Shot another guy. Now Orioles fulminate.

In Simon’s case, SAGNOF seems to stand for something else now. Most of the acronyms buzzing around in my brain start with “shoot another guy”…

http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/01/02/details-emerge-on-the-alfredo-simon-shooting-case/

@wily mo: Good.

bein #4 will take pressure off of him too. I think his stats were much better post oswalt trade, all tho he was good before, he was even greater after.

not sure what’s going on , but it’s probably some residual stuff from
y2k ,

or that harmonic convergence thing .

did you get a double post for my pick @fsw ?

@ grey …… these weeks are draaaaagin’ .

also , i seem to have lost my arrow thingy (the one that relieves my from
having to type “@ grey”) .
anyone else ?

i know it’s early , but ,
do you have c. young ranked above granderson , for 2011 ??

people have studied this. it’s completely irrelevant. rotation slotting is a meaningless, made-up thing that does not affect the numbers at all. or certainly not even 5% as much as random, unpredictable year-to-year pitcher variance does. i like hamels a lot, but he’s just hamels. he’s not going to “feast on” anything but chicken and guys who can’t hit a changeup.

Hitters more than pitchers…yes welcome to the site

But my two cents:

No Brainers…

Youk at 3B – yes please
Braun – 2nd round pick
Gallardo – back to back 200k’s <3
Dustin – 3/4/5 best 2B on a big hitting club…

to me it's between JJ or Hamels for the 5th spot…and I can argue that either way…Ethier is also in there, but I've never liked him personally…

Hmm you guys seem to want hitters more than me. My idea on my keepers so far has been: Braun, JJ, Gallardo, Hamels, Pedroia/Youk. About 30 pitchers are being kept. There are a couple sleepers i LOVE at pitcher (wont name them b.c frequent poster joe from point pleasant is a big rival of mine in the league), so I can focus on that. However if Johnson is healthy he’s my favorite player and has a great shot at #1 pitcher so i cant pass him up. He was the overall #1 player around the middle of the year. Hamels i love being the #4 and if wins evens out (as the #4 if he gets close to a 3.00 era and 200 k’s its hard to see him falling outside of the top 15) he can be great. Gallardo i think will also go nuts, and his first half splits are great. If he stays like that i can deal him mid year for almost any player i want (pitching is THAT valuable).
I’m keeping Braun because with the new manager who’ll let em’ run, I can see him being a top 5 overall player.
It comes down to, in my mind, youk vs pedroia. As a die hard sox fan I dont want to let either go. Originally i was thinking pedroia all year, but now im not sure. Youk will have ducks on the pond all season long, and if papi is like last year, he will have very good protection. Health’s an issue, but if healthy he can easily be a top 3 3b, .315-32-115 line is probably within reach (he was pretty much on pace for something around that last year)

anyway, i hope this narrows it down and clarifies things for you. i’ll see if i can come up with seven more options later and then make sure not to take a stand

that’s the easy part. braun yes, garza no.

the rest of those guys, man, you can make an argument for or against any of them.

i’m probably off on my own a little bit on this but i actually like gallardo the best out of the other three pitchers. it’s a riskier play to keep him because you’re gambling on upside, but i think JJ and hamels are already at their cruising altitudes whereas gallardo can still climb. of course, i’m kind of a slut for K rates. if the league is so pitching-heavy you probably want at least two of these guys.

then youk and pedroia are both hard to let go. if it came down to that i’d go pedroia just because of age. then there’s ethier vs. stanton, well-rounded current studliness vs. huge future power upside. but you already have braun and there may not be room to keep 2 outfielders in a pitching-oriented 5-keeper situation.

i think if it was me i’d go braun – youk – pedroia – JJ – gallardo. but they’re all hard choices after braun. hamels over gallardo is safer. or you could go the other way, whole-hog for upside with braun – stanton – ethier (thinking of his big start before the finger injury) – JJ – gallardo. or go even harder after pitching with braun + hitter + all 3 pitchers. all of those seem like valid strategies. might depend some on exactly what you think the available draft board is going to look like.

or, trade them all for pujols

Youk, Pedroia, Braun, Ethier, Johnson, in no particular order.

Also, if your final decision came to youk vs pedroia, who would you keep and why?