Brock Beauchamp

For me, this is the quintessential Mauer play: http://minnesota.twins.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20100610&content_id=11058226&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb So awesome. I just don't understand the negativity that surrounds the guy.

Sigh.

Pretty much this, though I might offer up the extension next offseason if he posts another .900 OPS in 2013.

Well, that's one way to avoid giving up the go-ahead run to the Big Canuck.

Sanchez has actually started to put it together a bit. He has been pitching quite well in September. I'd still be leery of the guy. He was below average for at least two months this season, maybe even three. He was scuffling well before the trade to Detroit.

I think your estimates are way too low, Seth. I think Jackson will get at least 3/$30m. Sanchez will probably get close to the same if he pitches well in his remaining starts (he looked pretty bad with Miami in his final months and struggled with Detroit right off the bat).

I've been pleasantly surprised by his play in RF. I think he's doing just fine but I've only seen ~3 games with him in the OF.

Twins: Denard Span CF Ben Revere RF Joe Mauer 1B Josh Willingham LF Ryan Doumit C Trevor Plouffe 3B Chris Herrmann DH Eduardo Escobar 2B Pedro Florimon SS (Esmerling Vásquez P) Indians: Vinny Rottino RF Jason Kipnis 2B Carlos Santana DH Michael Brantley CF Casey Kotchman 1B Brent Lillibridge SS Jack Hannahan 3B Thomas Neal LF Lou Marson C (Corey Kluber P)

I'm not saying he's waffling under the pressure at all. I'm simply saying that if the Tigers make the playoffs, it will be due to Cabrera playing out of his mind for a month. If the Angels make the playoffs, it will be because the rest of the Angels' squad supported Trout's relatively pedestrian numbers (compared to his start, anyway) in the second half. Guys have good/bad months all the time and I believe Cabrera should be commended for his late season performance, not that Trout should be punished for his late season swoon.

Of course it counts. And when the pressure is on, guys who perform deserve recognition for it. Every game counts the same but there's a big difference between a hot streak with 140 games left and a hot streak with 10 games left when your team is just a few games out of the division lead. One can mean the playoffs while the other means your team still has 140 games left to win/lose the division.

If you're going to count RBI, you have to count Runs. I mentioned earlier that Trout definitely has the advantage in runs scored. Is the entire package of Trout enough to overcome Cabrera's RBI and offensive totals? Well, I think that depends on what you're looking at. If you asked me whether I'd want Trout or Cabrera on my team in 2012, I'd choose Trout every time. He's the more rounded and capable player. On the other hand, "MVP" is a nebulous term. Cabrera is a run-producing monster who is leading or near the top of every offensive category in the AL. He's also "turning it on" exactly when his team needs him the most, posting an OPS of 1.126 in the second half. As with most MVP arguments, it comes down to what you think is most valuable. I won't shed any tears if Trout wins the award. I'd probably give it to Miggy if I had a vote but I tend to sway more toward the player who is helping keep his team in contention down the stretch, not the guy who is scuffling a bit as the Angels teeter on the edge of falling out of the Wild Card race. Either way, it's an interesting debate. PS. It's crazy that Trout has scored 45% of the time he has reached base. That's insane.

No, I did not realize that.

Ah, tethering. Are you a Sprint or T-Mobile customer? Because both Verizon and AT&T now offer tethering included in their new plans. But if those plans will run you more money, root that bitch. My current phone doesn't have tethering and it drives me nuts. Thankfully, I have a new iPhone coming in a few days and my new plan will automatically include tethering.

MVP voting is one of the few areas where I feel it's fair to use RBIs and Runs. The MVP balloting is about results and while RBIs are team-influenced, they are also firmly based on results. Cabrera drove in that run and helped his team win. That cannot be debated. Trout scored that run and helped his team win. That cannot be debated. How it came about is kind of irrelevant. RBIs and Runs are nearly useless when trying to predict a player's future performance but in results-based voting such as the MVP or HoF, they should be used to judge how a player performed. And Cabrera has a whopping 53 more RBI than Trout. He's also leading in OPS, BA, OBP, HR, and most offensive metrics. Trout has him in defense and base running. Overall, I think it's close but given how voters historically lean in their voting, I think it's Cabrera's award to lose. Plus, voters should notice that Cabrera is putting up an OPS over 1.200 in September while Trout is scuffling with a .778 mark. That matters. Both of their teams were contenders going into the month and one guy has stepped up while the other faltered.

We have no idea what Ryan actually said in that interview. The only word in quotation was "thin", which was made in reference to elite pitching. To make any assertion about JR's beliefs requires several turns at the Jump To Conclusions mat. Thanks for carrying that torch RP!! Heh, no problem. I really didn't like the quote and what it meant on the surface but given the context, there's little to be gathered from the vague way it was referenced in the article. We should all hope that it was terribly misleading.

I rooted my old tablet and started the process on my HTC Inspire but held off when I found the camera didn't work with the ICS ROM I was going to install. Is there a reason you're rooting the SIII? Jelly Bean will be on the way soon and unless you can find a ROM that is absolutely 100% stable, I'd leave it as-is. You have little to gain by rooting that phone, IMO. But all in all, the process usually isn't that difficult, just a little time consuming. Go slowly and follow the directions. If you have a question, just stop and research it fully. You don't want to brick the thing (though that's generally rare in the more modern ROMs).

I wouldn't have blamed Hendriks for walking out of the stadium and hopping on a plane back to Australia if Robertson gave away that lead.

Did they take away Mauer's hit and the run? What the hell is going on here?

But that's not the argument, is it? You claimed "no impact prospects ready to contribute". By that reasoning, it's impossible for any prospect "to be ready to contribute" until they've actually done so. Gibson should be ready to contribute by the All-Star break if his rehab goes as expected. Parmelee is already contributing. Arcia and Hicks have a good shot at contributing. No one is claiming certainty about anything, we're simply refuting your statement that "no impact prospects are ready to contribute in the majors next season". There are several who should contribute at some point in the season.

Cabrera's post All-Star numbers: July: 1.086 OPS August: 1.092 OPS September: 1.223 OPS Christ, those numbers are Bonds-ian.

Jesus, Miggy with another homer. Sitting at 1-2 for the night with 2 BB. He's on fire. I'd be shocked if he loses the MVP at this point. Trout is fading fast and Miggy has turned into a monster.

Another single for Mauer, another run for the Twins, and getting close to locking down Hendriks' first win... Good night overall.

If they asked for more than Span, I'd politely tell them to piss off. Shields is under control for two years at a combined $21m. Span is under control for three years at a combined $20m. Shields is a good pitcher but he hasn't been lighting the world on fire this season. Shields is also two years older than Denard. If Tampa wanted something along the lines of a low upside PTBNL as organizational filler, sure, I'd do that deal. But if they want a player of any significance to the organization, I'd go elsewhere and look for someone with a lower price tag and more team control, even if it meant diving into the low minors and finding a guy who won't help until 2015.

bwahahahahahahahahahahah

We have no idea what Ryan actually said in that interview. The only word in quotation was "thin", which was made in reference to elite pitching. To make any assertion about JR's beliefs requires several turns at the Jump To Conclusions mat. Gibson made two starts in AAA. Two. He jumped from GCL to Fort Myers to Rochester after only a handful of starts. I put absolutely zero stock in that performance, as he was still in the rehab stage. A full offseason and Spring Training will show what he's capable of doing, not ~10 rehab starts in the minors. Look at that first slash stat of McCarty's line. Yeah, that batting average of nearly .400 was sustainable, especially considering that it was a full .101 higher than anything he had previously posted during any significant stretch of MiLB hitting. He also did it over a measly 175 PAs in the hitter-happy-haven PCL (remember those days?). To top that off, McCarty went and posted six consecutive sub-.700 OPS seasons in the major leagues. Parmelee, on the other hand, posted a 1.100 OPS in September last year and is posting a .919 OPS this September. In the last 14 months, if Parmelee plays, he hits. That's all there is to it. Despite his inconsistent play and general jerking around by the front office and Gardy, he has still managed a career OPS over .800 in ~250 PAs. And while people tend to discount his MiLB numbers, they were remarkably solid. He posted an OPS of .800 or better in every season except two, his first full season in Beloit (which he followed with a .881 OPS the next season) and one in New Britain. He's been a very consistent hitter who never garnered much attention because of his lack of power (which is no longer a problem) and his position, first base. In short, the McCarty comp carries no weight. And there's no reason to think that neither Hicks nor Arcia will receive anything more than a September call-up in 2013. Both should start the season in AAA and if one of them is tearing the cover off the ball, we'll see him before the All-Star break.