BigbadB

Brinoch's response wasn't directed at you only. It was to anyone not following NSBB guidelines. If someone is showing you much disrespect, forward the post to a mod and let them take care of it. Taking care of it yourself will only get you in just as much trouble as the person who started it.

I'd love to be able to argue this point, but with Baker as manager, I can't. Look at Jason Dubois' game log last year. When he was crushing the ball, he sat. When Dusty finally figured out Hollandsworth was not the answer, Dubois had cooled off dramatically. Might have been all that extra bench time. We'll never know. Murton sat. Cedeno got sent down in favor of Enrique Wilson. First sign of struggle, and I wouldn't doubt that Grissom and Perez are playing everyday. And I have even less faith that Dusty learned his lesson batting Neifi at the top of the order. I'd bet he wouldn't know how many times Neifi hit into a double play last year. I'd bet he wouldn't know how poor his OBP was hitting at the top of the order. I hope I'm wrong.

Nothing like blocking your own brother from a major league job. :thumright:

Resigning Nomar and sticking him in RF would have been cheaper and better for this team than Soriano or Jones, IMO. There's your 5 hole hitter.

Read your PM's please!

I wonder what the record is for GIDP's per at bat (minus leading off an inning at bats)? I wonder how close Neifi came to breaking that record? He led off an inning 138 times in 604 plate appearances. He GIDP 22 times last year. He came to the plate with no one on 368 times. 604-368=236 plate appearances divided by 22 GIDP's is almost once per 10 plate appearances.

1. Cobb 2. Ruth 3. Williams 4. Aaron 5. Mays

Yep. 1 injury plagued season following missing a month of the previous season with a leg injury. He hasn't hit anything since coming back in 04. 3-18 in the regular season after the injury. Bad playoff showing. .235 in 05, before he went down. See Shawn Green for what a shoulder injury can do to a hitter's power. Or Eric Karros his last few years in LA before getting traded to the Cubs.

I love it. I actually don't order it anymore. My cable company just automatically renews it each year. It wouldn't be worth it if I lived in the market area of the team I was focused on. I live in San Diego, and they don't show any San Diego games on MLB EI. But, you wouldn't need it if that was the only team you wanted to see. San Diego has their own Padres baseball channel. The only Cub games that don't show on MLB EI that I can think of are WCIU broadcast games. There have been a few instances where they didn't have enough channels for all the 4pm (7pm East Coast time) games, and on a rare occasion, it's the Cubs that aren't airing, but I see enough games that this doesn't hurt my feelings all that much.

Maybe he's at WBC practice?

I think they'll be somewhere between 85-87. Pittsburgh and Milwaukee are better this year than they were last year. Cincinnati could be better. Houston is probably not as good and St. Louis is probably just a smidge worse than last years team. Because of a better balancing within the division, I don't see the Cubs being strong enough to run away with it.

I look forward to the day that a US Olympic athlete is introduced as such, rather than by race first.

Wow! He looks awesome.

Prior has always done towel drills.

I can't respect a guy who wears massive body armor and uses it to his advantage to hug the plate. Oh, and there is no room for Bonds on Mt. Rushmore. Ty Cobb gets his mug on there before Barry does.

:!: I had completely fogotten about this. Okay, I sorta cheated. My location made it much more easy for me to remember it. :wink:

I'd stay away from Brees. That injury he suffered looked career ending. It remains to be seen whether his shoulder will ever be the same. It will be interesting to see if any NFL team will offer him a big deal considering his current status.

Agreed. I always cheer against show boaters. Nothing angered me more than to watch Sammy Sosa do the hop and end up with a long single when the ball he hit never left the park. If it's any consolation, though. Her showboating move to lose the race will probably end up being much more memorable and receive much more television exposure for years to come than if she would have just focused on what she was supposed to do and just win the race. Better yet, she will have that permanent reminder (silver medal) that she was the best loser in that race.

I think you are forgetting who is managing this team. If Walker weren't here and Soriano was, Jones would likely be batting 2nd, not Murton. Dusty sees speed and AVG as important at the top of the order, not OBP. Walker hit 6th quite a bit last year while Neifi hit at the top of the order. Who filled out that line up card?

Not if Griffey has one of his typical injury filled seasons.

Yeah, I always thought the USA did pretty good with amateurs whooping up on other countries pro's. So what if we didn't win the most medals? It's to be expected when amateurs are competing against pro's. But, vice versa, the countries who outmedaled us had no business bragging how superior they were than us. But, did we really need to bring the professionals in to prove our superiority? Who freakin' cares? It's greedy and unnecessary and probably just one more added reason that other countries hate us. And then, to listen to that idiot analyzing the China team in figure skating was an absolute joke. I hate ice dancing, can't stand watching it, but I did so out of respect for my wife's desire to watch it. I don't know who the guy was, but he sat there and just bashed the Chinese team that I thought was better than any other team that I saw by a long shot. Bash, bash, bash to the point you wonder if he has some sort of issue with people from China. The girl then completely disagrees with his analysis and says "sounds like the crowd disagrees with you", then the judges proceed to give them first place by a large margin. If a guy can be much more clueless about skating than I, what in the world is he doing in the booth at the Olympics?

A few players might take a team up on that, but most want the big payday. Furcal reached free agency, and what better position to win than staying with the Braves. He left Atlanta for Los Angeles, a team that has basically been in turmoil. A player like Dunn is probably going to get 2 big paydays. But, this one is the one he will really want to make a splash. Injuries could remove any chance you get the 2nd big payday. Brian Giles is a perfect example of a guy who missed his big payday. He signed a long term deal with the lowly Pittsburgh Pirates, who never once attempted to build a good team around him. I think Giles wanted a big payday this time around, but the settings had to be right and he needed to be overwhelmed to move. No one overwhelmed him and San Diego upped their offer to keep him.

Hairston and Walker were decent enough options to lead off. Hairston was coming off of injuries last year, so there is an expected improvement in OBP from him over last year. Walker's OBP is, was and can be just as good, if not better than Pierre. I don't know what Pierre's problem was last year, but if he duplicates that same OBP while getting caught stealing as often as he does, I don't think he's that great of an investment. I think it's just another added problem if Hendry has ruined relationships with other teams. It probably wouldn't be that big of a deal if everything else was right with Cubs management. But, tack on this problem on top of everything else, and I'll be screaming for a regime change if this team doesn't have a good season. It's a shame, because I really was on board with Hendry in 2003. I have liked some of his moves since 2003, but I'm at the point that I don't believe his organizational philosophies are going to get this organization where it should be.

I think the Yankees motivation on Giles was to drive his price up in case Boston made a run at him. While the Yankees do pay top dollar for players, Giles just wasn't a good fit for them. An outfield with Giles in CF would have been ugly, especially anothe year or two down the road. Boston was a team that expressed interest, so it made sense for the Yankees to get in on the bidding just to drive up the price for othe teams. Legitimate question regarding Giles (the one year contract question). Maddux would be off the books, so there's 9m. Not giving Neifi 2.5m or Rusch 3m would have been almost another 6m. Not giving Jacque Jones 5m for the next 3 years would have been a given. Pie taking over in CF when Pierre and his 6m left in 2007 was a possibility. If Wood isn't retained, there's another 12m. Granted, other players would have to be brought in and along with raises to Prior and Zambrano and the like, I think Giles was affordable for the next 3 years. Especially if Cedeno, Murton and Pie worked out. In fact, with Giles, I think the team could still be quite good offensively if Murton and Cedeno struggle in their first year. If it was me, I wouldn't have spent all that cash on Howry and Eyre. I would have traded farm surplus for MacDougal and Affeldt in KC. Big savings there also. Bullpen guys are completely unpredictable. As good as Eyre and Howry were last year, there is no guarantee they will be that good again this year. It's hard to find consistent bullpen guys outside of the top closers. Paying big money for them has burned the Cubs before (Remlinger, Hawkins). Yes, used improperly is part of the problem. But, that problem is still patrolling the dugout this year. KC would have pounced on Mitre, Nolasco and Pinto for those two relievers. CF still needed to be addressed, and I would have focused my energy on getting Bradley. Yes, Bradley is another guy who didn't appear to be available to the Cubs as the Dodgers didn't appear to want to deal with Hendry. Why is that, exactly? Dusty flies out to LA to meet with Bradley and that's the end of it? What happened there? I suppose Dusty could have been less than impressed with his meeting with Bradley, but I can't imagine it.

Not that I believe Hairston is much of a threat with a bat, I would much rather see him in RF against a lefty starter than Jones. But, for a true platoon at 2nd base, Hairston should have been penciled in at 2nd, leaving someone like Marquis Grissom or Michael Restovich to start in RF. Though, I doubt Dusty goes with a platoon at both positions. And if he does platoon, I see him platooning at 2nd and not RF.