2012 MLB postseason running thread

I'm not saying lucky. I'm saying that they weren't so dominant that anybody should just assume Posey's injury was the only thing to get in their way in 2011.

 

Christ. That's exactly what my post said, that it's a long shot for any team and just conjecture anyway. But A) they finished four games out of a playoff spot without the guy who is not only their most important player but quite possibly the most important player to his team in all of baseball; and B) their pitching, specifically Lincecum, was quite a bit better last year.

I didn't know the rules here were that anything that cannot be empirically proven cannot be discussed.

 

Re: MLB Off-Season thread

Even though McCann seems likely to miss all of April, I think they'll exercise the option. The only player in this year's free agent class that can accomplish offensively what they really need is Josh Hamilton, and even with significant money in cleared salary, I can't see the Braves spending what they'd have to to get him. So they exercise the option on McCann, sign a lesser free agent (Ryan Ludwick perhaps?), ante up for Bourn and wait to see how Bethancourt and the FA Class of '14 develops.

 

Re: MLB Off-Season thread

And ... they just did.

Along with Hudson ($9 million) and Maholm ($6.5 million), too.

 

Re: MLB Off-Season thread

Wow Maholm gets $6.5M. Joe Saunders is worth $8m then.

 

Good call!

 

That bottom photo is on Facebook with a "Help Us Identify This Guy For The Cops" fetcher. I sure hope it works.

 

Re: MLB Off-Season thread

Bourn's not likely to command what he would have before his second-half fade, but the Nationals or Phillies are still likely to outbid the Braves. Angel Pagan might be a nice fit in Atlanta, though his asking price just went up too with the postseason he had.

I'd love to see them trade for Josh Willingham to hit cleanup, whom Braves fans have coveted for years (he's from Alabama, so it makes sense). But he's relatively cheap ($7 million for each of the next two years), so Atlanta would probably have to come off one of its big pitching prospects to get him from the Twins.

 

Re: MLB Off-Season thread

Pagan is a tough one for Giants -- I would love to see him back, but as noted, his value went up. Plus the Giants have their first-round pick from 2010, Gary Brown, who may or may not be ready but is 24 and is going to need a look-see in center soon enough.

 

Bruce Jenkins, SF Chronicle: Sabean wins, nerds can go fuck off

http://www.sfgate.com/giants/jenkins/article/Giants-GM-relies-on-eyes-not-statistics-3991756.php

The Giants' world championship is a victory for John Barr, Dick Tidrow, Bobby Evans, a cadre of sharp-eyed scouts and especially general manager Brian Sabean, who learned his trade in the Yankees' system and surrounds himself with people who don't merely know baseball, but feel it, deep inside. They all played the game, somewhere along the line, and if you throw a binder full of numbers on their desk, they don't quite get the point.

I've gone around and around with folks here about sabermetrics and where I personally jump off the bus (WAR and defensive stats most particularly), but this column is Plaschke-esque.

 

He's my local fav but even I think he went too far (I've told him so too today.)

 

There is a good column to write about how Sabean has been pretty maligned in sabermetric circles, especially around 2007 and 2008. That wasn't that column.