OOTP Developments Forums - View Single Post - Yet Another OOTP6 Dynasty, Year 2: One Flew Over the Pale Hose

cknox0723 · 07-04-2006, 12:44 PM

An off-day in the beginning of August while in first place is baseball's equivalent of taking a big bite out of summer. I have been buying quite a bit of a watermelon recently, even though I am more of a banana or pear guy. Watermelon is a very summery fruit, you know.

Toronto spit out the seeds in their melon a few days ago, thereby avoiding choking on them unlike someone I won't mention. Then for good measure they pickled the watermelon rinds the next day.

Despite being Canadian and therefore dull, the Jays are the clear winners of this year's Trade Deadline Extravaganza (TM), having significantly beefed up a pitching staff that had relied on an extraordinary number of soft-tossers behind incomparable ace Roy Halladay, who will now remain up north for quite sometime after signing a long extension similar to the five-year, fifty-million shekel deal our ace Buehrle inked last year.

Toronto sent away a useful outfielder in 26 year old Laynce Nix (.282/.326/.444 in 365 AB); when you consider that their center fielder Alex Rios is hitting .202, you wonder if perhaps they're trading the right guy. But Nix is not a patient hitter and not really a source of power, and very rapidly, his salary's going to rise rapidly. This was the time to move him, and the return from the queenly New Yorkers was massive - a control artist with a 3.82 career ERA, right-hander Jae Seo, and the hard-throwing southpaw that the organization so desperately needs in 22 year old Scott Kazmir. Yes, even in this universe the Mutts can't hang onto the kid. Seo has an overinflated scouting report - I really doubt he will become the next Prime Minister of Chile as my scout seems to suggest - but he has had more major league success than anyone on Toronto's pitching staff save for Halladay, which has to count for something. The kid Kazmir can count to something, we know; his stat lines seem to suggest the answer to that conundrum is often four, but the southpaw's walk totals have never veered that far above four-and-a-half per nine, excepting this year. But you can give him a pass on the walks this year - he's 5-4 with a 3.45 ERA in AAA, and still touching 95 and 96 on the radar gun.

There's more good players going to Toronto in that trade than they're giving up. I like that kind of thinking. Even better was their midnight-hour move on July 31 that sent reliever Aqui Lopez (2-4, 4.02 in 56 IP) to who...? To Boston, of course, along with IF Dave Berg (who should have been a Pale Hose) and outfield filler in Gabe Gross. The other Sox really can be called the other Sox this season, since they unceremoniously punted away ten of thirteen to start the second half despite facing such powerhouses as last-place Tampa and last-place Oakland. The 32 year old right-hander Lopez is a change of pace from the veterans in the Beantown bullpen whose radar guns are suddenly reading, "Tilt", but he's not a change of pace because he's a late bloomer or throws a knuckleball. No, Aqui is a change of pace because he's just a lousy pitcher, a five-year veteran with a career ERA over four. Try telling that to his new ballclub, who plans to use him in setup relief.

Berg makes for a nice temp at second base, especially when the alternative is that vortex of suck with a .250 AVG and .300 SLG, Willie Bloomquist. Gross is no great shakes but handy to have on a team like this one, where there are only two decent outfielders and not three. But it's probably too late to address these things on July 31 when you're seven out of the division and three out of the wild card, and it's all meaningless anyway when the trade is really made just to expel malcontent reliever Grant Roberts, an expensive 29 year old pickup from the Mets (hey! and things come full circle!) this past offseason. The right-hander has a 3.36 career ERA and gives the Mounties (oops, Jays...so easy to confuse them) the Proven Closer (TM) they've been lacking all year. Sure, he's expensive. Sure, he'll only pitch seventy innings a year. It's still better than Eric Knott (2-4, 5.94 ERA).

The 27 year old pride of Taiwan, Chien-Ming Wang, will also cross the border, and having posted ERA's of 2.46 and 3.31 in the past season-and-a-half in the minors, he's proven beyond a doubt that he can pitch AAA. That's more than you can say for Noah Lowry, who was 6-12 in AAA a year ago but has gotten a few starts and pitched 33 (mostly crappy) innings in Toronto at random points this season. The same for "Proven Winner" Mike Bacsik, a 29 year old southpaw whose 2006 AAA record of 12-9 overshadowed a 4.07 ERA (and higher run average) and strikeout rate of less than six per nine. Somehow he's pitched the best 19 starts of his life this year, 7-4 record and 3.87 ERA.

But with all these new pitchers, the Bacsiks will actually have to pitch well to keep their jobs in Toronto, which is the way it ought to be. Sacre les bleus!

07-04-2006, 12:44 PM	#803
cknox0723 All Star Starter Join Date: May 2003 Location: NJ Posts: 1,957	8/2 An off-day in the beginning of August while in first place is baseball's equivalent of taking a big bite out of summer. I have been buying quite a bit of a watermelon recently, even though I am more of a banana or pear guy. Watermelon is a very summery fruit, you know. Toronto spit out the seeds in their melon a few days ago, thereby avoiding choking on them unlike someone I won't mention. Then for good measure they pickled the watermelon rinds the next day. Despite being Canadian and therefore dull, the Jays are the clear winners of this year's Trade Deadline Extravaganza (TM), having significantly beefed up a pitching staff that had relied on an extraordinary number of soft-tossers behind incomparable ace Roy Halladay, who will now remain up north for quite sometime after signing a long extension similar to the five-year, fifty-million shekel deal our ace Buehrle inked last year. Toronto sent away a useful outfielder in 26 year old Laynce Nix (.282/.326/.444 in 365 AB); when you consider that their center fielder Alex Rios is hitting .202, you wonder if perhaps they're trading the right guy. But Nix is not a patient hitter and not really a source of power, and very rapidly, his salary's going to rise rapidly. This was the time to move him, and the return from the queenly New Yorkers was massive - a control artist with a 3.82 career ERA, right-hander Jae Seo, and the hard-throwing southpaw that the organization so desperately needs in 22 year old Scott Kazmir. Yes, even in this universe the Mutts* can't hang onto the kid.* Seo has an overinflated scouting report - I really doubt he will become the next Prime Minister of Chile as my scout seems to suggest - but he has had more major league success than anyone on Toronto's pitching staff save for Halladay, which has to count for something. The kid Kazmir can count to something, we know; his stat lines seem to suggest the answer to that conundrum is often four, but the southpaw's walk totals have never veered that far above four-and-a-half per nine, excepting this year. But you can give him a pass on the walks this year - he's 5-4 with a 3.45 ERA in AAA, and still touching 95 and 96 on the radar gun. There's more good players going to Toronto in that trade than they're giving up. I like that kind of thinking. Even better was their midnight-hour move on July 31 that sent reliever Aqui Lopez (2-4, 4.02 in 56 IP) to who...? To Boston, of course, along with IF Dave Berg (who should have been a Pale Hose) and outfield filler in Gabe Gross. The other Sox really can be called the other Sox this season, since they unceremoniously punted away ten of thirteen to start the second half despite facing such powerhouses as last-place Tampa and last-place Oakland. The 32 year old right-hander Lopez is a change of pace from the veterans in the Beantown bullpen whose radar guns are suddenly reading, "Tilt", but he's not a change of pace because he's a late bloomer or throws a knuckleball. No, Aqui is a change of pace because he's just a lousy pitcher, a five-year veteran with a career ERA over four. Try telling that to his new ballclub, who plans to use him in setup relief. Berg makes for a nice temp at second base, especially when the alternative is that vortex of suck with a .250 AVG and .300 SLG, Willie Bloomquist. Gross is no great shakes but handy to have on a team like this one, where there are only two decent outfielders and not three. But it's probably too late to address these things on July 31 when you're seven out of the division and three out of the wild card, and it's all meaningless anyway when the trade is really made just to expel malcontent reliever Grant Roberts, an expensive 29 year old pickup from the Mets (hey! and things come full circle!) this past offseason. The right-hander has a 3.36 career ERA and gives the Mounties (oops, Jays...so easy to confuse them) the Proven Closer (TM) they've been lacking all year. Sure, he's expensive. Sure, he'll only pitch seventy innings a year. It's still better than Eric Knott (2-4, 5.94 ERA). The 27 year old pride of Taiwan, Chien-Ming Wang, will also cross the border, and having posted ERA's of 2.46 and 3.31 in the past season-and-a-half in the minors, he's proven beyond a doubt that he can pitch AAA. That's more than you can say for Noah Lowry, who was 6-12 in AAA a year ago but has gotten a few starts and pitched 33 (mostly crappy) innings in Toronto at random points this season. The same for "Proven Winner" Mike Bacsik, a 29 year old southpaw whose 2006 AAA record of 12-9 overshadowed a 4.07 ERA (and higher run average) and strikeout rate of less than six per nine. Somehow he's pitched the best 19 starts of his life this year, 7-4 record and 3.87 ERA. But with all these new pitchers, the Bacsiks will actually have to pitch well to keep their jobs in Toronto, which is the way it ought to be. Sacre les bleus!