jjgman21

April sucks.

first pitch not a strike. un-fricken real.

Didn't somebody do that last night? not while I've been watching. it's all about me. :lol:

'just so happens' this ump doesn't like inside corner from loefties to righties. I'm predicting right now guys, he's gunna love outside corner from righties to righties...at least until the relief corp comes in.

Cubs haven't taken third like that in my entire lifetime.

let the hosing begin. third pitch was a strike.

I like it I don't. I don't like it. But given the crazy two day road trip, 2 flights in 48 hours, day game after night game, 8th game of 13 in a row combo, this makes some sense. the schedule makers can blame Wrigley all they want, but year after year, no team has to deal with crap like this to the extent the Cubs do. there's no reason the schedule makers couldn't have made yesterday a day game.

alot of hub bub about the lineup. gotta get Blanco in here and there, but alot of p and m'ing about something that matters little, the order in which the players are assembled. to me the worst part is Theriot is again not the starting shortstop. no reason for Izturis and/or Cedeno to keep getting starts there as Cedeno hasn't hit at all and Izturis has hit little, and been pretty poor defensively. if he's your utility man that has to be in the lineup everyday, put him where he does the most good. the difference in offense between he and Izturis/Cedeno more than makes up for any difference in D no matter how long/poorly Theriot may have played short in is minor league career.

another day where the starting pitcher for the Cubs throws the ball with the opposite arm as the opposition's starting pitcher, so exactly how many inches will Looper get on the outside corner to righties?

I'm pretty surprised too. Albert Pujols is actually human. I know he had that foot/ankle injury a year or two back, I wonder if that's flared up again. plantar fasciitis. could be. it is a condition that never goes away. you have it once, you have it forever, and there is always a possability of it coming out of nowhere. I know. I have it. sends me limping around for a few days at a time a couple times a year. only 'cure' is to stay off it for a few days. also, I wish this were posted Monday after another weekend of Albert's futility.

haven't been reading. any explanation for why he is completely sucking?

I think this will probably be an issue on here all year, so bumping shouldn't be a big deal. I think your point has morphed over the coarse of this thread. it started as 'the Cardinals build their pen from minor league scrap. here it is somewhere between 'don't sign relievers long term' and 'don't allocate alot of money to the pen.' actually, when you cut right through it however, I think your point is 'I don't like Jim Hendry and envy the Card fans for their GM' without fairly analysing this subject matter. for instance, this quip about Veres. no, Veres probably wasn't the main part of the trade, but he certainly was an integral part as teams tend not to take on the (at the time) huge contracts of failed players, like Kile was with Colorado, without getting something extra in return. you also fail to point out that the Cards sent Jiminez to Colorado, who promptly outperformed Veres for much cheaper. so did Jocketty give up nothing here? you also point to the O's salary dump of Timlin. sure, they salary dumped, but the Cardinals took on a gigantic contract. two and a half years of what amounts to one of the biggest contracts ever given to a set up man. this is exactly what you say Jocketty doesn't do. so what if it was a trade v. a signing. further, Benes had nothing to do with it. Veres was and remained the Cardinals closer before and after Timlin was acquired. didn't give up much to get Kline? only a 25 yo 3B who OPS'd .957 and .870 the two years before being traded. Tatis falling off a cliff helps your argument, but Tatis was one of the up and coming players in the game at the time (roids). also, Jocketty made out well in the trade with Atlanta, but JD Drew 'isn't much?' you also started out this thread with a "besides Izzy." isn't that a huge "besides" in the context of this conversation? spending gigantic dollars at the time for a guy who was quite frankly terrible at converting save opportunities with his previous team? but what is truly absurd about the arguments you are making is the capper of "the Cards did not go out and allocate a bunch of payroll" to build their bullpen. as I pointed out on page 3 of this thread, this may be true in 2006 and 2007, but overall, it's simply not true, due in large part to committing the sabr sin, allocating a huge contract to a closer, but also to a lesser extent paying guys like Veres 4.5 M per year. all this while forgetting the smart/economical moves Hendry has made in the bullpen with the likes of Todd Van Poppel, Todd Worrell, Alan Benes, Mercker and Borowski/Dempster (before re-upping both of them). like many discussions here, I understand some of the points that are being made, but the facts used just don't back up the arguments made. while it's not smart to throw long term contracts at relievers, few good bullpens are built on the cheap, and doing so is a huge crapshoot that can really sink a team. fact is, relievers are generally unpredictable, but spending some money on the bullpen generally leads to a higher rate of predictability. Howry and Eyre don't really contradict this as Howry has always been a highly successful reliever with the exception of a year or two, and Eyre was always average to below average with the exception of the year before he signed with the Cubs. in a few years, Howry will probably be seen as a good signing, in the vein of acquiring a guy like Mike Timlin, while Eyre will be an easily predictable terrible signing. but overall, when comparing to the Cardinals, you are confusing process and results. both teams have spent alot on their bullpens over the years. how the players were acquired and the allocation of that money amongst the various roles is irrelevant. the difference, as is the case with everything when comparing the two teams, is the results seen by spending that money. while Hendry has often compounded the bad results by resigning guys he shouldn't and for too long, your comparison with Jocketty and the Cards pen involves much glossing over facts and many outright falsehoods that don't stand up when looking at the actual acquisitions and players.

on what I think is the topic of this thread, it's half and half. half the staff is walking guys left and right, the other half isn't walking anyone. the same guys walking batters are the guys who can't get out of innings. bad combination. the exception is Marquis, who has been walking batters but not allowing any hits. on Howry...one bad outting? he was terrible the one game in Cincy, struggled against Cincy about a week ago, and was bailed out by Pie a couple days ago. Bob's been shaky at best, although he was hosed twice by the ump in his 'worst' outting. on obp, I pointed out about ten days ago how the first three weeks of the season the Cubs face a who's who of the best pitchers in the NL at not walking batters, so I expected that to surpress walk totals. what I didn't expect was to face Chris "Maddux of '94" Capuano, Woody "Maddux of '95" Williams, Kyle "Maddux of '96" Lohse, and Greg "Maddux of '97" Maddux when it comes to getting the outside corner against righties. they've also had an unusual number of "at 'em" ball games early on. while I haven't been pleased with alot of the ab's I've seen or the inability to adjust, this Cubs team has been up against the wall when it comes obp the first few weeks of the season here. alot of that can be attributed to things that only fall into the catagory of luck, ie. bad umping, bad matchups for their lineup, ave way below expected for LD%, etc. as alluded to by some poster earlier, waaaaay to early to tell. I think they will end up in the upper half, and that's all that was expected. things will level off, and should be given a chance to level off before any conclusions are made on what this offense will do in terms of obp. afterall, this was expected to be one of the top slugging offenses in the NL, but they have been quite middling, so you could just as easily blame the struggles on lack of power for the lack of success up to this point of the season. nonetheless, yes, the offense has been disappointing, but the fact of the matter is, but for 4 guys we all expected to be at least somewhat decent, the Cubs would have a really good record right now. Z, Eyre, Ohman, and Howry.

his back problems go back to at least 2002. Sheets had back surgery in October 2004. he missed five weeks in 2005 because of an ear infection, had back problems in the middle of 2005, missed five weeks for the shoulder tear at the end of 2005, missed the beginning of 2006 because of his back (not his shoulder), shoulder tendinitis/strain (not the same injury as 2005) in May shelved him most of the season. so in sum, you are completely wrong in your assessment of Ben Sheets' injury history. No, the 2005 and 2006 injuries were 100% related. Yes he had back surgery, post season surgery for soreness in his back but he didn't miss any time because of it and was still effective after it so hard to really make a fuss over it. The ear infection is not an injury. The guy has had one major injury that stopped him from pitching and spanned the end of 1 year and the start of another. Its still very hard to look at his career and call him injury prone. just saying it with conviction doesn't make it so. the injury in 2005 and March 2006 was in the back of his shoulder. the May-June 2006 injury was tendinitis, with pain in the front of his shoulder. I've never heard anything about them being related whatsoever. then he hurst a chest muscle in August last year. even the ear infection was a recurring thing, although I don't know if he's had any problems since surgery. the post season surgery for soreness in his back was repair of two herniated discs, not the minor 'off-season' tweak you make it out to be. if nothing else, it adds up to multiple missed starts due to back problems which resulted in surgery, multiple missed starts due to the ear, which resulted in surgery, a torn muscle which resulted in surgery, and tendinitis in his shoulder, and a strained chest muscle. hey, Kerry Wood has only had three injuries in his career. his elbow, his shoulder, and his back. just so happens they spanned 7 of his 9 years.

I think the most blatant example was Woody getting the low sinker all game , consistently with a couple of inches off the corner as well. then, to lead of the ill fated eighth (see first inning to Lee/Aram), Howry threw a beauty of a sinker right over the middle with very late break. ball. should have struck out Ensberg. I'm just as p'd about that pitch as the one to Everett. come the next inning, Gabe White throws the exact same pitch as Howry, only a little lower, and suddenly it was a strike again. Williams got a few calls right where the K to Everett should have been as well. same thing happened yesterday. Cotts didn't get pitches Capuano got, Wise and inbred looking guy got pitches Miller didn't. happened in Sheets/Z too, but to a lesser extent. call me crazy if you want, but it's been going on consistenely for years.

I agree that relievers are highly unpredictable, but simply saying this with conviction doesn't make it true. far from it, and alot of times when you try, it turns into complete disaster. you look at the state of the Cubs pen when Eyre and Howry were signed and the cupboards were bare. the three best relievers at that time are still with the team. at the time, you might have said "just bring up Jermaine." Boston thought so too at the beginning of 2006. incidentally, I don't think Howry or Eyre will be any good this year, and Lou would be well served to quickly change the roles of the guys in the pen.

Which teams, aside from the small market teams that have no other choice, do that? St. Louis & Anaheim, two teams that perpetually have top 5 bullpens in baseball. Other than Izzy, I can't think of a single FA those guys have gone on the market for and signed to big money contracts. Now, Anaheim extended Shields with pretty big money, but they found him for minimum dollars initially. maybe the past couple years, but that's not how it's always been. the five primary relievers of the 2004 Cardinals cost about 13M (7.75 of it Izzy) and not a single one came up in the system. it consisted of a big money FA, a smaller money FA, two guys that came in trades, and one scrap heap guy. three of those five remained in 2005 and cost over 11M. 2003 their pen was not good, and consisted of scrap heap type guys. before that, there were guys like Veres and Timlin, big money FAs. the Angels I agree with, but it's been the same three or four guys that has made them good for years now. when FRod and Shields equivalents come up in the Cubs system, and scrap heap guys like Weber and Donally have runs of 4-5 solid years, then I will agree that the pen should have been built in house and with low cost solutions.

third day in a row that the opposition is getting every borderline pitch whether hitting or pitching.

I think it might have been Dibble's first game back from a suspension, but I remember. happened in the late innings. Dibble couldn't find the zone, Cubs rallied, and I think Doug bunted, or hit a chopper up the first base line. weird thing was, Dibble could have gotten an out on the play, but chose to throw the ball at Doug instead. probable roid rage incident.

Miller. DeRosa's Ks wouldn't have been as big if Miller actually, you know, pitched well. most of them wouldn't have been K's had he been batting in the bottom half of the inning today. I think Eyre got one low strike before he started throwing kerosene. that's it. every other borderline pitch all day long went in the Brewers favor. DeRosa had at least one really questionable strike called on him each AB, two of them for strike three.

well let's keep going with it, just for kicks. my complaint was not who was trolling and who was not. my point was similar to soccer's. how could Rich possibly be trolling in this situation? my complaint was the strained analysis people went through to determine that the less 'well respected' poster was the troll. I don't care how well respected a poster is, or how hot the chick in his avatar is, a Cub fan should be able to rejoice in a Cardinal player's failure without a 'well respected,' hottie avatared Cardinal fan poster getting all worked up about it.

well as it turns out, the Marlins were a .500 club when they got LoDuca, and about 8-10 games over .500 during his tenure (while losing one of their best pitchers and their firstbaseman in the trade). so by your own rationale, looks like leadership does make a difference.

I also agree that two years isn't enough to evaluate a GM, but the team fell off a cliff. breaking his tenure down by transaction, it's pretty easy to see why. first off, Depodesta is responsible for the much reviled Izturis contract. anyone want more Izturis contracts? I agree that LoDuca is nothing special, but Jason Phillips, David Ross, and Brent Mayne at that time were not good at baseball, so that trade meant leaving the team with a black hole at C for a year and half while the prosepects developed. someone gives credit for signing Lowe, but giving a huge contract to a guy coming off of two years of 105 and 90 ERA is not exactly brilliant. nor was giving a huge contract to a 37 year old declining secondbasemen. plus at the same time he re-upped Perez, who fell off a cliff himself. two of the three happened to work out, but they weren't great moves. the thing that is striking about this disucssion is how mistakes Depo made are just brushed over, even though the people brushing over have really ridden Hendry for similar moves over the years. Andy Sisco situation = Shane Victorino situation. Aram contract out = JD Drew contract out. Jose Valentin = any of the high power low OBP signings by the Cubs. you can also say that chemistry, etc. doesn't matter, and for the most part it doesn't. but a dash of LoDuca traded, a pinch of Milton Bradley acquired, and a spritz of Drew signed equals losing market share to the Angels. one last thing, perhaps the lamest argument in favor of a GM I have ever heard was crediting him for a single AB by a player who pretty muched sucked at the time he was acquired. Steve Finley, puh-leaz. I really don't know how good a GM Depodesta would make, but simply because he is SABR/Beane discipile doesn't mean he would make a good GM, particurlarly when you factor in his short history as a GM in which is he was widely acknowledged to have trouble working with ownership, employees, agents and other GMs.

just saw the highlights of this game. both Arod and Giambi's homeruns came on pitches that aren't supposed to be hit for homeruns. how they both pulled their hands in and got the barrell on the ball was incredible. amazing swings.

win or lose, Charlie Reliford licks my...