BigbadB

I'm not so sure Pittsburgh's pitching staff will give up more runs than the Cardinals pitching staff, however. I think I like Pittsburgh's offense a little more than St. Louis this year as well. I see this year being an ideal year for Pujols to miss a significant part of the season to have surgery to fix his arm.

You're forgetting one little thing. The Cubs can't beat the Marlins to save their lives. The other thing he is forgetting is that the d-rays will be better than the cubs in a couple years. Except for the fact that they too will pull a Florida Marlins fire sale when some of these young prospects start getting arbitration money. This is a team that will have a small window of opportunity and if they don't win within that time frame, it's back to the drawing board.

How about a truckload of salt?

The bolded section should set off alarms, bells, whistles and red flags. Just say no! Let the kid play!

Oh that's easy: Kent Merker and Neifi Perez Wasn't Neifi on "the list".

http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/cs-080213-chicago-cubs-baltimore-orioles-trade,1,4126403.story I prefer my insider info 10 minutes sooner by Peace21. Color me unimpressed.

That's all Clemens had to do. I think he just loves the attention he's getting right now.

Yeah, stupid mods. Where are they anyway? Probably post padding some transaction thread or sumthin.

Post pad to get this thread to 300 pages. Okay, I'm lying like Roger Clemens. I'm just padding my own post count. :wink:

Kerry Muskat's dog>>>Peace21

I like Soriano at SS over Theriot. And he has played some MLB SS. 16? And that makes at least 3 guys I prefer at SS over Theriot, just on the Cubs roster. Soriano, DeRosa and Cedeno.

Well, if we can't separate church from state, we might as well combine the efforts of MLB and state.

:cray:

Copied from the "Revisiting Joe Nathan" thread and never replied to:

Copied from the "Revisiting Joe Nathan" thread and never replied to: Can you provide a link to one of these articles where the Cubs prefer to move Soriano down in the order? In your own words, you state the importance of good OBP to set up the production hitters. But, there are 2 guys who hit in front of these production hitters, not just one. And when you beg for Roberts to hit first, you are basically asking for Theriot to hit second as well. If you haven't looked lately, Theriot has a worse on base percentage than Soriano. So, if you had your choice, are you honestly saying you would rather have: Roberts/Theriot batting 1/2 or Soriano/Roberts batting 1/2? I won't allow you to use Roberts/Fukudome in there because there have been plenty of articles published quoting Hendry as wanting a lefty bat to split up all the big righty bats. And I'm honestly not making the following stat up. Soriano in the first inning in 2007: 20 strike outs Roberts in the first inning in 2007: 18 strike outs Oh my, those 2 extra K's is really killing the Cubs starting off a game. Soriano leading off an inning in 2007: 45 K's Roberts leading off an inning in 2007: 38 K's. Yikes, 7 more K's starting off innings 250+ times per year. Fire that man. Soriano leading off a game with a HR: 12 Roberts leading off a game with a HR: 1 Soriano leading off an inning with a HR: 13 Roberts leading off an inning with a HR: 4 Roberts scores a run every 7.17 times he steps to the plate. Soriano scores a run every 6.7 times he steps to the plate. Please explain why less home runs, less K's and less runs scored per game (Roberts x 3) makes someone a more valuable lead off hitter. I'm dying to hear it.

No, it's not. I have yet to see an actual article that states the Cubs want Roberts to hit lead off. I have definitely seen articles that said that Hendry wants lefty hitters to split up the RH bats. Not only does putting Roberts and Fukudome 1/2 not split up any RH bats, it makes it even worse when you now have Lee, Ramirez, Soriano and Soto all batting in a row. Granted, I'm not convinced that splitting up the righties is necessary and I'd probably be fine with Roberts, Fukudome, Lee, Ramirez and Soriano batting 1-5, but I don't see Piniella doing that. One must also remember that for some strange reason, Cubs management thinks Theriot is productive.

All anyone really needs to do is read your post to figure out why at this time it makes absolutely zero sense to move Soriano out of the lead off spot with or without the addition of Brian Roberts. That, and what I'm about to add...... Fact: The difference between batting first and batting 6th last year for the Cubs roster was 83 plate appearances. If Roberts was batting 1st and Theriot was batting 2nd and Soriano was 6th behind Lee, Ramirez and Fukudome, do we really want Theriot (the $350K worse OBP than Soriano kid) getting 63 more plate appearances over the course of a season than Soriano? I sure don't. Soriano was a better lead off hitter than Roberts last year, even with a poorer OBP. In another thread, I provided proof that Soriano scores more runs per at bat than Brian Roberts does. Nobody is banishing Roberts to the bottom of the order if Soriano leads off. Right now (and assuming Roberts became a Cub), the most ideal line up that the Cubs could send out there everyday is this: Soriano Roberts Lee Ramirez Fukudome Soto Pie Theriot The best hitters on the team bat the most. Period. I just can't even begin to grasp how anyone could argue this. A Soriano lead off home run with no one on base is WAY, WAY, WAY better than Roberts getting a single and stealing 2nd base and Theriot grounding out to the 2b, even if it advances the runner. Soriano scored a run without any outs occuring. Soriano kept the inning alive, and after 8 more at bats, including at bats by many of the better hitters in the line up, he's due to bat again already. Granted, 7,8,9 in the line up will likely take away RBI opportunities for Soriano batting 1st, but so does taking 83 PA's over the course of a season. And in the later innings, you have guys like DeRosa and Ward and possibly even Murton (all with very respectable OBP's) who can PH for the pitcher and possibly get on base. If Pie and Theriot can improve their OBP's to somewhere in the neighborhood of .330/.340 respectively, combine that with those late inning pinch hitters and voila, an awesome situation for Soriano to not only get the most at bats of any player on the team, but lots of RBI opportunities as well. This really isn't rocket science. It's making the best use of the cards you are dealt. And in no universe I want to be a part of is Ryan Theriot a better top of the order hitter than Soriano. As CCP pointed out, the only real way to move Soriano out of the lead off spot is if you have two top of the order hitters who can outproduce Soriano, or at least 2 top of the order hitters that would make more sense to move Soriano down in the order. There were only a small handful of lead off hitters in baseball last year that were more productive than Soriano, and Brian Roberts wasn't one of them. Only Hanley Ramirez had a better SLG from the lead off spot. Only Curtis Granderson and Hanley had a better OPS from the lead off spot. Several scored more runs than Soriano, but Soriano had way less PA because of injury last year. Even with the injury, Soriano had more home runs, was 2nd in doubles and 3rd in RBI when comparing all the lead off hitters in both leagues. Only Granderson and Rollins had more XBH's than Soriano, but Soriano would have ended up with more of those as well if given a full healthy season. Getting on base is a good thing. No one will argue that. But, a home run is better than a single, a double, a triple, a walk or a HBP. But, Soriano doesn't just hit HR's. He also hits doubles. More doubles than Roberts hits. And Soriano steals bases when his hamstring isn't pissing him off. Bottom line, this isn't about who is a better lead off hitter. It's about putting the best constructed line up on the field, and no matter how you slice it, Soriano/Roberts is WAY better than Roberts/Theriot. In fact, Soriano/Roberts just might be the most productive 1/2 in the entire league. That would be a thing of beauty for Mr. Lee, Mr. Ramirez and Mr. Fukudome.

I'm looking forward to seeing him perjure himself.

You can assimilate the best line ups you want, but you'll never get what you want with Dusty at the helm. Go through the old game threads and look at the ridiculous line ups Dusty ran out there. We had an ideal #2 hitter in 2005, and remembering that 2005 was Derrek Lee's monster season, here's what he had hitting 1/2 Jerry Hairston lead off: .265 .344 .382, 348 PA's. Corey Patterson lead off: .211 .263 .359, 139 PA's Neifi Perez lead off: .254 .263 .333 , 119 PA's A combined 39 walks from the lead off spot all season long! Neifi Perez batting 2nd: .280 .300 .414, 284 PA's Todd Walker batting 2nd: .299 .351 .492, 278 PA's Corey Patterson batting 2nd: .179 .220 .308, 82 PA's A combined 30 walks from the 2 hole all season long! Matt Murton would have been ideal batting 2nd with his: .321 .386 .521 with Hairston and Walker sharing lead off duties, BUT NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Gotta have Neifi save us. Add it up. Nobody got more at bats at the top spots in the order that year than Neifi Perez. Exactly how many at bats would Neifi have gotten in the top two spots in the order if I was the manager? NONE! Joey Votto batting 2nd with Dusty Baker as the manager? LOL. That's a good one.

Cleveland wanted Jason Bay, but didn't want to pay up what Pittsburgh wanted to let Bay go. Cleveland has a luxury at SS/2b with Peralta, Cabrera and Josh Barfield. The Cubs need a SS. Cleveland receives Jason Bay Cubs receive Jhonny Peralta Pittsburgh receives a package of players from Cleveland and Cubs. Say something along the lines of Andy Marte, Matt Murton, Sean Marshall and Cedeno.

I'd rather give the job to EPatt.

And so it begins. Or should I say began? I think it started with the trade of Josh Hamilton. :wink:

In what sick and twisted world is Comerica an "awesome ballpark?" It's only a slight improvement over Pro Player, and IIRC, has a deeper left field! Factor in AL pitching and I don't think Cabrera is likely to improve. I seem to recall that they have been adjusting the fences in at least once during this decade, maybe more?

Kind of hard to watch the games when pitchers and catchers haven't reported to camp yet. :wink:

Tino Martinez was still playing in '05? ugh.