Mystery Team Revealed
Last night, word broke that the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim's pursuit of David Eckstein had hit a snag when a mystery team also became interested in the little smurf with heart.
According to super sleuth Ken Rosenthal, that team is the Orlando Hudson-less Arizona Diamondbacks. Phew. We can all go back to living our lives now.
Obviously, the Angels would look to Eckstein to fill the backup shortstop role with Macier Izturis out for the season while the Diamondbacks would give the plucky infielder playing time at second base with Augie Ojeda and Chris Burke.
There hasn't been this much interest in something so small since that time Jeremy Accardo talked two drunk girls into coming home with him. Meuh!
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42 rational and reasonable comments:
fuck watching games on box scores. fuck.
Good for Eck a winning player should be on a winning team not on a team that makes Rasner and Pavano look like CY Young and Nolan Ryan in their prime! I wonder how Eckstein must feel to be traded to a first place team like the Angels or Diamondbacks? The same fucking feeling of Stairs felt going to PHilly: playing for a contending club and not for a bunch of losers.
Hopefully, Eck will be traded so he doesn't have to be part of the humiliating sweep that will happen at Yankee Stadium. I'm convinced that Doc will want to walk after this season because this team is going nowhere but competing for 4th place. He'll do a Glaus and asked to be traded and Retardi will oblige.
what's the matter ?
you sound like you don't like watching the Jays and their castrated offence ?
Roy Halladay is a gentleman and a scholar, don't you dare slander his good name by saying he will whine for a trade.
according to Wilner, Zaun is great a defensive catcher
and the Rays to fall off and be fighting for the wild card this year
According to anonymous, structuring a sentence is impossible.
Hey Superfan, let's keep the enthusiasm down a little bit while the kids are still awake.
any live feeds?
^^
and the Rays [are going] to fall off . . .
there you go, Parksie
"Bang the Drum Slowly"? Parkes, I'm impressed. I thought you guys would be the more of the "Major League" type of baseball movie watchers.
Anon, Wilner claims they need offensive tweaks here and there!!!?? WTF? They are making Rasner look like a worldbeater today. It looks like a shoutout for today and a sweep. They will beat Doc tomorrow as the Jays won't even score a lone fucking run. Yet another irrevelant September......BLAME JP.
jesse barfield sure does like talking about lloyd moesby
being mediocre must be very frustrating for you
vern
Bautista
0 for past 26 at bats
10 strikeouts
ouch !
RE: JAYS 2010 (YOSHI) ANSWERING STOETEN ANSWERING GRIFFIN'S MAILBAG
Stoeten you inebriated fuck. You're probably in the middle of a hangover, so you should be at your sharpest. Don't be fucking ignoring my response to your response of my response to your response of Griffen's stupidity. I have given you the evidence of your ineptitude (using numbers as you requested). I am done on the subject. However, I wasted 35 minutes attempting to shit on your arguments so the least you could do is spend 5 minutes admitting your mistakes or trying to shit back on me by ripping apart my argument. Either one is fine by me. You have fans on this site, you know, and I am one of them. So don't go ruining your rep by hiding behind your silence. I have no interest in making it a weekly segment to shit on you shitting on Griffen, so just answer me so I can go back to enjoying you shitting on Griffen. I will copy my response so you don't have to go through the old posts.
By the way, your "David Purcey fucking sucks" post was awesome (and I love how you incorporated Chacin).
RE: JAYS2010 (YOSHI) ANSWERING STOETEN ANSWERING GRIFFEN'S MAILBAG - PART 2
Alright Stoeten...I'll try not to be too redundant but i may have to be to hammer home some points...First off, whatya think of my theory about Griffin picking questions so you won't rip him on every single question?
Anywho... I agree with you, we probably have many similar opinions, but you answered the question as poorly as Griffin did (hate to say it). You seem to concede that my pitching examples were correct (and when I spoke of "future performance" I was referring to pitchers and only gave examples of pitchers; I never gave any hitter examples and i thought this implied that my "future performance" argument referred primarily to pitchers with upside). Let me first address Burnett and his comparable pitchers from that offseason (using numbers just like u want) to show why JP paid more for future performance by getting Burnett over washuburn/millwood.
Millwood was 31 yrs old with a 107-75 record when he was signed by texas; Washuburn was 31 yrs old with a 75-57 record when he signed with Seattle, and he obviously got paid for leading the Angels to a world series in his career 18-6 yr of 2002 (just like zito got paid for winning a cy young, though the giants seemed to gloss over the fact that he was coming off a yr with a 1.40 WHIP and had been decling for years); hence seattle obviously paid for past performance - both guys obviously got paid for having good career winning % - as dumb as RG is, GM's think that way (hence russ ortiz got a huge contract from the dbacks after his big-win season with a shitty WHIP). AJ was basically 28 yrs old with a 59-60 record when he signed with us - clearly JP wanted what should be his best pitching years -these stats all came into play when JP made AJ his number one pitching target - so saying i'm using "hindsight" to call AJ the best guy to sign based on potential future performance from the 3 pitchers is dumb.
I also mentioned other targets such as Batista and Meche (u can add lilly/escobar in there) and these guys were also upside guys. On a similar note, id be shocked if u see derek lowe (who bloggers from this site seem to keep pining after) in a BJ uniform next yr cause he doesnt fit the profile of the pitcher JP typically goes after and this is to JP's credit - there would be nothing special about the 2009 version of Lowe pitching in the AL east (check out Lowe's stats in his last 2 yrs pitching for boston; factor out his high win totals from those years and factor in his advanced age in 2009 and u have an average to below average pitcher and we don't need a carlos silva albatross in TO) and this would totally block guys like Cecil/Mills/Romero etc down the road who can easily do what Lowe would and potentially more; when u guys keep saying that u want lowe, ure making the same dumb mistakes that other idiot GMs and griffin make...paying for past performance and wins...
Even though he wouldnt have signed with us, JP (correctly, in hindsight) never targeted a guy like Jason Schmidt because of declining performance/age - Between this post and the last one i think ive provided enough evidence for this argument. One final thing: you don't seem to mention the fact that you are totally wrong about JP predicting the pitching market -we all know JP is defencive in general, espescially when ppl shit on his drafting - he specifically said the yr after signing AJ and BJ that we were "prophetic" for giving those guys those contracts and he made similar statements right after he signed them because he knew the pitching market was going insane; clearly he wants others to think he was smart, but he was smart in this case, just as he was in locking up halladay after signing burnett (a trend which he started and many others have copied)
JP predicted the pitching market and we're reaping the benefits of this - u can either agree with this and admit that u were not well-versed in this area like some commenter accused u of, or u can find some evidence to refute this claim...this is one reason people shit on JP erroneously - they bitch at him for his mistakes and dont give him credit for his foresight, labelling it hindsight/luck incorrectly.
As for the hitters like Thomas, Eckstein, Glaus and Rolen...you never mentioned Rolen in your original answer, but i'll address him anyway; while I'd have been all over JP acquiring Andy Laroche (or someone like that) for Glaus, that isn't one of JP's patterns - that would make him seem like he's selling and he doesn't do that -something u guys have already said many times on your podcasts - i basically count rolen/glaus as one monster so ill focus on glaus...
In terms of guys like Thomas, Eckstein, Glaus and hitters in general, u have to realize that hitters are way different than pitchers; a hitter with a "mediocre" performance before free agency is never gonna get AJ money; if a guy hasnt hit too well in the 6 yrs prior to free agency, nobody is going to give him a long term contract based on "potential". As Jeff Blair and others have said many times, pitching coaches totally believe they can take special arms like AJ's and get the most out of them; have u ever heard of a team signing a hitter in free agency to a long term contract believing that their hitting coach can "mold" them into a middle of the order threat? It doesn't happen, so u can't compare hitters/pitchers this way (for the record, i believe juan rivera is a hitter who has never gotten as much of a chance as he deserves and id totally give him a cheap multi-yr contract and hope to reap the benefits - but thats just a personal gamble id take).
I think I've already explained that JP didnt acquire Glaus, Thomas and Eckstein based on their names; you don't seem to understand what I mean by not paying for past performance; this does not mean that JP avoids guys with track records - that would be dumb (in fact, AJ had a track record of having a solid era/whip/SO stats when he was signed by JP, but he didnt win as much as he should cause the marlins hitters sucked when he pitched)
When JP traded for Glaus, he wasn't washed up at all, he still had power in his bat (and still does) - when he signed Thomas, he was coming off a top 5 al mvp candidate season and had showed he was healthy - obviously its a mistake in hindsight and he obviously was old when we gave him the contract, but he was not paying thomas 18 mill for 2 yrs (with the option) in the same way that the Dodgers are with A Jones, for example - JP wasn't hoping to get the Thomas of the '90s (the Thomas of the 90's would have gotten the Hafner contract...which is burning the Indians way more than FT's contract burned us)- he was hoping to add a bat that was still useful - he also didnt give thomas a 4 yr contract or anything like what Manny wants - and as a commenter correctly said, when JP saw FT was done he cut bait. If we're using your logic of paying for past performance, i guess JP was paying for past performance by giving halladay 2 extensions over 7years (clearly illogical) and the fact that halladay has majorly outperformed his contract, looks good in hindsight, "but it could have worked any number of ways"...pretty dumb.
i dont wanna keep hashing the eckstein thing too much; basically, people need to shut the fuck up about minor signings like eckstein, stewart and mencherson; EVERY fucking team makes these and random bloggers like yourself or myself would not do this better than pro GMs. And the fact that Cito is benching Eck is not relatable to JP paying for past performance; he knew he was getting a guy with .350 OBP skills (which Eck is still doing) and the defence of Rolen/Ecsktein would compare well enough with Glaus/McDonald and even though Rolen has less power than Glaus, he drives in as many guys as Glaus when hes healthy so a Rolen/Eckstein combo is superior offensively (and similar defensively) to a Glaus/Mcdonald combo when healthy - as ive already said, JP was kinda forced with glaus' situation so i put the rolen move in a category by itself.
I don't want to use too many stats, because they can be used to prove anything - in fact, u clearly use stats to pad your argument and ure using them to skew facts...
"Umm... Frank Thomas? David Eckstein? Trott Glaulen? These guys were all brought in based on what they did in the past, and except for one year of Glaus and a half of Thomas, they've not come anywhere near earning the dough the Jays are paying them."
-while frank thomas had a poor start in 2007, he still finished with nearly 100 rbis and a respectable .857 OPS. By claiming thomas had half a yr where he earned his money ure implying that he's worth more money if his stats were more evenly spread out through out the yr - while i would prefer that, this is a dumb argument; if he earned $0 in the first half of the season, think of him as earning $20mill in the second half and hes earning his full 10 mill...
saying thomas earned his money for half a yr and glaus for only one yr is probably the dumbest thing u said - glaus had a .952 OPS through july 16, 2007 (through 68 games - notice that i'm using a date that makes his OPS look more favourable..hence, stats can prove anything) - yes he missed a couple of weeks in april, but thats not significant enough to call his first half of 2007 a "sunk cost" - so lets see, u cancel out Thomas' first half of 2007 even though he finished off with a solid yr overall (he clearly earned his money relative to the fa market for 100 rbi DH's) in order to enhance your argument, and u simultaneously cancel out Glaus' first half of 2007 to also enhance your argument - this is pretty fuckin retarded and its why i shied away from using stats because dumbasses like griffin use the wins stat to enhance their dipshit argument...btw, i hope u see the irony in the fact that when Glaus stopped contributing at an all-star pace in 2007, Thomas took over - the combination of Glaus' first half and Thomas' 2nd half is probably an MVP candidate, and yet, according to u, they only earned a half yr's salary combined...
JP paid for 4 yrs of Thomas and Glaus and got elite production (where these players outperformed their free agent counterparts that earned similar money) for 2 of those 4 yrs, which isnt good, but when its JP's "alleged" biggest mistake (contract-wise) its not bad at all - compare it to other GMs and based on this one stat alone (which is stupid) JP will look like a top GM (based on drafting, though, JP was a bottom 10 GM based on his first 4 drafts, but is a top 10-15 GM based on his last 3 drafts, though these prospects still need to perform at the big league level for a better indication).
Anyway, this excercise is getting boring - i think ure a great blogger cause ure funny and typically have good opinions; but ure mostly wrong here, as much as griffin (though im sure im wrong in some ways as well) - Though i ripped the anonymous commenter who gave DJF a low power ranking, he was accurate in saying that your answer was poorly though-out and i typically respect this site for calling shit on mainstream writers, but in this case i think u and griff are bullshitting on par with each other...
One more addition to the previous post...some dumbass on WWJP the other night was bitching that JP was stupid for giving AJ an opt-out clause; JP (smartly) said something like "well that's cause u want him here, right?", implying that AJ was a good signing BECAUSE he's going to opt-out and get a superior contract. The caller (like an idiot) said something like "no i dont want him here", proving that special needs students can take logic 101 just like everyone else (sorry to slag special needs kids). Point being, as JP said in 2006, "we'd rather have 3 yrs of AJ than nothing".
As I think I've shown, JP correctly predicted the pitching market, so the fact that AJ will opt-out for a better contract does show that it is a good deal (Washburn and Millwood would not be opting-out for better money if they had the option); AJ was a good signing using foresight in 2006 and a good signing using hindsight in 2008, relative to other FA pitchers getting big-time multiyr deals.
re: Jays 2010 ... dude, you owned him. you know it, he knows it, we know it. let it go.
re: Jays 2010 ... dude, you owned him. you know it, he knows it, we know it. let it go.
wow. i already fucking said ownage when you wrote that, what more do you want. a lol cats package so you can laugh while in the office?
i mean you topped by fucking p ranks, too. remember?
Like I don't want to tell the Jays management how to do their job, but isn't it obvious that Parrish is a middle reliever
No offence, random bloggers, but "anonymous" could be myself trying to get the fan vote to make my argument seem better than it is...as long as Stoeten responds, I'll leave his battered pussy alone
jays 2010, just like the Jays: all pitching, defense and no offense! You forgot Rolen....that was the biggest fucking joke of all!
if I have fries is anyone else gonna have any? Cuz,uh I don't wanna be the only one eatin' them... I'll feel like a fatty.
Dear anon (2:38); Rolen is a little different because Glaus wanted out...even if i do concede that (which i dont, really) thats one example versus multiple examples for my viewpoint
with Zaun as catcher as walk is just a good as a double
Anon, he very clearly did not own me you dumb fuck. Learn to read.
Yoshi, you're doing the same thing again. I agreed with you about the pitching stuff, but you're trying to make guys like Glaus, Eckstein and Thomas exceptions to the rule that you proposed-- which was that JP always pays for future performance. (Italics mine) Maybe that's not exactly what you intended to write, but that's what you wrote, and that's where I started picking your question apart. I agree with you on a whole lot of this stuff, and I think this is mostly just a semantic debate, which is why I'm not going to go into this stuff in any further detail.
Also, maybe you disagree with me on the following point, that's fine, but I don't think the simple fact that the AJ situation has worked out and Millwood and Washburn did not does not mean very much when it comes to assessing the risk at the time, because you're only looking at one roll of the dice. I don't even disagree that AJ was a good signing, I just don't accept your parameters for determining what makes a risk good or bad.
Bautista !
I'm so sorry that I ever doubted you
"I don't think the simple fact that the AJ situation has worked out and Millwood and Washburn did not does not mean very much when it comes to assessing the risk at the time, because you're only looking at one roll of the dice."
what the fuck does that even mean ...
bases loaded, none out, for . . .
Travis Snider !
not a particularly professional at-bat there by Snider.
Fuck, I hope they trade Eck to the Pirates
travis snider is a bust
And fuck you to Rios, I just saw your average with 2 outs risp
what the fuck does that even mean ...
It means that you can't just look at the outcome of one roll of the dice and say that it is going to be the likely outcome any other time you roll.
I guess it's a crude example, but I'm trying to say that the fact that it worked out well doesn't necessarily mean that the Jays were more astute than they were just plain lucky.
Mensa-time!
that was a badass strikeout pitch there League
Stoeten it does not seem like we can agree that there is a difference between paying for past performance that is unlikely to repeat itself (such as the Giants with Zito) and using a track record to acquire a player and pay for future performance (such as Glaus). However, there were things that you were outright wrong about that arent really debatable (such as Thomas and Glaus only earning their money for 1.5 yrs combined). And I hope you realize that there is NO chance that we go after a guy like D Lowe and that you'd be doing exactly what you say u despise (paying for wins/past performance). However, you at least responded so I am satisfied.
conciliatory bullshit is for pussies. anonymous insults is where it's at.
"do you you think he'll bunt or swing away?"
"swing away, no question"
... bunt ...
Oh yeah, loved that. The commentators always pick wrong, so why do they bother?
Fuck off Parkes.
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