This is Hiroshima's starter, not Seibu's closer.  Will be only 32 next season.  Would be a very interesting candidate for farther down in the rotation.  1997-2005 stats and 2006 stats.  He was #2 in the Central League in ERA, ahead of Uehara.  You'll note that Kuroda isn't especially a strikeout pitcher, but runs phenomenally low BB totals, in Tewksbury-, Radke-, Silva style.

Dr. Naka reports that Kuroda is Yamauchi-san's primary offseason target. 

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Q.  So I suppose you'd give up the whole farm system for Johann Santana?

A.  Nah.  But as you know, I do think that MLB teams value (individual) prospects about double what they're actually worth.

Mostly that's a reflection of their love for evaluating decisions in terms of what can go wrong.  We mean it in a good way.  :- ) 

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Q.  Check your Stars-and-Scrubs cap at the door, and tell us what the cold, hard math says about Jones, Morrow, and Clement for Santana. 

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Originally published 12.30.06. 

Matthew Cerrone's fine Metsblog tags Haren's price thusly:

09:57 AM - Buzz: The Rest of the Pitching Market

…posted by Matthew Cerrone…

…you know the names, Dan Haren, Rich Harden, Joe Blanton, Javier Vazquez, Jon Garland, Brad Penny, Rodrigo Lopez and Jon Leiber, all of whom are rumored to be available via trade, followed by Tomo Ohka, Joel Pineiro, Tony Armas, Mark Redman and Jeff Weaver, among others, still unsigned in the free-agent market…

Meanwhile, in the Bergen Record, Bob Klapisch writes that to obtain Haren or Harden, the Mets will most likely have to part with Lastings Milledge, Philip Humber or Mike Pelfrey and Carlos Gomez.

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Great discussion 'round the M's blog-o-sphere, as usual, on Rauuuuul's defense.  :- )

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=== Caveats and Quid Pro Quo's Dept. === 

1.  Agree in spirit with the idea that a good amount of Rauuuuuul's offense needs to be 'adjusted' for runs he gives away on defense. 

2.  This applies even though the so-called "average" ML defense in LF is skewed by glove-only players you would never consider for your Opening Day starting lineup.  Nobody wants to replace Raul Ibanez with Joey Gathright, but Gathright's defense makes Ibanez look worse compared to the "average."

That said, Raul costs runs even compared to a legitimate two-way LF starter. 

3.  Also, it is one of the strangest things about the Mariners, that they seem to love 'aesthetic' defense so dearly, and yet give Ibanez a total free pass for defense.The whole discussion is completely worthwhile.

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=== M*A*S*H Dept. ===

Coming into 2007, Fukudome was a popular choice for the best player in Japan …. a .330/.430/.630 type hitter with speed and defense … and he hits left handed.

In 2007, though, his glitzy .630 SLG fell down towards the .500 range.  Yowch.  A .500-.530 SLG in Japan is liable to be league-average in MLB, if you're not careful.  So now what.  Is this a FA land mine, a $15m salary for a league-average hitter?

Well, generalities aside, what happened in 2007?  What was the specific problemo there and how likely is it to carry over to 2008?

What happened was that he played with a sore right (lead) elbow that ripped out the ACL of his power stroke.  If you review his batting results, you will notice that Fukudome saw about 20 homers die on the warning track for outs in 2007 — with all other indicators holding rock-steady.

He evidently wasn't able to turn on the ball as much last year due to the injury, but other than that he was the same player:  1.0 eye ratio, .430+ OBP, etc etc.

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Seinfeld might be the worst piece of garbage that ever became popular in the history of sitcom television.

A show about nothing…

Have to take the other side of this one.  And that's not all I have to say about that.

Typically when Hollywood complained that Seinfeld was “about nothing,” what they meant was that it did not endorse the political agendas of the Hollywood powers-that-be, like almost every other sitcom does.

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In a follow-up to Doc’s summary of the fine 14-team AL-only league that Justin conquered, the dynasty league, in which many of the members of Doc’s league were also a part, was quite a tangle from start to finish as well.

While the player pool was a bit deeper using both AL and NL, using the 20-team format made the hunt for talent challenging as well.  This league has the added features of drafting and carrying prospects, off-season trading capability, and long-term interests a part of everyday transactions.  We were lucky enough to not only have some of the top names from this site, but we snagged some players who were unknown from the outside who, in all cases, were a benefit to the league.  Put another way, the random sign-ups for the last openings worked out extremely well.

Below are cumulative standings – after the playoffs.  (Teams 7-12 were in the consolation bracket).

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