Laika

I'm not really sure what your point is. In recent years, guys like Gardner and Crawford have been known to save ~20 runs in LF. Alex Gordon I think was in the teens the last two years. There has definitely been a trend towards more defensively capable LFers in Major League Baseball. You can see this by simply looking at the league average offensive LF production, and how it has declined. (Year - BP TAV) 2013 - .265 2012 - .270 2011 - .263 2010 - .275 2009 - .271 2008 - .273 2007 - .273 2006 - .276 2005 - .273 2004 - .279 2003 - .281 2002 - .280 Comp that to RF, which hasn't moved much in a decade (probably down a bit though due to run environment going down post-roids): 2002 - .282 2003 - .280 ---- 2011 - .281 2012 - .273 2013 - .281 Increasingly, teams seem to be using LF to roster defensively capable players that can provide CF depth. Sometimes teams even bring up young CF and start them in LF (Desmond Jennings, Starling Marte, Brett Gardner).

Generally speaking though, the solution to a lack of pitching depth doesn't tend to be trading away your best pitcher. Generally speaking. Shields Duffy Paulino Guthrie Davis Ventura (AAA, killing the minors) Zimmer (AA, killing the minors) __________ Chen (FA) Hochevar Mendoza Will Smith They're clearing 13M when Santana walks. They'll probably just sign a decent SP or two.

This isn't really that true anymore though, as I just showed. There are only like, 7 or 8 clunker type LFers in the game right now, and 2 or 3 of those play DH/1B as frequently as they play the OF (Seth Smith, Chris Carter, maybe someone else). You can almost count the number of statuesque LFers dragging down the positional average catch rates on one hand. This isn't any (/much) different than other positions on the diamond. You can find a handful of starting butchers everywhere.

It moved

No, that wasn't my team. I took over booster's team for half a season and then quit when we started the DDL.

LF has actually become a very athletic position in the majors. Just look at the names from the qualified Fangraphs leaderboard for LF: Trout CarGo Marte Gordon Upton Denorfia Holliday McLouth Soriano De Aza Brown Blanco Cespedes Brantley Nava Ibanez Carter Murphy Young Jr. In bold are the only names that you would really consider all-bat types. Half of these guys are borderline CF, CF by trade, or athletic converts from the IF. Increasingly, teams like to give their LF gig to a guy who can go get the baseball and cover other positions on the diamond. Having a LF that can cover CF is a good step towards constructing a more robust major league roster (robust as in, resilient to unforeseen injuries or other setbacks).

Note that the trade deadline is on Sunday. If you are going away for the long weekend, you might want to make any final trade offers tonight/tomorrow.

Yes, eliminated teams aren't locked. You can make add/drops even if you're playing for nothing.

How is my old team doing in the FC? Just trying to remember who I had on my roster, I'm guessing it's pretty bad. I think my Aces were CC and Grienke, best offensive piece was Zimmerman, catcher was Grandal, Wie Yin Chen might have been there... s***, I can't even remember. Uggla? Chooch?

September call ups might plop someone interesting/unowned into the system... maybe. I dunno.

No, he simply can't hit lefties. Juan Pierre can and has hit home runs. Give Juan Pierre enough at bats and he'll hit the odd over the fence home run. You could say that Juan Pierre can and has hit home runs. This doesn't mean that Juan Pierre has the ability to consistently be a home run hitter. Give Adam Lind enough chances and he'll look good against the odd lefty. He might even look like he can actually hit left handed pitching for isolated stretches. But the ability to do something consistently differs from the ability to do something at all. Even in 2009, Adam Lind didn't hit lefties exceptionally well. He had a 100 wRC+ (league average hitter) with a near .340 BABIP (he's at .297 career and only .274 career against LHP).

It doesn't even f***ing matter why Adam Lind sucks against lefties, all that matters is that he does indeed f***ing blow against left handed pitching. Kirksaw's "explanation" is obviously bogus, but it would also be immaterial even if true. Even if we assume that Adam Lind only sucks in his first plate appearance against lefties, that explanation offers no solution to his shittiness. It's not like they're going to sign a LOOGY and give Lindy simulated game style BP before every game against a LHSP. Adam Lind is 2/3 of a platoon DH position, and probably worth his 7M option in 2014 if utilized properly. This is your typical Matt Joyce / Seth Smith type of player (sans the OF), that a somewhat savvy team knows how to use properly.

RE: Jeff Locke, I wonder if AA would ever demote someone with 148.1 IP and a 3.22 ERA. I mean, dat ERA man.

Izturis demonstrated this year that he can't really play a viable SS anymore, at least on turf, so I would agree. The 6M owed to Izturis is basically a sunk cost at this point... I'd be inclined to cut Mouser and go with Goins/Kawasaki as the backup IF depth going into 2014. (They'll probably also bring DeRosa back, who can kind of sort of play 3B and 2B). Well, I never would have given Izturis that contract, but that's a different issue. He's very much a year-to-year type of player. Was never deserving of a 3 year contract, but I suppose Toronto probably had to overpay to get him, or whatever. Lol.

Wait, since when did any of us give a s*** who plays second base the rest of the way? What's a strawman again???

Can't we all just agree that Ryan Goins doesn't absolutely definitely suck, he just very very very very very probably sucks / maxes out as a backup IF? I don't even really understand how there's a chasm here. Oh yeah, it's because several people think that giving Ryan Goins a chance to start is actually an acceptable course of action. Jesus H Christ.

http://i.imgur.com/TYNQl.gif ITT: a rare congregation of butthurt non-cool kids

This is actually the first line on my resume, coincidentally

What moves will be made, or should be made? Because those are probably drastically different things.

Not really

Watching good left side infielders make good plays is basically porn to me. I understand why people really want to get into the scouting game, despite what a terrible job it is. They're like drug addicts, constantly chasing a high.

You don't buy into the 80 on Jose? Look how hard he can throw the baseball by essentially just flicking his wrist (not saying this is strong evidence or anything): Click Here for BestPenisMaxGentleman!!!

"Tim, I don't really understand these injury risk factor figures that you put in your report. Think you can convert them to the 20-80 scale and fax me a hardcopy?"

The footwork and transfer around that slide and pop are insane. The range and instincts are obviously top notch too. Jose Reyes probably takes two steps and gives up on that baseball. Kind of crazy that Brendan Ryan might not even be a top 2 defensive SS in the big leagues right now, with Andrelton Simmons and Iglesias in the league. I mean, you could probably throw all three of them in the same bin, it's not like we can even quantify it at this moment, but still.

I seem to have rustled your jimmies. Since the traumatic brain injury that you suffered at such a young age might be affecting your memory, I'll paraphrase what you've brought to the table already: - Ryan Goins has a 10% chance to be a major league starter. - Ryan Goins defensively is as good as or better than any free agent options out there. - Ryan Goins offensively is not much worse than any free agent options out there. - Anything less than a trade for an Altuve/Kendrick type would be nothing but a lateral move, and a waste of money. Point by point rebuttal: - That percentage is ludicrously high. - Making any conclusions about his defensive prowess after 5 games is ridiculous. - Age vs. level and major league equivalencies would disagree with you by a large degree with respect to Goins' offensive abilities. He would probably project to hit even worse than... I dunno... guys like Yuni Betancourt and Hechavarria. - No. Lateral moves to giving Ryan Goins the nominal role would be somewhere in the neighbourhood of "giving Mike McCoy the reins". Since we're on the subject, my creative 2B solution would be exploring the possibility of giving Jhonny Peralta a Melky style PED buy-low.