CubinNY

Based on the way the market worked this summer, you could make a case for IP to be the most important stat. With anybody who pitches over 170 innings considered good and under 150 to be bad. So would you take the under at 160 IP? That is a tough one. I don't think it is an appropriate metric, which I'm almost sure you don't either. But for argument sake, let say it is. I think I still take the under. With the bullpen I think Lou will have a quick hook. Much quicker than TLR.

We will have to go with an over/under here. Someone needs to determine what metric and what number will equal mediocore. I nominate Tim. Take the over and you are betting that Marquis will be good Take the under and you are betting that Marqui will not be good Whatever the metric and whatever the number, I'm taking the under.

Joke? Not a joke.......at SS, defense is more important than offense. Then it is a joke.

Joke? Edit: hypothetical. The Cubs don't manage to resign Big Z in ST and deal him straight up for A-Rod near the deadline. Hypothetical II: The Cubs trade Prior, Pie, Veal for A-Rod at the deadline.

Holy snikes, Marquis gave up 3 dingers! Guess his luck wore out today.

Marquis has been very lucky this spring too.

Where did Thad Matta coach before he went to Ohio State? I can't quite remember... He was a long time assistant coach for Chuck Daily in the NBA. I don't know if he had a college coaching gig though.

It seems like every year the Cubs have some sort of medical problems during ST. The flu, stomach viruses, whatever, it is real weird.

I thought it was a good outing for him (I missed his first inning). His fastball was consistently in the low-nineties (92-93) and had good movement. He threw mainly fastball-changeup and worked quickly. I didn't see him snap off his curve (did anyone else?). He set down the first 6 hitters in order. He gave up a run in the 3rd off a single and double. He came out for the 4th, but BB'd Fielder on 4 pitches, then coughed up a HR to Bill Hall before getting pulled. It was the second time through the lineup and he may have been getting gassed at that point. They had Rapada warming up when he started the inning. He faced mainly Brewers regulars and the announcers said it was the 3rd time he'd pitched against Milwaukee in ST (the other time was vs the Angels, I think). The announcers also said he was 'nursing a sore shoulder' (implying more than normal soreness) but I don't know if that's accurate. It's nice to see Marshall pitching again. Thanks. How many walks? If he can learn to control the strike zone he could be pitching with the big club by the end of the year.

I think the correlation to actual performance is around .6 or .7 for any given year. That is pretty solid, but not outstanding. What is up with Sean G?

Go Memphis Tigers!

I can't log on to premium but I can on the regular site. FWIW

The Cubs do not look crisp either yesterday or today. The outcomes of ST games are meanigless, but I'd like to see them look a better. Lou has a lot of work to do.

Can we merge this thread with the other one on the 5th starter? I'm having a hard time knowing in which thread to post. :D

I just checked-Miller faced the entire Diamondbacks starting lineup (all 8 of them) last time out, and the time before that he faced about half the Padres hitters with the rest of them being their major league backups, not their minor leaguers (for example, Walker in for M. Giles). Yeah, you're right, I listened to those games. IIRC, he was helped a lot by his defense; Didn't he give up more hits than innings pitched (or was that Marquis)? I still think Guzman had a tougher lineup yesterday (and an inferior defensive team behind him). I hope Guzman has the benefit of pitching with all of the regulars in his next start. Guzman's problems yesterday were exactly what Lou said they were. He didn't finsih guys off. He had 0 ks. I think a lot of it had to do with luck but he also was getting the ball up in the zone too often. Friken Juan Uribe had a day yesterday. Guzman should have struck him out twice. The defense didn't help (I'm looking at you Floyd), but Guzman "let" too many balls get put into play. That's the reason why why FIPS/DIPS is such an important stat.

Cliff Flyod struggling with the glove might actually be the best thing for the Cubs offense. His bat looked slow to me, but then again he is behind a little. I thought Theroit wasn't a 3rd baseman? Anyway, he looked good to me at the plate yesterday even though he struck out twice. Both of those 3 and 2 pitches were pitcher's strikes. Edit: as far a 5th starter goes, I think Lou is leaning toward Miller. If/when Prior get healthy Miller or Guzman will be traded, IMO.

White Sox brought their hitting shoes and the Cubs have looked poor on defense. Guzman pitched ok but didn't strike anyone out. Right now. Cherry walked Thome. Cherry has looked pretty good today. 2 on and 2 out. Thanks, CubinNY. Current score? 6-3 Sox

Ronny Woo Woo in the background is almost more annoying than the Hawk.

White Sox brought their hitting shoes and the Cubs have looked poor on defense. Guzman pitched ok but didn't strike anyone out. Right now. Cherry walked Thome. Cherry has looked pretty good today. 2 on and 2 out.

The WS are hitting some good pitches today. That pitch by Cherry was pretty nice.

I thought he pitched ok. He was getting the ball up in the zone too often and his curve ball didn't look sharp. But overall, he didn't pitch that bad.

That's BS. He appologized for the cork incident and he didn't mysteriously forget English. He brought someone to help him. He may not have beent he best teammate, but let's not go overboard. He played hard every game and he played well. He did a lot of good for the fans when he was in Chicago. I think it is quite pathetic that some people will let the Jay Marrotti's and Gene Wojohowski's of the world color their image of Sammy.

I don't know what you expected but that is about as bad a line as it gets. Maybe he expected him to be more like these NL East players who got at least 100 AB's: Pete Orr-.253/.277/.344 Todd Pratt-.207/.272/.341 Alfredo Amezaga-.260/.332/.332 Matt Treanor-.229/.328/.318 Reggie Abercrombie-.212/.271/.333 Lastings Milledge-.241/.310/.380 Chris Woodward-.211/.289/.311 Kazuo Matsui-.200/.235/.269 Sal Fasano-.243/.284/.386 Abraham Nunez-.211/.303/.277 Jose Guillen-.216/.276/.398 Robert Fick-.266/.324/.344 Marlon Byrd-.223/.317/.350 Damian Jackson-.198/.295/.371 Royce Clayton-.269/.315/.348 Brian Schneider-.256/.320/.329 Bernie Castro-.227/.286/.291 When your 25th man who just made the team because of a hot ST beats the line of 17 position players in one division with similar at-bats, that's probably a little above expectations. Also, it is not nearly the worst line someone can get-there are at least several on there that are much worse, and if the other 5 divisions were looked at I'd bet there were at least 30-40 more around the majors. Now, that doesn't mean Pagan is good-the mere fact that he exceeded expecations with his .700 is enough to make him easily expendable. He wasn't a unique bench player with his line though-just about every major league bench has a couple of players that are around or below that line. Yea, he's the skinnest fat person weighing over 600 pounds. He stinks, his line stinks and there's no getting around it. And to say he wasn't as bad as expected is to say that nothing was expected of him.

I don't know what you expected but that is about as bad a line as it gets.

I don't. I would be willing to bet that a lot of people who post in this thread don't either. I don't have to listen to Limbaugh to know he is a pompas windbag. I don't have to read Marrotti to know he is one either. I don't think there are a lot of people who buy a newspaper becuase Lupica or Marrotti or Ryan write for it.