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ashbury

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Everything posted by ashbury

  1. ashbury
    Can they be relegated to a soccer minor league?
  2. ashbury
    Yeah, that's what I call my fastball, too!
  3. ashbury
    Sure, it's a basis, but not the final word. The high-end company my daughter works for has made it plain that in this difficult economy, they are not only not laying off anyone, but they are selectively hiring aggressively, on the theory of picking off plum employees from competitors who are focusing on their current bottom line. The strategy worked great for them during the 2007-2011 downturn. (Past performance is no guarantee of future results... ) The point is not to specifically defend a $140M payroll, but to suggest that it wouldn't be crazy for a team to decide this is the year to be contrarian and invest in some way.
  4. ashbury
    Per Phil Miller, the Twins have announced that Lewis underwent successful surgery yesterday.
  5. ashbury
    Sometimes the spell check software guesses correctly, sometimes the spell check software horseradish.
  6. ashbury
    I always enjoyed Howie (No Relation to Randy) Newman:
  7. ashbury
    "The Lighter Side of Devastating Sports Injuries, Volume 1"
  8. ashbury
    Cleveland. But otherwise I share your view.
  9. ashbury
    I too would like to see a floor. But $150M sounds more than a tad high to me. I don't know where the "50% of revenue" target for major league salaries actually came from, and it probably presumes a right to a 15% profit on revenues so I am willing to let the least successful teams fail to hit that target by a bit, or even (*gasp*) lose money in an occasional year. But there are 7 teams with revenue (according to Forbes) below $275M, and I don't think those teams are just lazy and need some new incentive to market themselves better. The Miamis and Oaklands are going to have a problem with such a high floor. A floor of even $110M would be such a huge step in the right direction anyway, and would be a show of good faith.
  10. ashbury
    I hope Byron's added muscle will finally be the key to him laying off the outside breaking stuff in the dirt.
  11. ashbury
    I wanted to ask yesterday too: how did you break what appears to be a tie?
  12. ashbury
    A system that prevents a college player from reaching free agency until his 30s or so is probably a non-starter with the players' association. I'd also question whether the intent was to further hollow out the NCAA baseball program and basically coerce every good prospect to sign professionally after high school.
  13. ashbury
    Then I need to find one of those lying idiots because the vaccine is in short supply here in Massachusetts.
  14. ashbury
    Could be a tinge of groupthink going on. Each team has its own talent evaluators, of course. But there has to be something appealing about knowing another team thought well enough of a player to spend a 40-man roster spot on him. When that other team has to ask waivers, you at least look at him, if you have a spot open. He might not be even Plan B in your depth charts, but all else being equal you want your emergency role fillers to be as good as possible. Grabbing-then-waiving is one method of shoring up the AAA depth, and there's practically no downside.
  15. ashbury
    I like the Simmons signing, but personally I'm pumping the brakes on expectations for him. The Angels didn't suddenly start winning division titles when they acquired him, and that was more in his prime. I expect him to be the best defensive SS in the group, but not other-worldly anymore. And his bat will be a mild minus.
  16. ashbury
  17. ashbury
    Remember when you got held back a year in school, and had to repeat second grade? It was because you were so smart, and the teachers knew it, so they needed to evaluate some of the other students for third grade, and give them a chance, before you. It's kind of like that.
  18. ashbury
    On the contrary, playing "the game" as you call it, so that the player is an extra year older before free agency can be attained under the CBA, can be either 1) what helps nudge him toward signing the long-term contract, and/or 2) what helps lower the cost of that contract to the team by a few million. It's not the pleasantest part of a player's life, but the owners and players union hammered out all the details, and we shouldn't call it silly for either side to then work within those rules to their perceived benefit. "Baseball has become a business" is the constant lament since professional leagues were first formed in the 19th century. "Nobody plays for the love of the sport anymore." Nope, they don't.
  19. ashbury
    Wielhouse!
  20. ashbury
    Sure, but probably the comparison is, would you have liked Odo plus a waiver-wire project, more than Shoemaker plus Happ. About $10M either way. It will be interesting at the end of the season to add up Shoemaker's good games and Happ's, subtracting their bad games, and compare to Odorizzi's good-minus-bad (with presumably some other team).
  21. ashbury
    Comforting to know.
  22. ashbury
    I agree a lot with this. I find scouting reports of prospects useful that try to peg a pitcher's role, "could be a #1," "slots somewhere as a #2/3" etc., but I think it's crazy to say "ceiling is a #5". There is no such thing! You don't see a guy hold the #5 spot in a rotation for three or four years - not even a full season, usually. Whereas, for position players, it makes perfect sense to say that Jake Cave or Ehire Adrianza's best role is as a backup. #5 is for prospects being given a first chance, and veterans given a last chance. Thin ice, always. It's not a job, it's an opportunity. If you're signing a guy for millions with #5 in mind, it can't be the best use for that money. Just can't. Hopefully a Shoemaker contract isn't for much.
  23. ashbury
    I'd be entertained to watch him throw a change-up with that motion, I think. Not sure that pirouette at the end is optimal to field his position, but at least it's 360 and not just 180.
  24. ashbury
  25. ashbury
    We can guess all we want but, until we see him in ball games, we won't know.
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