BigbadB

You do realize that Ruth didn't just casually finish ahead of other players in his era in several statistical categories, but blew their doors off, right? First in home runs 12 times. 2nd 4 times, 3rd once and 8th in his final season. Take a look at 1920. Ruth hit 54 home runs, which was more than every American League team. His 54 home runs was more than Boston and Detroits combined team home runs. His nearest HR competitor doesn't have as many home runs as Ruth if you multiplied his home run total by 3. And that's only a few stats from 1920. He had a lengthy career. There is no way you can convince me that he's nothing more than a Matt Stairs in this era.

I'd rank them up there with some of the better offenses, but there are quite a few concerns: Cabrera adjusting to a new league Renteria adjusting to a new league (look at what he did in Boston) Rodriguez will be 36 behind the dish and his numbers are declining Maggs '07 season: Derrek Lee '05 or easily repeated? Sheffield: Injuries are slowing him down and another year older Will some of them defy age and league switches? Probably. They all benefit from a stronger line up all the way through.

It wouldn't be too far off to make that claim, but they do have a lot of question marks going into the 2008 season. The health of Sheffield, Maggs, Pudge and Guillen being the biggest. But, when your #9 hitter is a platoon with career numbers that look like this: Thames: .263 .333 .512 .845 Jones: .294 .342 .483 .825 There should be reason to celebrate what will undoubtedly be an explosive offense. Yeah but thats there 9 hitter...Granderson all-star, Palanco all-star, Mags all-star, Renteria all-star, Miguel Cabrera all-star, Guillen and Pudge all-stars in recent years, Sheffield when healthy he can still hit the carp out of the ball. I think you missed what I was saying. An .825-.845 OPS from a #9 hitter is pretty good.

LOL WHAT? Dusty quotes bring high comedy to baseball. Except, the team he is managing is usually not laughing. Oh, and here are some of my favorite stats from the Cubs Dusty era: 2003 walks: 14th out of 16 teams: 492 walks 2004 walks: 14th out of 16 teams: 489 walks 2005 walks: 16th out of 16 teams: 419 walks 2006 walks: 16th out of 16 teams: 395 walks 2003 OBP: .323, 12th out of 16 teams 2004 OBP: .328, 11th out of 16 teams 2005 OBP: .324, 13th out of 16 teams 2006 OBP: .319, 16th out of 16 teams The last team to have less than 400 walks in a season was this brilliant line up of the Pittsburgh Pirates of 1998: Jason Kendall Kevin Young Tony Womack Aramis Ramirez Lou Collier Al Martin Jermain Allensworth Jose Guillen Dusty received a bigger payroll each and every year he was the manager and went from 1st to 3rd to 4th and to 6th in the standings in each of his seasons with the Cubs. Only in his first season with the Cubs did he meet or better the pythagorean win totals. His penchant to make everyone be aggressive at the plate is old school managing that might have had some merit in a different era, but in the era of the long ball makes absolutely zero sense. Couple that in with the fact he loves to lay down a bunt to advance the runner, which in turn leads to automatic outs that will frustrate fans beyond comprehension. If that's not bad enough, his #2 hitter will be someone who can lay down a bunt well, because he feels this will get the lead off hitter into scoring position. He has a serious veteran fetish. He thinks rookies have to earn their time in the bigs by carrying the veteran's jock strap. Hope you enjoyed those years with OBP's in the .330+'s, because those days are just about over. It won't be because of the make up of the team, it will be because Dusty preaches to swing early and swing often. Lou Piniella managed to get the team back up to 500 walks in 2007, and improvement of 105 walks on the previous year, but still 15th in the league in walks, but after what Dusty did to these guys, you had to figure baby steps were in order. The team OBP of .333 was a pleasant surprise after watching some serious futility at the plate in previous years. You can honestly believe whatever you want about Dusty. But, 4 painful years of this idiot at the helm of an organization, that has no excuse but to put a good product on the field considering the payroll, was plenty enough for any Cub fan to take off the rose colored glasses. If you really have every intention of going into this relationship with a positive attitude, I have to tip my cap to you. :D

omg Yeah dude, we wouldn't give them up for Bedard or Haren so it's obvious we would do it for Blanton. They wanted Bruce for Bedard. Beane is willing to deal for only Cuetto. Cuetto is only a pony, dude. Blanton is a horse. Can't win without the horses, dude. I think Reds44 is assuming you are making up these comments. "Dude" and "Gotta have the horses" are straight from Baker's mouth. I just browsed Cincinnati's 40 man roster, Juan Castro looks an awful lot like Jose Macias. Thanks to Dusty, he's going to get lots of playing time. Dude is versatile!

In 2002 the Cubs had 5 of the Top 50, 7 of the Top 80. And one of them will likely never throw the ball the same way he did before Dusty got his hands on him.

That's okay. Admittedly, I was okay with the Cubs hiring Dusty back when he was first hired. I laughed at Giants fans who came to Cub.com and NSBB and warned Cub fans about what we were getting with Dusty. Boy, did I learn the hard way. We have no idea what we are talking about? Firsthand experience, my friend, firsthand experience.

It wouldn't be too far off to make that claim, but they do have a lot of question marks going into the 2008 season. The health of Sheffield, Maggs, Pudge and Guillen being the biggest. But, when your #9 hitter is a platoon with career numbers that look like this: Thames: .263 .333 .512 .845 Jones: .294 .342 .483 .825 There should be reason to celebrate what will undoubtedly be an explosive offense.

I'm sorry, but the bolded part is comical. "I have never been to France, but I can only guess that the wine here is far more superior" I'm not saying that NSBB is not a superior site but it is hard to make such a statement if you have never been there and goes to show that some people have a strong bias against the OH in general. While it is true that I have never been there, I have been given a wine tasting of OH (with the quotes that have been copied to this site) and I'm not impressed. Strong bias against the OH in general? Please. I'm a Cub fan hanging out at what I consider to be the best Cubs forum on the planet and I'm jealous of an Orioles message board that I've never even visited? Nice try, but you're way off base.

That sorta sounds like the deal Baltimore wanted for Bedard that never materialized.

There hasn't been a player in the history of the game who has been so studly that no pitcher could get him out. Curtis Granderson just finished his 2nd full season at the major league level. A speedy CF with 84 XBH's is awesome, whether he can hit a lefty or not. The league leaders in XBH's in 2007 were Matt Holliday (92) and David Ortiz (88), and whether they dominated both RHP and LHP to get to those numbers really doesn't matter, because what you end up with is a very solid season's worth of production, no matter where it came from. Would it be nice if Granderson could hit lefties better than he does? Sure. At the expense of how tough he is against RHP? No. I'm not even sure he'll repeat his 2007 season, and he's certainly not my favorite player. But, if you ask me today if I could find a spot on the roster for a speedy 84 XBH CF who can't hit lefties at all, I will answer yes, I have a starting job that just opened up, and I'd trade or cut whoever was blocking him. Jacque Jones couldn't hit lefties when he was on the Cubs. But, he didn't hit righties very well, either. Jacque only got 99 XBH's in 2 full seasons in Chicago, so the Cubs are better off without him. I hope Pie can be a guy like Granderson or Sizemore. But, I'd trade Pie for either one of them right this moment.

Honestly, I wish we had never heard of OH or bigbird or Peace or whoever else supposedly has insider status at OH. After this whole Roberts/Bedard fiasco, I long for the days of reading about trades AFTER they happen. Granted, a lot of this is on MacPhail and Angelos, but I honestly don't care about OH, the people who go to OH, the posts that are brought back here from OH or anything else Orioles related. THIS IS NSBB, not OH Jr. I have never visited OH, but I can only guess NSBB is a far more superior site, even if we don't have anyone who sweeps the floors of Hendry's secret war room. It was fun for awhile (like a day or two), but it's real old at this point.

You think 92 wins will be enough to beat out either the Red Sox or Yankees, whichever one doesn't win the East? Before they ever start worrying about NY and Boston, they should probably worry first about Cleveland and Detroit. :wink:

Uh oh, a bloody glove, er... bloody syringe. It's not looking good for the Rocket.

Holy crap! Somebody get that kid to a McDonald's! What is that? Flyweight or Featherweight?

Beckett Dice-K Wakefield Buchholz Lester Still better than the Yankees.

How much did Baltimore pay for Sammy?

You mean your Grandfather's barber? LOL.

He sucks very much.

Every hour on the hour for the next 24 hours I plan to announce that it is 3:00, and I will be right twice out of 24 attempts. May I be an insider now, too?

:shock: You rang? well, you do suck... BANNED. Nah. He owed me that one. I got him pretty good in Transactions about a week or so ago.

:shock: You rang?

Sounds like the next Joel Guzman. Considering he's already 6'3", he'll probably be a third baseman or corner outfielder within the next three years I still haven't figured out how Glaus lasted at SS as long as he did.

I count 8 WCIU games. I don't understand why the WCIU games can't still be shown on the MLB EI package.

Not a bad list, but I would think that Hoffman's saves will set the bar making it tough for Wagner to get in unless he extends his career for several more years. Also, the offense at SS these days will make it tough for Vizquel, IMO.