BigbadB

I like Folk Implosion. Good band!

It's a fair enough assessment, but one that I don't agree with. Is Tim operating this site at a loss financially? Breaking even? There really aren't all that many NSBB members paying for premium services, and if the ads go away due to lack of hits, what happens to NSBB if Tim gets tired of losing money? What if you or I had not yet been introduced to NSBB? Would we wish to be turned away because the site was comfortable with the membership where it's at? Even today, many people are still purchasing their first computers. True blue Cub fans who may or may not have things to add to this site. I enjoy reading VancetheCubFan's opinions about everything Cubs. He was a late arrival to this site. It's further proof that one didn't need to be in the click when this site formed to be able to offer something in return for their presence. No disrespect to any late arrivals that are not mentioned. NSBB, IMO, is still in the infancy stages. It's just now starting to bloom. I don't think it's anywhere close to what it can still become. And that's because this place has dedicated enough people that will go above and beyond their membership to make it a better place. Right now, we are getting attention from broadcasters, minor leaguers, sports journalists to name a few. 3 years ago, we got none of this. 1 year ago, we got very little of this. Now, we get a lot. We could eventually see daily interviews from players, management and ownership of these organizations and others. Let the moderators separate the diamonds from the poop. And let more and more fans experience a whole new way to enjoy or parish in all that is Cubs. That's the way I see it anyway.

I'm sure Baker sits Murton, even though he's playing outstanding, because Murton is making the veteran players look bad by outperforming them. Therefore, the less Murton plays, the less the veteran's look bad. :wink:

Mitre for Marte? Hmm.

"Dusty to Arizona?" Personally, that's not far enough. But, I'd trade Dusty, Neifi and Macias to Arizona for a bag of desert sand.

Is he a free agent or are you talking about some kind of trade. Is the BOB a hitters or pitchers park? Gonzo has been better on the road the past few years. But he's also been slipping significantly and inconsistent in the health department. I wouldn't expect much more than a .270/.370/.460 kind of line from him next year, at the most. And that's with no idea how many games he can play. He's pretty much useless in the field as well. And like I said he better not be the big acquisition the Cubs get. I'm talking about a trade. I wouldn't give up much to get him, or pay much to have him (meaning he wouldn't be a Cub, which is fine with me). And the BOB is a hitter's park, IIRC. I would expect a line slightly below that for Gonzalez. I'd rate him similar to Cliff Floyd. Nice secondary OF acquisition. Health issues, useless on D.... but should give you a .360 OBP and some power. The BOB is at the 2nd highest altitude of all major league parks. They also have light air for baseballs to carry. Definitely a hitter's park.

I want him gone and it has nothing to do with the color of his skin. It's the decision to put horrible hitters at the top of the order day after day that I want him gone. If he put together line ups that made sense and used GOOD judgment with strategy, I wouldn't be calling for his removal, regardless of the color of his skin.

Ah, gotcha. Now, if what Raisin is reporting is accurate, forget I said anything.

I think he's their version of Nic Jackson. Probably too late for Scott with all the other names blocking him and the lost year.

Floundering? The D'Rays have won 32 games since the ASB. The Cubs have won 28. Just saying. And the Cubs are where in the standings? Just saying. The Rays have the 4th worst record in baseball, 8 1/2 games behind Baltimore within their division.

I think that's a loaded question. Does management care about the fans? Darned if you do and darned if you don't, I guess. Bring them up now and watch the team continue to flounder for the remainder of the season and appease the fans, or save the service time for a year when they can actually compete for a division title and appease the fans? I suppose the answer can only come from management themselves. But, small market teams can't operate like large market teams. That's a fact.

They're an organization that has a smaller team salary than the combined earnings of Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez make this year. They will probably always be that way. Why bring up young talent for one month of service time in a season that they have absolutely no snowballs chance of doing anything other than finishing last in the division? Why risk one of these guys having a career ending injury in a meaningless game? Why knock off a year of service time? They have some pretty good talent coming up, as well as some really good talent already on the team. It's not a huge stretch to think they might be able to compete in a few years. Cleveland is doing it now. Oakland has been doing it for years. By waiting until spring to bring these guys up, Tampa doesn't end up with Kazmir, Cantu, Gomes, Upton and Young all becoming free agents at practically the same time. I think it's a good call.

Tampa would never be able to afford to keep them after their free agent years anyway, so I don't see what part short memories would play in all of this. The likelihood is that they will be traded for prospects at the deadline in their free agent year.

Are the D'Backs still sending Clayton out there everyday instead of Santos?

I think it was the right call. They aren't going anywhere this year.

Just speaking the facts. Fact for the night of 9/12/05, the two guys hitting at the top of the order for the Cubs have lower OBP's than the guy who's hitting 7th's AVG. But, what do I know? :P

I thought the same thing. But, the Cubs made sure Rusch's value was at an all time low at the trade deadline, therefore reducing his value to "unwanted".

Is this an attempt at humor? I don't see it as an attempt at humor. Rusch was very effective last year as a starter, and was pretty effective this year until Baker started jerking him around. In April, Rusch was used exclusively as a reliever, and he excelled with a 2.03 ERA. In May, he started 6 games and posted a 2.48 ERA. In 2 more starts in June, he got his ERA down to 2.07. Then, he had 3 Greg Maddux-like games and was removed from the rotation. His ERA was still only 3.13 at that time. He then gave up runs in 5 straight relief appearances. Once he got on track with his new job description, he got his ERA back under 4.00. Inserted back as a starter, it took him awhile to get back on track. If he had been left alone to start all year, I don't see why it would be unreasonable to think that he could post a 3.50 ERA and win close to 15 games. Maddux has a chance to win 15 this year with a 4.40 ERA. I think most of Rusch's struggles this year stem from being bounced back and forth between the pen and the rotation. Well then if it wasn't an attempt at humor it ranks up there with one of the biggest stretches in the history of sports debate. I don't think Rusch stood a chance of winning 15. But to say he could have easily won 15 is absurd. Somehow, one of the crappiest regular pitchers of the past 10 years is going to "easily" accomplish something that no other Cubs pitcher this year will easily accomplish? Yeah right. Rusch is a swingman. He's good for the occasional 5 IP 2-3 ER outing, sprinkled with some disaster starts and great outings. But by and large he's going to be a 4.50 ERA pitcher who will be lucky to win 10 games. If there is one thing Rusch's 2004 taught me about his ability is he could be good if used properly, and one of the aspects of using him properly is not starting him every 5th day for 6 months. He was a good starter for about a month last year, then started to blow up frequently. Rusch moved to the pen and did alright in the swingman role, before finishing up as a starter again. This year he was a starter by May, did fine for about a month and a half, then once again blew up. Rusch has proven time and time again that he's not a good full season starter. He's no short reliever either, because his stuff is so mediocre. Let's stop pretending Rusch is some hero. He's a 6th starter, nothing more. Like a backup QB on a struggling team, brief flashes of quality play tends to warp the viewers opinion of what his ability would be over the course of an entire season. Well, I did miss the "easily" part of his statement. But, worse pitchers have won 15 in a season. I was only defending that Rusch could potentially win 15 in a season if he was left in to start everyday. Maddux, in a year where he looks more like Rusch than the Maddux of old, could reach 15 wins with a sub 4.40 ERA.

Is this an attempt at humor? I don't see it as an attempt at humor. Rusch was very effective last year as a starter, and was pretty effective this year until Baker started jerking him around. In April, Rusch was used exclusively as a reliever, and he excelled with a 2.03 ERA. In May, he started 6 games and posted a 2.48 ERA. In 2 more starts in June, he got his ERA down to 2.07. Then, he had 3 Greg Maddux-like games and was removed from the rotation. His ERA was still only 3.13 at that time. He then gave up runs in 5 straight relief appearances. Once he got on track with his new job description, he got his ERA back under 4.00. Inserted back as a starter, it took him awhile to get back on track. If he had been left alone to start all year, I don't see why it would be unreasonable to think that he could post a 3.50 ERA and win close to 15 games. Maddux has a chance to win 15 this year with a 4.40 ERA. I think most of Rusch's struggles this year stem from being bounced back and forth between the pen and the rotation.

I'm in total agreement with this. I wouldn't have a problem with Neifi one bit if he hit .280 in the 7th or 8th spot all year. That's where you hide guys who have bad OBP's. In reality, a guy with a decent AVG, but horrible OBP is better suited hitting behind the production guys, because he can turn those hits into RBI's. Unfortunately, it's Dusty Baker who put Neifi at the top of the line up, and it's decisions like that that will force Cub fans to watch other teams play in October. Neifi is a quality back up. He's done an alright job filling in for injured players. But, at no time should he have ever been considered for top of the order duties. That falls on the manager. I think a lot of the hatred for Neifi has a whole lot more to do with how Baker used Neifi than what Neifi has done with a bat. Neifi is what Neifi is. To the person who suggests that Neifi should have made some sort of adjustment when put in a top of the order spot, it's not that simple. He's never been a guy who had plate patience or good pitch selection. You can't change that. This team just doesn't grasp the concept of the importance of OBP at the top of the order. And they are sitting at home in October partially because of just that. Derrek Lee is having an incredible offensive year, yet he still has not surpassed the 100 RBI plateau. To give you an idea what Lee might have done with a couple of decent OBP guys at the top of the order, look at what Manny Ramirez has done this year: .280 AVG compared to Lee's .341. That's a 61 point swing in AVG. 64 XBH's to Lee's 88 XBH's. That's 24 more XBH's. Manny has 135 hits in 132 games compared to Lee's 180 hits in 139 games. Manny has 120 RBI's and Lee still hasn't broken 100. Now, how can this be? The Cubs OBP from the lead off spot this year is .300. That's not the AVG, that's the OBP. The OBP for the #2 hitter this year is .321. The Red Sox lead off hitters are getting on base at a .360 clip. The #2 hitters are at a .359 OBP. That's why Manny Ramirez has 21 more RBI's than Derrek Lee. Even though Manny is hitting .280, has less at bats and less XBH's. Between the #1 and #2 hitters, the Red Sox have scored 219 times (lead off 113 times and #2 hitter 106 times). The Cubs lead off hitter has crossed the plate 77 times. The Cubs #2 hitter has crossed the plate 79 times. That, my friends, is PATHETIC!! OBP is not the be all-end all stat. But, at the top of the order it sure is. If Derrek Lee had good OBP guys in front of him all year like Manny has, he would be approaching the RBI record. And that boost in RBI's from the #3 hitter alone would have meant a lot more Cub wins. Give the #4 hitter more RBI opportunities and that also would have provided even more wins. This horrible season is all on Dusty.

I believe there were concerns about one of his knees at the time he was a free agent. He was just coming off a season in which his stolen base percentage dipped hard. If there was concern about his knee and his speed, I suppose there also could have been some concern about a drop off in OBP as well.

36-30 is the equivilent of close to 15 games over .500 over the course of a full season. Would 89 wins be enough to win a wild card? 89-73. Maybe, maybe not. But, they sure would have been in the race.

What I see with this stat is that getting +3.5 pitches per plate appearance gets the starting pitcher out of the game earlier, which also brings the bullpen in earlier. The other aspect of increasing the amount of pitches per at bat is that for each extra pitch thrown by the pitcher, chances are good that the hitter will see a better one to hit.

9-7 Cubs/Cardinals game. Mulder goes the distance, throwing 96 pitches and facing 34 hitters. Cubs pitchers (Maddux, Wuertz, Novoa, Dempster) go 9 innings and throw 144 pitches, facing 38 hitters. Cardinal hitters see 3.7 pitches per plate appearance. Cubs hitters see 2.8 pitches per plate appearance. Cubs won this game, but I think this information says a lot about where each team sits in the win column. Cubs starters can't get through 6 innings typically. The Cardinals starter breezes through the whole game and gets the bullpen plenty of rest.

Colorado would probably be a good fit. They will be out of just about every bad contract by then, and could afford to throw a few million at Sosa. They have some talent in a semi talentless division.