nicksaviking

So what are you saying, the difference between Holland and your closer of choice, Tyler Duffey, is even less? If the best of the best bullpen arms are only negligible difference makers, then there really is no reason to worry about the pen at all?

If there wasn't language prohibiting that then I'd think teams would have been doing this all along instead of paying the player and then paying the same amount in penalties to the league for blowing past their international cash allotment. With how tight MLB owners are, I can't see them paying the 100% penalty if there had always been a cheaper loophole to manipulate.

Those guys all signed before the new CBA when teams were free to go over slot on their international free agent money and pay the penalty. The new CBA now prevents that if I'm not mistaken.

The Asian leagues also have the age restriction then? I guess that sounds familiar though I thought that was only for the countries south of the border.

There's a cap to how much the MLB teams can pay the foreign teams for the players rights, but not how much the player can make, from my understanding. I think the max cap is 20M and as long as more than one team bids 20M he can negotiate his salary with multiple teams. A guy like Park was hindered because no one is going to bid the max cap which means there is no tie bid and the highest bidder wins negotiating rights. But a guy like Otani will surely have many if not most teams bidding the max.

While I know he can play in the field, I would guess an AL team would be the best fit because of the DH possibility. Or maybe it wouldn't since you'd lose the DH for the day if he's pitching and hitting. I don't know, hard to wrap my head around this unique situation. Still hard to not see him going to a big market though. If he is a two way player he's going to be a seat-filling novelty that any team would want. Well any team that isn't fearful of trying new ideas and strategies. I'm fairly confident Gardy and Ryan wouldn't have been comfortable giving a two way player a shot. It sure would be nice if other "Old School" types like Mike Scioscia and Dave Dombrowski find the idea off-putting. Getting the Angels and Red Sox out of the bidding sure would be helpful to a smaller market team's pursuit.

They did and Breaking Bad was awesome because of it. But because of his constant peril, Walt's story line was almost always intense and compelling. The fact that Breaking Bad was able to have near continuous intensity for five seasons was it's biggest accomplishment in my view. So far, outside of Jimmy's short Tuco story arc in season one, the only real intensity is coming from Mike's story. I personally enjoy Jimmy's story and if Mike wasn't in this show I think it would hold it's own as a completely different kind of narrative than Breaking Bad. A story about Jimmy is different and better than most other shows that focus on the law. However Mike's underworld dealings and clever ruse's are way too reminiscent of BB, so fans will always be reminded that this isn't a different world or a different kind of story. So if this show continues to have two separate and unique narratives, I think they are in danger of the audience losing interest in one of them and hoping to see more of the most compelling of the two.

Yeah this show has to be careful or people are going to be bored with the Jimmy stuff and just want to get to the Mike stuff. I know the wirters like the buildup and the character development, which is really good, but I think lots of fans are going to start getting impatient if Jimmy doesn't start getting more involved with the criminal element soon.

Yeah, it was a good interview and did shed some light, but still had the sense of egg shells and kid gloves. No matter how hard some push, baseball is still stuck in Stone Age quite often. Dynamics and responsibilties should change.

Falvey was on the pre-game show on the radio yesterday and was asked about Molitor's lineups. Falvey praised Molitor and said the lineups were all Molitor's doing. He then quickly praised Pickler and Lavine for their input in providing Molitor with lots of numbers and recommendations. The interview came across as quite a collaborative effort though Falvey wouldn't say so to undermine Molitor.

I'm in complete agreement that Molitor should be DFA'd if he continues to make poor decisions with the pen.

Yeah, busted out laughing at the end of that one. "Yes! I know him. He's a friend from work!" That was a pretty awesomely stupid line. And did it really take them three films to realize that Led Zepplin's The Immigrant Song was probably the most apt song to use for a Thor film?

Just for fun because these are all small sample sizes here and they could do a complete 180 after one more appearance, but some interesting and largely encouraging things I noticed with Brooks Baseball pitch tracking. http://www.brooksbaseball.net/ Phil Hughes: I wanted him out of the rotation all off season because his off-speed and breaking stuff varied from awful to non-existent. The usage of Hughes' fastball, which has brought a chorus of boos due to a lack of velocity, decreased 40% from last year. He only threw his heater 30% of the time, meanwhile he threw his changeup 26% of the time. This is a pitch that he has barely touched in a half decade. Hughes made it through the day with a good box score but too many hard hit balls. This experiment might not work, but it's a good sign. Verdict: At minimum, encouraged by the effort to fix a glaring problem. Kyle Gibson: I can't summarize concisely how much I dislike Kyle Gibson's sinker. Or sinkers in general. Or the Titanic. Google my username, Gibson and sinker and the clinical definition of a mental disorder will pop up. To cut to the chase, Gibson threw 30% fewer sinkers than his average last year. He also threw 40% more sliders, one of his two good pitches, the change being the other which stayed the same. Verdict: Hooray! Let's get rid of that silly sinker! Michael Tonkin: You've got to be kidding me; Michael Tonkin's sinker usage increased 70%! Seems like we found where Gibson's missing sinkers went. Tonkin has also added a cutter this year. According to the site he has never thrown one before. His slider and 4-seamer usage is way down. Last year wasn't good for him so I guess there's good reason to try new stuff. Though he still went nearly 3 innings in his one appearance this year so I guess he's still the long man for some reason. Verdict: Ugh, fine go ahead, do it, throw that stupid pitch. Change is good, help me embrace this one. Let's all just enjoy your influx of groundballs hit to the left side of the infield. Hector Santiago: He has been known as a lefty who gets by on smoke, mirrors and a genie in a bottle who got lost in a checked bag when he flew to Minneapolis last year. He's always been a two pitch pitcher using a FB/changeup combo with a bad curve that he breaks out once in awhile. Well the FB usage increased while the changeup usage decreased. Hey, but he got the win! Verdict: At this rate he'll be a 1 pitch pitcher by June. Brandon Kintzler: Verdict: Nope, I'm still too chaffed to talk about sinkers again. Ervin Santana: Um, this all looks the same. Verdict: Duh, why mess with the one thing that went right last year?

Along with Hughes, Kyle Gibson and his not-very-good sinker was my other soapbox complaint this winter. In his first outing it looks like Kyle threw 30% fewer sinkers than last year and 40% more sliders, which is a good pitch for him. Gibson's change is also a good pitch and I'd like to see him throw that more, but it's very encouraging that there appears to be efforts to fix problems instead of the old fingers crossed and hope for the best approach. Small sample sizes of course; it's only been one game. Both pitchers could still revert back to their career norms in terms of pitch usage I suppose.

I've been against Hughes in the rotation all off season. But my biggest gripe, even more so than the velocity is that he had no changeup and his curve was always awful. Well 26% of his pitches last game were changeups, a pitch he hasn't really thrown in half a decade and only 30% of his pitches were fastballs (slowballs?). It looks like there is an active effort to re-invent Hughes. I'm still extremely skeptical and doubtful it will work, but I'll give him some leash seeing as they are attempting to fix him as opposed to stubbornly trying to push what no longer worked.

So he'd probably get even more heat getting thrown out at second before Grossman crossed the plate.

Maybe he's getting a pass for turning a double into a triple yesterday.

That was a clean hit! Man these scorers!

All reports make it sound like Greene has a pretty easy delivery. I don't think it's the velocity that causes arm issues, it's the exertion. Something I'm pretty confident the new analytically and pitching inclined front office is monitoring. Bukauskas would be my second choice, but his height worries me every bit as much Greene's inexperience.

Except in the game threads, everyone's a troll. Somehow it works there though!

So you don't want guys with plus velocity? I've grown very tired of the alternative.

I don't see Rooker anywhere on BA's top 100 list but that article and the Fangraphs projections have me extremely interested. I wonder how much his draft stock jumps the rest of the year. What kind of spot is he looking at? The Twins also drafted him last year in the 38th round, so they should be familiar. Is it weird that 30 minutes of reading on this guy will now leave me devastated if the Twins don't somehow end up with him? I didn't even know who he was before lunch!

That's a good interview. Rooker certainly sounds like he has a handle on swing mechanics which is a plus. Lot's of guys can talk about their swing, but he sounded like he might enjoy working on his swing as much as he likes playing baseball. Sounds like a good player to have.

I completely would agree if a specific class of people weren't being burdened by his actions. And to be clear, I'm looking at this solely as work related discrimination. Who he socializes with in non-work related situations should be his call. Assuming politicians ever have off hours?

It does sound like Greene's HS coach is doing right by him. He's not going deep into games and looking at his numbers the only reason for that is because he has a coach who cares about his future. Looks like Greene threw 55 IP as a junior and is only at 21 thus far as a senior. http://www.maxpreps.com/athlete/hunter-greene/uMJm9ZrFEeOzMAAmVebBJg/gendersport/baseball-stats.htm And only ten games left in the regular season. http://www.maxpreps.com/high-schools/notre-dame-(so)-knights-(sherman-oaks,ca)/baseball/schedule.htm Looks like the Twins might have a good number of innings to play around with if they'd like to. Ha, and assuming he's the pick.