TruffleShuffle

To be fair, Pie is being outplayed by his rival for playing time, even though the sample isn't meaningful. I'm really not comprehending what the excuse for Cedeno is. pie's "rival" has a sparkling .679 OPS against RHP... johnson isn't good enough against RHP to justify playing him over a prospect who's trying to find a groove. I agree, but I can at least see a sane case for the opposite. i can see a sane case for continuing to play a guy who has been at 370/433/481 over the past two weeks.

that strike three call looked generous

To be fair, Pie is being outplayed by his rival for playing time, even though the sample isn't meaningful. I'm really not comprehending what the excuse for Cedeno is. pie's "rival" has a sparkling .679 OPS against RHP... johnson isn't good enough against RHP to justify playing him over a prospect who's trying to find a groove.

i don't even understand the point of busch light advertising. if people are poor, they'll drink it.

IT'S NICE TO BE IMPORTANT BUT IT'S MORE IMPORTANT TO BE NICE!!!!

hey chicago-area people, be sure to check out josh vitters' one and only appearance at wrigley field!

cedeno would've made that play.

if theriot really had great intangibles he'd bench himself for cedeno

As we arrive at the end of April, here are some interesting Cub-related and non-Cub-related stats. Matt Kemp - who was probably dropped in 25% of fantasy leagues because he had a rough first week or two - is up to .318/.344/.489/.833 on the year now. He has a .413 BABIP, which would be a red flag if his LD% were not an absurd 30.8%. The highest BABIP in baseball belongs to Manny Ramirez (.423), while Jason Giambi is the lowest (.119!) Two Cubs who have been seeing the ball well are Ryan Theriot (6th in the league in LD% at 28.2) and Geovany Soto (7th in the league, 27.7%). Felix Pie's LD% is a woeful 10.6%. Don't feel bad though, Felix - David Ortiz only has a 8.7 LD%, and a lovely .177 BABIP to go along with it. For a guy who hits 30+ home runs every year, Albert Pujols is in a league by himself when it comes to striking out. Through 29 games, he has 30 walks and 7 strikeouts. Casey Kotchman has only struck out 5 times in 106 PAs. Hanley Ramirez has homered on 30.7% of his fly balls, though he will be hard-pressed to top Ryan Howard's 38.3% figure in his MVP season. Mephistophles' crush, Khalil Greene, has the lowest GB% in baseball - only 23.6%. Not a good thing for a guy who plays half his games in a cavernous home park. Gary Matthews Jr. and Troy Tulowitzki have made more outs than anyone - 96. For line drives against, three Padre pitchers rank among the four worst in baseball: Randy Wolf (30.7%), Chris Young (25.6%) and Greg Maddux (24.2%). The highest DER (defense efficiency ratio) in baseball belongs to Ben Sheets, at .830 - meaning that 83% of the balls in play against him have been turned into outs. Ryan Dempster is next at .810. The worst DER belongs to Chad Billingsley (.632), followed by Tim Lincecum (.638). This makes Lincecum's strong start even more impressive. The Devil Rays (I refuse to call them the Rays) have made quite a turnaround defensively. In 2007, their defensive efficiency was .662. This is bad. Like, really bad. In fact, it's the worst defensive efficiency on record, with BP's records of this statistic going back 49 years. This year, they stand at .730, which is the third-best figure in baseball. Micah Owings has a major league OPS+ of 158. That's the same OPS+ as Hank Greenberg, Johnny Mize and Tris Speaker.

probably because he generally has good fundamentals and people aren't going to overreact about a few baserunning mistakes made in one week. Does he, really? Or is that just perception? What does that even mean? yes, he does. he's a good baserunner, steals bases at a good rate, shows good patience at the plate and doesn't make many errors. there's plenty to criticize with theriot, like his ability to hit and his range in the field.

probably because he generally has good fundamentals and people aren't going to overreact about a few baserunning mistakes made in one week.

http://d.yimg.com/a/p/sp/getty/71/fullj.3fa9000562ca1f7de856be88cf8f4a9d/3fa9000562ca1f7de856be88cf8f4a9d-getty-80820555jm017_montreal_cana.jpg

Crapspackle. So it is. Don't I feel sheepish. :oops: who cares, 6/18 is still pretty solid. especially when one rakes like geo has been doing.

that is quite a stretch.

Theriot is at .327/.394/.439 (.833) this year. cubs' non-soto catchers hit .223/~290/.338 in 2007. i'm not saying that theriot will finish anywhere near that level or that the cubs' shortstops will be that bad this year. but the biggest problem was that the cubs' catchers, by and large, couldn't even reach replacement level last year, but meanwhile the "third" catcher was destroying the PCL to a point where he was the league MVP.

this area will be insane if it's pens-flyers in the eastern conference finals. please let this happen. http://d.yimg.com/a/p/sp/getty/fb/fullj.65ddbbbcd583fa0ba324c65db0ca9170/65ddbbbcd583fa0ba324c65db0ca9170-getty-80820555jm013_montreal_cana.jpg

it's not that people were overlooking him b/c of his position. he was just never this good. if you can find one person who thought he'd rank among the top third of starting catchers in baseball, i'd be shocked. he simply turned out to be a very good, late-blossoming catcher.

OH GOD THEY'VE FIGURED SOTO OUT, NOW HE'S BACK TO STRIKING OUT EVERY AT BAT

if soto hits another 3 run homer i will seriously wet myself

+1 Id never listen to the generic music they pump out, but theres something captivating about other peoples dreams being shattered, especially when youve been a life long Cubs fan. unless you have a girlfriend who has said she'll give you special birthday sex if you watch it with her, there's no excuse.

anyone posting about american idol in this thread should be kicked in the balls.

As long as he keeps up, I think we have somebody to get behind for the All Star Game. I have a feeling he won't get many votes outside of Chicago. he probably won't be voted the starter unless he keeps playing out of his mind. Assuming that Doumit's performance is a bit of a fluke, there are only two really good catchers in the NL - mccann and martin. he'll probably have to beat one of those two out for the reserve spot, unless they've all got really good numbers.

i shall wear my geovany soto shirt with pride tomorrow.

well his performance at AAA was clearly something that he could not carry over to the major league level.

the difference between our catchers last year and our catcher this year is ridiculous. i can't believe we have one of the best catchers in baseball, that is crazy.