2015 Draft Report Card: Cubs - BaseballAmerica.com

Bottom line, the Cubs should get over their recent playoff disappointment rather quickly. I like Ian Happ from the 2015 draft class and I believe that Billy McKinney will be the next bat to make an impact in the Cubbies young, but prodigious lineup. Cubs will just re-load and take another shot. If David Price reunited with Joe Maddon, that really solidifies the starting rotation with a Big Three in Lester, Arietta and Price.

Some day soon people are going to be openly questioning the genius who packaged both Addison Russell and Billy McKinney in a trade for a one-night stand with Jeff Samardjzia. Maybe some day:
http://www.minorleagueball.com/2015/6/24/8836273/russell-mckinney-keep-cubs-big-winners-one-year-later

Just saying. And it's not using the benefit of 20/20 hindsight either. When I heard the deal, the first thing I thought was Russell AND McKinney!! Oh my!! The spreadsheet must not have been working properly on that day.

from Baseball America:
http://www.baseballamerica.com/draft/2015-draft-report-card-cubs/

QUICK TAKE

Chicago's class could shine if prep millionaire Hudson and Wilson hit, and both sound exciting.

POSITION PLAYERS

BEST PURE HITTER: The Cubs believe in the hitting ability of both of their top picks, OF/2B Ian Happ (1) and OF Donnie Dewees(2), but Happ gets the edge because he makes more impact at the plate. Happ has a more polished approach and is adept switch-hitter. Dewees has more of a slashing, see-it and hit-it old-school approach with tremendous natural hand-eye coordination. » BEST POWER HITTER: 1B/3B Matt Rose (11) led the Sun Belt Conference with 16 homers this spring and has long levers and plate discipline, giving him plus righthanded power. Happ has a chance to develop 20-homer power at his peak, with present power to the gaps. » FASTEST RUNNER: OF D.J. Wilson (4) is an explosive athlete with plus speed that made him a Division I-caliber wide receiver in football. He's at top speed soon after his first step. Happ and Dewees are both plus runners as well. » BEST DEFENSIVE PLAYER: Wilson impressed with his reads, range and instincts in center field, and he has a plus arm as well. 2B/3B P.J. Higgins(12) is a steady, sure-handed infielder with body control.

Sent from my iPhone

MLB Moneyball Power Rankings and the effect of Tax Policy on Roster Construction (sexy, huh?)

 

Now we just need a Michael Lewis-type author to glamorize, sensationalize and personalize a Billy Beane-type CFO and we could make a complimentary sequel of books / movies / DVD's..

We can call it Bean-Counter Ball or Laffer Ball, in honor of the Laffer curve.

I'm on it!!

I'm just not sure how to glamorize a profession laden with bow-ties, excel spreadsheets and pocket protectors. ~;::::::;( )">  ¯\_( )_/¯

Wait! I know, I'll ask Mrs. TheSlav. She knows everything.....

How Golden State constraints forced Giants GM Sabean to build his roster a different way - Giants Extra

				How Golden State constraints forced Giants GM Sabean to ... Major League Baseball has a payroll luxury tax and an international signing limit tax. The Giants have avoided getting dinged on either of those, moving as nimbly a...
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Major League Baseball has a payroll luxury tax and an international signing limit tax. The Giants have avoided getting dinged on either of those, moving as nimbly as a Ford F-350 with a Ron Paul bumper sticker.

But until they find a way to uproot AT&T Park and haul it to Reno, the tax man will continue to make a major impact on how they build a roster.

That was the most interesting part of the general discussion around Giants GM Brian Sabean's podium as baseball managers and executives held a media availability session at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel on Monday.

The conversation began with a question about Sabean's team-building philosophy, and how he resists the compulsion to "win" the offseason or arrive at spring training with a finished roster. As we've seen in all three World Series-winning campaigns, the Giants had plenty of personnel churn along the way – Mark DeRosa, John Bowker, Bengie Molina and Aaron Rowand were in the opening-day lineup in 2010, for crying out loud – and the roster-building work is never done. Hunter Pence,

Marco Scutaro, Jake Peavy, Javier Lopez and Ramon Ramirez were all vital midseason acquisitions on teams that won it all.

Free agents are a major component of that change for every team, to some extent. That process plays out in the winter, obviously. But that's not where Sabean has made his most important acquisitions while the Giants have won World Series titles in three of the last five seasons, and there's a simple reason for that: for all the twinkle off those rings, the Giants aren't an appealing destination for players set to strike it rich on the open market."The 25-man roster is a living organism," Sabean said. "It changes every day."

"In some ways we've found … to entice a free agent to come to San Francisco, we're almost in an overpay situation," Sabean said. "I don't need to bore you with the reasons why. We all know. So why get involved with those kinds of (players) when you won't be able to tow the load money wise?"

"We're not a team that's going to overspend. We're not going to bump the luxury tax. Having said that, we're very much on a cash flow basis. We're budgeted into the future. And if you look at our future commitments, they're quite sizable."

In other words, Sabean is trying to tell you that the Giants aren't cheap. Their payroll should approach $170 million this season (below the luxury tax threshold of $189 million), which would fall somewhere between No.5 and No.9 in the major league rankings. They paved the way with gold to make sure players like Buster Posey, Matt Cain and Pence wouldn't stray off the path. Pablo Sandoval's wanderlust aside, they've been highly successful in retaining their own free agents, including Lopez, Peavy, Tim Lincecum, Jeremy Affeldt and Angel Pagan.

And when Sabean's scouts and top advisors shower near-unanimous recommendations on a free agent from the outside world, such as Jon Lester, the club takes its best, most aggressive shot.

But unless the Giants have an established relationship with that player, it's hard for them to close a deal without paying a massive premium that in most cases would threaten their future payroll flexibility. (Rowand's five-year, $60 million albatross, which was panned from the day it was announced in 2007, is the last contract beyond two years that the Giants have given to an external free agent.)

The main reason it's so hard to lure those players? You can express it with a number: 13.3.

That's the top income tax rate in California. It's more than double the top tax rate in all but a handful of states with major league franchises. For example, Sandoval will pay 5.15 percent in Massachusetts. Florida, Texas and Washington have no state income tax.

You can shield some earnings by structuring them in the form of a signing bonus. But contracts are getting bigger and bigger, which means the tax bite is, too.

"It's exponential when you get into the size of some of these numbers," Sabean said. "It makes a difference."

Sure, the Dodgers, Angels, Padres and A's are fighting the same Golden State constraint. Form 540 hasn't stopped the Southern California teams from luring some of the game's biggest free agents. Then again, do you really consider it a wise baseball decision to be paying $30 million to a 41-year-old Albert Pujols in 2021?

Add it all up and it's simple math: the Giants must have success by developing or trading for hitters and doubling down their dollars on pitchers who want to sign with them. As players like Pence, a Texas native, can attest, sometimes it's a matter of just getting a guy in the door and allowing him to experience what it's like to play in San Francisco, with sellout crowds every night, to entice him to stay.The Angels had to overpay players like Pujols and Josh Hamilton. The Giants might have had to overpay more, since there's the enduring perception among free-agent hitters that AT&T Park will take a water cannon to your slugging percentage.

Although Giants ownership is treating the $189 million luxury tax threshold as a hard cap, Sabean wouldn't rule out exceeding the international signing limits and paying the dollar-for-dollar tax on the overage – just not to the extent that the Red Sox were after pledging $31.5 million to heralded Cuban teenager Yoan Moncada. (That's a $63 million expenditure when you include the penalty.)

"We're not built for that," said Sabean, "and neither is most of baseball."

No, the Giants have to build a different way – one that requires a little improvisation at midsummer. It's worked so far. So well, in fact, that it's led to one more little tax obligation – more than $7000, by most accounts.

Those diamond-encrusted World Series rings are taxable assets, after all.

MLB's 'Moneyball' Power Rankings

				MLB's 'Moneyball' Power Rankings The Moneyball philosophy may not have resulted in a World Series title for the Oakland Athletics yet, but it undoubtedly had an impact on the way teams are assemble...
				View on bleacherreport.com	Preview by Yahoo

23. San Francisco Giants

Projected 2015 Wins: 84.5
Projected 2015 Payroll: $170,627,999
Projected Cost Per Win: $2,019,266

Notable Pre-Arbitration Players

• 2B Joe Panik

Others: RP Jean Machi, RP George Kontos, OF Juan Perez, C Andrew Susac, RP Hunter Strickland, IF Matt Duffy

3 Best Values

Player	2015 WAR	Value	2015 Salary	Net Value
Buster Posey	6.4	$35.2 M	$17.278 M	+$17.922 M
Madison Bumgarner	4.3	$23.65 M	$6.95 M	+$16.7 M
Brandon Crawford	2.4	$13.2 M	$3.175 M	+$10.025 M

3 Worst Values

Player	2015 WAR	Value	2015 Salary	Net Value
Tim Lincecum	0.3	$1.65 M	$18.0 M	-$16.35 M
Matt Cain	1.3	$7.15 M	$20.833 M	-$13.683 M
Hunter Pence	2.5	$13.75 M	$18.5 M	-$4.75 M

Notes

• A lack of pre-arbitration talent, coupled with the $18 million salary of Tim Lincecum, earns the Giants a low spot in the rankings here.

• Matt Cain is being paid like an ace with his $20.833 million salary, and the Giants need him to pitch like one. The 1.3 zWAR may seem low, but he is a question mark coming back from ankle and elbow surgeries.

• Hunter Pence shows up on the list of worst values, but there is no arguing how much he means to this Giants team. His numbers dropped a bit across the board last season, but he was still a 4.7 WAR player. And at 31, there's no reason he can't at least match that number in 2015.

• Other notable players in either direction include Brandon Belt (+6.85 M) and Casey McGehee (+$6.05 M) on the positive side, and Tim Hudson (-$4.3 M) on the negative side.

There are a lot of numbers and names to digest on the pages that follow, so allow me to first offer up an explanation of what everything means.

The following slides are broken into four sections:

• 2015 Win-Loss and Payroll Projections

At the top of each slide, you will find a projected win total, projected salary and then the projected cost per win (salary/win total).

The win-loss projections come from Vegas odds released for each team, provided here via Business Insider. The payroll projections for each team are courtesy of Roster Resource.

• Pre-Arbitration Players

Below that is a bulleted list of key pre-arbitration players, followed by a quick list of any other players with big-league experience who fall into that category.

This part was the first big determining factor in where each team was ranked. Considering most of the players listed here will be making somewhere between $500,000 and $600,000 during the upcoming season, these are often the biggest values on the roster.

• Top 3 Best/Worst Values

Next up, you'll find each team's three most and least valuable players for the upcoming season, based on the following three-step process.

Step 1: To start with, I took each player's projected WAR for the upcoming season. My personal preference for projections is the ZiPS projections from Dan Szymborski, which can be found in spreadsheet form here. Those projections will be referenced as zWAR throughout the piece and will always refer back to the aforementioned spreadsheet.

Step 2: Based on the FanGraphs value system, and many other outlets agree, 1.0 WAR was worth somewhere between $5-6 million in 2014. We went with the middle ground and called it $5.5 million.

So from there, each player's projected zWAR from Step 1 was multiplied by 5.5. That gave us the player's projected 2015 value in millions of dollars.

Step 3: Each player's salary for the 2015 season was then subtracted from his projected 2015 value, resulting in his 2015 net value.

The three highest and three lowest totals were then highlighted on a pair of tables. Player salaries came again from the team pages ofRoster Resource.

Formula: (2015 zWAR x 5.5) - 2015 salary = net value

It's important to note that pre-arbitration players were not considered for this section. Any player from that group who makes any sort of impact will be a bargain; that's why those players were highlighted at the beginning.

Posnanski: Things I learned from Strat-o-Matic | SABR

The best board game EVER!!! That's what I learned from Strat-O-Matic Baseball.

http://www.strat-o-matic.com/products/baseball

Proof positive of the existence of nerds in baseball before Billy Beane was a gleam in Michael Lewis' eye. Keep your Moneyball, give me mo's Stat-O-Matic Baseball!!!

from SABR.org
Posnanski: Things I learned from Strat-o-Matic | SABR:

Posnanski: Things I learned from Strat-o-Matic
From SABR member Joe Posnanski at JoePosnanski.com on February 19, 2015: 

 Strat-o-Matic was not the first tabletop baseball game I ever played. No, first was this game called “Statis Pro Baseball,” which was this fantastic little baseball card game invented by an Iowa newspaper columnist and, later, sports gambling guru named Jim Barnes. There are two things I remember most about the game: 

 1. Unlike Strat-o-Matic, where hitters and pitchers have an equal chance to control the action (more on this in a bit), in Statis-Pro-Baseball the better pitchers had a lot more control of play. Dominant pitchers like Goose Gossage were what we called 2-to-9 pitchers, which meant generally that when rolling two dice, any number between 2-9 would signal that play be determined by the pitchers card.  Other not-so-accomplished pitchers, like Rick Waits, might have a 2-6 card or even a 2-5 card, meaning that any number six or higher would trigger that play was powered by the hitters card. 

 2. Matt Alexander was the best player in our game. I will never, ever forget this. We were playing the 1979 cards, and that year Matt Alexander went 7-for-16 with a triple, 13 stolen bases and 16 runs scored. Played out over a whole season, Matt Alexander hit .538, slugged .692 and ran like the wind. When my friend Mike and I had a draft, we played paper-scissors-stones for like three days to determine who got the first pick (let’s make it 4,598 out of 9,915). I ended up with it and took Matt Alexander, who was of course League MVP and star of my championship team. I believe he took some shlub like Dave Winfield or Mike Schmidt with the second pick. 

 In any case, Statis-Pro was fun but it wasn’t until college that I got all serious and started playing Strat-o-Matic baseball … and Strat-o, as much as reading Bill James, listening to Vin Scully and watching the miserable efforts of my hometown Cleveland Indians* taught me about baseball.

Read the full article here: 

http://joeposnanski.com/things-i-learned-from-strat-o-matic/

'via Blog this'

Giants' success weighs on Dodgers - True Blue LA

Mark it down as a bit of schadenfreude on my part, but I enjoy reading about some of this navel gazing on the part of Dodger Nation and A's Nation for that matter. Toss in how Moneyball aficionados angst is rising as they try to explain the Giants success and you have the trifecta of glee for me.

The Giants recent success can be attributed largely to a shift from the Bonds era to spackling and pasting the roster together with aging veterans to building it via old school blocking and tackling in the form of scouting and player development.

from True Blue LA:
Giants' success weighs on Dodgers - True Blue LA:

"I don't think you can win three World Series in five years just by being lucky. That may be stating the obvious There is no doubt that in the postseason, with a single-elimination game, or playing in a best-of-five or best-of-seven series, there are certainly times you need the ball to bounce your way," Zaidi said. "Luck is not a sufficient characteristic for a team to win. You've got to be really good, and have the ball bounce your way too.

The Giants won this year with homegrown players at each starting infield position, plus catcher Buster Posey, too. But what is remarkable to me about their five-year run is that in each of the three title years they have had a different ace starting pitcher, with Tim Lincecum in 2010, Matt Cain in 2012 and Madison Bumgarner in 2014. All three pitchers were drafted by San Francisco, and all are still around.

'via Blog this'

"Luck is the Residue of Design" meets "Luck is the differential between the expected result calculated by my theoretical model and the actual result". 

The irony is that the "Luck is the residue of design" quote is attributed to former Dodger GM Branch Rickey, the Billy Beane of his time.  So we come full circle, or everything old is new again, I guess.

Giants' 'state of the franchise' stat pack | CSN Bay Area

Brian Sabean is MLB's longest tenured GM; Bruce Bochy is the second longest tenured manager. (AP)

Now matter how you parse the data, a pretty good team that is in a pretty good state. The lions share of the credit lies in the continuity of the Sabean / Bochy team. Both could ride the wave of euphoria right into Cooperstown. Interesting to note that Sabean and Billy Beane both arrived in the Bay Area within one year of each other. The results and the accolades are still just a tad bit out of line between those two GM's.


from CSN Bay Area:
Giants' 'state of the franchise' stat pack | CSN Bay Area:

Giants Opening Day payrolls
2010 $96.3m
2011 $118.2m
2012 $132.4m
2013 $136.9m
2014 $149.1m

Brian Sabean
Named GM in Septempter 1996
Signed through 2016

Bruce Bochy
Hired in October 2006
Signed through 2016

Current Giants free agents
Pablo Sandoval
Michael Morse
Jake Peavy
Sergio Romo
Ryan Vogelsong

Current Giants contracts
Player -- Signed through -- Years/guaranteed money
Buster Posey -- 2021 with option for 2022 -- 9 years/$167 million
Matt Cain -- 2017 with option for 2018 -- 6 years/$127.5 million
Hunter Pence -- 2018 -- 5 years/$90 million
Madison Bumgarner -- 2017 with options '18 & ’19 -- 5 years/$35 million
Angel Pagan -- 2016 -- 4 years/$40 million
Tim Lincecum -- 2015 2 years/$35 million

Top free agents on the market
Jon Lester P
Max Scherzer P
Victor Martinez 1B/DH
Hanley Ramirez SS/3B
Pablo Sandoval 3B
Nelson Cruz OF
James Shields P
Chase Headley 3B

Giants free agent signings
*Not with team previous season
2013-14
Tim Hudson
Michael Morse
2012-13
Andres Torres
2011-12
Ryan Theriot
Clay Hensley
2010-11
Miguel Tejada
2009-10
Aubrey Huff
Mark DeRosa

Giants 2014 Ranks -- National League
665 runs -- 5th
.255 team batting average -- 4th
132 home runs -- 7th
3.50 team ERA -- 7th
.241 opponents batting average -- 2nd
100 errors -- T-7th

Notable first-round draft picks under Brian Sabean
2022 Matt Cain
2006 Tim Lincecum
2007 Madison Bumgarner
2008 Buster Posey
2011 Joe Panik

Longest-tenured manager with same team
Manager -- Team -- First Year
Mike Scioscia -- Angels -- 2000
Bruce Bochy -- Giants -- 2007
Bud Black -- Padres -- 2007
Joe Girardi -- Yankees -- 2008
Ned Yost -- Royals -- 2010
Buck Showalter -- Orioles -- 2010

Longest-tenured GMs with same team
GM -- Team -- Hired
Brian Sabean -- Giants -- 1996
Billy Beane -- Athletics -- 1997
Brian Cashman -- Yankees -- 1998
Dave Dombrowski -- Tigers -- 2002
Doug Melvin -- Brewers -- 2002

'via Blog this'

Giants as the anti-A's

Hey thanks there, Einstein. I'm glad that the Giants are considere the anti-A's in more ways than one. I'm also glad when any one of the pro-scout, anti-Moneyball teams like the Giants, the Cardinals, the Braves and even the Royals win. These teams still retain a lot of the charm of old-school scouting and player development with a smattering of statistical analysis.

I read somewhere that the amount of statistical analysis in baseball has gone up exponentially by some insane amount or another. I guarantee most of these teams are just gathering data as a CYA exercise and have no idea what they are looking at or what to do with most of it.

from sfgiants.com
Giants' latest title offers questions, answers | sfgiants.com:

Maybe the wrong Bay Area baseball franchise was celebrated in a best-selling book and a feature film that grossed more than $100 million worldwide. Certainly the Oakland A's and general manager Billy Beane offered a compelling story for the world to absorb with "Moneyball."

The Giants are perceived as the anti-A's, and yet San Francisco's the team that keeps ordering championship flags and rings.

As the Giants' GM, Sabean has created a culture in which many baseball-operations employees don't want to leave the organization. He asks for unswerving loyalty, but he also reciprocates it. The resulting "collective collaboration," as Sabean called it, helps the Giants act in concert when reaching a baseball-related decision.

'via Blog this'

This article from Tracy Ringolsby tends to support my point. The top NL franchises of the last 19 years ( the length of Brian Sabean's tenure ) have been none other than the Giants, the Cardinals and the Braves. All of these franchises lean more towards scouting and player development than statistical analysis.

from Tracy Ringolsby:
Sabean Doesn’t Want Attention, Just Wins « Write 'em Cowboy:

And under his guidance the Giants, in the last 19 years have:

–Third best winning percentage in the NL (1,556-1,358, .534) behind the Braves (1,651-1,263, .567) and Cardinals (1,545-1,319, .547).

–Played more post-season games (76) than any NL team other than the Cardinals (121) and have a better post-season winning percentage (.605) than any team that has played at least 34 post-season games.

–Have made four World Series appearances, the only NL team other than the Cardinals, who also have made four, to have been in the World Series more than twice, and have won an NL-best three World Series in the last 18 years.

And don’t forget he took advantage of the San Diego Padres decision to fire manager Bruce Bochy by quickly signing Bochy to oversee things at AT&T Park.

Not bad for a franchise being run by an “idiot.’’

'via Blog this'

Giants lose Game 3: Bochy waves white flag for rest of Series

Dear Future HOF Bruce Bochy and Staff:

I'm not sure what you guys are thinking after watching the Giants perform in Game 3 in SF. I hear you guys have, rather hastily I might add,  put the kibosh on starting Madison Bumgarner in Game 4. Here are my thoughts after a good night's sleep. Please consider them in the spirit in which they are presented, they are meant to be constructive in nature and in no way meant to harm anyone or hurt anyone's feelings and/or Hall of Fame chances.

Obviously, our only chance to win this thing is to go to Plan B, which consists of the following.

• pitch Madison Bumgarner in Game 4 on short rest
• bat Madison Bumgarner in the clean-up slot since Pence and Posey are obviously weak sticks
• bring Madison Bumgarner back on even shorter rest for Game 5 and
• if necessary be prepared to bring Madison Bumgarner back on even shorter rest for Game 6 in KC, and let him continue to hit clean-up, DH for Posey.
• although it shouldn't be necessary, have Madison Bumgarner ready to pitch a Game 7, consider allowing a well-rested Posey to hit for himself, DH for Pence. Zig when the Royals expect you to zag. Know what I mean, jelly bean?

BTW: I employed a similar strategy to win a Little League tournament years back, so it's a proven strategy. I'm not particularly proud of it, but hey when you're backed into a corner, you have to fight back, do some unconventional things (like Yost, who is getting lauded for same in case you didn't have time to read the papers or various blogs). Plus, you guys are getting paid, so you don't have to deal with "ruining a youngsters future" charges. Plus, the kid wants to pitch.....

Ignore those who want to push the Vogeslong is a gamer meme. It's a a trap planted by those who want the Royals to win for some misguided reason, maybe to get Ned Yost in the Hall of Fame before you, did you ever think of that? Anyway, don't fall it, Bummer is your man. FREE MADISON BUMGARNER!!!  ;)

from Yahoo.com
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/vargas-vogelsong-game-4-series-080312024--mlb.html

Vogelsong is the only pitcher to yield no more than one run in his first five postseason starts. That run ended in the NL Championship Series when Vogelsong allowed four runs in three innings of a no-decision against St. Louis.

This meme is total BS as we have seen with Peavy and more recently Hudson. I know you guys are into that "Southern Rock" meme at the moment, but need I remind you, The South lost and last time I checked, they haven't "done it again" (whatever "it" is) despite various threats to do same over the years. These guys are all talk, no action. These guys were all also sub .500 pitchers all year and you can't just push a "It's the playoffs, look at me, I'm a gamer" button and expect it to work. Other guys have been busting their asses all year while you guys were on cruise control, it's an insult to therm and the baseball gods to expect that strategy to work, so cut the shit and get real. FREE MADISON BUMGARNER!!!  ;)

This stat would be irrelevant if you didn't continue to give away AB's to guys who can't hit for shit right now, while leaving guys like Morse and Bumgarner wasting good swings in the batting cage behind the clubhouse.

Uh Boch, has anyone on the staff noticed this stat or brought it to your attention?

In the two Giants losses, San Francisco is 1-for-24 with nine strikeouts against Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis, Greg Holland and late entry Brandon Finnegan.

Release Morse, Bumgarner, Susac and Duffy and bench Juan Perez, Gregor Blanco, Travis Ishikawa (when starting, he's OK, off the bench not so much) and maybe even Posey and Pence for now. FREE MADISON BUMGARNER!!!  ;)

I get the part about Blanco and Perez being in there for defense, but you're not scoring very many runs. In fact, you're not even coming close to scoring runs lately. Having guys in for defense merely exacerbates the problem. I'd much rather get beat 10-2 than this 3-2 shit anyway. If you guys are going to suck, take your ass-whipping like a man and get beat 10-2, guys get over those kind of losses a lot easier than these 3-2 games. It's like a death by a thousand cuts or torture and that is sooooooo..... 2010-2012 Giants. You have a new identity now, embrace it.

Again, I don't want this critique in any way to harm your Hall of Fame chances, I still support the movement provided of course you sit out the mandatory five year waiting period. And of course, after the many more deserving candidates like Jim Leyland, Pete Rose, Don Mattingly (the player, not the manager NO, NO NO), Ned Yost (after he beats you), Joe Maddon (who is technically probably a better manager after adjusting for payroll), Billy Beane (the God of Baseball, saved baseball after the steroids debacle IMO), Brad Pitt (marvelous rendition of Billy Beane, I cried) and Barry Bonds get in before you. Oh, and don't forget Shoeless Joe Jackson and Heinie Manush (never mind, inducted by Veterans Committee).

Thanks for listening Boch, I feel much better about our chances now..

FREE MADISON BUMGARNER!!!  ;)

P.S. - You're going to have to go to Bummer and hand him the ball. He's kind of goofy shy like that. He won't ask for / demand the ball like he should. Some macho, locker room mentality BS about not crapping all over a teammate. We don't have time for that shit right now, you dig? We're down 2-1, with the next two games being "must" win games for you guys. And this isn't like when people refer to a late-August game as a "must" win. This is a really, really, really "must" win scenario. See how the script flips on you in the post-season? You guys might have been distracted with designing Hall of Fame busts and junk, so I thought I would step in.

OK, now I really feel better.  Still your best-est fan. Don't listen to anything Mrs. TheSlav says. That "Mr. Negative" moniker has been a nickname she gave me that stuck many, many years ago, like when we first met. It has absolutely no relevance to today's memo.

Respectfully Submitted,

~;::::::;( )">  ¯\_( )_/¯

TheSlav and Associates

Examining the A’s Epic Collapse | FanGraphs Baseball

It must be tough to have to live up to the genius label. Sometimes you can be too smart for your own good. I'm very surprised that the Jonny Gomes effect hasn't helped so far, but this was a move for the playoffs so in fairness, we have to see how it plays out there. So far, so not so good. I'm not sure I would use the term "epic collapse" to describe it either. More like a late season swoon.

from FanGraphs:
Examining the A’s Epic Collapse | FanGraphs Baseball:

The A’s record crested at 28 games over .500, at 72-44, on August 9, though their winning percentage peaked at .625 a couple weeks earlier, on July 27. They are 18-28 since the former date, and 11-23 since the latter. Obviously, this is right around the time of the Cespedes trade, on July 31. Usually, when a contender acquires a high-end rental player like Lester at the deadline, minor league pieces are exchanged in return.

 By dealing Cespedes, the A’s did weaken their lineup to strengthen their rotation. They did receive Jonny Gomes in the deal, but unsurprisingly, he appears to be toast, batting .250-.317-.269 since the deal. Sam Fuld was also re-acquired that same day, and has had to play quite a bit, batting a puny .217-.272-.344 in two stints with the A’s this season. Certainly, there has been an offensive dropoff with the departure of Cespedes, but there is that slight mitigating effect – sarcasm intended – of the acquisition of Lester and his 2.30 ERA in 62 2/3 innings since the trade. The offense was hurt, but the team significantly helped by the deal. As a club, the A’s were batting .254-.329-.406 through July 29 – since that day, they have hit only .223-.295-.335. It has been run creation, not prevention, that has keyed the club’s decline.

'via Blog this'

A's Acquire Lester, Gomes For Cespedes

The A's are flat out going for it!!  Right now, this year.


from mlbtraderumors.com
A's Acquire Lester, Gomes For Cespedes:

A’s Acquire Lester, Gomes For Cespedes
By Steve Adams [July 31, 2014 at 8:54am CDT]

8:54am: Passan tweets that Oakland is also sending a competitive balance draft pick to the Red Sox in the trade, and Boston is sending cash to Oakland. The A’s landed the second pick in Comp Round B in last week’s lottery.

 8:49am: The Athletics have acquired Jon Lester from the Red Sox, according to Alex Speier of WEEI.com (Twitter links). In what will be a blockbuster deal, Jonny Gomes will go to the A’s, and Yoenis Cespedes will head to Boston. Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports first reported that Lester had been traded to an unknown club.

The addition of Lester will give Oakland an incredibly formidable rotation for the balance of the regular season, but perhaps more importantly, in the playoffs. Lester, who has posted a 2.52 ERA with 9.4 K/9, 2.0 BB/9 and a 43.2 percent ground-ball rate, will join fellow trade acquisition Jeff Samardzija, free agent signing Scott Kazmir and homegrown star Sonny Gray atop Oakland’s rotation.

'via Blog this'

A's and Cubs pull off a Win-Win deal, win(now) versus win(later)

Billy Beane is clearly pushing all his chips to the center of the table, he wants / needs to win now given the A's past playoff failures and he just took a big step towards that end. Theo Epstein continued to build for the Cubs future by acquiring two elite prospects who are a couple of years away at least.

One borrowed from the future to invest in the present, the other borrowed from the present to invest in the future.

In a sense both are taking a bit of a gamble here. Beane has to really hope that this is the A's year. It looks like he sense that at least the AL half is his teams for the taking and he wants to add some insurance.

Epstein really has to hope that the vaunted patience of Cubs fans lasts a couple of more years longer for him. He was brought in so that Cubs fans could begin to see light at the end of the tunnel. Withe deals like this, it seems like the light keeps getting pushed further and further into the future. This team waited a long time for Samrdzija to develop into the kind of pitcher he is today. I'm not sure they really got enough value in trade for their patience and development. Now you're asking fans to go through the same process with Russell and McKinney.

I do like the number of quality young bats the Cubs have in their system and perhaps this sets up a Castro deal down the road to bring in some young arms.

from ESPN Chicago:

Greenberg: Future-focused deal good for Chicago Cubs, Jeff Samardzija - ESPN Chicago:

In a deal with their long-term vision in mind, the Cubs are getting an elite prospect in shortstop Addison Russell, this past year's 24th overall draft pick in outfielder Billy McKinney and pitcher Dan Straily. The deal wasn't official as of late Friday night, but there's a player to be named later involved. I'm sure Mr. PTBNL will be awesome as well.

'via Blog this'

Solutions for healthcare from baseball? It got my attention...

---   from ted.com:   http://www.ted.com/talks/view/lang/en//id/1481   TED PARTNER SERIES Ivan Oransky: Are we over-medicalized?

Reuters health editor Ivan Oransky warns that we’re suffering from an epidemic of preposterous preconditions -- pre-diabetes, pre-cancer, and many more. In this engaging talk from TEDMED he shows how health care can find a solution... by taking an important lesson from baseball. Ivan Oransky is the executive editor of Reuters Health, and has done pioneering work in covering scientific retractions. Full bio »

----- Hat tip to cliffkule.com and Ted.com "Ideas worth spreading":   http://www.cliffkule.com/

Are we over-medicalized? Reuters health editor Ivan Oransky warns that we’re suffering from an epidemic of preposterous preconditions -- pre-diabetes, pre-cancer, & many more .. shows how health care can find a solution - by taking an important lesson from baseball .. Ivan Oransky is the executive editor of Reuters Health, and has done pioneering work .. OOB .. 11 minutes