Rob

Never had any problems. Be careful if you're picking the tickets up at their office though. If memory serves, if you don't show up to grab them before first pitch, they'll try to sell them to somebody else.

I don't think you need to worry about that.

I just need to point this out... Look at LaTroy's numbers as a Cub if you haven't recently. His numbers in year two are inflated by an aberration of a HR/FB rate that didn't get a chance to settle because of the small sample size. But still, he was damn good as a Cub. The one and only number you can actually be upset with him for is blown saves... and he signed on here with the expectation of being the setup man. http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/h/hawkila01-pitch.shtml Booing LaTroy Hawkins is stupid.

Thereabouts. I'd probably guess he'll rank around average this year, adjust, and be +5 next year... provided those numbers are correct. I don't have my new Fielding Bible yet.

Hawkins didn't pitch badly (or suck) for the Cubs... it's just that when he did fail, it was always at very inopportune times.

They have Fukudome about +13 in RF last year, and -13 in CF over about 15 games. That's *really* awful for 15 games. How would a +13 in RF translate to CF, on average? Not too good, I would assume, but you know how far that gets you. The -13 is prorated for a full season, sorry if that wasn't clear. It has him -2.5 over about 15 games, which is much worse than I originally said(not reading correctly today), but heavily based on last year(-2.2 to -0.3 in about the same time). As for translation, I imagine +13 in RF translates to at least several runs above average in CF, but I don't know the exactitudes. If memory serves, the approximate translation from CF to LF is 10 runs. RF would be a bit less than that.

Get rid of Gathright and bring up Fox. Gathright isn't getting any playing time because of Reed Johnson, and we need some RH power off the bench. Trade for Patton's rights. Send him down to the minors. Bring up Fox.

That may be the hardest hit ball you see from Harden this season.

Are you sure that's wise? I'm not drunk yet.

Why the hell would you send Ramirez? Lou is batty.

We have very, very little in the high minors. We'll be seeing Samardzija at some point... and Jake Fox has been tearing the cover off the ball, but Hoffpaiur has his bench slot unless he learns to play some 3B. Mitch Atkins and Randy Wells may or may not come up. Ascanio has been starting in the minors... so I have no idea what they have planned for him. Kevin Hart is sitting down there for whenever we need him... but all those guys are righties. If Cotts continues on like this, I'd imagine Gaub might get the call sooner than the lot of us expected.

Today would be a great day for DLee to stop trying to pull the outside pitch.

That's an interesting definition of darn good. The fact of the matter is that you just cant expect much from the average major league reliever. And I expect a good deal more out of Gregg...

we all knew our bullpen would suck before the season. should die hard nat fans not worry about their rotation after one week? I'm actually not that concerned about our pen. Marmol and Gregg are obviously darn good. I'm a huge Heilman fan. If Gooz keeps his arm intact, I have no doubt that his performance will be fine... hell, even Vizcaino aint half bad, provided he never faces a lefty. Patton is a gamble, and Cotts sucks. That's still a good deal better than most teams. I don't get how Gregg is obviously darn good. He's a fairly questionable bullpen arm. I suppose that's the danger of using subjective terms... Gregg has shown an ability to be quite effective at the major league level, though whether his ballpark helped him keep all those flyballs from being home runs is something we'll be figuring out quickly. Regardless, I have no issues with him having a spot on any major league roster at the moment... which to me is what defines him as darn good. His leverage, on the other hand... that's up for debate.

Yo momma so fat that after sex she smokes a turkey.

we all knew our bullpen would suck before the season. should die hard nat fans not worry about their rotation after one week? I'm actually not that concerned about our pen. Marmol and Gregg are obviously darn good. I'm a huge Heilman fan. If Gooz keeps his arm intact, I have no doubt that his performance will be fine... hell, even Vizcaino aint half bad, provided he never faces a lefty. Patton is a gamble, and Cotts sucks. That's still a good deal better than most teams.

Actually, it was Carl Pavano's fault. It wasn't just that he was hurt a lot. It was that he didn't work hard in rehab. Then there was that car accident he kept to himself. I'm sure there was other stuff. His team mates were calling him out in the papers. How does that make it his fault? The Yankees brass didn't evaluate his work ethic properly before they offered him that absurd deal.

Don't know a name, but I am guessing it wasn't you. Good day. Oh thank god... I finally figured out you were just trolling. My radar has been off for a while now. Welcome to the ignore list, whoever's alt login you are.

I picked a good game to go to.

BB / PA for Soriano 2001 - 4.7% 2002 - 3.1% 2003 - 5.2% 2004 - 5.0% 2005 - 4.8% 2006 - 9.2% 2007 - 5.0% 2008 - 8.6% 2009 - 12.8% He hasn't looked good this game, but Soriano has been showing much improved discipline so far this year.

If anybody was wondering, Z did indeed have the longest active streak for PA without a walk.

Better be careful using the word "almost" there. flyseye is looking for something else crazy to latch onto...

Those stupid, stupid Cubs. I am firing off a letter today informing them that if they would simply hire Rob from NSBB, that Lou would suddenly become a much better manager. Ohhh...yeah...the classic "just a message board poster" attack. I think it's been around since the dawn of the internet. It's great when you have no other way to argue a losing point. Drop the argument and attack the "message board poster" aspect. Well done. Banedon, I guess I must of upset you because I called him on EXACTLY what he said.As a matter of fact he continues to say it. So why the heck don't you all write the Cubs and tell them how much better off Lou would be if he listened to Rob from NSBB ? Why don't you see if Bruce Miles will write a column about it ? Heck, why doesn't somebody just do a front page article on this site about it ?If you really think it is a true statement, there should be no problem, should there? If, on the other hand, you do not think it is a statement worth backing, you have no business ragging on me about it. Unless of course you know it is a ridiculous statement, and you just think I am being mean to him. Perhaps you feel sorry for him ? If the latter is the case, I commend you for your loyalty to your fellow poster, and I will let it drop, and I apologize. But to say I attacked the poster is pure BS, and you know it. No, you're absolutely using hyperbolic statements to imply that I don't know what I'm talking about at all... nevermind that I am working on a degree with a heavy slant on stats, a bio minor with a heavy slant on kinesiology, and am currently applying to postgraduate sports management programs. Might grab an mba while I'm at it too, if you were interested. I've read dozens and dozens of articles simply devoted to the when a sacrifice bunt might be warranted... same for lineup construction, pitcher workloads, how absolutely stupid it is to hit and run... and I can back up every single opinion I have on the game with hard data to support it. Go ahead and make overly sarcastic remarks. Do you even realize that every single professional baseball team employs people exactly like me to help influence their decision making? Not every team has the kind of army Billy Beane employs, but who exactly do you think it was that convinced Hendry to start focusing more on OBP?

I feel pretty good for being one of the very select few to not get terribly concerned about Fukudome.

Those stupid, stupid Cubs. I am firing off a letter today informing them that if they would simply hire Rob from NSBB, that Lou would suddenly become a much better manager. Ask around before you continue with your absurd tirade. I'm not the same sort of message board poster that you are... I actually know of what I speak.