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ashbury

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Everything posted by ashbury

  1. ashbury
    IMG 20181103 203716385

    From the album: Arizona Fall League 2018

  2. ashbury
    As a first time manager probably making $700K or so, even Eddie Gaedel would deliver good price/performance compared to the Maddons and Franconas of the league. https://www.azcentral.com/story/sports/mlb/2018/08/27/mlb-managers-salary-rankings-how-much-paid-2018-baseball-season/1111776002/
  3. ashbury
    OK, so maybe it removes them from competition for some righty.
  4. ashbury
    Will it? Seems like it removes the Dodgers from being in that competition for some other lefty.
  5. ashbury
    Even that scenario could be OK, if we got someone super productive in return.
  6. ashbury
    Hrbek's underrated. I recall hearing that other teams' game plans would identify Hrbie and not Puck as "we're not going to let him beat us" at the plate, but would pitch around or otherwise tactically try to neutralize him and take their chances with others. I think what Doom is saying that his batting numbers are such that, if he had played a defensive position of more importance than 1B and played it well, you'd have the beginnings of a HOF argument, though hardly an Inner Circle type. But, Hrbek would have been deployed somewhere different on the field if anyone had thought he was capable, and was not, so he is what he is. (He was nimble for a big man, and also IMO a smart baserunner, but not the asset that a more agile athlete would have been.) Unlike people like Trout or Pujols, the bat alone isn't sufficient by itself to get Hrbek into the Hall. I'm not going to make a HOF argument for Hrbek, and I don't think Doom is either. He's Hall of Very Good.
  7. ashbury
    Optimism? Our Vikings?
  8. ashbury
    The panel would also have accepted... well, pretty much anything actually.
  9. ashbury
    Concur.
  10. ashbury
    I'm going to go with an Andy Kaufman reference instead, just as soon as I can think up a good one.
  11. ashbury
    What. Have. I. Done.
  12. ashbury
    "Yes and no," or "Yes or no"?
  13. ashbury
    All 30 teams in the post-season was enough. Sorry, though, the sarcasm I laid on was too thick.
  14. ashbury
    I saw a robin in my back yard yesterday. It was pretty.
  15. ashbury
    And instead of 7-game series, make each series a month long, starting in May; five series should crown a champion. Because the regular season would have about as much meaning as Spring Training, under this plan. Part of what I like about baseball is that you need one kind of team for the rigors of the long season, and then another kind of team for the intensity of short series. This proposal would homogenize things down more than I'd want. You would gear up your roster for the short series style, and not worry about whether it let you do well in the regular season. You might muddle along with a lot of bullpen games, for example.
  16. ashbury
    I was completely pulling RB's chain. Even if something is no longer a market inefficiency, you still may need to do it, lest you fall behind and become an inefficient dinosaur yourself.
  17. ashbury
    In Nevada, the snooty people in high-falutin' Reno refer to the town of Fernley just east of them as "Ferntucky". It's fair game out West to make fun of the South, apparently. (But, this recently-transplanted East Coast snob makes fun of Reno, so there's that.)
  18. ashbury
    Cruel but funny.
  19. ashbury
    The league split is interesting - the aggregate version I've seen looks similar if you imaging blending the two. That certainly changes the thinking, although there is still something to be said for handing over the relatively easier second inning to the starter, who sometimes doesn't begin the game with complete command. I've said elsewhere that a stud starter should not require an Opener. It seems like a decent strategy for breaking a rookie starter into the majors without relegating him to bullpen mopup (or short) duty.
  20. ashbury
    Here is something that was posted to the SABR email list the other day.
  21. ashbury
    How about this for real data: more runs are scored in the first inning than in any other. Why not apply one of your good bullpen arms to try to address that, and then let the long-haul pitcher settle in for the innings which follow? If all goes well, bring in another good arm when the going gets tough again late in the game. And if things don't go perfectly, that's baseball. The manager still has to manage. But you can try to put your players in a position to succeed.
  22. ashbury
    Yeah, you're right. I got ahead of myself. This team is too crappy to be formulating any 2019 plans around. Houston isn't worrying about "what if one of our hitters is batting .112 in May." Neither is Boston, or LA, or any other legitimate contender. I'm going to wait until we have stopped relying on Yankee rejects like Austin and Cave, hopefully in 2020. The engine is still in parts on the shop floor. I seriously don't know what I'd do.
  23. ashbury
    This is something I keep meaning to address. As I said earlier, I'm hugely in favor of flexibility. But it's not a fetish for its own sake. The payoff of flexibility is that, in an era of short benches, it makes room for a dedicated DH if you have a good one. I don't want just any old bat, such as Grossman, as a full-time DH. I want one who's a difference maker. My take on Nelson Cruz is that he might be such a guy, as people keep expecting him to drop off offensively and every year he keeps on going. I'm open to contrary opinion on that forecast. But if Cruz profiles as still an .800+ OPS guy for 2019, and his road numbers in 2018 suggest that, then I want his bat in the lineup every day as my DH. The alternative, with a roster entirely populated by positionally-flexible guys, is that every single day, the DH position is manned by someone whose glove, which is part of what we paid good money for, is idle. That same money could have been applied to a little bit better bat, such as Cruz. In an era of 13-man pitching staffs, a full-time DH plus 8 regulars leaves 3 gloves on the bench. One's a catcher, one's an infielder, one's an outfielder. If everyone's capable of filling in multiple places, the DH places no strain on the manager, and that bat'll win you a game every now and then, moreso than a Grossman or a 2018-version of Mauer slotted there. Now that I think of it, Mauer's retirement is what opens the door for this move.
  24. ashbury
    So, you're saying that it's no longer a Market Inefficiency, and we should look elsewhere for a competitive edge.
  25. ashbury
    FTFY.
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