TruffleShuffle

huh?

ronnie is at the end of his rope

I'm probably going to go ahead and buy MLB.TV... is Premium worth the extra money? well it seemed like half the time they would just tell me i couldn't watch the game unless i bought premium... so i eventually got it. now i can't even watch the game having bought it.

and i try to watch the game online, but get a message that i need to purchase MLB premium (which i did almost a month ago) what a scam

I'm also curious how Barry Bonds has managed to hit all those homers in SF the past several years with the likes of Benito Santiago, JT Snow, Andres Galarraga, Edgardo Alfonso, Jeffrey Hammonds, Jose Cruz Jr. and Pedro Feliz in the 5-hole.

time for a snide comment toward the people who are concerned about lee's lack of power

Actually it illustrates my point perfectly. If the guy isnt getting good pitches to hit, then he cant do anything with power associated.So instead of being able to drive the ball somewhere, he is just able to flip it out into the voids. Bad pitches are hard to hit, thats why they are bad. Also pressing and swinging at bad pitches get you more outs because you will lack the ability to get them somewhere. So your % will go down from that as well. Again bad pitches are bad. Thats why i hate people like Vlad Guerrero. So disgusting with what he can do at the plate. There are no bad pitches for him. Terrific waste hitter. boy this is really a reach. And as has been mentioned before, this year he's had Carlos Lee behind him the entire year, whereas last year he was backed up mostly by either Morgan Ensberg, Aubrey Huff or Luke Scott. Certainly Carlos Lee is viewed as the most dangerous hitter in that group.

seriously. The Cubs so rarely develop young, promising offensive players, and now that they have one they're going to screw it up. What's the point?

Just because you cant account for it with math or see it, does not mean that it does not exist. Even if your argument is that he's being pitched around more, that really doesn't explain this: 2006: Percent of hits that were extra base hits: 43.7% Percent of ball in play that were extra base hits: 13.6% 2007: Percent of hits that were extra base hits: 14.0% Percent of ball in play that were extra base hits: 3.5% His SLG% is lower than Neifi Perez, for God's sakes.

great, they're trying to turn a promising young second baseman into a utility player.

Its kind of the same thing that is going on with DLee and ARam, although many on this board dont believe that it exists. Teams have a choice to pitch to either Berkman or CLee when playing Houston. Most opt to go after CLee and pitch around Berkman, which is why is OBP is so out of whack with his batting average. Because his BA is so low in comparison to OBP as opposed to say a DLee (although DLee is definitely a better hitter) shows a little lack of patience in going after bad balls, especially since your Career OBP numbers are typically higher. And if you arent getting good pitches to hit, you cant really tag them for extra base hits. However with Pence coming on strong for Houston and beginning to protect CLee in the 5 hole...pretty soon most teams arent going to have the option to choose to go after Berkman or CLee with less than 2 outs. An option that the Cubs do not have at the moment, and the Astros didnt have until Pence showed up from nowhere. Lane has been 100% awful this season (171/182), while Barrett has only been horrendously bad (244/294). Uh, this isn't the problem at all. Yes, Berkman is walking at a higher rate than last year, but he's always had good patience. Last year he had 74 extra base hits and 95 singles.... this year he has 6 extra base hits and 37 singles. Obviously his power has completely disappeared.

i'm thinkin it's time for another loss

I guarantee that Beane would get us to the WS in less than 3 years. Because Oakland has got there so often, right? He'd be an upgrade, but he's not a complete savior either. Getting to the WS is a combination of design, talent, and lots of luck. I don't thnk you can realistically guarantee anybody could do it in 3 years. "luck" is a main reason why none of Beane's teams have made it to the World Series. They've consistently had a low- to mid-market payroll, but over the past 8 years have averaged 94 wins and taken four division titles and one wild card. The Cubs average 18 fewer wins and have one division title during that time. The last five Cub playoff appearances are spread out over the past 62 years. So at the very least, Billy Beane has built a team that is consistently in contention for a playoff spot, which is a hell of a lot more than can be said for Jim Hendry, Ed Lynch, or any of the other idiots that have made personnel decisions for this organization over the past several decades.

get a huge bag of money and throw it at billy beane

Vandy had a dramatic run to the SEC title. Price's last outing: 9 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 11 K, 114 pitches he's a hoss

I'd prefer Rapada over Piggy too... Piggy's stuff is marginal and I have a bad feeling that he'd be another pinata out of the bullpen. Or Cotts, who has thrown well in two games at Iowa and has a good MLB season (2005) under his belt. But yeah, Eyre has to go. On a team claiming to be in "win now" mode, he's (a) killing the team with his horrendous performance and (b) taking the spot of someone who could potentially make a positive contribution. If you think he can get himself straightened out, then option him to Iowa... if he refuses than cut him loose. He was bad the second half of last year and has been given more than enough chances to turn his performance around this year.

Wasn't Pagan brought in because a left-hander was on the mound when he was announced, and then Lou didn't want to simply waste him and pinch-hit for the pinch-hitter? Who cares its the 9th inning and you have 2 runners on. You use your best ph in that situation to get the lineup to roll over and get to the top. Who cares if you "waste" Pagan, they wasted Ward by not using our best Ph in the most crucial PH spot. I'm just saying that Lou has used his bench like that for most of the season, and then people get upset when most of the bench is gone during extra innings. I would have pinch-hit Ward there myself, but it seems like most people are very worried about running out of players (which I am not) and using two pinch-hitters for the same spot doesn't help in running out of players. I don't have a problem cleaning out the bench in a game that you're 98% certain to lose anyway. The problem is that Lou will make change after change with the bullpen and the lineup in the 6th through 9th innings of a game that's tied or within a run. If your chance of going to extra innings is large, you have to account for that. But when you're down four runs in the bottom of the 9th, you pull out all the stops if you have a chance to score runs.

Girardi would be a better manager, but we're stuck with Lou for three years unless he quits. We've seen how willing Hendry is to admit to mistakes.

I think it's more accurate to say that later in his career, he was overrated defensively. A big reason is because he was previously an excellent defender. That's not just something that happens to Jim Edmonds; players commonly undeserved Gold Gloves and are selected to the All-Star game based on reputation and historical performance.

count me in. he says the right things but does the wrong ones.

lmao fortunately i never believed for a second that ARam would tie or win it

they should just walk aram... no way barrett gets a hit

well obviously

in other news, eyre's two runs are now the difference in the ballgame

no offense, but you're being a moron