TruffleShuffle

Ryan Howard has homered to put the Phils up 3-2. What a beast.

Jeff Keppinger can flat-out rake?!?!?

I think walks and hits per inning pitched can be a good stat. Like how often the guy prevents baserunners! Conveniently, we do have a statistic like that. WHIP: 2003: 1.509 (Eyre) versus 1.397 (Linebrink) 2004: 1.329 (Eyre) versus 1.036 (Linebrink) 2005: 1.083 (Eyre) versus 1.059 (Linebrink) 2006: 1.484 (Eyre) versus 1.216 (Linebrink)

that's only this year.... last year he was fine on the road, and 2 years ago he was lights out. He's been one of the better middle relievers in baseball. It's a good pickup for the Brewers, but they had to pay a pretty steep price in Inman. So was Scott Eyre. yeah that's pretty much a terrible comparison. Linebrink was very good for three straight years... Eyre was mediocre every year of his career except one. Linebrink had an ERA+ of 118 last year. so by your definition, 118 ERA+ or better is very good. Eyre 2005 - 157 2006 - 137 oh, we're evaluating relief pitchers by ERA+ now? great idea.

braun now 99-101 with 92 homers against lefties this year

LHP versus ryan braun = scary

i think that was carp's tommy john surgery

phillies down 2-0 after a half inning. Not that this game matters to the Cubs, but it must be infuriating to pirates fans to watch Ollie Perez mow through their lineup. Through 5 innings he's allowed 1 hit, no walks and struck out 8.

show the damn replay morans.

Pitching isn't great in that league, but Iowa leads the league in runs, homers and OPS.

yes, but a player intentionally performing poorly for money on the biggest stage is not in the vein of Pete Rose, Ty Cobb or whatever other lowlife you want to throw in there. I agree that a player's actions off the field should not be considered, unless they do something like bomb the Statue of Liberty or turn into Ted Bundy. But I'm judging Ciccotte and Jackson as not worthy for the Hall because of their actions on the field - namely, throwing games for money on the sport's biggest stage. That, to me, is inexcusable. That's a pretty ignorant statement of the facts. Look up Shoeless Joe's stats from that series. If he was throwing anything, I'd hate to see the numbers he'd put up trying. That's a pretty ignorant analysis of the facts. Look up Shoeless Joe's stats from games the Black Sox lost in that series, versus the stats in the games that they won. Night and day. Also look at the fact that he was one of the best fielders in the league, and allowed three triples in the series while playing leftfield. And not the least of all was that he accepted money with the understanding that he'd help the Black Sox lose.

Depends on how well you think Gallagher could do in Marshall's spot. Almost .200 OPS points is a MASSIVE improvement. We can't just look past that fact. Look, I would LOVE to have Griff and his 900 OPS in our lineup, but at what cost? If the deal were Gallagher, Petrick and EPatt I'd do it without a second thought, but I'd guess they'd want more back than that. Then again, what is the real difference between Marshall and Gallagher? I know - Marshall has a ton more ML level experience. But doesn't Gallagher project as a better pitcher overall? Everybody in the minors seemingly "projects" as a better player than a major leaguer they'd be replacing, because they haven't had the chance to fail yet. But as far as their ceilings, they're pretty similar... both could be around a #3/4 starter. As far as this year, it looks like Marshall is easily the better pitcher, because his command is better. Trading Marshall would definitely downgrade the Cubs starting rotation, and the bigger worry is that the Cubs have no good option to replace Gallagher if he bombed in his first try at starting for the big club.

We definitely can't top that. Rich Hill, Felix Pie and Sean Gallagher would probably get them interested. I wouldn't do that though. BP discussed trading Tex the other day. Daniels has no choice but to ask for the moon, not just because Tex is a fairly young, very good player, but also because Daniels has been thoroughly embarrassed in his two previous big trades: December 8, 2005: Alfonso Soriano traded by the Texas Rangers to the Washington Nationals for Brad Wilkerson, Terrmel Sledge, and Armando Galarraga (minors). January 6, 2006: Rangers trade Adrian Gonzalez, Terrmel Sledge and Chris Young to the San Diego Padres for Adam Eaton, Akinori Otsuka, and Billy Killian (minors). If Daniels makes another trade as bad as those two, he'll be out of a job.

boy he's fallen off a cliff this year. I'd take him if the Yanks picked up half his future contract, but they're not going to.

Other minor leaguers - Tyler Colvin - I'd definitely trade him. I think he's very overrated, and could be overvalued due to some solid stats at Daytona this year, combined with good tools and having been a first round draft pick. I'm not high on him because of his inability to draw walks. Pawelek, Harvey, Dopirak - in hindsight, trading them about 2 years ago would've been a good idea. Donald Veal - I could trade him too. As a recent Hardball Times (I believe) article discussed, pitchers with control as spotty as Veal are unlikely to become good pitchers in the bigs. Still, he's got a nice arm, and I think teams will be interested. I'm all for trading prospects who I think are overrated, and Veal and Colvin fit that bill. Jake Fox - Forgot about him before, but he's another trade candidate... especially to an American League team who could potentially use him as a DH.

Players currently in the minors - Felix Pie - I don't think his struggles with the big club have hurt his trade value. He's raked at Iowa this year, and though it'd help if he improved his plate approach, he's still quite young. That being said, he's the CF of the future, unless you're sold on Colvin - which, if you know me, I'm not. So unless a real impact bat is coming back, something like a Teixeira, then I'm not dealing Felix. Eric Patterson - don't want him traded. He's had a solid but not great year at Iowa, but I do think his plate discipline and coverage would allow him to have an easier transition to the majors than guys like Cedeno or Pie. The Cubs have DeRosa at second for another two years, but I'd prefer that the Cubs install Patterson at 2B next year and use DeRosa as a super sub, a role that he's played to some extent this year. But if I were unbiased, I could probably be persuaded to part with him in a deal. Ronny Cedeno - Not sure how much value you can get for him after his terrible 2006. I'd deal him, but I suspect he might be worth more to the Cubs in the chance that he'd come back from such a crappy year and be a contributor in the future. Sean Gallagher - probably the guy that other teams will be most interested in after Pie. On the one hand, the Cubs have a pretty deep rotation right now, but there's not in a lot in the pipeline behind these guys. I'd trade him, but not for cheap. Rapada, Pignatiello, Kroeger - most likely bit parts in any deal. Geovany Soto - I like him for next year as a possible starter, or at the very least an affordable and fairly productive backup. I'm not sure that teams will be calling for him, but I'd prefer that he stay in this organization. Murton - Now here's the guy I think the Cubs should trade. Well, actually I think they should be playing him almost every day in RF for the big club, but they don't seem to want to do that. So, since he's hitting well for Iowa and has shown the ability to hit big league pitching in the past, I think you can get a decent return for him from a team that is looking for a cheap, and at least moderately-productive, corner outfielder. I'm just hoping the Cubs haven't put his trade value completely in the toilet.

This isn't a trade suggestion, per se, just my view of the trading pieces that the Cubs have in play, and what I think the Cubs can/should ask for them. I'm not counting players like Jock and Eyre, because I'm viewing this from the perspective of what sellers are looking for - so mostly I'll be looking at the younger players. Players on the 25-man roster Rich Hill, Sean Marshall - Their names have come up, but I really don't think they're tradeable unless you get a solid starter in return. Other teams will certainly be interested, but the Cubs don't have a lot of starting pitching depth beyond the top five. Gallagher looks a little too raw at this point, the other AAA options don't have very good stuff (Mathes, Hart), Veal certainly isn't ready, and I don't think anyone wants to see Wade Miller's corpse out there every five days. So unless the Cubs are going to weaken their team's starting pitching, I don't think they can trade these two. Ryan Theriot, Mike Fontenot - these guys have actually been quite useful in the roles they've played this year. However, they're low-ceiling college products who are pretty much at their ceilings, and I don't see other teams really putting much value in the LSU boys. They're probably worth more to the Cubs right now than they'd be to a team building for the future. Carlos Marmol - probably the guy, outside of Felix Pie, that teams will ask for the most. On the one hand, he's not quite as good as he's pitched the past two months, so his value is probably a little inflated. But the problem is that he's become the best power arm out of the pen, and trading him would weaken what's become a strength on this team. I'd certainly need an impact bat to deal him away. Michael Wuertz, Will Ohman - Wuertz has a little more value, but neither one is going to fetch a big return. I doubt they'll be big parts of any trade discussed by Hendry, unless another reliever (Gagne or something) comes the other way. Billy Petrick - now here's a guy who I could part with. He's had a good year and flashed strong stuff since coming up, but he's not a big part of the bullpen, and won't be for at least this year. I can see teams asking for him, and given his health history, I would be okay with trading him for a solid bat.

I think the point is that it's a lousy division if .500 gets you to first place, I'm pretty sure it wasn't a commentary about the talent level. I guess if 500 is you gauge and your only talking win and loss % then thats great talk, I thought this was forum to talk about future major leaguers and not win/loss % ? It was a throwaway comment when talking about the standings in the NWL, not intended to be any type of analysis on the players involved(although Truffle can correct me if I'm wrong). Yes... and I do look at W-L records, just because I like to root for the Cubs' minor league affiliates in their playoff races too.

This is why Kevin Towers is a good GM. Most GMs wouldn't have the balls to trade a proven, solid contributor in the midst of a playoff race, but he got good value for Linebrink and made the deal. I don't hate the deal from the Brewers' perspective; they haven't made the playoffs in 24 years, so it's hard to blame them for going all-out now. Inman is certainly not a can't-miss prospect, but they still paid a steep price for a moderate upgrade. I thought Unfiltered posts were available to everybody, not just members. you're right... i didn't realize it was unfiltered.

from BP:

BP's analysis... edited so as not so include the whole thing since it's members' only: This is why Kevin Towers is a good GM. Most GMs wouldn't have the balls to trade a proven, solid contributor in the midst of a playoff race, but he got good value for Linebrink and made the deal. I don't hate the deal from the Brewers' perspective; they haven't made the playoffs in 24 years, so it's hard to blame them for going all-out now. Inman is certainly not a can't-miss prospect, but they still paid a steep price for a moderate upgrade.

not that this has anything to do with the first half MVP, but Ryan Howard has .400/.528/.925/1.453 line since the ASB, and is now #2 in the NL in homers and #1 in RBI. He's also #3 in RC/G and #5 in EqA. If he has another monstrous second half and the Phils remain relevant in the NL playoff picture, he could be a back-to-back MVP.

dylan johnston hit a walkoff homer to give boise the 4-3 win... after losing their first 8 and 12 of their first 14, they've gone 16-6 to battle back to .500, and first place in their (lousy) division.

nah i'm not doing that... i don't think the mods want us giving links to rub erroneous evaluations in the faces of long-time posters. But it's not hard to go back and find the old threads, if you want to read through some of them.

for those who haven't seen it, check out the Nationals' clown shoes defense on Jimmy Rollins' bases-empty, ninth-inning triple and score on subsequent error. Basically there was a miscommunication between the LF and CF which resulted in a dropped fly ball, then a bad throw from the LF that the SS couldn't scoop... it rolled away, he fired home probably in time to get Rollins, but the catcher didn't handle the throw. It was pathetic.