CubinNY

Done. This guy is a no brainer for tha HOF.

I agree much to my dismay (regarding the Cubs. I usually agree with goony). However, if the deal nets the Cubs a power stick in the OF I won't be disapointed.

Per Will Carroll: Kerry Wood continues to impress with his throwing and looks to be on track or even ahead of optimistic projections. Given the normally gloomy returns from labrum surgery, Dr. Kremchek’s repair on Wood is going to be closely watched to see if things progress differently. Did he or did he not have labrum surgery? Ken I don't think so. But he had some problem with his shoulder. the Labrum is on the back if I am not mistaken Even with his injury last year, Woody was still gassing it up in relief. I think he hit 99 once or twice. With a tron labrum, the pitcher looses velocity. If Woody had a torn one I would hate to see the velocity he was capeable of before the tear.

You never know. I'd be up for giving it a try.

Me too! It is frickin 14 degrees here in lovely Mahopac NY. Man, I hate February.

You mean the part where he proved the Earth revolves around the Sun? As a matter of fact building on the work of Copernicus, Galelao went one step further and published much of Copernicus's orignal work under his own name. This got him into a lot of hot water with the conventional wisdom crowd, namely the pope. After signing the papers for the pope saying that Sun didn't move he supposedly said under his breath, "but it still moves". For that he was placed on house arrest for the rest of his life. Let's end this silliness and get back to discussing the terrible idea of trading Murton for Alph, shall we?

Where I grew up in Michigan (along the shore of Lake Michigan) we called them FIPs. There use to be a sign on I-94 at the Bridgman exit that said, "FIPs go home". In reality, I didn't mind people from Illinois coming for the summer as they added to the tax base and spent money. FIP= Freaking (but not that word) Illinois People

You're right...I forgot about that. Yeah, John seems to get in a little trouble once in awhile. How is the school academically? When SI did their "academic" college basketball preview a few years back, Memphis's grad rate was a whopping 0 percent, and I'm guessing it hasn't improved. The college of education is not well rated, but they hired a new dean two years ago and he started cleaning house, which is the reason the positions are open. I am not sure about the rest of the university. Grad rates posted by the NCAA for athletes is notoriously flawed. Nevertheless, a rate of 0 is pretty bad.

I'm not exactly sure what you are saying, but in your attempt to prove that the minor leagues weed out players who can't handle pressure, you appear to be doing exactly what you rail on others for doing , using anecdotal rather than empirical evidence. you want proof of other people's ghosts and ufos, but fail to provide proof of your own ghosts and ufos. You cannot prove something does not exist only that it does. The evidence we have suggests that a pesky runner on first affects the hitting stats of the guy behind IF there are no outs. With one or two outs the effect is minimal. This inderectly supports that the average pitcher in the bigs is not distracted by the pesky guy on first. Now if we are comparing pitching from the stretch and the winde up, then the evidence is pretty clear that any runner on base will affect the stats of the pitcher and the hitter. But again this does not support the pesky baserunnner distracting the pitcher. I am sure there are isolated cases where it could and does happen, but I wouldn't plan an entire line up hoping to distract the pitcher. If you would read the entire thread rather than try to prove you can piss farther then next guy you would have noticed that already. Here is the link if you care to read it http://www.retrosheet.org/Research/PankinM/sabr32.pdf

Exactly. And distraction does not always translate to tangible results. And from what we know, more often then not it does not translate to anything. What we have is conventional wisdome based on a logical belief but nothing that supports that it is so. For a guy to even make it to the majors he would have to be able to handle such situations with some level of success. A good baserunner will lul the pitcher into to thinking he is not going almost making him more comfortable. It is much easier to steal with a normal stretch then a slide step.kl;j the bolded part above is actually a bit of wisdom based on a logical belief but with nothing that supports that it is so, too. the entire notion that the minor league process weeds out those who are worse under pressure, is expected to be accepted, without any scientific evidence of whether this is or is not true. some how we are just supposed to accept that baseball players are different than every other profession in the world because there is a minor league process. there are people who have reached the top of every profession even though they don't perform well under pressure because they are extremely talented overall, but somehow baseball's minor leagues operate differently than the weeding out process in every other profession. I think we see evidence of some attrition by the stats guys in this area. Bill James admitted that there were problems with the way they were trying to measure clutch. and despite the notion that any good pitcher will be a good closer, we saw Depodesta give Gagne a huge contract, Epstein give Foulke a huge contract, and Beane trading for a proven closer three years in a row. I look at it this way. pitching is an activity of intense concentration. there is so much to think about in terms of what is the best pitch to throw in a given situation and it takes tremendous concentration to execute that pitch mechanically. anything that contributes to breaking some of that concentration is going to cause more mistakes and lead to better opportunities for the batter. a fast baserunner may not always result in tangible results in terms of better opportunities for the hitter, but it will rarely if ever result in worse opportunities. a lulled and therefore comfortable pitcher is presumably not a better pitcher. thus, the net effect will be a net gain in improved opportunities for the hitter. If the bolded part results in something tangible more often then not (i.e. an earned run or run scored) then the guy never gets out of low A ball unless no one ever gets on base. A guy like Greg Maddux is the case in point. He has never worried about guys stealing on him. Why is that? He gets the next guy out.

Exactly. And distraction does not always translate to tangible results. And from what we know, more often then not it does not translate to anything. What we have is conventional wisdome based on a logical belief but nothing that supports that it is so. For a guy to even make it to the majors he would have to be able to handle such situations with some level of success. A good baserunner will lul the pitcher into to thinking he is not going almost making him more comfortable. It is much easier to steal with a normal stretch then a slide step.kl;j

It is physically impossible to demonstrate something does not exist. One can only demonstrate that something exists. Convential wisdom often gets people in trouble. So the earth's still flat? Different question. A theory can be proved or disproved by logical analysis of collected evidence, but non-existence of any particular thing can never be proved because for us mere mortals the collected evidence will always be incomplete, since it would require an encompassing knowledge of all things presently contained in the universe to state authoritatively that something does not exist. Non-ominiscient beings can never have more than a subset of the evidence required to prove non-existence. Different question? No, that was a non sequiter. No one can disprove the earth is flat. They can only prove that it is flat, and that is impossible. If it is impossible to prove it is flat the earth must be something else. It is fun to believe in ghosts, UFOs, and "intangibles" like the fast guy on the basepaths bugs the pitcher. But at some point most people grow up. Then again some people never do. LOL. What field teaches this idea? Science. I understand if you've never heard of it.

That was probably the worst final 12 minutes played by any team in Division I basketball this season, with the exception of the other 5 times Tech has done the exact same thing. 5 points in the last 12 minutes ? 7 ACC loses when leading at the half ? Brutal. You guys are having a tough year. Are you still happy with that coach from Siena? I am. It's tough to replace 88% of your offense and the top 6 players in minutes/game. No team in Division I has seen more minutes played by Freshman and Sophomores than Georgia Tech. I thought they'd be further along at this point with the level of talent on the roster, but I underestimated again, the importance of leadership at the point*. Look no further than the 9 losses by less than eight points this season --- 7 of those in ACC play. The reason Tech played for the Title two years ago was purely based on who handled the ball. This year, it's not happening. Tech is going to be a lot better next year adding two of the top players at their position, particularly Crittendon at the point. I think next year they will be a tournament caliber team without question. The following year they could be poised for the deep run. *see Wake Forest as well after Chris Paul's departure (2-10 in the ACC with basically everyone returning but Paul) You sure? I figure KU, UNC, and Memphis State give them a run for their $ in that stat. You're kidding....Memphis St is that young? Wow. They are know referred to as "the university of Memphis" as I was told repeatedly on my recent trip there. Calipari is a very good coach, but I wonder how long before the NCAA looks into things?

From the standpoint of a scientist, I would love to see this type of thing tried for at least 50 or so games. However, I cannot imagine any baseball team would ever do such a thing. When the Red Sox tried the closer by committee thing they half-way implemented James theory and they got results that I would typically expect with a half-way implementation. The next thing you know the neaderthals were bumping into one another in their proclimations that baseball isn't played on paper. In reality, a bad experiment is a bad experiment and the results support no such conclusions. I cannot see the "you got to have speed at the top of the order" Cubs hitting Pierre anywhere but 1st. In additon, I would expect at least a little complaining from the players unless the effects in terms of wins was immediate.

It is physically impossible to demonstrate something does not exist. One can only demonstrate that something exists. Convential wisdom often gets people in trouble. So the earth's still flat? Different question. A theory can be proved or disproved by logical analysis of collected evidence, but non-existence of any particular thing can never be proved because for us mere mortals the collected evidence will always be incomplete, since it would require an encompassing knowledge of all things presently contained in the universe to state authoritatively that something does not exist. Non-ominiscient beings can never have more than a subset of the evidence required to prove non-existence. Different question? No, that was a non sequiter. No one can disprove the earth is flat. They can only prove that it is flat, and that is impossible. If it is impossible to prove it is flat the earth must be something else. It is fun to believe in ghosts, UFOs, and "intangibles" like the fast guy on the basepaths bugs the pitcher. But at some point most people grow up. Then again some people never do.

It is physically impossible to demonstrate something does not exist. One can only demonstrate that something exists. Convential wisdom often gets people in trouble.

Thanks O_O! Isn't he a bit old for Daytona?

The war in Iraq has no parellel in American history. Period. Viet Nam was a jungle war fought by and funded by comunists. World War II was a declared war fought all over the world However there are minor aspects that are common to both VN and wWII. Much like VN, Iraq is a vanity piece thought up by neo-fascists long before 9/11. The WTC was just a pretext. the war in viet nam was a thought piece based on the "domino effect" with the Gulf of Tonken as the pretext. Now Iraq is devolving into a civil war with similarities to VN but not remotely the same.

The PTBL in the VanBuren trade

He's a "mere 6 or 7 hitter" only because Dusty is likely to put him there (or lower). He could hit 2nd, and outproduce Pierre, or hit 7th and outproduce Pierre. Either way, he's better. And when you consider the Cubs at least have Pie in the minors who could be a decent CF to replace Pierre, while they have no corner OF depth, the whole "value" thing could go further in Murton's direction. I recall you preferring Murton as the 4th outfielder. Has Murton's stock went up in your opinion or do you just really dislike Pierre?? I won't answer for Goony, but Murton is a fourth outfielder for a team that has competent outfielders. He would be a 4th outfielder on the Mets for example. Pierre is a one trick pony. If his BABIP isn't high his speed will add little value becuase he doesn't walk. Aside from "proven closer" I have a hard time thinking of a more overvalued faux-position then leadoff man.

Actually, IIRC we were significantly better in close games last year than in 2004(when we had a better record). They were very good in those situations in 2003 too. Rob Neyer wrote an article for ESPN.com about Dusty's record and the 1 run game record being a terrible predictor stat from year to year. I replied to him in defense of Dusty and he sent me back a nice email.

No kidding. If it wasn't a civil war before the bombing of the golden mosque it surely is looking that way now. American soliders will be caught in the middle. Train those Iraqi troops and get out quick before anymore soliders have to die, that is my solution.

Not saying the guy's had an epiphany or anything, but it beats most of the things that come out of his mouth. Between that and him saying that Walk's the front runner for 2B, I don't mind what I'm hearing from him so far this spring. Dusty must have seen the light while fishing for striped bass or dropping one of his girlfriends. Or maybe it was the heat that got to him, oh he is immune to the heat, I forgot. In all seriousness, I don't think Dusty is stupid, he is just old school. With the right type of players he does well.

Ditto. We all appreciate what you are doing whether we agree with the policy or not. Stay safe.

Unfortunately, I agree. Walker is a deadman walking, no pun intended. What is worse, I envision him being traded for a minor league filler or washed up bench player "who knows how to play the game the right way" and is a "good clubhouse guy". retch!