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Official MLB Offseason Thread - Now that the work stoppage is over, baseball is back!

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Joe Crede is a badass:

WonderCrede.jpg
 
Crede and I are both badass,I bought mine in Cooperstown like 4 years ago :D

My camera is ass but the bat looks the same as his,the wood is coming off too dark and the writing too light :\ I'm sure its my flash or something.

mywonderboyag7.jpg
 
lol Pavano is hurt. Bone bruise on his foot. They need to keep Hughes away from him in case Pavano takes him down in one of his hilarious pratfalls.
 
Guileless said:
lol Pavano is hurt. Bone bruise on his foot. They need to keep Hughes away from him in case Pavano takes him down in one of his hilarious pratfalls.
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Well, this is legitimate kinda. I mean, like, it's a real injury and not "I hurt my butt." But if he misses like more than a week of time, I'll murder him.

A good article:

nomaas.org said:
The Wizard of Ughs
by Brisco County Jr.
I've made fun of many general managers before. People who have read my "work" know that I hold Ned Colletti, Jim Hendry, and Mike Flanagan in very low esteem. None of these men are the worst GM in baseball. That honor/shame goes to Bill Bavasi of the Seattle Mariners. Bill Bavasi is a mysterious character. Mysteries like "how could anyone be so stupid as to sign Adrian Beltre to a $64 million contract when he'd been a below average hitter for three of the previous four years?"

Really, that one isn't very fair. I know why he gave Beltre that contract. He did it because Beltre was coming off a sensational career year in 2004, having posted a 163 OPS+. What I don't know is why Bavasi thought that Beltre was going to continue along that path, as opposed to the well-established one of mediocrity he'd been steadily plugging along at for several years before.

Everybody's entitled to one mistake, though, right? I mean, Beltre had been a highly-touted prospect, and it was conceivable, if not reasonable, that he could have turned the corner into stardom. How about Horacio Ramirez? When the Red Sox were searching for a closer this offseason, they should have checked into Rafael Soriano, who was apparently available for the low, low price of one crummy and injury-prone pitcher. Soriano has thrown 171 innings in his major league career with a 2.89 ERA and a 177-53 K/BB ratio. Ramirez is an injury prone sinkerballer with lousy home run rates and horrendous K rates. Also, he made $2.2 million last year, as compared to $450,000 for Soriano. Which one would you rather have?

That certainly seemed like a steal for John Schuerholz; on the other hand, John Schuerholz steals from a lot of people. He's a pretty sensational GM. Jim Bowden, on the other hand, is not a sensational GM. So getting screwed by him is going to be a good bit harder to justify. Bavasi traded OF Chris Snelling and RP Emiliano Fruto to Bowden's Nationals for 2B Jose Vidro. Vidro, you may remember, is a former all-star from the days of the Montreal Expos. Snelling is a highly-touted hitting prospect who has been slowed by injuries (think a poor man's Nick Johnson), and Fruto is a young, righthanded power arm who has shown control problems in the past, but seemed to have solved them in AAA last year, posting a very strong season at age 22. Apparently Bill doesn't like young, righthanded power arms. Vidro declined a great bit last year, and posted a line of .289/.348/.395. Snelling posted a major league line of .250/.360/.427. Oh, by the way, Bavasi acquired Vidro to be his DH. He acquired Vidro, who will make over $7 million next year, to be his designated hitter, despite the fact that Vidro can no longer hit. If money and age were no object, I'd rather have Snelling as my DH next year than Vidro, and here Bavasi has sacrificed both to get an inferior player. Ouch.

To top this offseason of horror off, Bavasi was the "winner" of the Jeff Weaver sweepstakes, and will pay over $8 million to verify that his limited postseason success was a fluke. Honestly, do we really believe that Weaver's 30 postseason innings last year are a better indicator of future success than the 1568 he's thrown over the course of his major league career? Weaver had an ERA+ of 76 last year. That is not just regular bad. That is horrendous.

So, Bill Bavasi, we salute you. You suck.

Questions? Comments? Insults? I welcome all at peter.bard@gmail.com
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In fairness, I criticized the Cardinals letting Weaver go as much as him signing for that much. For the first time it could be argued he looked like he was getting it together it St. Louis and you release him? But I guess the power combination of Braden Looper and Adam Wainwright as starters is better than Weaver.
 
The Frankman said:
In fairness, I criticized the Cardinals letting Weaver go as much as him signing for that much. For the first time it could be argued he looked like he was getting it together it St. Louis and you release him? But I guess the power combination of Braden Looper and Adam Wainwright as starters is better than Weaver.
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i'm sorry, did you just say braden "i refuse to hold a lead" looper is a starter?
 
The Frankman said:
Yes I did. Cardinals plan on using Looper as a 5-6 inning starter. And longtimenosee solrac.
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yeah, same here. but i'm pretty sure you're not the real frankman and i landed on bizarro earth were looper is a starter and pavano didn't hurt his foot.... oh, wait a minute.... :lol
 
The Frankman said:
Yes I did. Cardinals plan on using Looper as a 5-6 inning starter.
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ahahahahahaha, no way! :lol

Also, fsck Carl Pavano. I want Hughes in there *now*, dammit!

Man, baseball's coming in like, a month. Who gets to start the new season thread?
 
Manny decides to show up to camp and Abreu has a sprained oblique



And I had my first fantasy draft yesterday night.
For some reason I decided to load up on SPEED SPEED and more SPEED. My pitching also sucks a bag of dicks.

C Michael Barrett
1B Justin Morneau
2B Robinson Canó
3B Joe Crede
SS José Reyes
OF Jason Bay
OF Juan Pierre
OF Corey Patterson
Util Paul Konerko
BN Jorge Cantú
BN Aaron Rowand

SP Bronson Arroyo
SP Mike Mussina
RP Trevor Hoffman
RP Joel Zumaya
P Adam Wainwright
P Noah Lowry
P Nate Robertson
BN Jonathan Broxton
BN Mark Hendrickson
 
Eminem said:
Manny decides to show up to camp and Abreu has a sprained oblique



And I had my first fantasy draft yesterday night.
For some reason I decided to load up on SPEED SPEED and more SPEED. My pitching also sucks a bag of dicks.

C Michael Barrett
1B Justin Morneau
2B Robinson Canó
3B Joe Crede
SS José Reyes
OF Jason Bay
OF Juan Pierre
OF Corey Patterson
Util Paul Konerko
BN Jorge Cantú
BN Aaron Rowand

SP Bronson Arroyo
SP Mike Mussina
RP Trevor Hoffman
RP Joel Zumaya
P Adam Wainwright
P Noah Lowry
P Nate Robertson
BN Jonathan Broxton
BN Mark Hendrickson
Click to expand...


Uhhh, I predict last place :s
 
Well it is a 14 team league. I don't have the worst team, but I'm close :lol
I'm gonna be in first in Holds and SB all season long though!

e: one of the teams has Howie Kendrick, Ryan Freel, and Coco Crisp all starting :lol
 
Y2Kevbug11 said:
A good article:
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This thread is so sad.. I agree with the article fully. It's funny how an organization that loses, Ken Griffey Jr, Randy Johnson, and Alex Rodriguez (all in their prime mind you) one after another ends up tying the record for most wins in a season. Then a retarded GM destroys everything in like 2 years. It's like Isiah-bad.
 
Josh Fields went 2/2 with a HR and 3 RBI to lead the Thomes to a 7-5 win over the Konerkos today.

Brian Anderson, Juan Uribe and Tadahito Iguchi also went 2/2

When Charlie Haeger hit Joe Crede with a knuckleball in the first inning, the slo-motion incident drew oohhs and ahhhs from the bench.

"He should be ashamed to take a base after getting hit with a knuckleball," Ozzie Guillen said.

"He should have caught it," a quick-witted scribe replied.

"Hey, Dwayne Wade," AJ Pierzynski offered. "Need a wheel chair?"
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:lol :lol
 
home0227.jpg


It's hard to Topps this one: The card company has issued a Derek Jeter baseball card with a smiling President Bush in the stands.

Topps takes a swing at comedy with its Derek Jeter card, digitally adding President Bush and Mickey Mantle.
 
Topps needs to hire some new digital imaging people.
 
Joe said:
home0227.jpg


It's hard to Topps this one: The card company has issued a Derek Jeter baseball card with a smiling President Bush in the stands.

Topps takes a swing at comedy with its Derek Jeter card, digitally adding President Bush and Mickey Mantle.
Click to expand...

That's not even a good photoshop, wtf.
 
Shadows afterword details Bonds' freakish growth
You hear all that noise from the Bonds camp and yet most conspicuous is the silence on challenging the facts of the case. Shadows succeeded because it couched nothing and stood unchallenged. My favorite fact: the authors detail in their afterword the freakish growth of Bonds' body parts in his years with the Giants: from size 42 to a size 52 jersey; from size 10 1/2 to size 13 cleats; and from a size 7 1/8 to size 7 1/4 cap, even though he had taken to shaving his head.
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Everyone's seen the season-to-season comparison pics of his growth, but to see it in writing like that is crazy.
 
his feet grew? When he was in his late 30s? And there' actually people that question that he took some freakish growth hormones? oh well i hope it was all worth it cause i seriously doubt Barry will live to see his 50s.
 
I'd just like to say I can't wait for the Joel Pineiro as closer era to begin in Boston. MLB.tv is going to be worth it just for this.
 
Emobacca said:
It turns out that Gary Mathews Jr and Evander Holyfield have been gobbling roids like candy

-rotoworld.com
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Now that's what I want to hear!

Who needs a bat when you can sign a journeyman that's roiding up?
 
The 14-0 Seminoles take on the Phillies tonight in an exhibition at 6:30. I'll bet a dollar that FSU beats em. :D

p.s. No one's surprised about the Gary Matthews thing... right? 5 years 50 million.. :lol :lol
 
Tigers up 4-0 Mets and I finally get through on MLB.tv! Last minute Chinese History prep is not gonna go so well now that I've got baseball!
 
Here is my first fantasy team of the season...

C - Ramon Hernandez
1B - Lance Berkman
2B - Julio Lugo
3B - Joe Crede
SS - Hanley Ramirez
OF - Carlos Beltran
OF - Magglio Ordonez
OF - Raul Ibanez
Util - Jim Thome
Bench - Jorge Cantu
Bench - Gary Matthews Jr
Bench - Clint Barmes

SP - Roy Halladay
SP - John Smoltz
RP - Trevor Hoffman
RP - Todd Jones
P - Bronson Arroyo
P - Derek Lowe
P - Gustavo Chacin
Bench - Javy Vazquez
Bench - Joel Pinero


Bastard picking before me barely beat me to BJ Ryan and AJ Burnett, I wanted to kill him
 
bluemax said:
I guess that explains Gary Mathews Jr's random career year.
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Not really. All of his rates were in line with the rest of his career except his Batting Average which was spiked due to a flukish BABIP. He was also the worst defensive centerfielder in baseball according to every metric

Now it turns out that he has been gobbling the undetectable HGH since as early as 2004 according to a new SI story.
 
This Tampa Bay lineup, today during intrasquad play:

CF Rocco Baldelli
RF Delmon Young
LF Carl Crawford
1B Ty Wigginton
2B Jorge Cantu
DH Greg Norton
3B Akinori Iwamura
C Dioner Navarro
SS Ben Zobrist

was no-hit for 6 innings


:lol :lol :lol
 
Well after watching the first Sawx spring training game I have these thoughts:

Tavarez still stinks
Roider Donnelly might actually be okay
Pedroia looked competent
Ortiz is still Ortiz
Schilling is fat (nothing new here-- I still love ya G38)

Whooo Matsuzaka time on Friday!
 
Dr. Strangelove said:
Well after watching the first Sawx spring training game I have these thoughts:

Tavarez still stinks
Roider Donnelly might actually be okay
Pedroia looked competent
Ortiz is still Ortiz
Schilling is fat (nothing new here-- I still love ya G38)

Whooo Matsuzaka time on Friday!
Click to expand...

Schilling looks like he did not work out at all in the past four months.
 
Emobacca said:
Not really. All of his rates were in line with the rest of his career except his Batting Average which was spiked due to a flukish BABIP. He was also the worst defensive centerfielder in baseball according to every metric

Now it turns out that he has been gobbling the undetectable HGH since as early as 2004 according to a new SI story.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I looked into that after I posted. USSM had a good write up about it.

They also discussed how some people take steroids for other reasons that muscle gain. A lot of it is muscle retention/reduced recovery time.

Baseball Prospectus said:
28 ADAM JONES, of, Mariners
Good call by Seattle to shelve his mid-90s fastball and make him an everyday player
Click to expand...

I can't tell if they're being sarcastic or not. Not that it matters Jones won't get MLB playing time again until Grover gets fired.
 
Okay, so the Phils smoked us, but that's okay. Pitching has been a bit spotty this year which definitely has me concerned.. hopefully we can iron it out.

Oh, and did anyone hear Gary Matthews' audio comments on the story? Holy shit, he's SO guilty. I was lmao'ing in the car this morning hearing him talk about how he'd "address it later" when the facts were more clear and all this other bullshit. :lol
 
Anytime I see the name Braden Looper I involuntarily twitch in anger. (I had him on my fantasy team the year he melted down as a closer).
 
Stros looked good today,lost 13-2 to the Tribe

capt.fldp10303012015.astros_indians_baseball_fldp103.jpg
 
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