Rangers @ Cardinals, Game 1 Open Thread

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Berselius has fallen short of his duties around Obstructed View and failed to provide our wonderful readers with a World Series Preview. Because of his laziness, we are giving away extremely cheap subscriptions to Obstructed View. Just send $1 to the OV Offices nearest you.

CJ Wilson vs Chris Carpenter tonight


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  1. Berselius

    [quote name=Aisle424]I don’t care what anyone says, Gammons has not been the same since the stroke. I don’t think anyone can realistically argue that isn’t true.

    he may still be capable, but this is not the same Peter Gammons who made a name for himself in this business.[/quote]
    Gammons’s main strength is his incredible network of sources. That doesn’t disappear after you lose a step.

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  2. Berselius

    [quote name=Mercurial Outfielder]True. He nailed the Hendry firing, and he’s been the only one with non-NESN info in the Epstein deal. Seems like he’s cultivated a decent source in the FO.[/quote]
    FWIW, Kaplan was right that Hendry was going to be fired but he wasn’t going out on much of a limb there. It’s not like he was shouting from the rooftops at the time that Hendry was fired. He also was 100% sure that Soriano would be cut this offseason, which does not necessarily jive with that Hendry prediction unless he knows that Ricketts has it in for Adolfo.

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  3. Berselius

    Berselius has fallen short of his duties around Obstructed View and failed to provide our wonderful readers with a World Series Preview.

    Sorry guys, I had to eat dinner (dying laughing)

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  4. Mercurial Outfielder

    [quote name=Berselius]FWIW, Kaplan was right that Hendry was going to be fired but he wasn’t going out on much of a limb there. It’s not like he was shouting from the rooftops at the time that Hendry was fired. He also was 100% sure that Soriano would be cut this offseason, which does not necessarily jive with that Hendry prediction unless he knows that Ricketts has it in for Adolfo.[/quote]To be fair, he was saying it at a time when every other writer in town was saying exactly the opposite. But yeah, he’s also had some major stinkers, too.

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  5. Mercurial Outfielder

    [quote name=Berselius]Sorry guys, I had to eat dinner (dying laughing)[/quote]I hope you enjoyed it since it’s your last for this week.

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  6. Berselius

    [quote name=Mercurial Outfielder]To be fair, he was saying it at a time when every other writer in town was saying exactly the opposite. But yeah, he’s also had some major stinkers, too.[/quote]
    Kaplan does appear to have better sources but given the media he reports in he plays much looser with the line between fact an opinion. He looks like a genius when something like the Hendry firing happens but who knows how much of it was sourcing and how much was just Kaplan reading the tea leaves and getting lucky.

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  7. Berselius

    Purple Shirt Guy notwithstanding, even dinosaurs like the Trib have better journalistic constraints on what they report than a talk radio host looking to stoke conversation.

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  8. Mercurial Outfielder

    New Rumor: Kenny was involved, and may have botched the deal, leading to the current stalemate: http://www.suntimes.com/sports/8310536-419/theo-epstein-deal-with-cubs-might-not-be-done-until-next-week.html

    The fact the Epstein deal hasn’t been closed reveals the naivete of the Cubs’ management team, specifically president Crane Kenney. A major-league source said Kenney has bragged since September that he is leading this process, despite claims from Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts that the former Tribune Co. executive wouldn’t be involved.

    Whoever is leading the talks for the Cubs committed a major blunder by closing the deal with Epstein before signing off on compensation with the Red Sox. That gave the Red Sox’ brass — knowing the Cubs couldn’t afford to have the deal collapse at this point — huge bargaining power.

    Teams typically work out compensation before moving to the next step, as the White Sox did last month in their talks to send manager Ozzie Guillen to the Florida Marlins. That goof by the Cubs has caused the Epstein talks to drag on longer than necessary.

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  9. Berselius

    [quote name=Brandon McCarthy]God I wish there was a Collinsworth, Blackledge, or Gruden for baseball. I just want actual in depth baseball information.[/quote]
    THIS

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  10. Berselius

    I don’t really buy it. The rep on Kenney is that he loves taking credit and feeling like a big shot. I’m sure he was in the room but everyone else has said that it’s Ricketts and Bush doing the negotiating. Maybe Kenney led the trip to go buy bagels or something (dying laughing).

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  11. Rice Cube

    I thought the steps were to 1. get permission to talk to Theo; 2. find out if Theo even wants the job; then 3. negotiate stuff.

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  12. Berselius

    [quote name=Rice Cube]I thought the steps were to 1. get permission to talk to Theo; 2. find out if Theo even wants the job; then 3. negotiate stuff.[/quote]
    No kidding. This is all “sources say” on the Kenney shit. There’s little doubt in my mind that the source is Kenney himself.

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  13. fang2415

    [quote name=cdw]Perhaps instituting the genetic testing used by EPL teams to look for genes which cause people to be prone to injury. Wish I had that article and references. To this end there is a wealth of information that correlates past behavior and biomarkers to mental illness.

    A non-routine physical. Not saying this happens but it is a logical dystopian progression.

    EDIT: I’m pretty sure this would violate some privacy laws and disability acts.[/quote]
    You mean this one?

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2049783/Scientist-claims-football-club-DNA-tested-players-injury-prone.html

    And also:

    http://blog.practicalethics.ox.ac.uk/2008/04/football-screens-and-genes-should-genetic-discrimination-in-sport-be-banned/

    That second one makes it look like there would be some limitation on it in the US, but still, dystopic possibilities abound…

    Okay, time for me to go hide under a rock now until I get a chance to watch the game tomorrow…

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  14. Berselius

    EDIT: I’m pretty sure this would violate some privacy laws and disability acts.

    I don’t really know how much marginal value that would have anyway. There’s a lot of luck involved in injuries.

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  15. mb21

    [quote name=Rice Cube](dying laughing)
    (dying laughing)
    (dying laughing)

    That was the greatest play by Chris Carpenter I’ve ever seen.[/quote]Terrible throw by Pujols, but the end result was it looked like an awesome play. (dying laughing)

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  16. mb21

    [quote name=Berselius]FWIW, Kaplan was right that Hendry was going to be fired but he wasn’t going out on much of a limb there. It’s not like he was shouting from the rooftops at the time that Hendry was fired. He also was 100% sure that Soriano would be cut this offseason, which does not necessarily jive with that Hendry prediction unless he knows that Ricketts has it in for Adolfo.[/quote]If I recall, several people thought he was sticking around until the end of the year and Kaplan said he would be fired. I don’t think anybody believed him at the time and he was insistent he would be.

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  17. mb21

    [quote name=Mercurial Outfielder]New Rumor: Kenny was involved, and may have botched the deal, leading to the current stalemate: http://www.suntimes.com/sports/8310536-419/theo-epstein-deal-with-cubs-might-not-be-done-until-next-week.html%5B/quote%5DTeams don’t work out compensation first. They have to figure out if the guy wants to come to the city in the first place. The Cubs had to know that Theo was coming to Chicago before they moved onto compensation. How stupid would they look if they spent 2 weeks working on compensation and then Theo spends .1 seconds thinking about and says no thanks? The Cubs did this right. Does this guy really think the Marlins didn’t confirm that Ozzie wanted to coach in Florida before they moved on to compensation? That’s crazy talk.

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  18. Berselius

    [quote name=mb21]If I recall, several people thought he was sticking around until the end of the year and Kaplan said he would be fired. I don’t think anybody believed him at the time and he was insistent he would be.[/quote]
    My point is that who knows if Kaplan had a source saying that he would be fired or if he just had an opinion and stuck to it.

    From what I remember a lot of the other writers thought Hendry would stay on into next season even.

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  19. mb21

    [quote name=Rice Cube]I thought the steps were to 1. get permission to talk to Theo; 2. find out if Theo even wants the job; then 3. negotiate stuff.[/quote]Yes, exactly. That is the process. Anyone saying otherwise is making shit up because they think things have gone wrong when they have not. It’s bullshit, but that’s typical Cubs sportswriters for you.

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  20. mb21

    [quote name=Rice Cube]I thought the steps were to 1. get permission to talk to Theo; 2. find out if Theo even wants the job; then 3. negotiate stuff.[/quote]That’s the only possible steps to this situation. Does any living person actually believe that the Cubs AND the Red Sox would waste 1 minute discussing compensation if Theo didn’t want to go to Chicago? It’s remarkable how stupid the Chicago media is.

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  21. mb21

    [quote name=Berselius]My point is that who knows if Kaplan had a source saying that he would be fired or if he just had an opinion and stuck to it.

    From what I remember a lot of the other writers thought Hendry would stay on into next season even.[/quote]I suppose that’s possible, but Kaplan would have to be quite lucky to say one thing and then two days later it’s true. This wasn’t the typical time that GMs are fired so it was odd when he said it.

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  22. Berselius

    I don’t know why the Cubs are busy working on this Theo deal. They need to start working out the compensation for their 2056 GM from the Yankees. He’ll be born any year now, get in it you guys.

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  23. Rodrigo Ramirez

    I think you guys talked about this but Gammons has been all over the airwaves blaming the Cubs (specifically Kenney’s lack of negotiating experience) for the delay in talks. He states Kenney and Randy Bush’s lack of the Cubs’ minor league system has also slowed things down. Not sure I buy any of this, however.

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  24. mb21

    If you think about this for just 10 seconds you realize how dumb that writer is. There is a 0% chance the Cubs would enter compensation talks that may drag on for a couple weeks without knowing for damn sure Theo was coming to Chicago. There’s a 0% chance the Red Sox would considering they have to hire a manager and so on and so forth. The sad thing about this is that it’s so obviously bullshit, but tomorrow morning people are going to believe it when they read it in the paper.

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  25. mb21

    [quote name=Rodrigo Ramirez]I think you guys talked about this but Gammons has been all over the airwaves blaming the Cubs (specifically Kenney’s lack of negotiating experience) for the delay in talks. He states Kenney and Randy Bush’s lack of the Cubs’ minor league system has also slowed things down. Not sure I buy any of this, however.[/quote]No, I don’t buy any of it. A look at the high minors for the Red Sox clearly shows that McNutt would be the best pitcher in AA or AAA in their organization if they acquired him.

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  26. Rodrigo Ramirez

    Yea he was saying the Cubs have the third worst system and McNutt would only be the Sox’s 25th best prospect.

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  27. cdw

    [quote name=Berselius]I don’t really know how much marginal value that would have anyway. There’s a lot of luck involved in injuries.[/quote]Yeah, prediction of near random events (see Prior at 2nd) is pretty much impossible. But I don’t doubt that certain genetics cause biological phenotypes which are more prone to pitching injuries. However, I think an organizational philosophy is probably more important in keeping a roster healthy. Probably, focusing on pitch types (don’t know if there is any existing correlation here), age (looking at the Rays, certainly a little lucky/need to trade guys greater than/equal to 30 yrs old), flexibility, delivery, training, etc. I know a lot of resources have been put to use in trying to maintain healthy players but this is obviously a focus for Theo.

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  28. mb21

    [quote name=Rodrigo Ramirez]Yea he was saying the Cubs have the third worst system and McNutt would only be the Sox’s 25th best prospect.[/quote]The Cubs may have the 3rd worst system, but McNutt is a high upside pitcher and this past September showed just how much the pitching prospects for Boston in the high minors suck. They have no depth.

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  29. cdw

    And Theo’s belief in psychological factors effecting performance would be similar to the injury prevention case. Know the factors affecting predisposition create an organization capable or supporting and dealing with events that inevitably happen to their roster.

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  30. Berselius

    [quote name=cdw]Yeah, prediction of near random events (see Prior at 2nd) is pretty much impossible. But I don’t doubt that certain genetics cause biological phenotypes which are more prone to pitching injuries. However, I think an organizational philosophy is probably more important in keeping a roster healthy. Probably, focusing on pitch types (don’t know if there is any existing correlation here), age (looking at the Rays, certainly a little lucky/need to trade guys greater than/equal to 30 yrs old), flexibility, delivery, training, etc. I know a lot of resources have been put to use in trying to maintain healthy players but this is obviously a focus for Theo.[/quote]
    It’s a good thing the Cubs have such extensive facilities in Wrigley Field (dying laughing)

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