jjgman21

who knows. all we heard the first two years of his career is how picture perfect his mechanics were. a couple years back someone did a study and created a computer simulation of the perfect mechanincs, and the simulation was a carbon copy of Mark Prior. I read an article last night that blamed pitching injuries on the new philosophy in baseball of limiting long toss to 120 feet when it should extend to at least 200 feet. I am of the belief that every humans physiology is slightly different, and the same thing wouldn't work for every pitcher.

I'm one that has given the benefit of the doubt to the Cubs and Prior on this, but the above described injury seems awefully fishy. here's the deal. everything I have read, and my nurse in training girlfriend who aced anatomy and physiology, says that strains to the subscapularis only occur as a result of traumatic injuries, not repetetive movement. so either there was some fall or other accident over the winter (ie. when Prior went to the ER for his 'respiratory infection') and throwing aggrevated it, or this is a misdiagnosis. I certainly hope for the former, but after about 5 misdiagnosiseseses of Wood last year, it wouldn't surprise me.

I think the stats at the Cubs website are updated. IP/R/H/BB/HBP/K Eyre 6/0/3/0/0/6 Howry 6/0/5/0/1/3

the news is coming down. two articles on the Cubs website

I don't understand why they would do it now. there's two and half weeks of ST left. if they want to send him down, that's the DRays choice, but why not let him get ABs against major league and upper echelon minor league pitchers, and make him the last guy cut?

I'm often mistaken for a Hendry defender when in fact I agree with the concensus that is developing in this thread, trade good, signing bad. but I often think people presume players were obtainable simply because those are the players they want. there's no way to know all the factors and considerations in these dealings. for instance, regarding Murton, I have also heard that Hendry insisted the chip coming from Boston for including Harris had to be Murton. you also have to evaluate some of those missed deals long term, which is something I like about Hendry. some of these players are listed in don's post here. Vlad's deal is tough to argue with, but.... http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=1706614 what are you gonna do about matching that offer, especially when that player turns around and signs for the same amount overtwo more years? alot goes into why a player signs with a team. with Vlad, the hispanic element seemed to have alot to do with it. incidentally, same theory goes for those that are mad the Cubs didn't get Wilkerson. we're talking about a GM who highly values Soriano. how do you make a deal when the other party is insane? but back to those other players... Irod. don't know if you noticed, but he had a 94 OPS last year. defense, schmefense. he's not worth the money. Furcal (and Beltran for that matter)...too much money. no convincing me the deals they signed were or will be a good investment. Tejada - I think whoever has Tejada will end up regretting the last couple years of his deal, but that remains to be seen. Dunn - that's message board fodder. I have never heard of a serious deal for Dunn. Ibanez - not sure why he is on this list. his career OPS+ is 105. Jacque Jones is 101. looking back to last year, the "decisions" on Drew (who I advocated getting, especially at the deal he signed), Ordonez, Percival, Benitez all turned out to be good "decisions" alot of times the deal you do not make is the best deal.

it's an error, but it still made me puke in my mouth a little. http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/boxscore?gid=260316103 look who is listed at leadoff.

Jamie Moyer is another one. As I recall, he was about 30 when he had his first really good season. Dave Duncan comes to mind when thinking about pitchers that didn't come around until later in their careers. Welch, Moore, Stewart, Woody Williams, etc. a certain 6'10" lefty I know never had an ERA+ above 108 until he was 29.

just cuz McCarver says it doesn't make it so. he's average, but sometime lookup who deserved the NL GG for secondbase in 2002.

They had no choice. It was either pay him or let him walk. 5 months of Prior can still be worth the money. A banged up less than 100% Prior can still be worth the money. His contract doesn't prove they must have thought he was 100%. knowing Prior was hurt, they had no choice but to make an offer very similar to that of Prior, then to meet right in the middle, and throw in some incentives? or, since they allegedly knew he was injured, they could have a. lowballed him, taken him to arbitration with his injury history and current injury, and probably won or b. trade him for Tejada, as was widely reported as an offer made by Baltimore and dismissed by the Cubs. which would a money grabbing organzation do?

I don't see how that deal shows anything. I don't think there was a huge conspiracy to cover up an injury. I just think they are an dishonest and partially inept organization that can't handle the situation. Prior obviously wasn't 100% this spring. My guess is they thought he could work through it without there being a problem. But he clearly wasn't 100%. It doesn't have to be a huge elaborate plan to hide the nature of his injury until after tickets were sold or anything. He was not 100% and they didn't want to talk about it. Now they are forced to. many are saying the Cubs are an organization that is so money grabbing that they would be dishonest in order to sell more tickets. it just seems to me that if a money grabbing organization knew or even thought an asset would not perform at 100%, it would not value that asset in an amount so similar to the value the asset places on itself, nor would it so readily settle for the middle ground. furthermore, a money grabbing baseball organization realizes that the real money comes from ad revenue, and ad revenue depends on viewership, and viewership depends on performance on the field. some money comes from tickets and concession, but not nearly as much from broadcasting. tickets and concession depend on expectations of performance on the field, hence the theory that the Cubs lie to increase ticket sales. so what would a money grabbing organization do if they knew one of their assets wouldn't perform at 100% a. look at the short term gain and lie about it in order to increase a minor area of revenue; or b. look at the long term gain and enter tough negotiations with the asset, or possibly even severe its relationship with the asset (perhaps in exchange for another team's problem asset, for instance the Baltimore organization) in order to maximize long term revenue?

funny you bring up moving. Kerry Wood's 19 K game was the final reason I needed to decide to transfer law schools from the west coast to Chicago. my mind was pretty much made up, but that was the final nail in the coffin.

I was not hanging around here back then. I thought I was the only one that figured out that it was anatomically impossible for Alou to be under the ball like he was and the ball on the other side of the railing and anatomically unnecessary for Bartman and other fans to reach in the way they did to get to a ball that was not in the field of play. another aspect of this in that case is that Gonzo is not hurrying to turn a dp, which he was due to the umpires bad call, and he make the play. I always thought Prior went too blameless in that game.

I don't think Rothschild has caused any injuries to Cubs pitchers, but I don't like him. I don't like him because of some of his philosphies. he sticks with his pitching patterns to the detriment of the team, ie. nibbling/going higher than high with two strikes, staying away in the late innings, never brushing hitters back. also, alot of people like to point to Barrett's higher CERA. there are many reasons for it, and I believe Rothschild is one of them, because he takes over the pitch calling in all tough situations when Barrett is catching.

not sure if this has been covered here yet or not, but doesn't Priors deal show this has not been some elaborate scheme to lie about or cover up an injury. does the conspiracy run so deep that they thought ahead enough to work in incentives, just to give the appearance that Prior would actually have a chance to win those awards knowing full well he doesn't because he was injured? and if management is so money grabbing, wouldn't they have used their knowledge of the situation to lowball Prior? that deal is not the deal two parties make when one or both knows the player is injured.

I'm intested in seeing if Chris Carpenter's 70+ additional innings from 2004-2005 has any adverse affect in his performance this year. unfortunately, he hasn't shown any, while Dontrelle looks worse than I've ever seen him.

please don't tell me you honestly think that teams won't start pulling their players from the WBC if they think the interests of preparing players for the regular season are not being served, vis a vis lack of playing time in the WBC. maybe teams will start letting players stay home from ST all together, as long as they're doing some pitching and hitting on the side. and once one team holds someone back for this reason, please don't tell me you honestly think that other teams won't follow suit and hold back their players. you're bold invalidation of the "slippery slope" argument notwithstanding, that is exactly what teams would do.

I was rooting for Puerto Rico just last night (after the fifth inning). I'd rather have them back too.

Let them take extra BP or pitch a sim game. This isn't Little League. Yes, Willis and Tex deserved their playing time...in round 1. They obviously didn't come to the WBC prepared for competition. it doesn't really matter how insistant or outraged people are or the stakes involved. there are obligations to follow. if you don't like it, I guess the WBC isn't for you, because inevitably these situations are going to arise. if a player is benched because he is not performing, teams will start to not allow their players to go to the WBC because they aren't getting the work they need this time of year. that happens, you create a slippery slope, where no team will allow their best to go to the WBC. suddenly, no WBC. and I have no idea what "didn't come to the WBC prepared for competition" means. I'm reminded of Bobby Knight questioning what it means for a team to come "with their game face on."

many here seem to be forgetting that the owners were all promised that the players they send to the WBC will get their work in so they are ready to go for openning day. Martinez has an obligation to get Tex some starts, and to leave Willis in even though he was wild. yes, Willis stunk, bet we'd all probably scream bloody murder if Soho yanked Z after 40 pitches, no matter how good or bad he was doing, as we would all be po'd if Veritek got all the ABs at catcher.

I know we can't copy and paste the entire article, but it seems to me that this thread takes alot of the context and kind of spins it. it also seems like a little muchraking going on by Muskat. noone here seems to have heard the interview today. maybe it will be on this week sometime so we can here the tone and context, but that article also included this quote,

I'd say that is pretty contriversial. I wonder what Dusty will say to him, because one of them isn't being truthfull. did anybody hear this on the radio today?

the box at yahoo has it. Jock (2), Mabry, Grissom, Walker, Soto, Murton, Moore. looks like the Cubs are doing everything they can to show Wellemeyer has some value, and Wellemeyer is doing everything he can to show he doesn't.

if nothing else, looks like some solid relief work today.

I was thinking the same thing. No idea. I was at the game right before Prior took the line drive. I actually left the game early, which is a rarity. the reasons were two, first, I got sunburned really bad sitting in the bleachers. second, first and second pitch swings after first and second pitch swings and ten pitch inning after ten pitch inning by the league leader in walks was driving me insane.