season - he was wild every which way, and overthrowing on a number of releases - but the Dodgers almost won. In fact, Tomko almost got the win, somehow lasting five innings despite a 43-pitch first. He was one batter away from me wanting him pulled in each of the first two innings.
Opportunity lost for the Dodgers. Gotta move on. Like Barry Bonds.
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Infielder Tony Abreu is still hurting, reminds Ken Gurnick of MLB.com. Unlike Hong-Chih Kuo, however, Abreu isn't on the major-league disabled list, despite basically being injured ever since he was optioned to AAA Las Vegas. I wonder if, among other concerns, Abreu is counting the dollars he's losing to a relative technicality.
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Whatever you might say about his offense since leaving Los Angeles - and he's actually having a pretty nice season this year, with a 119 OPS+ - Adrian Beltre's defense hasn't been in question for quite some time. So I guess I'm a little surprised that some people are still just realizing it, but better late than never.
From David Andriesen of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:
The way Beltre has patrolled his gap -- and then some -- has his manager wondering whether we're seeing the end of the six-year stranglehold on the American League Gold Glove Award by Oakland's Eric Chavez.
"I think this is the year they're going to pass the torch," Mariners manager John McLaren said. "I respect Chavez greatly, he's a great ballplayer, but I think our guy's due. He's gotten into the American League and he's established himself."
Beltre is tied for third among AL third basemen with 11 errors, but that's almost meaningless. Errors are a dubious way of determining a defender's relative value, because they apply only to "routine" plays. Was Ozzie Smith a great shortstop because he caught the highest percentage of the balls hit right to him? No. A great defender's value lies outside the routine.
Other widely accepted defensive measures include range factor (putouts plus assists divided by innings), which expresses whether a fielder is responsible for more outs than would be expected on average; and zone rating, the percentage of balls fielded by a player in his typical defensive "zone," as defined by STATS Inc. Beltre leads the league in range factor and is third in zone rating.
But quantifying defense is an inexact science. The major leaguers who see him every day know greatness when they see it, and they see it in Beltre. ...
It's funny. bhsportsguy sent me a text from the game, asking "Is this Tomko's last game ever?" and I replied "Isn't it always?"
Brett Tomko. The Thing That Wouldn't Leave.
Tomko really is a mess, you're right. It was painful to watch tonight, even if he did settle down a little bit.
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But much like Greg's rocket car link in the last thread, here's something that just has to cheer you up (it's safe):
http://youtube.com/watch?v=uY_r5O4PKi4
(Even if you're not as much of a Freaks and Geeks nut as I am.)
He looks completely defeated. I don't think it's a coincidence that he's 2 runs better on the road than he is at home.
I like Freaks and Geeks. I became a huge fan on the recommendation of a certain Griddling German librarians.
But I can't appreciate it on the same level. And it hurts. A lot.
Jon was on the Freaks and Geeks train way before me. He's got the restraining order from Linda Cardellini to prove it.
not that it really matters. He was getting it almost as much as Bonds.
8 A change of scenery would do him some good, I bet. The team should oblige.
Bob advocated the show, and explained why I would never fully appreciate it. You cherish Freaks and Geeks, but Bob showed me how much I could never understand it.
Being an advocate is not enough. You have to disregard the younger generation. That's important.
The AL Gold Glove 3B:
http://tinyurl.com/ypsxmq
http://tinyurl.com/2z8tfu ["More Coverage"]
http://tinyurl.com/2fofpp
As the one soul said, do it son...
vr, Xei
Heading into the trading season, one of the popular theories was that the Dodgers were in the best position of any team to make a deal because they have so many terrific prospects. But an official of one AL team has the opposite theory. "When everyone knows you've got players, that can actually be a hindrance," he said. "When you've got prospects, nobody wants your second-tier guys. They want your first-tier guys, even though your second-tier guys are better than their first-tier guys. I think that's actually hurt the Dodgers in making deals."
No GM is going to do a deal with the Dodgers in which they sacrifice a big piece unless they get a marquee prospect back. That rabid campaign by the Texas writer to get Kershaw and Loney for Teixeira made it impossible for Colletti to offer Texas anything less (not that Teixeira was a good fit, this is just an example.) GM's need to look like big swinging youknowwhats to their own staff, the press, agents and players. To GMs now, that means bagging the next Hanley Ramirez.
2007-07-31 09:52:09720. NorCal-Dodger
Maybe the addage of having too much of a good thing, when referencing our talanted young players and prospects down on the farm. Other teams looking for potential trades with us, dismiss a Betemit for better value for our return, because their eye is on our farm, which every team is coveting and which we would not let go for what is being propposed.
The silver lining for me was the bobblehead, and my 2 hot dogs, which were on point.
Good for you. You held out. I applaude your resilience. You get nothing!
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It used to be that when a player changed leagues in mid season his statistics started at 0 when he joined the new league. Yet today in the boxscores on CBS Sportsline list Scott Proctor's ERA as 3.86 (a compilation of his NYY and LAD numbers)
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however, I just checked ESPN, SI and FOX and his ERA is listed as 5.40, so I guess that this tradition continues…
>Exact same thing about Betamit's HR last night -
listed as HR 11 on CBS yet HR no. 1 on ESPN, SI and FOX
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I remember being bugged by this statisical habit 4 or 5 years ago when the Indian's traded Colon to Montreal in mid season and I was trying to follow his attempt at 20 wins…
But Colletti thinks Proctor is good.
While I'm not keen on the trade that he did make at least he dealt from a deep (if not talented) position to shore a area of weakness. Having Proctor up does not preclude calling up Meloan at some point. It does add depth though.
Colletti's MO for a while now has been to add depth. He has been consistent on that account. You can disagree with his moves, but it isn't as if the move is totally shocking or illogical or inconsistent with that goal. And that has very little to do with whether Proctor is a grizzled veteran or not.
2 What amazed me about his quotes this morning is that Tomko seems to think that it was a pretty good start.
21 Yahoo had Betemit start over yesterday. When I checked in early in the game his BA was .500.
RE: the Beltre article - The most interesting thing about that piece is reading an "old media" sports journalist who can actually discuss advanced quantitative methods in baseball intelligently. As I read it, I kept expecting the condescending, unfunny quip about calculators, and never got it.
I really have been dumbed down by the LA (and NY) sports press. Thank God for the internets.
My point in 22 was actually to question the theory presented above that Colletti can't get a reasonable price on talent because he's the guy who drives up to the Honda dealership, to buy his kid a Civic, in his Maybach. If that's actually true, publicly, loudly and repeatedly insisting that the crown jewels aren't for sale might actually save a lot of time. And it would make the countdown to the deadline more pleasant for the rest of us.
Trade him for Scott Proctor.
On another note, this was the fourth game I went to this year and the Dodgers have lost all four games. They've scored a total of five runs in those games. Must be my deodorant.
My point in 24 was that the crown jewels are for sale, but they're on display in a flea market. What the market looks like can't be helped. What you get in return for the jewels can be helped. To mix metaphors here: it may not be efficient, but Colletti can't pull up to a Civic dealership as you say, he has put an ad in Auto Trader and see what happens.
Here's the press release: www.disneychannelpress.com/DNR/2007/doc/MLBReleaseFinal.doc
and here's where you can find the video online:
http://disney.go.com/dxd/index.html?channel=17138&content=75244&contentPlayerID=dxd_vid_player
This is the segment that Josh mentioned on ItD a little more than a month ago: http://insidethedodgers.mlblogs.com/my_weblog/2007/06/index.html
In retrospect, given that he didn't end up trading any of the crown jewels, if allowing the understanding that he would have been willing to hampered what he got back for Betemit, he would have been better served not so hampering himself. Which I'm still not convinced he did. So I think we sort of agree, and I'm probably close to a rule four violation.
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