NukeLaloosh

Actually there is considerable evidence that the White Sox do put much greater emphasis on these stats than the Cubs. The acquisition of Thome would make me believe this. Turning Lee and his $8m into Pods, Dye and Iguchi. Lee is actually much more of an old school numbers guy (the counting stats - AVG/HR/RBI). People got hung up on the .300/30/100 with him, but Kenny didn't buy the hype. Maybe because he saw the OBP/SLG as less impressive, and knew he could get the same production from Dye for much less cost, something the Cubs refuse to do. No way. KW has no clue. Pods was one of the worst OBP/OPS guys in baseball when he targeted him. If the Cubs made that move you would have crucified Hendry. Iguchi was just a cheap flyer that worked out for him. And Carlos Lee out-slugged Jermaine Dye every year of his career until last year. If KW cared, his team wouldn't have been near the bottom of the AL in OBP. No, he loves the toolsy guys, like Pods, Uribe, Rowand etc. And pitching. And it's his love of pitching that won him the title. Well, the fact that his entire pitching staff severely over achieved in 2005 while his offense dropped off significantly.

Like I said, the Cubs don't care about these new fangled stats either, looks where it's got them. For the record, I've never read a single book about baseball stats. And I didn't compare Pierre to Patterson. I compared the Cubs CF last year to Florida's. Patterson was only a part of the total CF production. Pierre was virtually all of the CF production. If you replaced the Cubs CF production with Florida's production last year, then the Cubs wouldn't have been any better. Before you just go off insulting people for what they write I suggest you try and read what they actually write. And neither do the White Sox and look where it got them. Manipulating stats is exactly how someone comes to the conclusion that adding Pierre doesn't drastically improve the Cubs cf production.

Last year the Cubs ranked 16th in the NL in OPS from CF. Florida was 15th. Wow. I didn't realize that Pierre was the only offensive output on the Marlins! Besides, it was a bad year last year, he is likely to rebound IMO. And also, his OPS isn't as important as his OBP. He needs to get on base. He has the speed to score from first. Anything extra just makes his job easier. Some of these new-fangled fans are dangerous. A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing. They read a couple books about sabermetrics etc. and all of sudden everything boils down to someone's OPS. Pierre's OBP and ability to disrupt pitchers rhythms are his primary attributes. I don't care if the guy doesn't hit a home run all season. Well, you guys are real class acts. New fangled fans? Okay meat. If you don't think OPS matters, fine, Hendry and the Cubs don't seem to think it matters much either and we've seen the results of their theories. Pierre was pretty much the Marlins only CF last year, and he sucked. Corey was not the only Cubs CF. Their overall production from CF sucked, but Florida's wasn't much better. If you replaced FL's CF production with the Cubs, they'd have still sucked as a team. This is why people think Pierre is only a slight upgrade. People actually take the time to investigate this sort of stuff and don't just base their opinions on conventional wisdom, cliches and myth pushers of a bygone era like Joe Morgan. Where did I say OPS didn't matter? All I'm saying is that there is this whole new breed of fan that thinks they're smart about baseball because they read a couple books and try to simplify the theories in those books down to a few stastistics. I don't know how anyone can even compare Pierre and Patterson last year, even with Pierre's poor numbers. Patterson was down right brutal. His approach is awful. Pierre is a completely different ball player. When he's going well, which he has for the majority of his career, he can provide you with a solid OBP. He can steal some bases. He can force pitchers to throw out of the stretch, waste throws to first, try and pitch carefully around batters following him. I don't think he's a great player or among the CF elite. But given a choice between him and Patterson; it's no contest. I don't give a flying #### what his OPS is.

Last year the Cubs ranked 16th in the NL in OPS from CF. Florida was 15th. Wow. I didn't realize that Pierre was the only offensive output on the Marlins! Besides, it was a bad year last year, he is likely to rebound IMO. And also, his OPS isn't as important as his OBP. He needs to get on base. He has the speed to score from first. Anything extra just makes his job easier. Some of these new-fangled fans are dangerous. A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing. They read a couple books about sabermetrics etc. and all of sudden everything boils down to someone's OPS. Pierre's OBP and ability to disrupt pitchers rhythms are his primary attributes. I don't care if the guy doesn't hit a home run all season.

How did Lee only get a single on that drive?

Based on what? If you say something like that they might be terrible (reversepsychology). Who knows when Wood will be ready to go, and when he is who know how long before he is good again. All indications are that Neifie will be starting at 2nd-He had a career year last year and still was less than mediocre The outfiled was god awful last year, this year it might be merely pathetic. The bullpen might be better but Eyre and Howry are middle inning guys for a reason. Who knows what will happen in the bullpen. Dempster's high wire act might not play this year. Lee is likely to regress. I'd say the Cubs have a chance at 90 wins, but that chance is not good. 1. Any prediction of the Cubs doing well has to include a healthy, effective Wood. We HAVE to assume that's the way he'll be because it's the only way the Cubs reach their goal. 2. As long as Walker is on the team, I think it is fair to forecast him as the starting 2b. He's the best option. 3. Outfield is improved offensively and defensively. That's all that matters. We are talking about improvements from 2005 Cubs not how they stack up against the rest of MLB. 4. I think you can absolutely say that the bullpen is improved. Even average career #'s from Howry and Eyre as well as slight improvements from guys who got work last year will lead to a much better pen. 5. Lee is likely to regress but he's also likely to have better people batting in front of him all year long. You can spin it any way you want with just about any team.

Well... I think that the following lineup would be ok with a healthy pitching staff: Pierre Walker Lee ARam Murton Jones Barrett Cedeno But with Dusty/Hendry... I'm afraid it'll be: Pierre Neifi Lee Jones Aram Mabry Barrett Mystery 2b I guess my point is that the Cubs have improved and could make a playoff run and their pitching is built for the playoffs.

I know that the off season is not over with (God, please don't let it be) but I was hoping to solicit some opinions on how much better than we were last year. I actually think we've made a decent jump despite the fact that I think Hendry hasn't done very much right yet. 1b - Lee - probably get less offensively, same defensively 2b - Walker - same ss- Cedeno - I have to think we'll get more offensively than the Neifi/Nomar combo last year or at least comprable. And Cedeno is a solid defensive player. 3b - Ramirez - same/same and hopefully healthy all year LF - Murton - has to superior on both sides to Dubois/Holly/Gerut/Lawton CF - Pierre - better offensively by a LONG shot over Patterson, lose some defensively over CP but probably gain over JH RF - Jones - slight decrease in both areas imo C - Barrett - same/same The bullpen, while overpriced, is much more solid and deep. And I would hope we get more starts from Wood and Prior in 2006 than we did in 2005. I think Zambrano can actually improve. Maddux and Rusch are question marks as to how they'll perform compared to 2005. I think this team is a little better defensively with Cedeno, a healthy ARam, and a speedier outfield. I also think the bullpen is stronger and combined with improved defense could make the starting pitchers' numbers a little better. The primary concern, of course, is where the runs are going to come from consistently. If Dusty isn't an idiot and plays and bats Pierre and Walker in front of DLee and ARam; that could lead to a slightly improved offensive club. I have not taken into account Dusty's moronic manuevers in this analysis. I don't think we're good enough, but I think we're improved.

I don't like dusty one bit, but I do know he won one game against the Cards last year because of his obsession with R-L-R-L. It worked beautifully against the over-manager Larussa, who ended up having a very poor relief pitcher other there and the Cubs took advantage of the matchup. At any rate... blechpukeblech for Jones.

So... KW is a better GM than Hendry even though we'd crucify Hendry if he traded away Pie for a pitcher with a 4.4 ERA and due $24M over two years. Not to mention taking on the majority of a HUGE contract to a clearly aging 35-year old DH with three years left on his deal (at least..., I can't remember). KW's moves last season were extremely lucky in how they worked out but made fiscal sense. Now his moves need to be lucky and don't make fiscal sense.

I have no idea what KW is doing. As far as I can tell, he's added three HUGE contracts this year for Thome, Konerko and Vazquez. Thome and Vazquez are talented but are recent busts, given the $$. Sure, he got some money from Cleveland but Thome's contract remains rather large and long-term (I think it goes through 2008, at least). I have to assume he's flipping one of his starters... otherwise this makes no sense.