If he's our guy, then he's my guy. He's an upgrade from Burke. I like SmithWade. Go Astros.
i guess this is my only place where i can rely to Arky's gatling gun shots. nothing personal against your post, Mr. H.
OBP is interesting, perhaps, but it looks backwards. there is no context, and it does not take into account the player's capabilities. OBP is only one of the attributes of an ideal #2. this is just me talking, but when i heard about the Astros' plan for 2B/#2, i was most excited about Castillo and Matsui. not so much Iguchi b/c i think he probably has enough pop to hit #6 on a pretty good team. i thought both of the others CAN do the things i would want a number 2 to do--bunt, hit and run, make productive outs (moving Bourn from 2nd to 3rd with less than two outs), handle the bat well enough to be able to take pitches while Bourn runs and to put the ball in play after he steals, and enough speed to steal and to beat out infield hits, move up 2 bases on every hit, and avoid GIDP. when i watch players actually play games, i try to determine what their skills would allow them to do IF they do what i ask them to do. i do not condemn players for their past failures if i think they have the skills to do what i will ask of them on my team. i have personal examples of both successes and failures in my personal experience, but you do not want to hear about them.
i do not care what Matsui's OBP was, and i think a statement such as "he makes too many outs at the top of the lineup" is asinine and myopic. many outs that hurt OBP actually help the team in the context of the game. that is my basic problem with the Rotoworld folks here--whether they have been posting for 6 days or 6 years--they believe that numbers alone define a player, and they totally ignore or think irrelevant the context of the player and his relationship to his prior team/manager and to his development as a player. the only team that matters now is the Astros, and all i care about is whether he does what they ask him to do at #2. Noe's exasperated post in the locked thread was both eloquent, and right on target. he has said many times that if Bourn can do what they think he can, Matsui will benefit greatly. that is so true.
my spectacular failures at predicting the future are well documented. you do not know of some of the others, which were equally spectacular. the difference between me and the geeks, however, is that i base my evaluations/judgments/statements on what i see them do for as much time as i am allowed to do that. i say what i see, not what a column of past history numbers says. what they did last year or in the past is irrelevant to me unless i know what they were asked to do or to work on. choose whichever system works for you, but apparently the Astros believe that Matsui has the skills to succeed IF he does what they ask him to do. posting on here that the Astros did not follow "sound statistical analysis" in trying to sign Matsui makes me laugh. do you want to try to follow a team and to try to understand why the team makes decisions or do you want to show us that you are smarter than everyone else? i stole that question from pravata, but i think he's on target. the Astros made this decision, and Matsui is on the team. what are the reasons?
btw, Arky, my application is in with a couple of folks who think i could help. things would have to break perfectly for me to make that happen. i am, of course, not expecting it to happen, but it could.
carry on. i hope i don't get this one locked, too, and i wish the other had not been.
