Rob

I'll be filing this one under "duh."

Hey Fred, I don't suppose you have LD% for the players so we can get an idea of whether their BABIP is too far out of line?

If we could get Chris Iannetta for Barrett and Jones, I'd do it. Hell, I'd even throw in Cesar Izturis and Scott Eyre if they wanted em.

I appreciate the kind words, but no need to feel sorry for me. I just joined because it's fun. Win or lose, it's all good :D Holy crap... you're actually Butters.

Just recently, I made a pretty big trade. I gave up Nick Swisher (who was playing CF for me), AJ Pierzynski, and Jhonny Peralta for Joe Mauer and Julio Lugo (just to cover SS for me until I figure out who I want there). I had already snagged Vernon Wells to ride the pine, so I moved him out into CF... but I didn't realize exactly how bad Lugo was doing this season. So, do I stick with Julio Lugo and pray for a rebound, or do I grab one of Dustin Pedroia, Felipe Lopez, or Stephen Drew off the waiver wire? Lugo, Lopez, and Drew are all struggling mighty, but have decent upsides. Meanwhile, Pedroia is mashing but his upside is very limited. Thoughts?

I'm appalled by watching him play the game. That's funny. The last three years, he's been one of the very few reasons to watch the Cubs, and two bad months into the next season, everybody says they can't stand him. Barrett haters remind me way too much of Yankee fans... that whole "what have you done for me lately?" crap. It's disgusting... and it's certainly not befitting of a Cubs fan. And for two months Barrett has been crap. Who cares what he did in the past. That's not helping this team now. The point is that he has a recent track record of playing very good baseball. It's not that he can't play very good baseball anymore, it's simply that he's struggling. And this excessive negative attitude, and all the booing, and all the crap Lou Piniella is giving him is not going to do anything to help him out of this prolonged slump. And considering he's the only catcher on this staff who has the potential to be an asset to the team instead of a liability, I think we would be best suited to cut the man some slack. But instead we find ourselves just exacerbating the situation. You want to talk about what's not helping the team? It's the attitude espoused towards him... First off, never said he was the only reason... just one of the few. Besides, for his entire career Maddux has requested a personal catcher with a freaking cannon for an arm. Why? Because he's consistently clocked among the slowest in the entire game with his delivery to home plate, and he never bothers to hold the runners in the first place. And since Maddux has been a bloody superstar most of his career, the teams caved in. It doesn't make it the right idea... it's just the one that happened.

I'm appalled by watching him play the game. That's funny. The last three years, he's been one of the very few reasons to watch the Cubs, and two bad months into the next season, everybody says they can't stand him. Barrett haters remind me way too much of Yankee fans... that whole "what have you done for me lately?" crap. It's disgusting... and it's certainly not befitting of a Cubs fan.

I am appalled at how fast everybody has turned on Barrett...

Wells was not happy about that last call.

1. I think defensive indifference is only called in the 9th, IIRC. 4. It was cynicism. I know Barrett is fairly lousy on defense, but I hate it when people try to use numbers to prove it... especially when the numbers don't mean too much given the context (i.e. how slow our pitchers are to the plate)

Is it just me, or do the Cubs seem to have a lot of really slow SPs that are susceptible to steals? There have been many instances of runners getting such good jumps on our pitchers that there was no chance of throwing them out. It's not just you. It's been generally acknowledged for years that the Cubs' power pitching staff was real easy to steal off of.

that wasn't on barrett, that was on lilly It still counts against Barrett's numbers.

Spot start? Cause I've been starting Rich Hill all year, and that's worked out pretty well for all parties involved.

No catcher in the world would have been able to catch Cruz stealing third there, but I bet good money we have people talking about how Barrett is a crappy defensive catcher because he only throws out X% of baserunners.

Can't anybody on this damn team call for the freaking ball?

STRIKE!!!

Wow... he's not even close.

Did a Cardinals fan or The Sporting News come up with these ratings? Because being down here I get Cardinals games and I have watched him and I am sorry but any defensive rating that has him on top is ridiculous. The entire premise is measuring range... of which DLee doesn't have all that much. That doesn't make him a below average first baseman, though... he is probably the best in the game at receiving throws from the other infielders... which is a much larger part of 1B defense than his range. That's why you don't need to worry about 1B too much.

You must have missed C-Span the week of the Congressional Baseball Testimonies. And no, i havent read Shadows. I disagree with the premise. Breaking the law to expose someone else breaking the law is distasteful to me. Those guys should have any profits they made from that book taken away and donated to a charity. The government asking you to testify is not the same thing as being guilty. If memory serves, they asked a few others like Frank Thomas, who have never been connected. They were just wondering about the drug culture, not indicting them. To connect that with some sort of guilt is just irresponsible.

Ha ha, thats a pretty good one. :lol: It did help his Batting Avg. though. He didnt make it with the Marlins this year out of ST, was hoping he would, but despite that fact, probably had just as a productive season as CP, who is now hitting a robust .208/.264 in 192 ABs. (And Peter Angelos deserves every one of those ABs). Depends on how you mean that. Was he involved with Balco? Yes, as a bystander. Was he an active participant in a steroid plot like Sosa, McGwire, or Bonds? No, he was a bystander. I really think if Mitchell went to Shef sensibly and asked him for clubhouse details, he would provide them minus the names. And irregardless is not a word. Its Boston-speak. And with that, you show you haven't been paying attention at all. Sosa has never been implicated in any steroid scandal, BALCO included... and McGwire has only been implicated by Jose Canseco. Besides, if you read Game of Shadows, you'd know that there's much more to Shef's situation than the crap in the SI article. There were actual drugging schedules for Sheffield found in the BALCO office. Did you just take up the viewpoint cause you like arguing? Cause I can't think of any reason to be a Sheffield apologist and assume he had no idea what was going on, but to crucify Sosa and McGwire who have no evidence whatsoever against them. And their personalities can't be the deciding factor, cause Shef is a horse's ass. I really can't figure it out.

You make it sound positively Machiavellian. Here is the excerpt to which you are referring: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2004/magazine/10/04/sheffield_bonds1011/index.html Shef as i stated earlier is not a rocket scientist. He believed what he got to be something that would help his injury heal. He didnt ask the ? what it had in it which he probably should have. Accidents like this happen all the time for example look at what the Oklahoma football program admitted yesterday with amino acids. Its not like he went out and was actively looking for the stuff. He also quit using it after his tendon had fully healed and his numbers didnt take off for the season. In fact if you look it up, he had one of his worst career years with only 25 HRs and 84 RBIs. He has been a staunch advocate against Steroid use and one of the few guys that has testified in all the hearings, trials, and gone on the record for the public to see. Something that Sosa, McGwire, and certainly Bonds wont ever do. He made a mistake. He admitted it. MLB didnt punish him for it. And he volunteered to take more tests if they wanted him too. What can you ask from him? But whatever man. Irregardless, he is tied to the BALCO stuff... which was the entire point, wasn't it?

This one actually has the potential to make them better.

Bobby Grich needs to be in the Hall too.

Most likely Fontenot. We wouldn't need the extra IF anymore. Though since Lou apparently likes what he's seeing, I wouldn't be surprised to see Theriot sent down instead.

Actually, I might like to see what EPatt could do.