TruffleShuffle

you like them better personally or you think Metallica are actually better songwriters-musicmakers? Perhaps when some people want to crank up the radio, they aren't interested in "Love Me Do," "Yesterday" or "Penny Lane."

http://www.websmileys.com/sm/violent/sterb015.gif Didn't see that one coming.... ( :lol: ) haha Jocketty is an excellent GM, but he goofed on this one. Who would've thought that they could get worse from Ponson?

So how's Weaver working out, Cards fans?

I believe he's sincere in what he said last night and for the last year or so _ that he wants to remain a Cub. What I think will happen is that the Cubs will attempt to restructure the deal to sweeten it and keep him off the open market. Aramis and Jim Hendry have a good relationshp, and the agent, Paul Kinzer, appears to be a very reasonable guy. My gut feeling is that he stays. This makes sense to me. The Cubs will have money to spend in the offseason, and the fallout from letting him walk would be very ugly, considering that the offense is already the worst in baseball. I really hope that they don't think people will consider keeping ARam as a successful offseason, but who knows. They've shown very little interest in making their constituents happy.

Boy, did things go downhill for Jennifer Aniston. I mean, getting dumped by Brad Pitt was pretty rough, but then becoming a Cubs fan? She's really hit rock bottom.

The Rangers aren't going anywhere

I hate to say this, but if Albert keeps up this pace he's gonna be the best to ever play the game. Babe Ruth. Babe Ruth's OPS+: 207 Pujols' OPS+: 169 not to mention: Babe Ruth ERA+: 122 Pujols will make a good run at Lou Gehrig for best 1B in history, if he keeps up what he's been doing - but to be better than Ruth, he's basically going to have to be Barry Bonds from 2001-2004.

why don't you post his number here so we can give him our thoughts. I believe there is some available storage space on my cell phone. 1-800-K-R-I-S-P-Y-K-R-E-M-E That's just lame. You want to rip on a guy because you think he's a lousy GM, be my guest. But making fun of his weight is a cheap shot.. Yeah and besides, that's Glendon Rusch's number.

I may do that if Led Zeppelin loses to the Beatles in the finals. That match up is inevitable. Well, I'll be voting for the Doors all the way, but I think you're right.

Yeah, I can't understand why anybody would even consider Pierre at $5-8m over Byrnes at $3-4m. I'd be perfectly fine with Byrnes. He might not be super-patient, but he's not allergic to the walk like most of the rest of this team. He does have some solid pop, and I get the sense that he's the type of player who would be undervalued in the free agent market (a la Todd Walker). I actually think it'd be a really good move to bring him in for $3-4M per year and use the savings to upgrade one of the corner OF positions.

I may do that if Led Zeppelin loses to the Beatles in the finals.

but didn't you hear, the Beatles aren't a rock band. They are pop. :roll: Good point! I'm voting for Metallica now!

2005: Cubs sucked 2007: Cubs still suck Big surprise.

That will never beat my favorite pitching line, a combination of last year and this year, from former #10 pick overall Joe Torres: 3-14, 91.1 IP, 101 H, 102 ER, 6 HR, 150 BB, 77 K, 18 WP 10.05 ERA 2.75 WHIP 14.78 BB per 9 IP Truly spectacular Reminds me of Rich Hill a few years ago....though Rich always had more Ks. Yeah, Hill's ERA in his early years still hovered around 4.00. He was not nearly as hittable, and his BB/9, although still far too high, was less than half that of Torres. I have to say, Torres seems to have just completely lost it.

How many teams have the worst-hitting middle infield in baseball? Once again, we don't have the worst hitting middle infield in baseball-at least not this year. Check out the A's-Ellis and Crosby are worse. And again, those 2 guys make about as much as one of Perez or Izturis. That matters. Yes it does-and so if the people said we have the worst value hitting middle infield, then that would be correct. We don't have the worst hitting middle infield though. Here are the numbers: Crosby: .229/.297/.339 Ellis: .219/.289/.320 Cubs: Izturis: .260/.308/.366 Cedeno: .254/.279/.338 Ellis and Cedeno are pretty close-that's pretty much a wash, and Izturis is better than Crosby in every category. Yes, but this year is anomolously bad for the two A's hitters, who have career lines of: Crosby: 244/318/406/724 Ellis: 267/339/367/736 While Izturis (I'll ignore Cedeno b/c this is his first real year) has a line of: 261/295/353/635 I'd bet my house on Crosby and Ellis easily outperforming Izturis and Cedeno next season.

If OBP is "very, very important", then why bat someone 2nd who doesn't get on base? Honestly, he doesn't believe that OBP is very, very important. Nothing in the way he's managed the Cubs, or what he's said in the past about walks or aggressiveness at the plate, suggest that he values OBP. He's saying that because there are some knowledgeable fans and media who have started to get on his ass about the Cubs' lack of OBP ability and its correlation to the lack of offense on the team under his management. He's trying to say the right thing to appease those people.

The bottom 10 teams in baseball rank as follows in OBP: Houston - 25th Florida - 19th Atlanta - 15th Baltimore - 11th Washington - 13th Cleveland - 4th Cubs - 29th Tampa - 30th Pittsburgh - 22nd KC - 21st So out of the 10 worst teams in baseball, 6 of them are in the bottom 12 of OBP, and only one is in the top 10. That's Cleveland, and their record is more a function of bad luck (more runs scored than allowed) and bad pitching than of bad hitting (4th in baseball in runs scored). The top 10 teams in baseball: Detroit - 18th Yankees - 3rd Boston - 1st White Sox - 6th Mets - 16th Twins - 8th Cardinals - 9th Blue Jays - 2nd A's - 27th Angels - 26th So, out of that group, only 2 are in the bottom 12 of OBP, and 6 are in the top 10. Want more? Here are the top 10 teams in OBP, and how they rank in runs scored Boston - 2nd Toronto - 6th NY Yankees - 3rd Cleveland - 4th LA Dodgers - 10th White Sox - 1st Cincinnati - 15th Minnesota - 11th St. Louis - 17th Texas - 9th And the bottom 10 teams in OBP, and how they rank in runs scored: KC - 26th Pittsburgh - 25th Milwaukee - 22nd SF - 21st Houston - 28th LA Angels - 16th Oakland - 27th Seattle - 18th Cubs - 30th Tampa Bay - 29th I don't know what can more clearly prove the point. Teams that get on base effectively score more runs. Teams that don't get on base, don't score runs. Teams that score more runs are more likely to win games.

I'm not a violent person at all, but I really want to punch Dusty Baker in the face sometimes.

Oh God, the old nebulous "knows how to play" tag. Neifi knows how to play, I bet. To bad "knows how to play" isn't the same thing as "knows how to hit" or "knows how to not swing at every ball coming toward the plate."

We had Izturis' clone in the 2 hole all through the 2005 season and the results were terrible. It cost DLee a shot at the MVP. It sure will be fun having Izzy in the 2 hole for all of 2007. May as well eliminate DLee from MVP consideration right now. When I went to the Dodgers game, he was rightfully batting 8th. Why can't Dusty just think for a minute? Well, Cedeno is certainly bad enough to be hitting 8th. Problem is, you have two #8 hitters in the lineup. And, I'm being generous by not including Juan Pierre as the third #8 hitter in the lineup.

How many teams have the worst-hitting middle infield in baseball?

I hate Hawkins, Baker and Jones because they suck at their jobs. I've hated plenty of white Cubs as well.

What? Out of 50 players who have played shortstop this year, Ronny is dead last in offensive production (measured by VORP). Last. He can only improve, but what are his chances of becoming a "standout" at a position in which more offensive production is expected? The point is they don't care about offense. It's manly to talk tough on defense, whereas offense if for pretty boys. Tough teams defend, and there's no better market than Chicago to play up the defense concept, regardless of the sport, or the relative value of defense in that sport. the cubs should sign ben wallace. AND Ron Artest. World Series rings all around!!! God, this organization sucks.

Yes, so even though their OBPs weren't good, they still had a significantly better IsoD (more patience) than Izturis at age 26.

what happened to that guy anyway?