Timing is the MAN! Every time I read one of Haven's condescending posts, a part of me wants to do the same thing, but I have never been able to come up with the appropriate level of anger to do the job. Hopefully, Haven knows he got hard-core busted and will let people express their opinions from now on.
Now this is amusing...you're now bashing me by claiming I assumed positions I never did on some issues! Hint: if you really want to attack someone, be precise. Otherwise, you come off as being a liar as well as stupid in your case. Why not? You do for people you consider somewhat not bright, like princess. I think of you in much the same way. Perhaps, if you truly object to such language in reference to yourself, then you should avoid it with others. More pejoratives! Incidentally, most of the people I respect on here generally agree with my opinions. People with limited vocabularities like yourself generally do not... which I take as a confirmation of accuracy. Perfect example of you being incapable of even semi-deep thought. Let me put this very simply, so your limited capacity for analysis won't fail you. Ichiro is a good hitter. He hits better than most people who play in Major League Baseball. However, he does not hit well for a corner OF. Look at how he performs in essential categories like on base percentage and slugging. He's a good hitter, but not for a right fielder. yes, he could play CF with his range. But he doesn't. So he's not supplying production that's good for his position. Last year, Lugo was somewhat above average for his position. Incidentally, you just used average... which is declining as a stat even for most "baseball people." You're behind the times... Pujols had a great rookie batting season in a hitters era. Oswalt had one of the greatest rookie pitcher seasons ever in an age of hitting. His K/BB ratio, if he'd pitched a mere few innings more and qualified, would have been the best in half a century for a rookie. Ha ha. I've criticized people for expecting every prospect to work out. The odds of Ensberg working out, before this season started, were not fabulous. However, he represented the best chance the Astros have of fielding a quality player at that position, and he still does. He did not wish to come out. He said he wished to pitch another inning. No, according to ERA. He had the worst ERA among qualifying pitchers last year. Even you use ERA in your posts. You can't say it's valid when describing performance with one person, and not another. Mlicki's success is a blessing... and one that could not be counted on before the season started. Hey! Moron! I didn't provide projections for Redding! And incidentally, you put words into my mouth again. What I said was this: Redding should have every opportunity to win the position in spring training. Williams announced that Mlicki was guaranteed a spot before spring training even began. I objected to the idea that Redding and Hernandez were only competing with each other, and not a guy who'd pitch poorly in the past. [qupte]You know at some point you're probably going to have to come to the realization that players aren't stats on a piece of paper. They're living breathing humans who don't posses the "on average" consistency that you rail on about. They also don't play in plastic bubbles, they play in weather, heat, and humidity. All are things that affect player performance that don't fit into your calculator mentality.[/quote] But they do. Otherwise, statistics couldn't be compiled at all. And they wouldn't be consistent across the course of a career. Oh my god. You dug your own grave here. This is true for any player. Why not just trot out a line-up full of guys batting below the mendoza line? After all, any individual guy is only going to have 1 hit in 10 fewer than Jeff Bagwell. Very few. In any given game, that line-up could break out for a ton of runs. But a season is decided on just a few games. And eventually, the luck runs out. Of course it's statistically possible. Why would you think otherwise. and here's Timing Stupid Thought #5632: You just used a stat to indicate why Jimy should have hit the guy! He'd had 7 whole career at-bats, so this is indicative that his past performance will predict future performance. Wow. Not only did you just do what you object to, but without even considering the threshold of something being statistically significant! Ha ha. Not only are you a hypocrite, but a stupid one who betrays himself for a BAD argument. Or succeed for that matter by being protected by Bagwell and Berkman! He'd get better pitches to hit. And incidentally, if you took an excellent team, and lowered its OPS .030 across the board, it probably wouldnt' be excellent any more. And btw, OBP is the better stat for lead-off hitters. And Ensberg's OBP has been the best part of his game, as his power has been lacking (of course, OBP is usually the best part of Ausmus' game as well, just not the past 2 years). So that factor is solely responsible for our losses? Gee... and here I thought the Astros didn't win the most games in baseball every year. BUt in any event, of course you need to rest your best players. You just don't do it all in one day, unless you're playing the d-rays. And you don't bat the replacement's 1-2 EDIT: one addition... I dislike Williams not simply because of his start with the Astros, but how he managed the Red Sox. What the hell is this about? I haven't mentioned any criticisms of the players here. Just tactical decisions. It's a great world where you can pin any argument you wish on your opponenent, then bash him for it. Take the pills, man... Incidentally, the teams that are starting to use the lessons of statistics are the small market teams that are actually winning. Oakland: #1 in using modern baseball concepts. San Diego is up there. So are the Yankees, amusingly enough (part of the reason they've gotten bang for their buck). Brian Cashman is a nerd like me . Teams like Baltimore, Milwaukee and Kansas City have pretty much mocked hte idea of using statistics in evaluating players too much. THey bring up your objections: people aren't paper. Of course they're not... but past performance is generally indicative of future performance. And you can evaluate past performance best through objective means.
I just wanted to point out how silly this sounds. Did haven delete a post of yours? Did he in any way censor what you said? No one is stopping you from posting your opinions. The only thing haven does is argue (albeit sometimes not so nicely) your opinion if he thinks his is better. This is a basic right, and one that is generally encouraged on this BBS, because no one is correct 100% of the time. Arguments are generally stimulating, and can inform as well as teach. Don't start bashing someone simply because they disagree with you.
There is nothing quite as boring as an intellectual hissy fit from debate boy with big mouth and inflated sense of self. It's ever enlightening to see the childish depths you will stoop to in order to try to intimidate and insult your way to rationalizing your ignorance. Actually, Ichiro is slightly better than average. He's the most over-hyped player ever, possibly. His average is terrific. His OBP is average. His slugging % sucks. His fielding is good, but not superb because his arm is weak. http://bbs.clutchcity.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=17229&highlight=ichiro I wouldn't even dream of putting words in your mouth so here are your own words. Of course a while after you said this he won the MVP, gold glove, silver slugger, batting title, led his team to 116 wins, and was touted as the best player in the AL by many of his peers. Pretty funny stuff... Lugo isn't really a bad defender anymore. So at best, anybody's going to have a marginal overall advantage over him on the issue. But his OPS is quite good for a MLB shortstop. That tells me all I need to know: Lugo's a keeper. http://bbs.clutchcity.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=17160&perpage=30&highlight=lugo&pagenumber=2 He's not really a bad defender anymore unless you can read or actually watched him play. Funny thing when Lugo made all those errors in the playoffs and basically embarrassed himself I had a good laugh about what you said. Pujols had a great rookie batting season in a hitters era. Oswalt had one of the greatest rookie pitcher seasons ever in an age of hitting. His K/BB ratio, if he'd pitched a mere few innings more and qualified, would have been the best in half a century for a rookie. I know that the ROY is awarded based on performance, rather than talent, but Oswalt has had a truly magnificent rookie year... while it seems that someone of Pujols caliber comes out most years. http://bbs.clutchcity.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=21466&highlight=pujols One of the best rookie seasons ever and you pretty much reduced it to the same kind of season rookies have most years. He did not wish to come out. He said he wished to pitch another inning. Oswalt had thrown only 85 pitches -- 50 for strikes -- when he was pulled after seven innings. He was asked if could stay longer, but he left it up to manager Jimy Williams and pitching coach Burt Hooton. "The thing is that if I want to go back out for one inning, I want to go back out for two," Oswalt said. "I don't want to come out then, but they decided to go with Dotel and Wags. That's pretty much what we do all the time. This is just one game. We have a lot of games left. ... I just said, `Whatever your decision is.' " http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/sports/bb/astros/1373630 No, according to ERA. He had the worst ERA among qualifying pitchers last year. Even you use ERA in your posts. You can't say it's valid when describing performance with one person, and not another. Mlicki was the worst pitcher in the NL last year. Anybody who manages to be the worst pitcher in the NL, doesn't deserve a starting position the next. If you want to contend, you can't carry the Single Worst Qualifying Starting Pitcher in the NL because they just happened to have an ok game at a good time. Especially when they fail to have even a single above-average pitch, and aren't at the age when pitchers still tend to improve. But that has nothing to do with Jimy ruining our youngsters. http://bbs.clutchcity.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=29773&highlight=mlicki+redding Hey! Moron! I didn't provide projections for Redding! And incidentally, you put words into my mouth again. Um... how are MLE's generally accurate for Ensberg but not for Redding? You've said many times that MLE's are generally accurate in your campaign for Ensberg so are they not accurate for Redding now? Interesting... But they do. Otherwise, statistics couldn't be compiled at all. And they wouldn't be consistent across the course of a career. Your specific question about the batting order was related to one game, not a season and not a career. Oh my god. You dug your own grave here. This is true for any player. Why not just trot out a line-up full of guys batting below the mendoza line? After all, any individual guy is only going to have 1 hit in 10 fewer than Jeff Bagwell. Very few. In any given game, that line-up could break out for a ton of runs. You don't do that because it's incompetent and stupid. The kind of thing that gets people fired. Vizcaino played because Biggio was to be rested not because Jimy wanted to play press your luck. Ausmus leading off over Ensberg was simply the safe move. You don't move rookies all around the lineup when they're struggling to find their stroke. You can play dumb if you like but a .028 difference in OPS is no meaningful indicator that one player should play in one spot instead of another, especially when the player is a rookie. Of course it's statistically possible. Why would you think otherwise. and here's Timing Stupid Thought #5632: You just used a stat to indicate why Jimy should have hit the guy! He'd had 7 whole career at-bats, so this is indicative that his past performance will predict future performance. I didn't use a stat to say why Jimy should have hit the guy, it was a stat of why he likely did. I'm not the manager of the team and I have not spoken to Jimy. Get your head out of Jimy's tactical ass. Or succeed for that matter by being protected by Bagwell and Berkman! He'd get better pitches to hit. I'm sorry was Bagwell batting second yesterday? Isn't your whole hissy fit about Ensberg leading off? So Ensberg would get better pitches to hit at the top of the lineup but the OBP that you've been enamored with couldn't be a function of his hitting 7th ahead of Everett, Ausmus, and Lugo? Calculator please... So that factor is solely responsible for our losses? Gee... and here I thought the Astros didn't win the most games in baseball every year. BUt in any event, of course you need to rest your best players. You just don't do it all in one day, unless you're playing the d-rays. And you don't bat the replacement's 1-2. Ausmus was not a replacement and the Braves were playing without Sheffield/Surhoff and were throwing their 4th starter. It was as good a time as any to do it. What a complete waste of my time.
