TB_11

They're four games under their expected W-L, with an 11-21 mark in 1-run games. Still, even if all NL East teams were performing in line with their runs scored and allowed marks, they'd be 12 games back of the Mets.

He knocked Pierzynski's jaw back into place after AJ dislocated it trying to score against the Cubs.

While Pryzbilla and Mohammed are going to be cheaper than Wallace, they're not going to be cheap. With Tyson Chandler and Samuel Dalembert getting $10M+/year, GMs should expect similar prices for Pryzbilla and Mohammed. Does anyone know how far under the cap the Bulls are right now? They're going to need some money if they look to keep Hinrich, Gordon, and Nocioni past their rookie contracts.

I was thinking more along the lines of team construction. I'd like to see Pie in CF next year, and if EPatt comes along with him, then you've got Pie and EPatt with unsure production, plus Cedeno who probably will hit like a 7/8 hitter. We also don't have any very good corner OFs, which sets up an awful offense for '07. I wouldn't mind seeing them both in the lineup next year, although it might mean we're playing for 2008 with Murton, Cedeno, Pie, and EPatt still developing. The offense would be half established veterans with relatively predictable performance (Lee, Ramirez assuming no opt out this year, Barret, Jones) and half first and second year players still trying to develop. Congrats to EPatt!

I'd only trade Ramirez for Abreu or Burrell if it was clear that Ramirez was going to opt out of his contract and become a free agent after this year. With the way he's been playing I don't think that will happen though.

Ricky Nolasco, P, Marlins There's our guy who's burst onto the scene. Neither Ronny and Murton has had 400 PAs in the majors yet. It would be safe to say that they are still in the start of their careers. If you want to point a finger, point it at the hitting coaches who have emphasized aggressive hitting over patience. Murton's BBs/PA have basically been halved from ~.11 in April to ~.06 in June.

While Dempster's contract might deter some teams (2 years and $10.5M remaining after 2006), Hendry should seriously consider this option.

The stages of grief usually go denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. An examples: Denial: "Dusty isn't dumb enough to play Neifi that often THIS year." Anger: "How in the name of all that is holy does he keep putting in Neifi?!?!?!?" Bargaining: "Ok..... if he's playing Neifi this much, he'll at least regularly bat Walker at the top of the order right? Right?" Depression: "Seeing Neifi get regular playing time is almost as pitiful as losing nine straight at home." Acceptance: "With Dusty comes Neifi (and Bynum and Womack), and there's nothing we can do about it."

While I agree with your overall assessment that Dusty has repeatedly shown he doesn't have a clue, I don't think benching Cedeno or Murton due to their struggles against lefties and righties respectively is beneficial to the Cubs. The lineups you show above would be near the ones I would like to see if the Cubs were still in contention. But since this season is basically done, the organization should focus on developing talent for the 2007 team. Cedeno and Murton need the experience of facing MLB pitchers instead of watching them from the bench (as mentioned in other threads).

Ortiz 2006 Overall .264 .374 .551 Runners on .298 .388 .583 RISP .279 .398 .523 Close and late .231 .286 .667 2003-2005 Overall .297 .383 .600 Runners on .309 .409 .575 RISP .328 .425 .555 Close and late .326 .408 .724 When you are a really good player, and you player for a really good team that is really popular and really emphasizes OBP, you are going to have a lot of chances to have meaningful hits. All it takes is a handful of walk offs or other heroics to give you the label (just as Jim Leyritz), and the more chances you get more likely you'll cash in on a few. As long as your failures don't stick out too much, and your team enjoys success, they will forget those and concentrate on the big ones. This explains why Jeter is excused for coming up short so often and considered clutch, even though his postseason numbers mirror his regular seasons and he has come up short repeatedly in recent postseasons. Has anyone ever pulled his close and late numbers at home vs on the road? While I a completely on the side of the argument that believes there isn't anything out there right now that can show that certain hitters are consistently clutch, it just seems like a lot of his walkoff hits and HRs have been at Fenway. According to SI, Minnesota put him on waivers because they believed he would never figure out left-handers, and because he didn't fit in well with Minnesota's focus on situational hitting (e.g. hitting a ball to the right side of the infield with a guy on second and nobody out). Apparently the rest of the majors thought he wouldn't figure out left-handers either, because Minnesota only put him on waivers after not finding any team willing to trade for him.

He would rather have veterans like Pierre, Neifi, and Rusch.

It's good to see Len is thinking like Cubs fans are :D

Len and Bob, keep up the good work. On a side note - JR, keep up the awesome avatars.

SI cover jinx.

I like it. Just like I'm openly rooting for the Cubs to lose now, I'll openly cheer any bag-wearers.

He talked about possibly being traded to Detroit, which would really bring things full circle for him.

Very nice work BK - VERY impressive. Would it be possible to compare years for the same player? I know the analysis will be skewed as players advance (or retreat) through the minors, but it would still be interesting to see.

I honestly don't expect a whole lot of changes. I fully expect this year's performance to be attributed to injuries and nothing else by management. Regardless whether Baker gets re-signed, Hendry just signed an extension, and IMO Hendry's a bigger problem than Baker (although Baker contributes a healthy share to the ineptitude of this team).

That never gets old.

Ballot leaders (as of June 13): The Cubs have no position players in the top 5 (or top 15 for OF) for the NL: C: Lo Duca 1B: Pujols 2B: Utley SS: Eckstein 3B: Wright OF: Andruw Jones OF: Griffey OF: Beltran The AL is dominated by Yanks and Sox (lame): C: Varitek 1B: Ortiz 2B: Cano SS: Jeter 3B: A-Rod OF: Guerrero OF: Ramirez OF: Damon

I'd actually think about shutting down Marshall at the 120 or 150 IP mark, as he's never pitched more than 100 IP in a year in the minors. Move Marmol to the rotation, keep things light on Marshall by shutting him down or giving him light bullpen work. Bring Marshall back to the rotation next year, and with Marmol's performance deciding his role with the team next year.

It's kind of scary to think what Cedeno's OBP would be if he wasn't hitting .300. I'd love to see what Murton's IsoD would be on a team that preached plate disclipine. In an ideal world I could see him turning into a mini-Youkilis for the Cubs.

I do think fans who want either Pierre or Jones gone will be disappointed - if Hendry traded away either of them it would be an open admission that two of his biggest offseason moves were mistakes. While most fans would say that anyway, I can't see Hendry swallowing his pride like that. Nice post Roast.

The reason Lee's OPS skyrocketed wasn't so much the fact that he 'hit his prime age' as much as he closed a huge hole in his swing.

Maybe Kerry took Stone's advice and is focusing on being a pitcher now and not a thrower?