Odds and Ends: Mirabelli, Lohse, Spring Stats

"Dougie's Season Off"

poor Doug if only he could break the Mendoza line.

"Me want average pitcher"

That was hilarious.

This may be a prelude to the BoSox acquiring a young catcher.

Or just that Mirabelli can't hit his weight..

He can catch but he's a terrible offensive player but so was Dougie so whatever.

I have no ax to grind with RotoAuthority but suggesting that spring training number are in an way predicitve of a players regular season is, in a word, baloney!

There is not one shred of data or statistical analysis that concludes that there is any meaningful correlation between spring training hitting or pitching numbers and the stats at the end of the season.

One speculate or one can point to selective players but if a true correlation exists, it has to be more than random occurance in a sample.

I know that a lot of fantasy players want to believe that some magic formula exists that can "project" a players performance from his minor league stats or now, spring training numbers but no reliable, acccurate, predicitive formula exits.

Kyle Lohse is taking physical for the Cardinals, courtesy of John Hadley (announced by John Rooney on KTRS today).

The Red Sox also have minor leaguer Dusty Brown, who's caught the knuckleball before (Red Sox AAA pitcher Charlie Zink throws a knuckleball).

Brown and Cash seem to be cut from the same mold: solid defensive catchers who can catch a knuckleball and can't hit. In other words, exactly like Mirabelli, except with two differences: One, they're both younger (Cash is 30, Brown is 25, Mirabelli is 37), and Two, both are cheaper. The Red Sox are only on the hook for $150,000 for Mirabelli; they avoid paying him potentially over $1m more in incentives. Meanwhile, Brown would make the league minimum if he made the ML roster, and Cash got a minor league deal and a spring training invite.

Hey so I dont know where to write this, but i have a few suggestions on posts. First off, I'd really like to say that I love this site and I think that almost all of the content is quality. I definitely read this at least once daily. However, at the risk of sounding like a royal A-hole, one thing kinda irks me. I feel like there are too many Tim Dierkes plugs on this website. I am only one person and one opinion, but I'm here to read baseball, not Tim Dirkes. Anyway, sorry about the rant and thanks for all the great stuff!