MLB 2013!!

[Imran Siddiqui]

One of the all time greats has left us...

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/8860690/st-louis-cardinals-hall-famer-stan-musial-dies-age-92

Rest In Peace, Stan the Man

[-Jrabbit]

Probably the best pure hitter I ever saw play IRL. And I've seen some of the true greats -- Mantle, Mays, Aaron, Banks, FRobinson, Clemente, Carew, Gwynn, Rose... plus everyone who followed them.

RIP, Stan, and thanks for the memories.

[SlowwHand]

R.I.P.

[Ben Kenobi]

Mantle, Mays, Aaron, Banks, FRobinson, Clemente, Carew, Gwynn, Rose

Don't forget Ruth and Cobb.

[snoopy369]

I don't think JR is quite that old.

[Imran Siddiqui]

So the Braves decide to make ANOTHER big play:

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/8876169/the-atlanta-braves-acquired-justin-upton-arizona-diamondbacks-sources

The Atlanta Braves have agreed to a trade to acquire outfielder Justin Upton and third baseman Chris Johnson from the Arizona Diamondbacks for pitcher Randall Delgado, infielder Martin Prado and minor leaguers Nick Ahmed, Brandon Drury and Zeke Spruill, sources tell ESPN.

Though, I will say that I find Prado is underrated and Justin Upton slightly overrated, so it'll be interesting. As well as having brothers in the OF together in Atlanta.

[snoopy369]

As a friend of mine pointed out, it's too bad there wasn't a third Upton brother, Ben Upton. Then you could have the all-Upton outfield.

Prado's nice, but more of nice-in-fantasy IMO. I'd make that trade every day, if I believed Justin's 2009/2011 was more indicative of his future performance than 2010/2012. At least they're getting him in an odd year ...

[Imran Siddiqui]

Prado is slightly better than just 'nice-in-fantasy' . He's kind of settled into a 3+ WAR player who can play multiple positions. That's fairly valuable.

And yes, you are completely correct as to which Justin Upton shows up.

[snoopy369]

Interestingly enough, his WAR and Justin Upton's seem to fluctuate in opposition to each other. Prado's better in even years, Upton in odd. Prado is certainly a good player, but I'd rather have Upton I think - more upside. Prado's a great player to balance a team, given he isn't a power hitter or a speed guy but just gets on base really well. He's sort of a faster Mark Grace.

Atlanta did give up a lot, but I think you need to do it if you're them. It's like in fantasy - you always, always take the trade of two good guys for one star, if your team has a shot at contending. ATL has enough solid good guys that they can afford to trade away one of those for a star (as long as they can pocket the $ from Upton of course, but Prado might well cost almost as much as Upton given his arbitration status, and ATL is only giving up one year of Prado for 3+ years of Upton).

[Imran Siddiqui]

Interestingly enough, his WAR and Justin Upton's seem to fluctuate in opposition to each other. Prado's better in even years, Upton in odd. Prado is certainly a good player, but I'd rather have Upton I think - more upside. Prado's a great player to balance a team, given he isn't a power hitter or a speed guy but just gets on base really well. He's sort of a faster Mark Grace.

Atlanta did give up a lot, but I think you need to do it if you're them. It's like in fantasy - you always, always take the trade of two good guys for one star, if your team has a shot at contending. ATL has enough solid good guys that they can afford to trade away one of those for a star (as long as they can pocket the $ from Upton of course, but Prado might well cost almost as much as Upton given his arbitration status, and ATL is only giving up one year of Prado for 3+ years of Upton).

The only issue with playing "like in fantasy" is that in real baseball you need to have decent fielders at all of your positions and can't just put in a decent hitter that has a positional allowance at, say.... Third Base .

Prado can play a decent 3B, that's what made him slightly more valuable to Atlanta.

[OzzyKP]

[Demonbinder]

From Yahoo Sports: "According to the baseball scouting website Perfect Game, there’s a solid high school infielder from Boca Raton, FL who is working his way up the prospect ranks and seems to have a good future ahead of him. Now, obviously that part isn‘t noteworthy, but the fact his given name is Fenway Parks certainly is."

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-league-stew/fenway-parks-great-real-name-talented-high-school-081903858--mlb.html

Don't know if that forced him into playing baseball. I would not have wanted to be him at a younger age.

[Berzerker]

we need people for our weekly fantasy league

c'mon dudes

[Imran Siddiqui]

WOOTS!!!

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/gold-glove-awards-take-another-step-forward/

Basically, Rawlings will work with SABR. Rawlings already sent out a statistical resource packet to Gold Glove voters the last few years. Now SABR’s going to improve the packet. Additionally, and more importantly, SABR will create a committee that, in turn, creates a new statistical defensive metric. This metric will play a role in determining the award winners. Much of it will still be left up to the voters, but no longer will the voters represent 100% of the input.

[snoopy369]

Eh, I have a hard time giving a **** about awards in baseball. Perhaps it's because the position awards have never had any real value beyond name recognition; but it just doesn't really matter to me.

Also, I can't imagine the statistic is going to matter enough to make a difference - and if it is, I'd worry about the statistic being flawed. UZR and such are better than no statistic, but sometimes they generate results that make me ... unsure about their real accuracy. (IIRC Dayan Viciedo profiled as the best or nearly the best LF in the American League. I watch White Sox games; if that's true, I really am concerned.) I guess it might help to prevent the dumb things like Jeter getting the Gold Glove in 2011, but ... meh.