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Old 05-29-2013, 12:34 PM   #1046
duncan_idaho duncan_idaho is offline
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Appreciate the responses.

1) Alex Gordon's defensive value at 3B was basically the same as David Freese (neutral to slightly below average). His worst seasons defensively - 2009 and 2010 - also happened during seasons Gordon was injured and in small sample sizes. He could definitely play everyday there. He also can play 1B and would be an upgrade over Craig or Adams.

Like you guys said... They would get him in that lineup.

We'll see how Holliday closes the year, but right now Gordon is a better offensive player (and defensive and baserunning abilities are really not close). How much time is left on that Holliday contact? I remember he's making $20 million/year or so...

2) I was looking at 2011, 2012 and this season when comparing Shields and Wainwright initially (because I was lazy and that was the default in the StatsPass setting I was using). Since wainwright didn't pitch in 2011, I was comparing 2010, 2012 and 2013 for Waino to 2011-now for Shields (stupid Tommy John).

I don't have a problem saying Wainwright is better historically or that he is a few slots higher on the totem pole in the grand scheme of things. Assuming he fully recovers from TJ (and it looks like he has), Wainwright is one of the top 15 pitchers in baseball, easily and without any debate. I think you could comfortably say Shields is one of the 20-25 pitchers in baseball, easily and without any debate. Especially considering that he is a career AL and AL East pitcher.

It was the claim that Shields wasn't even in the same zip code (and, subsequently, pointing out that the two pitchers are closer/more similar than some might realize of late) that touched off the hysteria and anger.

3) I full expect Butler's career to start to slide downhill once he reaches his mid-30s. No argument there. I know that Bill James' whiz-bang career projection tool spits out about a 24 percent chance that Butler reaches 3k hits. I think that's high and would say it's more like a 10 or 15 percent chance.

People over there were giving it a "winning Powerball" chance, though, which is silly.
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