TheHurl

And that they didn't try Drabek as a major league reliever earlier to see if he had anything. They may not have felt the need to convert their good stuff guys and start their clocks

many fans mindset. I won't say the majority but certainly not uncommon.

Drabek is a great example of why starting the clock on Castro and Osuna is dangerous. If they are sent down and still have stuff to work on...they will be 24 and 23 when you have to make your "keep em up, or dump em" decision.

Jays claim a 27 year old former top prospect bust...many on this board claim the player is the next EE or Bautista. Jays dump a former top prospect...it's nothing he will never have any worth.

Only thing they are going to find in his body is rice, beans, and Ang's favourite goat. It explains the anger

Like to point out that they essentially cut Valbuena for Vizquel

And proof David Ortiz is a liar! That's a lot of rice to feed that man. http://www.theplayerstribune.com/david-ortiz-on-the-record/

and I don't think he'll sign for late first round money still.

All classes cancelled tomorrow for me. I might sleep until 3 pm but it's a good day to deal with me.

ESPN INsider article by former Mariners AGM Tony Blengino. Sorry the charts don't cut and paste correctly. It's that time of year when media members of all stripes make their preseason predictions for both individual and team honors. It's pretty safe to say that Mike Trout is the presumptive favorite to take home the 2015 AL MVP trophy because, well, he's Mike Trout. But since it's no fun to pick the favorite -- and also because there are some red (or at least orange) flags in Trout's portfolio entering the season -- I'm picking a different horse. That would be the Toronto Blue Jays' prized offseason acquisition, third baseman Josh Donaldson. Normally, when one makes a relatively unorthodox MVP pick, a fairly significant boost in performance is assumed. With Donaldson, that really isn't the case. In fact, I'd submit that all he really needs to do is bring nearly the same exact form he showed in Oakland last season north and east to Toronto and let his new environs and some fairly predictable statistical regression do the rest. By most standards, Donaldson was a classic late bloomer, not earning his first major league at-bat until age 24, and not establishing himself as a full-time, full-season regular until age 27. There aren't many star-caliber big league players who fully arrive that late. Though he might seem to fit the profile, Donaldson isn't a classic Oakland Athletics "Moneyball"-type draft pick, either. Like the A's oft-panned pick Jeremy Brown, Donaldson was a hit-first, defense-second catcher from the SEC who was selected with a sandwich pick between the first and second rounds. Unlike Brown, Donaldson was selected by the Cubs in 2007, and then traded to Oakland just over a year later in a six-player deal involving Rich Harden heading to Chicago. The Cubs utilized Donaldson exclusively as a catcher, but the A's immediately explored his versatility after the deal, using Donaldson at first and third base quite a bit, and even spotting him in the outfield. The biggest post-trade development, however, was his sudden offensive surge. After batting .217/.276/.349 as a 22-year-old in low-A ball for the Cubs, Donaldson thrived after getting an immediate promotion to the high-A California League, hitting .330/.391/.564 with Stockton. Each season, I compile a list of top minor league position-player prospects based on their on-base percentage and slugging percentage relative to their league and level, adjusted for age. Traditional scouting techniques are then used to adjust the list. Donaldson's 2008 post-trade performance landed him on this list for the only time in his minor league career, at No. 79. For a catcher, that would be a pretty solid offensive ranking. As a potential future corner infielder, it marked him as a player to watch, but not a future star. He basically hasn't stopped hitting since that late 2008 breakout. He also has become a strong hot-corner defender and a consistent run producer despite playing his home games in a pitcher-friendly park in Oakland. It has very quietly translated into a pair of top-10 MVP voting finishes in his only two seasons as a regular (fourth in the voting in 2013, eighth last year). K 18.7% 101 52 BB 10.9% 140 83 POP 10.9% 135 84 FLY 28.4% 99 50 LD 17.3% 82 4 GB 43.4% 103 57 To get a better feel for his offensive game, and for the contextual realities affecting him in both his past and future, let's look at Donaldson's plate appearance frequency and production by ball-in-play (BIP) data for 2014. First, we look at frequency info in the corresponding table. The "REL" column presents his plate appearance frequencies on a scale, with 100 representing MLB average. The "Pct." column represents this data in percentile rank form, so for instance, his K rate is in the 52nd percentile of major league position players, higher than 51 percent of his peers. First of all, his K and BB rates form a very strong base for a power hitter. His K rate is just slightly above the average of all AL regulars (in the 52nd percentile), while his BB rate ranks very high, in the 83rd percentile. This gives plenty of margin for error for shortcomings elsewhere, such as his ridiculously low line drive rate. That's right, Josh Donaldson had a big 2014 despite an extremely low line drive rate, with a minuscule percentile rank of 4. Exactly three AL players with 215 batted balls had a lower line drive rate than Donaldson last season: Alex Gordon, Ian Kinsler and Gordon Beckham. Liner rates fluctuate more than those of other BIP types from season to season, so one should expect the Jays' new third-sacker, who posted a liner percentile rank of 56 in 2013, to hit a bunch more liners in 2015. So there's one fairly significant reason why Donaldson's performance could be even better this season. But frequencies tell us only so much; batted-ball authority tells us even more, and it drives the production by BIP type data: Donaldson AVG OBP SLG REL Prod. Adj. Prod. TOR prod. FLY .341 -- 1.081 201 275 327 LD .560 -- .840 81 121 134 GB .303 -- .330 153 134 131 ALL BIP .322 -- .575 115 139 152 ALL PA .253 .336 .453 124 144 156 For the purposes of this exercise, all sacrifice hits and sacrifice flies are counted as outs. The "REL Prod." column compares Donaldson's actual production allowed on each BIP type to the MLB average of 100. The "Adj. Prod." column adjusts that figure for context; it measures how he would have performed if each of his balls in play were hit in a neutral park. I've added an extra column at the right to further adjust the data as if 50 percent of his games were played in his new home park in Toronto, Rogers Centre. Donaldson did plenty of damage on fly balls last season, batting .341 with a 1.081 slugging percentage on balls in the air, for a 201 actual REL PRD figure. Adjusted for context, however, he was even better. His 275 adjusted production figure ranked fourth in the AL behind Chris Carter (329), Chris Davis (321) and Jose Abreu (296). Carter and Davis lack Donaldson's contact ability and plate discipline, so that leaves him and Abreu as the elite power hitters in the AL. Not only did Donaldson hit relatively few line drives in 2014, he was also unlucky with regard to the outcome of the liners he did hit. His 81 actual REL Prod. on liners is adjusted upward sharply to 121 for context. He just happened to line a lot of balls at people last season. On all balls in play, his actual 115 REL Prod., which is decent, is adjusted upward significantly for context to 139, which is really good. Add back the K's and walks and those figures move up to 124 and 144, respectively. Simply put, the offense-suppressing impact of his home park, which included the most expansive foul territory in the major leagues, and pure random chance conspired to hold Donaldson's 2014 numbers down. After hitting in a pitchers park in Oakland, Donaldson should thrive playing half his games at Rogers Centre, which is much more favorable for hitters. Let's now look at the far right column in the table above. Each year I compile my own park factors based on batted-ball data. In 2014, Rogers Centre had the fourth-highest fly ball park factor (134.8), the third-highest line drive park factor (108.4) and the third-highest overall (114.7). It also had the fourth-highest home run park factor (127) and second-highest doubles factor (119). Rogers Centre is one of the few major league parks where a line drive can turn into a home run, especially to left and left-center field. Bottom line: This park is tailor-made for Donaldson. Playing half of his games in Toronto, his fly ball adjusted production swells to 327, and his overall adjusted production increases to 156. Break it all down, and here's what you get: Donaldson posted a .255/.342/.456 slash line in 2014 playing half his games in a pitchers' park. In a neutral park, based on his own personal BIP speed/angle mix, he "should" have batted .275/.355/.501. But playing half of his games in Toronto, that 2014 performance gets marked up to .283/.362/.534. There are no red or even orange flags in his batted-ball mix that would be cause for caution. His fly ball and ground ball rates aren't extreme, and neither are his pull rates in the air or on the ground. In fact, he has plenty of room to selectively pull the ball more frequently in the air without having to worry about being overshifted on the ground. It gets even better, though. Remember that microscopic liner rate? Well, those contextualized projections of Donaldson's 2014 true talent level that we just made were based on it. What if he were to post an AL-average 21.0 percent liner rate, with all else remaining equal? Well, then we would have a .284/.363/.511 hitter (150 adjusted production) in a neutral environment, and a .293/.371/.544 line (163 adjusted production) playing half his games in Toronto. Now that's MVP-caliber stuff right there. Sure, a whole lot can go wrong on the way to an MVP award. Obviously there is the potential for injury, and who knows, maybe whatever it was about the Oakland organization that helped him become an elite bat will be greatly missed by him in his new home. It's pretty clear, however, that Donaldson brings value in all phases of the game, and was even better last season than his raw offensive numbers suggested. Put all of that ability into an ideal context, and great things could happen. MVP seasons could happen.

Kansas...Missouri. Dominican...Mexican. It's all the same

Such a dumm Darrell

with the seat sale going on right now you can get some nice "Escape" rates. I always suggest taking Business Class on my way to a weekend away as you get the free booze and a comfy ass seat. Edit. Just saw that it's Easter weekend...yeah you might be better off driving. Most Hotels will charge you $20 to $30 a night for parking in the downtown core.

Admin owns a couple other sites and would like you to write for them Ang.

And fed to you know who

Why the f*** would you do this? All that is going to do is bring Min into the conversation edit...See what you did

How could I forget cherries. In season Bing cherries are easily among my favourites.

Honeycrisp Apples are by far the best apple. Pineapples and some melons are the only fruit I do not enjoy.

If I eat pineapples I swell up in the eyes and lips. It's likely pretty entertaining for everyone else but me. Raspberries are the top fruit.

#1 in my books. Sat down for a poker game once and without thinking about it, finished a 2KG bag before the first break. The stomach issues that caused have never deterred me from many wine gum binges. This turned into one of the greatest conversations ever.

When I made a reference to how the Howie's are like the Darrell's once were and wanted to make a comparison to how they worship every word JFAs says like the Darrell's did you. I was going to make further comparison but then I realized that as the guy that named the Howie's that would make me Jaysbooster (or was it Ken?) and that depressed me. Essentially the entire post was just so I could take a shot at both King and Boxy.

Only thing about Guerrero is that he has what might be Boras' best contract ever. He can refuse any minor league assignment now (which contributes to the Dodgers roster pinch) but also if he's traded he can declare free agency at the end of the season. Not that if he's successful 1 year $4-5M would be a bad thing.

Do you have some sort of alert to this board when your name is mentioned?

NJH hit the nail on the head. My post was garbage. I could have been way more clear (that's never really been the way I write though, especially when I was writing a paper at the same time). Flyball pitchers (of which Chris Young is the most extreme example, Johan is middle of the pack) tend to have much lower BABIPs. Carlos Zambrano was a ground ball pitcher who's entire career was confusing. His ERA outperformed his FIP by 35 points in his career and beat his xFIP by 53 points. You've got me on that one, I know righties had a really low career BABIP against him. Probably was very specific to certain pitch.

As long as I'm on a little educating kick. King, I remember when the Darrell's were starting out, with their "Deity" Noxage leading the way. They had issues with many posters on the old board, but eventually they learned how to get their point across in a clearer way and came off as intelligent and worthy of a read no matter what they were posting. The Howie's should follow their God JFAs who has started to do a much better job of explaining himself in most of his posts now. Keep in mind King, you are currently to the Howie's what Boxy is to the Darrell's ...strive to be more. Being top Howie is not difficult, and maybe you won't even be the Norman's whipping boy anymore.