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biittner77

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Everything posted by biittner77

  1. biittner77
    How soon before he gets promoted to Daytona? Didn't he spend all of last year in high A? As far as Jackson to the pen, I think he's one more Caridad ineffective inning away from a callup.
  2. biittner77
    I think you should learn a new word other than ignorant. Getting too much of the blame is part of the job. Piniella knows that and expects that and isn't bothered by it. Perhaps he should only be blamed for what he can directly control which is making out the lineup card, pitching changes and substitutions. Seems to me Piniella has done pretty poorly in all 3 of those facets.
  3. biittner77
    I really think there's a category between legendary and tolerable, for those who are above average but not at the level of all-time great. To me the difference between legendary vs. tolerable would be like the difference between A vs. C in school with no B in between. And I'd put Len in the above average but short of legendary category. Ok, there has to be a category for Pat Hughes who is actually good. Fred Manfra and Joe Angel (orioles radio) also in this category. So there are basically 3 baseball announcers that exist above tolerable. BTW, Legendary is not necessarily synonymous with good or enjoyable.
  4. biittner77
    I am still waiting for the O's to start Patterson, Pie and Montanez in the OF in the same game. Just once. Maybe in a Sept. DH or something.
  5. biittner77
    First rule of being in charge: everything is your fault. Piniella- and every other manager- knew that going in. When things go well they get too much credit. Somewhere Joe Morgan is probably gushing about the great job Dusty Baker has done as manager of the Reds- that is, if he has had a chance to see them play this year.
  6. biittner77
    I am at best a casual soccer fan but I seem to remember during the European Championship that Belich's play was pretty disappointing. Maybe I'm imagining that or it could be that the couple times I saw Chelsea Belich made some stupid misstakes. Are the Germans just fatallistic or is he really that important to them?
  7. biittner77
    The euology for the Boston Bruins is up. One of the better ones so far: http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/Eulogy-Remembering-the-2009-10-Boston-Bruins;_ylt=Alg.F.mrK7Edm1rcDaGlIiV7vLYF?urn=nhl,241237
  8. biittner77
    You forgot Rick Sutcliffe, Eric Karros and Mike Krukow. Is Milo Hamilton still doing Astros games? Announcers fall into 3 categories: 1. Legendary- one's that have been around so long that few dare to question their ability 2. Tolerable- Len and Bob fall in this category 3. awful- pretty much everyone else
  9. biittner77
    :-s He surely meant Zambrano. He may have to fake an injury so he can make a couple rehab starts to get stretched out. Back to the original question, what can they get for Lilly that would make it worth trading him now? May trades are usually the blockbuster types but I can't remember seeing one of those recently. Unless they got back an impact player they would have a hard time spinning this as not giving up on the season. There really isn't any good place to add an impact player except maybe 2nd base.
  10. biittner77
    I think this could give him an edge. If he's able to get people out he'll be in much better position to claim a rotation spot next spring. I would liken this to the Smardj situation with the important difference being that JJax has shown that he can get people out. I'd be much more concerned if they were moving Cashner to the BP.
  11. biittner77
    It likely will be. Teams weren't really exploiting the rule until recently, so it wasn't really an issue. I cant imagine it has a great chance of sticking around through another CBA negotiation. What do you mean by recently? The Cubs did this to Kerry Wood in 1998.
  12. biittner77
    What constitutes a "regular contender"? Does this mean making the playoffs or being in the hunt for most of the season? How you answer that question determines how you'd have to evaluate the Hendry regime. The other problem is finding the beginning date for the Hendry regime. He became GM in 2002 but he was a big part of the decision making process in 2001. So if you want to pin the blame for 2002 on him then you also have to give him some credit for 2001. So let's say the Hendry era starts in 2001 and "regular contender" means staying in the playoff race or making the playoffs. By those standards, Hendry has led the Cubs to 3 division titles and 3 contending seasons. The other 3 seasons were unmitigated disasters. By these standards, which I think are very kind to Hendry, still leave a sense of mediocrity and underachievement given the resources and payroll.
  13. biittner77
    A player's ceiling has nothing to do with ROY either, unless they reach it during their 1st season. Didn't Jerome Walton win ROY?
  14. biittner77
    The owner of the Orioles hasn't made Cal Ripken Jr. Manager of the Orioles. What do I win? Wait, what? When did Cal ever make efforts to manage the Orioles? It should be obvious I'm talking about the type of situation Sandberg is in, not just beloved players randomly being asked to manage out of the blue. I thought that he had expressed interest before he started buying minor league franchises. Actually he expressed interest in buying the Orioles if Angelos were willing to sell. I would not be surprised if Ripken jumped at the chance to manage the Orioles but I haven't found any quotes so I'll concede that point. It seems like Billy Williams used to want to be the manager of the Cubs. Babe Ruth never got to manage the Yankees, though I guess they were never in a position to need the publicity of that hire.
  15. biittner77
    Nuts & Gum wrote: The owner of the Orioles hasn't made Cal Ripken Jr. Manager of the Orioles. What do I win?
  16. biittner77
    How about this: fire Piniella and make Sandberg the interim Manager. When the team doesn't perform any better- or just as likely gets worse- they can get someone else to manage the team next year and they don't have to waste a season or two figuring out that Sandberg is a terrible manager. The danger there is what happens if Sandberg shows a slight improvement and Ricketts comes under pressure to give him the job full time. Even then, it seems like Sandberg will eventually get his shot to manage the Cubs so it might as well be this yearwith a team that probably isn't going anywhere.
  17. biittner77
    I'd be more excited about Blake Parker if he didn't give up so many walks.
  18. biittner77
    The problem with Pie and Patterson is that neither were going to hit for the type of power you'd ideally want from a middle of the order hitter and neither showed the patience to bat at the top of the order. So the lumbering dinosaurs of the Cubs organization were faced with 2 choices: bat them near the top of the order to use their speed or "waste" their speed batting them 7th. It's really a shame that the Cubs don't seem to value CF defense very much. At least not enough to let them contribute what they could from the 7th spot and play very good defense at a very important defensive spot.
  19. biittner77
    I think if want some of his really reactionary baseball views look at firejoemorgan.com. That might be easier than wading through these articles. http://www.firejoemorgan.com/search/label/ryne%20sandberg
  20. biittner77
    Jim Hendry said
  21. biittner77
    I think it may be more a matter of trusting his 2 best hitters to eventually come around and not breaking up his string of 5- 8 hitters that are all doing well so far. Think of Soto as a 2nd cleanup hitter with Byrd, Soriano and Fontenot all hitting well in front of him.
  22. biittner77
    On the positive side, Ramirez's slow start means they don't have to rush Vitters since it makes it less likely that he will opt out of his contract.
  23. biittner77
    I think they like having another LH in the rotation. I would guess that Silva moves to the pen before Gorzelanny for that reason. Then again, who knows what crazy old Lou is thinking?
  24. biittner77
    Unless KG knows things that other folks don't, most reports on Castro suggests that he has good enough discipline and an excellent eye. I haven't heard many people say that Castro is a wild hacker, and it certainly didn't seem that way to me. Could he stand to get better? Sure, but that report was off, IMO. Am I off on this? I really don't recall anything to suggest that we should be significantly worried about it. Perhaps this is a perception issue stemming from the AFL. It seems- at least the way I remember it- that Castro didn't walk much and was swinging early in the count during the AFL. Another possibility is that they've never seen him play, they look at his walk rate and wish it was higher. Since it's not they assume he must be a free swinger.
  25. biittner77
    How about Gorzelanny, someone like Blake Parker and someone like Tony Thomas for a "dependable" reliever? That seems like the kind of deal that a team that was trying to save money could make and it would be reasonable. That would be overpaying on the part of the Cubs but they could absorb those costs. The problem is finding a team that needs a starter more than they need a reliever.
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