Laika

Jim Callis is leaving BA and going to MLB.com !!!

Booo

Of course

Baseball is inhumane.

Agreed, let's do it together.

Fun is relative. Looks like I beat you to the appreciation anyway though. Just essentially fellated the guy, one post above yours.

Having watched him for a year, I think he just has really good command on one plane. It's not literally "pinpoint" command - it's more of a planar command. For example, if he wants to throw the ball inside, then it's on the inner black / inside WAY more often than not, even if he frequently misses up and down on that inner plane. Or, if he wants to keep the ball down, then he almost always keeps the ball down, even if sometimes he will miss his spot along the perpendicular horizontal plane (missing over the middle or further off the zone than he wanted). So he seems more or less sublime at throwing to a certain plane, but not necessarily awesome at throwing to a certain point.... which could probably be a lesson to every pitcher out there who is struggling with command/control, or struggling with how to succeed without plus stuff. And of course, Buehrle supplements all of this with speed changes. Dude pitches in 4 dimensions: up and down, left and right, hard and soft, breaking and straight.

I've seen a <6.40 on Davis and a 6.50 on Gose. That's an 80 vs. a 70 (I think). Here are some random sources: http://minors.mlblogs.com/tag/2012-draft/ http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/events/draft/y2008/reports_popup.jsp?popup=yes&content=gose

The needle hasn't moved from his draft day status (apparently). Tons of tools; not enough skills (yet?). Apparently he's a pure 80 runner, faster than Gose even, but you wouldn't know it by looking at his SB totals. On top of that, he had grades like 30/60 present/potential hit coming out of high school, and glancing at his current AVG and K numbers, that hasn't changed much. The good news: His ISO is nearly .200 this year, and his isolated OBP has been nearly .100 through his MiLB career. This implies significant (nonlinear?) returns from him ever figuring out how to hit for average. i.e., he already knows the strikezone somewhat, and how to drive a baseball, so if he can every figure out how to recognize breaking balls (or whatever), then he's going to take off.

His "awesomeness" is nonexistent. His apparent efficacy is completely relative. In a decent rotation, he would look like what he is - a league average SP. Number 4 type production + bankable innings. On the Blue Jays, he looks like some kind of veteran, stalwart, rotation-leading pseudo-Ace. Bring his salary into the equation, and he could f*** right off for all I care. You can f*** right off too. Nimrod.

Weird Yahoo glitch is making it seem like every new piece of smack talk is coming from me (the commish, in the PL it's Dinger)

He certainly doesn't deserve to be fired, by any means.

Damn. Maybe a heart attack or something. I like Kruk.

Anywhere within the top 10 and I'm very pleased. Top 5 would be amazing, but it remains pretty unlikely. Realistically, how the teams are slotted right now seems fairly accurate. The Giants and Angels are probably better than Toronto, especially with Bautista out. Sum pitching fWAR + position fWAR to date: Minnesota - 17.9 Milwaukee - 17.9 Toronto - 21.7 San Francisco - 24.1 Los Angeles - 26.8 I could see the Padres and/or the Phillies really tanking though. They could complicate things.

Will he even catch though? Seems like the type of prospect that might be plopped in the OF, even if he can catch. Protect the body, focus on the bat, and get the investment to the big leagues quicker.

How low can they go!? http://s24.postimg.org/m5an84cxx/image.png

TJS is very good, and very refined these days, but it's still not a sure thing. Look at Ryan Madson. Look at Daniel Hudson. I think some teams might be too aggressive with their TJS casualties. Everybody aims for 12, 11 month recovery times these days. There's so much on the line, it really would behoove teams to give guys a couple of extra months, even if they're pain free and antsy. Tell them to suck it up and wait ~14 months. If Beachy has a re-tear, then I would bet on Pineda. Mostly because he's at the end of a rehab cycle and, despite the lack of strength right now, if the Yankees take it easy he could be good to go for 2014. Whereas with Beachy, you've got a slightly older guy and you're looking at probably a lost 2014 (if it's a major setback, which it seems to be).

Every single PED user ever: - "I didn't do it" - "Ok, I did it but I didn't know I was doing it" - "Ok, I knew it was illegal but it was just one time and it was just to recover from a serious/nagging injury and it was just in cream/lozenge/chewing gum form, no needles I swearz" - "Ok, it was an injection but my buddy did it to me he said it was safe" - "Ok, it was more than one injection and I self administered" (hardly ever stated) - "Ok, it wasn't just to recover from an injury, I've been doing cycles since high school with the intention of taking advantage of the massive upside to cheating in my sport of choice" (never stated)

Puke worthy

That's sad. 9 parts depressing, 1 part hilarious since you just traded for him.

4 Chicago Cubs 54 71 .432; 2.5 GB of TOR 5 Milwaukee Brewers 55 71 .437; 2 GB of TOR 6 Los Angeles Angels 55 70 .440; 1.5 GB of TOR 7 Philadelphia Phillies 55 70 .440; 1.5 GB of TOR 8 Minnesota Twins 55 69 .444; 1 GB of TOR 9 San Diego Padres 56 70 .444; 1 GB of TOR 10 San Francisco Giants 56 69 .448; 0.5 GB of TOR 11 Toronto Blue Jays 57 69 .452; 1.5 GB of SEA, COL; 2 GB of NYM 12 Seattle Mariners 58 67 .464 13 Colorado Rockies 59 68 .465 14 New York Mets 58 66 .468 These standings are RIPE for the tanking. Teams 12-14 opened up space on Toronto yesterday, and with a disastrously fantastic September, Toronto could "fall" well into the top 10!!! Tank Nation Notes: - Bautista to the DL is a huge plus for tank nation! - Izturis twisting his ankle is a blow to tank nation, as he has been by far our most effectively terrible player Hopefully he avoids the DL! - Gose-Davis-Pillar OF is both hilarious and awesome! - Jose Reyes has been complaining a bit about ankle/leg pain. Cool! - Brett Cecil, arguably the Jays' best RP this season, will see his innings limited the rest of the way. Nice! - Apparently, Josh Johnson has been shut down for the rest of the year. Dang. Tank nation needs him on the bump!

Exciting day in reverse standings land! 2 game sweep to the Yankees + Bautista gets a DL booboo

Daniel Norris this year in Lansing: 10.82 K/9, 5.00 BB/9, 0.71 HR/9, 9.4 H/9, 3.61 FIP. (1993 birthday) Aaron Sanchez last year in Lansing: 9.66 K/9, 5.08 BB/9, 0.30 HR/9, 6.4 H/9, 3.41 FIP. (1992 birthday) Norris won't even sniff the type of prospect status that Sanchez had entering this season though. It's interesting that Norris could post superior K/BB numbers but give up so many more hits and home runs. GB% = 46.7% BABIP = .358 Sanchez: GB% = 58.6% BABIP = .282 The difference in GB% makes me think that it isn't mostly luck. Norris must just have a straight, hittable fastball or something (if the players have the bat speed to catch up to it). Or he just can't get it down in the zone, and when he throws strikes that s*** is always in the upper half (think Cecil as a SP in recent years). Anyway, if Norris can ever learn a bit more command and the ability to get the ball down, and off that hitting plane, he's going to explode as a prospect.

Machado is the most handsome though.

Hard to give you advice without seeing your complete roster