Thursday, February 19, 2009

Here's a scenario for you....

Let's just say you work in an office. One day a co-worker approaches you and says "Hey I got this new computer program that will let you finish your work in half the time." Obviously you would be intrigued.
"Really?" you would say, "why doesn't everyone use it?"
Your co-worker responds"Well, we're not really supposed to use it But the management doesn't mind because we get work done quicker, and the company actually secretly encourages it because they are making so much extra money."
"What happens if you get caught?"
"Nothing, they don't even really check for it."
"I got the new program, and have doubled my work in the past month, I got a promotion and a raise."


Just think about what you would do in that situation.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Nady V Swisher redux

hmmmm sounds familiar...

From fangraphs.com

Last offseason, Swisher was shipped from the A’s to the White Sox for a haul of young players: lefty Gio Gonzalez, right-hander Fautino De Los Santos and outfielder Ryan Sweeney. Despite sacrificing a good deal to acquire Swisher’s talents, the South Siders quickly soured on the Ohio State star after he posted a .219/.332/.410 line in 588 PA. In fact, Swisher was so far down the totem pole that he rode the bench down the stretch in favor of minor league vagabond Dewayne Wise. Earlier this offseason, the Bombers acquired Nick and minor league righty Kanekoa Texeira for Wilson Betemit and minor league righties Jeffrey Marquez and Jhonny Nunez.

Swisher’s 2008 line looks very disappointing. However, as Peter Bendix pointed out, very little changed in the switch-hitter’s offensive profile. Take a look at some of Swisher’s key indicators over the past three seasons…

2006: 14.9 BB%, 27.3 K%, .239 ISO, 19.3 LD%, .287 BABIP
2007: 15.6 BB%, 24.3 K%, .193 ISO, 17.5 LD%, .308 BABIP
2008: 14.2 BB%, 27.2 K%, .191 ISO, 20.9 LD%, .251 BABIP

In most every respect, Swisher’s 2008 season falls in line with his work over the 2006-2007 seasons, when he posted wOBA’s of .368 and .361, respectively. The only big difference in ‘08, when his wOBA dipped to .325, was an extremely low BABIP. Despite a healthy line drive rate, Swish posted the 4th-lowest BABIP among all qualified hitters. That number will surely bounce back, and with it, so will Swisher’s overall line.

Nady’s 2008 season was sort of the inverse of Swisher’s. Acquired from the Pirates last July, the 30 year-old posted a career-best .374 wOBA after compiling marks of .346 in 2007 and .336 in 2006. X-Man has experienced an upward trend in line drive rate and has hit the ball with a little more authority, but his overall skill set remains about the same…

2006: 6 BB%, 18.2 K%, .173 ISO, 17 LD%, .311 BABIP
2007: 5.1 BB%, 23.4 K%, .197 ISO, 21.3 LD%, .323 BABIP
2008: 6.6 BB%, 18.6 K%, .205 ISO, 24.6 LD%, .337 BABIP

The odds of Nady being able to sustain a .300 average and that high of a line-drive rate are likely slim. If he reverts back to being a .270-280-ish hitter, his modest walk rate means that his OBP will probably park in the .320-.330 range. Nady is not a bad player, mind you, but his best role would appear to come as a lefty-masher off the bench: though he has admittedly been better over the past few seasons, Nady has a career .317 OBP versus righty pitching, compared to .383 versus southpaws. Perhaps Nady has turned a corner, but it’s more likely that he remains a high-power, low on-base player best used in favorable situations.

Most projection systems seem to agree that Swisher will be the better offensive player in ‘09:

Pre Season Predictions 1: NL East

Once a week starting now I'll take a look at one division, this week is the NL East.

Major Additions:
Francisco Rodriguez
JJ Putz
Derek Lowe
Javier Vazquez
Kenshin Kawakami
Raul Ibanez
Adam Dunn
Ken Griff....oh wait

The division of the world series champs has been incredibly intriguing the past few years. The mets keep making almost to the top, then choking and missing the playoffs. The Phillies have reaped the benefits of the shaky Metropolitan bullpen, and went on the beat the Tampa Bay Rays in the World Series.

Predicitons:
Division MVP: David Wright
Division Cy Young: Cole Hamels
Division Breakout player: Andrew Miller

Standings:
Phillies 95-67
Mets 93 -69(Wild Card winner)
Braves 85-77
Marlins 78-84
Nationals 69-93

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

More A Rod


Today in a press conference Alex Rodriguez addressed the media, fans, and teammates, getting very emotional at certain points. He said he and his cousin injected a substance that supposedly gave him an energy boost, with the street name bole. He again referred to his youth and naivety when questioned as to exactly what the hell he was thinking. He even said that he's not sure he took the substance correctly

Now a lot of people have come out to say that as a multi million dollar athlete, theres no way he didn't have a better idea of what he was taking, or that by his age he must have been mature enough to know better. Personally, I am more inclined to believe him. What does he have to gain by continuing to lie? I, for once, really sympathize for the guy. I made a post a little more than a week ago, that these guys aren't super special he-men, they're just people. To condemn them for lying or cheating is hypocritical. Many self righteous citizens who must be on the list for canonization have been pontificating on the talk radio forum, or on message boards that they can't trust A Rod, or any other PED implicated athletes. If you have been building these major league baseball players up as your heroes and idols, then shame on you in the first place. Take a step in the real world and focus that attention on a parent, or a doctor, soldier, or a teacher.

I guess my real point in this rambling jumble of words, is lay off my man A Rod. It behooves us Yankee fans to give him our support. If he's on his game, there is no one better.


(Photo from Yahoo!)

Big day

In a little more than three hours, A Rod will be thrown to the hungry wolves. Pete Abraham has some words of advice over at his blog:

"By the time you finish reading this sentence, Alex Rodriguez may have hired another paid advisor to help him handle today’s press conference. Here is my advice — and it’s free:

1. Admit everything you did in an opening statement. Get ahead of the upcoming book and marginalize it. You know better than Selena Roberts or anybody else what you actually did or didn’t do. Beat her to the punch. List the drugs, list the dates and apologize for it. What else can they do to you then? Do not use the word “culture.” You did the steroids, not the culture.

2. Thank the team for coming and apologize for being such a distraction … again.

3. Make some kind of grand gesture to get the public on your side. Say you will donate those bonus payments for the home run plateaus to charity. Or announce that every kid at every Boys and Girl Club in America can go to a game free on you if they sign a pledge not to do drugs. Whatever it is, make some sort of financial gesture.

4. Don’t sit up there for an hour, but answer a reasonable amount of questions. I find many of the questions people think he “needs” to answer to be inconsequential. But he does have to be accountable to some degree.

5. At the end say, “Out of respect for my teammates and our upcoming season, this is the last time I will talk about this subject. Only baseball from here on out.” Then stick to that.

6. Try and act like a normal person for the rest of the year. Stay off the gossip pages. Fire all those advisors and listen to your conscience. Treat people the way you’d like to be treated. Say what is on your mind, not what you think you should say.

Oh, and drive in 135 runs or so. That would really help."

http://yankees.lhblogs.com/

Hopefully Alex follows this advice, is open and honest, and gets all this talk over and done with as soon as it possibly can. I'll post more after the press conference.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Spring training pictures

Yahoo has posted some great spring training pictures. I'd definitley recommend checking them out. Here's just a few:

Astros Roy Oswalt


Either an Abercrombie ad, or Phillies pitcher Cole Hamels



Dodgers manager Joe Torre poses with a fan.

Here's a few from Yankees camp






Friday, February 13, 2009

Some first day rumblings

The Yanks signed Brett Tomko to a minor league deal today with a spring training invite. Let me tell you, if we see him pitch more than one game as a Yankee, the season will have gone terribly awry.

Andy Pettitte pitched most of the second half last year with severe shoulder soreness. That explains the miserable performance.

A Rod will address the media on Tuesday, He will spend the next four days practicing what he will say in the mirror. Jeter, Posada, Rivera and Pettitte will attend. Maybe the Yankees will be smart and Jeter has been practicing ventriloquism over the offseason, just put some peanut butter in A Rod's mouth and have Derek speak. Hey it worked for Mr. Ed.

Apparently the Yankees are lightening up on the facial hair rule, look at CC and Joba.



Yahoo has some other great photos from spring training.