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[littlefallsmets]

Congrats, Bananas. Took me down fair and square.

I have to tweak this team but... I'm at a loss as to... where to tweak this team.

I have a lot of good-but-not-great players and a few good-but-not-great players on my watch list. When you're to that point in your season, you're kind of shuffling chairs, you know?

[Carlos del Vaca]

While I am enjoying our baseball league, the scoring system kind of bugs me.  I am not suggesting we change it mid-season, but maybe it's something to think about for next year.

See, in the league I played in previously (on Sandbox), your hitters and pitchers received points for individual actions.  Base hit = 1, solo home run = 6 (4 for the home run itself, 1 for run scored, 1 for RBI), strikeout by hitter = -1, win for pitcher = 10, and so and and so forth.  Your line-up's total vs. the other guy's total for the period (two "games" per week, M-R and F-Su), and you either won or lost.  None of this "5-3-2" stuff.  You can have ridiculous 200-198 battles, or lame 65-58 squeakers, but each counts the same, W or L.

The upshot of this is that it's entirely possible to win with your pitching carrying your hitting, or vice versa.  If a pitcher throws a complete game shutout, that's worth 50 points or so and boosts your total considerably.  A no-hitter is worth about 100 and pretty much guarantees you will win (as I think it should be).  In the current Yahoo game, your guy could throw a no-hitter and you could STILL lose all the pitching categories if the rest of your staff is lousy.  If one of your closers has a crazy week with three saves, that's probably worth 40 points or so on Sandbox... in this game it might be worth 1.

Now, Sandbox is a paid site, so I doubt we'd want to move there.  But does Yahoo offer a game like this?  Or MLB.com itself?  Any interest in changing next season, or do people like the current set-up?

[littlefallsmets]

At the break:

My pitching is great!

My batting... looks great in theory but is basically always beaten by someone else.

I have no idea how to fix it because the hitters I have are all better than the stuff on the wire.

Any trades, guys?

[littlefallsmets]

Muttonheads:

Dustin Pedroia AND any pitcher you want other than Wood or Sabathia for Utley.

Think about it.

[Carlos del Vaca]

I guess nobody gives a shit about the league/scoring type but me.  That's cool.

Interesting bit of trivia from Baseball Reference today:  How can a pitcher get credit for a complete game, yet get no decision?  It's happened twice since 2003.

[AugustWest]

Muttonheads:

Dustin Pedroia AND any pitcher you want other than Wood or Sabathia for Utley.

Think about it.

Um, OK, let me go look at my team.  How'm I doing anyway?

[littlefallsmets]

Your team's lookin' pretty good but... you're very very batter heavy and particularly relief-pitching light... that's why I figured some kind of move like that would be fortuitous for both of us.

I need more power outta the second base hole, you need pitching but a second baseman good in other ways in return.

Anyway, y'know. Toss me an offer.

[melack]

Hey guys! Been a while. I've been... a little busy with work lately. Traveling a lot, and just generally unable to check the status of my team. When I logged into Yahoo today, it was my first time looking at my team in several months. But god bless the *****ic nature of baseball, I'm somehow in the middle of the pack. And you suckers left good players unclaimed! I managed to pick up Willy Taveras! The Willy Taveras. Oh man, it's like shooting giraffe in a barrel. First place, here I come!

All I need is like 30 victories.

[littlefallsmets]

Worry not, Asherman, Mark Tashayar is tits and money with gravy on top.

I would'a argued that despite popular opinion what the Angels REALLY needed was bullpen help... Frankie/Arredondo/Oliver/Shields are all great but... uh... Spier's having a down year and the rest of the 'pen is an absolute mess.

A strong lefty specialist would shore that team right up... a strong lefty specialist AND one more decent middle-reliever would have them airtight.

But... if you're playing for this year, that's one hell of an upgrade at first and... if you're operating from the idea that you're in the playoffs to begin with, bullpen depth is a lot more needed to get TO the playoffs, not so much in these artificially spaced out playoff rounds these days.

In the playoffs maybe all you need is four good arms and your fifth starter working a second long man.

After that, there's really no weaknesses ON the Angels at this point. You could argue that their offensive production out of the catcher is kind of ugly but, like, so few people HAVE that catcher who can also really hit that... it's kind of asking too much.

The Angels are really really GOOD.

Get Fuentes off the Rockies, though, and you might as well start printing the shirts.

[melack]

The trade is more of a fan-pleasing gesture than anything else. It's not going to make that big of a difference.

A) Considering the standings, the Angels are all but guaranteed to make the playoffs no matter if Teixera, Kotchman, or the ghost of Bengie Molina is playing first. So we're not talking about improving their odds over the long haul, we're talking about improving their odds on a per-game basis in the playoffs.

B) Both players are quality defenders, so from that perspective it's a wash.

C) Offensively, you're replacing a .287 / .327 / .448 hitter with a 283  / .390  / .512 one. Over the full season, that's big. But on a per-game basis, that's not such a monumental upgrade. I've seen the difference in the offense pegged at 4.8 runs per game versus 5 runs per game. Not that significant, especially when you consider you've just traded...

D) 3 more years of Kotchman for the playoff performance of Teixera. Again, they're guaranteed to make the playoffs, so this is all about how much better Tex makes them in the postseason.

So, yeah, it certainly helps, but I don't necessarily think it was worth the price.

[jaydub]

Just an observation:  apparently the Giants and A's exist only to give their owners the pleasure of having something to destroy.

[KeithHernandez]

Meh, the job is to win the world series, the As and Marlins are the two teams that come closest to doing that with shit for money, whats the problem?  The As, by all measures, should be about equal to the Angels, but it didn't work out this year, will soon.

[melack]

Just to talk more local baseball: WTF Dodgers!?! I mean thanks for helping to cripple up a team the Angels just took the broom to but where the hell is this move supposed to take anybody?

You mean the Red Sox? Crippled? This is a great move by the Red Sox. Jason Bay is a very good offensive player and a slightly above average fielder. Manny is a great offensive player and an absolutely atrocious defender. Net gain for the Red Sox, even when you don't consider how batshit insane Manny is.

The Pirates are the Pirates. Nobody knows what the fuck they're doing.

The Dodgers aren't very smart. I wouldn't be thanking them for winding up on the bad end of a great Theo Epstein trade.

[littlefallsmets]

I dunno... defense upgrades are often over-rated in baseball, especially at outfield corners where... most of the time, you've either got it easily or have no chance how good you are.

If I could get Bay or Manny for my Mets for the next two months, I'd go Manny in a second.

For the next three years, though, I'd certainly go Bay.

[melack]

The rules don't change during the postseason. Bay won't suddenly lose his skill set. There's a reason Theo Epstein has been so succesful--dude knows his shit. There's a reason Ned Coletti hasn't been particularly sucessful--dude isn't very good.

And re: defense, the goal in baseball is to prevent runs just as much as it is to score runs, no matter the position. There's a stereotype that follows the typical leftfielder, that it's alright if he's a butcher with the glove as long as he can mash. Know what that gets you? Guys like Carlos Lee get signed to $100 million contracts.