Laika

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

I still love Machado, and all things considered, he blows Lawrie out of the water. I just think his skill set seems particularly prone to the type of year that, say, Starlin Castro is having right now. I can't really buy into anybody being a true talent +25 run defender, especially after one season. And for every assumed power increase that actually comes true, there are dozens that never come to fruition (ignored silent evidence). If you want to bet on him being a legit star level player year after year, then you have to buy into a lot of things. You'd be buying into an increase in .ISO, an increase in walk rate, the BABIP being true talent, the quantitative fielding value being true talent, blah blah blah.

I think you've got that backwards

Anyone else feeling really bearish on Manny Machado? Dude walks less than JPA. That's a recipe for a volatile career. I guess between him and Jones, the O's have the market cornered with respect to above average 3% walk rate guys.

Would make sense. No point keeping org guys around if they are going to be a bad influence for whatever reason.

I didn't even know that they released him. Seems like it was yesterday that he OPS'd .900 in the gulf and turned himself into a 5'8" deeeeep sleeper prospect

meh, scouts would probably hear the sound of his bat once and instantly take him off the mound. 99.9% Livan Hernandezes. The odd Walter Johnson / Christy Mathewson or whatever.

* inserts custom molded dildo of own penis into bleached anus * licks centaur painting

The Jays right now would pick 12th overall, but they aren't very many games ahead of a lot of the teams picking in the back half of the top 10: 4 Chicago Cubs 53 70 .431 National League 11 - 19 473 522 -49 5 Milwaukee Brewers 54 70 .435 National League 16 - 14 485 540 -55 6 Philadelphia Phillies 54 69 .439 National League 8 - 22 459 563 -104 7 Minnesota Twins 54 68 .443 American League 15 - 15 487 555 -68 8 San Francisco Giants 55 68 .447 National League 12 - 18 474 540 -66 9 Los Angeles Angels 55 68 .447 American League 11 - 19 561 597 -36 10 San Diego Padres 56 68 .452 National League 15 - 15 484 561 -77 11 New York Mets 56 66 .459 National League 15 - 15 492 522 -30 12 Toronto Blue Jays 57 67 .460 American League 12 - 18 562 599 -37 13 Seattle Mariners 57 66 .463 American League 16 - 14 493 579 -86 14 Colorado Rockies 58 67 .464 National League 13 - 17 544 560 -16

A-Rod's scumbagness exists independent of his PED use though. He's not a scumbag because he doped. Anybody who didn't dope was basically a teetotalling moron under the old framework - they had hundreds of millions of dollars to gain, and almost nothing to lose. His slimy ass looks good in pinstripes. It would be a shame to not see him for 200 games.

Agreed. Also, I'm on ARod's side because I don't want the Yankees to essentially get a ~35 million dollar check from MLB.

Man, Ricky's plateau was an interesting thing though. - Minor league shitbag bust for several years. - Makes the bigs and is instantly an above average major league starter for three full seasons. - In one offseason, loses it all and is back to being a minor league shitbag. There has never been an in between for the guy. It's like he sold his soul to the devil for a taste of success or something, but his chubby MexiMerican soul was only worth 3 seasons.

And he's in 7th / 12

Disagree. Most of those guys have no value, but Ricky has even less than that right now. If he gets traded it's probably for another negative asset. Maybe Adam Dunn (if he still even likes baseball), or Rickie Weeks (Toronto has to throw in a prospect).

Farm review: Bust Bust Pseudo-bust Almost bust Traded bust Not a bust + Soon to be a bust x 7

Well, seeing as he just turned 22, it's not that crazy at all. Bryce Harper, eat your heart out.

Pooholes wuz better

I haven't even opened this thread all year, but this looks pretty neat. Are you guys doing prizes? Kudos to Dylan for running the whole thing and adding something interesting to the board. OT, but new board membership seems to have hit a wall. Flatlined at around ~500 members. I blame thehurl and his terrible twitter job.

News to me. I thought he was considered nothing but a passable SS by scouts, and shown to be a complete, rangeless butcher by the metrics.