d-mac

These are all good candidates, although I'd stay away from anyone from the Angels organization. But if it's Antony, I may have to get a new favorite baseball team.

Ack! Formatting, my eyes!!!

Having worked in Economics/Finance through even one business cycle one thing about human nature is abundantly clear: People expect things that are going well to continue to go well indefinitely. Conversely, people expect things that are going poorly to continue to go poorly indefinitely. Case in point- the housing bubble, stock market collapse and market rebound from '06-'10. People falsely assumed that the price of housing would continue to go up forever and made business and personal financial decisions based on that reasoning. During the resulting downturn of the stock market people sold at the bottom of the market expecting the sell off to continue, but it didn't. The S&P 500 reached it's Aug-Sept '08 levels by early 2011. Many investors after loosing their shirt from selling in Oct '08- Mar '09, were then weary about re-entering the market despite it doubling in 2-3 years after the sell-off and were thus priced out. Might the pro sports industry be in a bubble? Based on valuations that is certainly possible. We'll see how the unbundling of traditional media and increased competition from competing entertainment options in a slow-growth economy affect revenues and valuations. I highly doubt it will continue to grow at this pace in the medium term.

I think it's really an asymmetric information problem. It becomes difficult from a management or ownership perspective to determine who is and isn't part of the problem.

I think you're right, but it wasn't very clear. I had to re-read it and think about it.

If the culture in the FO is toxic, you might not have any choice but to fire competent people if they've been infected with the bureaucratic malaise of the country club.

Timing was a total shock. But I'd be lying if I wasn't jumping for joy right now. I am literally jumping for joy at my office. My co-workers think I'm a bit crazy now.

I think you're right on with your thinking here.

Anyone else alarmed that Kiriloff has yet to draw a walk? Even Rosario walked at 9.1% of the time at E-town.

http://s2.quickmeme.com/img/c9/c9e1095062393a24dab581243efc2de1caad68a4a78377fcb4a8fe54472060f1.jpg

That hardly qualifies as credit worthy.

In July the Twins offense has the highest walk rate, third lowest K rate, 3rd highest ISO. Sure, their BABIP is a bit high for this month- .331, but it's not that much higher than the .316 median BABIP for the month. So there are some signs that the offense is improving fundamentally.

Yeah, who calls beef moo, pork oink, or turkey as gobble gobble? Having lived out of state for a number of years I realized how silly and childish referring to soft drinks as "pop" sounded. It's like calling your navel a belly button. It's not dignified.

Yup, all players are lazy bums nowadays! Not like they used to be back in my day... Get off my lawn you damn kids! /sarcasm

It would be nice to see Arreaz get promoted. I doubt there is anything left for him to learn at CR.

He has a K rate of 44.4% in the Appy league. 0.17 BB/K rate. Yuck. I bet he doesn't get passed A ball.

I think this is the key here. I worry about being stuck with him if he continues to deteriorate. Let's not wait for his value to go to zero like it did with Perkins and Hughes.

He's starting to hit lefties a little better now, too. That was his achilles heel in the minors up until last year, and really struggled against left handers in the big leagues until fairly recently.

Meh, if some team gives us something of value back I would include him in a trade. His shiny ERA this year seems partly due to a low BABIP and a very high LOB%. His K rate is pretty meh, so I have my doubts as to whether he can get more advanced hitters out or not.

Then why was Buxton forced into a starting job before he was ready? Why was Hicks forced into a starting job before he was ready? Say one thing and then acting in an opposite and contradictory manner, I believe that is hypocrisy.

MARK IT ZERO!!!!! Sorry, I couldn't help.

Or not stunning. I mean, doesn't he have to be delusional to not see the problems?

Well isn't that special! *Church Lady Voice*

Hi Terry!

Like I mentioned in my previous post, I'm not ignoring information. I'm well aware of the scouting reports for all the players we are discussing. Hu is a low ceiling/ high floor pitcher with good command, above average potentially plus fastball that lacks a true K pitch. He has the potential to be a #3, but more likely a #4/5. FWIW, Seth always said Hu has the potential of #3. Nothing in his statistical performance has lead me to believe otherwise. Where we disagree is Stewart- I think when statistical history over multiple seasons over multiple levels of minor league ball all contradict the scouting report- doubting or discounting scouting reports is justifiable, humans after all are fallible.