KSaw

And your adjustments still rank Harvey as ahead of him? I don't see it at all.

I've never found park factor to be that detailed but I'll do some research on my own. I'm not going to argue a point without all available info. Hell, my original point was that the kid was having a great season in a hitter's park, while the only other 2 starters near or better than he (Kershaw and Harvey) play in pitcher's parks.

Good God. Obviously fences coming in matter. That's not what I was meaning at all. I was trying to stay on point to ball movement due to air. And it has a huge impact on 2-seam fastballs. I really wasn't looking for an argument here but pitch fx hardly touches what desert air does to baseballs. It only measures what happens and not why. I'm not even sure that the why and how much of a difference has been studied in depth. It's merely known that altitude and a lack of humidity and heat flatten pitches. Chad Motolla put it pretty well last year. He said that the biggest advantage to hitters isn't the parks or how the ball carries around the PCL, it's that hitters can expect a heavy dose of 4-seam fastballs and sit on them due to the air. Now how do you measure that impact?

Woody Williams is a good example of a fringe starter who elevated to being a 5th starter and then kept building on it. Thad Weber has the stuff to jump up too btw. He hasn't gotten his shot yet.

MLB aren't going to ditch their cozy travel schedules but they will again one day expand. They also won't ditch their interleague, at least not those rivalry games. Here's what I can give you as a model if they add 2 more teams, lets say Portland and San Antonio. I'm also (for the example) going to move the Rays to Indianapolis. - Each league with 2 divisions of 8 - Teams play 12x v division opponents - Teams play 9x v other division in league - Teams play 6x v their designated interleague rival - All teams have 4 scheduled home doubleheaders to be played during their 5-game set v the non division opponent they host - 2 division winners and 3 wild cards in each league, with the bottom 2 wild cards playing a 1 game elimination - All playoff rounds to be best of 7s AL East: NY Yankees Boston Baltimore Indianapolis Toronto Detroit Cleveland Chicago White Sox AL West: Texas Houston San Antonio Minnesota Kansas City Seattle Oakland LA Angels NL East: Atlanta NY Mets Philadelphia Pittsburgh Miami Washington Cincinnati St. Louis NL West: Chicago Cubs Milwaukee Colorado Arizona LA Dodgers San Diego San Francisco Portland It's not perfect but might just be better.

This could go the other way too. He has good fastball movement and throws a heavy ball. He doesn't throw enough strikes and has command issues. His stuff isn't his problem. He has the arm to become decent, not a star but decent. A little more command and less pitches up and he'll become better. I have no problem with him as a 5th-8th option as a starter. He's cheap. He'll be back.

I think that pitches being flattened matters greatly. It does to the pitchers and it hurts more pitchers than others. A control pitcher who relies on changing speeds and painting corners would be hurt less than most in desert air. The park and it's dimensions don't really matter. People have always talked about Denver and what the altitude does at Coor Field. The humidity in Miami killing home runs gets attention. The lack of break on pitches in Phoenix, allowing hitters to avoid effective out pitches gets only occasionally mentioned in passing. Singles instead of strike outs are often a result. Don't think that there's a measurable stat to gauge ineffective pitch movement due to the air quality.

No, I think that Kershaw should win (at this point). As for park factor numbers, the atmosphere, air pressure, humidity and temperature in Phoenix is very similar to Vegas. Now Vegas is at a higher elevation by about 300 m and of course that makes a difference. Phoenix at over 300 m still launches baseballs. My point was about the air. It is the thin and dry air that causes the same effect. The ball doesn't really break. It is a huge factor for pitchers, no matter what park factor says. Park factor does not measure the spin, rotation and break on baseballs due to atmospheric pressure.

As the tie breaker. They play an even number of games. A tie breaker could be needed.

And I'm lost on the high risk/ no one would hire him thing. He left Toronto and was snatched up as the Royals bench coach for 3 years. He then left to move back into managing, taking the AA job with the Padres. He left the Padres to return to Toronto. He was never out of the game and was added to the All-Star Game staff for the American League this year.

Disaster? Two winning seasons out of his three full years, including an 87 win second place finish. That's not setting the World on fire but hardly a disaster. This year he was handed a team without a catcher. That's an automatic free pass!

Would love if admin would fix my typo in the title, please.

Fairly sure that coming out of Japan as an amateur at his age makes him the same as say a Dominican kid and he'd be subject to the cap but yes, he could get 4-5 million.

I explained it a couple of posts back-- registering before July 2nd.

Yes he can become a free agent if he declares. He is not a pro yet.

Use the All-Star Game as the tie-breaker if needed. I believe that the American League currently holds a 4 game lead. I was counting in my head. It's pretty close, could even actually end up tied.

Just a thought but wouldn't it be a lot better to have the interleague head-to-head overall record decide home field instead of the All-Star Game? There's 15 clubs in each league now and the games are spread through the entire season. Those last two series: Boston v Colorado and Detroit v Miami could be meaningful games. Heck, it might change the whole dynamic for Detroit if they needed a win on the last day to ensure home field. They may not rest people. Anyway, just a though but at least it would create some more meaningful late season games.

Too nice a day out

It would be high risk to sign a 16-year old pitcher. He'd have to be on the 40-man roster as a 21-year old (going on 22). He'd be out of options by 24. Nothing could go wrong on his path and he couldn't have set backs once he was up or you'd have just wasted years of developing him for someone else to use when he was 25-26 and probably about ready to hold a rotation job securely and that's if all went well along the road. He's just more valuable and far less risky just a year older.

He would have been available as a free agent to all MLB clubs on July 2nd of he had registered. He had that choice. As he is not signed, I'm assuming that he did not do so and will wait until next year.

Weird thing is that all through the 60s and into the late 80s some teams would bring young pitchers to ST and from when the pitchers and catchers reported they'd be throwing 80-100 pitches a day, everyday for a week or more and with lots of long toss mixed in. Then they'd get a couple days off and pitch again. If the arm held up, you were special and if it didn't, you went home. The Orioles were big for this. They'd pitch a kid's arm off to see if he was durable or not. Nolan Ryan went through something like this with the Mets and if you listen to him today, he's pretty vocal about pitchers not throwing enough and being babied into future injuries.

It is a bad team. It's just frustrating because its a talented bad team. It's also a team loaded with the same kinds of offensive players-- mistake hitters who hit mistakes hard and far. There is a huge lack of professional hitter types, hitters who help grind out runs against a good pitcher who is on his game. This isn't something a manager can change. Honestly, a healthy Reyes and Melky all year would have gone a long way to balance the offence. Neither was healthy all year and Melky wasn't healthy for any of it.

Keep in mind that Cobb does have the worst fielding percentage of any outfielder in the history of Major League Baseball. And while fielding percentage is flawed-- worst still means pretty darned awful! Best defensive outfielder (Fielding Percentage)-- Pete Rose. I bet that both of those facts shock many. Cobb had no arm too btw.

Labatt Park was an Eastern League AA park and was upgraded when the CBL started up. It's bigger and better than anything Toronto needs or could fill. It does seat over 5,500 and is a full on stadium. No need for a brickyard with underground laundry, 3 snack bars and a merchandise booth. Something like Couch Park in Kitchener or the park the Baycats have in Barrie would be perfect. Put it just east of the CNE grounds where they have those garbage softball fields and Air Force monuments or use the space at Moss Park next to the armoury and arena and do up a full on real ballpark. Move the outdoor basketball courts and make it part of that neighbourhood's current ongoing overhaul.