So Ichiro has had about 1.3 Hits/Game in Japan, 1.41 in the US. Let's say he had played 8 full seasons in the US at the 1.41 clip, 150 games a year. That's 1692 hits. Plus his 2223 in the US, that would give him 3915 hits in this fictional universe where he plays his whole career in the US. Through his age 36 season, Pete Rose had 2966 hits.

/ridiculous speculation
/pointless exercise

mozartpc27 wrote:Some nice information on Brett Myers, for those who like him, as part of a broader article praising the Astros new direction and GM Ed Wade's in-season adjustments:

Steve Berthiaume wrote:The Astros' biggest rotation success story has been Brett Myers. Not only did Wade not deal Myers at the deadline, he signed him to an extension. Myers will make $7 million in 2011 and $11 million in 2012. The Astros hold a $10 million option for 2013. Myers has been pitching's untold story in the year of the pitcher. He's gone at least six innings in all 31 of his starts this season, a franchise record and the longest such streak to begin a season since Curt Schilling went at least six innings in his first 35 appearances in 2002. Myers is only the third starting pitcher since 1980 to begin a season with at least 31 straight starts of at least six innings. This season, he's 8-0 at home with a 2.01 ERA. Houston's 2011 rotation -- built around Myers, Rodriguez, Happ and Norris -- is enough to win the NL Central.

Berthiaume is excited for the future prospects of these Astros:

Steve Berthiaume wrote:Now, exactly how much progress has been gleaned by all these midseason personnel changes? Let's get back to that 17-34 mark. Since then, the Astros have gone 55-43. From starting 0-8 and 17-34, Houston has scrambled back to within five games of .500. It's been a steady progression: 14-14 in June, 13-11 in July, 17-12 in August and now 11-6 in September. The Astros have pulled off a major, midseason remodeling job. And, looking ahead to next year, they will have less than $40 million committed to payroll for the 2011 season. So there is room to add talent to the mix this winter. Make room in there somewhere for a division title.

Ed Wade: Genius.

In all seriousness, the only-$40M-in-payroll-committments for 2011 with a team with a decent or perhaps even above average starting rotation is pretty impressive. Maybe Wade isn't a total fool after all.

Wade isn't a total idiot, and he's probably a reasonable GM if you're a shitty team trying to make the initial steps to respectability while staying within a budget.

Wade actually has done an OK job there, I think.

Especially for us.

The Eeming Tree wrote:Wade actually has done an OK job there, I think.

Especially for us.

I still say he did an OK job here. I know he wasn't directly in charge of scouting and player development, but when he came in he made it clear that he was going to do a complete overhaul of the Phillies minor league system. In that "Phillies Memories" DVD I picked up down at CBP, Jayson Stark talked about the difference Ed Wade made. RAJ also mentioned that when Wade came in, one of the first things hehad to do was really clean house and fire a whole bunch of people. It took a long time for the Phils to get where they are, and Wade definitely deserves some credit for part of that. Obviously, Gillick turned out to be the superior in-season tweaker GM, but Wade obviously had strong spots for organizational development and running arbitration hearings.

mozartpc27 wrote:

The Eeming Tree wrote:Wade actually has done an OK job there, I think.

Especially for us.

I still say he did an OK job here. I know he wasn't directly in charge of scouting and player development, but when he came in he made it clear that he was going to do a complete overhaul of the Phillies minor league system. In that "Phillies Memories" DVD I picked up down at CBP, Jayson Stark talked about the difference Ed Wade made. RAJ also mentioned that when Wade came in, one of the first things hehad to do was really clean house and fire a whole bunch of people. It took a long time for the Phils to get where they are, and Wade definitely deserves some credit for part of that. Obviously, Gillick turned out to be the superior in-season tweaker GM, but Wade obviously had strong spots for organizational development and running arbitration hearings.

Plus Wade never traded away prime prospects. He held onto them like gold. Sure you heard rumors like Ryan Howard for Kip Wells or Chase Utley for Barry Zito or something, but they never happened.

He didn't do so well when he traded major leaguers away, but he held onto the blue chip minor leaguers who are now the stars of the Phillies.

lethal wrote:

mozartpc27 wrote:

The Eeming Tree wrote:Wade actually has done an OK job there, I think.

Especially for us.

I still say he did an OK job here. I know he wasn't directly in charge of scouting and player development, but when he came in he made it clear that he was going to do a complete overhaul of the Phillies minor league system. In that "Phillies Memories" DVD I picked up down at CBP, Jayson Stark talked about the difference Ed Wade made. RAJ also mentioned that when Wade came in, one of the first things hehad to do was really clean house and fire a whole bunch of people. It took a long time for the Phils to get where they are, and Wade definitely deserves some credit for part of that. Obviously, Gillick turned out to be the superior in-season tweaker GM, but Wade obviously had strong spots for organizational development and running arbitration hearings.

Plus Wade never traded away prime prospects. He held onto them like gold. Sure you heard rumors like Ryan Howard for Kip Wells or Chase Utley for Barry Zito or something, but they never happened.

He didn't do so well when he traded major leaguers away, but he held onto the blue chip minor leaguers who are now the stars of the Phillies.

but he didn't hold onto them b/c he valued them for what they could do for the big club, he basically held onto them out of sheer inertia. utley and howard were in the minors way too long.

^Utley certainly was, should have been on the big club in 2004, maybe even late 2003. Howard I think couldn't have been plausibly brought up much before the opening of 2005. As it was, he became the regular first baseman by August of that year.

mozartpc27 wrote:... but Wade obviously had strong spots for organizational development and running arbitration hearings.

...and throwing chairs

I don't know guys, Wade's last offseason was pretty questionable. They actually spent a decent amount of money compared to most of the league, and mostly on veteran filler

Lyon: 3-15mm. Gross, and beyond that, just shows a deeper lack of understanding (familiar to all of us) about the importance/value of middle relievers

Petey F (respek): 1-4.5mm. I guess they needed a seat filler, but that's too much for Pete, especially with how the market ended up shaking out (F Lopez, better player, had to sign for half that. They also had some cheaper incumbents of Feliz-ish quality, specifically Jeff Keppinger. And Chris Johnson who eventually got called up and did well

Myers- 1-5.1mm. Ended up being a very nice deal. We'll see if the 2-23 with a vesting option for 2013 works out as well, but it seems fairly reasonable (albeit without much upside) if he stays healthy

Apparently they've had some nice drafts lately, but giving Wade all the credit for that would be like if we gave Amaro all the props for our draft gems when he's really out playing golf and telling Wolever to draft any eligible nephews

djbigf wrote:utley and howard were in the minors way too long.

Both were kinda blocked at the major league level (Thome & Polanco) around the time they shoulda/coulda been up.

Phan In Phlorida wrote:

djbigf wrote:utley and howard were in the minors way too long.

Both were kinda blocked at the major league level (Thome & Polanco) around the time they shoulda/coulda been up.

utley was blocked b/c polly was a stubborn space cadet. howard could've been dealt for players that would've gotten them over the hump but no-trade wouldn't pull the trigger.

joe table wrote:I don't know guys, Wade's last offseason was pretty questionable. They actually spent a decent amount of money compared to most of the league, and mostly on veteran filler

Lyon: 3-15mm. Gross, and beyond that, just shows a deeper lack of understanding (familiar to all of us) about the importance/value of middle relievers

Petey F (respek): 1-4.5mm. I guess they needed a seat filler, but that's too much for Pete, especially with how the market ended up shaking out (F Lopez, better player, had to sign for half that. They also had some cheaper incumbents of Feliz-ish quality, specifically Jeff Keppinger. And Chris Johnson who eventually got called up and did well

Myers- 1-5.1mm. Ended up being a very nice deal. We'll see if the 2-23 with a vesting option for 2013 works out as well, but it seems fairly reasonable (albeit without much upside) if he stays healthy

Apparently they've had some nice drafts lately, but giving Wade all the credit for that would be like if we gave Amaro all the props for our draft gems when he's really out playing golf and telling Wolever to draft any eligible nephews

My understanding is that the Astros feeder system was in a state not unlike where the Phils were in 1997: getting better, but not fast enough, and far, far behind the rest of the league. I don't credit Wade for the specifics of the draft in my post, you'll notice, or anything really other than presiding over a complete overhaul and modernization of the organization from the lowest levels up to the ML roster. Wade is an administrator, I think, and a good one cuts fat where it needs cutting, streamlines what can be streamlined, and looks for and eliminates both redundancies and conflicts within the system.

I remember shortly after Wade took over there was a feature on what he was doing with the minor league system in the Inky - to that point, there was apparently very little communication between contingent levels of the minor league system in terms of coaching philosophies, or even what should be taught. So, a player would come into the system at one level, and be told to emphasize skill x at the plate, then get promoted to the next level, where they would proceed to tell him he was doing it all wrong, what they told you down there is bush-league crap and that might be fine for rookie ball but that ain't how we do it here in the bright lights of low A, etc. Coaching techniques within the system contradicting one another, getting young players all fouled up. That's a mess. It was shocking to me even at the time I read it (1998 or so) to think that this had been allowed to go on in this way.

So Wade studied another organization that was pumping out RsOY with alarming regularity in the mid-90s - the Dodgers - and found that they had one coaching manual that dictated practice at every level of their minor leagues, so that a player at AAA wouldn't be told that the way he learned to do something at A was wrong and he had to re-learn it. This book was called "The Dodgers Way," and Ed Wade set about putting together a "Phillies Way" book.

I am sure The Phillies Way was far from perfect in those early years, filled with advice like "be aggressive, don't wait for the walk, pitch backwards," etc., but the point is at least he got a process of unifying and regularizing minor league instruction started. I have to think that had something to do with the much higher rate of return the Phillies started getting on all those draft picks that, admittedly, Wade wasn't making.

djbigf wrote:

Phan In Phlorida wrote:

djbigf wrote:utley and howard were in the minors way too long.

Both were kinda blocked at the major league level (Thome & Polanco) around the time they shoulda/coulda been up.

utley was blocked b/c Polanco was a stubborn space cadet. howard could've been dealt for players that would've gotten them over the hump but no-trade wouldn't pull the trigger.

You mean Polanco wouldn't play third? Just like now, which is why Utley has been warming the bench all season?

Or maybe... *gasp*... it was DAVID FUCK-ING BELL'S FAULT FOR EXISTING.

mozartpc27 wrote:

djbigf wrote:

Phan In Phlorida wrote:

djbigf wrote:utley and howard were in the minors way too long.

Both were kinda blocked at the major league level (Thome & Polanco) around the time they shoulda/coulda been up.

utley was blocked b/c Polanco was a stubborn space cadet. howard could've been dealt for players that would've gotten them over the hump but no-trade wouldn't pull the trigger.

You mean Polanco wouldn't play third?

nope. he said as much. it's why he was traded.

djbigf wrote:

Phan In Phlorida wrote:

djbigf wrote:utley and howard were in the minors way too long.

Both were kinda blocked at the major league level (Thome & Polanco) around the time they shoulda/coulda been up.

howard could've been dealt for players that would've gotten them over the hump but no-trade wouldn't pull the trigger.

If only...

djbigf wrote:

mozartpc27 wrote:

djbigf wrote:

Phan In Phlorida wrote:

djbigf wrote:utley and howard were in the minors way too long.

Both were kinda blocked at the major league level (Thome & Polanco) around the time they shoulda/coulda been up.

utley was blocked b/c Polanco was a stubborn space cadet. howard could've been dealt for players that would've gotten them over the hump but no-trade wouldn't pull the trigger.

You mean Polanco wouldn't play third?

nope. he said as much. it's why he was traded.

Polanco, games at 3B, 1998-2005:

1998: 0 (of 42 played in field)
1999: 9 (of 84 played in field)
2000: 35 (of 115 played in field)
2001: 103 (of 160 played in field)
2002: 131 (of 150 played in field)
2003: 21 (of 120 played in field)
2004: 13 (of 122 played in field)
2005: 8 (of 37 played in field for Phillies)

He'd played third a lot leading up to the trade, including several times in 2005. Why would he suddenly be unwilling to go there to help his team? Citation, or it didn't happen.

mozartpc27 wrote:Or maybe... *gasp*... it was DAVID $#@!-ING BELL'S FAULT FOR EXISTING.

One might argue that's the reason for all the world's ills.

WilliamC wrote:

djbigf wrote:

Phan In Phlorida wrote:

djbigf wrote:utley and howard were in the minors way too long.

Both were kinda blocked at the major league level (Thome & Polanco) around the time they shoulda/coulda been up.

howard could've been dealt for players that would've gotten them over the hump but no-trade wouldn't pull the trigger.

If only...

KIP WELLS

mozartpc27 wrote:

djbigf wrote:

mozartpc27 wrote:

djbigf wrote:

Phan In Phlorida wrote:

djbigf wrote:utley and howard were in the minors way too long.

Both were kinda blocked at the major league level (Thome & Polanco) around the time they shoulda/coulda been up.

utley was blocked b/c Polanco was a stubborn space cadet. howard could've been dealt for players that would've gotten them over the hump but no-trade wouldn't pull the trigger.

You mean Polanco wouldn't play third?

nope. he said as much. it's why he was traded.

He'd played third here since 2002. Citation, or it didn't happen.

you should get a citation for not knowing this.

joe table wrote:I don't know guys, Wade's last offseason was pretty questionable. They actually spent a decent amount of money compared to most of the league, and mostly on veteran filler

Right--Wade isn't your guy to go from a second place over .500 team to playoff team/WFC team. He could never make those moves. But Gillick and Rube built on the foundation that was established during Wade's tenure.