jjgman21

nice pitch ted

I agree. I disagree. that's fair play for a fan to go after that ball because the "wall" is the basket. the umps const us a homer.

That actually looks like a moderate, certainly not easy, schedule: Padres - Best pitching staff in the league, even if we miss Peavy, best record in the NL and has owned us in recent past. (My prediction: 1 of 3) Rangers - Just beat our division leaders 2 of 3, still have a decent offense, Sammy will be inspired, and our strength is pitching, which goes to die in Texas (2 of 3) White Sox - Like you said, throw the records out, I have a bad feeling about this series (1 of 3) Colorado - Certainly not an easy team like you seem to be suggesting but still (2 of 3) Nationals - OK they are pretty bad (2 of 3) Pirates - Certainly not pushovers, and have good pitching (1 of 3..just a gut feeling) the 29-37 NL East Nats are pretty bad, but the 28-38 NL Central Bucs are no pushovers. Sosa inspiration. "bad feeling" about the White Sox. gut feelings. holy negative subjective analysis batman.

now six. of course in those 27 games he'd get to 7-8 grounders that most shortstops wouldn't touch.

and Derrek Lee hasn't been Derrek Lee. They are winning because of their starters and the Pen has been pretty good recently. and Soriano has been putrid since the beaning. I am still smarting over that 9th inning near homer he had in the first game of this series. Stupid wind. hit a bomb in the Lilly ejection game too, but overall, he's looking like the Alfonso of April again.

Looking at Ronnie's numbers and considering the pitching dominated era in which he played, it's a complete travesty he isn't in. OPS+ normalizes stats for park and league effects (in other words, it gives a decent basis of comparison across generations). I completely agree with you on Ronnie, but Jeff Kent has an equal OPS+ over a longer career and at a position where offense is more of a premium, although with average to below average defense. with everything in the balance, it's pretty hard to say Santo should be in, then turn around and say Kent shouldn't be.

and Derrek Lee hasn't been Derrek Lee. They are winning because of their starters and the Pen has been pretty good recently. and Soriano has been putrid since the beaning.

careful there. the Cubs had a .390+ OBP against Weaver in this game. you bash them too much for failure to score more runs, you may be on the verge of accusing them of failing to be clutch

that's because he doesn't deserve to be in the Hall of Fame whatsoever. just like Maz. no hit, good glove, one famous play = HOF by vets committee...until it came to be Ron Santo's turn when lots of hit, lots of glove and a career of class suddenly wasn't good enough.

Hmmm.... 1) Eddie Collins 2) Ryno 3) Rogers Hornsby 4) Napoleon Lajoie 5) Biggio or ....hate to say it Joe Morgan black Americans might take issue with someone missing from that list, as might fans of the Detroit Tigers. Yankee fans might also, but who really gives a rat's tail about them. Dang, you're on to my covert racism....thus why I didn't have Joe Morgan higher. :) Jackie Robinson was a great player but the numbers aren't even close to him being a top 5 great at that position compared to the others I listed. I understand he lost years to the war and a few years in the Negro leagues, but calculating that into an equation just doesn't work. Otherwise we'd still have Ty Cobb as the all time hit leader due to his years lost in WWI or with Ted Williams being top 3 in homers if he hadn't lost years in WWII and Korea. By the Tiger I assume you mean Whitaker, who'd I'd have in the top 10, but he's not better than Collins, Lajoie, Hornsby, Ryno, or Morgan. The Yankee I'd take you to be talking about Lazerri? He didn't even have 2000 hits in 14 seasons. Don't forget, Jackie may have played more at 2B than any other position, but he only played about half his games there. Is he a 2B? Yeah... but it's kinda unfair to give him credit for his career numbers at a skill position when he wasn't playing there for a good chunk of his career. And yeah, I do say the same thing when talking about Ernie Banks while making greatest SS arguments. Jackie Robinson may have only played a little over half his career at second, but the years 48-52 when he played second almost exclusively, was one of the most dominant stretches any second baseman has ever had. why is it strictly a counting numbers game when discussing who was the greatest ever and thus deserving of the HOF? under that rational, let's throw Sandy Koufax out. the analogies of Cobb and Williams are not applicable whatsoever. we are not talking about who is at the head of the leaderboards, we are talking about greastest ever. not being able to break into the big leagues until the age 28 is somehow supposed to detract from Robinson's greatness? give me a break. the Tiger is Charlie Galagher, who had a career OPS+ of 124 and played 2206 games at second. it may be blasphemous around here, but the greatest second basemen ever were Collins Lajoie Hornsby Galagher Morgan in no particular order.

Ummm... Molitor is in the HoF. And while Whittaker got almost no support, his numbers are HoF worthy, as are Robbie Alomar's and Barry Larkin's. sorry about that brainfart, but I think my point stands. you start letting guys with 115ish OPS+ in, and it very quickly becomes the Hall of Very Good. you start letting 115ish OPS+ guys in on the first ballot, and it quickly becomes the Hall of Solid Ballplayers.

Hmmm.... 1) Eddie Collins 2) Ryno 3) Rogers Hornsby 4) Napoleon Lajoie 5) Biggio or ....hate to say it Joe Morgan black Americans might take issue with someone missing from that list, as might fans of the Detroit Tigers. Yankee fans might also, but who really gives a rat's tail about them.

if proactive is not a buzzword, then what the hell is a buzzword?

Brown makes me nervous with his tendancy to have the dropsies. love AP. not sure why others don't.

that trade paid huge dividends already. it allowed the Cubs to get 96 OPS+ production for about 17M in 2005 instead of 82 OPS+ production for 18M. it also got them out of 18M in dead weight salary for 2006.

why doesn't the park he plays in cut both ways? I don't think we are even discussing his candadicy for the HOF is he wasn't about to break 3000 hits. what I think people are losing track of is that he is in his 8th season in 'Pop-up Down the Left Field Line Is A Homerun Field.' splits - Home/Away 2002 - 775/689 2003 - 718/806 2004 - 831/781 2005 - 890/682 2006 - 868/541 he has about 1100 hits and 135 HR since moving to MMP. if you're going to give him credit for playing in a tough park for a decade, you also have to take into account that but for his home park being an extreme hitters park for a large chunk of his career, he probably doesn't have a job and therefore doesn't approach the magic number of 3000. the guys OBP is about .350 if you take away the armor. HOF? fine, he reached a magic number. deserving of first ballot and 'one of the all time greats?' I don't think so. fine ballplayer, would have loved to have him on the Cubs, but as I pointed out above, plenty of players have better numbers and won't even be considered for the HOF, much less first ballot. and I definitely think issues regarding the juice should come into play. just look at who his thirdbaseman and one of his best buddies was. look at the other half of the killer B's sudden jump in production. look at who the catcher was after he moved to second. ask yourself why one of the best pitchers from those teams eventually had his heart explode for not apparent reason. an interesting article I just found on the subject http://asher.baseballevolution.com/bagwellconspiracy.html for the most part it seems like speculation, but interesting how all the steroids roads seem to lead back to Houston.

he's 16 hits away. why to people keep saying 'if he makes it to 3000?'

will and should are two different questions. IMO, with all the talk about how 500 is no longer a lock to the HOF, 3000 should not lock him into being a first ballot, but should lock him into the hall of fame. all this talk about 'great all time' is a little far fetched. Roberto Alomar had a higher career OPS+ then Biggio, as did Lou Whittacker. Barry Larkin had a higher career OPS+ at a more difficult position (aside from the three years at catcher). take away a couple of devestating year long injuries, and Paul Molitor has 3,000 hits. are any of them HOF'ers? first ballot HOF'ers? no way. all that said, he will probably be a first ballot HOF'er because of that magic number and all the 'intangible' garbage. but one thing that may factor in is Bagwell's status. will the HOF go back to back years with Astros, or even two out of three years? I don't know, but these are the stupid considerations that come into play.

I was at that game, too! IIRC, it was Wood's return from the DL, and he pitched pretty dang well. I was at this game as well. My only walkoff win that I've been to. The only extra-inning game I've witnessed was the one against SD in 04 where Froemming jobbed us on a DP call at 2nd base and Nomar hit a go-ahead homer in the 7th which sent the crowd into hysterics. me four. broken bat single ala Luis Gonzalez. Wood was smoking. gun said low-mid 90's, but was throwing a heavy heavy ball that just exploded into the catchers mitt.

just Kenny up to his old tricks. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/baseball/mlb/news/2001/02/25/wells_sirotka_update_ap/ for those of you who wondered why Kenny would trade a solid, consistent 200 inning guy for two guys who have an outside shot at being a decent fifth starter, there you have it.

It was either double-switching Hill for Barrett, double-switching Jones for Pagan, or letting Howry hit for himself as the 2nd hitter in the 10th inning. Pick your poison. Well I could do the 'hindsight is 20-20' thing and say that if we chose Hill, then he probably catches the throw from Pagan/Jones in the 13th. Plus Hill would not have been up with 2 outs in the 13th with the bases loaded. The throw sucked. Very few catchers in baseball would have been able to pick up a slow rolling throw from the outfield, make a quick turn and apply the tag in one quick motion. Catcher's mitts were designed to catch balls thrown in the air, not to field grounders. no no no. Paul Sullivan just told me it was a nice two hopper that should have been easily handled.

It was either double-switching Hill for Barrett, double-switching Jones for Pagan, or letting Howry hit for himself as the 2nd hitter in the 10th inning. Pick your poison. how about not going with an ill conceived all right handed lineup everytime they face a left handed starter, thus subjecting the all or nearly all left handed bench to bad matchups late in the game each and every time?

been hitting alot of balls right on the screws with nothing to show for it.

been called a strike all night for the M's

you know after those two smashes the Cubs are losing on a bloop and a bleeder.