Really? No one wants to take a crack at this week's effort? Have we just gotten inured to his particular brand of inanity?
Personally, I never get tired of shooting fish in a barrel, so here we go:
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Hall of Famer Jim Rice has an interesting view on the Roy Halladay situation. While it’s widely thought Halladay would put any contending team over the top, Rice said, “With all due respect to Roy Halladay, who is a fantastic pitcher, he’s only out there once every five days. Give me an everyday player who can make an impact every day.’’
Rice is right, to a large degree. All you have to do is point to last season, when Manny Ramírez led the Dodgers to the playoffs. He couldn’t get them past the Phillies in the National League Championship Series, but his value was never greater than from Aug. 1 to mid-October.
Right, because to make a general case that A is better than B, it suffices to point out one instance where A was good.
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One National League scout who has evaluated Halladay for a possible deal said, “If Boston or the Yankees got him, race over. I think he guarantees one of those teams the pennant. He may even guarantee you win the World Series.
I mean, I know we're all excited about the Halladay hype and all, but this has to be one of the dumbest sentences I've ever read. How could anyone who actually makes a living in the game be so clueless about the fundamentals of how it actually works?
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It’s a matter of looking long range or short range. Do you win championships when you have the chance to do so?
Um, yes. Yes you do. (Apparently Nick took the scout's hyperbole at face value.)
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The Mets have talented players, but not necessarily winning players.
Ugh. Not even going to touch this one.
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Jose Reyes has a world of talent, but we’re hearing from Mets insiders that he’s not the type who’s going to get back on the field until he’s 100 percent.
This clause is structured "he is not X", where X in this case is "the type who's going to get back on the field until he's 100 percent." If you can think of any players who like to "get on the field until they're 100 percent", be sure to let us know. Great job, editors!
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How bad are the Indians? Their only All-Star, Victor Martinez, was 7 for 64 entering the weekend since June 15, his average plummeting from .341 to .298
We all know that good teams never have a player go through a slump.
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Look for the Twins to be a real [sic] good second-half team.
How about giving us a reason for this? Like perhaps the fact that their run differential is better than their record to date would suggest? I guess the problem here is that this would also suggest that the Indians would also improve in the second half of the season, whereas we know they're actually just bad for the reasons mentioned above.
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The Red Sox have needed 39 relief appearances in Wakefield’s 17 starts, fewest among their top four starters. The others: Josh Beckett, 44 in 17 starts; Jon Lester, 47 in 18 starts; Brad Penny, 58 in 17 starts. All four have had extra relief appearances tacked on to extra-inning games - Lester, six; Wakefield, Penny, and Beckett two each.
What a completely pointless exercise. If you want to examine a starter's impact on the bullpen, tell us his average IP/start, and maybe give some indication of how consistently his efforts approach this average, not some meaningless stat based on things that happened long after he was out of the game. What nonsense.
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Allard Baird, assistant to the GM, Red Sox - Baird brought the Sox Nick Green. You wonder if at some point he delivers Mark Teahen, one of his former players when he was GM with the Royals.
Why is this an update on Baird, rather than Teahen? (Newsflash: Assistant GM might conceivably have at some point had a thought about trading for one of his former players!) If this sort of baseless trade speculation is going to be of any interest to anyone, frame it as an update on the player, and tell us which teams might make sense as trade partners, and why.
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Matt Holliday, OF, Athletics - The way he’s hitting now, a few scouts predict he could be the next big name traded. While all the focus is on Halladay, Holliday has really picked it up.
His OPS so far in July is .744. In June, it was .814.