THT has a look at Matt Weiters and finds a beef with PECOTA:
These translations, similar to Major League Equivalencies, are just as robust looking as the projection itself. The card gives us a translated batting line of .301/.396/.513 for his High-A performance, and a translated batting line of .349/.436/.627 for his Double-A—and yes, you are reading that correctly, his translated line says he would have had a higher slugging percentage playing in the majors than he did at Double-A!
Those figures are unbelievable, by which I mean literally that I do not believe them.
…
It’s not for me to tell you where Baseball Prospectus came up with this year’s difficulty ratings – quite frankly, I can’t figure it out. What I can tell you is that they don’t appear to be supported by the data itself. To put it bluntly – they’re wrong.
It isn’t really about Matt Weiters; the article presents a very cogent criticism of BPro’s methodology.
Craig Calcaterra with a relevant anecdote about the Giants buying a stake in their San Jose-based minor-league affiliate:
Back when I was in private practice, I represented a park district that wanted to turn some old railroad lines in the middle of nowhere into a bike trail. They built about 85% of the trail, but the last little stretch was held up by this group of Mennonite farmers who lived next to the right-of-way and claimed the land where the tracks used to be was theirs. “How could that be,” I wondered? The railroad had tracks on that property since the 19th century, and they gave the tracks directly to my client. The Mennonites, however, had all manner of questionable and ancient legal documents which they claimed their great great great something or other had reserved the rights if the railroad ever left, yadda, yadda, yadda. I read these things, quickly figured out that, while it could be a pain, we could get that land for the bike trail if we were determined enough to do it.
Right before I filed my lawsuit to quiet title, the Mennonites parked a mobile home on the right of way and claimed they were home schooling a bunch of Mennonite farmer kids there, which immediately turned us into the bad guys and complicated my little lawsuit. Five years later, and I think the Mennonites have moved on to consulting with San Francisco Giants:
The Mennonite Athletics of San Jose has a ring to it…
Now, the awe people once felt about flying through the clouds is tempered by additional fees, cramped seats and horrifying tales of fellow travelers.
Take, for instance, “Mr. Poopy Pants” — a grown man who allegedly soiled himself 10 minutes into a flight from Florida to Minnesota. And then he just sat there.
andeux
Apricot
batgirl
Danny
oblique
devo
mk
dmoas
FreeSeatUpgrade
monkeyball
grover
Sharon
iglew
ptbnl
JediLeroy
Jennifer
Leopold Bloom
mikeA
MikeTheV
mjdittmer
nevermoor
ninathorsenkqed
Poppy
salb918
doctorK
sslinger
5aces
the dogfather
veganryan
whiteshoes40
xbhaskarx
FREE KRAUT! 
MENNONITE KRAUT!
Mennonites are hot.
Strangely, both the Mennonites and the Amish both have a HUGE presence in Sarasota. It’s quite odd. But the food’s good and they make wonderful furniture.
I’ve always been more of a Hutterite man myself.
They’re all in Florida this time of year for Rumspringa Training.
Someone clearly saw Neyer’s links.
A’s game is on tv tonight. I’m looking forward to getting my third look at the 2009 ROY.
I’m actually going to be there. Do we know who is starting? (My semi-informed guess is Cahill)
Yeah, it’s Cahill.
Sweet.
So, are we going to have a game thread here?
I am opposed in principle to ST game threads, but maybe since it’s on tv. Are people interested?
NRAFs are still stuck with Gameday, aren’t we?
I think it’s on mlb.tv.
She’s an EIer. Jennifer McDonald.
Do you need a subscription to watch spring training games on mlb.tv?
I don’t know.
Yes
Non-random comments from around the internet:
From Jeff’s A’s preview.
so, the worst overall swinging strike rate on all pitches would belong to nicklas bradenhart?
Uh …
I think only the Pennington bit deserves an “uh…”
… and he sort of retracts that part in the comments.
Nomar can’t really play third, is at least as big an injury risk a anyone else on the team, and only projects to ~.750 OPS. Crosby and Hannahan?
Raj, as much as I love his fielding, is even less of a major-league hitter than Crosby and Hannahan.
Barton … who knows. Maybe.
I’ll give you Rally Pimpernel and Struggles With Fastball.
But that looks like a whole lotta <ORP to me.
There are obvious problems with all those guys, but they’re definitely above average as backups. Everyone in that list except Barton was >rp last year, and there’s no particular reason to think they’ll be worse.
Crosby and Hannahan and Rajai were above RP? Really?
yup.
Individually, and not collectively?
It’s not hard when you’re talking about average or better defenders at critical positions, which all of them are …
ah, thanks
Depending on which projection you look at, that ~.750 OPS from Nomar may be better than what we should expect from Chavez. And I think he’s supposed to be OK at 3B, though he hasn’t played as much there as I had thought.
I tend to agree with his overall point that Nomar/Crosby/Barton/Davis is a better than average bench. And, of course, also with yours: “…and we’re going to need it.”
It’s a decent bench, I don’t disagree with that at all — an excellent set of interlocking tactical replacement parts.
But as strategic longer-than-interim starters? Yick.
Plus, Beane does this every year. I think the benchiness is better this year, but ’09 has a chance to put the last couple years in the dust, games-lost-to-DL-wise.
Our bench is better than I remember it being since the glory days of the late 80’s/early 90’s. I still contend that we would’ve won at least two of three of those five game ALDS series with the Yanks/Sox if our benches would’ve been anywhere near their depth.
Our pitching now…well, let’s just say our bench is good.
I dub this Movie Quotes Day on the Kraut.
Henry Drummond: Progress has never been a bargain. You have to pay for it. Sometimes I think there’s a man who sits behind a counter and says, “All right, you can have a telephone but you lose privacy and the charm of distance.” “Madam, you may vote but at a price. You lose the right to retreat behind the powder puff or your petticoat.” “Mister, you may conquer the air but the birds will lose their wonder and the clouds will smell of [poop].”
It doesn’t take much to see that the problems of three little people don’t amount to Cahill of Beane’s in this crazy world. Someday you’ll understand that.
Banker: Perhaps if you told him I had the second largest VORP at shortstop last year.
Carl: Second largest? That wouldn’t impress Billy. The rookie of the year from 2004 is now the utility infielder in our clubhouse.
Berger: We read five times that you were injured, in five different places.
Erictor Chaveszlo: As you can see, it was true every single time.
Major Slusser: Are you one of those people who cannot imagine the Athletics in their beloved Fremont?
Rick: It’s not particularly my beloved Fremont.
Wolff: Can you imagine us in San Jose?
Rick: When you get there, ask me!
Marine Layer: Hmmh! Diplomatist!
Major Slusser: How about Oakland?
Rick: Well there are certain sections of Oakland, Major, that I wouldn’t advise you to try to invade.
monkeyball: I came to Oakland for the FREE KRAUT!
Captain Forst: Free kraut? What free kraut? We’re running a business.
monkeyball: I was misinformed.
Truer words were never typed.
I think the title for my sporadic epic is going to be “Tacoblanco”
All quips and no e-mails make nevermoor a dull boy.
hint taken
Wolff: My dear Monkey, you overestimate the influence of the Office of the Commissioner. I don’t interfere with them and they don’t interfere with me. In Tacoblanco I am master of my fate! I am …
Forst: Commissioner Selig is here, sir!
monkeyball: You were saying?
Wolff: Excuse me.
I’m a kiss-ass by nature, so if this sounds like a compliment, probably you shouldn’t take it to heart that much. But I’m just sayin’: this here freekraut site is awesome. Which means I’ll be addicted to visiting here, which means on days like today I’ll have to station myself at a park bench or some other place where I know there’s no wi-fi, so as to avoid spending the whole day constantly checking back again and again to see if anybody has responded to my latest.
Damn you all for not responding.
Come on now, don’t make xbx post a sarcastic gif.
Well I don’t mean this sarcastically.
My only complaint: We don’t actually get free kraut and sausages with every post.
You will have our sausages.
That whole dream sequence freaked me out, including the Adriana/Carmella sausage-eating thing.
That’s just a technical issue that we’re trying to resolve.
It may be a while. The ISO standard for KTP is still in the preliminary stages.
And KML is a complete mess.
…I can’t help it — Stomper
Is that much a part of me now.
Despite all that tarp monkey business,
And even when there’s no free kraut…
you didn’t adapt LB’s suggested song from yesterday?
(nicely done, btw)
That’s it. I need a letter jacket and a Lexus, ASAP.
“A third target model, expressing identical facial expressions and posture, was wedged into a back row BART seat, next to a hefty fellow with oddly patterned stubble, Doritos-mouth, and sort of a crazy glint in his eyes. Results showed that within this sub-neutral status context, female participants visibly shuddered, rolled their eyes, and muttered ‘God, no'”.
Fucking shit. I can’t believe the nice man at the Ford dealership lied to me.
Do want? (At least assuming salary is eaten)
I don’t see him being an obvious upgrade over any of our top 9 or so starters, so I don’t what the point would be, really. Bad as the rotation is, there is no lack of 4th/5th starters.
Maybe, although the ~90-100 ERA+ is more than a #4/5 isn’t it?
Calling it ~90-100 is probably generous. His peripherals over his career suggest 90 or maybe a tad bit above. It’s likely that he’ll be better than a few guys in the A’s rotation, but we don’t know which ones and there’s no particular reason to prefer him to anyone in the rotation right except probably Outman.
he also doesn’t have any upside.
Maybe he’s a wonderful conversationalist.
Perhaps, but not everyone on the team needs upside.
I think I’d rather have him in the rotation right now than Cahill and Outman (and possibly Anderson) because I think he’d do at least as well.
If we wanted either of them out of the rotation … we have several other guys who would like be just as good as Robertson, at a fraction of the price, with upside …
I’ve always been a proponent of starting Cahill and Anderson in AAA — but lack of back of the rotation fodder is not the reason it isn’t happening …
Attention Krauters:
MLB Network is showing the A’s/Giants game! WOO!
Not sure if someone already linked to this but the guys at BtB have made their predictions for the ’09 season and they all picked the A’s to take the AL West.