Odds and Ends: Nelson, Atkins, Taveras

who cares about another starter use your system and spend that money tex

Yanks should do Tex, they already lost their 1st round pick, so they would only spend the money and not the picks.

Phil hughes look good in the afl

He will have something like

25 starts. 12 wins. 4.2 era. 150 ip

140 so

Does nobody else think Phil Hughes is highly overrated?

Drayton McLane needs to shut the hell up. Us Astros fans have nothing to look forward to this upcoming season. They just non-tendered the teams second half MVP, signed an always injured Mike Hampton and are trying to shave payroll because the cheap bastard does not want to pay what it takes to win. The Astros are falling back in the NLC. The Brewers are getting better, the Cubs are getting better, the Cardinals are looking to get better and even the Reds are trying to acquire new talent to get better. The Astros are one step away from replacing the Pirates in the NLC cellar.

I do, Teddy. I think he's overrated...he'll make a good #3 starter one day, he won't be the ace people make/made him out to be

If taveras sucks so much he would blend right in with the NATS

As a met fan

I can see phil becoming a ace.

Fastball and the great curveball

i really hope the yanks sign pettite back, hughes pitches well in spring training and proves himself this season, and put joba back in the setup man spot where he's best.

For players who have not had significant healthy major league service time, Bill James probably uses a combination of scouting reports and minor league numbers.

That said, he's wrong - a lot. But that's not his fault.

"Does nobody else think Phil Hughes is highly overrated?"

I don't think he's the next great ace that some people have been claiming he is... but I've gotta a decent look at his stuff and it's good enough to be a front end starter. I think though his biggest problem will be injuries. He's already had a couple of extended stays.

As for his projected ERA... frankly I'm more shocked by Zito, Wakefield, Sanchez, and Pedro having a sub 4 ERA.

They were on the same team everyone else were against.

Teixeira = Boston

Manny = LA Dodgers

ok and i hope : TEX:NYY
MANNY :LAD

Sorry H-Town, but the Texans are not "close."

the yanks like Pettitte over Sheets because they cant afford Sheets. That or they are completely incompetent.

For players who have not had significant healthy major league service time, Bill James probably uses a combination of scouting reports and minor league numbers.

That said, he's wrong - a lot. But that's not his fault."

If you know anything about Bill James he wants nothing to do with scouting reports. That being said, I bought the spreadsheet a week ago and I'm mad I wasted the 10$. It doesn't have John Smoltz, has Jorge Campillo w/ a lower ERA than Jair Jurrjens, and overall just isn't that complete or accurate. We'll see.

TeddyBallgame: Marmol should have been the closer last year. With Jeff S. and Olsen setting up Marmol, the Cubs pen looks better this year. Depends if Lou wears any of them out like he wore out Marmol last season.

Celtics: Incompetent? Maybe - or is it because there is a red flag in Sheet's medical file? Being a Brewer fan, I think there is one. The Brewers aren't interested at all it seems and they need a front line pitcher. Seems fishy. Plus the Yankees already signed one injury plagued starter. Sheets would have been paid a LOT more money and would have been signed before Burnett had he not been hurt this year. Yankees have plenty of money to buy Sheets if they want to.

the yankees cannot rely on unprepared minor leaguers again this year. for all of hughes' promise, fact is he did not win a single game last year and joba is only slated for 150 innings this year, which calculates to about 25 or so starts.

given burnett's injury history, pettite is by far the smarter move. yeah, they miss out on teixera, but you can't have everybody. i'd much rather go after an adam laroche in a year for a third the price of teixera

"the yanks like Pettitte over Sheets because they cant afford Sheets. That or they are completely incompetent."

Incompetent may fit the bill chasing Petite, whom was hurt last year and the poster who wrote about gettint 200 innings, well that is a pipe dream. More likely, the Yanks do not know how to cut ties with long time players for sentimental reasons in several cases, even when a player is well beyond usefulness for a certain dollar amount in Petite's case.

They already signed DL history Burnett, sure Sheets has the same rap, but it looks like Petite is in the same boat now and I would darn sure take a risk with a chancy Sheets over a chancy at best Petite regardless.

Hughes has an AWFUL lot to prove before he gets put into a rotation above AAA, you watch, even if he has a decent spring training, 1 bust start early in the year and he's shipped back to AAA again.

Johns you just proved you know nothing about baseball. Pettite was 14-14 with 204 IP in 33 starts with a 4.50 era. With cc,joba wang and burnett in the lineup all he needs to do is be a capable 5th starter which is exactly what those numbers are. I really dont know where you get this pettite injury stuff from hes been in the bigs 13 years and only missed significant time once in 2004. At least your facts are based in reality.

Phil hughes look good in the afl

-----------------------------

And Austin Jackson hit .246 in the AFL... guess that means he won't amount to anything then...

Jeter is the one we're gonna have to worry about when it comes time his contract expires.

"Jeter is the one we're gonna have to worry about when it comes time his contract expires."

After the 2010 season and jeter waltzes up to Hank and states "I want what Arod got", right after making 21 million in the final year of his contract, what are the Yankees going to do Cassanova Wong? jeter already is a below average SS with little range and has only great hands and a fair arm left, to go along with his bat. is "Yankee heritage" worth 25 million a year for 3,4, even 5 years for a guy that can no longer field his position even league average possibly at that point?

My point in this, as well as the last post is cutting ties with long term players without wasting cash, like they should maybe do now with Petite as an example and maybe should have with Posada already.

Petite has had 200 innings for several innings, my post was for this coming season, maybe that was beyond some readers.

"I give him 22 MLB starts
125-140 innings
95k
38bb
3.98ERA
1.170WHIP"

Not only are those numbers completely guessing, they don't make sense. You've got him averaging between 5.7-6.4 innings/start. Someone that averages > 6 innings/start sticks around for quite a few more than 22 starts, more like 32. Also someone who averages that much usually has an ERA of closer to 3.2-3.5 than 4. Then there's the K/BB numbers. You've got him at 2.5 K/BB, which is nearly exactly the same as Bill James' 2.6. With that WHIP he's giving up between 109 and 126 hits. Bill James has him at 110 hits. Your WHIP is LOWER than Bill James' projected 1.25, yet you've got his ERA higher. Basically you've got his ERA .63 of a run higher, but all of his other numbers (K's, BB, WHIP, and IP, are nearly identical to Bill James' or better. That doesn't make any sense.

Here's what it'll probably look like if his ERA is 4.

125 IP
22 Starts
100 K's
55 BB
1.38 WHIP.

The difference between me and you is that I acknowledge that they're guesses and they do make sense.

"Bill James is an idiot. I laugh at the people who take the drivel he spews like it's some kind of prophecy."

Bill James INVENTED, and I mean INVENTED, baseball academia. He's certainly not the brightest or most gifted baseball academic, but he invented it. He may not be a PHD, but calling him an idiot is, well, idiotic.

Man I was so incredibly mad when I heard the news about Wigginton and have had about enough of Drayton. Wade is doing an excellent job(Lidge trade hasn't worked out so well yet but the verdict is still out on Bourn), but I don't know how long he will want to work under Drayton. I love Tejada and I liked the trade because we didn't give up much outside of Patton(pretty good friend of mine so it kind of sucked). Scott had a good year, but there was nowhere for the Astros to put him. Now I don't like the trade so much now, not because of the year Tejada had, but because the Astros all of a sudden don't have enough money to spend. Why make that trade in the first place if you know that you aren't going to have the money to spend the next year when there was going to be a ton of pitching on the market and everyone knew that was the weakness of this team(turned out better than a I thought to begin the season). I could understand the not offering Wolf arbitration if we were going to go after another pitcher, but now the way it looks as if we aren't going to compete I doubt Wolf would have accepted, so therefore we would have gotten a pick. I am also with you on the point the team needs to be split up, give Lance and Roy a chance to win and they can bring in some blue chippers. I just wonder how long it is until Roy asks to be traded after calling Draytons bluff with the restructuring of the contract comment.

I can see the Blue Jays being interested in Mulder, assuming he's not looking for a multi-year contract, and doesn't cost much. He might have to take a minor league deal, though, seeing as how the past few years has been injury-plagued for him.

If Mulder can be had cheap, I wouldnt mind seeing the Indians sign him to round out the back of the rotation.

"Wade is doing an excellent job(Lidge trade hasn't worked out so well yet but the verdict is still out on Bourn)"

You do realize that Bourn had a 288 OBP and struck out over a hundred times last year... I would even consider that an acceptable #8/#9 hitter for the Pirates, let alone a team trying to compete. I think the jury's given their verdict and left.

As for the money issue, well that seems to be more of McLane's screw up rather than Wade's. Considering this isn't a major market team and assuming about $100M payroll next year, well 60% of the budget is tied up in 4 players. To me that's screams disaster. And that's not even taking into account the pound of flesh Valverde will get in arb.

coming from a yankee fan....i think it would be an excellent idea to go and get mulder for a 1 year-8 million deal. that way it will give hughes another full season to pitch unstressed out...and bc its mulder one can assume that he will get hurt for a little while so hughes can make some spot starts

oh and not every trade can be analyzed as who won and who didnt the very next year, albeit that Lidge was "lights out" we also didnt lose a thing of that by having Valverde. Bourn still has the opportunity to prove himself, he is still very young and is in winter ball working on his issues....I say bourn puts up significantly better numbers this year.

Start wearing purple- I don't know how you can say the deal is already been proven a bust being Bourn is a young player. He had a tough year, but Lidge was never going to do what he did in Philly here in Houston. Granted Purpura should have traded him to Boston when he was offered some good packages. I believe one included Buckholtz and I know one included Murphy. You can't analyze a trade after one season. Even if Bourn doesn't pan out to be a starting CF, he plays great defense and has speed, so he will always have a major league job and would be a good fourth outfielder. I didn't like the trade because Lidge was one of my favorite Astros, but the deal is hardly set by who won and who lost.

The money issue is straight Drayton's fault because he has wanted Tejada for a long time and knowing it would handicap the team was the sad part about it. I don't mind the trade because I thought he was going to try to put a winner on the field, not try to cut payroll one year after acquiring Tejada, that makes it look not so good. Another thing about the money deal-the Astros aren't a small-market team, they are a mid-market so they get no benefit from teh luxury tax or anything like that. Drayton just wants to make money.