Out of the Past

Mort overrated: JP, Lo Duca, CJ, Dempster and Moehler. Most underrated: DLee.

Most Overrated right now is EASILY William Jefferson Clinton. Way to take credit for economic growth fueled by the technology boom - which was generated by fear of the Y2K bug! :thumbup The tech boom had nothing to do with Y2K. Sorry. I have no idea where you got that one from. The tech boom had much to do with Y2K as almost every large corporation dramatically increased their hardware and software spending in the late 90's in preparation for Y2K. Yankee is correct in that the economic growth of the late 90's was fueled by Y2K but I'll add that it was also fueled to a great extent by the internet stock bubble and by corporate fraud.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/basebal...-sports-marlins No big hike in payroll likely for 2007 By Juan C. Rodriguez South Florida Sun-Sentinel November 10, 2006 Alfonso Soriano won't get the free-agent money he's looking for from the Florida Marlins. You can bank on the Marlins not having the high bid in the Daisuke Matsuzaka posting process either. In spite of a 2006 team that performed better than most anticipated, next season's goal in large part remains the same: Continue developing and identifying the nucleus of young players that will form the franchise's next World Series contender. That means no new big-ticket items, but the Marlins are looking to keep the ones they have. Owner Jeffrey Loria has provided his front office with the 2007 budget. Last year, the Marlins spent about $19.6 million (including deferred payments) on the major league roster. The 2007 figure is expected to remain in that area. General Manager Admin Beinfest would neither talk about payroll specifics nor whether the projected outlay would enable the Marlins to keep both arbitration-eligible stars, Dontrelle Willis and Miguel Cabrera. The two are expected to earn a combined $12 million or more. "I'd rather not comment on specific players and how they fit in the payroll other than to say those are very good, important players to the Marlins," Beinfest said. If the Marlins' track record holds true, neither Willis nor Cabrera will have security beyond 2007. "Those are pretty hefty numbers and years," said Beinfest, acknowledging the swirling speculation around Willis in particular. "We recognize his contributions, what he's done in the past and what he can do for us in the future." Anyone surprised at all? If you take Cabrera and DTrain @ $12 million and 23 others @ minimum wage ($380k) you get $20.7 million which is already higher than last year's $19.6 million. Either payroll goes up or Miguel or DTRain get salary dumped. I suppose Miguel or DTrain could sign a multi-year deal deferring '07 money into the future but that's not a likely to happen.

It was bought by Venezuela? Or did the United States do a poor job of buying it themselves? The latter. The State Department, starting about 8 years ago, decided they didn't like one of the parties and have backed a rival party. Unfortunately, the party they didn't like was right wing, the party they are backing is right of center. So it splits the vote. If there were but one conservative party in Nicaragua, then Ortega would stand no chance. This is a Clinton AND Bush era massive screw up. I could be wrong but I thought the right wing split after Bolanos went after Aleman over Aleman stealing some $100 million while he was president.

My vote for CFO is not based on whether a guy supported $30 million in state funds for a baseball stadium.

Governor: Charlie Crist US Senator: Katherine Harris or Bill Nelson (neither - I despise both of them) Attorney General: Bill McCollum Chief Financial Officer: Tom Lee Agriculture Commissioner: Charles H. Bronson

Maddux and Glavine came into the league in '86 and '87, respectively. The NL average in Ks per 9 innings since '86 and '87 are 6.43 and 6.45, respectively. Maddux's and Glavine's career K per 9 innings are 6.18 and 5.02, respectively. That's the raw data. It's crystal clear that both future hall of famers K fewer hitters per 9 innings than the league average. the majority of pitchers with extended careers excel at K/9. I dont know how you can deny this without wilfully ignoring the data. I agree with you 100% so I have nothing to deny. I've only argued against this ridiculous comment: there has never really been a truly successful long term pitcher who didn't strike out at least the league average per nine.

Maddux and Glavine came into the league in '86 and '87, respectively. The NL average in Ks per 9 innings since '86 and '87 are 6.43 and 6.45, respectively. Maddux's and Glavine's career K per 9 innings are 6.18 and 5.02, respectively. That's the raw data. It's crystal clear that both future hall of famers K fewer hitters per 9 innings than the league average.

I heard Rich and Tommy say that once, which is why I said it. I just wanted to be able to read the numbers is all. Thanks for the help. This year our local FSN ratings were about 3. When the ratings came out I googled news "FSN ratings" just to see how we compared with other teams and the Braves local area FSN ratings were about 5 and another team's local FSN ratings were also about 5. I think the other team was Houston but don't remember for sure. If the Braves and Astros are indicative of all other MLB teams then our ratings are terrible.

The bottom line is you seem to believe that for a pitcher to be any good long term he needs to K more hitters per 9 innings than the league average. That's nonsense. Maddux and Glavine are first ballot hall of famers and in their careers they've K fewer hitters per 9 innings than the league average. The average is calculated by dividing total Ks by total innings and not by cherry picking the years that support your argument.

In the Bill James Baseball Handbook, he shows that there has never really been a truly successful long term pitcher who didn't strike out at least the league average per nine. What about Maddux? He's pretty good isn't he? Just because he doesn't throw 99 MPH doesn't mean he doesn't strike guys out. He was in the top 10 in k/9 three times in the early 90's. He was in the top 10 in strikeouts 7 different times. He's 12th of all time in strikeouts. Terrible. Terrible. Terrible. Terrible. Example. In his career Maddux has averaged 6.18 Ks per 9 innings. The NL average is about 6.70 Ks per 9 inning. Last time I checked 6.18 was less than 6.70 and last time I checked Maddux has had a pretty good career. Please explain why this is a terrible example. Because the 6.18 number is hurt by his relatively low strikeout totals in the past 5 years. Also, he has been in the top 10 in K/BB ration every year since 1991 except 2002. That can help offset it. And strikeout totals were much lower in the first half of his career than the last, so he was better than the league average for most of the first half. Most pitchers tend to lose k's as they get older. Up through the '01 season (and thus removing the past 5 seasons) Maddux averaged 6.39 Ks per 9 innings. Last time I ckecked 6.39 is less than 6.70.

In the Bill James Baseball Handbook, he shows that there has never really been a truly successful long term pitcher who didn't strike out at least the league average per nine. What about Maddux? He's pretty good isn't he? Just because he doesn't throw 99 MPH doesn't mean he doesn't strike guys out. He was in the top 10 in k/9 three times in the early 90's. He was in the top 10 in strikeouts 7 different times. He's 12th of all time in strikeouts. Terrible. Terrible. Terrible. Terrible. Example. In his career Maddux has averaged 6.18 Ks per 9 innings. The NL average is about 6.70 Ks per 9 inning. Last time I checked 6.18 was less than 6.70 and last time I checked Maddux has had a pretty good career. Please explain why this is a terrible example.

In the Bill James Baseball Handbook, he shows that there has never really been a truly successful long term pitcher who didn't strike out at least the league average per nine. What about Maddux? He's pretty good isn't he?

Halladay, Oswalt and Webb are top 20 pitchers right now and they are relatively young and should continue to be top 20 pitchers 5 years from now. Wang also belongs on the 5 years from now list.

To me this is great news. When he was younger Barker was very charming and witty and he brought the best out of the contestants and that along with Dian Parkinson, Johnny Olsen and the various games made the show a great watch but Dian and Johnny are long gone and Barker turned into a wooden, bitter old man. If and when he allows the episodes from the 70's to the 90's to air on GSN then my opinion about him may change.

Hitting with RISP is in no way meaningless. Those are the most important hitting situations and I don't understand how so many people simply blow it off. I would rather have a guy do better with RISP than the bases empty compared to the opposite but apparently not everyone agrees.

Aside from the RBI, which are hugely due to batting in front of Nick Johnson's ridiculous .428 OBP, Zimmerman's numbers are about average for his position. You could say something similar about Uggla batting in front of Cabrera, who well, you know how good Cabrera is. You could possibly make a similar case with Hanley - they will pitch to get him out because they don't want him on base when Cabrera comes up to hit. he's trying to say that Zimmerman's RBI totals are inflated because of the OB ability of people in front of him...an outdated, overrated stat could influence the end result. The primary reason Zimmerman led all rookies in RBI is because he was better than all other rookies in hitting with RISP. To try to minimize the merits of his RBIs and by extension his hitting with RISP is ridiculous.

Correct me where I'm wrong but isn't the maximum $15.00 million ($38.5-23.50) in forgiveness and in exchange the Marlins have to give 20% of their operating profit for five years 2003, I don't think this is correct or at least it's not correct if the facts are the way I understand them to be: If the stadium begins after 5 years: -- $15 million of the $38.5 million loan is forgiven -- the $23.5 million of the loan to be repaid becomes interest free -- Loria does not have pay MLB any of his operating profits (***) If the stadium begins before 5 years: -- Loria has to repay the entire $38.5 million -- Loria has to pay interest on the entire $38.5 million -- Loria has to pay MLB 20% of the operating profits the first five years in the new stadium (***) ====== How much is it worth for Loria to delay? If Loria delays he gets $15 million from the loan. This one is easy.. $15 million. If Loria delays the value of the interest forgiveness on the $23.5 million will obviously depend on the terms of the loan but in year 1 that should be around $1.4 million assuming a 6% interest rate. If Loria delays he doesn't have to pay 20% of his operating profits to MLB. This is the most difficult number to estimate. With a new stadium the Marlins will become a mid-revenue team so looking at Forbes '06 MLB financial analysis the 10 teams slotted 11-20 in revenues averaged $17.5 million in operating profits. Going with the $17.5 million number as a guide (we have nothing better to use) Loria would save $3.5 million year 1. Year 1 Loria would save about $20 million and years 2 to 5 he would save about $4.5 million to $5 million per year. From year 6 it's impossible to estimate without knowing the loan's repayment terms. ====== (***) I'm not 100% sure on whether the 5 year window impacts the 20% operating profit clause.. I think if he waits he doesn't have to share. If he doesn't wait he has to share.

Edmunds would be a perfect fit for this team but I don{t see him fitting in Loria{s budget unless he spends revenue sharing money. I think Payton, Roberts or Lofton could be affordable and I would rather have any of them over a Taveras or a Jeremy Reed.

Seems to me we heard alot of the same comments last fall. I have no idea how competent Foster and/or Porter are, but certainly having someone who can work (beside the Hawk) with the outfielders in itself is a good idea. And the guy is relatively young (young by my standards, perhaps not by yours ) and could be a good communicator. I say he couldn't be any worse than Bobby Meacham at third last summer, and it wouldn't take much to be an improvement. I think Meacham was a huge improvement over Cox. I don't remember a single instance this season of one of our baserunners getting crucified at home by several feet. That was Cox's specialty. Maybe the new guy will be better but I thought Meacham was fine.

I think OPSWF surpasses OPS as a statistic on this board. Willy Tavares' OPSWF (on-base plus slugging wiggly feel) >>>>>>>>>>>>>> Adam Dunn's Maybe I missed a post or something but I doubt anyone would say Taveras is better than Dunn but I'll say that Dunn is in no way an $11 million player. Any of the 29 GMs that has to work within a budget that pays Dunn $11 million a year is nuts because he's not worth it. Getting Taveras would be "filling" a hole with another hole. I don't see any merit in that.

In the '06 season there were 30 CFs with 400+ plate appearances. The 30 CFs had an average OPS of .775. Taveras' OPS was .672. Taveras' .672 OPS was 28th best out of the 30. Taveras is not the answer. I'll bet that if take Reed out of the equation our CFs had a higher OPS than Taveras.

Over the years there have been many articles written about attendance figures by county with all of them pretty much saying the same thing: Miami-Dade leads all counties in attendance followed closely by Broward with Palm Beach way down at the bottom. There's a recent thread on this subject in the stadium section. The thread includes an article from the Marlins official website. http://www.marlinbaseball.com/forums/index...showtopic=67498

I find it surprising that one guy thought that ARod is the best player right now but thinks that Ozzie was better than ARod. I guess this guy thinks Ozzie would be the best player today? If you work with that guy I would at least triple check every thing he does or says related to work.

El ni?o. About damn time we start blaming it again. If I remember correctly El Ni?o was in '97 and that was a good year attendance wise.