2011 MLB Offseason Discussion - Rangers choking edition

[Demosthenes11]

WTF HOW DID CJ WILSON NOT WIN!?

[Melena]

Sorry but Kershaw > phillies and this is coming from someone who hates the dodgers.

[Conrad]

Sorry but Kershaw > phillies and this is coming from someone who hates the dodgers.

do you want me to prove why this is wrong or should you just take my word for it

[Cail]

prove cuz im hella bored and need something to read

[Conrad]

you're gonna have to wait a couple hours until I'm on my home computer and can flip between pages quickly though

[Cail]

lame, ill have lost interest by then!

[Headspace]

AL: Verlander

Called it

[Soa]

do you want me to prove why this is wrong or should you just take my word for it

Long story short, Kershaw had better "traditional" stats but Halladay pretty much whooped his ass in advanced stats. I said before that this would be an interesting vote because it will give us a real look at how far the acceptance of advanced stats has come.

[Demosthenes11]

I think halladay being on the phillies will actually hurt him. They won't know which phillie to pick between WORLY and lee and halladay and will settle on kershaw

[Conrad]

don't forget coal hammels

[archibaldcrane]

Long story short, Kershaw had better "traditional" stats but Halladay pretty much whooped his ass in advanced stats. I said before that this would be an interesting vote because it will give us a real look at how far the acceptance of advanced stats has come.

Yeah, if you look at advanced stats like SIERA and xFIP, you'll see that Halladay has a clear advantage over Kershaw for 3rd place in each.

What, you were expecting him to be first?

Silly you, obviously Zack Greinke is #1, and Halladay's teammate Cliff Lee is #2.

(Verlander is 8th in xFIP and 5th in SIERA)

[Conrad]

Joe Maddon & Kirk Gibson win Managers of the Year.

[Melena]

No shock there.

[Cail]

Major League Baseball only agreed to the pending sale of the Houston Astros to businessman Jim Crane after he agreed to move the team to the American League, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press.

The person spoke Wednesday on condition of anonymity because no announcement has been made. The sale is expected to be approved Thursday.

The person said Major League Baseball told Crane he would only be able to buy the team from Drayton McLane if he agreed to move the Astros out of the National League, where they have played ever since their first game in 1962.

Crane will receive a $70 million discount off the $680 million purchase price in exchange for moving the Astros to the AL in 2013, an MLB official with knowledge of the talks said, the Houston Chronicle reported.

McLane and MLB will contribute $35 million each to the discount, according to the Chronicle.

An official announcement of the Astros' jump to the AL might not be made Thursday, so that the day's focus can be on the sale and the new owner, the newspaper reported.

knew it was coming, but interesting

[Valisk]

It's about time. I always thought the AL West had an unfair advantage since there were only 4 teams to compete for the division. I wonder if the Astros automatically get placed in that division or if another team (Kansas City Royals) gets swapped around.

[Melena]

It really had to be done. 6 teams in the NL central and only 4 in the AL West was a huge imbalance.

[Conrad]

They might have decided to remove divisions entirely and just send the top 4 teams from each League to the playoffs. Regardless, this means interleague play every day throughout the year now.

[Demosthenes11]

texas rangers have no chance to win the west now

[Demosthenes11]

francona takes himself out of consideration for cubs job

[Byrd]

It's about time. I always thought the AL West had an unfair advantage since there were only 4 teams to compete for the division. I wonder if the Astros automatically get placed in that division or if another team (Kansas City Royals) gets swapped around.

Pretty sure they wanted the Rangers and Astros in the same division to improve (create?) the rivalry.