CubinNY

First, most hitters pull the ball. Second, the ball will slice towards his glove hand (LH for soriano) off of a right handed hitter. If the ball is pulled from a left handed hitter same thing. In left field just the opposite is the case. Either way the difference in positions is negligible to the point of absurdity.

You might think its complete and utter nonsense, but it's fact my friend. They are that much different. Maybe you denying it is complete and utter nonsense... What is a fact? The ball comes off the bat different? That's not in dispute. Soriano is supposed to be this uber athletic stud. He's played one full season in LF, the rest of the time he's been an infielder. He made the jump from 2nd to LF ok, kind of. He should be able to adjust to RF. Sammy Sossa held down the postion pretty well as did Jeromi Burnitz and many other medocire fielders. BTW> In RF the ball will be slicing to him off of a RH batter, not away from him.

Why not? Because it makes too much sense. It just makes too much sense ...? Maybe if we pretended there was no difference. That more or less is "why not." Murton isn't a rightfielder either but he does get better reads and handles those better. It's becoming a pet peeve of mine that people refuse to acknowledge a difference between left and rightfield. I think what you've written is complete and utter nonsense. The positions are not that much different. Nothing that 10 or 12 hours of fungo practice wouldn't take care of anyway.

That at least has as much validity as uncontrollable cramps. Probably more.

You cannot compare stats over two seasons. Those are not consecutive starts nor are they consecutive appearences. This is so much like the Rich Hill saga from last year. He's up, he's down, he's in the pen, he's starting, he's in the pen. They haven't given him enough time to go much over 75 pitches. What I'm saying is that he couldn't do it last year, even when he had about 16 consecutive starts. Why was Dusty willing to throw Marmol out there for a ton of pitches but not Guzman? Even Mateo, who Dusty had the quickest hook on, was allowed to throw a lot of pitches in some games, but not Guzman. In the last two months of the season, Dusty ran every starting pitcher into the ground, but Guzman only broke 85 pitches for him once. I find that strange. I would agree this year they haven't given him many chances to go above 75 (although they have given him a little bit of a chance, the last start he made was his 6th in a row, he should be fully stretched out already). I would have liked to see that he proved that he couldn't throw that deep into a game before I sent him down to the bullpen, but apparently the doubt about that (which I fully understand) was enough to make Lou act. If Marshall pitches at least decently, it shouldn't be too bad of a thing for the team-because while Guzman has the stuff to be a decent to good starter, his stuff gets a lot better in the pen with the extra velocity on his fastball. If Marshall is terrible as a starter, then Guzman to the pen is an awful move, because the 5th starter is more important than a reliever. Guzman NEVER made 16 consecutive starts with the Cubs. http://www.fangraphs.com/statsd.aspx?playerid=2145&position=P&season=2006 He pitched in 4 consecutive starts in April. In June he was used in the bullpen. Then sent down. Then in late August and Early September he made 5 consecutive starts and was again moved to the pen. This year he started in the pen. Then was sent down. Then brought up and made three starts. Now he's in the pen. You see a pattern?

Quite. So I guess the Aardsma trade was a net win for the Sox? He's at least still around, and I don't hear a lot of negativity over him coming from the South Side. Just wait until Cotts is starting witht he big club. They'll have four lefties and Marqius by the end of the year.

You cannot compare stats over two seasons. Those are not consecutive starts nor are they consecutive appearences. This is so much like the Rich Hill saga from last year. He's up, he's down, he's in the pen, he's starting, he's in the pen. They haven't given him enough time to go much over 75 pitches.

How is he continually taken out in the 4th? Well, if he cramps up around 60 pitches then I'm sure there would be multiple times where he wouldn't make it out of the 4th/5th inning. I'd rather not have a starter who cannot make it past the 60 pitch mark. I saw Guzman pitch here in Memphis when he was getting "stretched out" to become a starter and he threw almost exactly 100 pitches and they took him out. He looked pissed. Let's not try to make too much out of his cramps. I would think any competent medical staff could aleviate this problem. Not quite 100 pitches-Guzman threw 76 pitches that night in Memphis. In fact, he hasn't thrown above 85 pitches since last August. And when he's started he thrown more than 60. Guzman is suffering from the same problem that almost every Cub prospect has suffered from for the last several years. Inconsistent useage patterns.

How is he continually taken out in the 4th? Well, if he cramps up around 60 pitches then I'm sure there would be multiple times where he wouldn't make it out of the 4th/5th inning. I'd rather not have a starter who cannot make it past the 60 pitch mark. I saw Guzman pitch here in Memphis when he was getting "stretched out" to become a starter and he threw almost exactly 100 pitches and they took him out. He looked pissed. Let's not try to make too much out of his cramps. I would think any competent medical staff could aleviate this problem.

Yes, yes, yes. Subjective evaluations are often correct, but their reliability at any given time is unknown. The farther out from professional baseball the evaluation, the less reliable it will be.

I thought that was the same guy. He was like a can't miss. I think he was drafted third or something like that. He only got like 24 PAs in the the bigs in 2004 and now he's in AA. What gives? .738 and .640 OPS at AAA in the 2 years after his MLB cup of coffee did him in. Yikes! That will do it.

I thought that was the same guy. He was like a can't miss. I think he was drafted third or something like that. He only got like 24 PAs in the the bigs in 2004 and now he's in AA. What gives?

I'm way inland and it's thick as heck here too...I haven't seen the sun in 3 days. There won't be many runs in the Dodgers series too. We had sun yesterday for about an hour. By the time the sun burned off most of the marine layer, it was starting to set and it just built right back up again. This will be a good game to play some small ball. BBB, are you going to any of the games? My wife and I are "attending" an academic conference in SD over the weekend and wll be at Thursday's game.

They aren't his numbers becuase he doesn't get to play on a consistent basis. The people running the Cubs are traditionalists. They want a Slugger in the corner outfiled spot. I called this as soon as Hendry went ga-ga over Soriano. Then they went out and got Floyd. Hendry and crew are clueless. It's a shame. I disagree that the only thing lacking is consistent play. I think there's a little more to it than that but that's impossible to argue so we'll just leave that up to be determined. It's not quite as simple as the Cubs wanting a slugger there either. The problem is he'd have to be better in every other area -- defense, speed, discipline -- and he's just not. He's below average defensively in right field and does not have significant speed. He has good discipline at the plate but this is another thing that's always been exaggerated for him. He is not an elite walker; he doesn't even have great patience. He's just a little above average when the Cubs have been so used to players below average. A breath of fresh air, no doubt, and personally I think Murton will come around to find some power but he's out of place here now. Unless you move Soriano to rightfield and he adjusts well there, you cannot imagine any longterm future for Murton with the club without serious improvements. Now if he's traded for a middle reliever - I'm pissed. But let's not treat it as if the only acceptable trade is for Miguel Cabrera because that's just nonsense. It's sensless what the Cubs are doing. To try to portray it as anything else is just silly. Hendry & Co. should have asked themselves: What do we have and what do we need? They had a cheap LFer who produced at a good rate and looked to be improving They had JJ comming off a career year and were looking to trade him. They needed a CFer They needed people who could get on base They got nothing that they needed (offensively) and allocated a lot of money and a lot of years to do so. I'm willing to bet a year's worth of premium that if Murton gets regularly playing time from 2008-2010 he will have better three year numbers OBP/OPS+ than Soriano.

They aren't his numbers becuase he doesn't get to play on a consistent basis. The people running the Cubs are traditionalists. They want a Slugger in the corner outfiled spot. I called this as soon as Hendry went ga-ga over Soriano. Then they went out and got Floyd. Hendry and crew are clueless. It's a shame.

Someone in the know give me the scoop on Josh Kroger. Wasn't he a top prospect for the Diamond Backs at one time? What is he doing in AA? Am I mistaken? Does he have a future? Edit: it's Kroeger not Kroger. Stupid.

That is the epitath of the Jim Hendry led Cubs. Hendry has all the classic signs of ADHD. He's always doing something but his action demostrate a lack of organization and long term thinking. Get that man to a behavior specialist.

Fox doesn't have a position. He can't catch well enough and can run fast enough. He may have the arm for a corner outfield spot, but he doesn't have the size to play firstbase. IMO, his best use is as a trade chip.

The jump to AA is not going well for Veal. That sucks.

D-Lee will walk.

Mullet night at the Cell block, they should have a packed house. The only thing better would be crystal meth night.

Tomato can two hits the Cubs.

Please come back soon Derrek.

There is no noise worse than a Hawk called HR. Nails on a chalk board is more pleasent.

it's not hard to figure out at all. after yesterday, the Cubs are something like 2-12 when the pen comes in when the game is tied or the Cubs are up by 1 or 2 runs. you can blame the offense for certain games (particularly the extra inning games) but those couple of games are balanced by games where the offense bailed the pen out (like yesterday). you also can give the pen a break for the Zambrano/Ohman game considering the situation the pen entered. but the bottom line is this. if the pen converts even 50% of the games in which they had a one or two run lead when entering the game (thus not even counting the meltdown in NY) the Cubs are on pace to win over 90 games this year. the problem up until now has been the pen in close games. there's simply no two ways around it. every other stat you break down, there's no discernable difference between the Cubs and the other teams in the league. there's a huge difference between the Cubs and the winning teams in the NL when looking at the pen in close games. That begs the question of the pen's performance in not close games. What are the data on inhereted runs scored? Are the data worse in close games than in not close games? If they are then I would surmize the results are due to chance and that no changes need to be made. If the data are the same for close and not close then the Cubs need to find out who the culprits are and not use them in those situations. Moving Gooz to the bullpen and moving Dempster to starter (potentially) is about the least rational decision they could make.