CubinNY

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.

Is it odd for GM to be running around in a golf cart scolding players? It seems odd to me.

I have no problem with Rose in the HOF for his baseball playing career. In fact, I think he should be in. However, he should never be allowed to coach or be in the front office of any ball club. It doesn't really matter that he bet on his team to win. What matters is that he bet. These guys who take the bets don't give a rip who the better is betting on, but he better pay up when he loses. If he doesn't he better find a way to make things right. Making things right includes giving inside information about players, including what they do on and off the field, injuries and what not. If not that then he better start point shaving, or doing dumb things to decrease the chances of his team winning. Betting is harmless for us, but for people directily involved in the sport it is very dangerous.

I don't see the humor. He just insults and complains, and repeats the same stuff over and over. Cubdom, cheap owners, Prior and Wood, Ozzie, blah blah blah. I really don't see the humor. Don't forget Bartman, always seems to find a way to say that too. I think we should have a cage match, moronoriti vs. Rome, to the death. I'd pay for that. If the winner also could never speak or publicly write again too.

Bolderdash. I like that word and it fits. The baseball diamond is an oasis where those things matter least.

I don't think that is the case at all. He could play 2nd base or one of the corner outfield spots. 2B, maybe. The Cubs are not going to sign him to play corner outfield though-they already have their future plan for the outfield set out. How is that? Pie and Soriano are two, but if you're thinking Tyler Colvin three, I like Colvin's upside. But he wouldn't bump A-Rod from a job, c'mon. Rodriguez, Soriano, Pie--yep, I could live with that. :-) It seems like they are content with Murton (after this year) to have the job full-time for at least 3-4 years. That kind of stuff is constantly in flux. Ruling out the acquisition of ARod because you think you might have a position settled for 3-4 years would be absurd. I still said they might acquire him for 2B-but they are not going to acquire him and pay him all that money for a position in which they already have players they are happy with. I'm happy with Derrek Lee but if the front office in St. Louis lost their minds and Pujols wanted out I think I would find a way to accomidate that. By the way, who says they are happy with either corner outfield spot? They are planning on platooning Murton and JJ is on the block. Pie is everybody's darling but he is no sure thing to be an every day player anytime soon. It's all hypothetical so I'm not going to get too worked up, but I think you are completely off-base.

I don't think that is the case at all. He could play 2nd base or one of the corner outfield spots.

I'm starting to hear Prior's name mentioned in the same sentence as Mark Fidrych. That's who I was thinking of. However, I think the Cubs are stupid if they let Prior go. I'm sure they are frustrated but one does not just lose talent. The Bird had arm injuries he couldn't come back from. Unless Prior is hurt and no one is telling us anything, he and Fidrych are not similar.

Do a little Taste of Chicago then see the Police. That would be a great weekend.

Two players peripherals right here-both are on NL Central teams right now, both were on the same team in the years these were taken from, and one is expected to be average while the other one is not: Year 1- A-6.17 K/9, 1.97 K/BB, 2.17 G/F, 1.42 WHIP B-5.27 K/9, 1.69 K/BB, 1.59 G/F, 1.37 WHIP Year 2- A-4.35 K/9, 1.45 K/BB, 1.59 G/F, 1.32 WHIP B-5.28 K/9, 1.81 K/BB, 1.43 G/F, 1.38 WHIP Here is year 3 for one of those 2 pitchers B-4.93 K/9, 1.51 K/BB, 1.61 G/F, 1.45 WHIP Based on those peripherals, what do you think of these two pitchers? Are they both destined to be pretty bad? Where is the third year for the other pitcher? I was going to post that and make a further point after someone evaluated those two on those peripherals that were stated. Is pitcher B better than Pitcher A on those numbers? How much better? Then the obvious answer is the one who has the worse secondary stats. The point that is lost in this not so original example is that every data set has an outlier or two. In other words, just because it happened once or twice doesn't mean it is likely to happen.

It's stupid opinons that do it for me, regardless of the spelling or grammar. And there are about at least 23 tellers of tall tales in this thread.

I don't necessarily disagree. It is an emprical question. I can't wait to see what the data look like for SD farm teams this year.

If he's having a lot of good starts where he gives up a few, and a lot of really terrible starts where he gets creamed, and getting an average of 4ER/7IP, can't the manager and pitching coach's decisions help the team a lot on days when he's having a terrible start? I mean, when you see he doesn't have it, you can pull him early, and if your long man is effective, you still have a chance to come back and win. Marquis got 200+ innings last year, but maybe he shouldn't have, and we should be looking at Duncan/La Russa as contributing to his problems by leaving him out there too long when he obviously wasn't effective. This is another reason why I wouldn't mind seeing Guzman end up winning the long man role. If Marquis has a tank start, you basically have another starter so there's no issue with pulling him in even the first 3 innings. I can think of at least two occasions where TLR left Marquis out to dry after a bad start. I think one of which was against the White Sox. I could be wrong, but I think they were trying to "give him a lesson" or something. A lesson for what I don't know.

If it can be improved upon over time, then how do you account for the improvement? I think you are giving far, far too much power to the pitcher and not enough to the hitter. It's been the Cubs mentality for a long time. In other words, a hitter doesn't earn a walk, he takes a walk. There is no evidence of that what so ever. When Sosa was great he laid off the outside, off-spped junk. Both before and after he'd swing at it. Just as some things can be learned they can be forgotten.

I disagree. I think the major sports realize the value and necessity of making the championships and playoffs readily available. I don't, espeially the superbowl.