I think the Marlins are the perfect representation of the boom and bust nature of capitalism, and I look forward to their impending World Series title in 2015.
And I’m guessing two of those people didn’t want tickets and were just trying to get directions.
I was only in there to get directions on how to get away from there.
Granted, my Indians are probably a long way off from winning a championship, particularly when it’s going to be nigh impossible to overcome Detroit in their own division. Still, I wake up this morning to the news that the Tribe has signed Michael Bourn, and along with the other spending they’ve done this off-season, I think this team is going to be a lot more fun to watch this year than I had hoped.
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Can we start the season yet? Is it too soon? Anyone wanna play catch?
I’m thinking 4th in the East for the Yanks this year. They are staring at a long stretch of mediocrity.
The Giants pitchers and catchers reported today, so I celebrated by watching highlights of last year’s playoffs 
I’m looking forward to watching the World Baseball Classic next month…I think SF is sending 10 players at last count…
Having watched a ton of Yunel Escobar in person and on TV in his days as a Brave, he was an asset offensively and defensively. Hadn’t witnessed an arm as good as his since Furcal, and his range seemed decent. His walk rate plummeted last year, but he has a puncher’s chance of putting up an .800 OPS for the Rays. My guess is Maddon is the right manager to maximize his production.
I was pissed when the Braves traded him for Gonzalez, who blew chunks as a Brave.
They traded him for the same reason Toronto traded him and Miami traded him almost immediately after they acquired him; he’s a colossal idiot. The Braves also got Tyler Pastornicky in that deal, who might still work out.
When Escobar has played well he’s played very well, but I don’t think he’s a very good candidate for long term success. Aside from his being a doofus, he’s rather big for a middle infielder, is on the wrong side of 30 now, and he’s slow as hell. He’s one of the slowest men I have ever seen play shortstop in the major leagues. He’s still a very good defensive player because he’s got a rifle attached to his shoulder, but big slow guys don’t age well at any position. Coming off a terrible 2012 he is more or less the absolute poster child of a Player On The Verge Of The End Of His Career.
Didn’t see him play at all in Toronto, but it’s not like he gained 30lbs from his Atlanta days. I haven’t seen any defensive metric that rates his 2012 as any worse than average. Whatever slowness you’re seeing isn’t having a measurable impact on his play.
You’ve assumed the glass half-empty position. We’ll see what happens and how long he lasts. Tampa’s rather decent at assessing talent.
Not defensively yet, no. It has a pretty clear impact on his lack of extra bases, stolen bases, and the fact that he grounds into a lot of double plays.
That’s not really the point though; the point is that that type of player, that particular profile of skills, stats and abilities, generally collapses early.
Saw this randomly on Rotowire, so decided to follow up. Yunel posted a 3.9 WAR this year, all on the defensive side of the game. His offensive value was just a tick below replacement level. This was his highest WAR since 2009.
We didn’t get much right last winter, did we?
Here’s to a better Hot Stove League coming up.
Is somebody going to start a new thread for this year, or do we keep on using this one?