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Ah, the weekend. The time for all of us to say thanks and offer panegyrics to the good people behind the labour movement, without whom we'd all be toiling away in sugar factories on Saturday instead of enjoying some yerba mate, some Liquid Paper, a few calendars, an apple, myriad envelopes, a five-line telephone, UW directories . . . wait a second. Those are the contents of my desk! Ugh. It was a long week. Count me amongst the grateful masses for having two days of semi-freedom—though I'm not always as grateful as I should be.



Enough of that. The good news is that I've been spending my extra time flipping through the 2005 Baseball Prospectus.(Who this news is good for is unclear, and the fact it's not really news should be disconcerting as well, but here we are.) Ancillary from what else I think about the book—the typos are REALLY an irritation; the Cubs chapter alone seems to have been written and edited by a pre-school Jessica Simpson—I had a few observations based on their comments, which I present for general discussion:

1) Jim Edmonds. Is he a Hall-of-Famer?

2) Vernon Wells. BP posits that his next three years are going to be huge. Opinions, Bauxites? (Try to be un-biased.)

3) BP is very enamored with Milton Bradley, claiming that all that matters is the production, i.e. OBP and slugging percentage, not the production value, i.e. the drama. Undeniably there is truth to that. But as I alluded to in my preview for the Giants, is there a statistical threshold for "attitude problems"? In other words, how good must Bradley, and others like him, be to justify the antics, which, though we'd like to pretend otherwise, are a distraction? One more easily accepts Barry Bonds, for instance, unless one is foolish enough to discourage slugging percentages that look more like defensive fielding percentages. Make no mistake: Bradley is a player, but last year his numbers (108 OPS+, 19 HRs in 516 at-bats) were nothing special.

4) Is Andy Marte worthy of his #1 prospect status? Only one Blue Jay, Guillermo Quiroz (#41), cracked the top 50 (Russ Adams was an "honourable mention"). Who did they leave out? And why?

5) Commenting on Ed Yarnall, they eat some crow about their prediction of stardom for him (BP wasn't alone in getting it wrong with Yarnall), but then go on to say, essentially, "You never know when a pitcher 'gets it'." On the same nexus as the Bad Attitude Threshold, at what point do you simply say, "Enough"? (In the future this will be the Bruce Chen Threshold, after Chen has worked his way through all 30 ML teams. For hitters, this could be the BP Mark Johnson Line Of Stiffication.)

I'll have more later, but for now I yield the floor to the Bauxite community. Feel free to use this thread as a replacement for the other catch-all threads. Feel free to link any material you'd like. As ever, baseball should be the theme. Yes, I realize that I didn't mention the word "baseball" until the 117th word of this entry, but I'm allowed. At least, Mick told me I could do it. Blame him.

Weekend notations and salutations | 13 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
Jdog - Saturday, March 05 2005 @ 06:27 PM EST (#104698) #
Well about Vernon....most people here love vernon, his most common flaw that is pointed out is his tendency to be a bit of a free swinger...which i think will get better...it will never be great but it will get better.I expect him to get back to his 2003 levels, maybe better. I think his tour of duty in Japan following the season got the attention of a lot of people. I bet it got the attention of BP!

About the distraction question. I think the media overexaggerates just how big of a distraction people like Bradley, Randy Moss, and the like are.....for the pro athlete they are paid professionals and if they got someone on the team who aint acting like a professional , sure it might irritate them , but as long as the majority of the team acts like professionals and have a decent chemistry , those distractors dont have the effect the media would like to assume.
Dave Till - Saturday, March 05 2005 @ 06:40 PM EST (#104699) #
When V-Dub was going well, he never really needed to worry about plate discipline because he could hit so many pitches hard. When you can club anything thrown from the shoulders to the knees off the wall for extra bases, why worry about zoning down? I think he'll do fine: he won't have lost his hitting ability while he was injured.

As for "attitude problems": managers get paid the big bucks to get temperamental, talented, egotistical people to work towards the common goal of a post-season berth. Everything else that a manager does is easy by comparison: virtually any of us here could learn how to fill out a lineup card or run a pitching staff. If a team can get a talented player with a short fuse to work towards team goals, they'll have a competitive advantage over teams that jettison their problem children and play a bunch of nice guys who hit .250.
Anders - Saturday, March 05 2005 @ 07:32 PM EST (#104704) #
I think Vernon will get better, but obp will never be a strength unless teams start pitching around him (he will be the best hitter on the Jays this year.)

He has such fantastic plate coverage that he just makes contact a lot. He hasnt posted horrendous k rates, just not great bb rates
Anders - Saturday, March 05 2005 @ 07:35 PM EST (#104705) #
Also - theres a Blue Jays preview over at baseball think factory. It's a more statistics oriented analysis, and for the overly optimistic Bauxites not recommended. Well, they forcast decent improvement, but that would put the Jays near league average. They also have the Jays Zips projections.

http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/files/main/article/toronto_blue_jays_preview/

Chuck - Saturday, March 05 2005 @ 07:40 PM EST (#104706) #
Totally off topic, Jamie Campbell has outed himself in the Microphone thread.
Mick Doherty - Saturday, March 05 2005 @ 08:30 PM EST (#104710) #
At least, Mick told me I could do it. Blame him.

Sung to the tune of the immortal "Blame Canada" from "South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut." The B side to that is "What would John Gizzi Do?," sung to the tune of "What Would Brian Boitano Do?"

Greatest Cartoon. Ever. ( I almost went with "movie" over "cartoon" there. but can't ignore the greatness that was Rocky IV. "If I can change ... and you can change ... we can ALL change!" Genius.)

VBF - Saturday, March 05 2005 @ 11:24 PM EST (#104721) #
Trying to be as unbiased as humanly possible about VW...

One thing I noticed last year that hadn't really happened as much before was that the pitchers began to really figure him out and kept placing their pitches on the outside corner of the plate. This in coalition with Vernon's free swinging led to a poor start.

Because of this I don't think that Vernon can be a huge player, like 45+ homers a season, but he can be a very solid 30+ homer guy, much like Carlos was. If he can really start to be patient and gains confidence that his team mates can hit him home if he gets on base, he can be a very productive player.

If we can hold onto him after his contract expires (and there's every reason to think we can) and the Jays can really start to win, Vernon could be looked at as a cornerstone in the franchise.

(VBF then goes to bed under his Vernon Wells blanket and turns off his Vernon Wells lamp after saying a little prayer to Vernon Wells)
Named For Hank - Saturday, March 05 2005 @ 11:33 PM EST (#104722) #
VBF: What, no lunchbox?
VBF - Sunday, March 06 2005 @ 11:18 AM EST (#104741) #
HaHa. No, the grumpy promotion guy in gate 8 wouldn't give, even thoughy he must've had a few hundred extras anyway. And theres no way I'm gonna pay $20 at the BullPen Store for one. :)
Anders - Sunday, March 06 2005 @ 11:31 AM EST (#104745) #
I unfortunately missed Lunchbox day (Which I also believe was Martinez/Halladay)

But my Dad and Sister went, and I got a lunchbox! V-DUB!

The moral of the story?
Crime Doesnt Pay
VBF - Sunday, March 06 2005 @ 11:44 AM EST (#104749) #
You sure Anders? I could've sworn it was against the A's. It must've been since I went to only one Boston game last year and it was a Tuesday.
Fawaz - Sunday, March 06 2005 @ 01:28 PM EST (#104770) #
Martinez/Halladay was on Halladay bobblehead day. I'll never forget that game: Electric atmosphere, the PEEEEEEEDROOOOOO chant, the win and, for once, I arrived in time to get a bobblehead.
Darryl - Sunday, March 06 2005 @ 07:07 PM EST (#104826) #
Guess this would be the best thread to post this.

Any OOTP6 players out there?

New league starting very soon
http://greatcanadian.bluejayway.ca
Weekend notations and salutations | 13 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.