BigbadB

How well do Crisp and/or Byrd play SS?

Anybody we know, or were you strictly a lurker? I was a regular at that joint in '01. Pretty much the only people I remember are you, NCCubFan...and that's about it as most seem to have changed their names. I never posted much, but when I did I was DiceMan. Played in a few yahoo fantasy leagues with people. Trying to make my comeback now. I don't remember you being in any of the fantasy leagues I was in, but I do remember you being in a Sporting News league I was in before I started participating in Yahoo. Some of the people from that league were Tehmpus (he organized it), Cubman15, BigbadB, and teencubfan. I believe Hosak was in that one, too.

What happened to Lofton? I thought he was a FA?

Oh, well then maybe it was CubCuse. I'll just accuse everyone of having played fantasy baseball with me until someone sticks or at least isn't sure. All I'm sure about is NC was in it and I took second. EDIT: Just went back and checked on Yahoo archives...I actually took third. Oh well. I was in one of NC's Yahoo fantasy leagues.

You would think so. Where I believe Brandon Phillips falls a bit from last year's numbers, I think Encarnacion picks up the slack.

Haven't heard that name in awhile. He graced us with his presence here early on. He still owns the NSBB record for distance in the Mod troll toss. Was hoggy actually a man? I thought I read he was half beast half human female. But, that's the beauty of it. NSBB does not discriminate in the mod troll toss. Hogcard still edges out Jabroni in distance.

Haven't heard that name in awhile. He graced us with his presence here early on. He still owns the NSBB record for distance in the Mod troll toss.

Wow. Good one. By the way, the way we are padding this thread, people are going to get all excited that something is happening with Roberts, only to find this fine emoticon debate. \:D/ I'm afraid I have to get back to work, anyway. :( Work? :banghead: Don't go back to work. This thread is keeping me from getting back to the weeklong misery of getting my taxes in order.

Do I need to be more polite to mods than I do to regular posters? That totally depends on how much you like it here. :D :wink:

Wow. Good one. By the way, the way we are padding this thread, people are going to get all excited that something is happening with Roberts, only to find this fine emoticon debate. \:D/

Curses. Foiled again! :cray:

Anybody we know, or were you strictly a lurker? I was a regular at that joint in '01. Pretty much the only people I remember are you, NCCubFan...and that's about it as most seem to have changed their names. I never posted much, but when I did I was DiceMan. Played in a few yahoo fantasy leagues with people. Trying to make my comeback now. There's still quite a few more posting here from those days, but yeah, even I have a tough time keeping up with the name changes. I'm sure you are aware that Tim was SanClementeFan.

His 2007 line against lefties of .225/.269/.494 is downright awful. And there's one less lefty in that division this week (Santana). I think the Tigers will come out of this okay.

Anybody we know, or were you strictly a lurker? I was a regular at that joint in '01.

I told you I was calling in the troups. This could get ugly folks. Take this, Tim! :tomato: And this! :tease:

:club: :aikido: That's it, I'm calling in the troups. It's time for an admin ass kickin'! :mod:

:club:

Basically what I'm getting at is that I find it less and less likely that Roberts will be traded to the Cubs.

It is true that Baltimore has some guys who aren't the best of 40 man roster people, but they will risk losing anyone they remove from the 40 man roster to make room for the Cub players coming back in a Roberts trade, which costs them more talent (in their eyes) than just Roberts. So, those players they get from the Cubs would need to be pretty special to take into consideration it will cost them Roberts and a player or two off the 40 man roster.

They probably won't, though. Is it even possible that the Orioles could ask for more than 2 players from the Cubs for Roberts? So far this offseason, the Orioles have traded Miguel Tejada for Luke Scott, Troy Patton, Matt Albers, Dennis Sarfate and Mike Costanzo, in which at least 3 of those guys are 40 man roster guys. They've also signed Roberto Novoa, Guillermo Quiroz, Greg Aquino, Chris Roberson and a few other guys that may or may not be 40 man roster guys, then add in another 5 guys in the Bedard trade with only Kris Benson being released. How many 40 man roster spots could they possibly have available? And the team still would love to be rid of Mora, Hernandez and Payton. Just thinking about it from this perspective, if Baltimore isn't interested in a Marquis/Colvin package (with Colvin not required to be protected yet), I'm not sure how these two teams work a deal that the Orioles can be happy with.

What are the odds that Bonds can request Joliet State Prison under the work release program?

:scratch: Yay. Welcome back, smiley's.

To be fair, Roberts did have 100 more plate appearances than Soriano in 2007, so Soriano's K totals would likely be up a bit, as would his HR totals. Also, I didn't explain that the runs per PA was lifetime, not just last year. Soriano's PA per run in 2007: 6.36 Roberts' PA per run in 2007: 6.95 Soriano's PA per run in 2006: 6.11 Robert's PA per run in 2006: 7.4 I included 2006 in the event someone wanted to argue that the Cubs heart of the order was clearly better than the Orioles heart of the order, even though I believe the two were very comparable. Clearly, the 2006 Nats heart of the order doesn't nearly compare to either of the 2007 Orioles or Cubs heart of the order. Just for giggles, I'll include the 3-5 hitters for each of the above teams: 2007 Cubs: 3rd: .309 .391 .496, 80 RBI 4th: .312 .381 .531, 122 RBI 5th: .256 .321 .401, 75 RBI 2007 Orioles: 3rd: .288 .353 .457, 109 RBI 4th: .276 .357 .422, 99 RBI 5th: .267 .325 .408, 85 RBI 2006 Nats: 3rd: .259 .346 .443, 93 RBI 4th: .269 .390 .467, 96 RBI 5th: .267 .339 .450, 99 RBI Looks like the 2007 Orioles win the RBI battle, followed by the 2006 Nats. But, the Cubs heart of the order had better AVG, OBP and SLG. 2006 Nats 1/2 OBP: .357/.362 2006 Nats 1/2 RS: 119/97 2007 Orioles 1/2 OBP: .375/.320 2007 Orioles RS: 107/97 2007 Cubs 1/2 OBP: .341/.336 2007 Cubs 1/2 RS: 127/99 Cubs get last place in OBP at the top of the order, but win the runs scored contest. Imagine how much better the Cubs heart of the order would be if Soriano hit lead off and Brian Roberts hit 2nd. Especially when you factor in how much better Fukudome will be hitting behind Ramirez. Without Roberts, Soriano/DeRosa would be much better than Soriano/Theriot and not too far off from what Soriano/Roberts would likely provide. One thing that does need to be considered about Roberts is the first year in a new league could hamper his numbers a bit. Some guys do quite well switching leagues. Others, well, not so much. It cannot be assumed that Roberts will automatically do better or equal performance switching leagues and facing a lot of pitchers for the first time. I will say that Soriano, Roberts, Lee, Ramirez, Fukudome is arguably one of the best 1-5's in baseball, depending on how Fukudome's numbers from Japan translate to MLB.

Des Plaines according to B-R. However, just because someone hails from an area doesn't necessarily mean they ever want to go back to that area. A significant part of my family still lives in the surrounding areas of Peoria, but a week long visit at Thanksgiving each year is about all I can take.

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.