FergieJ31

Aren't personalities part of the whole intrigue of baseball? If not, then I can see the "what's the big deal" argument. We all know Schill is an attention hound, but he would become a gross caricature of himself if he did fake it. As I said yesterday, it should have been painfully obvious even before Thorne fessed up that he didn't fake it.

He's such a great kid - I've enjoyed every bit I've read about him. It's going to be fun watching him patrol CF this year. One thing though, and I hate to be the least bit negative about the article, but about scouting and looking at athleticism, the toolsy guys. Not the way to go, and the Cubs would be well advised to not look past the next Lance Berkman or Prince Fielder type of body. We need guys that can flat out rake, not more track stars (again, this is not a knock on Felix).

I've not heard of this statistic before, but it seems like a fatally flawed one. You can't just compare the number of pitches a manager let his starter throw on average without taking into account who those pitchers are. Bad pitchers get pulled before they get deep into the game; they don't pitch well enough to make it to 100 pitches. Yep good point. Unconditional averages like this one tend to have the advantage of large sample size but they flatten out crucial details. Reminds me of the old saying "Statistics are like bikinis. What they reveal is suggestive, what they conceal is vital."

Maybe, but maybe not. I think the real question, which is probably unanswerable, is to what extent was Prior's shoulder injury was inevitable, especially after the collision and the Hawpe ball. (Yes I know it hit near his elbow but Prior might have compensated in his motion due to the elbow.) Would Prior still be hurt now given those two incidents had he been given a normal workload in 2003? And what would "normal" be here -- maybe 5% fewer total innings & pitches? Who knows, but my guess is that he would still be hurt even if the Cubs had a different manager in 2003, all else equal. I'm not about to defend the high early 2003 pitch counts Dusty put Prior through (not to mention Game 2 NLCS), but I think virtually 100% of all major league managers, living and dead, would have ridden him hard down the stretch to get the Cubs into the playoffs, especially with the spotty bullpen they had. Well, it's not that I'm after Dusty's blood, but Carroll's analysis clearly rules out the Giles collision as a significant factor. If you have a reason to disagree with his findings, cool, but it appears that the injury was chronic. Could the Hawpe line drive led to cascade injuries? Sure. But I haven't seen anyone make the case that it altered his mechanics. I hate the "all the other managers would have done it" argument. While it may very well be true, it doesn't justify the action. Plus, Dusty's overuse started well before the stretch run, and often didn't make any sense at all. Why should a 22-year-old starter throw 131 pitches in a 7-0 blowout? Pitchers do get injured regularly, so maybe MP was destined to get hurt, but Dusty was probably the worst possible choice to handle a young pitching staff. And it probably didn't help that, under Baker, the training staff was in constant turnover. Heck, Baker brought in a guy who wasn't even licensed to be a trainer. All very valid points, and Baker certainly shares the blame, but I disagree that comparing Baker to other managers (re pitch counts) is invalid if the issue is injury inevitability. I read once that Baker leaves his starters in for an average of just 3.5 extra pitches per game compared to most managers, which I think might surprise some folks here. I'm shocked that Baker hasn't gotten more heat about that trainer fiasco, but I think the Cubs and Hendry were more at fault for not performing due diligence. It was hilarious that Groeschner was certified right after Sandy Krum filed his wrongful termination lawsuit.

Maybe, but maybe not. I think the real question, which is probably unanswerable, is to what extent was Prior's shoulder injury was inevitable, especially after the collision and the Hawpe ball. (Yes I know it hit near his elbow but Prior might have compensated in his motion due to the elbow.) Would Prior still be hurt now given those two incidents had he been given a normal workload in 2003? And what would "normal" be here -- maybe 5% fewer total innings & pitches? Who knows, but my guess is that he would still be hurt even if the Cubs had a different manager in 2003, all else equal. I'm not about to defend the high early 2003 pitch counts Dusty put Prior through (not to mention Game 2 NLCS), but I think virtually 100% of all major league managers, living and dead, would have ridden him hard down the stretch to get the Cubs into the playoffs, especially with the spotty bullpen they had.

My BS meter is red-lining on this one. Mirabelli should have just admitted he was joking. It's common knowledge that Schilling loves the spotlight. His teammates and managers even gave him crap because he always knew when the dugout camera was on, and would sit by it with a gritty game face when the light went on. I can easily imagine how that kind of personality can become the butt of some serious practical jokes.

Link Damn straight, every word except I do NOT agree that Kerry has gotten a "free pass". I never understood the 'Prior is a wuss' thing. I suspect most people who said that have been loyal Cubs fans since 2003.

Fun fact: Cubs have scored 1 run on 17 hits in their last 20 innings.

A more readable account of the study I mentioned above: http://www.kettering.edu/~drussell/bats-new/alumwood.html

It's fiercely debated because it's so difficult to reproduce actual field conditions in a lab. The best study done to date is probably this one, which clearly showed significantly faster speeds off aluminum bats (which shouldn't surprise anyone): http://webusers.npl.uiuc.edu/~a-nathan/pob/CriscoGreenwald

The Pujols quote was discussed in the game thread - it should be noted, in fairness to Pujols, that the full quote included some props for Marquis:

Maybe so but being right and being gracious are two different things. In fairness to Albert, though, he did give Marquis props later in the same recap: I think Pujols is still ticked off at Marquis because of the whiplash he suffered watching bomb after bomb last year.

This made me laugh: http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/recap?gid=270421116&prov=ap

I'd take those odds Fred ;) If the "Cubs win 8 in a row" contract traded on TradeSports.com, fair odds would be closer to 255 to 1.

Eck grounds out, but in a most gritty fashion.

I <3 this new mortal Pujols .. reminds me of the old Superman movies, the obligatory Kryptonite Clark-becomes-weakling scenes.

Yeah, he flies out as grittily as anyone in the game.

Sweet. Let's keep those Cards bats as cold as the water in their showers...

Dernier's probably thinking "D'oh! I got my work cut out for me" :(

After his first three starts last year Rich Hill had this line: 15 1/3 IP, 18 H, 3 HR, 10 BB, 9 K, 13 ER for an ERA of just under 8 :shock: What a difference a year makes.

Sweet. We need more games like that, a LOT more.

Finally - a backwards post that makes sense.

I still remember the '98 McD's commercial: Sammy to kid: "Now ees your turn to swing de bat and hit de homerun". I agree with Soul, worst night of sports in quite a while. The worst I can remember since - well you know - would be Victor Dias' homer in late Sept '04. I think the Cubs were still up in the WC race by 1/2 game, but everyone knew the season was down the toilet after that game.

I don't get it. So he's comparing himself and jones to sheffield or (a younger) alou? Newsflash Cliff, your like 40 and fall apart after 40 games every year. why not try to stretch those 40 games out? This quote just doesn't sit well with me. I really thought that Cliff would be a great pickup as a bench player with a start about every 3 days or so. I don't know, I give up. Please read the article again - Cliff is not complaining about not starting.

Exactly.