CubinNY

I agree with you and UK, Cuse. Given that he is not an option, I'd rather go with Restovich.

What about the PRIOR IS NOT AN INJURY RISK one? O:)

No there are a lot of players who can bring: 1. a good work ethic 2. a good clubhouse presence 3. a job knowing abilitiy Heck, I'll do that and for the league minimum. What I hope Pierre brings is a +.350 OBP. The rest I could care less about. Exactly. I dont care if he "knows his job" i dont care that he's a "good clubhouse presence". I'll go back to my old standby "Babe ruth and lou gehrig didnt talk for 5 years, yet batted back to back, and things turned out pretty well" Chemistry and all these "intangibles" are bogus. Give me a .350+ OBP out of my leadoff guy and i'll be happy. I take it you guys are big fans of T.O. then. Does he have a +.350 OBP?

Wholy snikes!

He stunk to start the season. That is why ST doesn't matter. They don't which is why he would have made the team if he showed anything this spring. .278 .334 .373 and a whopping 15 HRs in five seasons. He stinks. Pagen is no defensive specialist and he can't hit. What exactly is he good at? Oh, yea he is fast and looks good in a uniform. He Can't Hit He was relseased by the Mets after five subpar seasons. At least Restovich has power.

No, those numbers don't mean a thing actually. Using them to determine who makes it is just as good as arbitrarily pulling a name out of a hat. They absolutely should count when comparing him to Grissom for a bench spot. It's "what have you done for me lately." ST numbers should have less impact when evaluating Pagan WRT Theriot and Restovich, but if someone shows they can put out when the pressure is on, that has to count for something. ST counts for so little it is hard to measure. Remember Nomar's spring last year? That is but one example. Half the time these guys are playing against worse players then thay are. As in most area's, size matters. Grissom was on the team to see if he still had anything left. I was painfully obvious he didn't. If he would have put up just a little better numbers he would have made the team. Pagen stinks and has no power. All he has is speed. Restovich stinks but he has power. In instances like these one has to choose between the greater of two 25th man.

Although he appears to have a tad bit more power, I basically agree. I'd much rather have Restovich or Sing on the bench, at least they have a chance to go yard. To me Pagen is another "toolsy" guy who has impressed b/c we haven't seen him play much and don't know much about him. If he were a Cub prospect I think many of us would think differently. His career line in the minors looks like this: .278 .334 .373 and a whopping 15 HRs in five seasons. Not much to get excited about, IMO.

I'm not quite sure how trading Wellemeyer to the Marlins is indicative of the team's desire to win. But it's a good thing they won't be tempted to keep him around just based ono his options status. I hate when teams make personel decisions based on non-baseball factors. Todd has some interesting stuff, but he walks far too many, and gets rocked from time to time. Good luck to him. Hopefully one of these guys can turn into a reliever down the road. With Florida trading for so many prospects, I could actually see them start trading some of these guys for players like Wellemeyer (minimum wage guys with major league experience). I said that because this team's cutting the obvious trash right out the gate, and not doing stupid things like keep someone around because of running out of options. That's indicative of a different franchise attitude. Wellemeyer looked abysmal all spring. He needed to go. I hope that means Grissom is gone. Too bad they won't cut Jones lose.

Data please?

There is already a thread on this in Rivals.

No there are a lot of players who can bring: 1. a good work ethic 2. a good clubhous presence 3. a job knowing abilitiy Heck, I'll do that and for the league minimum. What I hope Pierre brings is a +.350 OBP. The rest I could care less about.

Three year splits for Lee PRASB 272/366/536 POASB 314/399/578 Last year PRASB 378/452/733 POASB 287/380/581 Three year splits for Barrett PRASB 284/347/458 POASB 255/316/446 Last year PRASB 264/323/448 POASB 292/373/519 Lee is a notoriously slow starter while Barrett usually has a better first half than a second. The conditions were reversed last year though. My question: Will the missed ABs hurt Lee more than Barrett? The hypothosis is this: Lee appears to need the extra spring training swings to gear up for the season while Barrett seems to wear down as the season goes along. This could mean that Barrett will have better season than last year and Lee regresses to career norms or worse. or It could mean nothing! I am just putting this out there to get some discussion going. The last week of ST is dreadfully boring.

What a sissy punch. I hope he didn't upset whatever was in his purse with that punch.

We'll see. Jose Contraras had the exact same "strain" and missed two months.

Depends on what he is throwing. If it's a towel it's not really news at all. We'll see Prior in June or July if the Cubs are still in it. If not we'll see him in 2007.

Buyers or Sellers? If the Cubs are selling Lee Jones Pierre Neifi Walker (if not traded already) Barrett Williamson Dempster Maddux (little value though) I don't think any of our pitchers outside of Z would have trade value, but I wouldn't trade Z If the Cubs are buying: Abreu JD Drew Pat Burrell Any number of BA top 100 position prospects at 2nd, SS, or outfield

The problem is he is a a Jose Macias type. And we all know how much Hendry loves the, Jack of all trades, master of none baseball player.

Neifi starts a min. of 50 games at SS. I guarantee it. Interesting. Several months ago when Neifi signed, you were guaranteeing much more playing time than that. I guess if it keeps shrinking, you'll eventually get it right. I'd be very surprised, barring injury to Cedeno, if Neifi gets more than 20 starts. If Cedeno gets hurt, I wouldn't be surprised if the Cubs revisit the Tejada-Prior talks mid-season. If Neifi get less than 50 starts I'll be shocked. Remember, he can fill in at 3rd, SS, and 2nd.

Right on target.

Just for S & Gs here are Babe Ruth's numbers. They make Sammy, McGuire and Bonds look like pikers. Year HR HR/AB 20 54 8 21 59 9 22 35 12 23 41 13 24 46 12 25 25 14 26 47 11 27 60 9 28 54 10 29 46 11 30 49 11 31 46 12 32 41 11 33 34 14 Not much fluctuation, but Ruth was a true freak.

Only when one wishes to ignore evidence to the contrary. Aside from Hank Aaron you can look up any slugger's numbers and see very dramatic fluctions from year to year in their prime. Sammy's growth is not out of the ordinary for a world class athelete. Sammy came to this country a rail thin 19 year old. I've lifed weights and I use to be a personal trainer. I've seen guys maintain rock hard chissled bodies into their mid 40s. Even so, maybe Sammy is a freak of nature? Maybe Sammy is a jucer? I don't know. But not one person in this thread has demonstrated any evidence that Sammy's power growth is either A)out of the ordinary or B) chemically enhanced. All I've read is "Sammy looked like a WWF wrestler in 2001", "He used a corked bat, therefore he used steriods", and my personal fav, "Look at his head". Fergie mentioned his HR spike, then I show evidence to the contrary that shows it is not out of the ordinary. Whatever, believe what you want. As for me, I will remain undeceded.

Here are some Totals: Roger Maris Year HR HR/AB 58 28 21 59 16 27 60 39 13 61 61 10 62 33 18 63 23 14 64 26 20 65 8 19 Mikey Mantle Year HR HR/AB 54 27 20 55 37 14 56 52 10 57 34 14 58 42 12 59 31 17 60 40 13 61 54 10 62 30 13 63 15 11 64 35 13 Willie Mays Year HR HR/AB 54 41 14 55 51 11 56 36 16 57 35 17 58 29 21 59 34 14 60 29 13 61 40 16 62 49 13 63 38 16 64 47 14 65 52 11 66 37 15 67 22 22 Those numbers are from the prime of careers for three "sluggers" of a bye-gone era. I think we can all agree they probably weren't on the juice, unless the juice includes beer, chew, and uppers. Maris's HR/AB totals swung from 10 to 27. Mantle was a little more consistent but his swung from 10-20. And Mays's swung from 11 to 22. Maris and Mantle never approached those numbers from 1961 and Mays had his best HR/AB year at the very end of his prime. Given the day and age in which we live with enhanced off-season workout regims and better nutrition, I see nothing out of the ordinary for Sammy's prime of career numbers. As an aside, I hope I never have to read "Take of the Cubbie blue glasses". Take off your convential wisdom BS glasses for a bit. Edit: I made a mistake in my original analysis> The lower number the more HRs per AB. So Mays tied his career number in 65 when he was clearly on the downslope of his prime. However, Mantle and Maris had their best years in 61 during the first "the chase" of Ruth.

What astonishing HR spurt are you talking about?

I called it.

Sing has mad power.