It's a JoeChat! From over a month ago!

So I'm looking back through the FJM archives to see how many JoeChats they missed that I can cut my teeth (I don't understand that expression) on. Turns out the last one they got to was August 13th. Lots of fun for me.

10/28 was actually very good. Joe answers questions, usually coherently, and while I don't feel like I learned anything, I didn't feel like I was reading something written by somebody who knew nothing about baseball.

10/21 isn't too bad either. There's this:

Patrick ( Philly) : Joe, if the Phillies win one more are they favored against the Sox or the Rays in the World Series?

Joe Morgan: I'd say it's a tossup.

eb45: So what you're saying is that the Phillies are roughly equal to the Red Sox and Rays? Or at least have an equal chance at winning the World Series?

You have to remember, Tampa has excellent starting pitching and good young players, so you couldn't say the Phillies would be a big favorite--perhaps a small favorite.

eb45: I'm sorry, I thought I just read that you thought the Phillies would be neither a favorite nor an underdog against the Rays? And now you say they would be a favorite? Also, the question asked if you thought the Phillies would be favorites. Patrick ( Philly) did not say that the Phils should be big favorites. This sentence makes no sense.

If Boston is in, i think they would be a favorite. Without Beckett, I don't see Boston as as big a threat as Tama.

eb45: Check your antecedent, man. It seems like you think Boston would be the favorite, but that Boston isn't as big a threat as Tampa -- who is a small underdog to Philadelphia. And it's a tossup. WHAT?

Yash-Pranav (Potomac, MD): Mr. Morgan, would you comment on the spark and mental toughness that players like Victorino provide to a team? I think the intangible that he has provided to this Phillies team is difficult to value in terms of statistics.

Joe Morgan: I definitely think he's a guy you want in the foxhole with you. He's a battler who doesn't back down. He shows some toughness. There's no doubt he's the kind of guy you want on the team. You can see him hustle, he'll take the extra base, he plays good defense--he's a winning type player. All teams need that.

eb45: All teams need "winning type players". A "winning type player" is "the kind of guy you want on your team". If I'm starting a major league team, Shane Victorino is not at the top of my list.

Also, I found it humorous that later in the same Chat he glorifies Manny Ramirez -- whose detractors claim that he is exactly the opposite of what Joe calls a "winning type player".

More JoeChat goodness/awfulness to come when it's not 11:48 PM.