nilodnayr

Hey, I like Greinke as much as the next guy, but the Royals have said over and over and over and over and over that hes untouchable.

We're getting a prospect in the deal to flip for a good starting pitcher. Like I said above, it might be a fantasy, but we should look to take advantage of San Diego's ownership issue. I completely agree with SSR that we could get Greene a lot cheaper and my comment about the padre's lack of prospects wasn't so much a joke...their system is nearly completely barren. I would expand the Greene deal and throw Vitters et al to try to get Peavy. Pie, Theriot, Vitters, Rich Hill?, Fontenot? etc would be a pretty decent haul and be a huge step for them to rebuild their team with a youth movement while simultaneously not necessarily knocking them out of contention in a weakened division (ala the A's this year). If not Peavy, then reign back the package quite a bit and try to get Giles (assuming he'll approve a trade). He'd be perfect patrolling RF, moving Fukudome to CF. We could match up really really well with the Padres given that we have an abundance of middle IFs as well as a farm system that won't be of great value to us because we have a lot of positions locked down and are (hopefully) going to have a new owner very soon who will spend. Given their ownership situation and lack of a farm system, young cheap players are worth more to them than they are to most other teams. I'm not saying we are the only ones who could throw a bunch of young cheap players at them for Peavy and Greene, but we will hopefully be in a unique position (you may call it Yankee-esque) where we will be able to trade away young cheap players for older players with larger contracts. In order to avoid the yankee downfall, all you need to do is pick the right players. Giambi isn't that guy, Peavy is.

FYI, still some bleachers out at craigslist for $300 each. I'm really really tempted. But if the buying the password thing works, that would be $ well spent for the NLCS.

No, you are automatically re-registered, regardless of whether you won or not.

We're getting a prospect in the deal to flip for a good starting pitcher. The padres have prospects?!?!? Since when?

I paid $175. So my two bleacher tix cost me $156 with all the fees and shipping included. All in all I paid $331 for the pair. ($175 password + $156 to the Cubs box office) Definitely much better than the $800/pair you're probably looking at for 2 bleachers. Hopefully this works. I think it will. As far as I know, once the tickets are sold, the Cubs don't give a sh!t who bought them. More than 800 a pair...the cheapest bleachers on stubhub are 471 each.

Someone on craigslist is selling bleachers for 300 each...thats by far and away the best I've seen.

I will let you know in a few days. I bought a password off of craigslist this morning and then bought tickets. I selected 'fed-ex shipping' so if they arrive in my mailbox I will certainly inform everyone. How much did you pay for the password? I sure hope it works!!!!

Welcome and congrats!

I don't know but if you go on using the password above you are given the option of buying SRO tickets online this year so there wont be any other sale of those.

http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/chc/ticketing/postseason.jsp click on a T

CONGRATS!!!! It doesn't work again but it lets you get through so you think it will, but then it stonewalls you and says

Of the 10 I opened up about 3 minutes ago, 6 have gotten through. We knew this by the terrible results yesterday, but this just reinforces that they only allowed a very very few to win the lottery. Although, at this point, I would imagine everything is sold out, but they don't say that once you get through.

If it's a number and/or letter combination, then it's unique. If it's something like "chicago," then it would be generic. its a 7 digit code consisting of random letters and numbers Will you post it once you're able to get your tickets? My guess is that the password is the vehicle they are using to police the 1 game/2 ticket rule, rather than on an adhoc basis comparing contact information which is how they enforce the regular season rules. So, I don't think knowing his password after hes already bought tickets is going to help any. This is what it says when you get through...

If it's a number and/or letter combination, then it's unique. If it's something like "chicago," then it would be generic. its a 7 digit code consisting of random letters and numbers Will you post it once you're able to get your tickets? yes....I currently have 45 windows open and am not through yet Damn, keep trying. I just opened up about 10 or so and got through in 30 seconds.

If it's a number and/or letter combination, then it's unique. If it's something like "chicago," then it would be generic. its a 7 digit code consisting of random letters and numbers Will you post it once you're able to get your tickets? My guess is that the password is the vehicle they are using to police the 1 game/2 ticket rule, rather than on an adhoc basis comparing contact information which is how they enforce the regular season rules. So, I don't think knowing his password after hes already bought tickets is going to help any.

Thats fine as long as they make a major upgrade in the OF. We surely are not going to repeat our CF production without making an acquisition. Additionally, I would look to see if anyone out there overvalues Theriot and if someone does, trade him.

He's Juan Pierre minus the speed plus the "ability" for his groundballs to find gaps in the infield. Actually, thats quite an understatement. Theriot's OBP is outpacing his SLG by 25 points this year. Juan Pierre has always had higher SLG than OBP up until this year where his OBP is outpacing his SLG by only 2 points. Infact, Juan Pierre, in his lone year with the Cubs had DOUBLE the amount of XBHs than Theriot has this year. And on top of that Juan Pierre, in his lone year with the Cubs had the exact same number of triples and homers as Theriot has in his major league career in nearly double the PAs. THT did an article about guys who had higher OBPs than SLG a year or so back I believe. I tried looking, but couldn't find it. If anyone else can, it'd be interesting to see how Theriot's year matches up historically.

Then we all wear t-shirts that says "Bud killed our season"...duh

Someone put the over/under at 15... I think I counted 3 or 4 that got through.

Did anyone else find this suspicious? In the rejection email they specifically tell you that you didn't win the ticket lottery, but you can still buy tickets over at StubHub. (at an inflated price) I know it's probably not, but it sounds really fishy to me. Well its to give you an alternative. Now if they would have sent the rejection letters to everyone and sold the tickets themselves on stub hub, then that'd be fishy (and illegal), but its a smart thing to add in there because if informs fans that want to buy tickets and lines their own pockets because MLB owns stubhub or whatever the arrangement is.

i don't know what purpose is served by bringing up his peripherals when we're arguing over whether he was detrimental in the 2 months with the .384 & .407 OBPs. i'm very well aware of his miserable ISO, but are you arguing that a slugging can be low enough where even getting a .380 OBP in the 2 spot from a min-salary SS is adversely affecting the offense? Granted, league average and league average for a SS are different things.

2 and 3 That is the amount of extra base hits Theriot had in those months respectively. I'm all for OBP, but if you convert those months to wOBA, I believe you are going to get two below league average months, the first one being way below league average. Like I've said about 80 bagillion times, Theriot's peripherals don't show that hes gotten lucky, but his utter and complete lack of power (which I believe is purposeful as his FB rate has dropped significantly), leaves him as a player that is more dependent on luck than pretty much every other player in baseball. We've seen the regression happen within this season and last season. This isn't just a slump or him getting tired. This is to be expected when you don't put the ball into play with power. Hes making the most of his talents and I'm grateful to him to recognize and do that, lots of players don't, but hes no great shakes by any stretch of the imagination. Well, if we go by OPS, then, yes there were only 2 good months. Given that no one attributes any value to his power contributions, should we really throw out the .407 and .384 OBPs in his next 2 lowest OPS months, even given the lack of XBH? I understand the belief that Adam Dunn is the archetype of the modern hitter (correctly so, in many ways), but Theriot has had no lower than a .325 BABIP in any month before this one. Is there no accounting for the rare player who can get a hit without (much) speed and without power? Usually the high BABIP is reserved for the player with good power who has a high LD%. Doesn't seem to hold in this case. Maybe it is a statistical anomaly, but is it possible that this style of hitting doesn't fall into the accepted metrics in terms of predictive usefulness? I ask this as a point of curiosity to those closer to the more advanced metrics. I find the regression to the mean explanation a tired one, no pun intended. I have personally come to believe that the value of OBP is understated by most formulas - particularly in a team concept. Theriot's value is in his obp and there is definitely value in that so I agree that looking at his monthly ops is not particularly reflective. What is concerning about Theriot is that when his luck falls off, he is completely worthless. I don't think he can ever draw many walks simply because pitchers have no fear of his power (see Kosuke Fukodome who I suspect is falling the same problem as part of his overall decline). In short, Theriot has to maintain his LD% and have a corresponding BABIP to be useful. Given his suspect defense and baserunning, I am skeptical of his long-term value. That being said, he is the SS on the best defensive team in the NL so perhaps his defensive liabilities are overstated. The Cubs cannot afford plays like his boot of the third out before the Glaus homerun in the playoffs but I'm not sure its fair to cherrypick plays like that. I agree, OPS wildly understates OBP, which is why I used wOBA to value him, not OPS. Even with wOBA, his complete and utter lack of power renders him a below average player in those months. OBP is great and greater than most people believe, but its not everything.

Why would you be feared of getting knifed? Yes, I'm pretty sure the way it works with season tickets is you pay for the entire package of all possible playoff tickets up front and then they refund you for games they don't play after the fact.

Southwest it, Midway to LAX. I once took southwest from LAX and stood outside in a 2 mile (seriously, 2 mile) line at 5 AM to get to security.