Protecting the Shields -- The Nick Cafardo Thread

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E5 Yaz

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QUOTE
3. If I had an extra $500 million lying around, I'd buy the Texas Rangers


This means, I think, that he already has the first $500M ... but he's unwilling to spend that on the Rangers
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

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I noticed two things:

1. His Q and A's seem to be done in a cattle-call setting. Today's with Longoria has a question that he noted was "from another reporter". I'm not really sure what to make of this. Because the one thing that I was giving him was that he had enough "juice" to get these guys to talk to him for five or ten minutes and answer his inane questions. However, if it's a conference call or he's just one in a pack of reporters, than it's even lamer than I originally thought. And what are the other reporters thinking when Cafardo blurts out his eighth-grade level questions?

2. The only real bit of reporting/analysis on the entire baseball page wasn't even Cafarado's. The look at the potential top ten draft picks was done by someone else. Way to go, Nick. Keep earning that loot.
 

Ferm Sheller

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Updates on nine 1. Tom Glavine, LHP, free agent: Part of him is thinking about retiring, but another part still wants to pitch because of all the work he's done rehabbing his left shoulder. He'd prefer to stay in the National League. The Cardinals could be a possibility after Kyle Lohse reinjured his right forearm, forcing him onto the disabled list for the first time.

"Part of him is thinking about retiring"? Which part, his brain, right? "[A]nother part still wants to pitch"? Nope, same part, Nick. His brain. 43 year-old pitcher coming off an injury. May retire, may not. Insightful.

"He'd prefer to stay in the NL." Did he tell you that or are you just making a safe, obvious assumption? 43 year-old free agent pitcher coming off injury and without many suitors. May stay in the NL, but may go to the AL. Insightful.

Is the bit about him possibly landing the the Cards just mere speculation, too? 43 year-old free agent pitcher coming off injury and without many suitors. Hey, the Cardinals are down a starting pitcher. Who knows, the free agent pitcher may go to the Cardinals. Insightful.

Thanks again for nothing, Nick. We know nothing more about Glavine's status than we knew before the Globe landed in the puddle on our front porch steps.
 

judyb

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QUOTE (Ferm Sheller @ Jun 7 2009, 10:04 AM) index.php?act=findpost&pid=2338349
Updates on nine 1. Tom Glavine, LHP, free agent: Part of him is thinking about retiring, but another part still wants to pitch because of all the work he's done rehabbing his left shoulder. He'd prefer to stay in the National League. The Cardinals could be a possibility after Kyle Lohse reinjured his right forearm, forcing him onto the disabled list for the first time.

"Part of him is thinking about retiring"? Which part, his brain, right? "[A]nother part still wants to pitch"? Nope, same part, Nick. His brain. 43 year-old pitcher coming off an injury. May retire, may not. Insightful.

"He'd prefer to stay in the NL." Did he tell you that or are you just making a safe, obvious assumption? 43 year-old free agent pitcher coming off injury and without many suitors. May stay in the NL, but may go to the AL. Insightful.

Is the bit about him possibly landing the the Cards just mere speculation, too? 43 year-old free agent pitcher coming off injury and without many suitors. Hey, the Cardinals are down a starting pitcher. Who knows, the free agent pitcher may go to the Cardinals. Insightful.

Thanks again for nothing, Nick. We know nothing more about Glavine's status than we knew before the Globe landed in the puddle on our front porch steps.

That's totally unfair. The guy that delivers my Globe never leaves it in a puddle.
 

MyDaughterLovesTomGordon

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From Cafardo's wholly uninteresting column today:

QUOTE
3. Colorado Rockies: Nice week. They have won eight straight (on the road) under new manager Jim Tracy and had, in the words of an opposing scouting director, "a great draft - they got some top-end kids." Top pick Tyler Matzek might be tough to sign, looking for more than $7 million.


This must be particularly surprising considering Cafardo named Tracy one of the five worst managers in baseball just two weeks ago.
 

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QUOTE (ngruz25 @ Jun 14 2009, 07:59 PM) index.php?act=findpost&pid=2359535
Daisuke likes cheeseburgers!

The first thought I had when I read that was that Cafardo is aware of this thread and put that in there just to play with us.

Then I realized that reading his column is making my mind melt.
 

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QUOTE (TheoShmeo @ Jun 14 2009, 08:02 PM) index.php?act=findpost&pid=2359543
The first thought I had when I read that was that Cafardo is aware of this thread and put that in there just to play with us.

Then I realized that reading his column is making my mind melt.

I thought he did that as some sort of ham-handed way of saying Daisuke was out of shape. Then again, with Nick you never really know, which I suppose is the crux of the whole problem with him.
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

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I have no idea what he meant by that line. At first I thought that he meant that Daisuke was fat, but I don't really think that he is. Is he?

But having thought about it all day, I think that Daisuke may really like cheeseburgers.
 

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I have no love for Julio Lugo, but what the fuck is the relevance to his footwear other than to make a snide comment?

QUOTE
Nick Cafardo, Globe, June 14, 2009

It was as if he experienced that Philadelphia freedom. As if he had run up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art pumping his fists like Rocky. That's how invigorated Julio Lugo felt last night.

"Of course, when you get hits, you feel good," said Lugo, slipping on a pair of $400 Gucci sneakers after the Red Sox' 11-6 win over the Phillies. "The only way you feel comfortable is by having success."
 

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QUOTE (joyofsox @ Jun 15 2009, 12:35 PM) index.php?act=findpost&pid=2360169
I have no love for Julio Lugo, but what the fuck is the relevance to his footwear other than to make a snide comment?

I'm no Cafardo fan, but seriously, getting annoyed about Cafardo making a comment on Lugo's shoes? Come on. He was making a connection between success and being comfortable, because if I owned a pair of $400 Gucci sneakers, I better feel like I'm walking on air.
 

E5 Yaz

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I agree with joyofsox here. The sneakers comment is just a rather weak attempt to remind people that Lugo makes a lot of money, while not performing up to expectations.
 

Blacken

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It seems that I learn a lot from Nick Cafardo.

It seems that I learned that Gucci makes sneakers, for example. It seems that I also learned many things that it seems one should never do when writing.
 

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QUOTE
2. Daisuke Matsuzaka, RHP, Red Sox - The most surprising thing was his lack of conditioning, and that he didn’t feel he had to do any of the shoulder strengthening program all Sox pitchers are on. According to a major league source, Matsuzaka appeared convinced that a Japanese shoulder is different from an American shoulder. Head-scratcher. In the end, he realized it wasn’t true. One thing the Sox have him convinced of now: He will be on the program next offseason. They may send medical or training staff to Japan, or Matsuzaka will have to make periodic trips to the US to get checked out. The Sox see a Sept. 1 return.


This is the first time in a while that I have learned something while reading a Cafardo column. Good work. Now, if you get rid of the nonsense that is actually thinking Cora can make a big difference on the Mets or would have been a good replacement for Lugo.

Link
 

joyofsox

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Actually, Cafardo is doing nothing more than restating what the Herald's Michael Silverman reported about the non-conditioning this past Tuesday (June 23).

The September 1 date might be new. I don't know. But I kind of figured Dice might stay in the minors all year, but make a few starts after rosters expand.
 

Rough Carrigan

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Here's an annoyingly lazy and dumb piece from Cafardo's column, in the lower right, from the "Bill Chuck" files, whatever the hell that is:

QUOTE
Last season, after coming back from Tommy John surgery, Florida's Josh Johnson was 7-1 with 13 quality starts out of 14. This season, Johnson is 7-1, with 13 quality starts out of 15. If he keeps pitching like this, they will change the name fo the procedure to "Josh Johnson Surgery'.


1)Quality starts are a poor stat and everyone's known it for years now. A quality start can work out to an ERA of 4.50, no better than average.

2)The stunning myopia of this comment is worthy of being issued by someone in Josh Johnson's family not a writer employed to provide news and analysis. The ranks of pitchers who've had successful Tommy John surgery is full of great success stories whose careers JJ would hope to have. One quick example, David Wells.

This comment is so fucking dumb, frankly it reeks of Cafardo currying favor with someone who's answered his phone calls a couple times in the past so that Cafardo, can say this in the future, "Josh? Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe! . . . No-no, Ca-far-do . . . yeah, the uh, fat bald one . . . anyway, I was wondering if I could get a few words from you about the (X) situation. I hope you could give me a few minutes. I-I did put that nice mention in my June 28 column about how well you've done after Tommy John surgery . . "
 

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I know it doesn't really have to be said, since we all knew it without looking it up, but since Cora has been the regular shortstop, he's been: .212/.302/.247/.549.

That's pretty bad even for Alex Cora.
 

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QUOTE (Rough Carrigan @ Jun 28 2009, 11:37 AM) index.php?act=findpost&pid=2385938
Here's an annoyingly lazy and dumb piece from Cafardo's column, in the lower right, from the "Bill Chuck" files, whatever the hell that is:



1)Quality starts are a poor stat and everyone's known it for years now. A quality start can work out to an ERA of 4.50, no better than average.


Quality Starts are actually a really great stat. You are just looking at it the wrong way.

You are taking the "worst" way to get the QS and using that to make your point. That's really unfair.

In this era of starting pitchers going less and less innings, the QS has more and more value. I'd much rather see a QS% then a Winning Pct.

Sure, in 1971 when pitchers were finishing games and the idea of a starting pitcher leaving before the 6th was insane, the Quality Start had much less value. But in 2009, it's actually a really great measuring tool.
 

Rough Carrigan

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QUOTE (SeanBerry @ Jun 28 2009, 02:04 PM) index.php?act=findpost&pid=2386091
Quality Starts are actually a really great stat. You are just looking at it the wrong way.

You are taking the "worst" way to get the QS and using that to make your point. That's really unfair.

In this era of starting pitchers going less and less innings, the QS has more and more value. I'd much rather see a QS% then a Winning Pct.

Sure, in 1971 when pitchers were finishing games and the idea of a starting pitcher leaving before the 6th was insane, the Quality Start had much less value. But in 2009, it's actually a really great measuring tool.

I'm taking the worst way to get a quality start because without more numbers, that's all that we know Josh Johnson did. We know he pitched six innings in each start and gave up no more than 3 runs. That's averageish pitching. To have the surgical procedure renamed after you, one would think you'd have to better than averageish pitching. If he pitched seven innings each time and gave up 2 runs then tell us that. Quality start is like a highway mile marker 3/4 of the way to where you want to go.
 

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I guess that we know who Cafardo's source in the Sox club house was last year. A month ago he did a Q&A with Cora now he gives him a back massage. Lots of ink wasted on a guy barely hitting .250. Though I will say that his nugget that Cora used to tip the club house guys for Manny was interesting. Not sure if Cafardo observed this himself or if Cora brought told him. And if it is the latter, why bring it up?
 

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QUOTE (Rough Carrigan @ Jun 28 2009, 04:24 PM) index.php?act=findpost&pid=2386793
I'm taking the worst way to get a quality start because without more numbers, that's all that we know Josh Johnson did. We know he pitched six innings in each start and gave up no more than 3 runs. That's averageish pitching. To have the surgical procedure renamed after you, one would think you'd have to better than averageish pitching. If he pitched seven innings each time and gave up 2 runs then tell us that. Quality start is like a highway mile marker 3/4 of the way to where you want to go.


There are many reasons to criticize Cafardo, but I wouldn't get all worked up over this QS issue. I get what you're saying - that all we know is that in those starts, Johnson went 6+ IP, with 3 or less ER. But generally, throwing that many QS shows a pitcher is doing something right (maybe not enough to have a surgery renamed after him, but...).

Just as one example from this Rob Neyer artice (from 2006):

In 2005, there were 2,447 QS in all of MLB, and the cumulative ERA in those starts was 2.04. In all non-QS, the cumulative ERA was 7.70. And in those QS, less than 10% were of the 6 IP, 3 ER variety.

Neyer '06
 

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And regardless of how good QS is as a stat, any time a journalist of Cafardo's caliber goes beyond W-L in his evaluation of a pitcher, it should be lauded as a step in the right direction.
 

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Nick finally got around to further explaining his insinuations that Dice K was out of shape. Yesterday, he finally said that Dice K had not participated in the shoulder strengthening program the team had set up. That's good information and quite valuable to the reader. But why did it take him almost a month to tell us? First it was "I hear Dice K likes cheeseburgers," then it was a statement that he was out of shape, with no additional info.

This is they type of thing that drives me nuts.
 

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QUOTE (Smiling Joe Hesketh @ Jun 29 2009, 08:30 AM) index.php?act=findpost&pid=2387630
Nick finally got around to further explaining his insinuations that Dice K was out of shape. Yesterday, he finally said that Dice K had not participated in the shoulder strengthening program the team had set up. That's good information and quite valuable to the reader. But why did it take him almost a month to tell us? First it was "I hear Dice K likes cheeseburgers," then it was a statement that he was out of shape, with no additional info.

This is they type of thing that drives me nuts.


A WEEI podcast from this past week has Tito refuting this rumor.

Not sure where the truth lies, but I thought it was worth mentioning.
 

thrawnqq

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4. Cuban defector Jose Iglesias is an Ozzie Smith-like shortstop. Quite a catch for the Sox if they land him;

---------------

Honest question. In this day and age, where new metrics hold sway, is Ozzie Smith a 'catch' anymore? He played to a career .666 OPS. Peak of .775. I certainly admired his play as a kid, but I was so much younger then, I'm older than that now.
 

Rough Carrigan

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QUOTE (thrawnqq @ Jul 5 2009, 05:46 PM) index.php?act=findpost&pid=2400936
4. Cuban defector Jose Iglesias is an Ozzie Smith-like shortstop. Quite a catch for the Sox if they land him;

---------------

Honest question. In this day and age, where new metrics hold sway, is Ozzie Smith a 'catch' anymore? He played to a career .666 OPS. Peak of .775. I certainly admired his play as a kid, but I was so much younger then, I'm older than that now.

Yeah, without denigrating Ozzie, I'd rather have an Alan Trammell type, which is the general type of a Lowrie.

But Ozzie was a fantastic fielder, not a 100 run saver like Cardinal hyperbole had it but certainly a steady 20 run saver and he worked at his offensive game and made steady improvement through the 80's. Yeah, an Ozzie Smith would still be a catch, especially if you think that, with PED testing, the days of shortstops slugging .600 will be about over.
 

MyDaughterLovesTomGordon

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Maybe this is nitpicking, but the idea that Brad Hawpe is having a breakout season seems silly to me. Hawpe received MVP votes in 2007 with a .291/.387/.539/.926 line and he's been over 120 OPS+ three years in a row. He's had a nice first half, for sure, but the implication is that he's come out of nowhere, which seems silly to me.

Also, the 'I really did speak to LaRussa from the visitors' clubhouse in Cincy, I swear' stuff is pretty funny. Seems to be a direct response to all of the criticism that he does everything via email with the same people. Not to mention that "Albert Pujols is wicked good" isn't exactly earth-shattering news.

Edit for also: "Reliever: Jonathan Papelbon. Honorable mention: Huston Street, Trevor Hoffman, Heath Bell, and Brian Fuentes."

Seriously? Who thinks Papelbon has been the best reliever in the league this year? What about Jonathan Broxton? He's got 20 saves, 6 wins (not the kind where you blow the save and get the win), and he's struck out 64 in 38.2 innings. The guy's sick. Rivera? Joe Nathan? David Aardsma's been better than Trevor Hoffman. Ryan Franklin's only given up 3 runs all year and has 20 saves.

Papelbon has done exactly nothing better than Heath Bell.

Bell has more Ks, fewer walks, 10 fewer hits allowed, a lower ERA and more saves in 2/3 fewer innings. Papelbon is better because... why?
 

ngruz25

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QUOTE (Cafardo)
5. Look for the Twins to be a real good second-half team.

Why does he drop crap like this into every single column? I follow the sport, and I know there's no reason for the Twins to be any better in the second half than the first, but I'll play dumb here: Why, exactly, should we be looking out for the Twins? Please, Mr. Cafardo, enlighten me! That's your job!

In fact, I think the Twins might be worse in the 2nd half, because there is no way that Mauer keeps hitting like he has. But maybe they'll be better, because Liriano can't suck as bad as he has, right? I don't know, Nick. Tell me.
 

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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:

QUOTE
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.

QUOTE
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?

QUOTE
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.)

QUOTE
The Mets have talented players, but not necessarily winning players.

Ugh. Not even going to touch this one.

QUOTE
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!
QUOTE
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.

QUOTE
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.

QUOTE
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.

QUOTE
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.

QUOTE
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.
 

Spacemans Bong

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QUOTE (thrawnqq @ Jul 5 2009, 10:46 PM) index.php?act=findpost&pid=2400936
4. Cuban defector Jose Iglesias is an Ozzie Smith-like shortstop. Quite a catch for the Sox if they land him;

---------------

Honest question. In this day and age, where new metrics hold sway, is Ozzie Smith a 'catch' anymore? He played to a career .666 OPS. Peak of .775. I certainly admired his play as a kid, but I was so much younger then, I'm older than that now.

QUOTE (Rough Carrigan @ Jul 5 2009, 11:16 PM) index.php?act=findpost&pid=2400959
Yeah, without denigrating Ozzie, I'd rather have an Alan Trammell type, which is the general type of a Lowrie.

But Ozzie was a fantastic fielder, not a 100 run saver like Cardinal hyperbole had it but certainly a steady 20 run saver and he worked at his offensive game and made steady improvement through the 80's. Yeah, an Ozzie Smith would still be a catch, especially if you think that, with PED testing, the days of shortstops slugging .600 will be about over.

Are you guys nuts? Ozzie Smith is one of the ten best shortstops of all time. First off, he was not a steady 20 run saver. According to UZR the best guys will save about 30-35 runs a season. Is there anybody today we would put in Ozzie's class? If you give Ozzie an extra 5-8 runs then we're approaching 40 runs saved in a season. That's a huge number.

Furthermore, he was hardly a zero at the plate. He stole 80% of his bases (and stole 580 of them for his career), walked up to 89 times a year, smacked about 30 doubles a year, struck out less than 40 times a year and was one of the best bunters of his generation. Much of this offense was in scarce run environments, both park-wise and league-wise. If you put his career line in a 2008 Fenway Park context, he hits 294/374/365. His 1987 is 327/418/412.

Trammell is about as valuable a player careerwise, but he even had an advantage over Trammell in that he was much more consistent than Trammell, who had Roy Campanella disease: middle of the order hitter one year, bottom of the order hitter the next. Ozzie batted second and pretty much hit like a 2 hitter every year.

I'd be overjoyed if this guy turned out to be Ozzie Smith.
 

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QUOTE (Spacemans Bong @ Jul 12 2009, 10:57 PM) index.php?act=findpost&pid=2417691
but he even had an advantage over Trammell in that he was much more consistent than Trammell


Possibly more consistent, but consistently far less of a hitter. The highest OPS+ Smith put up in his career was 112. Trammell topped that number nine times, often by a decent margin.
 

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QUOTE (Bellhorn @ Jul 12 2009, 01:16 PM) index.php?act=findpost&pid=2416863
We all know that good teams never have a player go through a slump.


This is my favorite, if only because his own paper just did a huge piece on the massive slump Bay is in.

How bad are the Red Sox? One of their all stars had a 10-game stretch where he went 4 for 40!
 

Spacemans Bong

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QUOTE (David Laurila @ Jul 13 2009, 01:28 AM) index.php?act=findpost&pid=2417922
Possibly more consistent, but consistently far less of a hitter. The highest OPS+ Smith put up in his career was 112. Trammell topped that number nine times, often by a decent margin.

Well no shit, really? My point is that Trammell had several years - at least three, possibly four depending on your criteria - where he was in the middle of his prime but had a stinker of a year at the plate. Not enough to make him a bad player, but there is a certain amount of value in consistency. If you're a GM in Detroit, can you count on Trammell? If he stinks, maybe you're a hitter short of where you want to be, so you have to hope Good Trammell shows up that year. By comparison Ozzie pretty much had the same year every year.
 

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So after lying to Congress, Nicky thinks its newsworthy that Roger lied to "a very good friend."

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Apropos of nothing: 1. The Royals’ legal counsel is Dick Nixon; 2. Free advice: DeMarlo Hale would fit nicely with the Nationals as manager; 3. If I were George W. Bush, I’d spend a lot of time in St. Louis; 4. Roger Clemens told a very good friend he never took steroids; 5. Hank Aaron gave a big thumbs up on the Celtics signing Rasheed Wallace.


Nothing much here
 

Trlicek's Whip

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Sunday 7/19's "column" also served a lazy cupcake about Adrian Gonzalez:QUOTE
Gonzalez, a durable player, could be traded at the deadline if Padres general manager Kevin Towers gets the right deal. The Red Sox have always liked Gonzalez, who is only 27 and who has an affordable contract that calls for him to earn $4.75 million next season and $5.5 million in 2011.
Never mind leaving out bits that run 180 degrees to the current conventional wisdom, especially regarding this well written SI article. To wit:

QUOTE
Just before the start of the '07 season Gonzalez opted for the security of a four-year, $9.5 million contract with a club option, and Boggs made sure that he did not forfeit any years of free agency. "It's been a great deal for me—a great deal," Gonzalez says. "Maybe I could have made a little more money by waiting, but I don't believe in being greedy. I'm O.K. with my team being able to afford me."
Of course that's a textbook professional ballplayer quote, but even so it doesn't seem that Nick read this SI article, or he did and either ignored or didn't understand it. Why would SD trade away AG now if they can wait a year and be in a Halladay-sized shopping window, or even two summers to evaluate where their franchise is and still hold some semblance of leverage?
 

David Laurila

Barbara Walters' Illegitimate Son
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QUOTE (Spacemans Bong @ Jul 16 2009, 02:58 PM) index.php?act=findpost&pid=2424820
...Trammell had several years - at least three, possibly four depending on your criteria - where he was in the middle of his prime but had a stinker of a year at the plate....


I suppose it depends on what you consider a player's prime, but in his age 25-32 seasons, 1983-1990, his OPS+ were: 138, 135, 89, 120, 155, 137, 85, 130. That is two down seasons out of eight, which really isn't all that inconsistent.
 

E5 Yaz

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QUOTE
Apropos of nothing: 1. The Royals’ legal counsel is Dick Nixon; 2. Free advice: DeMarlo Hale would fit nicely with the Nationals as manager; 3. If I were George W. Bush, I’d spend a lot of time in St. Louis; 4. Roger Clemens told a very good friend he never took steroids; 5. Hank Aaron gave a big thumbs up on the Celtics signing Rasheed Wallace.


This is a HoF-worthy list. I love the Hale/Natinals item, because it can be read in ways that Cafardo probably didn't intend. But my favorite is No. 3. I suppose he's saying that St. Louis is GOP territory; but, even if that's the case, it can't be friendlier turf for Bush than Texas.
 

joyofsox

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Re: Bush's visit to St. Louis for Opening Day April 2004

St. Louis Post Dispatch (web link dead, sadly):
QUOTE
"A somewhat hostile crowd complained mightily about the problems the presidential motorcade caused with regular fans trying to get into the park. A Cards employee tipped moi that the team was so concerned about Bush being booed that they piped in fake applause when he strode out to the mound."
 

Mo's OBP

New Member
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QUOTE (E5 Yaz @ Jul 19 2009, 11:40 PM) index.php?act=findpost&pid=2430089
This is a HoF-worthy list. I love the Hale/Natinals item, because it can be read in ways that Cafardo probably didn't intend. But my favorite is No. 3. I suppose he's saying that St. Louis is GOP territory; but, even if that's the case, it can't be friendlier turf for Bush than Texas.


I think he means the fans in St. Louis are polite and respectful, with the observation prompted by the good reception President Obama received on Tuesday night. And he has a point, as sporting event crowds tend to have a substantial amount of "boo-ers" no matter which politician is presented to them. Of course, to understand this observation as writtten one has to do a bit of mind reading.

My favorite has to be the Hank Aaron analysis of 'sheed. I mean, it's not like Aaron lives in Detroit (or Portland), and not even an iota of context (say just adding "Hank Aaron, huge hoops fan,...") to indicate why this should be noteworthy.
 

The Talented Allen Ripley

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QUOTE
Apropos of nothing: 1. The Royals’ legal counsel is Dick Nixon; 2. Free advice: DeMarlo Hale would fit nicely with the Nationals as manager; 3. If I were George W. Bush, I’d spend a lot of time in St. Louis; 4. Roger Clemens told a very good friend he never took steroids; 5. Hank Aaron gave a big thumbs up on the Celtics signing Rasheed Wallace.


After reading this yesterday morning, I gently put down the sports section and thought, "OK, now he's just fucking with us."
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

has fancy plans, and pants to match
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I thought that very same thing. That's why I didn't dissect his apropos.

Because five sentences that insane have to be done intentionally.
 

SeanBerry

Knows about the CBA.
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Jan 23, 2003
3,599
Section 519
Carfardo was on Sports Sunday last night and Gary Tangauy was talking about Marc Spears now working for Yahoo! Sports and joked to Carfardo that he was the only person still at the Globe.

Carfardo's answer: "Wait."

Gary and Micheal Holley (also on the panel) laughed very hard at this and allowed Nick to say he was just kidding or something to that effect.

He never did.
 
C

Corsi Combover

Guest
QUOTE (SeanBerry @ Jul 20 2009, 01:32 PM) index.php?act=findpost&pid=2430586
Carfardo was on Sports Sunday last night and Gary Tangauy was talking about Marc Spears now working for Yahoo! Sports and joked to Carfardo that he was the only person still at the Globe.

Carfardo's answer: "Wait."

Gary and Micheal Holley (also on the panel) laughed very hard at this and allowed Nick to say he was just kidding or something to that effect.

He never did.

Well, the Globe's union just ratified a new contract proposal that eliminates the 170 lifetime guaranteed contracts. Nick has on. We'll see how much longer he's around now that they can fire him as they please.
 

Harry Hooper

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QUOTE (Corsi Combover @ Jul 21 2009, 12:10 AM) index.php?act=findpost&pid=2432131
Well, the Globe's union just ratified a new contract proposal that eliminates the 170 lifetime guaranteed contracts. Nick has on. We'll see how much longer he's around now that they can fire him as they please.



It would be a great twist if he were fired now with the Halladay trade talks ongoing, given that Nick has such a great link to Ricciardi.
 
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