Laika

Marcus Fcking Stroman 8 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 11 K.

And lots of people didn't like that signing, me included. 3/39 for a 32 year old coming off of a .321 OBP/ .704 OPS season. Can't predict ball

ESPN update on him today says he'll get 2 more starts, that's it.

Should the consolation playoffs count for final standings? (in terms of future draft pick slotting). I don't really think they should. I think teams 9-20 should be slotted based on final regular season standings, and then teams 1-8 will obviously place wherever they end up after the playoffs. What do you guys think? Is there even a consolation playdown for non-playoff teams? I wouldn't really know. Don't think I've ever missed the playoffs in fantasy baseball.

Yeah, I'm very much a 2nd tier playoff team right now. Solid but not spectacular.

I'd really like to get to 5th spot so I can play the Monte Cristo champ in R1. Although I'll probably need David Wright to come back swinging soon if I'm gonna make any noise in the playoffs.

It's anytime on Sept 1st. One more night.

Not stolen - was discussed. Guy is probably worth a follow if he keeps the blog up to date. Not stupid.

This isn't about Goins anymore. It's about the message board clique. Douchecanoes like BTS, Hurl, Dinger, Nox, Boxy, KSaw, and NJH just think they're so f***ing cool....

He reminds be a bit of Drabek. And I mean the version of Drabek that we've seen in the majors, as in, the 17 year old Grant Holmes looks basically as polished and talented as the 22-25 year old former top prospect in Drabek. It's just that big running fastball and hammer breaking ball. Also the stature and mechanics.

No you don't. It's completely immaterial. Not even in the equation. Johnson would accept a QO before he could blink.

Could be so, but it would just be weird that he could still post K and BB rates like this if strike throwing was his main issue. I guess you could rationalize it somewhat like this: He has a lot of trouble throwing that slider for a strike. It's always finishing down and out of the zone. This is leading to a small spike in BB rate, but also an increase in the K rate since it's acting very much like an out pitch. However, for players that can recognize the breaking ball, they can essentially forget about it and sit fastball. This explains some of the "hittability" (BABIP and HR/FB), and by extension, some of the grossly high ERA. .... But then we're just constructing stories, probably. It's only 81 innings though, so I'm comfortable with just hanging the weird numbers on the small sample size hook and moving on. For me, JJ will go into 2014 not much worse than he came into 2013 - as a huge injury risk with some upside.

If we're talking about, like, 5M, then sure. But I don't see why JJ would do that. He'll go to the NL. Pittsburgh will get him for dirt cheap and he'll be 2014's Liriano. Something like that. I wouldn't give him 10+ mill. I don't like the gamble, and that's mostly considering his health concerns, not necessarily his ERA.

Some of it is just plain old bad luck. Say how much of it is bad luck is pretty hard to do though, since we have a league chance going on + a decline in skills.

This would definitely be the worst ROI rotation in baseball. Probably bottom 5 again in ERA.

There's a joke here about your fantasy baseball tendencies

Ok, Tom Robson is a f***ing freak. He's one of only 4 pitchers in all of pro baseball (majors and minors) with 50+ IP and a GB% of >66%, according to Minor League Central data. Robson: 66.2% in 58.1 IP (Rk / A-) Brad Zeigler: 69.2% in 60.2 IP (MLB) Ben Rowen: 68.7% in 62.2 IP (AAA/AA in Texas org. Also has good K/BB numbers. This looks like a legitimate under-the-radar Ace relief prospect, 24 years old) Dallas Beeler: 66.9% in 54.2 IP (AA, 24 years old, Cubs org) edit: Fangraphs GB% is a bit different and would add Seth Maness (50.2 IP, 70.2%). They don't have minor league GB% though. http://www.collegebaseballtoday.com/files/2010/04/VaTech-BenRowenUnderhand.jpg That's ^ Ben Rowen http://www3.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/Brad+Ziegler+Oakland+Athletics+v+Los+Angeles+fHemUlaLxKDl.jpg Brad Zeigler

He was at 58.8% according to this site: http://minorleaguecentral.com/team?aff=TOR&y=2013&type=pitcher

66.2% is pretty insane (and it's probably higher now). Best in the entire org.

Where did this guy come from? http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=rowley000chr Just never heard the name before.

I think it was 3 misplays in one game. I remember watching it. It's pretty easy for anecdotal stuff like that to sway our opinions about baseball.

If you watched a lot of Rays games you'd be whistling a different tune. Longo might not have the flash that Lawrie or Machado have, but he's so f***ing steady at the corner that it's practically emasculating. I won't crucify you if you want to put Lawrie on their level though. He's a defensive stud, no doubt.

Can't really ask for better results. Anyone have a good report on him?

Machado Longo Beltre Lawrie That's in order, with Beltre probably getting some legacy points to be ahead of Lawrie.

In the last few years, MLB left fielders have hit less productively than CF, RF, 1B, and DH. They've been slightly better than 3B. So of the 9 hitting positions, they've been better than four of them and worse than four of them (although they are closer to 1B than they are to SS/C, so they aren't equidistant from the extremes). CF and RF have more defensive responsibility than LF, so in a nutshell, we would expect LF to hit better. But they haven't been. It's true that LF is still a hitter's position, but honestly, teams don't tend to be hiding any defensive liabilities there anymore. Some still do (Willingham, Quentin, Holliday, etc), but others use LF to stash an extra CF capable player in the pursuit of a more injury robust roster (Brantley in CLE, Young Jr. in NYM, Marte in PIT, Eaton in ARI, Blanco in SF) or to break in young players of all OF molds (Yelich currently in LF, Des Jennings was last year, Trout gave way to Bourjos for a bit, Eaton currently playing LF in ARI). There's also an apparent unwillingness to spend on left fielders. You see lots of teams choose to platoon cheaper guys there these days (OAK, TB, BOS, etc). It's still a slugging position, sure, but to some teams it's not that simple anymore.