TB_11

He's been struggling (from being sick, it looks like) since being sent back down to the minors. Non-Premium Link

Vance getting this, DJaxx getting in some questions with Nomar....... I feel like such a lowly poster :D Thanks for making this the board and Cubs site the best one up everybody.

Spoken with the pessimism that only a lifetime Cubs fan looks at his baseball team with :D The Cubs realize that Kerry can't be an effective starter this year, but I think Hendry will look to the farm system (ie Hill, especially given his start today) rather than trade for a starter. I'd be surprised if Nomar will be 100% at any point this year, but given the black hole of baseball talent that is Neifi Perez, having Nomar in the lineup even at 70% will be a significant upgrade at shortstop. Whether or not it will be the catalyst to us putting together a strong two months is questionable though.

Complete sense. My favorite memory is the one I listed above - but the one that stands out the most is how every baseball coach I had from t-ball through high school used to say we should play like Sandberg - fundamentals, fundamentals, fundamentals.

With Ryne getting inducted into the Hall, I thought it might be fun to share your favorite Sandberg memories. Mine is a weird one. In 1990 when he was gunning for the league lead in home runs, and I caught a day game during summer vacation (the joys of being eight). Sandberg hit two home runs, the second curving around the left field fair pole and originally being called foul before being overturned. I remember Harry saying something along the lines of 'I can tell that's fair and I'm an old man!' He was and still is hands down my favorite player ever, and I couldn't be happier that he's heading to Cooperstown.

36 years old, 7.24 ERA this season. Fits in perfectly with the rest of the Yankees rotation.

The people who were sending death threats to him and his family deserve to rot on the worst level of hell, but just simple booing him when he comes into the game has been going on with players in all ballparks in all cities since baseball began. I don't see why everone has thier undies in a bunch about it now. It's like what Dempster said - before the 2003 season, boos were relatively uncommon at Wrigley. Since then either a) expectations have been raised very quickly, b) too many pseudo-fans stayed on the bandwagon or c) both happened. Wrigley is no longer the Friendly Confines like it once was.

Going back to Friday's loss to the Cards, every game the Cubs have been in have either been decided with the winning team scoring in the last inning or been 1-run games, or both. While I tend to hold to the belief that clutch hitting is a bunch of hooey, it's been great to follow the team as they've won 4 of their last 6 nail-biters.

you speak of these "stats" as if they matter or something. They only do if you are considering trading solid prospects for a mediocre, injury prone pitcher that wants $40 million for 4 years starting in 2006. I think he's pointing to your use of a pitcher's win-loss record to evaluate his effectiveness.

Don't challenge Dusty's stupidity. He'll rise up and prove you wrong.

everybody has a bad century. :oops: That was one of my favorite things of winning the division - after the double-header in 2003 when they took down the 13 and put up the 00. Of course it was a million times worse when they had the 00 ready in game 6.

I believe that any team that wants Burnett will also have to take on Lowell and a significant part of his contract. Given his performance this year, and the fact that we have Aramis, bringing on Burnett+Lowell seems like a steep price to get a half-season of Burnett.

To get Burnett I'm guessing we'd have to take on Lowell and some part of his contract - with Aramis being Aramis at 3rd, what would you do with Lowell?

PLAYOFF RACE 07/24/05 Games Remaining - (Contenders) | TOTAL V. TOTAL V. Div. Leaders W-L GB-WC ATL CHI FLA HOU NY PHL SD STL WAS | CONTEND NON-CONTEND St. Louis 62-36 3 11 7 8 3 0 3 X 3 | 38 26 Atlanta 55-44 - X 3 6 0 6 11 3 3 11 | 43 20 San Diego 50-49 3 0 3 3 3 3 X 3 6 | 24 40 | Wildcard Race | Washington 55-44 11 0 10 3 9 10 6 3 X | 52 11 Philadelphia 52-47 3.0 11 3 6 6 9 X 3 0 10 | 48 15 Houston 51-47 3.5 0 10 3 X 4 6 3 8 3 | 37 27 New York 51-47 3.5 6 3 6 4 X 9 3 3 9 | 42 22 Florida 49-47 4.5 6 3 X 3 6 6 3 7 10 | 44 22 Chicago 50-48 4.5 3 X 3 10 3 3 0 11 0 | 33 31 ______________________________________________________________| Totals 43 33 44 37 43 48 24 38 52 | More backup to all those who say we aren't chasing Washington - as if their run differential wasn't enough to expect them to fall to .500.

Please let's not look at W-L to determine a pitcher's effectiveness..... Matt Clement and Roger Clemens each 2004 vs 2005 at the very least should tell us not to. The Cubs are in a tricky spot for this season with starting pitching. Since both Maddux and Wood have no-trade clauses and will likely not go anywhere this year, the odd man out is Williams (unless Wood goes down for the year). But he's been pitching good enough to maintain the #5 spot, so barring injury our rotation is more or less set.

He's even more of a joy when you look at other third basemen in the majors and consider that: - Beltre is essentially stealing money from the Mariners (not a good idea with all their supposed ties to the Yakuza, by the way) - Rolen is injured - Troy Glaus is also pulling in $9M - Chavez is pulling in $8.5M - Mike Lowell is so unwanted that he can't get the Marlins to pay him enough not to be a part of the team - Ensberg is playing a little bit over his head - Alex Rodriguez costs costing the Yankees close to $20M per year Given the age, salaries and physical condition of all the third basemen in the league, I don't think I'd want any of them over Aramis for the forseeable future.

Thought this deserved a bump after today's game - 4 for 5, 1 run, 2 RBIs - pretty good for ol' Hank. He was our entire offense til the 8th, and he caught 10 innings in sweltering heat. Give that man a bottle of St Louis's best.

How does that compare with other teams this year, and other teams in previous years?

Before we have another 'Let's trade Wood' thread, does anyone know the list of teams he would be willing to wave his no-trade clause for?

Again, the Sox improvement in record between 2004 and 2005 is due first and foremost to their pitching. Their team ERA so far this year is 3.63, last year for the full year it was 4.91. They're scoring a half a run less per game than last year. Point to Podsednik if you want, but the statistics do nothing to support that stance.

Just curious... Were you ever a pitcher?? I'd like to see opinion from those who've actually pitched. For the record, I pitched about 3 innings in my life. I had no control. :D I played all the way through high school and pitched during that time, too. I wasn't great but good enough to keep starting. I never developed a slider - it never really slid and was a fastball that I threw 10 mph slower than my regular fastball, meaning it ended up over the fence more often that not. I had to rely on fastball/curve/changeup as my arsenal. Take it for what it's worth. So did speedy baserunners bother you at all? Just my guess, but if you poll major league pitchers they'll probably say they make adjustments when guys like Pierre are on base. Am guessing it throws them off their rhythm some. It didn't impact me when speedy baserunners were on, as much as when any baserunners were on. Like most MLB pitchers, I preferred to pitch out of the windup as opposed to the stretch. I'd imagine it doesn't matter so much as if it's Juan Pierre or Matt Stairs on base, as much as if anyone is on base. PS - I feel like Rob Neyer with all those italics.

Just curious... Were you ever a pitcher?? I'd like to see opinion from those who've actually pitched. For the record, I pitched about 3 innings in my life. I had no control. :D I played all the way through high school and pitched during that time, too. I wasn't great but good enough to keep starting. I never developed a slider - it never really slid and was a fastball that I threw 10 mph slower than my regular fastball, meaning it ended up over the fence more often that not. I had to rely on fastball/curve/changeup as my arsenal. Take it for what it's worth.

Thre's two anti-Pierre stances, and they're not mutually exclusive: 1) Pierre is in general overvalued by everyone, since his skills don't translate into generating runs on the offensive end as much as everyone thinks and similarly preventing runs on the defensive end - the Marlins will ask too much for him 2) It's a light FA market this year, so the Marlins will ask for too much for Pierre Both are true, IMHO. The stats don't back up that Pierre is a great leadoff hitter (regardless of the comparison to Hairston) - his career OBP of .356 is decent, but is reduced by how often he gets caught stealing. His career SB rate is too low to be considered beneficial to his team. His defense is good, but not great due to his bad routes as CubinNY pointed out. If you're pro-Pierre based on intangibles, I'll respectfully disagree with you. Knowing you'll have to face Derrek and Aramis is reason enough to cause unease in any pitcher, regardless if Juan Pierre is on first base. IMO, if Pierre wasn't on the 2003 Marlins, noone would be having this 'intangibles' discussion about him. Intangibles are a way sportscasters explain why a team is winning by pointing to the most marketable of the players so the masses will 'understand' baseball. You can't compare Pierre to what we have in CF and say because Pierre might be an improvement, we should get him. Compare him to what we would have to give up to get him. I can't see a scenario where the Marlins will only ask for a top-level prospect (my personal limit for what we should have to give up to get Pierre). On a side note, if you think that Podsednik is the MVP of the White Sox because of the 'commotion' he causes on the basepaths, I'd encourage you to apologize to Mark Buehrle.

Fred, you rock. Keep those stats coming. That's pretty interesting - can we make the case that having Blanco in the game basically creates a run for the Cubs (prevents a run from crossing the plate)? If so, does that makes Blanco's defensive/pitch calling presence overwhelm additional offense we get from having Barrett in the lineup? I haven't seen much analysis done on catcher's ERA in the past (and I'm obviously unfamiliar with how to analyze it when it's in front of me) - has anyone seen anything that shows a catcher's value as a pitch caller?

They managed through some early injuries and are now flying. Beane said this year was going to be a retooling year, but it's turning out to be very successful so far. It'll be interesting to see if he makes any sort of push to make the playoffs this year, or if he'll wait til 2006.