Yep, and it is amazing what that deal did for both the Dodgers and Red Sox. Results were not insantaneous last season but they have manifested themselves this season for both teams.
MLB Season Discussion - 2013
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Yep, and it is amazing what that deal did for both the Dodgers and Red Sox. Results were not insantaneous last season but they have manifested themselves this season for both teams.
Both teams are now doing well, but did the deal really do that much for the Dodgers? (i'm on the Sox end of it, so obviously not complaining, as that end worked out great)
-Beckett: Bad, then on DL, not sure if going to be able to pitch again
-Crawford: Terrible, 20M bench player at this point, 5 more years? or 4?
-Gonzo: Decent, but at 21M? Hit about .300, 'only' 21HRs. Good, for sure, but not the expected great
-Punto: throw-in, whatever.
Again, i'm happy with the trade, but not sure the Dodgers got as much out of it as is being said. And they took a quarter-billion on in salary and gave up a couple good prospects (and a couple fillers) in the deal.
Both teams are doing well in the wake of the trade, but was it the cause for the Dodgers? Hanley's been just as important for them, no? And Beckett was actively hurting them.
-Beckett: Bad, then on DL, not sure if going to be able to pitch again
-Crawford: Terrible, 20M bench player at this point, 5 more years? or 4?
-Gonzo: Decent, but at 21M? Hit about .300, 'only' 21HRs. Good, for sure, but not the expected great
-Punto: throw-in, whatever.
Again, i'm happy with the trade, but not sure the Dodgers got as much out of it as is being said. And they took a quarter-billion on in salary and gave up a couple good prospects (and a couple fillers) in the deal.
Both teams are doing well in the wake of the trade, but was it the cause for the Dodgers? Hanley's been just as important for them, no? And Beckett was actively hurting them.
That brought back Jeter memories...
I was thinking more of Gonzo and Hanley. For some reason I associated Ramirez with that trade. I forgot Hanley came from the fish.
Sometimes a freak injury is just a freak injury, like Joe Theismann getting his leg snapped in half by Lawrence Taylor almost 30 years ago, or Tony Saunders suffering the exact same elbow injury twice, somehow.
Yes, put the ALL-STAR game back to what it was!!
Let the World series home field advantage go to the team with the best RECORD!!!
He's done some stupid stuff (like the knee-jerk reaction to the All-Star Game), but he's presided over eighteen years of uninterrupted labor peace -- which certainly isn't something Roger Goodell, Gary Bettman and David Stern can say.
Ugh, no. Costas is one of the most sanctimonious pricks out there and I have to change the channel whenever he starts babbling on about steroids, conveniently forgetting that baseball has a long, sordid history of drug and alcohol abusers and players using any substance possible to get an upper hand.
Anyone who goes on whimsical spiels about the golden age of baseball and how the "Steroid Era" tainted the game is automatically tuned out by me.
There's a wonderful cracked article pointing out that bigger problem for much of baseball has been amphetamines (still likely abused through ADHD diagnoses, though). They had been used for decades. Once cleaned up, hitting has dropped dramatically. But it would implicate far more people than just the steroids era.
Absolutely. Greenies, uppers, whatever, they were passed around like candy in clubhouses in the '50s and '60s and '70s. There is a demonstrable effect upon a person's mental awareness and response times when on those substances.
But instead everyone (especially Costas) gets all sanctimonious about the live ball era, because those guys in the '60s played the game the "right way," but steroids are Magic Dinger Juice, despite guys like Neifi fucking Perez being popped for usage, and past eras of the game being just as filled with douchebags, liars, cheaters and scum.
I've said this before:
Ser Barrold of House Bonds' only real crime was murdering baseballs, but he's seen as a pariah.
Ray Lewis was involved in a double-homicide, lied to the cops and almost certainly destroyed evidence, but because his management ran a decade of one of the greatest PR campaigns in history, he's an All-American Hero.
Well, all the witnesses there said Ray Lewis was trying to break up a fight and he cooperated with the police and testified against them. The end result was he was the only one who was punished. He probably did lie to the cops and destroy evidence, but it's also not clear that his lying made a difference in the long run.
One other thing that cracked article pointed out (I should probably just dig up the link) is that the majority of steroid users so far implicated are pitchers. It makes sense, of course, since steroids help you heal faster. I do think aging players used it for the same reason and there are players who otherwise should have had declining numbers who ended up with the greatest numbers of their career. I think it's hard to argue steroids were irrelevant in their performance, but it's still only a small part of the picture.
One other thing that cracked article pointed out (I should probably just dig up the link) is that the majority of steroid users so far implicated are pitchers. It makes sense, of course, since steroids help you heal faster. I do think aging players used it for the same reason and there are players who otherwise should have had declining numbers who ended up with the greatest numbers of their career. I think it's hard to argue steroids were irrelevant in their performance, but it's still only a small part of the picture.
No, he definitively did lie to the police (and they never found the suit Lewis was wearing that night -- what, did he accidentally drop it into the Inner Harbor?). In exchange for his testimony, the murder charge against Lewis was dropped and he plead guilty to obstruction of justice due to lying in his initial interviews.
(Sorry, the Ray Lewis thing gets to me because I'm still in Baltimore for another month and he is a fucking deity out here. It's ridiculous.)
In actual MLB news, the Giants have locked down Hunter Pence to a 5 / 90 extension, which I think immediately makes that one of the worst contracts in baseball the moment pen is put to paper.
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Every single time I see him play I wonder how the hell he ever got into the majors. I mean don't get me wrong, he is a decent big league ball player but if I was a scout and saw him in high school throwing a baseball the way he does along with his spastic batting stance I would have been laughing hysterically. It's amazing how he makes it work at the professional level.
Yeah, I don't hate Pence, and he's one of the strange cases where OPS+ is really misleading (because it's driven so heavily by his slugging, which balances out his low walk rate). He's not a terrible player (offensively, at least ... defensively he's a joke), but he's definitely not an $18MM/year guy.
Then again, Sabean is second only to Jerry Dipoto and Rube in terms of "bad deals to veterans." Word is they're trying to lock Lincecum into a long-term contract despite him having two really rough years, and if anyone signs him for more than three years, they're insane.
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