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MLB '12-'13 OffSeason OT: Magic is the New Market Inefficiency

J

JABEE

Member
Mr. Enigma said:
Halladay got destroyed by minor leaguers today.

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He said he felt great after the game and could have thrown 100 pitches!

He'll be okay!

:(
 
E

eznark

Banned
bluemax said:
A reliever can be more valuable than a starter sure. But Chapman would have to turn into a 4th or 5th caliber starter to lose value as a starter. If he turns into a 3 it's a wash. If he turns into a 2 or 1 it's a win.

Top end closers also tend to have shorter careers. Mariano Rivera is an exception, not the rule.
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There was an interesting discussion about Rivera on this weeks BP podcast pretty much having this same argument. Obviously as a result of Chapman.

In short, he loses value as a bullpen arm.
 
R

RBH

Member
A scout who's been covering the Braves this spring uttered these words Friday morning. You might want to jot them down:

"It looks like Justin Upton is on a mission."

He spoke those words a day after Upton orbited what might have been the longest home run ever launched at Champion Stadium in Disney -- a 12,000-foot monster mash that cleared the clock that sits atop the left-center-field scoreboard, 60 feet up, about 395 feet from home plate.

“I've never seen a ball hit over that board -- not in a game,” said Braves bullpen coach Eddie Perez. “That should count as two home runs.”

It's no easy feat to hit a ball in any ballpark that literally disappears. But this one did, Perez said. He said a group of fans who were hanging out in the area behind the scoreboard spent quite a while searching for it but never found it. Their best theory: “It’s like it disappeared into the grass or something,” Perez said.

“The best part,” he said, “is, when he hit it, everybody in the ballpark stayed quiet. It was like they all wanted to see if the ball would go over the clock. Then they all went, 'Whoooooaaaaah, he did it.'"

Well, judging by the way Upton is swinging the bat, it might not be the last whoooooaaaaah he inspires.

Since March 16, he's 7-for-14, with three home runs, nine RBIs and seven runs scored. And all three homers have been epic.

Before that, Upton was hitting only .214 this spring (9-for-42), with two home runs. So what’s happened in the past week? It’s no coincidence. Braves hitting coach Greg Walker says Upton just went “back to the way he used to swing.”

Upton, Walker said Friday, had decided over the winter to make some “subtle” changes to his swing. And because he was new to the Braves, they decided to stay out of his way and let him work through his early-spring struggles.

“He was scuffling,” Walker said. “But one day last week, he just came up to me on the bench and said, 'I think I’m going to go back to swinging the way I used to.' I said, 'I like it.'

“We had kind of hinted around at that. What he was trying to do, it kind of worked on paper. But it didn't work for him. He kind of lost his hand slot. He lost his hand move. And we didn't push him the first month of camp because he’d never even met us. So we didn't want to start telling him what he couldn't do. But we were all kind of just sitting back, waiting for him to hit a brick wall and say, 'OK, I’m just going to go back and hit the way I've always hit.’ And the first day he went back to it, we just said, 'OK, that’s you.’”

And what they've seen since has left them “ecstatic,” Walker said.

“He’s got a real simple swing, and he’s got exceptional quickness and timing,” he said. “He uses his legs tremendously. Everything he does works for me. I just think sometimes, he’s been around so long, you don’t realize he’s 25 years old. He’s just coming into his prime, as far as I’m concerned.”

Upton is coming off a season in Arizona in which he hit only 17 homers and slugged just .430, a drop of nearly 100 points from his MVP-caliber season the year before. But the Braves are convinced, Walker said, that “with the thumb injury he had last year, I think he got into some bad habits.” And if this is the swing he carries into the season, it wouldn't surprise anyone if he has a huge year.

Besides his shot over the scoreboard, he’s also whomped a line-drive homer that cleared the berm behind the left-field fence and a more majestic shot to left cleared the pennant flags that sit atop that berm.

“The one he hit over the flags, that ball went into the parking lot,” Perez said. “I don’t know anybody that’s ever hit a ball into that parking lot, but he did it. He’s amazing, man. I didn't know he had that much power. I throw to him every day, and it’s fun. The only time I ever stop and watch [after giving up a batting-practice homer] is when he hits it. I don't do that for anybody. But I do with him. He’s just so much fun to watch.”

Well, if that’s how he looks to the men on the inside, and if he looks, to those on the outside, like a man on a mission, the Braves just might have made themselves one heck of a trade.
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gladtomeetya.gif
 
E

evil solrac v3.0

Member
Dmncnby2k9 said:
Adam Rubin (@AdamRubinESPN) tweeted at 0:54 PM on Sat, Mar 23, 2013:
Scout 1 on Wheeler: "He's got four pitches." Scout 2: "And they're all plus, plus, plus, plus." ... Definite No. 1. Ready now.

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good stuff.

Doytch said:
This could be selection bias. Are relievers players who have something inherent in them that makes them prone to injury or is there something about the position that makes players prone to injury.

I mean, how many build-like-a-house relievers are there? Don't we frequently hear stuff like "he doesn't have the frame to handle 200 innings"? If you throw Felix into the bullpen, does he break down as easily as other relievers (WITH THAT ELBOW PROLLY!)?

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maybe because relievers pitch multiple times a week and sometimes warm up but don't pitch?
 
D

darkside31337

Tomodachi wa Mahou
JeffPassan
Sources: Yankees in talks with Angels for outfielder Vernon Wells. Lots of money would go back to New York. Deal could be done today.
 
T

The Frankman

Banned
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- Matt den Dekker suffered a broken right wrist on Sunday's attempted catch.

He is expected to travel to New York on Monday, where he will be evaluated for the need for surgery.

"We don't know how serious it is," Sandy Alderson said. "It's serious enough, but we won't know any details about the exact condition or recovery time until the doctors take a look up in New York. But the initial films came back positive."

Said den Dekker: "It's disappointing, but you can't do anything about it. It's just a setback. I'm going to go to New York and figure out what I have to do next."

Den Dekker described the wrist as "a little painful right now."

He added: "This is the first time I had to deal with anything like this. I've never broken anything. It sucks, but I can't do anything about it."
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Well that sucks. Looks like Nieuwenhuis just made the team.
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- Brandon Hicks has been outrighted by the Mets.

Left unsaid but resulting from the decision: Omar Quintanilla has won the backup shortstop job.

Also sent to minor league camp Sunday: Aaron Laffey, Andrew Brown, Brian Bixler and Jamie Hoffmann.
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Welcome back Q. Also with Laffey going bye-bye Hefner seems to have won the Long relief/6th starter job. Brown is also out of the OF race, which means Valdespin/Nieuwenhuis/Duda/Cogwill/Byrd is the OF.
 
M

Mr. Enigma

Member
Fenix said:
They're still taking the contract though, the Angels are just giving them cash, it can't reduce the value of the deal. I'm pretty sure that's how it works, no?
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No. It all depends on what the team is actually playing the player.

Last year, Carlos Zambrano was owed $18 million but the Marlins only paid him $3 million. He only accounted for $3 million on the Marlins payroll.
 
D

darkside31337

Tomodachi wa Mahou
I am more impressed that the Angels found somebody to take Vernon Wells and pay him than I was when the Jays found somebody to take Vernon Wells and pay him.
 
F

Friggz

Member
So the yankees dont want to pay nick swisher the 16 million a season he is making now with the indians...instead they use that money to sign ichiro and pay vernon wells 13 million over the next 2 years....i wish hank and hal would let cashman do as he needs. fucking idiots.
 
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