spinowner

I'm sure this was a brain cramp. It's 14 (now 13) games.

Two key points I want to address in one post. One, with an odd number of teams in each league there will always be at least one interleague series happening. I think the two leagues should have an equal number of teams, so this is the unavoidable consequence. As far as the rule differences, one suggestion I've heard that I like is to use the DH in the NL parks and have the pitcher bat in the AL parks. That gives the home fans a chance to see the other league's game. To make the rule difference less unfair one possibility is something similar to the rule about adding a 26th player for the second game of a doubleheader. One of the inequities of interleague play is that AL teams build their rosters with the DH in mind and NL teams build their rosters with no DH in mind. To compensate for that the visiting team could be allowed to make one totally unrestricted roster move for interleague play. Unrestricted means exactly that; they can sign a free agent to a 3-day contract or call up a minor leaguer without using an option or anything else they wish, as long as the player is not suspended or something like that. Two, the overly unbalanced schedule. My proposal, FWIW, is to have 14 games against each division opponent, 9 games against the other 10 teams in the same league and 16 interleague games. Against one of the other two same-league divisions there would be 4 home games and 5 road games and against the other division it would be the opposite. This would alternate every year. The interleague games would all be against the teams from one division. Two teams would visit you for 3 games, you would visit two teams for 3 games and the fifth team would be 4 games split two at home and two away. The division match-up would rotate so you'd play against every team over a 3 year period. This is mathematically balanced but that doesn't necessarily make it fair. It means teams from the Eastern time zone and the Pacific time zone would play more games against each other than they do now, and that does give a small but real advantage to teams in the Central and Mountain time zones. So I doubt we'll see any change in that anytime soon.

If they did it they should be prosecuted. Why they did it is totally irrelevant.

This year Pelfrey is not a back-of-the-rotation pitcher. He's the best starting pitcher on a team with a winning record. Now is the time. Put out some feelers. Get what we can for him. We can piece something together for a couple weeks until Ervin returns.

Today: NL Central: +15 AL Central: +7 AL East: +7 AL West: +1 NL West: -3 NL East: -27 Things can shift quite quickly if just a few teams go on a roll or into a dive, especially when there aren't many intradivision games.

So have the Twins assigned Jay to Ft. Myers? That's not bad for a newly-drafted pitcher, even out of college.

As useful as WAR can be, it only evaluates what a player does on the field. It doesn't measure Ruth's pitching talent, at least not after 1919.

One thing I enjoy about mowing the lawn is that it gives me an opportunity to think. And this morning's thought was this question. Specifically I'm considering career performance over peak performance. Playing conditions, strategies, player specialization and so forth have changed greatly over the course of the years. Because of those changes it is extremely difficult to answer this question definitively, even with thorough statistical analysis. Apples vs oranges and all that. In spite of that, we can all form an opinion. As you can probably guess, I've decided to post my opinion and invite others to post theirs. I have not done a thorough review of career statistics and I'm not going to cite any specific numbers. I suggest that those who wish to post an opinion realize that other opinions are equally valid and that there is probably no right or wrong opinion. Unless you think Terry Felton should be considered. I think there are three players who are finalists. In alphabetical order: Walter Johnson, Willie Mays and Babe Ruth. The thing that usually seems to get left out of this discussion is that Ruth was a good pitcher. That outweighs any advantage Mays may have had over Ruth in the other phases of the game and Ruth's performance in the other phases of the game outweighs Johnson's advantage over him as a pitcher. I will also say that I give Ruth the edge over Mays as a hitter because he outperformed the other hitters of his generation by a wider margin than Mays outperformed the other hitters of his generation. I'd certainly give Mays the edge in fielding and base running. So the answer (IMHO): Babe Ruth.

If the Twins intend for Sano to play 1B in the majors they'd be playing him there in Chattanooga. Until that happens I'd be in favor of a moratorium on all posts suggesting he play 1B for the Twins

One triple down, 30 more to go this year.

Jinxed.

Hicks makes that catch.

Yikes.

I soooo want to comment on this but I think I'd better not.

The wind began to switch, the house to pitch. And suddenly the hinges started to unhitch...

I guess I stand corrected. I thought Mauch did that.

And before both of them, Gene Mauch.

If I were a moderator I'd consider issuing a warning to anyone who proposes that. The only circumstances that would put him back behind the plate would be if Suzuki, Herrmann, Escobar, Nunez, Plouffe, Dozier, Graham, Fien, Pressly and Buxton were all injured during the course of a game.

I think the original post was saying that catcher is the position that is least important in terms of producing offense. And I agree, with shortstop being next least important.

I agree, and I think the main reason for the change is that now they have minor leaguers who can step in without totally embarrassing themselves. During the past few seasons the cupboard was so bare that they would have been worse off using the DL for 15 days instead of playing short for 5 or 6.

It took 4 years (repeating for emphasis, 4 years!) for Justin Morneau to be Justin Morneau again. Every brain injury is different, but I think the correlation between Mauer's injury and the drop-off in his performance is too strong to be dismissed. We all hope that better times lie ahead.

Eddie Bane was probably never viewed by baseball people as a strong prospect. In June of 1973 the Texas Rangers announced that David Clyde, a Texas high school star they had drafted, would make his major league debut and the game sold out in a flash. Calvin Griffith saw the opportunity to do the same thing with his latest draftee and a couple weeks later Met Stadium was also sold out for Bane's debut. I was there, and I don't even remember how he and the Twins did, but Calvin's decision to hype his debut succeeded from a business standpoint.

My guess that the FO will decide or has already decided not to trade to improve the 2015 major league team. (I'm not addressing whether they should or not.) If that is the case I think Plouffe should and will be traded before July 31. His on-field performance and therefore his value in a trade are higher than ever, I'm guessing probably near his career peak. If the team doesn't want to put Sano on the 25-man just yet Nunez and/or Bernier will place-hold for the rest of this season.

There's Dozier taking Buxton's hit again. Except Buxton would have had a stand-up triple.

I can tell the difference between Single-A talent and MLB talent. Beyond that I don't know what I should say in the way of a game report. Maybe these guys would know. I'm not sure who they are but they all had clipboards and radar guns and stopwatches and computers. http://i.imgur.com/ktnaHPe.jpg