BigbadB

I gotta disagree with you here. A lot of Juan Pierre's AVG and OBP is generated from infield/bunt hits. The chance to score the runner and be safe at 1st is pretty good, IMO.

June?

FIXED Uh, two guys beat you to it. And badly I might add. :D

I got it. St. Louis should trade Pujols for someone who can catch the ball. :wink:

St. Louis has looked real sloppy so far today. I hope they play like this the whole series.

I can agree with that, especially considering Pierre gets half his hits that way in the first place.

I thought it was a catchable ball, but So pulled up and it dropped. The Encarnacion fly ball was catchable also, IMO.

Possibly so. However, neither Baylor or Baker used Bellhorn properly. He excelled as a top of the order hitter under Kimm, and then he excelled as a top of the order hitter under Little at Boston. Baker attempted to turn a .375 OBP guy (mostly from drawing walks) into a bottom of the order RBI guy. But, to make up for it, he's doing the best he can to convert Neifi into a top of the order hitter. :cheers: Weaver's line up featured bashers, but always seemed to have a good lead off guy (Paul Blair, Ken Singleton) to start things off.

Lee is 6'5", so I suppose he is bigger than Ronny. :D

I believe you have a valid concern there, as well.

Today's line up should be: 1st-Pierre 2nd-Murton 3rd- Lee 4th-Aramis 5th-Cedeno 8th-Neifi 8th-Jones 8th-Blanco

Couple that in with the fact that small ball should have been more prominent when Weaver was a manager, and station to station long ball was more prominent while Baylor was managing, and it taints those numbers even more. Though the Baltimore offense was hardly a weak hitting team.

How fitting that Cedeno will be at Toys R Us considering how young he looks. Where could we find other Cub players doing autgraphs this year? Kerry Wood at one of the local hospitals? We got rid of all the gas can relievers, so we can't expect any of those guys at the local gas station to do autographs.

I'd probably rate it the exact opposite. Clement will be pitching in Boston (extreme hitter's park), and mostly against very good offensive teams (Toronto, NYY, Baltimore and even Tampa to a smaller degree). Lowe will be pitching in LA, which is an extreme pitchers park. San Francisco is more of a pitcher's park, Petco is an extreme pitcher's park, Arizona is somewhat neutral (depending on whether the roof is on or not) and you can always bench your starter when they make that trip to Colorado. None of the offenses in the NL West are considered big run producers, either. Given the choice between Clement and Lowe, I actually prefer Lowe.

I didn't know anything about Chris Young before he got traded to San Diego. I watched him pitch against the Cubs in Las Vegas. Holy crap, that guy is huge. Now there is a guy who shouldn't feel threatened to pitch inside to ANYONE.

I was always under the impression that Steve Stone always blamed himself for his career being cut short, and that was because he threw curve balls all season long. As far as Flanagan and Palmer are concerned, I don't know enough to comment. I will say that I enjoyed watching Earl Weaver's offense and I did not enjoy watching Baylor's offense.

What? I'm not umpire techniques expert, but I can't see how you are even close to right here. You never see baseball umps look around for help before they make a call. They make what they thing is the right call. Then if another ump thinks differently they talk about it. There is no hesitation, and no way would it be just a split second delay if they glance over their shoulder for help. They make the call, then deal with the problems if somebody disagrees. That's a bit closer to what "I" would think as well, but I'm really not all that versed on how umpires do things. I'm just asking the questions, because the above quote doesnt' seem accurate to me. With 2 outs and everyone running, I would think there would be time to look back, but that it's still unlikely to happen. With less than 2 outs and players stopped about midway between the bases, any delay could really put a team at a disadvantage.

Don Knotts was never a governor? Who knew?

Yeah, Bannister looked pretty good for the Mets the other day, so Heilman is probably not going to see much time in the rotation. I believe Bannister had a no hitter going into the 6th, but then the bottom dropped out.

Can you provide examples of how Weaver abused his pitchers. Palmer and Flanagan weren't throwing anymore innings than any other pitcher in the league during that time. Bob Gibson, Fergie Jenkins, Steve Carlton, Juan Marichal, Nolan Ryan, etc....

I liked it. I don't dislike Neifi. I just don't like him on the Cubs.

Wily Mo was never going to be an everyday player with Boston. Ortiz is the DH, and he won't be sitting much. Manny is in LF, and he's not sitting. Crisp is the CF and he'll play everyday. That leaves RF, and Trot is not only a hometown favorite, he's the lefty side of a left/right platoon, and there's more righty starters than lefty. Good news is Wily Mo will probably start when Randy Johnson and Johan Santana are on the mound. :D

LOL. I would be okay with either, also. And I agree that it's too early in the season to make any assumptions.

That is a judgement call. There are only 2 kinds -- judgement calls and those from the rulebook. It's the same as if a runner is thrown out at first by a step and the ump blows it. It was in his judgement that the batter was safe, therefore no out is recorded. An example of the other type is if one of the umps forgets about the infield fly rule and starts calling the wrong people safe and the wrong guy out. Historically, that call would have stood as it was his call to make. Like I said, I don't know what changed and why, but they're starting to overturn each other more frequently. Okay, so an umpire who didn't have a good angle that makes a call, and that call is overturned by an umpire who had a clear view of the play is a "judgment call"? I would think the umpire who had a clear view to make the correct call would be obligated to reverse the call. On the first day of the year, LoDuca pretended to have had the ball in his grasp on the play at the plate. The home plate umpire's view was blocked. Let's just say that the 1b umpire came down the line a little bit, and from where he was positioned, he could see the ball clearly lying on the ground. It would only be a "judgment call" in this instance to reverse the original call? Can the umpire turn his back and walk away when he knows for certain the wrong call was made? By the way, winning games is important and everything, but it was a total lack of integrity on LoDuca's part to pretend like he had that ball all along. It's cheating. Plain and simple. It sets a poor example for every young kid wanting to play the game the right way. Do whatever you have to do to win is what it has come down to. I love this game, but I'm not nearly as enamored with how the game is played anymore. Professional is not really an accurate word to describe some of these guys.

Well, by all counts, I totally agree that a line up with Neifi is much worse off than a line up without. My argument wasn't necessarily that, but moreso that if he has to play, bottom of the order would give the Cubs better opportunities to score runs at the top and middle of the order. If it's about whether Murton or Walker bat 2nd or 7th, I agree that there isn't going to be much of a difference in runs scored over the course of a season. If it's Neifi and Walker or Murton, positioning in the line up can definitely be impacted. You know my feelings on OBP.