MLB - 2006 Season!

[Arrian]

Heck, let's include the DH. Andy Phillips' OPS is .522. That defeats Dimitri Young's godawful .443. The Tigers remain .237 points of OPS better, though.

Alternatively, as you point out, the Mets are 8th out of 16 NL teams.

Reyes (SS): .709
Delgado (1B): .959
Wright (3B): .915
Beltran (CF): 973
Nady (RF): .852
Lo Duca (C): .798
Floyd (LF, who played until partway through game 3): .636
Fake Matsui (2B): .590
Jose Valentin (LF/PH): .718

Lets ignore Valentin, since Floyd played for the most part. Combined OPS sans-pitchers = 6.432

Combined OPS for the current Yankee lineup (sans pitchers) = 6.274.

And the disparity gets worse once you look at the bench (e.g. Valentin vs. Reese).

Below average. Not AAA, but come on, that was just a figure of speech. Only one or two teams field AAA lineups.

-Arrian

[Arrian]

And those numbers are not park-adjusted. Isn't Shea quite the pitchers' park? That would dampen the Mets' OPS numbers vis-a-vis the Yankees (IIRC, Yankee Stadium is pretty much neutral). One would also have to consider all the road stadiums too if one wanted to really try and do an apples to apples comparison, but I've taken this too far already.

-Arrian

[Imran Siddiqui]

Combined OPS for the current Yankee lineup (sans pitchers) = 6.274.

As I said, Stinett is a career .707 OPS batter. To say that he's actually a .493 because of 30 some-odd at bats this year is silly. Stinett is NOT a .493 OPS hitter. He has just had a small sample size.

And really, Stinett is the only reason the Yankees lineup looks bad if you take everyone's current OPS.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by Arrian
And those numbers are not park-adjusted. Isn't Shea quite the pitchers' park? That would dampen the Mets' OPS numbers vis-a-vis the Yankees (IIRC, Yankee Stadium is pretty much neutral). One would also have to consider all the road stadiums too if one wanted to really try and do an apples to apples comparison, but I've taken this too far already.

-Arrian

http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/NYM/2005.shtml

Shea Stadium last year was basically a neutral park (99/99).

http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/NYY/2005.shtml

Yankee stadium was a little bit more a hitter's park than Shea was a pitchers' park, but not in any significant way (103/102)

[Arrian]

Ok, fair enough on the park factors.

Stinnet the only one making the lineup look weak?

Bernie, Melky, Cairo when he plays, Phillips when he plays... those guys are all sub-.700 OPS guys, which is terrible.

Stinnet's awfulness was counteracted by what constitues a major hot streak by Bernie Williams (yay for windblown infield popups!).

Anyway, neither my joking "it's a AAA lineup" nor your "the New Murderers Row got a little less potent" comments are anywhere near accurate. The lineup is significantly better than any AAA lineup, and yet the lineup is significantly weakened, to the point where it is slightly below-average in MLB.

-Arrian

[Imran Siddiqui]

What the Yanks have 3 sub .700 OPS guys in their lineup at any time? The Mets have 2 (Floyd, Matsui) with a 3rd close (Reyes).

You do realize that your combined Yankees OPS if you consider Stinnet's career OPS numbers instead of the ones you get with the small sample size (as opposed to say Floyd's 138 AB this year), the Yanks jump the Mets, who are the midpoint of MLB teams.

[Ned]

On Mike and Mike in the Morning, both Mikes were appalled over the reporting, especially in Chi-town, of the AJ - Cub Thug, incident at the plate. It seemed that the press was all over AJ, blaming him for what happened. Both Mikes said that they thought AJ was blameless in the affair.

So, Cub freaks, you scum, defend the anti-AJ reporting if you can.

[Imran Siddiqui]

AJ brings it on himself. He's been an ass whereever he's been (to the point where the SF Giants pitchers almost had a clubhouse mutiny unless he was gone). It's not too much of a streach to imagine that Pryzinski said something or tried to show Barett up... especially since he showed Zambrano up the night before.

[Ned]

We have yet to hear from the Cub Thug on the issue of what AJ said or did not say. This is understandable, since the length of his suspension is at issue. But AJ says he said nothing, but that the Cub Thug said to him that he didn't have the ball.

Didn't have the ball? What was AJ supposed to do when the catcher is blocking the plate. Asking him politely to move?

Those Cub fans who blame AJ for knocking the Cub catcher off the plate are being disingenuous at best.

But it becomes somewhat ridiculous to justify the Cub Thug's assault on AJ's rep in general. If the National League does not like AJ for whatever reason, beat his team, not him.

Hopefully, they'll have another opportunity this fall.

[H Tower]

Originally posted by Ned
On Mike and Mike in the Morning, both Mikes were appalled over the reporting, especially in Chi-town, of the AJ - Cub Thug, incident at the plate. It seemed that the press was all over AJ, blaming him for what happened. Both Mikes said that they thought AJ was blameless in the affair.

So, Cub freaks, you scum, defend the anti-AJ reporting if you can.

The Tribune Company owns the cubs, and the Chicago Tribune. Chicago's been partial to the Cubs for years. No matter how well the white sox do and how bad the cubs are.

[Arrian]

Doh. Wang got it twisted.

-Arrian

[Lawrence of Arabia]

AJ got his ass handed to him. that was ****in hilarious. dude got a right hook in the jaw. serves his ass right. i havnt seen such a clean cut knockout since pedro slammed zimmer to the ground during the alcs hahahahaha.

[Ned]

Originally posted by H Tower


The Tribune Company owns the cubs, and the Chicago Tribune. Chicago's been partial to the Cubs for years. No matter how well the white sox do and how bad the cubs are.

Well Bully for the Tribune.


What's the Sun Times excuse?

[Sava]

Legacy of lies
Even by Bonds' standards, latest about-face shameful

by Tom Verducci


There will come a day when Barry Bonds leaves baseball, and everything about the game will be the better for it.

In the meantime, the more the man reveals himself, the more we know him to be the absolute fraud for which his name has become synonymous.

Only the latest example of the deceit that is Bonds occurred after he hit home run No. 714 to tie Babe Ruth for No. 2 on the all-time list. The same man who in an interview with reporters before the 2003 All-Star Game gleefully looked forward to wiping Ruth from the record books suddenly -- because it fit the purpose of trying to gain a shred of public respect -- paid homage to Ruth and his legacy. When a reporter reminded Bonds of his 2003 comments, he claimed not to remember and, as The New York Times reported, called the words "somebody's fabrication."

The only fabrication is Bonds himself. I was there that day in Chicago, along with as many as 40 other reporters around him at a table in a hotel ballroom, and I was no more than six feet away from him. Bonds spent a great deal of time talking about the importance of the Negro Leagues Museum in Kansas City -- the same museum he stiffed in 2002 when, according to the Associated Press, "museum officials said they were unable, despite months of trying, to even get an acknowledgment from home run king Barry Bonds, who was voted the Oscar Charleston Award.''

Subsequent talk of Hank Aaron then turned into a question about Aaron's home run record.

Said Bonds, "The one I care about is Babe Ruth and 715.''

Asked why, Bonds replied, "As a left-handed hitter, I wiped him out. That's it. And in the baseball world, Babe Ruth is everything, right? I got his slugging percentage, his on-base percentage, his walks and I'll take his home runs. That's it. Don't talk about him no more.... I'm the next generation of the Negro leagues. Hank Aaron can have those 755 home runs.''

It is yet another window into the shallow soul of Bonds that he thinks he could disrespect Ruth in front of the national media at a showcase baseball event, have it be widely and repeatedly reported, and then only three years later claim it was a "fabrication." Just like he never knew those were steroids he put into his body. He and his records are truly unbelievable.

link: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200...uth/index.html

[Sava]

oh... Barry Bonds is also a racist... that's why he cares so much about Ruth's "record". (is second place on the home run list even a record?)

Just ask Ron Kittle... during an interview on Chicago sports radio, Kittle told of an incident in the SF Giants clubhouse where Bonds refused to sign something for Kittle a few years ago, stating, "I don't sign for white guys". Kittle then approached Dusty Baker (still manager of the Giants) and told Dusty, "You better tell your player to sign this, or I'm going put him on the DL."

Barry Bonds: Cheater. Fraud. Racist. Scumbag.

Baseball will be better off when he's gone.