Rotoman

Amazon.com: Music: Pink Flag/Chairs Missing/154 [BOX SET] [IMPORT]

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Amazon.com: Music: Pink Flag/Chairs Missing/154 [BOX SET] [IMPORT]

So, I’m assuming you know that if you buy stuff from this site through Amazon the site earns a commission. And you no doubt know how much I appreciate it. I think the commissions last year earned about $50, which thanks to the good folks at your-site.com (if you sign up with them tell them I sent you), covered most of the web hosting.

What you might not know is that if you buy, let’s say, Ron Shandler’s latest Forecaster, and you buy something else, I get to see what it was. I don’t get to see who bought it, rest assured there are no Admiral Poindexters here at askrotoman.com, but I do get to live vicariously.

And today I happened to be going through the logs and what did I find? A reader bought a Wire box set.

All I can say is, Bravo. Wire isn’t to everyone’s taste, to be sure, but there was no more economical yet extravagant, abstract yet organic, punky but arty band to come out of anywhere than Wire.

I’ve got the vinyl versions of Pink Flag and Chairs Missing down in the basement, but I don’t know the music on 154. I’m not even sure why not.

All I know is that there aren’t many days that go by when I don’t start humming, “Saw her in a mag, kissing a man. Saw her in a mag, kissing a man,” which inevitably leads into, “I knew a girl name Nikki…” But that’s a different band.

Welcome to Player Profiles at Patton & Co

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Player Profiles at Patton & Co are coming. [I posted yesterday, a bit prematurely, an invitation to the site, but some problems have come up that our crack programmers are dealing with. I’ll post a message here when the site is back up.]

This is brand new and very exciting. Essentially it’s 1,800 individual message boards, one for each of just about every player you can think of having any baseball presence at all this year.

You can ask questions about them. You can report the latest news on them. You can banter about them. This is RotoWire and RotoWorld, in a way, but instead of being a spectator you’ll get to be a part of the information processing.

Hear a rumor? You can post it. Have an insight? Run it by some of the smartest baseball fans we know. At Patton and Co. you are in the mix, and the mix is all the richer for it.

Plus you get Alex Patton’s bid prices and price scans.

The idea was Alex’s, and I’m chipping in because I think this is the next wave of baseball information. So Pattonandco.com will be where you’ll find me writing about players during spring training and the season.

Check it out. For now all it takes is a login name and password to get access. Starting on March 10 there will be a small fee, $10, which Alex hopes will pay for the rather large bandwidth charges he ran up last year.

In any case, you have a month before you have to decide. Come read, come write. I think you’ll enjoy it.

ESPN.com: MLB – Yankees’ payroll reportedly comes in at $164 million

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ESPN.com: MLB – Yankees’ payroll reportedly comes in at $164 million

Move the Expos to New York!

I don’t remember where I read this idea first, it certainly doesn’t originate with me, but the events of the offseason certainly support the idea that the market most needful/potentially supportive of a franchise is New York.

And heck, it makes sense for a third NY franchise to split time between the city and San Juan.

ESPN.com: MLB – Marlins land Pudge Rodriguez for one-year, $10 million

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ESPN.com: MLB – Marlins land Pudge Rodriguez for one-year, $10 million

The big news here is that Pudge won’t be able to DH. And since it seems unlikely that he’ll be able to catch 140+ games, his value is diminished some. Or rather, he’s likely to put up numbers right in line with his numbers the last two years.

Kind of. Pudge is another year older, Pro Player Stadium is not nearly as conducive to offense as The Ballpark at Arlington, and the Marlins’ line-up is not nearly as powerful as the Rangers has been. Oh, and throughout his career Pudge has been better on turf than grass.

All of which suggests a year like 2002 is more likely than than either of the two previous years of injury. Not bad, but not great the way he once was.

Also of interest, the stores of AL catching are very thin now. The flagging Jorge Posada is far and away the top guy, with AJ Pierzynski a distant second. I’m not a big fan of position scarcity, not in leagues drawing deeply from only one major league, but suddenly guys like Toby Hall and Mitch Meluskey (if he qualifies at catcher in your league) seem very strong.

Heck, all of a sudden I’m trying to remember how to spell Nilsson.

January 15, 2003 – The Daily Prospectus: The Colon Trade

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January 15, 2003 – The Daily Prospectus: The Colon Trade

I’ve been holding off on writing about the Colon trade. It seemed for a while that all that needed to be said was going to be said, but it wasn’t. I read a Fantasy Baseball Review email log this morning in which nobody got it, in which nobody came close, and then this Baseball Prospectus analysis, which is better but misses the point, too.

I think.

I think the facts in this case match Peter Gammons’ story this week at ESPN best of all. The idea that the Yanks hoodwinked the Red Sox is overblown, the idea that Minaya screwed up is overblown, the idea that Kenny Williams was a genius is overblown. Try these facts on for size:

The Expos gave up a once-upon-a-time top prospect pitcher coming off a career year, a pitcher they couldn’t afford and everyone knew they couldn’t afford, and got in return a good veteran pitcher making the minimum.

The Yankees gave up one of their eight (read excess) starting pitchers, plus $2M, and got back a very good middle relief pitcher they could certainly use. Since Osuna makes less than what Hernandez will make in arbitration this year, it didn’t cost them the whole $2. In fact, the deal might actually save them money, though just a little, depending on how arbitration goes.

The White Sox gave up a good reliever, a valueless reliever, a worthless corner infielder and $2M (plus the Yankees’ $2M) for a former top prospect but generally disappointing pitcher coming off the best year of his career.

Clearly, what matters here is how good Colon pitches this year. Clearly, from what Theo Epstein was saying, the Red Sox didn’t get Colon because they wanted Vazquez. And they weren’t ready to jump all over Colon because they think he could be a problem.

Assuming the Yankees did save some money (which they save at a multiple because of the salary tax), it seems to me everyone benefits by this deal.

And no, Minaya may have not recouped what he paid for Colon, but the situation now is different than it was last summer. That doesn’t absolve him of the imbalance, and doesn’t mean he didn’t make mistakes (should they turn out to be so), but it does point out the difficulty of setting priorities when you don’t know if this is your last gasp or your next to last gasp. And when everyone else knows nearly as well what your situation is.

If he’s right, that the right guy to deal was Colon (and not Vazquez), then I think he did just fine. It seems to me he rather aggressively took a shot at the title when he had a chance (and wouldn’t you?), rather than playing is safe and mouthing whatever insulting pieties came to mind to explain away his inaction.

Now he’s doing it again, refusing to cede the division because without that what is there? That’s what I want to know.

Go Expos!