How to get into the MLB playoffs

Originally posted by trev33
anyone know zack wheeler? and why the mets traded him for beltran AND paid $4 million to cover beltrans contract? i thought the team who picked up the star players should be paying extra not the other way around...

Beltran would have been a free agent after the season, so the Mets would have got nothing for him.

Wheeler was the Giants first pick in the 2009 amateur draft. He's 21 years old and is around a top 50 prospect. That's not a bad haul for a guy who was going to be gone in two months anyway.

EDIT: Here's a scouting report on Wheeler: http://projectprospect.com/article/2011/05/23/zack-wheeler-scouting-report


A fastball that hits 95 mph and a plus curveball.

Originally posted by whodey
The Cards are a bigger market than the Reds. Remember, my assertion is that the top 15 clubs fair better than the lower 15 clubs. In fact, they are inversely related. The Reds are on the lower half and the Cards on the upper half.

The Phillies of late have been consistantly in the playoffs and have been in the top 10 in payroll.

Are you drunk? You are making yourself look totally stupid.
Your argument doesn't hold water no matter how you try to weave it.
Do the math.

Originally posted by no1marauder
Beltran would have been a free agent after the season, so the Mets would have got nothing for him.

Wheeler was the Giants first pick in the 2009 amateur draft. He's 21 years old and is around a top 50 prospect. That's not a bad haul for a guy who was going to be gone in two months anyway.

EDIT: Here's a scouting report on Wheeler: http:// ...[text shortened]... ck-wheeler-scouting-report


A fastball that hits 95 mph and a plus curveball.

I agree, I think the Mets did VERY well in this trade.

They did much better than Houston did for Hunter Pence of Michael Bourne.
Ed Wade is still a dupe. Can't wait until Crane hands him the pink slip.

Originally posted by shortcircuit
Are you drunk? You are making yourself look totally stupid.
Your argument doesn't hold water no matter how you try to weave it.
Do the math.

I've already provided the statistics over 10 years, and that is the math.

Originally posted by whodey
I've already provided the statistics over 10 years, and that is the math.

And your math doesn't hold up for your 10 years either.
You are just too hardheaded to realize it.

If it was possible to buy pennants, the Yankees would never lose.
They are the richest franchise by far.
Steinbrenner tried for years to buy them, and was only successful on a few occasions.

Originally posted by shortcircuit
I agree, I think the Mets did VERY well in this trade.

They did much better than Houston did for Hunter Pence of Michael Bourne.
Ed Wade is still a dupe. Can't wait until Crane hands him the pink slip.

Here's hoping the 'Stros keep falling off the edge (at least for another 3 games anyway).

Originally posted by whodey
The Cards are a bigger market than the Reds. Remember, my assertion is that the top 15 clubs fair better than the lower 15 clubs. In fact, they are inversely related. The Reds are on the lower half and the Cards on the upper half.

The Phillies of late have been consistantly in the playoffs and have been in the top 10 in payroll.

What exactly are you complaining about?
You believe that the team you root for will not invest sufficiently in its team even though you play in what is year in year out the worst division. The only real big market team in your division is the Cubs and no one (even you) would complain about having to play them. The Pirates has been below .500 for a record number of consecutive years, the Astros have the worst record in baseball. The Brewers have not exactly been a model of consistency. Reds fans are not exactly going to get the sympathy that Orioles fans get when they complain that every other team in their divsion is above .500; two teams spend as much as anyone; another has one the division two of the last three years and the last team seems to have added what arguably may be the best player in baseball and has a top farm system.
Your team won the division last year and had the MVP even though some of their moves like trading Josh Hamilton did not exactly break correctly.
I just don't see how the system is unfair to you.

Originally posted by no1marauder
Here's hoping the 'Stros keep falling off the edge (at least for another 3 games anyway).

LOL.....the Lastros shouldn't be much of a challenge for the Reds.
That is probably why they will sweep the Reds, because they aren't supposed to.

I just can't wait until they ride Ed Wade out of town on the rails!!!
That dumb SOB couldn't close an umbrella.
His sole purpose is:

1) to deal our talent to Philadelphia (Lidge, Oswalt and Pence in successive years)

2) to deal off the best player we got in the Oswalt trade (Michael Bourne)

3) Tell former players they are too old to play for us ( Lance Berkman) while
watching them light it up for our division rivals

4) Jettison his off-season free agent signee Bill Hall and pay all but $200K of his
salary for a couple of months of garbage time.

5) Be Drayton's yes man.

Now Jim Crane wants to slash the payroll for next season to 65K.
Ed Wade knows how to get rid of talent (except the talent he signs long term) such
as Carlos Lee, Wandy Rodriguez and Brett Myers.

His hot shot rookies Chris Johnson and Brett Wallace ( Lance Berkman trade prize)
are sent to the minors. This allows us to put Calos Lee's fat ass as 1B so we can
play our revamped outfield of Shaeffer (prize of the Bourne trade), Bourgeois, and
Bogusevic / JD Martinez (up from AA ball).

Originally posted by shortcircuit
LOL.....the Lastros shouldn't be much of a challenge for the Reds.
That is probably why they will sweep the Reds, because they aren't supposed to.

I just can't wait until they ride Ed Wade out of town on the rails!!!
That dumb SOB couldn't close an umbrella.
His sole purpose is:

1) to deal our talent to Philadelphia (Lidge, Oswalt and Pence in ...[text shortened]... er (prize of the Bourne trade), Bourgeois, and
Bogusevic / JD Martinez (up from AA ball).

Bourn wasn't part of the Oswalt trade. From his "transactions" page at Baseball Reference.com:

November 7, 2007: Traded by the Philadelphia Phillies with Mike Costanzo (minors) and Geoff Geary to the Houston Astros for Eric Bruntlett and Brad Lidge.

Originally posted by quackquack
What exactly are you complaining about?
You believe that the team you root for will not invest sufficiently in its team even though you play in what is year in year out the worst division. The only real big market team in your division is the Cubs and no one (even you) would complain about having to play them. The Pirates has been below .500 for a rec ...[text shortened]... sh Hamilton did not exactly break correctly.
I just don't see how the system is unfair to you.

No, the Cardinals are in the top 15 in payroll and consistantly dominate the division. Do they spend as much as the Cubs, no, but they have a organization that is dysfunctional to say the least as where the Cards have one of the best, if not the best, organizations in all of baseball.

As I have said before, some organizations are better than other ones. This accounts for why teams like the Brewers and Twins seem to do relatively well consistantly. As I have said repeatedly, there are a handful of teams below the 15 lowest in payroll who have winning seasons and a handful of teams above the 15 in payroll who have losing seasons. At the end of the year, it will be no different. The Cubs will be on of the handful of high payroll teams with losing seasons and the Brewers will probably be one of the handful of small market teams to have winning seasons.

As for the Pirates, no one dreamed they had a chance to be in the race and it seems they are beginning to fade like they are suppose to.

Originally posted by shortcircuit
LOL.....the Lastros shouldn't be much of a challenge for the Reds.
That is probably why they will sweep the Reds, because they aren't supposed to.

I just can't wait until they ride Ed Wade out of town on the rails!!!
That dumb SOB couldn't close an umbrella.
His sole purpose is:

1) to deal our talent to Philadelphia (Lidge, Oswalt and Pence in ...[text shortened]... er (prize of the Bourne trade), Bourgeois, and
Bogusevic / JD Martinez (up from AA ball).

Philly should refer to the Stros as their farm system. 😛

Originally posted by no1marauder
Bourn wasn't part of the Oswalt trade. From his "transactions" page at Baseball Reference.com:

November 7, 2007: Traded by the Philadelphia Phillies with Mike Costanzo (minors) and Geoff Geary to the Houston Astros for Eric Bruntlett and Brad Lidge.

Oops, you are correct....He was in the Lidge deal.

Oswalt fetched us the great JA Happ.

My mistake.

Originally posted by whodey
Philly should refer to the Stros as their farm system. 😛

Why not? The former Phillies GM is running the show in Houston.

Sort of like letting the inmates run the asylum.

Originally posted by whodey
No, the Cardinals are in the top 15 in payroll and consistantly dominate the division. Do they spend as much as the Cubs, no, but they have a organization that is dysfunctional to say the least as where the Cards have one of the best, if not the best, organizations in all of baseball.

As I have said before, some organizations are better than other ones. ...[text shortened]... had a chance to be in the race and it seems they are beginning to fade like they are suppose to.

Your salary argument is just wrong. Four of the bottom six teams are in the playoff hunt. Two added players at the deadline. Tampa has the second lowest salary and they won the toughest division two of the last three years. The Pirates have the third lowest slary and are above .500. The 5th lowest salary is the Indians they are competing for a division. The sixth lowest salary is Arizona also above.

Three of the top seven teams the White Sox, the Cubs and the Mets are really not good at all.

Especially if you take away the three highest payrolls (which spend money and make smart moves) there is very little correlation at all. Top teams sign guys like Lee, Gonzalez, Sabathia. Bottom teams spend insane amounts on guys like Werth, Sopriano, Zambrano. It is a lot more than money and since your favorite team plays in the NL Central, you of all people should never ever complain.

Originally posted by quackquack
Your salary argument is just wrong. Four of the bottom six teams are in the playoff hunt. Two added players at the deadline. Tampa has the second lowest salary and they won the toughest division two of the last three years. The Pirates have the third lowest slary and are above .500. The 5th lowest salary is the Indians they are competing for a divisio ...[text shortened]... since your favorite team plays in the NL Central, you of all people should never ever complain.

Poor old whodey is like the proverbial horse that you lead to the water trough.
You can't force them to drink, and sometimes they are dumb enough to simply
die of thirst rather than succumb to the pressure of drinking the water that was
made available to him.

Then again, you could waste a bullet, put him out of his misery, and go find another
horse that had more intelligence. I wonder if Mr. Ed is still around.
That horse KNEW his baseball!! 😉