The 7th Inning Stretch a.k.a. MLB 2k7 Season thread (Fantasy baseball included)

General Discussion
241

I’ll assume you were joking when you actually think that the big heads behind baseball had any sense of intelligence. We’re living in a world where Derek Jeter is the reigning Gold Glove winner at shortstop and Nick Punto played in 150 games this year and somehow got 472 at-bats.

If Dennis Eckersley went in first ballot, there is absolutely no way the all time saves leader won’t.

I happen to agree with you that the saves stat is overrated (which is why you have to start looking at like WPA or VORP and crap like that), but baseball and the Hall of Fame - whether you like it or not - is all about the numbers. And a guy who has the major league all time lead in a glory stat like saves…there’s absolutely zero chance that he won’t make it in as a first ballot Hall of Famer.

Why hasn’t Burt Blyleven been elected into the Hall of Fame yet even though he’s been eligible since '98? He’s 5th all time in strikeouts, 9th all time in shutouts and 13th all time in innings pitched. He’s got a HOF monitor rating of 120 (usually 100 is the Hall of Fame standard), and yet he’s still not in. Because he "only has 287 wins and also has 250 career losses.

Again…win and losses - completely useless stat in determining the actual value of a pitcher. But you don’t get recognition without it.

Was Trevor Hoffman really ever that good enough in a season where he was legitimately one of the top three closers in baseball and ever had that “first ballot hall of famer” label on him? Probably not outside of '98, I agree with you. But you have to consider that Hall of Fame credentials are also about longiveity, and why Lou Gehrig and Cal Ripken get so much love from old school baseball “historians” for their streaks.

Maybe that’s the misunderstanding between the two of us. But you’re right, I don’t think Hoffman was ever one of the absolute best closers in baseball for an extended run like with Mo Rivera or even Eckersley, but he was a consistently great one for like fifty straight years, and you gotta respect that.

True, he blew a World Series game and came up lame two straight times that his team really needed him at the end of the season…but all I’m saying is that he doesn’t have like a big game, clutch, reputation (ie. Jack Morris, Rivera) to ruin in the first place.

242

Lee Smith would beg to differ. He had the saves record for how long? And he couldn’t come close to the hall-of fame. I’ll admit that Trevor Hoffman is a better player than Lee Smith.

My contention wasn’t so much that he (Hoffman) was a hall-of-famer and his failures in big games knocked him out of consideration. I never saw him as a hall-of-famer to begin with and his failures the past 3 days didn’t help my perception of him.

Trevor Hoffman can pretty much hang around in San Diego for as long as he wants and he’ll probably accumulate over 600 saves before his career is over. He’ll probably get into the hall-of fame. I don’t think on the first ballot though.

As I mentioned at the beginning of my post though it’s pretty messed up if Trevor Hoffman can be a first ballot hall of famer for being the all time saves leader and Lee Smith doesn’t when he had the record before him. For the record I don’t think either one of them should be in the hall-of-fame.

243

Batting titles:
AL - Magglio Ordonez (DET - .363)
NL - Matt Holliday (COL - .340)

Home Run Leaders:
AL - Alex Rodriguez (NYY - 54)
NL - Prince Fielder (MIL - 50)

RBI Leaders:
AL - Alex Rodriguez (NYY - 156)
NL - Matt Holliday (COL - 137)

Wins Leaders:
AL - Josh Beckett (BOS - 20)
NL - Jake Peavy (SD - 19)

ERA Leaders:
AL - John Lackey (LAA - 3.01)
NL - Jake Peavy (SD - 2.54)

Saves Leaders:
AL - Joe Borowski (CLE - 45)
NL - Jose Valverde (ARI - 47)

Strikeout Leaders:
AL - Scott Kazmir (TB - 239)
NL - Jake Peavy (SD - 240)

Comeback players of the year:
AL - Carlos Pena (TB)
NL - Demitri Young (WAS)

I laugh at how Peavy finished as the leader in several of these stats, yet blew it in the play-in game.

Oh, and the Braves cut Andruw Jones. Damn. He didn’t produce that well this year but he was a staple of that team. Someone will pick him up though.

244

They didn’t “cut” him. His contract is up and they announced they wouldn’t be attempting to resign him. He was freaking AWFUL this year in a contract year. The Braves will deal.

245

That’s basically cutting him. He’s just not officially separated from the Braves until after the WS is over. He’s going to be a free agent. I just wonder where he’ll end up.

246

Not really.

I wonder if he’ll even be the top center fielder available in most people’s eyes, with Torii Hunter also being available this offseason.

247

Twins can’t afford to let him go.

I went through the list of NL center fielders, and the only NL opening I can see him going to is San Diego. Milton Bradley’s their CF, but with his torn ACL / MCL whatever he tore, he’s not going to be there for them for a while. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Padres picked him up to fill that spot.

248

Game 1 of the NLDS goes to the Rockies. Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, and Jimmy Rollins combined to go 0-11. Ouch. Game 2 is tomorrow so they’ll have to pick it up especially considering that the game 1 winner of the 5 game series wins the series over 80% of the time.

249

I can see Theo Epstein using this is a great opportunity to get rid of Coco Crisp and go for Andruw Jones.

250

Getting Andruw Jones right now would be a mistake. He has lost alot of speed in the outfield and strikes out way to much. Plus they have another CF already.

If Punto doesnt win a Gold Glove it will be an absolute travesty of justice.

251

Milton Bradley played left. Mike Cameron played center.

For whom?

Not important.

Who is “they”? San Diego? Boston? The whole idea of getting Jones is to get rid of Crisp, so if you’re talking about Boston…what sense does that make?

In a long line of absolute travesties of justice occurring in regards to the Gold Glove. See: Bobby Abreu, Derek Jeter, Raphael Palmeiro, etc. Also, is Punto really that good with the glove? Because the gold glove, despite its implications, usually goes to somebody with some degree of offensive production. And Punto is probably the worst offensive player in the game, which pretty much makes him an awful baseball player overall.

252

Boston already has Ellisbury, he will be there CF.

253

So Boston kicks the Angels ass today. Oh my geeeee not another Red Sox vs Yankee … sigh it seems like the inevitable.

254

I’m going to stop looking at mlb.com when I need to find out this stuff. This is twice now info they’ve given me has been wrong. How can the leagues own site get info wrong? Damn Selig.

255

Ellisbury isn’t that good. If the Sox could get a difference maker at Center, it’d be kind of silly to pass on him for someone with Ellisbury’s limited upside. Not saying that Jones is that guy, just that.

256

How do you know he isnt that good? This was his first year doing anything in MLB and he has done well.

Again Jones is on the down side, he barely batted over .200

257

Who is Mr. Noodle, and why did he have to be such a bitch and beat me in the SRK Basebrawl league? DAMN YOU.

Well never judge anything in spring training or September. Ellsbury had like a .902 OPS this year which was craziness, but it was only in like less than 200 AB’s. Furthermore, his BABIP (.388) is probably unstainably high, and his line drive percentage (21%) was way above league normal (around 19% I think) whereas he’s always averaged under league normal in the minors. He’s hitting everything right now, but that’s not really reflective on how he is as a player.

On the other hand, he’s not one of Boston’s top prospects for nothing…I wouldn’t say he’s got limited upside. Great speed, good range in center, great K/BB ratio throughout his minor league career…he could very well turn out to be like a .300/10 HR/30+ SB guy at the top of their line-up - it’s not like that team needs even more pop or a huge difference maker at center fielder - they were fourth in Major League Baseball in runs scored this year. I don’t know why they wouldn’t keep him in center moving forward. The corners are blocked by Manny and JD Drew, so even with the nice centerfield market this offseason I don’t know if it’d make sense to sign another centerfielder when they already have Ellsbury and Coco Crisp already.

Free agent center fielders include…Torii Hunter, Andruw Jones, Milton Bradley (he can play CF), Mike Cameron, Kenny Lofton, Aaron Rowand, and Corey Patterson.

So outside of Torii Hunter and Andruw Jones, I don’t really think it’d be worth it for them to sign any of those other guys to a big deal to play center field for them. And even though it is Boston, they’ll probably be outbid by another team that actually as a legitimate center fielder need for Hunter and Jones.

And Jones has had a horrible year this year, but he had like a 41 HR/.885 OPS season last year, and a 51 HR/.922 OPS season the year before that…and he’s still only 30 this year. Hard to imagine anyone dropping off that soon and that fast.

Two years ago, Mike Lowell (at age 31) only hit like .236 with 8 HR over a full season, after having like two or three 25-30 HR, 120-130 OPS+ seasons before that. No one drops off that fast, but remember he was like a throw in as a salary dump in the Beckett trade. And then these two years in Boston he’s almost bounced right back - dude hit 21 HR/.324 AVG/.879 OPS/128 OPS+ for baseball’s best team this year.

(…and Beckett won 20 games and he’s back to pitching shutouts in the playoffs again. Motherfucking Sox.)

Andruw Jones is going to get that nice fat juicy deal from someone - probably 5 years and like $16-17 million per, like Vernon Wells’ deal. If one of him or Torii Hunter signs a big deal like that early in the offseason, it’s going to set precedence in the market and everybody’s going to get PAID.

Not by the Braves though - no way they’ll keep Jones, not enough money. They gotta pay Big Tex arbitration money and I think a lot of guys on that roster are getting raises. I’m thinking Edgar could be traded for a pitcher…lots of teams need shortstops. Jays, A’s, Astro’s/Tigers…I wouldn’t doubt something like a Marcum/Blanton/Wandy/Robertson trade for Edgar happening sometime this offseason. (JP, DO IT!)

258

Wow, this is not looking good for the Phillies. Down 6-3 in Game 2.

Rockies = NL Champs?

I personally don’t think so. Not if they face Arizona.

259

I like how Lou blew it for the Cubs last night. 99 years and counting.

260

Well Philly is blowing it, again.

Booooo.

They wonder why they get boo’d, it’s been like 13 years since we get to the post season and we aren’t even going to win a game. AGAINST THE FUCKING ROCKIES.

The kicker is that the Dbacks and the Rockies, both teams who haven’t even been around for 15 years are going to get a shot at the World Series after beating two teams with horribly depressed ( cubbies ) and angry ( fightin’s ) fanbases.

I really hope the DBacks go and win another title. That would be great, especially if it was against the Red Sox, so the the RED SOX NATION could know how the yankees felt when the lost to the Marlins in 03 ( or whenever that was )

God I hate Boston fans, anytime they mention how much the yankees suck I want to stab them. It’s like they have no clue that to beat the yankees they had to become the yankees.

So yeah, go DBacks!