TruffleShuffle

Making the team better IMO is something that can last for more than one year. Burnitz has this year and maybe next year to excell and IMO he's a Gietti (sp) waiting to happen. I think if the Cubs get a solid offer (very good 22-25 year old player) or in a package for a Manny Ramirez type hitter it would make them a better team now AND in the future. I can't imagine Theo Epstein doing a deal to get rid of ManRam and replacing him with Burnitz unless the Cubs threw in other stuff to make the Red Sox better this year, including Walker, possibly Williams, and Dempster. The Sox want to win now, and going from Ramirez to Burnitz is not the way to do that.

Jimmy Eyeliner is doing his part to sink the Tarps this week... 2-3 with a homer and 5 RBI already today :P

That's awesome. The "O" stands for "overrated"!

I see your point. But I would say that a whole bunch of guys who dominated both High A and AA became very good big league players, regardless of age. Also, Nixon did have a much lower K-rate in AA at age 22, but his walk rate was considerably lower, he hit for much less power, and his BB/K was basically the same as that of Sing this year and last. Anyway, this has been one of my most enjoyable threads to read on here... lots of differing opinions and most of them well presented. I decided to e-mail Ask BA and see what the 'experts' have to say about Mr. Sing... hopefully I'll get a response!

Thanks! I didn't realize that he had won the award... hopefully this is a precursor to him winning MWL MVP at the end of the year! Clearly you are either blind, insane or have extremely poor taste in women... regardless, I pity you and will not berate you further. :P

Hope Nathan asks him why they won't move up E-Patt! :)

Even when he has a good game, Leiter is always one pitch short of implosion. Tonight the Twins had 12 baserunners against him in 5 innings. But they left the bases loaded in the first and second innings, had a runner thrown out at home to end the 3rd, left 2 on in the 4th and grounded into a double play with 2 on in the 5th. Leiter really has next to nothing left... the Yankees should cut him adrift as soon as they can.

Wow, that must have been a REALLY bad throw!

I think his strikeout "problem" is being vastly overblown. Since his approach at the plate changed and he started being more patient, he has struck out 185 times in 215 games. That isn't that bad. It's a lower strikeout rate than someone like Ryan Harvey. And it also has to be noted that he has walked 145 times in those 215 games, so his BB/K ratio is a very good 0.8. My guess is that the reason he strikes out so much owes a lot to his patient approach. Look at guys like Mark Bellhorn or Adam Dunn, who work deep into the count every time they're up. They're clearly going to strike out more than a guy like Neifi Perez, who goes up hacking and usually hits the first strike that he sees. It's very hard to find a power hitter who hits a lot of home runs and draws a lot of walks without striking out fairly regularly. Derrek Lee strikes out way more than ARam, but I'm willing to accept all his strikeouts because he draws a good number of walks and hits with power. Also, I don't think it's fair to compare him to guys like Sexson, Dunn, or Delgado. There's about a 99.9% chance that he will be worse than those guys, being as they're three of the better power hitters in the game. How about a guy like Trot Nixon? He usually strikes out more than 100 times a year, but gives you about 70 walks a year, hits for a decent average and will give you 25-30 HR each season as well. I'd be perfectly happy to have something like that in LF, considering the garbage we've been throwing out there this season.

My biggest problem is that Dusty frequently uses him to pinch hit to lead off an inning, or when the Cubs need to get a rally going. If you need a hit, Macias can sometimes deliver that since he has a pretty solid average... but if you need someone to get on base, he's a terrible choice.

Audio highlights on your page pls... also do you have any audio from the game that Hill started and the Cubs won on the close play with Cedeno at home? Sorry, my power was out that night. But I'll have this one up. Rats... I would've loved to have heard Ronnie, he loses his mind on close plays at the end of a game. I'll look forward to hearing this one though!

Audio highlights on your page pls... also do you have any audio from the game that Hill started and the Cubs won on the close play with Cedeno at home?

Giants fans don't feel bad for us, after watching the most dominating hitter in baseball get IBB'ed for several years.

Your team is like the Cardinals... overachieving a lot, but in the end they will lose :P

Should I not post about E-Patt or Brandon Sing then? :oops: What I'd like to emphasize about my knowledge of the minor leagues is that I am a very stat-oriented person. I rely on BA for much of my knowledge about a particular prospect, and generally they are pretty strong on their reports. I liked E-Patt even before the Cubs drafted him, and thought he had very good potential as leadoff hitter in the big leagues. As for Sing, most of what I know I have read in BA as well. But I do know that he thoroughly trashed Daytona last year and is putting up monster numbers again this season, and it's hard to beat up on two leagues like that without being a serious prospect. Yes, his strikeout rate is relatively high, but unlike Dubois he shows excellent patience at the plate and does a better job of drawing walks or waiting for a pitch to hammer. My theory is that guys who have better BB/K and BB/PA ratios have a lot better shot at making the big leagues, and I don't need to see a guy in person to know those stats. He seems to have undergone a transformation since working with Richie Zisk, and I don't think it's unreasonable to think that something just clicked with him after some good instruction. Scouting is a pretty variable science. Remember how Treebeard said Ryan Harvey looked like the worst hitter in baseball when he went 0-5 with 3 K's in the Peoria game he went to? The next day Harvey went something like 4-4 with 3 HRs and 7 RBI. If he'd gone to the game the next day instead, he probably would've been touting Harvey as being the best prospect in minor league baseball. My point is that it's certainly beneficial to see a guy, but to get a true idea you have to see him every day. So by that measure, almost no Cub fan knows much about the club's prospects. But we all have our different preferences and ideas about what makes a good prospect, and Sing fits what I look for in a prospect.

The other way isn't working. Either stick him in the pen the rest of this year or shut him down, IMO. Personally, I have higher hopes for a contribution from Scott Williamson than from Kerry Wood for the rest of this season.

Turn the tables... wash your mom's mouth out with soap!

That IBB was a no brainer. If the Giants somehow get out of this inning, is there anyone left in their bullpen? This is their 6th guy out of the pen, not sure if they have an 11 man or 12 man staff.

Unfortunately, the theoretical replacement SS is Estelle Getty :oops:

Atta boy Ronald!

E-Patt on base 2 times out of 4 PAs tonight with a HBP and a single :)

Maybe it's not Dusty but his obscure identical twin Rusty, who happens to be a competent major league manager. :?:

Felipe Alou is determined to be dead or in a wheelchair by the time this game is over.

It's almost guaranteed that Hawkins blows through the heart of our lineup.

They lost last season when it counted the most while he was hurting. Regardless of Cubs fans pointing out it was a career year for Rolen last year, he's still a career .283, .375 OBP hitter (including this year's .235 AVG). His loss is huge for the Cards, not considering his defense. If I were a Cardinal fan, I'd be concerned that Rolen is going to decline pretty early in his career due to all the back problems he played through on the AstroConcrete in Philly. I wouldn't be in full-scale panic mode that he'd completely fall apart, but I'd at least be a little worried that he'll be severely underproducing his contract value, which is about $60M over the next 5 years.