bukie

Ryan Howard is going to get more All Star votes than Bryan LaHair, and he hasn't played an inning yet.

Yeah....no.

Clearly sustainable. It is the last of the rate statistics to stabilize. If he keeps this up for 550 PA, I think he can manage to sustain it all season...

14 of LaHair's 24 hits are for extra bases. His ISOP trails only Matt Kemp among regulars.

If I could pick a single baseball stat to abolish, it would be individual W/L for pitchers.

Of the three, actually, given peripheral stats, Stewart is the most likely candidate to improve.

There have only been two relievers on the Cubs that have missed bats at an above average rate in the first month: Kerry Wood and Scott Maine. Russell is the other reliever with a decent K rate. The worst Cub relievers by peripheral stats to this point have been Marmol and Dolis (Dolis has a K/BB of about 0.25). Dolis's problem is similar to Samardzija's a couple years back in that he's just not missing any bats. When players swing, they make contact against him. Marmol's problem is a complete inability to command the strike zone. EDIT: Interestingly, the least valuable pitch of any Cub reliever to this point (excepting Lopez who's not on the team now)? Marmol's slider.

The real problem I have is with the 15 morons that voted neither of them first. Include the 8 idiots that didn't have Pops in the top 3 and the 18 fools that didn't have Thibs in the top 3. I could accept arguments for Vogel or Hollins. The Rivers and Karl votes are terrible. ETA: Why did Monty Williams get a second place vote?? Maybe he was next to Thibs on the ballot and the voter got confused.

The real problem I have is with the 15 morons that voted neither of them first. Include the 8 idiots that didn't have Pops in the top 3 and the 18 fools that didn't have Thibs in the top 3.

How to balance a 162 game schedule with six divisions of 5 teams: - 16 games against each of the four teams in your division - 8 games against each of the ten teams outside your division - 18 interleague games (I like either the one rivalry series and one opposing division, or one division and one place matchup against the opposite team in the standings) That would make 162 games exactly, you'd play divisional opponents twice as much as non-divisional opponents, and the only unbalanced part of the schedule would be the interleague matchups.

~12 interleague games per team (3.6 series...) will be required to keep teams playing throughout the season without interruption. Interleague has gone as high as 18 games in the past, so I can see 18, possibly 21 if they go crazy, but 30 games really takes away from the intraleague play.

Now that a whole month is in the book for the team, let's see how they've done in comparison to the league, both good and bad (there may be more bad). Offense Strengths: #1 in NL in Baserunning #5 in NL in Line Drive % #5 in NL in Infield Hits Weaknesses: #14 in NL in Walk Rate #15 in NL in Isolated Power #16 in NL in Overall Batting Value #16 in NL in O-Swing according to Pitch F/X (swinging at pitches out of the strike zone) So they swing at bad pitches, don't hit for power, and don't take walks, which combines to give them the worst batting value in the NL. But they are excellent at hitting line drives and getting infield hits, and then add value on the basepaths. Pitching Strengths: #3 in NL in Starters WAR #5 in NL Overall Starting Value #6 in NL in Starters xFIP #5 in NL in Starters K/9 #1 in NL in Starters O-Swing% (getting opposing hitters to chase pitches) Weaknesses: #15 in NL in Relievers WAR #15 in NL in Relievers K/9 #16 in NL in Relievers BB/9 #16 in NL in Relievers xFIP #16 in NL in Relievers O-Swing% (getting opposing hitters to chase pitches) #16 in NL in Relievers Contact% (percentage of contact when opposing hitters swing) #16 in NL in Overall Reliever Value So, starters good, relievers bad, mostly. The entire staff is issuing too many walks overall, and they aren't striking enough players out to make up for it. Relievers simply aren't missing bats and are missing the zone far too often. The scary thing is that it's been better the past week, and they're still dead last. EDIT: I suppose I should mention defense as well. I'm not sure I trust defensive metrics as far as I can throw them, but the Cubs currently rate about average defensively overall, with excellent range rating but well below average arm and double play rate. Take it for what it's worth.

I like the idea of one "rival" series plus one series each against an interleague division. So, that makes 18 total interleague games per team, and once every three years you'd get a home and home against your rival.

So his bad rates are sustainable, but his good rates aren't?

35.7% strikeout rate .600 BABIP 35.7% HR/FB ratio He can't hit at the major league level, but a perfect storm of luck is making his actual production awesome. It's perfectly possible to enjoy that luck and still know that going forward it's not going to continue. He could very well hit at the major league level, just not at the rate he's going now.

I love Scottie, but Rose is not a warrior "in every sense of the word". It's true, he is not "A person engaged in warfare."

An open letter from Scottie Pippen: http://www.nba.com/bulls/news/scottie-pippens-open-letter-2011-12-chicago-bulls.html

I don't think that's going to happen, considering the leagues are going to have 15 teams each next year.

Come on, Dolis, just get out of this...

Cmon, Maine, don't help Pierre get on base.

Bryan LaHair cares not for your BABIP rules.

Why? Because his sample size of one offseason with three targets proves they won't.

I feel compelled to point out that someone else left you with a pretty solid draft of prospects and a huge point cushion and was criticized for leaving the team completely bare...

Which one of these is not like the others? http://www.illinoisloyalty.com/i/n/nfl-draft-illini.jpg

For a second there, I thought you were talking about his velocity, and I was really worried.