My prediction in one of the earlier threads that Jake Peavy would win AL CY isn’t looking so hot…
I don’t see why the Jays did it.
Escobar is cheap, under contract for a while, and immensly talented. He could be on the next contending Blue Jay team, while Gonzo almost certainly won’t be.
Now there’s a contradiction in terms if I’ve ever heard one.
Is there no love for baseball on the SDMB? The fact that play has resumed and this thread is still buried makes a brother wonder.
Oh yeah, I came to brag about the Reds winning again. That’s right…the REDS.
Take note, NL.
Gonzalez has no value to them. He had a fine first half, but isn’t under contract past 2010 and was playing WAY over his head this year. If he’s re-signed he’ll be far more expensive than he’s worth, and the team is not going to win this year, so why not cash him in for something that might be worth it in 2011 or 2012?
Escobar’s under contract for a few more years at a good price and prior to 2010 was a better player every year he was in the majors than Alex Gonzalez has ever been. So why not take a shot and see if he can’t recover that?
Molina hit for the cycle tonight. Yes, a catcher! He actually left the game after running for the triple which I doubt he would have done if he wasn’t a triple away from hitting for the cycle. Rangers had a lead and the infield was lousy due to rain. No one would have been angry if Molina would have stayed at second, but he went for it and got it.
I think you have to be more specifiic.
What, you can’t take a last name and a position (catcher!) and know who is being talked about? It’s not like the guy has a bunch of brothers playing in the MLB, let alone the exact same position…
Yeah, i assumed it would be Yadier, but i was wrong.
you can see the homer and the triple here. That must be one of the slowest-run triples ever hit in Major League Baseball. There’s plenty of players in the league who might have been able to leg out an inside-the-park homer on that one.
A team with a power hitting short stop has a big advantage. A lot of shortstops are slap hitters . A dead spot in the line up leaks to the batters ahead and behind. You can pitch around the batter in front . The weak hitter kills rallies leaving the next batter with nobody on base. I would rather have Gonzales.
And if you could reasonably expect Alex Gonzalez to hit for the rest of his career the way he has done this year, you’d have a point. But Gonzalez’s best OPS+ in any year before 2010 was 99, and his career OPS+ is 81. This year, he’s at 114. And this year, about the only thing that’s keeping his OPS up is the home runs. His OBP is a crappy .301, and when those homers dry up (and they will), he reverts to being a below-average hitter again.
By contrast, Escobar’s career OPS+ is 105, he’s younger than Gonzalez, and, as RickJay noted, he’s pretty cheap. His long-term upside is far better, especially for a team that is unlikely to really compete for a playoff spot before Gonzalez retires.
gonzo, please, try to read what people are writing. Or look the facts up for yourself. I’m not sure how much more clearly it can be explained, but the trade made perfect sense for both teams. The contending team got the guy who’s hitting well this year and isn’t under contract past this year. The non-contending team got the younger guy who will probably hit better in the future and is signed past this year. What is so hard to understand about this?
Well, the Orioles have kicked off the second half with a bang (:rolleyes:), losing their first two to the Blue Jays. They’ve both been close games, but it’s going to be a long second half for Baltimore, i think.
The Padres, on the other hand, have come out of the gate swinging, putting up 20 runs in two games against Arizona’s awful pitching. The Rockies and the Dodgers have also done San Diego a favor by losing their last couple of games, and the Giants have now leapfrogged them both into second place, 3.5 games back of the Padres.
You’re welcome!
And Cincinnati will be happy to play you guys in the NLCS.
New guy Yunel Escobar just cracked a grand slam to help the Jays to a 6-1 lead over the O’s.
Jesus, there must be something in the water in Toronto this year that produces home runs. That was Escobar’s first of the year.
And this in a park that has been, over the past couple of seasons, around the middle of the pack (just in the bottom half) of the Park Factor stats for home runs. This year, Rogers Center is #6.
AJ hurts his pitching hand yesterday pulling a Kevin Brown (though he did not break anything at least) and with Price on the mound, Pettitte leaves the game with a groin pull and the Yanks pull off a solid victory over the Rays while the Bullpen pitched great.
I think this has to be a morale buster for the Rays to go with the Friday loss with the late inning comeback and walk-off single by Nick Swisher.
Now I just have to hope Andy is not going to miss too many games.
Ugh. Groin pulls on old pitchers = long lay off.
Fucking Dodgers. Fucking Broxton. God-damn Cardinals.