GregAlso

This was reported after the trade the Indians had already made. He already knew what they had done. Teams value prospects differently. You literally asked how we know this info and then when shown you denied it. You refuse knowledge and choose to stay foolish because the info doesn’t match your idea of how the world works. Now, pray tell us, and Jeff Fletcher himself, why Jeff would report that news almost a day after the trade if it was blatantly untrue? You don’t think he knew how the industry valued the trade? What is Jeff’s motivation? You think he just makes stuff up? Maybe you should think before you write dumb stuff online?

Ryu looking for 4yr/$80 million contract according to Rosenthal and his sources (basically the good ones). Not $30 million, looking for $20 million per.

It is also reported that Ryu wants to stay in SoCal because his wife likes living here. That will also adjust what he will accept for different locations. We are in a similar position to Arizona signing MadBum. Once the top two got mega deals everyone readjusted their expectations for FA signings. The guys who do this more than us adjusted up for Ryu for sure but nobody has suggested that high that I’ve seen. So, yes, they were wrong to open the off-season but they’ve adjusted.

That is not what any of the people who predict contracts like this are saying. I know you think that but where are you coming up with that? You have your analysis based on who you think will spend but have you talked to any of them? People who have don’t predict this. There is a huge gap between Strasburg/Cole and Ryu. Just because they got $35+ million doesn’t mean Ryu will get $30 million. MadBum thought he should get $25+ million per and he didn’t even get close. The experts seem to peg Ryu for around $20 million per and that’s a huge difference. It makes him very affordable and imo a better choice than Keuchel. As far as spending on a bat first OF, I just think it is a waste. Sign Ryu or Keuchel. Then trade for a pitcher, but if no good ones are available in trade save the money to trade for a good SP during the season when teams fall out of contention. Don’t just spend money to spend. Get a catcher, I think it’ll be a defense first one to improve the staff (stealing strikes and pitch calling and all that) because the bats we have will play. I don’t see Castellanos as much of an improvement over Goodwin and no reason to block Adell. Castellanos would be like having kept Calhoun. We didn’t do that and we won’t get Castellanos.

I don’t see Ryu costing $30 million per year. He is not getting that much if MadBum only got $17 million per. I don’t know where you got that figure at all. Feels made up.

Caveat, Maddon will have crazy lineups. He likes going by the feel of the day and following the music he hears. So, any lineup here is taken with a grain of salt. What I did want to clarify is what “The Book” says about lineups. First, it acknowledges that lineup construction is minimal in its effect on run scoring. Second, it does give specific instructions on each position in the lineup. I’ll briefly recap that here. Leadoff: This should be a high OBP guy. He will have the most ABs per year and you want to produce the fewest outs to maximize run scoring. It is best that you choose the highest OBP guy with minimal power as he will come to the plate, not just in the first inning, throughout the game with the least amount of runners on base. 2nd: The best overall hitter, via OPS or whatever metric is you’d like (WRC+, OPS+, etc), should hit here. He will get more ABs than any other spot but leadoff and he will have, on average, the same number of guys on base as the three hole hitter. Best to put guy with power and high on base skills earlier in lineup to maximize his times to the plate. 3rd: It is best to have high slugging percentage guy here but OBP isn’t vital. Of the first 4 hitters he will come up with the second fewest guys on base, just behind leadoff. As many already noted in this thread the dreaded 2 out nobody on situation. You want high SLG because if he gets on you want him in scoring position for 4 hole who will have 1 on and 2 outs so you maximize chances at a run. 4th: Second best hitter, per OPS or any metric you prefer to measure overall hitting, should hit here. This hitter will come up in the most clutch situations where a hit is absolutely necessary for a run to be scored. He will get nearly as many ABs with RISP as the guy batting second and more than the guy batting third but generally in worse out situations so he needs a good SLG. He also may leadoff innings and will have more ABs than anyone lower in the lineup so high OBP is important. The number of ABs between third and fourth are negligible and the only reason this is the order is the number of times they come up with runners on base. I have forgotten the exact info on the remaining and don’t really want to pull my copy of The Book out. I vaguely remember that 5th is another high SLG guy and I think 6th is the second leadoff guy in the order but I could be wrong about that. The info provided by The Book is just based on looking at the situations Batting order positions have faced over the past 50 years of baseball. The Book is worth reading if you want to look at how to really utilize your team most effectively. All the SABR teams follow this to one degree or another but again lineup optimization changes overall run scoring throughout a season by something like 10 runs or less, which means it might mean 1 win or not. It is very minimal. Point is we have a very good lineup and it is gonna be different each day because Maddon isn’t a by the numbers guy. Those of you who hated Scioscia for doing this are gonna feel the same way about Maddon, just go see old posts in the Cubs forum about this to commiserate. Here’s my lineup, and I like to optimize vs LHP 2B Fletcher CF Trout DH Ohtani 3B Rendon LF Upton SS Simmons 1B Pujols RF Goodwin/Adell C TBNL vs RHP 1B La Stella CF Trout DH Ohtani 3B Rendon LF Upton 2B Fletcher SS Simmons RF Goodwin/Adell C TBNL And of course there are a ton of variations for when Ohtani is about to pitch the next day or when La Stella plays 2B and Fletch sits, etc.

It will be very interesting to see where Andrelton ranks at the end of his career. I can certainly see an Ozzie Smith type trajectory. And I think your right he could certainly surpass Smith, especially with the power he brings. I wonder if his continued changing approach might vault him into the discussion as not just best defensive Shortstop but also one of the greatest shortstops of all time. Only time will tell. We can hope!

Thanks Chuck, feels good to be back.

I tend to agree

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You've been looking for something to pin this on. You just can't imagine you are wrong about anything. It must suck to know everything. The truth is there are only three reasons that I can see that make Josh's case diferent than other MLB players who drink too much: 1) He has come back from a ban for drug abuse 2) He hasn't performed well on the field of play 3) He is vocal about his religous beliefs You only chose to hear the last of them. Can you find any other reason why Josh is so polarizing and Miguel Cabrera's DUIs are barely even mentioned? I don't know which one of three is the answer but it has to be one of them. Again notice number three, it doesn't say he has religous beliefs, rather it says he was vocal about them. If three is the answer then it isn't because he follows a major world religion, it is because he talks about it a lot. Honestly, I believe the answer is number 2 but I can't prove any of it. I completely agree with Jeff we can never know about a player's heart from his face. Just because someone doesn't wear their heart on their sleeve doesn't mean they don't care. I don't remember Josh being very animated with Rangers when he was very productive. Randy Gradishar, what about Garret Anderson? Did he not care? Some people just have a different personality.

What about Miguel Cabrera? He's been popped for DUI twice I beleive. He is most likely drinking during the season. It doesn't seem to affect him or his rep much and that is seemingly because he is producing on the field. There is more talk of Josh because he was banned for drugs of abuse and came back, because his on field struggles are notable in comparison with his contract, and probably because of his vocal religous beliefs. Other players have alcohol problems and it doesn't seem to be this polarizing. I didn't post this article to "defend Josh" as some think. I posted it to give another perspective that doesn't seem to be on this whole board. Why is everyone so closed to looking at multiple angles? I've been affected by the addicitons of family members. I don't make light of it and I have and do spend a lot of time dealing with the results of it both in counselling and twelve step. I am well versed in this, this is not posted lightly.

Drinking is not a violation. We all know this because his last two slips were alcohol related and they triggered no possible disciplinary action. So I don't understand why you are asking this again.

Your argument is complete conjecture. It rests on an assumption that infidelity is the same as drug use. You came to your argument because DiPoto utilized a marriage analogy in his statements and for no other reason. Your statement also fails to recognize previous statements of logic in this particular thread about both scientific and reasonable assumptions of Josh Hamilton's past drug use and abuse.

He never tested positive there is no indication that it was before a test he came forward, none. That is a story made up by posters on this site with no basis in fact. It has been repeated often enough that it is assumed to be fact. There was no report it was before a test and there is no reason to believe any test deemed necessary by MLB was not administered. We do know he never failed a test.

Just to clear your statement up, just because you don't know anything about his testing regimine at all it is ok assume he has been using the whole time? The knife cuts both ways. His sobriety in season points to a general sobriety out of season. I have much more verifiable basis for my opinion than you could ever muster for yours. To just be clear I was intially responding to your claim that the premise was BS. The premise has a solid basis in many verifiable facts. Yes, some of these "facts" are "conjecture", but conjecture based in reason and human behavior. Some of these facts, a full 2/3 of them are scientifically verifiable.

He could have used alcohol but his last two "violations" were self-reported alcohol use, not drug use. Since he has reported alcohol use it would be unfair conjecture on our part to say he's been drunk all this time. When he was banned before it was also about drug use, not just alcohol, otherwise Cabrera from the Tigers would've been suspended for DUI.

not 100% but I believe it is listed under the drugs of abuse restrictions. Maybe someone else who is more familiar with the CBA can comment, but I am fairly certain it is banned. They haven't been completely clear about this but they seem to be saying that after healing and after rehab that he would be welcome. They could easily change their tune later but that is the current stand. This is still at least a couple of months away at this point.

7-8 moths of the year I know he is tested rigorously. I am unaware of the offseason testing regimine. It seems there is some but we aren't privy to it. But the tests he passed in season are resonable enough to assume through conjecture that he didn't bring his addiction into the season with him. So no, I don't "have zero idea" about the offseason. If he was in fullblown addictive behavior he wouldn't be able to stop in season, simple as that. For addicts wanting more ALWAYS leads to wanting more. So i have some reasonable idea he was sober but it obviously wasn't as scientifically verifiable throught tests in the offseason. So go ahead and wipe the smug smile off your face and realize you "got" nothing of what i said. Basically stop acting like a know-it-all, because you aren't, especially about addiction.

Easily answered, he can only pass a test if it has been more than 3 days. if he is tested 3 times a week in season (March-September/October) he was sober during those times. Simple math tells us 3 tests in 7 days nets us less than 3 days in between each test. This leaves us Novemer-February, or about 4 months a year to account for. He just came clean this last offseason about something that he did not fail a test about. What benefit did he get from admiting his failure? He wasn't going to get caught by the MLB. If he stays quiet, nothing happens. His only motivation for admitting it is himself and his own recovery. If he was going to admit this time and if he assumed he was going to be punished then why not admit all the other times and get punished with them together? The reason is there are no other times to admit. It would be in his best interest if he was coming clean voluntarily, which he did, to come clean completely. He had no idea he would suffer no punishment, nobody thought that would be the case, not the team or the commissioner's office. This has some facts and some conjecture. Finally, if you read the article i posted, addicts just don't turn off and on their addictions. If he was using all throughout the offseason he would not be able to just stop for the next 7 months because of baseball. That is just not the way addiction works, read Strawberry's book about 80's baseball. That's the answer to the pop quiz.

As has been posted in other threads cocaine only stays in the human body for 3 days or so. If the test is longer than that from usage it will not be found. This is one reason why he was tested 3 times per week in season. It has not been made kown, to my knowledge, his off season testing regime. My previous response, to which you responded about "being a hero," was responding to your suggestion that he has been using all along. You are begining to sound like a troll, changing your tune to whatever suites your fickle opinion. You've completely made up accusations that he has been using all along. When that was disproven with some simple facts you respond with a sarcastic comment that had nothing to do with the issue. I imagine you can't accept personal responsibility and simply admit you are wrong. As a matter of fact that is typical of many addicts. maybe your an addict in denial and you've been using your drug, whatever it may be? You aren't adding to any discussion. You are just reacting in a bitter manner with nearly libelous conjecture to support your irrational anger at Hamilton for not performing on the field. How do you like conjecture about you?

Well during the season he was tested 3 times per week, so, I doubt he was using during those times or we would've heard about it. His admission to using cocaine this time was not forced out of him in any way and MLB would've likely never known if he didn't admit it. He didn't avoid a test or confess before a test as some have suggested. That is all a made up story on this board, there is no evidence to even suggest that. He had no benefit to amitting this occured. Likely this is his only use besides the two others we know about. Those who know addicts would realize this admission was probably an act of making amends for past bad behavior and accepting the consequences of your actions. Everyone else imagines it as some self-serving act. It only is in so much as it removes the shame and faces the music.

I hesitated to post this and looked to see if it was already posted but I couldn't find it. Maybe the persepctive of this author could benefit us all. I submit it for your consideration, http://theclassical.org/articles/broken-bat

This is interesting that Jeff Fletcher reports Josh fired him and supposedly the broadcast said the Anges fired him. To answer this question, even if Josh hired him I don't think he could've travelled on the team plane or been in the dugout if not on the team payroll. This really hampers his ability to be there for Josh when he was needed.