February 10, 2012
Now Available for 2012 THT Essentials: Now Available The Hardball Times Baseball Annual 2012, an annual "must buy" for all baseball fans, is now shipping. Read this article to learn more about it.
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Wednesday, November 04, 2009Liveblog World Series Game 6Another round of chatting about the World Series during the game. Rays get something for nothing in Iwamura tradeI have to say, I'm pretty impressed by Tampa Bay's ability to turn Akinori Iwamura into a young, cost-controllable fireballing reliever. It was essentially a done deal that Iwamura would become a free agent so Tampa could move to Ben Zobrist as a full-time second baseman (with Sean Rodriguez knocking on the door for playing time). As time was going on, I was beginning to wonder if other teams would just wait out the Rays and bid on Iwamura as a free agent. While Iwamura is a valuable second baseman, he's definitely overpaid given his $4.25 salary in 2010. The bidding to have Iwamura join a team didn't seem enough to get a deal done. But it did, and the Pirates were the surprise victors. Iwamura instantly becomes the Pirates' highest-paid player (which is a whole separate post in and of itself.) The Rays parlayed someone clearly overpaid -- yes, valuable, but overpaid -- into Jesse Chavez. The 25-year old just came off a season in which he posted a 4.01 ERA in 67.1 games along with a 1.35 WHIP and 6.3 K/9, a low number given his average velocity off his fastball: 94.5 mph. The Rays Party goes into an extremely in-depth look at Chavez, so I'll point you there instead of fumbling my way through it using his data. Even though Chavez is one of roughly a million live-arm middle relievers to pass through Major League Baseball and has yet to fully prove he belongs in the majors, I'm choosing to look at this glass half-full: the Rays got something for nothing. Iwamura isn't a zero, but from the Rays' perspective, he was. That alone makes it a great trade for Tampa. THT Live Roundtable: WS EditionI was very tempted to write a different title for this post, but I didn't want to scare away any readers. This edition is a strange one by our usual standards. Why is that? Because Carson Cistulli chimed in saying he'd like to take part. I mean that in the most positive way possible, Carson. It's been a long season, and tonight is either the last day of baseball, or the eve of the last day of baseball. So let's have a moment of silent reflection [pause]....and then go on to the roundtable. Question #1: Brad Lidge's postseason struggles; are they 'real' or just a matter of perception? Evan Brunell: Perception. It's okay to blow a game here and there in the postseason. Papelbon has done it. Rivera has done it. Heck, Lidge was nails this postseason until that three-run debacle in Game 4. Pedro Feliz juiced a game-tying home run, and the momentum had swung. Lidge choked, but a major, major part of that choke had to do with the dying quail (and what can you do about those?) off Damon's bat and the collective team choke of not covering third, which took away Lidge's dirt-burying slider. Click for more... On Mike LupicaI don't have anything of value—in terms of insight or comedy—to add to what's already been said about this ridiculous Mike Lupica article from today's NY Daily News. Craig already talked about it at NBC during his morning in exile from his You have to be a special kind of stupid to wait until the team is one win away from their first World Series in 9 years to start complaining about their lack of a #4 starter. It's entertaining to say the least. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||