Santana is a great pitcher and Maine is pretty good too.  Perez is about average and Pelfrey and Niese are below average.  I’m thinking the reason they have the fewest runs allowed is because BP is assuming that Citi Field will be as much of a pitcher’s paradise as Shea was.

Perez is average with the ability to be above average. Pelfrey was above average last year and improving. Niese is below average, but he was a 21-year-old pitching in the bigs for the first time.

I wouldn’t take this rotation over CHC’s, but I’d take it over any other in the NL.

I’d take the Dbacks rotation before the Mets and probably the Dodgers as well.  I agree that it’s a good rotation, but the only way that team leads the league in runs allowed is if Citi Field is an extreme pitcher’s park and even then I don’t think it happens. 

I’m just not as high on Maine or Pelfrey or Niese as some people are.  I think they’re good mid to back of the rotation pitchers, but Santana is the one that makes that rotation very good.  Without him they’re well below average.

I’m not sure, actually. I prefer to live in the past, though.

Geovany Soto is good at baseball!

God, even two years ago, hell even at this point last year, who’da thunk?

Thanks, BM.  It’s fixed now.

If Pedro didn’t take steroids, and they really do help you improve,

Or if they just help a pitcher stay healthy a few more years.

Or if they just help a pitcher stay healthy a few more years.

Good point.  Imagine if that stretch has been from ‘96 to ‘07.  We’d be talking about the greatest pitcher in the history of the game.

Of course, as you said, this assumes he didn’t take them and I’m not so sure.

Good God, I hope Soto performs this way.  We haven’t have a talent like this for quite some time. Maybe since Sandberg.

Good God, I hope Soto performs this way.  We haven’t have a talent like this for quite some time. Maybe since Sandberg.

It’s been a long time.  The only player on the Cubs more valuable than Soto is Rich Harden, but I think we all know that Soto is more likely to get the playing time than Harden so it will make Soto more valuable.  Only Ryan Dempster was more valuable in 2008 than Soto (and not by much).

MGL in response to Neyer’s article (a good point):

Tango, you talk about the “phony outrage” by much of the mainstream media.  I’m sorry but I have to put Rob’s comment, “I wish it weren’t true” in the same category.  I can’t claim that Rob does not wish it weren’t true (I don’t know what he wishes or does not wish for), but seriously why should anyone care (much) if A-Rod took PED’s or not, any more that we care whether certain pitchers in the HOF threw spitters (when they were illegal) or that many of the players in the HOF took greenies or whatever they took before PED’s came along.

excellent comment:

This (the “outrage” and disillusionment) is what happens in a game that fetishizes records, cross-era comparisons, great feats, “the numbers,” and its “immortals” and then packages itself with misty-eyed sentimentality and ginned up nostalgia: unbelievable disbelief about a 5 or 6 year-old failed drug test taken at a time when a rule was hardly enforced.  Instead of placing the infraction in context, it’s viewed as a betrayal of Sacred Baseball. Yes,let’s move on.  But difficult to do in a game that insists upon looking out the rear window of the car as it moves forward.

I wish there were more sites like The Book blog.  I wish they were all like that.

Sorry, but I’m going to keep quoting these comments as they are refreshing.  This one from Tango:

The White American Male Adult (WAMA) thinks nothing of a rock star that is fueled by drugs.  Indeed, even if the artist himself says that the drug improves his artistic qualities, this is seen as a good thing.  You can take all the vices in the world, pump it into the body of a rock star, and if Sgt Pepper is the result, then the world will be at your feet.

But not baseball.  Oh no, not baseball.

In WAMA’s mind, someone has to play the other character in the Madonna-Whore Complex, and that character is baseball.  May god have mercy on the soul who dares treat baseball as a whore.

He’s right on about that.  An artist, movie star or musician takes drugs and it’s cool, but how dare a baseball player do it!

That’s a great point by Tango.  We should get an interview with that guy.

That’s a great point by Tango.  We should get an interview with that guy.

I’ve thought about asking him before.  He popped over here once or twice to comment.  I might have to send him an email.  I don’t know if he does that kind of thing though as I’ve not read any interviews.

oh lord. Yankee’s fans are making a strong challenge to Cubs fans for the title of stupidest sports fans alive.

Maybe the best quote yet (from Tango):

All I know is that the players themselves were so concerned about a level playing field that they did nothing at all to ensure it.

Yep.  The playing field comments are kind of silly when the players knew this was going on and did absolutely nothing to keep the playing field level.  They did nothing.

It can’t hurt to ask. I’d love to pick his brain, not just on stats, but on baseball in general. I really enjoy his take on the game.

Agreed, pmayo.  It’s the best baseball site on the net in my opinion and I’m not sure there’s a baseball writer I’d rather read (not that he’s a great writer).

Josh Hamilton was addicted to heroin and cocaine yet was the “feel good story” of 2008.

Hilarious.  I hadn’t thought about that one for awhile.  Here’s a guy taking illicit street drugs and a guy taking injections and closely monitored for his health by a trainer and probably a doctor as well.  Which one do fans dislike more?  The one who took precautions.  (dying laughing)

And in the news today, A-Rod comes clean.  I guess we’ll now see if it is true that the public and media will be forgiving and the best thing is for a player to “come clean.”  - MGL

I think we all know people won’t be forgiving.  A-rod could have robbed an old lady at gun point and admitted to doing so and all would have been forgiven, but he broke the rules of baseball and shall never be forgiven.

Josh Hamilton was taking street drugs to get high because he was an addict- A-Rod was taking them to cheat at his job.

But Hamilton was an addict who used by choice, DJ.  A-Rod took the drugs by choice. 

And we don’t know why Hamilton began using them.  It could have been that he believed smoking 3 rocks before a game improved his performance.

Very interesting:

I see PED use as a sacrifice the player makes to better himself.  The same way excessive weight-lifting can be harmful in the long run.  The same way being home schooled when you’re 13 years old in order to train 12 hours a day to be an Olympic gymnast can have a disastrous effect on your future mental state.

When everyone’s doing it, can you really blame a player for just trying to keep up?  Not to imply in ARod’s case that he wouldn’t be able to keep up without them - but in a general sense.

There’s always going to be something that’s ahead of the test, and the guys that do it will have an advantage.

I can’t blame the players much at all.

Josh Hamilton was taking street drugs to get high because he was a typical ex-addict. (dying laughing)

Fixed.

I can only comment on what we know and that’s that both took illegal drugs and one is a feel good story and one is vilified.

One player is one of the most naturally gifted people in the history of the game who took drugs that stripped him of his ability and will to live before enduring the painful process of kicking the habit and returning to form.

The other player is one of the most naturally gifted people in the history of the game who took drugs that augmented his ability.

The other player is one of the most naturally gifted people in the history of the game who took drugs that augmented his ability.

but who cares what the result was?  Players in the 80s took cocaine as a PED and many became addicted (Tim Raines will not get into the HOF because of this, but Hamilton is seen as a success story).  heroin eases the pain and is therefore a PED.  Both cocaine and heroin (what Hamilton was addicted to) are PEDs and he may very well have begun taking them to improve his game, which is the same thing A-Rod did.

I’m on a boat muthafucka!