But I can tell you (and you surely know, having played, yourself) that baseball is a hugely mental game – far moreso than any other professional sport other than perhaps golf precisely because it is such an individual sport (your teammates cannot pull you out of a slump) and because the margin of error – the difference between success and failure – is so very small. Ignoring the irrational is the rational thing to do, but the question becomes: is baseball a rational game?

It may well be that we’ve conflated two wholly different qualities – that baseball, by virtue of the fact that it is a sport based so very much on individual skill, is emminently *quantifiable*, but at the same time hugely *irrational* for exactly the same reason. Put that in your pipe and smoke it. At any rate, I think Holliday is a top-15 hitter for the rest of the year, and anything less than 1st round value (which nobody’s going to get) is underselling him at this point. I’ll take my crow with hot sauce at the end of the season if I’m wrong.

BTW, have you come off the ledge about Kendry Morales yet? Maybe he reads your blog, because he’s been on a tear ever since you called for a punt. I’m glad I trusted April Grey over July Grey and held on for one more day…I heeeeeeld on for one more day, and things went my way. I held on for one more day.

As far as the pitcher killing rallies is concerned, that is going to most affect batters hitting somewhere near the pitcher’s slot in the batting order. For a cleanup hitter, as Holliday is now, the pitcher’s performance as a hitter has only a miniscule affect on how likely he is to come up with runners on base (it only happens when the #9 hitter leads off, gets on base, and then the team records two outs and another man on base without driving the pitcher in over the next three batters), and a near zero affect on how likely he is to score, himself (as in: mathematically, a #9 hitter can drive in a #4 hitter only with 2 outs and the bases loaded).

As far as David Foster Wallace barreling into the catcher is concerned, knowing what we know about the man, Ray Fosse should not have been surprised.

@Nick0rz: Nice

@BabyBeluga: Go for Tillman.

But those steals… yum.

Not much difference, except for the HRs.

I just traded Piniero for McLouth, didnt really need him but I couldnt not do it based on the sheer value. So I will now have a lineup that looks like this:

12 team 5×5

C Russel Martin
1B Ryan Howard
2B Aaron Hill
3B Miguel Cabrera
SS Rafael Furcal
OF Ben Zobrist
OF Nate McLouth
OF Grady Sizemore
UTIL Manny Ramirez
UTIL Aramis Ramirez
UTIL Alfonso Soriano
BN Corey Hart

My pitching staff is pretty mediocre since I traded most of it away for hitting and I really need to add another starter or closer from the WW.

Who is the odd man out in my offense to trade or drop?
Thank a ton