Out of the Past

RF, Stanton: C (don't kill me, I'm just a messenger) I bet that's because you're comparing him with players that played in a lot more games than he did. If you did a WAR per game he would get a "B" or higher.

Infielders Gaby Sanchez: C Dan Uggla: B+ Jorge Cantu: F Hanley Ramirez: B+ Wes Helms: F Catchers Ronny Paulino: C Outfielders Cody Ross: C Chris Coghlan: C Cameron Maybin: D Logan Morrison: B Mike Stanton: A Starters Josh Johnson: A- Ricky Nolasco: C Anibal Sanchez: B Chris Volstad: C Relievers Leo Nunez: B Clay Hensley: A Burke Badenhop: C Brian Sanches: B Jose Veras: B

I don't know if Ty Cobb was right about this but he used to hate Ruth because according to him Ruth was part black.

CC was dreadful in LF because he was bad at reading the balls, that's much easier in CF. What some people forget is that CF is easier to play TECHNICALLY than LF and RF, the thing is that CF needs more God given talent. I'm not saying it's a good idea, I'm just saying that the problem he had with LF wasn't that he couldn't run fast enough to cover his area, it was that he got a bad read on slicing balls. Rtot (+3) and Rdrs (+4) say hi. Other than Stanton he was arguably the best defensive player this season.

WAR: Gaby: 1.3 Stanton: 1.9 Logan: 1.1 The local writers gave it to Gaby. Updated WAR: Gaby: 0.8 Stanton: 2.7 Logan: 0.8 Actually I think that's pretty understandable. Not who I would pick, but I do see their reasoning. I said at the start of the season that he was below average defensively, but brought the best bat to the table out of the available options. He has brought his D up to "at best average", as I have said repeatedly. I also predicted he would end up hitting .270-.275 this year. I would like to see him have a real good final two games and make me wrong on that one. I have some selfish reasons for that. I don't think it's understandable at all. The percection and hype is he has played better than he has. He gets credit for playing well the first 3 months (OPS - .862) but doesn't get blamed for playing like crap the last 3 monhs (OPS - .712).

WAR: Gaby: 1.3 Stanton: 1.9 Logan: 1.1 The local writers gave it to Gaby. Updated WAR: Gaby: 0.8 Stanton: 2.7 Logan: 0.8

Out of interest are there any members who are studying accounting or are actual accountants that have applied for a graduate job with say one of the "Big 4" professional services firms recently? Reason I'm asking is just to compare the application process between here and over your way in America. I'm currently in the midst of applying and am totally sick of forms and online tests etc! Got some interviews in the next week or so which are far longer (45 mins - 1 hour) than any I've ever done. Then should I get through them I have to attend an assessment day which features an "E-tray" exercise, presentations and more interviews. I went through it when they were the Big 6 and back then there weren't any tests or anything like that. It was just a normal application. The way it worked was the firms went to your school and interviewed a bunch of people. If they liked you then they invited you to their office for several hours of interviews with several different people. Not sure how it is now but back then you interviewed in the fall to begin working the following September. Having passed the CPA exam before interviewing is very helpful. My grades were good not great but I already had the CPA exam and I think that helped me a lot. I worked there for 5 years and looking back it's amazing how much you learn while working there compared to other places.

In case anyone is interested in dealing with facts rather than noise when comparing the attendance for the '03 Marlins and the '10 Rays the Rays attendance this year is about 6,500 higher.

So at least 50% of the crowd will be given free tickets? That's kinda sad. I don't think they'll be moving though. If they can't secure a stadium deal, they should move. I know I've said this before, but it's utterly absurd that they can't draw fans with how good they've been. Tampa is worst than Miami is. At least Tampa has a roof and hasn't been plagued by two massive firesales (they might have one coming up after this season but that doesn't explain the lack of attendance over the last couple of years). I wonder what would have happened if not for the 2nd firesale because the attendance had risen four years in a row. Tampa has a roof but that that''s a horrlble place to watch a game in and the location is far from the population base. Also, the way people talk you would think they're last in attendance but are 22nd with just under 23k per game.

Also for pitchers Fangraphs uses FIP and BR uses park adjusted runs allowed and adjusts for team defense.

A few weeks ago Barry Jackson (Miami Herald) said it would be about $50 million.

The good news should include Hensley. The bad news should include Hanley, Cantu, Cody, Coghlan, Nolasco and Baker / Paulino performing below what was expected out of them. The financial leaks should be in the good news. Paulino didn't underperform. One could say he did, but given that he was just getting overworked out there, I do understand your disagreement. Paulino had an .896 .OPS against left-handed pitching. It's not his fault that Baker struggled and got hurt, forcing him (Paulino) to catch everyday. If we're talking about player expectations compared to player performance, I don't see how Paulino underperformed, by any means. This season he OPSed .568 vs RHP. Coming into this season he had OPSed .652 vs RHP. He didn't meet expectations vs RHP. I also didn't expect him to get suspended for 50 games. In evaluating his season I think you have to hold the suspension against him.

The good news should include Hensley. The bad news should include Hanley, Cantu, Cody, Coghlan, Nolasco and Baker / Paulino performing below what was expected out of them. The financial leaks should be in the good news.

Crawford is one of the mot overrated players in baseball. I hope the Mets sign him. No he's not. He'll end up with about $20 million per year and he's not worth anything close to that. He's having a career year and even in his career year he wouldn't be worth that much. Yes he is; he's been one of the most productive players in the game the last 2 years. He's still pretty much in his prime as well, so there's no reason to predict he's just going to suddenly decline. How would you measure the productiveness of players compared to other players? My guess is over the next few years he'll OPS+ in the 120s and play very good defense and that makes him a very good player but not the super star he's supposed to be and not worth the huge contract he'll get. Last year he was 58th in WAR and this year he's 40th. Even assuming WAR is understating his value by 20 spots per year he still wouldn't be worth close to $20 million.

Its crazy how hot the Phillies got and have seemingly taken over the NL East. Yeah, but we all saw it coming. It was only a matter of time. I guess the Oswalt trade has worked out pretty good.

Towers is a huge upgrade over Josh Byrnes.

Crawford is one of the mot overrated players in baseball. I hope the Mets sign him. No he's not. He'll end up with about $20 million per year and he's not worth anything close to that. He's having a career year and even in his career year he wouldn't be worth that much.

Crawford is one of the mot overrated players in baseball. I hope the Mets sign him.

Bill Clinton instituted it, he was/is a democrat. :thumbup He is labeled as a democrat but if you look at his record he was clearly a Republican. There was an overwhelming Republican majority in Congress from 1994 on. He wasn't going to get much "Democrat" legislation passed, no matter what his actual beliefs were. But the law passed in 1993 when Democrats controlled Congress, didn't it?

Then you're starting his arbitration clock way earlier than needed. Literally no point in calling somebody up and starting his arbi clock with only two weeks left, and let's be honestly, nobody is going to learn anything in two weeks. The earliest we are going to see Dominguez is September of 2011 (barring a Stanton like tear to begin 2011, which is unlikely). Unfortunetly you are right. But for all the wrong reasons. The Marlins have consistently shown they are not afraid of starting that arbi clock. Just look at this year's call-ups as an example. So it's unprovable every time Sept call-ups are close for people to keep saying they won't want to start that clock. Plus getting a taste of the majors is a learning experience in itself. Not to mention the ego boost it could give the kid. So 2 weeks could mean alot. I wanted to see the kid get the call for these reasons. But it's become pretty apparent it isn't going to happen. What about Stanton?

If the season ended today Ubaldo should be 2nd in the CY after Halladay.

John Baker never shuts up.

Along with the thin air to hit more HRs, the OF is shaped funny so OFs almost have to play out of position to guard against XBHs which results in more hits than other parks atleast thats the way i see it I don't think it's that the OF is shaped funny. Obviously there are a lot of homers because of the thin air but also because the outfield is so spacious it makes the outfielders have to cover a lot more room than in other stadiums so you have a stadium that allows more singles, doubles, triples and homers than the norm. A stadium like Citizens allows a lot of homers but because it's small it allows fewer doubles and triples than the norm.

No reason to post this other than I hate Randy Shannon.. he's now 14-18 vs. BCS conference teams.

That's what OPS+ and ERA+ are for. Bad idea to look at Colorado and San Diego hitting and pitching stats without park adjusting them. Adrian and Ubaldo are better than they are given credit for and Carlos and Latos are not as good as they are given credit for.