Laika

More information doesn't necessarily mean better conclusions. I've always liked UZR more just because of random things I've read online, on The Book blog etc, comparing the two methods. I don't really pay any attention to DRS, ever. I think it just muddies the water, to be honest.

I'd rather watch him play than bring DRS into the fold. He looks like a fairly average SS (great tools, not amazing instincts). UZR says he's a bit below average, I could buy that. I don't really think he's a butcher.

UZR/150 2010: -5.2 2011: -3.8 2012: -3.3 2013: -16.7 (terribly small sample size + grotesquely broken ankle). Not really any numerical evidence of defensive decline, yet. He's not nearly poor enough at the position that he'd be more valuable at 2B. I don't even think it's a given that he's a better defender at 2B. He's played SS his whole f***ing life, he's probably WAY less comfortable on the other side of second, and you'd be neutering his cannon of an arm by sliding him closer to 1B. The only way it makes sense to slide him over is if you bring in a sure fire plus defensive SS. Those aren't exactly easy to acquire, unless you want to no bat variety, and then you're basically just spinning your tires and wasting energy and you might as well have left Reyes at short and found a 2B.

I don't think I've ever had a team get hit this hard by the DL train. Currently 10 on the DL counting Quentin + one DTD player + one NA that I figured would be a full time starter by now.

Sanchez: All's good; little blister "would have just gotten worse". Didn't want it to be an issue come playoffs. #BlueJays

He could also provide nothing, or worse, negative WAR, and he'd be the type of contract that you'd probably have to play full time (opportunity cost). He's been worthless or worse in 2 out of his last 5 seasons. I just really don't think he's the type of player where you can ignore the extremes and expect the mean. And I don't like his volatility in conjunction with his age. There are only so many 13M contracts that a team can fit on its payroll in any given year, no matter what team you're talking about. Rios certainly wouldn't be one of mine, but I guess Texas is kind of in dire straits with their current OF depth chart and Nelson Cruz situation.

2013 32 Chicago White Sox $12,500,000 2014 33 Chicago White Sox $12,500,000 2015 34 Chicago White Sox *$13,500,000 $13.5M Team Option, $1M Buyout, *Trade escalates 2015 option by $500k He is on ZIPS pace for 2.7 fWAR this season, more than worth his contract. If he declines "normally" then he should be worth the money next year too, but maybe just barely, depending on what $/WAR paradigm you believe in. But we might not care the most about the mean case scenario with a guy like Rios. We already *think* based on 2011 and 2009 that his skill set has significant downside (and based on other years, upside. He's a volatile player). When I look at a contract situation like Rios', I don't really see a big asset, not when we factor in the chance of a big downturn, which may or may not be exacerbated by his current age. His current age probably also bites into his upside a little bit. This is what it is, and I don't see it as a steal. Not at all. If I'm running a baseball team, I would want near guaranteed production for my 8 figure players. You get enough volatility out of your prospects and your league min young players and your pitchers. Let them boom or bust, and with the other 90% of your payroll, have the piece of mind of knowing what you're paying for.

It's just another hypothetical, will-never-happen trade, but the Brewers org is pretty desperate for good, controllable pitching. They have a pretty solid offensive core and almost no solid young pitching to complement it. *IF they had another C in the org and Lucroy was movable, something like Sanchez + other depth pitching would be appealing.

Or, unless he has a down year and writes a racial slur on his face. Then his value would instantly = nothing, apparently. Seriously though, Yunel Escobar was a similar asset in the not too distant past. It's really irritating to think that Toronto just set all that value on fire, and now TB has a ~4 win player that they got for free.

He's a substantial asset. I don't see why they would deal him, but if they did for some reason, it should cost a lot. Like, Brett Lawrie straight up. Or Aaron Sanchez + another decent piece.

lollllll

Agreed. Great point. A lot of people complain about Bautista being whiny, and some of that leaks into intellectually fraudulent opinions about him being some kind of bad clubhouse presence. But from what we can see, he seems to me like exactly the type of person that you'd want as a leadership presence on a sports team. I wouldn't go so far as to say that Bautista actually had anything to do with Encarnacion's emergence, but if you believe in the power of clubhouse leadership/chemistry, and if you like to build neat little stories out of unprovable narrative linkages, then it's not that hard to connect the dots there. Same nationality, good friends, Bautista is hyper-competitive and pushy, Encarnacion has always been talented but maybe was kind of lackadaisical or lazy.... etc.etc., Bautista as part of the influence that leads to Special Ed finally getting the most out of his skills. Roy Halladay might be another example. By all accounts, he didn't exactly make the clubhouse more comfortable or more friendly, and he didn't exactly keep things "loose" throughout the year.... but he was probably a very good influence influence on almost every pitcher that came through the org. He's the type of guy that would lead by example, and the type of guy that you really wouldn't want to let down if he was one of your teammates.

Yeah, I wasn't being serious. DeRosa is literally worth less than zero dollars. If somebody wants him and AA doesn't let them have him, then he's made yet another (small) mistake, and it would be even further evidence of a flawed FO and fundamentally flawed process (as if we needed more evidence).

DeRosa was the glue that held this 2013 team together. Can't just cast him off for nothing. If 750k is all it takes to have a plus clubhouse in 2014, then it's a no-brainer. Keep the vet around.

They're just clunkier than in Yahoo. i.e. Drag and drop DL management is much better than having to click "manage DL" and move stuff around.

The only reason we'd ever switch to ESPN would be if they had a system where we could track all of our prospects and picks, season over season, and essentially consolidate our league home and proboards. Assuming that isn't feasible and it never will be, I just can't see it being worth the hassle of switching over. I'm in my first ESPN league this year, and I don't see it as necessarily better than Yahoo. It has some advantages but also some disadvantages. I really don't like the league home on ESPN, I don't like the DL management process or the trade offering process as much as I do in Yahoo, among other things. It's better than Yahoo as displaying certain information without having to click for it. For example, on your team page, every player has their status, daily pitcher matchup, recent statistics, and research statistics all displayed without having to click anything. In Yahoo you just get status, game time and team matchup (not pitcher), and % started (useless). Much more info at your immediate disposal in ESPN, and that goes for the FA listings too.

Nobody babips .370 true talent in the big leagues. Is he exceptionally "on", or is your perception of him perturbed by the batted ball luck? You can believe whatever you want, I don't know what's right, but i think an objective, regressed, and less narrative laden view of Colby has him as a player who hits for a much lower average, true talent. It's beside the point anyway. Regardless of his true babip skills, buying right now would be buying wayyyyy high, and needlessly so since he has another year of control. My hope, eventually, would be for a team friendly good will extension like the one Yunel signed.... And then hopefully Alex won't punt him away for nothing at the first down swing.

They have over a year to work something out. No sense in buying high on the .371 BABIP right now. If there's anything that Anthopoulos has been consistently good at, it's extensions. Yeesh.

In the game of baseball, "inconsistent" tends to just be a euphemism for "bad".

Miniscule. Almost non-existent. There would have to be a couple of injuries above him.

Dude is tearing it up. Earning himself a legit chance to start games in the big leagues.

It just seems kind of ironic. You'd think that the best entity to own a baseball team in this era would be a large corporation with no baseball background. They would be outside of all of the traditional misconceptions that plague baseball from the inside out. They would be solely concerned with the bottom line, which should lead to an intense constant top-down audit of the entire team and budget management process. .... but instead, they just hire Beeston and seem to be content in evaluating his performance and expertise by examining the bottom line quarterly. It's Fukudome'd, I tell ya.

Offseason plan: - Trade way too much for package of Rickie Weeks, John Axford, and Yovani Gallardo / Kyle Lohse. - Photoshop terrible Sportsnet Magazine cover - Put more red maple leafs on Jerseys - Get a T Hip song for all advertisements

Funny how they are probably completely oblivious to the amount of money they are throwing away thanks to extremely inefficient baseball ops thinking

Pretty sure Ervin Santana 2012 was as bad as JJ (worse, actually). Then the Royals willingly traded for the right to pay him 13 million. And he's been great for them! Go figure.