Rob

Call me crazy if you must, but I think our outfield defense, while good, could be performing to a much higher level if we just shuffled the players around. JJ seems like he could handle center without much trouble at all. If memory serves me right, he was worth about 13 runs over average in right field last year. The transiton between right and center certainly wont be costing us more than that. And I just can't get over what a difference it make in Scott Podsednik's game to move him to left field. He went from being 10 runs worse than average in center to 11 runs better than average in right. While that's too much of a swing to assume all of it was real, it does make sense in our case. Pierre has tons of speed but gets bad jumps and takes bad routes to balls, and his arm could barely let him throw a tissue into a garbage can from 3 feet away. Left field being less spacious would allow him to get away with those bad jumps and routes and still be able to cover everything, and it would keep him from having to show off his arm on such long throws. Murton would obviously be the one left out. He does have the range to play right, but his arm would be decidedly worse than average for a right fielder. I just don't think it would make nearly as much of a difference on him moving from left to right as it would for Pierre from center to left though. Thoughts?

Definately. Although it's one of those things where if it goes wrong, everyone ends up screaming "WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?!?!??!?!" Really fun. That's why we need to make sure it doesn't go wrong, not once, for the entire year. :shock:

As a fan base, we pump enough money into the system to sell out Wrigley every night and clear the shelves of tons of merchandise. We are supporting a 100 million dollar payroll. When we are putting that kind of money into this team, I believe we have the right to expect the team to perform at a level above .500. That's not to say that we expect to make the playoffs with the team that's getting our 100 million dollars, but that we expect our money to be spent wisely enough to do well on the field. We "are" booing Hendry. Expressing massive displeasure with his acquisitions combined with the performance of them is the easiest way to buy him a one-way ticket out of town, or at least to show him what we expect of him. Do you notice that nobody is booing Zambrano right now? We aren't upset with him being on this team, despite his struggles. JJ is another story entirely. And just as it is that we wont boo Z, we aren't going to boo Murton for that line either. As for Pierre, I'll agree that he'll be better than the numbers we got last year. But he's not better than anything we've had leading off since EY in his first few years, he's better than last year. CPatt hit .261/.307/.486 out of the leadoff spot in '04 in 250+ AB's, and Walker hit .294/.370/.535 out of the leadoff spot in 250+AB's in '04 also. Pierre couldn't approach those numbers if he played out his ass the rest of the year. It's not okay to boo somebody because he is performing just as expected. It's rarely okay at all. But I'll say again, the fans aren't displaying their disgust with the player so much as they are at the front office. It's not like we've got John Rocker out there, who deserved it just for being himself. We've got an extremely good young core of pitchers and a few position players I'd be hard pressed to move for any reason. There's no reason not to be excited about some of the parts together on this team. Besides, even .500 teams put together some lucky wins and make it into the playoffs. Thanks in advance for responding to the entirety of my post instead of picking out one line you have issue with. :D

Astros win :(

fastball high 1-1

strike at the knees 0-1

Berkman with the double... runners on 2nd and 3rd with one out.

Hey, I like Willingham a lot... but I doubt he puts up a .900 OPS for the year, when Derrek Lee couldn't even do that playing half his games in that park. Well since you're adjusting for the park, an .800 OPS out of the cleanup spot isn't bad at all. Besides, he has the potential to go a lot higher than that. He has an insane walk rate and prodigious power, all it will take is getting lucky on a few hits to put up Dunn-esque numbers.

Yeah, that's kinda what I was thinking. I love Maddux and all, but I'd love Abreu that much more.

Actually from a quantifiable point of view, the squeeze play is wonderful. The breakeven rate on it is extremely low, so it's not a bad idea to lay one down in a lot of situations, providing the batter at the plate can handle bunting well at all. It's funny that us stats people can fall in love with some of the little things in baseball, like the squeeze play and stealing home (typically through a double steal), isn't it?

He's gonna last til AB #51, just you watch.

Brandon Webb gave me a scary outing when he came back out for the 9th and let the first two runners on, but Valverde came in an closed it out so webb would still give me the save. =)

I noticed we were taking pitches when I was scratching my back, so I scratched back there until I got raw. And we won. All hail me!

Sweet, I was wondering how long it'd be before even our "finesse" pitchers have no control.

Fantastic news!

Woohoo! A few of my friends stood outside the stadium at 4 or 5 o'clock this morning and got those cheap tickets for the game. I'm on my way to St. Louis!

Rob, 60 day DL, alcoholism rehabilitation

Does anybody know if the automatic no-trade clause til June 15 for players who sign deals in the offseason applies to minor league deals? I could see Carlos Pena coming over from the Yanks as a pretty good deal.

I think Pie and Prior could get either of those right now. Can't deal people on the DL.

We do know how the team will do, that's the problem. This was a subpar offense even with Lee. We're looking at least at a .200 point drop from his OPS last year with anybody we replace him with, even if they hit the hot streak of their lives.

Wow, the overreaction is rampant. I've noticed everything I say will happen never does, so I'm trying my best to change the situation, what have you done? :wink:

Well if it's this serious of an injury, there could be career-long side effects. So much for the prodigious power for the next five years, hello overpriced paperweight.

The Pirates are probably ok with moving Craig Wilson, as all they have to do is call up Eldred. I wouldn't mind Wilson on the team at all.

I'm not really as upset as the jokes I'm making seem to indicate. However, it's times like this where it would be greatly appreciated if the team would be honest about an injury situation for once.

Or Jack Daniels. Or their bastard child, Jack Cuervo.