Comments on: Top 21 – 40 Outfielders for 2008

By: Grey

Grey — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 03:58:35 +0000

@Steve: Nobody is about the only one to get the Phillies out so far.

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 03:55:10 +0000

@Grey: The Dodgers better get Nobody warmed up, then. Boom-tish!

By: Grey

Grey — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 03:52:26 +0000

@Steve: Nobody... And I mean nobody, throws at The Flying Hawaiian.

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 03:49:54 +0000

@Grey: I guess that will teach them to throw at the Flyin' Hawaiian.

By: Grey

Grey — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 03:47:55 +0000

@Steve: When you need to strikeout on a wild pitch to get to first, you're the problem, Russell Martin.

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 03:29:47 +0000

Dodgers, Dodgers, Dodgers – what are you doing?

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 01:47:36 +0000

@Grey: Yeah - just because a bank is closed doesn't make it a day out of the ordinary just at the moment.

By: Grey

Grey — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 01:44:45 +0000

@Steve: Cause Ohio discovered America, or some shizz. All I know is the banks are closed. Or maybe that's because the goverment closed them. Hmm... Now you've confused me.

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 01:40:10 +0000

@Grey: Why does a city in Ohio get its own day?

By: Grey

Grey — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 01:37:48 +0000

@Steve: Gotcha. Hope you're enjoying your Columbus Day, or as they call it in New Zealand, "Who's Day?"

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 01:33:33 +0000

@Grey: I’ve been around. been visiting – just not posting. Been school holidays here so have had some days at home with the kids and away a few days. So I haven’t had any time to sit around on my ass surfing the web.

But now that I am back at work, I have that time

By: Grey

Grey — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 01:29:08 +0000

@Steve: Yo, Steve! Where the hell ya been? Check in tomorrow for Pat the Bat. Then you can look at the top 482 players on the Razzball Point Shares. (Actually, I'll be posting it around 10pm my time.)

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 01:21:56 +0000

NZ branch reporting in. Out of interest, where (if anywhere) did Pat the Bat rank? Looked like he was going to have a big season at the midway point, but that was, like, his season over and done with right there.

By: BSA

BSA — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 00:40:29 +0000

@Grey: @Grey: HA!

By: Grey

Grey — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 00:34:20 +0000

@BSA: BTW, I'm convinced Sager is trying to get picked for Dancing With the Stars.

By: BSA

BSA — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 00:30:44 +0000

@Grey: True fans kindly call them pink hats. That is why my girls at two and four years old already have adult hats so there is no doubt they have been true fans all along. Nothing like a comfortable baseball hat.

By: Grey

Grey — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 00:24:52 +0000

@BigFatHippo: Definitely looked nervous. @BSA: Bunch of fairweather fans.

By: BSA

BSA — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 00:10:55 +0000

@BigFatHippo: He was realizing that his Rays were shootin their load tonight, wasting homeruns on a slaughter. ya know what that means?! Low score tomorrow night! As to Lester's night you had to figure coming in to tonight that he had to come back to average.

By: BSA

BSA — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 00:08:17 +0000

D’ya see the crowd file out before the Rocco’s homer went over Youk’s head? The Sox seemed flat tonight. That’s why i asked about Garza’s stuff, he wasn’t electric but was either unhittable or the sox were lulled to sleep.
Maybe they were boycotting for Tito putting Timlin in?

Off baseball question, is Craig Sager a joke or trying to make a joke of baseball with those outfits? C’mon!

By: BigFatHippo

BigFatHippo — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 23:57:14 +0000

@Grey: What was Andy Sonanstine doing biting his nails through batting gloves? Did you see him, I think he has Tourette's.

By: Grey

Grey — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 23:49:21 +0000

@BSA: It's awfully quiet in Boston's Back Bay.

By: BigFatHippo

BigFatHippo — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 23:39:14 +0000

@BSA: I feel your pain friend. Thank goodness Adam Kennedy got to hit the golf course early.

By: BigFatHippo

BigFatHippo — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 23:36:42 +0000

@BaronVonVulturewins: Well said my man. I haven't paid attention to Yahoo rankings for 5 years for that purpose alone. The only time I do pay attention is when proposing trades (Me: but Crawford's #15 overall this year. Him: Ok, I'll throw in Webb along with Dye but you gotta give me Izzy.) Done deal, good trade dude.

By: BSA

BSA — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 23:29:34 +0000

Pigheaded Sawx fan in me is still pretty confident down 4 in the 8th. What I don’t get watchin this is why was Garza so unhittable

By: Grey

Grey — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 21:43:28 +0000

@Freak: Yeah, there's plenty of people who probably won with Winn, but you need to have the right complimentary players.

By: Freak

Freak — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 21:04:47 +0000

I had Winn on a team that I won a league with.

But I did also have Abreu, McClouth, Damon, Vlad, DeRosa and Victorino.

If I remember correctly, Winn had one hot month where I played him at utility and the rest of the time he had spot duty.

By: Rudy Gamble

Rudy Gamble — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 18:53:27 +0000

@BaronVonVulturewins: You’re completely right. We’ll be posting our Point Shares calculations tonight and it’s clear that ESPN overvalues SBs and doesn’t do enough to represent the negative impact of low HR/RBI contributions. With Point Shares, we have Randy Winn as the #31 OF and that’s counting Braun as a 3B and Upton as a 2B (so, really, ESPN has him at #20).

Stay tuned…

By: BaronVonVulturewins

BaronVonVulturewins — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 18:42:38 +0000

I don’t want to live in a universe where Randy Winn is the 22nd best OF. I just don’t.

I’m also going to float a theory, which I may expound upon later: That the ESPN Player-Rater (and the Yahoo one as well) vastly over-value SBs. Look at Winn, then look at Vlad: Same runs, same average, but Vlad’s got 50% more RBIs and almost 200% more HRs. (170% more, actually, if I’m doing my math right, which is improbable.) The only edge for Winn? You guessed it.

But I have to imagine these player-raters use some sort of algorithm that values something based on scarcity — e.g. 20 extra SBs is rarer, and ergo more valuable, than 17 extra HRs. And that’s true.

But what Mr. Player-Rater can’t, or isn’t, accounting for, is that not all categories are created equal. SBs is only one category, so there’s an obvious ceiling on how many more points extra SBs will net you. But more HRs mean more of R and RBIs too, which is why Willy Taveras doesn’t get drafted in the first or second round.

Also, I’m sure I’ve read breakdowns elsewhere of how carrying a guy who only gives you steals — and Winn is, I’m sure, below league average for an OF in every category except SBs and AVG, and probably at league avg for Rs — actually hurts you more than it helps you. Simply put, it’s better to have a lot of guys who mash and steal 10-15 bases, and to finish middle-of-the-pack in steals and near the top of everything else, than to carry one blackhole who steals 60, wins you that category, but does nothing else.

I’m just blue-skying here (yeah, that’s right — blue-skying! I said it!) but if there’s a single person out there who won his or her league with Randy Winn as one of their top 3 OFs, raise your hand. Then post a message here, because I can’t see your hand, because it’s the Internet.

In the meantime, I will think this over/actually do some research.