Let me preface this by saying, I'm sorry if this comes off as spam or an unrelated plug of a film, but let me assure you this is very prevelant to baseball.

Bigger Stronger Faster* is a film in a kind of Morgan Spurlock style, without the bias of course. It is about steroids, it's impact on America, and what is being done about it. Ultimately it tackles sports from baseball, to wrestling, to weight lifting, etc. It interviews athletes, congressmen, doctors, and is basically one of the only, if not the only publication that gives a truely unbiased, clairvoyant view on the steroid issue.

The reason why I take ten minutes out of my life to type this is because I think it's important that us here have a bit of perspective when it comes to this steroid issue (especially given some comments I've seen in the Jordan Shafer reaction thread).

John I also suggest this one to you, I think you'll like it.

I've attached a bunch of reviews at the bottom of the page also. It is considered a top 5 movie for 2008 by Rotten Tomatoes.

I've attached a link at the bottom of this page because I'm sure most of you will probably not go out of your way to purchase this DVD.

The movie is only about an hour and a half, so that shouldn't be too long for you guys.

Rotten Tomatoes reviews

Full Movie Link

(to play the movie, click the play button in the middle of the screen once, it should then turn green after a few seconds. while it's green, hit the play button in the middle of the screen again, and it should start then. If this doesn't work leave a comment, and I'll help)

Thank you.

David

Baseball Scouting is almost as old the game itself. The methods of finding a good baseball player have seemingly stayed pretty consistent over the years until the new millennium. For about a century, the credentials for being a scout would be to have “An eye” for a good baseball player. That hasn’t changed much. Many of us still use our gut to find a good player. It may be a good feeling about watching someone in person, or that a performance looked particularly impressive on a scouting report or a stat sheet, but the whole method of “going with your gut” is certainly not dead.

Moneyball disturbed this tradition in baseball of using your gut by negatively labeling those who don’t use numbers as their means of scouting. It made people pay a lot more attention to the numbers on the right side of the stat sheet such as OBP/Slugging. It made people consider things such as park factors and league adjustments.

Yet despite this shift towards using stats as the sole means of scouting, it certainly has not proved to be the principal way in evaluating talent. The term “tools” is still thrown around which is almost completely independent of numbers, and there is also plenty of weight still put on scouting reports in the baseball community—especially towards young players in low levels.

It seems as if, in general, there’s a very eclectic view of scouting. Sure people will look at the OBP or Slug or WHIP or K/9 but they will also check out the scouting report. I don’t think many people would be completely in favor of someone with an 86mph fastball regardless of performance in AA.

So I turn this to you, my fellow prospectors and baseball fans. What would you consider to be your means of evaluating talent/skill in baseball?

I know everyone has an opinion on this board when it comes to prospects so I thought it would be interesting to get your perspective on what seems like the biggest candy store in all of baseball: The A's farm system.

There are numerous options. For example, what to do with your second baseman---Patterson, Weeks, Cardenas? 

Do you pull the string on Daric Barton who's been awful and injured this year while you have Doolittle and Carter waiting in the wings?

All of these are interesting questions. I just want to hear your answers.

So I'll do it like this. Here's the A's active lineup and farm system. You take this and give me the A's 2010 lineup.

C

1B

2B

SS

3B

OF
OF
OF

DH
SP

SP

SP
SP
SP

RP
RP
RP
CL

C   Kurt Suzuki         

1B *Daric Barton        

2B  Mark Ellis          

3B Jack Hannahan       

SS  Bobby Crosby      

LF  Jack Cust  

CF Carlos Gonzalez   

RF  Emil Brown       

DH  Frank Thomas     

Ryan Sweeney     

Mike Sweeney     

Travis Buck

Donnie Murphy

Rajai Davis  

Eric Chavez  

Wes Bankston 

Rob Bowen

Chris Denorfia      

Matt Murton         

Gregorio Petit     

Brooks Conrad      

Eric Patterson      

Jeff Fiorentino     

Dan Johnson       

SP *Dana Eveland       

SP  Joe Blanton   

SP  Justin Duchscherer 

SP  Rich Harden       

SP  Sean Gallagher     

CL  Huston Street  

RP *Alan Embree  

RP  Santiago Casilla  

RP  Andrew Brown   

RP  Keith Foulke        

Chad Gaudin         

Brad Ziegler     

*Dallas Braden       

Lenny DiNardo       

Joey Devine         

Jerry Blevins     

Kirk Saarloos       

Dan Meyer       

Kiko Calero     

Fernando Hernandez  



C: Landon Powell, 26, AAA
Anthony Recker, 24, AA
Josh Donaldson, 22, A+
Petey Paramore, 21, A-

1B: Sean Doolittle, 21, AA
Chris Carter, 21, A+

2B: Adrian Cardenas, 20, A+
Jemile Weeks, 21, A- 
Eric Patterson, 25, AAA


3B: Jeff Baisley, 25, AAA
Jesus Guzman, 24, AAA

SS: Cliff Pennington, 24, AAA
Dusty Coleman, 21, N/A
Jason Christian, 21, SS
Nino Leyja, 17, RK


OF: Matt Sulentic, 20, A+
Aaron Cunningham, 22, AA
Corey Brown, 22, A+
Rashun Dixon, 17, RK
Jermaine Mitchell, 23, A+

SP: Trever Cahill, 20, AA
Brett Anderson, 20, AA
Gio Gonzalez, 22, AAA
James Simmons, 21, AA
Vin Mazzaro, 21, AA
Arnold Leon, 20, A+/MEX
Henry Rodriguez, 21, A+
Michel Inoa, 16, N/A
Craig Italiano, 22, A+
Tyson Ross, 21, N/A
Fautino De Los Santos, 22, A+ DL
Josh Outman, 23, AA
Michael Madson, 25, AA
Jamie Richmond, 22, A-
Travis Banwart, 22, A+


RP: Sam Demel
Andrew Carignan, 22, AA
Jared Lansford, 21, AA

Ok so I've got a pretty good idea on what I'm going to take with the 12th pick. But now as the draft moves on, I'm kind of at a loss. My next pick is 77 followed by 107 137 and 167 respectively.

So now for the later rounds I turn it over to you, sleepers? There seems to be plenty of high school MI guys that will be down there namely Nick Noonan, Peter Kozma, John Tolisano, maybe Christian Colon

Furthermore, do I go towards college guys like Dootlitle, Cole St. Clair, Josh Horton, Danny Worth or Tommy Hunter?

Or maybe high school guys like Evan Denali, Hunter Morris, Austin Bailey, Drake Britton, Ryan Dent, or Kyle Blair?

Let me hear your thoughts or suggestions, because I'm not sure where guys like Frazier, Ahrens, or Justin Jackson end up.

Hello, this is my first year doing the mock draft on here, but I'm confident that I will do a good job given my knowledge. I will use this thread as an open forum, where anyone who cares enough can evaluate, critize and discuss the draft agenda of the fish.

Let's get started.

The Marlins have five picks to work with

12, 77, 107, 137, and 167.

My plan is like this. I'm looking to take the best player availible at all times, I've seen teams plan around their depth charts in the past, and it rarely works out well, so at all times I'm taking the best player availible.

Furthermore, money is not an issue at this point. We have one of the lowest salaries in the league and we have the freedom to spend money on Boras clients if need be.

Here's what I'm working with in no paticular order

Ross Detwiler
Daniel Moskos
Matt Harvey
Matt Dominguez
Jarrod Parker
Todd Frazier
Kevin Ahrens
Madison Bumgarner
Phillipe Aumont
Blake Beavan
Michael Main
Jason Heyward
and Beau Mills

Personally, I like all the hitters in that group, Beau's "attidude problem" doesn't worry me. I love both Frazier's and Ahrens' bats. Dominguez I like a lot. I feel like Harvey, Detwiler and probably Moskos won't be on the board when 12 comes up, but that doesn't worry me too much.

I like Phillipe Aumont a lot, I can't explain why but I do. I also like Main, as far as pitchers go. I'm starting to shy away from Madison and Jarrod cause I'm a little worried bout their secondary stuff, although they have been very effective with the fastball. I love all the hitters in that pool.

That being said who do you guys think I should take here?

(I'll wait for responses before moving on to other picks)

I know a lot of people here including John and myself love Sulentic. Yet, he's batting under 200 this year.

Obviously, I'm far from drawing conclusions, given the fact that he's right out of high school. What impressed me though is his k/bb rate, which is about at 1.

Though, I haven't seen him, and I know he's not striking out a lot, is he just hitting the ball right to people, or is there something else up.

I guess I'm just trying to rationalize his struggle.

I've been watching this guy a little here and there, and I must say I've been impressed.

I know it's a small sample space, but in a tough hitters park like Clinton, Johnny has put up good numbers

with 14 k's and 15 walks

and ratios of
avg obp slug
333/458/544

I'm starting to like this guy. That being said, it's only been about 80 pa's

I've been searching for a software where you can compose you're own stats and have it do the calculations instead of going by calculator, anyone have anything like this, I remember there was one a couple of years ago but I can't find it

Filler Filler Filler
Filler Filler Filler
Filler Filler Filler
Filler Filler Filler
Filler Filler Filler
Filler Filler Filler

I've been having a little fun, in a secluded sort of way, calculating and adjusting minor league equivelents for the top minor leaguers, incorperating such things as Park Factor, Pitching/Hitting difficulty, and I can say a couple of things, 1) Fernando Martinez didn't come out as good as I expected, minimal power. 2) Jay Bruce can rake, he's got great power numbers.

Now minor league equivalents aren't 100% accurate but they, unlike clear cut minor league stats, are a great use for projection.

The formula is pretty complicated and you can find it on google. I was just asking if I'm the only one that does this?

I need a little help narrowing down some guys for my league, Can you give a little opinion or possibly rank these guys?

Adrian Cardenas
Ryan Adams
Thomas Hickman
Kyler Burke
Preston Mattingly
Jason Place
Jason Taylor
David Christensen
Brent Brewer
William Benson
Matt Sulentic

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