BigbadB

You might not have been hanging around when the site was crashing regularly, and operating extremely slow when it wasn't crashing. Archiving old threads and disconnecting the search function is what helped resolve some of those problems. This place has tremendous traffic. The average poster here has thousands of posts, and makes several posts per day. This is definitely not a rinky dink operation. I'm sure Tim would much rather have enough support from the advertising to not have to charge anyone for visiting this site. But, he needs revenue from somewhere and he definitely isn't getting enough from there. Worse yet, he's not even getting enough hits to the advertisements that he has been able to convince to pay for a portion of what it costs to run this site. If he loses them, he's either going to need more premium subscriber support, or risk losing more money out of his pocket. Tim has created a great place for Cub fans of all ages to visit and share everything Cubs. The minor league section is far and away the best source of minor league information around. They have done player interviews, management interviews, interviews with local sports journalists, sportscasters, etc.., and some of these folks are regular visitors of this site now as well. This isn't a lecture. This is just a reminder that you are part of something special here. If you are donating for premium membership, you're not just getting a few extra features that others aren't getting, you are a contributor to the continued existence of this site. And if you are contributing, I can assure you we are all very much appreciate it. So, send Tim a check! :D

I don't think comments like this are welcome here. You don't know anything about what I value or don't value, and you don't know anything about what other people who rely heavily on stats value or don't value. So, rather than toss insults at your leisure, how about sticking to defending your own point of view.

I see 3 choices here: 1) Pay a very nominal fee to help keep this site operating. By helping keep this site operating, you are entitled to extra bells and whistles. 2) Don't pay a nominal fee to keep this site operating. Whether you can't afford to or just don't want to, Tim hasn't turned this site into a "required" payment to be a part of this community. 3) We all find a new site when Tim decides it is no longer worth paying money out of his own pocket to keep this site operating. If you want the bells and whistles that come with this message board, you'll have to pay for it. If you don't want them, you most certainly don't have to pay. I sort of compare how Tim operates this site with ESPN. You want ESPN Insider, which offers much more than plain ole ESPN? Pay for it. I pay for it. And I'm not complaining.

Ha. His end stat line was not nearly as good as the one I posted above. But, he should be accumulating points, plus or minus.

Taylor Buchholz doesn't seem to be accumulating any points. Any ideas? As of this writing: 2 IP, 1 HA, 2 K's.

What would you rather see with the players we have available? Jones and Aramis are not able to play at present. Barrett should be starting, and maybe Walker. Without either of them, and with Ramirez and Jones out, the lineup is pretty weak. Mabry at third would be nice. Not sure how Mabry does against lefties, but I don't have a problem loading up the line up with RH hitters against a LH starter. Which is why I wouldn't mind seeing Barrett over at 3b.

I certainly couldn't understand crippling your entire farm system for a guy who takes the mound once every 5 days. Now, if the player was someone who could play in every game, that might change things a little bit. But, he would have to be a no doubt about it stud, and all of his "cheap" years would have be ahead of him. An A-Rod type player.

It wouldn't hurt my feelings if they put Barrett at 3b. The way he's hitting, he needs to be in there.

An argument can be made that the pitcher becomes more focused on the hitter because there are runners on base, also. But, once there is a runner on base, the defense has to make adjustments, which opens up more holes for the hitter, so some things are out of the pitcher's control once there is a runner on base.

I'd like to point out that my response above was more a reflection of which player I'd rather have on my team, the guy who provides a much higher OBP or the guy who can steal bases much better. I'd love to have a guy with tremendous OBP and excellent speed. But, if I have to have a trade off, I'll take the guy with good OBP. I've said all along in this thread that it's way too early to make a judgment on Pierre. If he goes 4-4 today, his AVG will increase nearly 100 points in one day. But, I really wasn't that big of a fan of trading for him in the first place. He provided a .326 OBP last year. He also got caught stealing many times last year, which doesn't even calculate into that lousy OBP for a lead off hitter. If all he can provide as a .326 OBP, Pierre is a glorified Tom Goodwin, and that's not good enough. He's put up better numbers in the past, and I hope he comes closer to those numbers, but we are barely over a week into the season, so giving a grade to Pierre at this point is a bit premature.

Actually, 10,000 posts has absolutely nothing to do with it. My post about foul language neither quoted you or was directed only at you. It was directed at anyone who was using it. I'll thank you for not assuming in the future that you are being targeted. I really don't care how many posts someone has. NSBB guidelines does not state that once you have achieved so many posts that you can skirt NSBB guidelines. If you need an NSBB guideline refresher course, please visit my sig. Thanks!

Gateway to the west. But, no other than St. Louis being west of the Mississippi, that's about the only thing west you can call them.

Alright. Not only is it not acceptable to use foul language here, it is also unacceptable to use symbols to skirt the rules. Please respect that this is a family site.

Hey Dusty, couldn't you just say Eyre was not available Tuesday due to a stomach flu? [-(

Speed has no factor on home runs, and home runs are a huge part of scoring. If Juan Pierre gets on via a base hit and then steals 2nd and 3rd base and Derrek Lee hits a home run, it really didn't matter that Juan Pierre stole those bases, because he would have scored if he was just standing on 1b. The more often a guy gets on base, the chance that he will score increases. I'm not dogging Pierre. I did that enough in the offseason. I think it's too early to make any assessment of Pierre. If he goes 4-4 today, Pierre will raise his AVG by almost 100 points. It's too early. Is Ramirez going to struggle all year like he as so far? I don't think so. I'm very concerned that Pierre had such an off year last year. If he has another off year, this team will struggle. He's put up respectable OBP's in the past, so all we can hope is that he'll get that OBP back where it won't hurt the team.

Yeah, it's not really fair to grade a player this early in the season. 1 hit or walk can make a huge impact on a batting average. One ground out knocks several points off of a batting average.

Koronka's going to be on Sportscenter now too. He just made a sweet no look, behind the back grab.

Koronka's going to get some W's with the offensive support Texas provides, no matter how bad he pitches.

You can say that this shouldn't happen, but realistically, the Florida Marlins team salary is in line with how much these players should really be making to play a game. Ticket prices shouldn't have skyrocketed to what they have, and it most certainly shouldn't cost $5 for a lousy hot dog. A $15m team salary is $600K per player. That's a lot of money. Endorsement deals can up their salary even more. Not only would these players be making more than half a million to play baseball 8 months out of the year, but they don't really accrue many expenses as a ballplayer. The team picks up the travel, daily food allowances, work out room, laundry, equipment, etc..... Once their careers are over, they still have plenty of time to work a real job or even just plain retire if they managed their money wisely. Do the players on the New York Yankees hustle more because they make more money than the guys on the Marlins? Sure, they are more talented players, but they don't work any harder at the game than anyone else. It is just plain ridiculous that the Yankees payroll averages nearly 10m a player. This is just my little rant that it costs a middle income family nearly the entire savings to take the whole family to a single baseball game, and do it the right way, buying hot dogs, peanuts, soda, beer, baseball caps and other souvenirs. I remember paying $8.00 a ticket to go see KISS in concert. I just heard the other day that Madonna is getting $400.00 a ticket to see her show (not that you actually pay me to go see her). I never understood why it became acceptable to raise ticket prices so much, and nearly every year. And if that isn't enough, when the baseball players aren't happy with their salary increases, they just cancel the season and go on strike. The fans take it in the hind either way. You have your choice of super expensive baseball or no baseball at all. But, once baseball resumes, you will pay more for super expensive baseball and you'll like it. I took a long break from baseball on that last strike. They almost lost me for good. I came back, and now I'm even more hooked than I've ever been. But, baseball parks seem more interested in catering to a corporate crowd who can write off season tickets as a business expense than they do the foundation that made this game as big as it is today. There's nothing better than family bonding at a baseball game. If the Marlins only want to pay 15m for their baseball team, I'm fine with that. I would hope that the ticket prices would reflect a decrease in cost considering you aren't getting as much bang for your buck. But, I have watched a couple of Florida games already this year, and they are kind of fun to watch. A bunch of young kids busting their butts trying to lock down a starting job for the next 10 years. I sure enjoy that a whole lot more than watching a multimillionaire not hustling out a ground ball. I'd love to go to more baseball games, but I don't like paying $40 a ticket. My eyes bulge each time I order hot dogs, peanuts, red vines and sodas for everyone when the girl behind the counter says "that'll be $60.00, sir". I can afford it just like I can continue paying the ridiculous price for cigarettes. If I quit smoking, I'd be able to afford a game even more. But, it's the principle. There comes a point where it's just not worth it anymore. I took the wife to 2 WBC games, and between the two games, we spent somewhere in the vicinity of $700.00 to watch two baseball games. JUST THE TWO OF US. Tickets, parking, souvenirs, food and beverage, BAM! The guy down the street would love to take his kids to the game, but he's struggling to make ends meet. There's no way he's taking his whole family to a baseball game without taking out a loan. And that's sad. It shouldn't be that way. Over the past few years, I've actually seen smaller contracts being handed out than what they were doing in 2000. I was hoping to see a market correction, but I don't think it will really correct to the extent that I would like to see it correct. I'd like to see ticket prices reduced and a tremendous reduction in how much these privileged players who are lucky enough to play in the bigs make playing a game. I love the game, but it's definitely got its issues.

You'll probably find that Neifi Perez would be one of the top paid players on the team if he was on the Florida Marlins. Neifi's salary this year is 1/6th of the Marlins salary of all 25 players combined. :wink: Wow, I'm just a bucket of useless information today. I think I'll go watch some baseball.

Going into this season, Neifi is just a hair under $16m for his career. Tack on the 5m he'll make between this year and next year, and he's pocketing 21m for being a marginal major league player. Not too shabby.

We hardly knew ye.

Skimming threads? That point was brought up in this thread already. :wink:

I saw a graphic earlier today in the Fish game. There are currently 12 major league players that are making more money this year than the entire 25 man Marlin roster. Fact! The graphic had the Marlins roster at 15m.

I won't disappear from anywhere. I never have. I've been one of the bigger Dusty detractors during the entire offseason. With the situation where Aramis is hurt, Jacque Jones is hurt, and who Dusty had to play, I was actually fine with his replacements, and I was thrilled with where they batted in the line up. I didn't really get to watch today's game because I was in a meeting that started at gametime and went until the end of the 8th inning. It was on, but that was about the extent of what I know about this game other than the line up. Neifi was at the bottom of the order where I want to see him and Dusty put better OBP guys than Neifi at the top of the order. I'm happy. If he continues running out sensible batting orders, I'll completely shut up about that concern. Sure, the Cubs won the other day with Neifi batting 2nd. But, the odds of them winning games regularly with him at the top of the order drop each new time he does it. Neifi has a respectable AVG. I won't take that away from him. But, he has an atrocious OBP. Because of that, he should be hitting towards the bottom of the order. Plain and simple. Anything else about this game I can't really comment on. I just didn't get to watch it, unfortunately. But, I'm pleased to see the Cubs win. :cheers: