Fish Dynasty

Not surprised that Neyer and Law picked McCutchen. A little surprised though that Gammons didn't go with him too.

I think we know that guys like Bumgarner/Posey/Wieters/Adam Jones are probably all off-limits. I also doubt that we would be able to get someone like Tillman or Matusz even with a throw-in or two.

Thursday, November 12 Chicago at San Francisco (8:20 PM) Sunday, November 15 Detroit at Minnesota (1:00 PM) New Orleans at St. Louis (1:00 PM) Atlanta at Carolina (1:00 PM) Tampa Bay at Miami (1:00 PM) Denver at Washington (1:00 PM) Cincinnati at Pittsburgh (1:00 PM) Buffalo at Tennessee (1:00 PM) Jacksonville at N.Y. Jets (1:00 PM) Kansas City at Oakland (4:05 PM) Dallas at Green Bay (4:15 PM) Seattle at Arizona (4:15 PM) Philadelphia at San Diego (4:15 PM) New England at Indianapolis (8:20 PM) Monday, November 16 Baltimore at Cleveland (8:30 PM) 8-7

Well, at least I'll get to see what our RS Freshman QB can do since Ponder is out for the season.

Under. Volstad: 4 ERA

O'neal and Richardson keep on looking good.

At least this means there won't be any more idiots who say Hermida is worthless. I wonder who the scapegoat will be now?

Here's why you have no concept of production Lou......who is a better career hitter: Ichiro or Jack Cust? If Cust didn't strike out as much, he maybe could be considered a better hitter. That is insane. Ichiro is going right into the Hall of Fame five years after he retires. Ichiro has a career OPS in the majors of .812 while Jack Cust has a .829. But, Ichiro is a .333 hitter and Cust is a .239 hitter. There is no comparision between these two hitters that would favor Cust except that he hits more homers. And if Ichiro swung for the fences more he would hit a lot more homers as he has above average power he just swings for hits. He has had over 200 hits every single year that he has ever played in the majors. First, Ichiro is going into the HOF not only because his hitting ability, but also his defense, and the fact that he brings uniqueness that no other player brings in the MLB. Cust not only favors him in home runs, but he also works the pitcher, as Lou said, with a BB% nearly three times higher than Ichiro, and he leads Ichiro in wOBA, the single most important stat for a hitter. Ichiro can hit all the singles he wants, but when that .333 BA comes with just a .378 OBP, it really decreases his value. You can take Ichiro and that pretty little .352 batting average he put up this year to help your fantasy team, but (again, disregarding defense) I would take Cust on my team over Ichiro if he could just cut down on the Ks.

Here's why you have no concept of production Lou......who is a better career hitter: Ichiro or Jack Cust? If Cust didn't strike out as much, he maybe could be considered a better hitter.

Sunday, November 8 Arizona at Chicago (1:00 PM) Washington at Atlanta (1:00 PM) Green Bay at Tampa Bay (1:00 PM) Miami at New England (1:00 PM) Baltimore at Cincinnati (1:00 PM) Kansas City at Jacksonville (1:00 PM) Houston at Indianapolis (1:00 PM) Detroit at Seattle (4:05 PM) Carolina at New Orleans (4:05 PM) San Diego at N.Y. Giants (4:15 PM) Tennessee at San Francisco (4:15 PM) Dallas at Philadelphia (8:20 PM) Monday, November 9 Pittsburgh at Denver (8:30 PM) 8-5

Uggla was 10th this past season in wOBA, struck out a ton, is slow, and plays below average defense for a second baseman. Meaning, he is about an average, maybe a slightly above average second baseman, which isn't hard to replace. When you combine that with the places that we will be improving in, 2010 looks like it will be a year where we will be able to compete.

If Riley wouldn't refuse to play Beasley at SF, then we would have been able to see Haslem start tonight instead of Quentin Richardson.

Bad teams can. The Marlins also offer the chance to win along the way. It's all about where your needs are. Even good teams have needs, and I'm sure many of them would like to have at least a couple of those players. The only position we are desperate for right now is 3B, which really puts a limit on the number of affordable free agents that would fit this team.

Sunday, November 1 N.Y. Giants at Philadelphia (1:00 PM) Cleveland at Chicago (1:00 PM) Seattle at Dallas (1:00 PM) Houston at Buffalo (1:00 PM) Denver at Baltimore (1:00 PM) Miami at N.Y. Jets (1:00 PM) San Francisco at Indianapolis (1:00 PM) St. Louis at Detroit (1:00 PM) Jacksonville at Tennessee (4:05 PM) Oakland at San Diego (4:05 PM) Carolina at Arizona (4:15 PM) Minnesota at Green Bay (4:15 PM) Monday, November 2 Atlanta at New Orleans (8:30 PM) 8-5

The one thing that the Marlins can offer free agents is a chance to get at bats and innings on a 1-year deal to improve themselves pay wise down the road likely with another team. That's why so many guys like Glaus and Nady were on that original list. And other teams can't offer that?

Better to be almost back than almost dead. They're not almost back either.

Sunday, October 25 San Diego at Kansas City (1:00 PM) Green Bay at Cleveland (1:00 PM) Minnesota at Pittsburgh (1:00 PM) Indianapolis at St. Louis (1:00 PM) New England at Tampa Bay (1:00 PM) San Francisco at Houston (1:00 PM) N.Y. Jets at Oakland (4:05 PM) Buffalo at Carolina (4:05 PM) Atlanta at Dallas (4:15 PM) Chicago at Cincinnati (4:15 PM) New Orleans at Miami (4:15 PM) Arizona at N.Y. Giants (8:20 PM) Monday, October 26 Philadelphia at Washington (8:30 PM 10-3

Yup, UM is "back" alright.

You are wrong. I stated that Andino's ability to help out a team cannot be put on a stat sheet. Don't try to trivialize the accomplishments of Robert Andino, because his greatness is too great for your puny brains to comprehend. His greatness must also be too great for the puny minds of just about every ML FO out there as he was on the trading block for quite some time. Most were saying what alot here saw; slick glove but can't handle ML pitching. Or, and I'm just throwing this one out there, maybe the world is right and you are wrong. Let's see where his "greatness" takes him from here. I think it was sarcasm.

I would like to remind everybody that Andino is awesome, and that he is an intagibles player, meaning stats do not measure the things he does for the teams he's on. Ex: While with the marlins, while pinch running, he tagged up from 3rd and scored on a pop up to 2nd base with 1 out. No other player would've had the instincts or the presence of mind to take home on that play, and while it doesn't go down on the stat sheet, it had a huge impact on the games outcome. Thus Andino's greatness can never fully be appreciated. I still believe, despite Andino's struggles during his later stints as a starter, that he can be successul. He was actually doing very well when first put in as the starting SS. Actually, it does go down on the stat sheet. It's called speed score, in which Andino is still below average.

Holy crap, we finally won a game.

I don't know what the BBWA members will use as their criteria but if you want to see a comparison worth noting between the two players being discussed, compare their gamelogs for August and Sept/Oct. The thing that leaps out at you is the number and frequency of multi-hit games that Coghlan racked up. He's in the running because of one thing -- he's a freakin' hit machine. You can try and reference some stat that's more or less representative just look at the succession of hits the guy put up. The gamelog for each player tells the story. And nothing above takes anything away from McCutchen who had a fabulous year as well. But just to bring a smile your face take three minutes and check out Coghlan's August on gamelog, it's a thing of beauty. What Erick said, and if you really just want to go by hits, then from June 4th (the day McCutchen entered the MLB) until July 31st, McCutchen had 59 hits compared to 47 hits by Coghlan. But of course, number of hits tells the whole story.

Awards aren't given out strictly on account of hard stats. If they were, there would be no need for a voting process because some pre-determined formula could just as easily be agreed upon and then issue awards contingent upon this. Thankfully awards aren't issued this way as sometimes other factors need to be considered. This isn't to say that players should be awarded upon "chemistry" or "heart" but I believe the case of a player (Coghlan) being given the opportunity to have his rookie year in 2009 (instead of 2010) entirely because a hole opened in the lineup unexpectedly for an unnatural position should be such a consideration. Many rookies get the call in this fashion. The Marlins were juggling Miguel Cabrera between third base and outfield for the 2003 season. If the teams (the Marlins) are willing to sacrifice defense (in the case of Cabrera or Coghlan) for drastically improved offense, why should defense be receiving so much weight in awards consideration? In other words, in the case of Coghlan, the Marlins clearly thought that any offensive upgrade Coghlan brought to the lineup would outweigh any defensive liability. The Marlins were certainly willing to make this trade off, so why shouldn't the voters. I think the statistical argument against Coghlan might be based upon fact but it isn't based upon the reality of the situation. It seems that most of the credible baseball writers and analysts (ie not bloggers with no credentials) are willing to view the race under this light. If Coghlan loses the award, it will be to either Happ or Hanson. I would be shocked if Coghlan were to place behind McCutchen in the voting. And for the record, I'm not a "homer." I've been severely criticized for as long as I've been posting here for being a pessimist. Remember that I was one of the view voices here during the last few weeks of the season (dating back to August, I believe) looking at the numbers and proclaiming that the Marlins odds making the playoffs were virtually impossible. This is not my stated opinion because I am a "homer" but because I happen to disagree. There actually is a decent measurement for which you could use to determine the ROY, MVP, CY Young, etc. It's called WAR, but most people, especially writers, either don't know about it or reject the stat completely. It seems to me that you're basing your opinion of who should win the ROY solely off of what the Marlins thought/needed. Coghlan's offense didn't outweigh his defensive liability, and, if anything, they canceled each other out. It's true that he was the best candidate that was available in the Marlin's system, but that is irrelevant to the point of comparing him with rokkies from different teams. The writers and analysts that you're referring to, which I'm assuming are the likes of Gammons, Olney, Rosenthal, and the others, have a job to provide to the audience what the audience wants to hear, not to provide in-depth statistical evidence as to why Coghlan shouldn't win the ROY, which 99% of Baseball Tonight viewers would simply tune out. If you're going to use someone's opinion on something, at least make it someone like Bill James, Tom Tango, Nate Silver, etc. Notice that I have never said at any time that Coghlan wouldn't win the MVP, but he shouldn't. If everyone was deserving of the award they received, Nate McLouth and Derek Jeter wouldn't have gold gloves. And until the BWA finally consists of people who aren't ignorant to sabermetrics, it will continue to be like that.

Ummmm... by the way Coghlan did not "fail" in left field. Yes I'm sure he was near or at the bottom of the league in whatever defensive metrics you'd like to throw out, but he fielded the position and didn't embarrass himself or the team. He also improved during the course of the season. And it was a position he hadn't played before. This wasn't going from 2nd to 3rd. Not that relevant to the ROY discussion, just saying it's not like he was a joke out there. He was fine. If he "failed", the team wouldn't have left him out there. He succeeded if you compare him to other players playing a position for the first time. Compared to other left fielders throughout the MLB though, he was well below average.

Isn't this the same exact argument that other guy made in the thread with the poll? I think the majority had spoken on that one. Anyway, I don't think the defense argument is that legitimate under the circumstances. It's something being conjured up by the stat snobs who refuse to look at the situation in context. Chris Coghlan is not a natural outfielder. In fact, he had not played the outfield since little league. He was called up because his team desperately needed his bat after Cameron Maybin proved that he needed more work and Jeremy Hermida was stinking up the joint. There is also the complicated Emilio Bonifacio saga but that's not important. The bottom line is that the Marlins needed an outfield bat badly and Coghlan was hitting extremely well in AAA so he got the call. I think he should be getting credit for playing left field as well as he did considering the circumstances. He probably won't be playing left field very much in the future, either. Of course these bloggers never see things this way. Statistics are nice but they only work if you apply common sense. Wasn't there an Albert Einstein quote about this? Tell me, how did Coghlan not being a natural outfielder increase his value this past season? He was brought into a situation that was unfamiliar to him, and he failed (defensively, at least), like one would expect. Does the fact that he played second base in college and throughout his minor league career have any impact on what he brought to the team this past season? He spent a grand total of 7 innings at second base, and spent all 1,039 of his other innings in left field. If someone is valuable in a certain area, but you don't use him for that specific cause, then his value decreases. Coghlan's value doesn't increase because of the situation the Marlins were in and what position they were in need of. His value was in his bat. That's why the Marlins called him up and that's why they had to force him to become a left-fielder. If the Marlins were so concerned about having a defensively strong outfielder they would have been starting Brett Carroll everyday. It's very clear to me what the Marlins expected Coghlan to be doing for them and it's even more clear that he succeeded in that task. I don't see why you keep on focusing on what the Marlins needed during the season, since that doesn't pertain to the topic at all. His value was his bat, but his liability was his glove. In the end, they almost cancel each other out. Since the Marlins forced him to play left field, that heavily subtracted his value, thus, decreasing the likelihood that he deserves the ROY award (whether the writers actually give it to him or not.) What the Marlins expected Coghlan to do has nothing to do with his place in the ROY voting. If you want to go that route, then I would assume McCutchen succeeded in what the Pirates expected from him, and the same thing goes for Hanson, Wells, Happ, and all of the other ROY candidates.