Why are the young guys getting a shot this year?

[brinoch]

so what. baker held back garbage and went w/ guys who actually produced in the majors.

 

maybe people are upset cause baker was absolutely correct on hill, dubois and choi.

 

Hill was a bust. Grudz was almost certainly the better choice, patricularly in hindsight. ;) I disagree on Dubois. Hollandworth was terrible, and Dubois had/has more upside. As for Choi, I'm going to dig up Tim's comprehensive study on Choi -- who should have been platooned with Karros.

[Jon]

so what. baker held back garbage and went w/ guys who actually produced in the majors.

 

maybe people are upset cause baker was absolutely correct on hill, dubois and choi.

Wouldn't that mean that Dusty is one of the best judges of talent in the organization? He can't predict who will succeed in the majors and then decide who to give playing time to from the very beginning based on those predictions.

[CubfaninCA]

so what. baker held back garbage and went w/ guys who actually produced in the majors.

 

maybe people are upset cause baker was absolutely correct on hill, dubois and choi.

 

Hill was a bust. Grudz was almost certainly the better choice, patricularly in hindsight. ;) I disagree on Dubois. Hollandworth was terrible, and Dubois had/has more upside. As for Choi, I'm going to dig up Tim's comprehensive study on Choi -- who should have been platooned with Karros.

 

the cubs did the right thing by bringing in randall simon.

[CubfaninCA]

so what. baker held back garbage and went w/ guys who actually produced in the majors.

 

maybe people are upset cause baker was absolutely correct on hill, dubois and choi.

Wouldn't that mean that Dusty is one of the best judges of talent in the organization? He can't predict who will succeed in the majors and then decide who to give playing time to from the very beginning based on those predictions.

 

maybe, but he was wrong about patterson. at least he wasn't 0-4 tho.

[brinoch]

so what. baker held back garbage and went w/ guys who actually produced in the majors.

 

maybe people are upset cause baker was absolutely correct on hill, dubois and choi.

 

Hill was a bust. Grudz was almost certainly the better choice, patricularly in hindsight. ;) I disagree on Dubois. Hollandworth was terrible, and Dubois had/has more upside. As for Choi, I'm going to dig up Tim's comprehensive study on Choi -- who should have been platooned with Karros.

 

the cubs did the right thing by bringing in randall simon.

 

Really? He of the .318 OBP and .485 SLG with the Cubs in '03 (.282 BA)? Through June 7th when Choi was injured, he had a .389 OBP and a .496 SLB (.244 BA). He never got a chance to re-establish himself after he returned from the concussion -- as Tim's post (which I need to find) showed pretty conclusively.

 

Randall Simon was a free swinging machine who did have a knack of hitting just about anything thrown at the plate. Which is why his OBP has always been very close to his BA -- and which is also why he's now out of baseball. Acquiring Simon was only the right thing to do because Baker wouldn't give Choi a fair opportunity to succeed after the injury.

 

This is an old argument.

[frostwyrm]

so what. baker held back garbage and went w/ guys who actually produced in the majors.

 

maybe people are upset cause baker was absolutely correct on hill, dubois and choi.

 

Hill was a bust. Grudz was almost certainly the better choice, patricularly in hindsight. ;) I disagree on Dubois. Hollandworth was terrible, and Dubois had/has more upside. As for Choi, I'm going to dig up Tim's comprehensive study on Choi -- who should have been platooned with Karros.

 

the cubs did the right thing by bringing in randall simon.

Nah, that was one of those lightning in a bottle things. Simon was a crappy player in the midst of a crappy season who miraculously pulled a brief run of respectability out of his enormous butt. Sometimes you get lucky that way.

[CubfaninCA]

so what. baker held back garbage and went w/ guys who actually produced in the majors.

 

maybe people are upset cause baker was absolutely correct on hill, dubois and choi.

 

Hill was a bust. Grudz was almost certainly the better choice, patricularly in hindsight. ;) I disagree on Dubois. Hollandworth was terrible, and Dubois had/has more upside. As for Choi, I'm going to dig up Tim's comprehensive study on Choi -- who should have been platooned with Karros.

 

the cubs did the right thing by bringing in randall simon.

 

Really? He of the .318 OBP and .485 SLG with the Cubs in '03 (.282 BA)? Through June 7th when Choi was injured, he had a .389 OBP and a .496 SLB (.244 BA). He never got a chance to re-establish himself after he returned from the concussion -- as Tim's post (which I need to find) showed pretty conclusively.

 

Randall Simon was a free swinging machine who did have a knack of hitting just about anything thrown at the plate. Which is why his OBP has always been very close to his BA -- and which is also why he's now out of baseball. Acquiring Simon was only the right thing to do because Baker wouldn't give Choi a fair opportunity to succeed after the injury.

 

This is an old argument.

 

after 2004 & 2005, I think Choi has proven he would have never re-established himself. he looked god awful after returning from injury. thankfully they brought in randall and his .485 slugging, as choi's trade value could have really dropped if they kept him out there everyday, as many here wanted... there could have been no dlee.

 

should have never let randall go. the man brought good luck.

[Ding Dong Johnson]

Randall Simon BandWGN anyone? I liked Randall and the enthusiasm (and mojo) he brought to the club. It appeared as though nobody had fun until he showed up. They finally showed passion the last 6 weeks or so of the season, and I think Randall deserves a lot of credit for that. I wanted him back as the 25th man just for that alone. But in terms of being an everyday player, Randall was not so hot. Great cheerleader, lukewarm player.

[RynoRules]

so what. baker held back garbage and went w/ guys who actually produced in the majors.

 

maybe people are upset cause baker was absolutely correct on hill, dubois and choi.

 

Hill was a bust. Grudz was almost certainly the better choice, patricularly in hindsight. ;) I disagree on Dubois. Hollandworth was terrible, and Dubois had/has more upside. As for Choi, I'm going to dig up Tim's comprehensive study on Choi -- who should have been platooned with Karros.

 

the cubs did the right thing by bringing in randall simon.

Nah, that was one of those lightning in a bottle things. Simon was a crappy player in the midst of a crappy season who miraculously pulled a brief run of respectability out of his enormous butt. Sometimes you get lucky that way.

 

I agree, and anecdotaly, my Dad saw him in ST with the Pirates the next season, and called me from a game to tell me he had gotten so big that he was as wide as he was tall and could not move laterally. I'll always remember that HR in Game 4 though.

[frostwyrm]

http://pittsburgh.pirates.mlb.com/images/2004/07/19/RjuEnga5.jpg

 

http://pittsburgh.pirates.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/pit/news/pit_gameday_recap.jsp?ymd=20040719&content_id=803933&vkey=recap&fext=.jsp

[Ding Dong Johnson]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4d/Goodyear_blimp.jpg/250px-Goodyear_blimp.jpg

[neely crenshaw]

seriously, why rip dusty?

with this current team would we win if we had sparky anderson or even connie freakin' mack?

this team is put together on a bunch of bandaids and crossed fingers!

we hope pierre and jones return to form from 3 years ago-not likely

we hope that cedeno and murton can be all that we hope...so far so good

we hope that aram,barrett and lee stay healthy and produce like the have...not so good

we hope dempster is the lights out closer that he was last year.

we hope that either the young kids are good in the rotation or that the bandaids on wood,prior and miller hold on...not so good so far.

 

we are 10-0 in starts by maddux and marshall

we are 4-11 in all others

that can not keep up...maddux and marshall will have to drop some games and z will win some but is there anything that we have seen that will lead us to believe that guzman,rusch, or williams will do anything different? other than hope? we have no idea what type of pitching we will get from the dl(remember a supposedly healthy prior was TERRIBLE the last 3 months of last year) this looks and sounds like a 70's style june swoon where we will be 20 out by july.....

[cheapseats]

Why rip Dusty?

 

1. He's a regular league-leader in pitcher abuse points. Wood, Prior, and Zambrano were all in the top 12 in all of baseball in 2003 in pitcher abuse points. Are Prior and Wood rehabbing right now because Dusty leaves his starters in too long? It's impossible to prove a cause and effect relationship, but Dusty sure doesn't help his starters' chances of staying healthy. Leaving Guzman in for so long yesterday was egregious.

 

2. Bunting in the first inning. With an offense that struggles to score runs. Should be a fireable offense.

 

3. Refuses to recognize his players' limitations. Jones can't hit lefties, but Baker thinks he needs another chance to prove himself. Latroy couldn't close ballgames, but Dusty trotted him out there anyway. Corey wasn't a leadoff hitter. Dempster shouldn't have started last year. Lenny Harris?

 

No manager would do very well with the current Cubs lineup. It wasn't Dusty's fault that we lost 8-0 yesterday, for example (except if you assign him some blame for Wood and Prior not being available, which is reasonable). Our general manager, ownership, and training staff do get credit for fielding a team that would struggle to score runs with DLee in the lineup.

[jjgman21]

He never got a chance to re-establish himself after he returned from the concussion -- as Tim's post (which I need to find) showed pretty conclusively.

 

 

I've seen that post, and put up my own analysis of the game logs, which I thought presented a pretty persuasive argument could be made that Baker was sticking with the hot hand, yet still giving Choi opportunities, of which he completely failed to take advantage.

 

when Choi went down in early June 2003, Karros had about .870 OPS the rest of June. Choi returned at the beginning of July, and his OPS for that month was something like .570 in about 33 ABs. Karros's OPS that month was something like .930 in about twice as many at bats.

 

the question should not have been "why isn't Choi getting more ABs," the question should have been "why is Choi getting any ABs." it was a pennant race. you stick with what is helping you win ballgames, and at the time, Karros was helping the Cubs win ballgames, and Choi was not.

 

sure, maybe Dusty didn't give him enough of an opportunity to regain his form, but that was not the time nor place to let Choi toil away and try to find his groove while Karros was pounding the ball. it was the time to put the guy out there who gave you the best chance to win each and every game, and like it or not, Karros and Simon were the guys, not Choi.

 

now Karros completely sucked in August and September, but so did Choi. believe in clutch or not, Randall Simon got huge hit after huge hit at that time, so again, you stick with the hot hand. the bottom line is, if a young player isn't making the most of his opportunities, however limited those opportunities are, he should not be playing in a pennant race when the veteran options are performing well.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

Karros was never an acceptable option against RHP that year, even during his hot months. That's my biggest complaint. After they got Simon the dynamic changed, but Karros was so poor against RHP that it made sense for Choi to get more ABs to work himself back into shape, because it would've been very difficult to be worse than Karros.

[jjgman21]

Karros was never an acceptable option against RHP that year, even during his hot months. That's my biggest complaint. After they got Simon the dynamic changed, but Karros was so poor against RHP that it made sense for Choi to get more ABs to work himself back into shape, because it would've been very difficult to be worse than Karros.

 

again, in the month after Choi returned, Karros had an OPS around .930. its pretty damn hard to maintain those numbers while only hitting lefties well, so he was probably doing something right against righties. it may have been difficult to be worse that Karros against righties, but Choi sure gave it a run with his pathetic numbers. and again, a three team pennant race is not the time to be working back into shape. if he'd done anything with his opportunities, I'd think the argument is valid, but he didn't. he failed miserably actually.

 

and beyond the stat sheet, it didn't take a baseball guru to see that Choi simply was not catching up to fastballs after his return and was being fooled badly by almost every off speed pitch.

[CubfaninCA]

Karros was never an acceptable option against RHP that year, even during his hot months. That's my biggest complaint. After they got Simon the dynamic changed, but Karros was so poor against RHP that it made sense for Choi to get more ABs to work himself back into shape, because it would've been very difficult to be worse than Karros.

 

again, in the month after Choi returned, Karros had an OPS around .930. its pretty damn hard to maintain those numbers while only hitting lefties well, so he was probably doing something right against righties. it may have been difficult to be worse that Karros against righties, but Choi sure gave it a run with his pathetic numbers. and again, a three team pennant race is not the time to be working back into shape. if he'd done anything with his opportunities, I'd think the argument is valid, but he didn't. he failed miserably actually.

 

and beyond the stat sheet, it didn't take a baseball guru to see that Choi simply was not catching up to fastballs after his return and was being fooled badly by almost every off speed pitch.

 

prior to getting randall, karros had an ops of .849 in april & may, .870 in june & .936 in july. that's pretty respectable.

 

it's amazing the complaints about sitting choi, and the excuses and rationales for him still exist. choi looked lost after he returned from injury. platooning him with karros for the remainder of the 2003, probably kills the chance of a lee trade and the cubs getting into the playoffs. randall saved us.

[SanJoseCubsFan]

Choi's numbers in 2003 post all star. I am fairly sure this was mostly against right handers. I understand the get back into shape and it was only 43 ABs but I think it was possible to be worse than Karros

 

Post-All Star 43 1 6 2 0 1 5 5 0 20 0 1 .140 .229 .256 .485

 

 

Karros was never an acceptable option against RHP that year, even during his hot months. That's my biggest complaint. After they got Simon the dynamic changed, but Karros was so poor against RHP that it made sense for Choi to get more ABs to work himself back into shape, because it would've been very difficult to be worse than Karros.

 

again, in the month after Choi returned, Karros had an OPS around .930. its pretty damn hard to maintain those numbers while only hitting lefties well, so he was probably doing something right against righties. it may have been difficult to be worse that Karros against righties, but Choi sure gave it a run with his pathetic numbers. and again, a three team pennant race is not the time to be working back into shape. if he'd done anything with his opportunities, I'd think the argument is valid, but he didn't. he failed miserably actually.

 

and beyond the stat sheet, it didn't take a baseball guru to see that Choi simply was not catching up to fastballs after his return and was being fooled badly by almost every off speed pitch.

 

prior to getting randall, karros had an ops of .849 in april & may, .870 in june & .936 in july. that's pretty respectable.

 

it's amazing the complaints about sitting choi, and the excuses and rationales for him still exist. choi looked lost after he returned from injury. platooning him with karros for the remainder of the 2003, probably kills the chance of a lee trade and the cubs getting into the playoffs. randall saved us.