Matt Cain is Locked Up. Good or Bad Idea?
My mind has been re-conditioned to see “5 years/112 million” and not even blink twice. As haunting as the Zito deal is, the Cain deal almost seems like a bargain in today’s world of insane contracts. Of course, I wish it was a 3 year deal but there was no chance of that ever happening. We’ve already discussed the benefits of extending Cain—I feel like our pitching staff is in very good condition going forward. I will be disappointed if we somehow lock up Timmy because that means that we’d be paying 3 pitchers 20+ million a year by 2015 or so (Bum could easily get there in arbitration) and that is not the right payroll model to work from.
But the money is there to pretty much do whatever they want. Everyone talks about the cable money that is flowing through baseball but the internet business is *right there* in terms of being a cash cow for the owners. All the mlb sites are managed by a company called MLB Advanced Media and it’s another multi-billion dollar business that is subject to the same revenue sharing rules as everything else in baseball.
Selig gets a fair amount of crap from the fans, much of it deserved, but the owners must be using pictures of him as beat-material. The revenue generated under Selig’s watch is staggering……..
By the way, imagine my surprise when I received my copy of Baseball’s Starry Night in the mail and found a Flap reference on the back of the book! –Probably the only time Jayson Stark and I will cross paths, at least on a back cover. I have only gotten through the first 20 pages but on Page 17 there is ANOTHER Flap reference along with a quick blurb about Blade’s role in Pawlie’s experience on the night of September 28th, 2011. Though Pawlie is too modest to post the link here, I will continue to do so regularly. You can also get a kindle version at Amazon, too.
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
I agree with you. It’s a good deal. He’s #1 on more than half the teams in MLB. If he would have hit the market it would have risen for sure and the Giants would have bowed out and I wouldn’t have blamed them.
Selig comes across as a bumbling schmuck but he’s overseen some innovative revenue generators for MLB. MLB tv and .com are just 2 of them.
“A bumbling schmuck” who makes lots of money for MLB is always welcome at least by the owners. Plus labor peace should count for something.
revenue generators? check. good for the business? check. good for the game and the fans that support it? no.
Nice to see SF wheels take advantage of A’s bumbling and score with only 1 hit. Burriss hustled to break up the DP, Pagan beat out what I was sure was going to be a DP then stole second and scored on melk’s hit. Burriss had a decent sac bunt (more toward the line and he beats it without a throw) that turned into an error, and a walk started it all. Belt with 2 more hits, and melk whacked from both sides. Nicely done all around.
and in what world would these things not have happened? The money had better not take away the game from fans, money generators must move up. Ticket prices, TV rights, memorabilia were things that the fans owned the rights to.
I won’t go into Fantasy baseball in depth here but I have to answer Flav’s post from yesterday (and after the draft). I didn’t get Marshall until the 15th round and all I did was replace Madson with him. Hell I got Hanrahan and Nathan before him. The only relief guy that I really bumped up was Kimbrel and I got him in the 5th round (which I think is about right for him).
I support Matt Cain! I wish Zito well in his retirement! Perhaps Zito doesn’t know it, but his career is adios!
Nippy in a retiring mode…
I’m sure everyone supports coming Matt coming back , that part is no brainer. 5 years? That’s strictly a prayer…BTW, it wasn’t that long ago that many considered him the Goober basket case, and additionally- in a tie with Fred Lewis as the dumbest Giant.
Anyway, I’m glad he’s back; they did have to do it after stupidly courting Tim first- Goobs was a little smarter than they were. Once they couldn’t tie up Lincecum long term, Matt had them over a barrel..
Read oin MLBTR yesterday that F Lewis was released and is available. Good luck to him.
I specifically asked “Do you support the deal he got?” so if there is anyone out there who thinks the number of years in the extension is too long than they should vote *no*
I’m thick and I never understood finance, except as a language, and this deal says: management has understood their mistakes: we are Giants.!
I started reading Pawlie’s book last night. Very entertaining and thought-provoking. It’s getting me even more revved up for the start of the regular season. The book is pure love-of-baseball throughout. Fans who love the game should enjoy the book.
The men’s college basketball final last night didn’t hold my interest much. Kind of a sloppy game. No doubt lots of nervousness from the gigantic venue and crowd. I just don’t dig the Kentucky program and what they’re all about. I didn’t see a single player on the court, from either team, that looked like a big instant difference-maker to an NBA team. All of those players would benefit from more college ball, but that won’t happen.
agree wholeheartedly with that last sentence, zum. Monty at Cal said that guys that come in as frosh just don’t understand how to play the game, and I would add “only their game.” so after a year you get these same guys in the nba, where they still don’t know how to play the game, and it becomes basically unwatchable—3 or 4 guys standing around while one guy sets a screen. It’s boring playground bs.
Interesting to watch pro guys play vs. a zone D–watch, they don’t have a clue how to attack a 2-3 zone. I’ve coached middle school kids that know how to do that.
I agree Zum, that is why you see some of the smaller teams beat some of the bigger college team cause the Smaller teams have seniors playing
it’s why i’ve pretty much stopped watching college basketball. don’t think i watched a game of the ncaa this year though i did follow stanford in the nit.
Smart move to sign Cain, With the group that bought the Dodgers spending $2.1 bill, there is no telling what that will do to player salaries. Has Cain ever been injured or have any problems with his arm? I don’t think so…I think he could be a Nolan Ryan type, play for a lot of years to come. I don’t think you will see the fall off after just 3 years.
There is absolutely zero way to predict arm trouble. A guy can injure his foot and develop arm trouble as a result of altering his mechanics. We need to keep in mind that the arm is not designed and was never meant to throw baseballs or anything else. Matt Cain, and every other pitcher, is one pitch away from becoming a fine bartender.I’m glad we have him but it’s just wishful thinking that he’ll pitch effectively throughout his contract. In his favor is his relative youth compared to most FA pitchers..
Good point Twin . . . Or, he can even be injured by a line drive to his elbow. Oh wait!
“On July 5, 2009, Cain was announced as an All Star for the first time in his young career. On Matt Cain’s final start before the All Star Game, he was hit by a line drive right below his elbow and was forced to miss pitching for the All Star Team, although he did still attend and was announced as an All Star. Pirates pitcher Zach Duke replaced Cain on the NL All Star team.”
Arms were obviously designed for jerking off….
And I have to do it left handed now, it’s just not the same.
Dave Dravecky just uses his right arm.
I just read an article that essentially says that the Cain signing is a major paradigm shift for all teams, but especially the Yankees. Why? The Cain signing really affects the Yankees because he now has set the market. Per the article, “He is very similar in production to Cole Hamels and Zack Greinke. Hamels, being a lefty and a former World Series MVP, could potentially earn more money. Greinke’s past mental health issues could scare some teams away from bidding on him and lower his price slightly (although as a former Cy Young award winning, probably not too slightly). This means that if Cain is worth roughly $22.5 million a year, Hamels can probably expect something in the $23-25 million range per year and, because he’s a lefty, maybe a year or two extra in length. Greinke could probably get himself the same average annual salary, but might struggle to get more than five years.”
If one of these pitchers signs an extension before hitting the free agent market than the other could potentially leverage his situation as the lone man on the market into much more money. Now, this is where it really affects the Yankees . . .
Where this really changes things for the Yankees is their $189 million budget in 2014. The Yankees always crave big name pitchers and Hamels and Greinke are both that. However, if they are serious about reaching $189 million then they may well be forced to make a decision between bidding on these pitchers and being able to re-sign both Curtis Granderson and Robinson Cano.
Regarding the Giants, the gap between the rich teams and poor teams has shrunk to the point where teams are able to retain their players at a much higher rate than even 10 years ago. The Giants have never exactly been a poor team, but it shows how well things are that even after they sunk a ton of money into Barry Zito we are still flush enough to make 7-figure offers. There is also talk that we could extend Tim Lincecum next. All of the aforementioned basically ties into what Flav said about revenue flowing into MLB team coffers. Personally, I like this because it evens the playing field, where teams like the Giants can compete with the Yankees, Red Sox, Phillies, and the “sleeping giant,” Dodgers.
Was listening to the knbr guys gush about the signing after watching the csnba guys gush last night on the tv. it struck me that at the end of the day it pisses me off that a guy can get 100 MILLION dollars because he can throw a baseball. I mean, good for matt but don’t make me listen to how great it is as i get up at 5 to commute an hour with a bunch of fucking knuckleheads (Scene: the Sunol grade, Driver of countless cars: “was this here yesterday? why am i slowing down?” Wisco: It’s a fucking hill you idiots! you have to accelerate to overcome the force of gravity! It’s here every fucking day and you still haven’t figure this out?”)(sorry for the rant) and make 1% of that!!!
And i agree with twin that there’s no guarantee that his arm will hold up. how long (never?) until contracts have some sort of injury clause? something like, if you’re playing you get this, if you’re not you get some reasonable percentage but not all. I mean, seriously, once you have 10 mil or so, you’re “family” is taken care of. of course you’d have to define injury etc. but if i was a baseball owner i would certainly be pushing for something like that.
Actually, they do have a clause in his contract, “The deal includes a clause that help protect the Giants future if Cain’s production level decreases, or if he has any type of injury to his right shoulder or arm the Giants will have a buyout option in 2018.”
Really if you look at the entertainment world in general, who decides what someone is worth?? One actor is worth more than another. once they win an oscar they are gold?? Same in the sports world, How did salaries just start spinning out of control?? over the last three years of posting on this blog I have seen guys say why are the Giants not going after this guy or that one. And yet some here are complaining about what the Giants just spent for Cain. Why? it is not like the Giants are the first team to spend that kind of money. And yes they made a HUGE mistake with Zito. Cain will be fine with this, he will not turn into Zito.
I support the Cain signing, but an avg of 22 mil a year for a guy with a losing record who has never won 15 games? That is some serious coin for Cain. what’s Tim gonna eventualy get from someone? 6 years 180 mil sounds about right.
We will know at the end of 2013
His record is hardly indicative of his skill as a pitcher. In the past 5 years he’s had the worst run support of all ML starters at 3.7 per start. Give him 1/2 a run per game, and he’s likely 20 games over .500.
That’s what I’ve been saying Sandog….maybe you’ll be taken seriously.
As far as I’m concerned, Cain’s 2010 postseason is worth the whole contract.
Maybe I read that other post wrong, Loo…I thought it sounded more critical from you than supportive.
Is Zito here through the 2014 season? I mean his contract, physically he might not be here. Mentally he has been gone for what would everyone guess the last 2-3 years??
Zumie posted Pawlie’s book link on his facebook page and here were 2 comments:
Richard: Not something I would read, but whoever came up with the title and cover for the book is genius..
2 hours ago · Like
David: If the text is as clever as the cover, it must be a good read ! I could see that “Starry Night” picture hanging on our wall.
about an hour ago · Like
Richard must still be reading comic books.
Ah- funny you should say that….I just read a comic book this week for the first time in quite a while. While I was on Devisidero St. before a concert on Saturday night, I dropped into a comic book store, and bought the latest issue of “Berlin,” by Jason Lute, his comic book version of Berlin in the late 1920s. Comic books can be more literary than folks may realize. (grin)
Not only that Zum, but if you have the right ones, quite valuable. In the 60s, I had the first 50-60 issues of Spiderman, Fantastic Four, Silver Surfer, Iron Man, etc. I was living in Hawaii at the time and a friend of mine collected them in plastic bags, ensuring they were pristine, with no bent pages, etc. I started doing the same thing. Anywho, fast forward a couple of years later, my Mom decides to move back to our California home, which we had been renting out. I am loading my comic books into my suitcase, literally a few hundred of them and unbeknownst to me, my Mom is watching me . . . After a few minutes, she says, “What do you think you’re doing? Get those comic books out of that suitcase and put your clothes in there.”
Today, I still occasionally kid her about how much those comics were worth and that she threw out her supplemental retirement plan that day.
Art Spiegelman [sp?] changed “comics” forever with Maus and his book on 9/11.
Interesting. Well, in general people do not read books so much any more, lamentably…not “books” in the traditional sense. That’s okay, though. We are adapting. I’ll take those comments, though. And thanks, Zumie, for the FB post. (I’m a FB lazy bum, mostly. Hit and run.)
I’ve said before that Cain is as likely as Timmeh or any other pitcher to go down tonight, or next week, or next year with a broken wing that sidelines his career. This “he’s our horse” stuff is horse manure. I laugh when some of you guys say you gotta sign Cain and leave Lincecum to the market because of potential arm trouble. Cain already has chips in the elbow. Timmeh will probably leave, but should it happen because of perceived frailty more than Cain — there’s no logical reasoning behind that. Kevin Brown was a big dude, a “horse” — his arm problems turned that contract into a mess. Oswalt is a little dude, I don’t think he ever had any significant arm issues. Now, he’s just older. The deal is that Cain has been a good soldier through some sheislich hitting teams, he’s a family guy, doesn’t make waves — and he’s dependably consistent. He knows he’s a fly ball pitcher and ATT is good for him, too. So, pay the money and hope for the best, that’s the mantra all across baseball these days. Whoever agreed to the first guaranteed contract should be villified by all baseball fans and owners, and given a statue by the MLBPA….
Tim is already showing signs of decline, he’s lost 3+ MPH on his fastball and is throwing it less as makes the transformation to a finesse pitcher. Add his questionable diet and need for a chaperone and the 2 years is just fine. He doesn’t want to be here anyway.
Also, don’t forget that he is scrapping one of his main pitches, his slider. Manager Bruce Bochy speculated that the reasoning behind the move was that the pitch “probably puts a little more stress on his arm” and that his star pitcher was saving his bullets for the long season.
How do you know he doesn’t want to be in SF? Because he wouldn’t sign a LT deal? That’s rolling the dice, if predictions about his physical condition have any meaning. I give him props for risking it against getting a big payday. It could blow up in his face. And chaperone? That’s just piling on nonsense. He’s already earned icon status forever in Giant lore…
Snarkk, they needed to sign one of them. Losing both to free agency would be a bit of a PR disaster. Timmy already stated his demands of 8 years and a gazillion dollars.
If they ony sign one, Matt’s the better option, mainly because he ISN’T going to cost as much as Timmy.
Have we ever had a Flap poll where we ALL agreed 100%? This may be the first time.
Flav, could you run the Flap Cray Supercomputer to determine this?
🙂
the Dirrrrty 4 Melky trade was supported 53-3. The Torres 4 Pagan trade was supported 36-4. So right now, 27-0 would qualify as our first clean sweep……
Who did the Flap get in exchange for Xootsuit?
Blogger to be named later.
What’s up with Jonathan Sanchez? Is he hurt?
I think emotionally he felt it was time to go.
His last start was against minor leaguers, like Tim did recently.. But Dirty pitched well, 6+ shut out innings, 10 K’s. He’s fine.
He heard about the overwhelming Flap support for him getting traded, and has been devastated. But, never mind all the walks, nobody hits him…
After 2 early ineffective starts, he’s pitched well, the minor league outing and a 5+ inning start against Arizona. Things are in good hands here, though. We have Zito.
When his fastball is at 90 or above, he is an effective pitcher.
Thanks, tf.
Hey mrdoublebill . . . Question – I noticed last night that Kostaz is requiring a password, i.e., what is it?
The password is……………..”nipple”
haven’t checked in a while … I hope he’s able to stay on justin.tv
No, he is at this site, but it is password protected.
http://kostazkrew.webs.com/index.htm
you guys are so dense, keep these things to private email, dorks
Votto $225 million for 10 years. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
it’s not like the music biz where there are thousands of great singers who never get a big contract. Men that can HIT in the bigs consistently are rare.
fuck the dodgers
hEY! this is the first time in a while that I have gone to the comments before BBOTD
and it is for good reason
WOO HOO
(channelling ferret)
double WOO HOO
we are ready to roll, ST, Fantasy, and the big G(iants)
Lads and Lassies we are here for the penultimate “one flap down” season
PK has a book that trumps even the flash and power of ESPN
we flappers are the right ones at the right time
WOO HOO
From Comcast sports net, posting comments from sports writer, analysts, etc
In one sentence, here is why the signing of pitcher Matt Cain to an absurdly rich long-term deal ultimately was a smart thing for the Giants: Cain is the pitcher the Giants thought they were getting when they signed Barry Zito to an absurdly rich long-term deal.
-Mark Purdy, Mercury News
Read more: Reaction to the Matt Cain contract
Tune to SportsNet Central at 6, 10:30 and midnight on Comcast SportsNet Bay Area for more on this story
“Cain is the pitcher the Giants thought they were getting when they signed Barry Zito to an absurdly rich long-term deal.”
Yeah, I’ve always confused the two..
What the fuck does a person do with that much money? Seriously. Where do you put it?
Invest in pork belly futures, land in Alaska, housing in Florida/Nevada, and porn.
It’s not a question of enough, pal. It’s a zero sum game, somebody wins, somebody loses. Money itself isn’t lost or made, it’s simply transferred from one perception to another
Deep.
How many yachts can you water-ski behind, Ted?
I like the Railroads and Utilities. Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Pacific Avenues offer tranquil respite after the harrowing gauntlet of red and yellow hell with the cop. St. Charles Place is highly over-rated.
Now they blow it on pricey Art….
A small time scam artist and radio personality named Bob Leonard swindled Billy Martin, Whitey Ford, and Mantle. Sold them “futures” in Canadian bomb shelters. I don’t know how much they invested but it was serious enough that Leonard did five years.He got out and lo and behold- he got Billy again on another scam. I hung out with Leonard a bit on that ’65 road trip I took with the team. Men like Leonard can be interesting, even fascinating. Obviously, he was a good talker- and Billy, Mickey, and Whitey were pretty good targets. I can see Mantle and Ford skeptical in a dumb and dumber kind of way and Billy talking them into it…I think I noted before that my Dad once said that he was maybe the only guy to beat Leonard out of something. Dad borrowed some cuff links and Bob died before they were returned… I think I told a shorter version of this before but I know you’ve all been dying to hear more. In Cleveland Leonard couldn’t get anyone to interview with him, so guess who ended up doing it- yep, me. We talked about some of the young guys- I predicted that young first sacker Rich Reese would go 20-80 in ’66 😉
love this story, love it
1) Blow and gambling or 2) ten kids and twenty houses. If I was a pitcher, I’d buy a large part of Louisville Sluggers and have the bats made real weak.
“1) Blow and gambling”
When I was in my 20s, that’s how my mind worked. 😉
test
pass!
Belt has started at 1B in 7 of his last 10 games, LF once, and 1 each as a reserve. Huff has been predominately in LF. It’s pretty clear that, as of now, that’s the direction Bochy is going with it. I say “as of now”, because, as we should all know, managers change their minds. And thank goodness they do….
Schierholtz’ five hundred something OPS isn’t helping him out much, is it….
Well, no. And Nate the Great history is why Bochy said he was the RFer “going in”…
Bochy almost always hedges his bets- while he was saying the reserve catchers spot was betwwen Whiteside and Stewart- he had also said he wouldn’t “rule out” Hector. Now he says it’s a 3 man competition. Hector may not get the spot, but Bochy is clearly much more flexible than he gets credit for.
I hope he’s flexible enough to get Sanchez into the backup role. I will be pleasantly shocked if Hector makes it…
Matt Cain if people are wondering stacks up just as good as Justin Verlander except for W/L records.And that’s cause Verlander gets a ton more offense support then Cain,especially now that they added Prince Fielder to that lethal LU.
Verlander is a great pitcher,but so is Matt with his stats and less publicity then him,playing second fiddle to Timmy.Just glad the Giants management realized how much value he really offers and got him signed.
Alley– Come on. Cain and Verlander might be in the same *ballpark*, but that’s about it. Forget the wins.
Verlander in 2011: 251 innings, 250 K’s, ERA 2.40, WHIP a microscopic 0.94 and batters hit .192 off him.
Cain in 2011: 221 innings, 179 K’s, 2.88 ERA, 1.08 WHIP and .217 batting average against.
Cain is in the same ballpark as Verlander, he’s just paying to watch him pitch……
Verlander will make 30 million a year when his next deal comes up. Maybe more……..
Philly nation now sweating out Hamels signing.
Noticed this today in nba standings: there are 3 teams with one W less than W’s, and Toronto is winning tonite. UK guys/Harrison Barnes are doable.
Do you think Davis’ 1 for 10 affects his draft position? Probably not, I guess. Wouldn’t that be weird- a guy wins the national championship and actually hurts his draft position in the game. That might be unheard of.
no, he’s going to go first. Did you hear what Brown said about him today?
I only caught the tail end of the quote on KNBR, but it was something like, “When we draft Davis and me and my coaches and an old woman could fill out the rest of the starting five, we win north of 50 games next year (I paraphrased a little but you get the drift)…..
They have a winning % of .140 right now. And Brown thinks Davis is going to turn them around by 40-45 games in a single year?
He over-spoke today, to put it mildly……..
I am praying the Dubs lose every game they play from here on out. And I don’t think for a second that they’re *tanking*, far from it. They’re trying hard till the end. But the front office most definitely *tanked*. I’m down with what they did since I know they were *stuck* with Monta, but call it what it is: they tanked. And I hope Lacob learned a few things from all this. Don’t run your mouth guaranteeing a playoff appearance. Just do your thing, make your moves, hope for the best.
Guaranteeing a playoff appearance in 2012 and then watching the same guy who guaranteed said playoff spot tank the year a little more than half way though is a bad look, man……..
Tanking, however you get it done, is a time honored concept in the NBA. It works. Because the NBA draft position has always been critical where one player out of 5 makes a ton, ton of difference to the outcome. Imagine the Spurs without the Admiral or Duncan, OKC without Durant, Lakers without Kobe…
Morris Claiborne: stud cornerback. Bad Student. He scored a 4 on the wonderlic test. One point for each correct answer out of 50. Go take a sample wonderlic test and see how you do. I just ran 3 of the questions by my third grade daughter and she nailed all three.
It is an abomination that NCAA schools admit kids into their program who can’t read or write. I’m not saying the kids should have to qualify at the same academic requirements out of high school, far from it.
My idea: A prospective scholarship student athlete should have to take the wonderlic to GET INTO school. If he doesn’t score at least a 10 then he can be admitted but he would need to take classes from a modified remedial curriculum and work his way though the basics of education. And there would be some type of oversight of his program, if he wasn’t attending or wasn’t passing the basic most elementary classes he would be suspended for the next quarter until he got his grades up……..
He could receive some type of modified degree if he finished all 4 years of school.
But in my opinion, it’s a crime that LSU (and all the rest of them) makes so much money off their football program from the athletic play of guys like Morris Claiborne and yet they are totally fine whisking him through his brief stay with a blind eye towards his illiteracy………..
I was watching Larry Bird in a basketball documentary, and he was talking about how he and his teammates in college were watching Magic’s MSU team play earlier in that ’79 season. The now-retired-from-the NBA Larry says: “We thought they wuz the best team we ever seen.” I remember seeing that and thinking: “Dude! In the documentary you talk about how getting a college degree was so important to you! You graduated from college!” And he still sounded uneducated.
On the other hand they could just end the sham and admit that the major is “Football”.
Or “basketball”..
Ever see the Patrick Ewing/Michael Graham Georgetown interview (84-85?)? Might be on youtube somewhere. It was a national disgrace.
The NBA and NFL use the colleges as minor leagues, that’s a disgrace as well..
At first I thought Wilson was smokin’ last night, now I see that his heater topped out at 92.. I hope he’s got more in the tank for the regular season..
Speed! I like it!
Blanco putting the pressure on for a starting spot.
I would love a class action lawsuit against the NCAA and all member schools for fraud, breach of contract, and other causes of action I’m sure I could come up with on behalf of scholarship athletes that produce oodles of cash for both defendants, and get no education in return to show for their efforts. I would settle it out with a new regime that pays kids more than a living wage while in school, eliminates bullshit violations for getting reasonable non-essentials, and gives them free tuition per unit for a decade after their eligibility is over or they leave to go pro or a lump sum in the alternative — since many crash and burn fairly soon after going pro…
So what do you do with a guy like Vince Young, who reportedly had the lowest wonderlic score ever? Turning him down for college admission is depriving him of the oppoprtunity to pursue a career in a field he excels in. If a kid out of HS is good enough, he can sign with a pro team and either report to the minors or compete for a job in the NFL right away.If a kid is both not talented enough as an athlete and dumb besides, join the real world- there’s a shovel with his name on it. Young men who can qualify scholastically for college but need to improve their skills before being considered for the “college” football draft can do so…Again, this is on the NFL, they should have a minor league. A young man who is in college only for the opportunity to play in the NFL should not be shit out of luck when he’s injured while being , in effect, an unpaid employee of the NFL…IMO
I remember a news piece a few years back where a former UCLA player (Ed O’banan?) was suing the NCAA for use of his likeness over a decade after his playing days. He was also pushing unionization for colleges layers but I don’t see that happening. The depths to which the financial hooks are sank into the players is sickening.
I like your idea of free tuition for a time period other. Something has to be done to help these young men when the universities make so much off of them and the dream of playing pro is ultimately slapped in the face by reality of not making it.
Flav, You of course throw out Verlander’s numbers from last year as your scale of dominance,which it was for him,But Cain’s “Career numbers” are every bit as good as Verlander or better in most.
Both have pitched 7 yrs starting at the.same time 2005.Throwing out W/L records which Verlander kicks butt with more run support then what the anemic Giants give Cain.Here are some interesting stats…
Verlander’s Career stats…1,315 IP 1161 hits allowed 555 Runs allowed 118 HR’s allowed 410 BB 1,215 K’s Whip 1.194
Cain’s Career stats….1,317 IP 1,102 hits allowed 523 Runs allowed 108 HR’s allowed 473 BB, 1,085 K’s Whip 1.196
So Cain gives up less hits,less runs,less HR’s allowed and a better Whip in 5 of the 7 career years as well.
Verlander has him in K’s and less Walks
1
1
Cain’s career numbers….
If you can’t see what a dominant pitcher Verlander is right now, I’m not going to sit here and try to explain it to you. Cain is a fantastic pitcher, he’s probably a #1 on 15 teams. But Verlander is dominant. And you get paid for that……
ESPN is doing something called the “ESPN 500” and Verlander is ranked number 4. Cain is ranked 38. Any questions?
Albeit, I love what this one fan, named Sabrina, tweeted “Matt Cain could pitch 20 innings straight, neglect to ice his arm, and still shake hands with the 34 analysts thats underrated him!”
LOL. You go Sabrina! 🙂
Thanks for the posting and the links, Magnus. Hey, the Flap is part of MY story. The big question: did your stats go down or up w/ my book’s mentioning of The Flap? hahahahaha
I hadn’t checked it, but YES. We saw about 1,400 more hits last week and we are on pace for more than that this week. Baseball’s Starry Night, Baby!
Did you see the facebook post I reposted from Zumie? Your son is quite talented………
3/4 of NBAlayers should never ever talk into a microphone, I mean have you ever heard Allen Iverson talk!! It is sad
Iverson knows which way to Carnegie Hall, though.
That’s funny Kev because Allen’s house was just foreclosed on today in Cherry Hills, Denver.
Oh and another great example, Latrell Spreewell, now there is someone who could be an English teacher
A college education is not going to make him an English teacher, either. Some facts should be faced- some young people just won’t qualify academically for most universities and colleges, and will find jobs rather than attend school .Just as most blue collar jobs don’t require a college education, playing a pro sport shouldn’t either. Or, as I’ve said previously, just make their sport their major..
Article tonight in the Merc says Bochy says the final roster has already been decided. Play tonite and tomorrow doesn’t matter. From the tea leaves on his comments, I’m guessing Hector and Arias vamos to Fresno, and Belt stays…
Sharp Snarkk….
Good to see Vungo back and set to go for opening day.
Yeah. Going to be busy keeping track of not only the G’s and their farm teams, but the guys that were part of the WS team.
Going to be fun pulling for this team. Seem like a lot of good guys. And if Hector doesn’t make it, at least maybe Pill gets his shot.