BP Unfiltered

For the Cards: While TLR will run out ~120 different lineups or so, Colby Rasmus will be hitting 2nd, Yadier Molina 6th, with David Freese and Brendan Ryan hitting 7th/8th (or 9th!).

I also agree that the format isn't so good. A chart would be much better. I know you don't have the width to do a league all at once, but you could split it up by division.

Love the format ... all on one page has some advantages that I like ... I can find answers to my questions without clicking around to different web pages ...

Any chance you might convert this great resource to a more convenient spreadsheet? Hope so. Thanks for the work, though. We do appreciate.

It is 100% certain that Jason Maxwell will not be on the Nationals roster opening day, nor at all this season. Jason has not played in the majors since the 2001 season with the Twins.

On the other hand, Justin Maxwell at least stands an outside chance of being called up to the Nats this year, if he can start making contact with the ball.

Good stuff, John. Thanks!

Will there be continuing updates here? When will these changes be updated to the Depth Charts?

From looking at spring box scores, Rasmus hasn't hit second once for the Cards. Always behind the big boppers.

killing trees while printing this, ugh.

But the info is great. Thanks.

The Cardinals are going to throw a RHP on Opening Day against the Reds. That means Dickerson in LF.

what's with ian desmond?

do the mets actually expect to have reyes to start the year, or he listed here simply because he hasn't been placed on the DL (yet)?

i agree the format is sub-optimal with all that wasted space, but whatever, i love the content. thanks john!

Some players' names don't turn into a link ... most that I see are because of mis-spelling ... Votta, Cantua, Garrrett ...

Giants' Frandsen traded to BoSox ...

http://www.mercurynews.com/giants/ci_14764909?nclick_check=1

Chris Kahrl reported this today ...

The decision to excuse Miller and Rick VandenHurk's poor performance seems to be leading the Fish towards a decision to make Clay Hensley the club's fifth starter.

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=10381

Sammy Gervacio is going to be a big part of the Astros pen this year - heck he could be their closer by the end of the year. But, he doesn't even show up in this article - oversight? or do you know something I don't know?

thanks!

McLouth has been hitting 7th and 8th during his prolonged slump this Spring. How much of a chance is there he loses at bats in some sort of a platoon and gets dropped out of the leadoff spot in the batting order?

I think one of Fuld or Colvin is going to make the Cubs roster?

Off topic, but does anyone know where in blazes BP hides their Park Factor listings? I know it's tucked in on one of the dozens of pages on the Statistics part of the website, but I also vaguely recall that it's not intuitive which one.

This quest has so far withstood an exhaustive use of BP's own search engine (on "PF", "Park Factor" and "Park Effects"), and a google search on this website domain. Good Grief. It's only fundamental to context-aware analysis of baseball numbers, no reason you should be able to actually *find* it on BP's site, is there?

Thanks in advance.

Minor correction, Manny Parry is a LHP.

One thing that would be very helpful is to mention at the very beginning what's changed since the last update.

No roster spots for Carlos Villanueva or Mike MacDougal? Cubs will need either Colvin or Fuld on the roster. Nady can't throw and Hoffpauir can barley play the field.

No John Bowker with the Giants? After his performance in AAA last year and amazing spring there's still no shot he makes the club?

Villanueva has options left so it's looking like he's going to the minors.

In more than a few cases (Colby Rasmus, as an example), the lineup position here doesn't match the lineup in the depth chart.

Which one is more correct?

Padres are expected to put Thatcher on DL and keep Stauffer in the pen ...

I take it that some of the bench and bullpen details here are of the informed-guess variety? (i.e. no actual announcements from the clubs)

Meaning ... there's still a shot for Bowker ?

(Can you imagine that clubhouse chat? "Bowks, buddy, have a seat. How're the wife and kids? Great, yeah, listen. We know you're the most physically fit dude ever in the history of man. And so intense at the plate you're actually scaring Wilson. You've hit .603 this spring with, lemme see here, 187 rbi's. And god knows we are desperate --- I mean DESPERATE --- for a real live adult bat in this lineup. So, hey, put it all together and, well, obviously we're keeping Matt Downs and sending you back to Fresno. You understand. On your way out, have Huff come in here, will ya? Sabean wants to give him a raise."

How tough could it be to tell us upfront what changes have occurred since the last update?

I've stopped wading through the rosters and lineups. It's just not worth it going through all of them to find the one or two changes.

Oh. I see you're doing this through a separate "Unfiltered". My bad for reading these things from back to front.

Thank you!