AlwaysaCub

Welcome to having FIVE legit outfielders who all want/need to play every day.

Top 3 pitcher in the league? Top three pitcher in this decade. He's faced something like 60 batters so far, and maybe 4 have hit the ball to the outfield. He's beyond ridiculous.

He's the youngest pitcher to start on opening day since Dwight Gooden. He reported to camp in shape and looking much better on the mound and he's past the sophomore slump. Most importantly, his slider is Ridculous. Based on the way he's pitched, he'll be entering Dwight Goode dominance this year. Maybe being away from the east coast will keep off the pressure to overpitch him and ruin that right arm like a certain triple-A righthander.

http://www.freakonomics.com/blog/2007/04/06/my-once-a-year-post-on-baseball/ Steve Levitt wrote an interesting blog post about some research he is collaborating on with an assistant. In so many words, they show that the batting order DOES matter, contrary to what most sabermetricians believe. It's an interesting little read.

that pitch he kept throwing was insane, it had a huge break on it it was nice seeing Lou going out there and telling dempster to get his $#% together, wouldve never happened with dusty Yes. I'm actually impressed, that, considering our offense, we got 4 runs against a pretty dominating pitch like that. They say Arroyo got better when he switched leagues, but that pitch seems like it could be an even bigger reason. That pitch would be just as good in the AL. Last year we would never have gotten 4 runs against Arroyo, and that's a real indicator to me that they are a completely different and better offensive ballclub.

I am. This sucks.

How cool is it to see the Cubs, for once, having the crafty lefty that completely messes with the timing of the other team?

You can and I often do, but right now the audio is more than a batter behinmd the video. So it's probably not worth it. BUT if you want to, I set my mac to open the player in a new quicktime window. You can have more than one open at once, but the audio only plays from the window on top. Not sure how it would work on a pc though.

Cedeno is playing first? I'd put the over/under on his regular season innings at first at 2. Why? EDIT: I'm an idiot. It's good to actually read the thread.

I think that not ever skipping your 5th starter is a bad idea. If you skipped the 5th starter every time you could, your 5th starter might give up 8 starts. This on balance is a good thing, because your 5th starter tends to suck, which is why he's the 5th starter. Would you really rather have someone like Sean Marshall starting over Z and Rich Hill?

Hey guys. I just turned on the Comcast broadcast. Who is replacing Brenly for this game? The voice sounds familiar, I just can't place it.

Sorry about my profanity guys. It was certainly a shi-wait-darn awful move on my part.

Well actually, that was some< awful> luck. HBP, error, and Strikeout/WP? That's some way to load the bases.

Barf.

Ronnie Woo Woo is giving a shout-out to himself.

I'm not sure how it proves anything like that-anybody can be taught to take more walks at the expense of some of their hits. What San Diego is trying to do is instill plate discipline and make their hitters better, which I don't think this evidence has any proof for that at all. Edit: I do think plate discipline to a point is learned (some of it is natural, and some of it can be improved)-but this shows me very little except that they pushed their hitters to take more pitchers, which in a couple leagues caused high walks, high SO's, and very low AVG and SLG. That's not true at all. The high strike outs, low average, and slugging are independent of plate discipline. It shows how bad some of the players are in their system. Adam Dunn has high strikes, low average and great slugging. I can't agree with the bolded statement. While I in no way believe that lower AVG and SLG numbers are the result of their more patient approach at the plate (it probably has a lot to do with a lack of talent, by and large), they are definitely not independent of one another. They're all linked pretty closely as the result of a general approach at the plate. My only reply is that you can teach Ronny Cedeno to be more patient at the plate, yet he will never be able to slug like A-Rod. How do you account for the Adam Dunns and Mark Bellhorns of MLB? Slugging, plate discipline, and hitting for average are correlated, but not 1 to 1 I would say. Seeing more pitches per plate appearance would make it more likely that a player slug less and hit for higher average, but this is just a general trend. There are always outliers. So I agree that they are not independent, but that doesn't mean that knowing a players plate discipline and batting average will allow you to determine what he will slug.

My favorite intro was the one from 2001 or 2002...those were the good old days. The 2004 one was pretty cool, because it had 2003 highlights mixed in with highlights from old games.

The outfield discussion should only include 6 players: Gary Maddox Willie Mays Curt Flood Andruw Jones Junior Griffey Clemente I'll take Jones, Mays, and Maddox.

It doesn't look like Z slimmed down over the winter as much as he has in years past. That's probably a bad sign for his future overall health.

Is it just that crazy math they are teaching the kids these days or does that add up to 158 for anyone else? 68 games on WGN 72 games on Comcast 8 games on the U 9 games on Fox 1 game on ESPN 68+72+8+9+1=158 +4=162 Sun 6/10 @ Atlanta TBD TBD Sun 6/24 @ White Sox TBD TBD Sun 8/5 vs. NY Mets TBD TBD Sun 8/19 vs. St. Louis TBD TBD The last three of those will definitely end up on ESPN.

Well, yeah. Besides Zambrano and now Marquis, it's definitely not worth holding back Michael Barrett in the 15th inning with a runner on 2nd and pinch hitting Rich Hill because you're worried that Blanco is going to get injured. I agree with the idea of the post though, this happens about 4 times a year. No catcher wants to catch for 16 innings straight. Your knees would hurt for days. You have to bring in the other guy for a while, and that has its risks. Is no one else looking for anything to scratch the itch? I am.

The Blue Jays? Considering a few of the other teams in the AL East, the Blue Jays are only playing catch-up.

Hehe. He's still trying to figure out how in the world the Bears could have stopped his #1 offense 8-) I guess God really didn't ordain that the Saints would win, eh? What do those N.O. tarot-card reading voodoo witches have to say for themselves NOW, eh??? 8-) Well, we knew that already...Ditka picked the Bears on ESPN, and it was so.

I would be shocked if they gave Prior more than 1 year at this point. There's no reason to offer it, unless he's willing to take peanuts in the 2nd year. Maybe they offer him an incentive-laden deal similar to Wood and Miller? I don't see the point. They'll sign him to a one year deal worth about the same as he made in 2006, possibly a little less, but likely a shade more. He's not a free agent whom they need to entice to return. He is under their control, and their only obligation is to offer a contract no less than 80% (or similar) of what he made last year. Apologies all around. I thought he was a free agent after the 2007 season. He was called up too late in 2002 for that year to count, so the free agency clock started ticking in 2003. That's why he's not a free agent until after 2008. Zambrano was up in 2001, and pitched 108 innings in 2002. http://mlbcontracts.blogspot.com/2005/01/chicago-cubs_112114177768677294.html That site has him at 5.042 years right now. So he'll cross 6 this year. http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2008_mlb_free_agents/index.html That site also has him as an FA after 2007, before 2008.

Z is going to get paid. I'm talking $140M+ paid. I completely believe you, but I don't think we have the space. Why not? I have two reasons. 1. That's another large commitment, and will hurt out flexibility in future years even more. On its own it won't, obviously, because Z will most likely be really good. On top of the other contracts, though, we have a bit of a squeeze. 2. Will the Trib okay that, especially with this sale about to go down? I realize this is basically the Maddux situation all over again, but will they let the wallet open again after this year's offseason? They might see this payroll as being acceptable. We're already first in NL payroll, aren't we? Actually though, that's a really sweet deal for big Z, all things considered. I suppose that could be incentive to sign that kind of deal. But seriously, would Zambrano do it?