"The women had bet mechanic Sergey Tuganov $4,300 that he wouldn’t be able to follow through with the half-day sex marathon."
A: If it were American women, there would've been three of them and they would've bet $10,000.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Brew Crew Ball on the Brewers' Offense Rebounding
As always, good stuff from BCB.
It's the same basic idea as what I talked about here, except they actually, y'know, use real numbers and come to an actual conclusion. Long story short, we can expect our five core players (Braun, Fielder, Hardy, Hart, and Weeks) to add 5 wins just by rebounding from a bad offensive year last year.
In other news, the Brewers ended their first Spring Training game against the Oakland A's with a 3-3 tie after ten innings. Worth noting, IMO, is that Corey Hart went 2-2 with a home run and a walk. Yes, it's a tiny sample size and not worth extrapolating anything from, but this team needs Hart to be contributing this season, and it's nice to see he's at least capable of putting up some numbers. Hopefully the trend will continue...
Also, I've been meaning to mention this, but I hope that Macha starting Suppan in the first Spring Training game doesn't mean he wants him to be the Opening Day pitcher. As I indicated before, I don't even like the idea of anyone other than Gallardo being the opening day starter, and I especially don't like the idea of Suppan being the opening day starter. I don't think Suppan will be as bad in '09 as he was in '08, but barring a freak occurrence, he's the worst pitcher in the rotation, and it just doesn't make any sense to give him the most starts.
It's the same basic idea as what I talked about here, except they actually, y'know, use real numbers and come to an actual conclusion. Long story short, we can expect our five core players (Braun, Fielder, Hardy, Hart, and Weeks) to add 5 wins just by rebounding from a bad offensive year last year.
In other news, the Brewers ended their first Spring Training game against the Oakland A's with a 3-3 tie after ten innings. Worth noting, IMO, is that Corey Hart went 2-2 with a home run and a walk. Yes, it's a tiny sample size and not worth extrapolating anything from, but this team needs Hart to be contributing this season, and it's nice to see he's at least capable of putting up some numbers. Hopefully the trend will continue...
Also, I've been meaning to mention this, but I hope that Macha starting Suppan in the first Spring Training game doesn't mean he wants him to be the Opening Day pitcher. As I indicated before, I don't even like the idea of anyone other than Gallardo being the opening day starter, and I especially don't like the idea of Suppan being the opening day starter. I don't think Suppan will be as bad in '09 as he was in '08, but barring a freak occurrence, he's the worst pitcher in the rotation, and it just doesn't make any sense to give him the most starts.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Not offering arbitration: smart move?
The OC Register, in a piece on the smartest baseball moves of the offseason, praise the D-Backs, Yankees, and Phillies for not offering arbitration to Adam Dunn, Bobby Abreu, and Pat Burrell, taking the point of view that the cheap contracts these sluggers ended up with in a down market justified the move. I disagree with this.
By not offering arbitration, the clubs lost out on draft-pick compensation for these players. However, they also took away the players' options to accept arbitration, which would've resulted in the clubs paying overpriced salaries to Dunn, Abreu, and Burrell. This is why the move is praised, but, the move only saved the clubs money if Dunn, Abreu, and Burrell would've accepted arbitration.
Sure, in hindsight the three of them would've been better off accepting arbitration, but out of 24 players offered arbitration, only two accepted, and they're both little-known relief pitchers (Darren Oliver and David Weathers). Furthermore, several players definitely did hurt themselves by declining arbitration, most notably Jason Varitek. With this in mind, I find it quite likely that players offered arbitration would've declined it, anyway, thereby netting their clubs a pick, and losing them nothing.
Granted, you can't always count on such things, and the GMs moves to not offer arbitration certainly looks better now than it did at the time, but I don't think I'd go so far as to praise the move.
By not offering arbitration, the clubs lost out on draft-pick compensation for these players. However, they also took away the players' options to accept arbitration, which would've resulted in the clubs paying overpriced salaries to Dunn, Abreu, and Burrell. This is why the move is praised, but, the move only saved the clubs money if Dunn, Abreu, and Burrell would've accepted arbitration.
Sure, in hindsight the three of them would've been better off accepting arbitration, but out of 24 players offered arbitration, only two accepted, and they're both little-known relief pitchers (Darren Oliver and David Weathers). Furthermore, several players definitely did hurt themselves by declining arbitration, most notably Jason Varitek. With this in mind, I find it quite likely that players offered arbitration would've declined it, anyway, thereby netting their clubs a pick, and losing them nothing.
Granted, you can't always count on such things, and the GMs moves to not offer arbitration certainly looks better now than it did at the time, but I don't think I'd go so far as to praise the move.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Brewers, Hart, avoid arbitration
"Presumably settled somewhere near the midpoint" of $3.25 million.
I have to say, I figured if Doug Melvin's arbitrationless streak had come to an end this spring, it would've been with Prince, so I guess I'm kind of not surprised at the settlement.
How Hart does next season is one of the questions I'd like to see answered. I don't know what the hell happened to him in September, but it was bizarre. He went from hitting .299/.310/.523 to hitting .173/.192/.245. That's a drop of 100 points in OPS+. Admittedly, this can perhaps be partly explained by a .213 BABIP, but it's still awful. I find it unlikely that Hart suddenly forgot how to play baseball when the calendar turned, but maybe opposing pitchers have figured him out. Hopefully it's just a case of really bad luck, and he comes right back to his former self as the season begins.
I have to say, I figured if Doug Melvin's arbitrationless streak had come to an end this spring, it would've been with Prince, so I guess I'm kind of not surprised at the settlement.
How Hart does next season is one of the questions I'd like to see answered. I don't know what the hell happened to him in September, but it was bizarre. He went from hitting .299/.310/.523 to hitting .173/.192/.245. That's a drop of 100 points in OPS+. Admittedly, this can perhaps be partly explained by a .213 BABIP, but it's still awful. I find it unlikely that Hart suddenly forgot how to play baseball when the calendar turned, but maybe opposing pitchers have figured him out. Hopefully it's just a case of really bad luck, and he comes right back to his former self as the season begins.
Rare triple-post day!
Ryan Braun on steroids: "I would never do it because if I took steroids, I would hit 60 or 70 home runs."
It's kind of a dumb thing to say, but I love that he's being a cocky bastard here, rather than an evasive douchebag, like most players tend to be when the topic of steroids comes up. Really, when it comes to steroids, I pretty much come down on the side of, "Yeah, it's a bad thing, and we should do something about it, but is it really this big of a deal?" With that in mind, I appreciate that rather than tow the party line and act all serious, Braun is having some fun with it.
Of course, if he does hit 60 or 70 home runs in a season someday (it could happen), then this quote might come back to haunt him...
It's kind of a dumb thing to say, but I love that he's being a cocky bastard here, rather than an evasive douchebag, like most players tend to be when the topic of steroids comes up. Really, when it comes to steroids, I pretty much come down on the side of, "Yeah, it's a bad thing, and we should do something about it, but is it really this big of a deal?" With that in mind, I appreciate that rather than tow the party line and act all serious, Braun is having some fun with it.
Of course, if he does hit 60 or 70 home runs in a season someday (it could happen), then this quote might come back to haunt him...
Hey-la, hey-la, my Gagne's back
Minor league deal, no terms as of yet
Gagne gets a lot of shit for being shit, but he wasn't too bad in the second half of last year. He mainly got a bad reputation for having some high-profile meltdowns, and forgettable solid performances. He's an arm, though, and if the price is right, it can't hurt to have some of those lurking around down in AAA and thereabouts.
Gagne gets a lot of shit for being shit, but he wasn't too bad in the second half of last year. He mainly got a bad reputation for having some high-profile meltdowns, and forgettable solid performances. He's an arm, though, and if the price is right, it can't hurt to have some of those lurking around down in AAA and thereabouts.
Macha not likely to name Gallardo Opening Day Starter
I dunno if I like this.
So, I'm not going to start pissing on Macha right away, and so far he's seemed like a pretty solid guy, but here's, really, the first sort of real decision we've heard from him...and I think it's a bad one. I mean, Gallardo is far and away our best pitcher; he's projected to have an ERA around 3.50 next year, and no one else on the staff is projected to go under 4.00. He may be the least experienced, but talent, ultimately, trumps experience, and we should give our best starter the most starts, simple as that. Now, I will grant, that I am not well-versed in the impact of experience on this sort of thing, and the impact of pressure situations on a young pitcher's development, but can the impact really be enough to offset that wide of a talent gap?
Furthermore, is this sort of thing really necessary with Gallardo? Everything we hear about him is that in addition to being a great pitcher, he's Mr. Poise and thrives under pressure. Is he really not up to the task of Opening Day? I'm not sure I buy that.
And I also don't totally buy that being the Number One starter is that much more pressure. I mean, the argument used here is that you'd always be going up against every other team's number one, but that's just not the case; off days and a injuries scramble up pitching rotations pretty damn fast, and the ace matchups don't always happen all that often.
So, in other words, I'm waiting to judge on Macha, but this move displeases me; I feel it's a rather significant cost with no obvious gain.
So, I'm not going to start pissing on Macha right away, and so far he's seemed like a pretty solid guy, but here's, really, the first sort of real decision we've heard from him...and I think it's a bad one. I mean, Gallardo is far and away our best pitcher; he's projected to have an ERA around 3.50 next year, and no one else on the staff is projected to go under 4.00. He may be the least experienced, but talent, ultimately, trumps experience, and we should give our best starter the most starts, simple as that. Now, I will grant, that I am not well-versed in the impact of experience on this sort of thing, and the impact of pressure situations on a young pitcher's development, but can the impact really be enough to offset that wide of a talent gap?
Furthermore, is this sort of thing really necessary with Gallardo? Everything we hear about him is that in addition to being a great pitcher, he's Mr. Poise and thrives under pressure. Is he really not up to the task of Opening Day? I'm not sure I buy that.
And I also don't totally buy that being the Number One starter is that much more pressure. I mean, the argument used here is that you'd always be going up against every other team's number one, but that's just not the case; off days and a injuries scramble up pitching rotations pretty damn fast, and the ace matchups don't always happen all that often.
So, in other words, I'm waiting to judge on Macha, but this move displeases me; I feel it's a rather significant cost with no obvious gain.
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