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August 27, 2004
by Dayn Perry
Dayn Perry checks in on Jeff Francoeur, James Loney, Curtis Granderson and others in this around-the-minors edition of Can of Corn.
August 25, 2004
by Dayn Perry
Barry Bonds, Adrian Beltre, Albert Pujols and company are well on their way to huge seasons. But Dayn Perry writes that 1996 and 2000 dwarf this year's cavalcade of offensive outburstery.
August 20, 2004
by Dayn Perry
When you mix corporate owners and baseball, you get a mess of conflict and distrust. Dayn Perry breaks it down.
August 18, 2004
by Dayn Perry
Take a quick trip around the game with Dayn Perry, including a look at Brandon Phillips, a diagnosis on Sammy Sosa, and a salute to Ray Lankford.
August 13, 2004
by Dayn Perry
Having tackled the senior circuit, Dayn Perry now turns his attention to the AL wild card race. The Sox look strong, but upcoming head-to-head matchups could decide it.
August 11, 2004
by Dayn Perry
Dayn Perry takes a closer look at the NL Wild Card hunt and separates the contenders from the pretenders. Warning: Those who believe in billy goat-related curses, eat your Lucky Charms before reading...
August 6, 2004
by Dayn Perry
Dayn Perry takes a look at the rest of the prospects traded at last weekend's deadline. Young guns under the microscope include Jose Bautista, Justin Huber and Scott Kazmir.
August 4, 2004
by Dayn Perry
After much dithering about, major league GMs were finally able to cobble together a respectable trade deadline after all. My Prospectus confreres have done an excellent job in deconstructing these deals with regard to how they'll affect organizations at the major league level. Now I'm going to take a gander at the prospects involved.
July 30, 2004
by Dayn Perry
Who's the best prospect in the game: B.J. Upton of the Devil Rays or David Wright of the Mets? A look at their minor league numbers might unlock the answer. Dayn Perry anoints his top prospect in all of baseball in Friday's Can of Corn.
July 28, 2004
by Dayn Perry
The last thing I am is a deadline drum-beater for the somehow coveted mediocrity that is Kris Benson (or, Jeff Suppan v2.0, if you prefer). However, if there's one team that can use him in the back of the rotation, it's the Twins.
Brad Radke and Johan Santana have been Cy Young contenders in the front two spots, and Carlos Silva and Kyle Lohse have been serviceable. Still, Terry Mulholland's 4.55 R/G doesn't seem likely to hold up. The rumored deal, one that would send Doug Mientkiewicz and Mike Restovich to Pittsburgh, is reasonable. Justin Morneau is fully ready to take over at first and thrive for years to come, Restovich comes from a position of notable depth within the organization (and he's not a future star), and Mientkiewicz, while somewhat underrated by most of us in past seasons, has been an unmitigated cipher in 2004. It's a deal that makes sense for Minnesota, but only because the price for them is nominal and they're not viewing Benson as something he's squarely not, an ace.
July 23, 2004
by Dayn Perry
Like any number of other folks with a long-running obsession with all things sports, I've spent a fair amount of time engrossed in simulation games. For much of my youth, I played hours upon hours of Lance Haffner 3-in-1 Football on my trusty and abiding Apple IIe. I once famously led the 1986 Michigan State Spartans and QB Dave Yarema to a majestic Rose Bowl win and a national title by instituting what I believe to be a heady forerunner to the once de rigueur run-and-shoot offense (in real life they were a paltry 6-5....Give unto Caesar that which is Caesar's, George Perles). Years later, guided by my steady, knowing hand, Max Knake of TCU would pass for more than 800 yards as my Horned Frogs crushed Texas 86-21.
Nineteen eighty-six was also a fine year for my incursions into Lance Haffner Full-Count Baseball. In a stroke of organizational genius, I, as potentate of the Cardinals, engineered trades for Dave Magadan of the Mets (whose card had him hitting a robust .444/.524/.444 in 21 plate appearances) and Mark Ryal of the Angels (.375/.412/.562 in 34 plate appearances). By having the faith and foresight to plug them into the lineup full-time and lavishing the team with "sample size be damned" statistical goofiness that followed, the disappointing '86 Redbirds became pennant winners when fashioned in my image.
July 21, 2004
by Dayn Perry
Even I, proudly possessed of Southern roots and a Midwestern address, can't resist writing about the Yankees.
With the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline making threatening phone calls from the attic, the Yankees, as they do every year, are hogging the bandwidth. With the Bombers poised to do something of import over the next 10 days, many have been led to ruminate on the farm system that's about to be gutted--in as much as you can gut something that is already devoid of innards.
The Yankee farm system, at this writing, is devoid of noteworthy prospects in the higher rungs of the system. Dioner Navarro placed 30th on our 2004 Top 50 Prospect List, but a paltry showing this season has dimmed his star. Robinson Cano is the other name bandied about, but he smacks long and hard of pinstriped fool's gold. If they wind up parting with those two, it'll be a little like kicking a cadaver in the groin: perhaps unseemly and not the greatest of ideas, but ultimately the cadaver has more systemic issues to fret over.
July 16, 2004
by Dayn Perry
Dear Commissioner Selig:
In the tedious run-up to the recent 75th All-Star game, I noticed you mentioned in passing to reporters that you're open to the idea of extending your reign as commissioner beyond 2006, when your present term will expire. My hopes that you will not do this are both boundless and without bound.
Listen, I don't think you're evil or stupid. On the contrary, I think you've been remarkably competent at what you've set out to do. I believe, for instance, that you genuinely want to diversify major league front offices. I can quibble with how you've gone about doing that, but the intent is a noble one. But other than that, I believe your prevailing vision for Major League Baseball, which you've executed with ruthless efficiency, has been thoroughly noxious to a game I can't seem to live without.
July 14, 2004
by Dayn Perry
All of this touches on why I'm rapidly losing my already withering affection for ERA as even a rough thumbnail estimate of pitcher quality. Michael Wolverton has written cogently on the pitfalls of ERA in the past. I'd go further by saying if you don't take a pitcher's BABIP into account, ERA shouldn't be anywhere on your radar when making player evaluations. I'd liken ERA to the RBI--useful only at the margins, awfully prone to contextual distortions.
When we judge a pitcher's performance, we need to grant primacy to the things over which he has the most control: strikeouts, unintentional walks, home runs and groundball-flyball tendencies. To credit or penalize a pitcher for how his defense is performing, how luck fancies him or how he wields a dubious skill of marginal influence is to do a disservice to the spirit of analysis.
July 9, 2004
by Dayn Perry
The last thing Boston GM Theo Epstein needs, other than for Richard Griffin to get a job at the Globe, is my advice. But the best game in recent memory got me wondering about what ails this most engaging of teams. I'm not a Sox fan, but neither do I have any particular animus for them, Ben Affleck notwithstanding. So consider what follows a mission of conscience more than anything else. Like it or not, here's my three-step plan to get the Red Sox to playoffs...
July 7, 2004
by Dayn Perry
I've written before about the outrageous potential of Mariners right-hander Felix Hernandez. Well, he didn't turn 18 until April, and he's already in Double-A. He made his high-minors debut last week against Frisco and in six innings fanned eight, walked two and surrendered only a single run.
How Hernandez fares the rest of the season in the Texas League will be more one of the more engaging subplots to be found in 2004. With a high-90s fastball, a hammer curve that's easily the best breaking pitch in the system and a staggering record of performance, Hernandez is a deeply special talent. Here's hoping he doesn't succumb to the panoply of hazards that await young pitchers.
July 2, 2004
by Dayn Perry
For shame, Dayn, for not even mentioning that Altoona's Jeff Keppinger is the only .400+ hitter in all of Double-A--his nearest competitor (Wright) is a full 40 points BEHIND him.
Granted, we know Keppinger's not on anyone's radar as a serious future star, but isn't the point of selecting players for 'All-Star' status supposed to be to reward those having strong performances?
I realize Keppinger doesn't have a single home run, but not even acknowledging Keppinger as an 'also-ran' ignores the fact that he is accomplishing something so far ahead of any of his peers to this point, is certainly an injustice. Give our boy Kepp a little love, would ya?
June 30, 2004
by Dayn Perry
Today, I'm wrapping up my series on level-by-level minor league All-Stars. I've already put together my Low-A Team, High-A Team and Double-A Team. This time, in what's bound to come as a surprise, I'm going to look at my Triple-A All-Stars.
Putting together a Triple-A team is a bit of a challenge given the criteria I've set. I'm looking for a blend of performance and genuine prospect status. Triple-A, as you probably know, is fertile ground for retreads and Quadruple-A types, which provides a fairly low level-wide signal-to-noise ratio in terms of prospects. So, for all their merits, you'll see no Lou Colliers, Joe Vitiellos or Mike Colangelos here. What you will see are the best prospects who have spent most of the season at Triple-A and haven't exhausted their prospect status in recent seasons. Before the money runs out...
June 25, 2004
by Dayn Perry
You've stumbled into the midst of series on minor league All-Stars. These aren't the ones you'll find on the various and sundry All-Star teams that will soon be squaring off against one another around the minors. Rather, these are the prospects who should be regarded as the luminaries of the minor leagues, at least according to this particular pontificator. Here's my Double-A All-Star ballot, the best of the Eastern, Southern and Texas Leagues....
June 23, 2004
by Dayn Perry
You've stumbled into the midst of a series on this year's minor league All-Stars. These aren't, part and parcel, the ones you'll find on the various and sundry All-Star teams that will soon be squaring off against one another around the minors. Rather, these are the prospects who should be regarded as the luminaries of the minor leagues, at least according to this particular pontificator.
Last week, I cobbled together my Low-A All-Star Team, and if you'd like further ruminations on my methodology for making these selections you should go check out that article. I'll wait here.
Otherwise, here's my High-A All-Star ballot. And by "High-A," I mean the best of the California, Carolina and Florida State Leagues...
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