CubinNY

That's asinine. Aramis hit a freaking HR. That HR was the difference in the ball game if Lee doesn't try to steal. For the life of me, I cannot understand Cub fans. ITS NOT BAD LUCK THAT IS KEEPING THE CUBS FROM WINNING Tell me, what exactly is asinine about what I said? Asinine:" You cannot really assume Aramis would've hit that HR if Lee had been called safe or hadn't tried to steal at all." Aramis did hit a HR and Lee did get called out. This isn't chaos theory nor is it the butterfly effect. All we have to go on is exactly what happened. And what happend was a dumb play followed by a HR that should have been the difference in the ball game. EDIT> I do not think the season is over, but at this point in time the Cubs are not a good team. But with the mediocrity that is the NL Central they still have a shot.

That's asinine. Aramis hit a freaking HR. That HR was the difference in the ball game if Lee doesn't try to steal. For the life of me, I cannot understand Cub fans. ITS NOT BAD LUCK THAT IS KEEPING THE CUBS FROM WINNING

Pyth is worthless at this stage. It looks good thanks to a couple high scoring games. I've never liked its inability to account for feast or famine offenses like the Cubs, and that is just exasperated this early in the season. Take out the Cubs 2 highest and 2 lowest scoring games, and their average runs scored drops from about 4.6 to 4.3. The Cubs aren't having bad luck. They are a flawed team having all its weaknesses exposed. People keep talking about the 1 and 2 run losses, but the Cubs have lost by 3, 4 and 5 runs as well. When you are a bad team with a bad record, your record is going to be bad in just about every split. The Cubs need to drastically improve their play, not hope for luck to start going there way. So you think their 0-9 mark in close games is indicative of their true ability? They've lost close games with no scoring, with lots of scoring, and in between. CCP has shown that they aren't losing a ton of games by other deficits. Unless you can point to a specific reason why they'll continue to be mind bendingly bad in close games, then there's no reason to assume they won't correct that, and that's the difference right now between last place and first place, never mind what's in between. Perhaps things will even out. But last night's loss was not bad luck. D-Lee tried to steal 3rd and got called out just before Aramis hit a HR. Even if Lee was safe (which appearently most people think he was), it's still dumb. Cubs win 5-4. Against the Cards stupid Henry Blanco can't get a bunt down then a couple of innings later Cedeno overslides second base on a freaking ball 4. That is not bad luck. In many of those close games the Cubs have done something stupid that contributed to the loss. Not to mention Marquis has 2 pinch hit ABs.

Nice!

Hendry is responsible for each and every reason why they suck. He's the GM. He puts together the team. You don't diregard the poor record because a couple of the guys he got are doing well. So I guess whichever team wins the world title, no credit should be given to the players or manager, but just to the GM for "putting the team together." Hendry is not totally to blame. Yes, this is a flawed roster, and for that he incurs blame. Lou incurs blame for a few questionable decisions (none of them last night IMO) and the fact that he told Hendry repeatedly to not bring anyone else in. The players get blame for under performing what people like Hendry or everybody else would expect of them. There's too much blame here to put it on one person. The Cubs started this season with 3 LFers 0 CFers and 1 RFer. They are starting a guy at 2nd who has played exactly 1 full season in 9 big league season. They have two SS who have demonstrated they cannot hit. The starting pitching has been decent for the most part but he gave long contracts to guys that have mediocre track records and failed to sign the staff ace in the offseason. Thank the stars for Hill, whom Hendry and Dusty tried to ruin. He's paid big money to bullpen pitchers whose one common characteristic is that they are inconsistent. There is plenty of blame to go around but the one common denominator since 2003 has been James Hendry.

I don't think so. I never understood why people were fired up about the season. I think the Cubs are a better than their record but not by much.

It's not necessarily a bad idea as long as things aren't going well. The biggest problem I see is that Lou is in a chess game and Hendry has taken away some of his pieces or not given him the right pieces. He can move them around the board as much as he wants but at the end of the game he still doesn't have the right pieces in position to win becuase they were never there to begin with. How is that for a metaphore?

Because blue will blow the call? no, because it's dumb. why? Because he is already in scoring position and you have a slugger at the plate. Heros is on, I'm out.

Damn you Lee. Yea Aramis!

Lee has been hitting the ball real hard, he just hasn't been elevating.

Yes, Z has had a rough April for a couple years now. Maybe he has too much rest in the offseason. Maybe he's like a good desiel engine that needs to be ran to run right.

Millwaukee beer is much better than St. Louis beer. Pabst Blue Ribbon in a bottle is about the best mass produced "American" style beer around.

I don't know any of those people on this board. I think it's more of a running joke. The one thing I'd like to see is the reference to the thread after the IBL so I can go to that thread.

They're going to need them.

Dave Otto. You gotta be some kind of strong... I miss Ron:sad:. Get well soon Ron.

Who is that with Pat on the radio?

Holy Crap, Floyd in RF. I'm not that into defense, but that is really bad. That at least would seem to indicate that they want Soriano to stay in left for quite a while. If that's the case the Cubs should trade Murton and keep Jones. Murton would net more in return from a competent GM. I knew this would happen when they went after Soriano.

Holy Crap, Floyd in RF. I'm not that into defense, but that is really bad.

That's why I have hope for the Cubs. Lou is results oriented.

All the above

The thing is that the numbers don't mean a whole lot when there are so few opportunities. In other words it is premature to make any predictions about SLG, ISOD, ISOP, or BABIP. Instead of looking at this year's data I think its better to look at the sum total of his previous work. He just hasn't seen enough playing time to know whats going. That's why previously, I wrote that "one could make the case that...". There is no way to demonstrate anything with the numbers he's put up this year. However, talking about driving the ball, and watching every game mean very little to me. He hasn't hit for much power yet, but he hasn't hit much yet either.

Then I'd like some of whatever Murton is smoking that makes him the luckiest player on the planet. .357/.400 without hitting the ball hard. Pass some of that to the rest of the team, Matty. That lack of power is concerning. Not necessarily HR power (although a couple would be nice) but the ability to hit 2B's. Murton had 22 2B's and 3 3B's with 14 HR's last year. He only has one 2B this year, and that was a bloop the other day. He might be hitting the ball hard on the ground to get singles, but he's not driving the ball at all. If he continues to not drive the ball combined with that poor walk rate, he's not going to be a productive corner outfielder. Do I expect that to continue? No, I'm sure he'll figure out a way soon to work through this-but that's why think he needs to work through some things. Again, if .357/.400 is Murton struggling, then I think I'll be able to live with his production if he can get consistent playing time. Without driving the ball, he cannot sustain that .357/.400 line-if you look at his BABIP as a starter, it's extraordinarily high-which means that he's getting quite lucky right now for so many singles to fall in the way they have. Ok, I'll give up the jig. I know Murton hasn't been amazing this year (I do think he's been good when given regular AB's, though). I'm just pointing out how ridiculous all the talk of Murton't tremendous struggle is. You can't really say that someone hitting .357/.400 when they start is lost at the plate. You can if you put more faith in subjective distinctions like luck, looks, and driving the ball. It's great fun. I think the thing is that we really cannot say how Murton is doing because he hasn't played enough yet. However, we have a pretty sizable chunck of data from previous years that suggest how he could do if given more time. Murton is not a big bopper (a run producer). That's his main problem with baseball men like Hendry and Lou.

Just wait until Manuel gets fired and they bring in Dusty. Hamels has already broken his arm once That would be outstanding. The media in Philadelphia will eat Dusty for breakfest. I can already see Bill Conlin salivating.

Murton also got a couple lucky IF hits and weak bloopers to drop. I wouldn't get too excited about his numbers as a starter. Murton is struggling at the plate. That's pretty apparent if you watch him. First pitch hacking and failing to work the count really stand out with a player like Murton, who is a very good 2 strike hitter. IMO, with such a small sample size, it's better to go off what you see with the naked eye than look at a player's stats. However you want to look at it, if a .357 AVG and .400 OBP is Murton struggling, then look out world. Exactly. One could make the case that he is struggling becuase of sporadic use and PHing. That sporadic use and PHing are a direct cause of Murton's struggles. Put a young player in a position where he has to produce to "save" his job and he's going to get hacking.

I'm hoping the Cubs aren't planning on Colvin to do anything at this point in time.