John_Havok

For what? He's absolutely right. The majority of people anyone talks to who calls themselves a baseball fan was cheering their asses off for all their favorite players in the steroid era, watching records being broken. Now it's the "in" thing to do to denounce any performance enhancing drug users as cheats and horrible human beings, when the fact is that those fans buried their heads in the sand when it was plainly obvious to anyone with eyes that the majority of all players, not just stars, were on roids. Someone comes up to me and offers me a needle in the ass if it means I would make 100 million dollars over the next 10 years in my chosen profession, I don't care If a grew an extra toe, three fingers and an ear fell off as a result, I'd do it in a heartbeat, and so would you. A-Rod is just the target MLB has chosen to crucify because his public persona is so s***** that it's easy to sway public opinion against him. He took roids, HGH, he admitted to it back in his days with Texas, the same way Pettitte admitted to using HGH with the Yankees. Sure, he probably used again with the whole biogenesis thing, but the way MLB is chasing him down, and doing it publicly, I don't blame him one bit for firing back with everything he's got in order to protect the 100 million left on his contract that the Yankees would really love to get off the books, and would only be too happy to throw him under the bus in order for that to happen.

As much as I hate Joe Buck and pretty much everything he says, I agree with that. The all star game deciding home field advantage is dumb as hell

Well at least there's someplace he's not striking out repeatedly. Good for him.

Well take anything with a grain of salt when it comes to minor league defense awards, but Pompey's calling card has always been top tier athleticism and speed so great CF defense is not a stretch.

Problem is, with the Rays in the middle of the wildcard-race, not using your best(relatively speaking) guy to start the game and giving a nod to a retiring veteran wouldn't really be respecting the race. Could you imagine the shitstorm that would rain on Toronto by MLB if the Rays won, the other teams lost and it's because they put up 3 or more runs on Oliver in the first inning?

I'm glad you brought that up, because I think it's completely hypocritical of the mlb establishment to glorify the best closer but downplay the best DH's like Edgar Martinez. About Ortiz, I don't think he'll make it to 500 and won't get in.

It wasn't an argument defending the procedure, just pointing out the silver lining for the Rangers.

Don't get me wrong, he's an incredibly talented relief pitcher, the best at his position ever. But his position isn't anywhere near as important as it's made out to be, so excelling a t that position doesn't really make me feel that he should be mentioned with the greatest players to ever play the game. He's a guy who couldn't even cut it as a back of the rotation starter. A one pitch, one trick pony only good for 70 IP per year. Exceptionally good for those 70 innings, but still doe ant warrant mention as one of the greatest players to ever play the game.

And if they win they'll have only burned 1 SP, before the wildcard. The team that loses the first game, say they win the second game, they'll have burned two starters before they even get to the wildcard game, and 3 guys if they win the Wildcard. Not exactly prime going into game 1 of the next round with your # 4 guy

Sure he does. Any late inning reliever would have an automatic advantage in WPA since they largely only pitch the 9th inning. It's one of the largest flaws of WPA in regards to closers.

When did people in the minority who are questioning the majority opinion and challenging a century of traditionalist thought process considered sheep? The irony is incredible.

I think it's pretty retarded myself, but the again I also think closers are completely overrated In general and therefore being the best at an extremely overrated position shouldn't even be a consideration for the hall of fame. I just think this is another example of the Yankee bias that runs rampant through MLB as a whole. If he pitched his career in Houston and puts up similar numbers, no chance he gets anywhere close to the recognition or respect he gets now. May as well start putting in the best career bench players and pinch hitters too.

From the article I read, they were saying that Cubans would be allowed to play in the Mexican league, but made no mention of MLB or other minor leagues. Should maybe wait for more details on this.

Seems to make perfect sense to me. The team with the best combined record between the three teams chooses what they want, the team with the second best record chooses what they want and the team with the third best record doesn't get a choice and only 1 chance to advance. What would be an alternative? Round robin style and runs for and against used to determine any tie breakers?

More sounds like people think AA should be listening to fans wants and making decisions based on them. The reality is if a GM listens to fans, he becomes a fan. This isn't excusing or defending AA's bad decisions or the organization's poor talent evaluation, but let's face it, the majority of fans really have no idea how s***** JPA is. Sure they see a low batting average and realize he's not perfect, but 20 HR excuses a lot for the masses. The vocal minority is just that, a minority.

That last part is about the only thing in this thread that made any sense. There was a article written on fangraphs the other day stating how the A's are succeeding again these past few years. Basically it boiled down to them not having a lot of overall strengths, but rather that they have a collection of players without any glaring weaknesses.

Do you honestly think that AA gives one flying s*** about what any fan thinks and made any personnel decisions based on it? If you do, you're as delusional as JPA about his productivity

#getoffmylawn!...damnkids

#allthecoolkidsdo

Guaranteed JPA wouldn't kand a blow #swingandamiss

Isn't it Mario Mendoza? C'mon man let's not sink the credibility of this thing by making basic errors.

Get him a good platoon partner with some semblance of defensive usefulness and you'd have something pretty good.

99 and painting the corners, that's nasty with a side of filthy and topped with holy s***.

Of course. Just a wacky stadium all around. Severely pitcher friendly to LH pull hitters, severely hitter friendly to RH pull hitters

330 wall scraper that would be just a routine fly out in Fenway. It's a good thing park factors exist to tell us that A season of those fly balls in Boston would be less valuable than those in Toronto or Yankee stadium.