bukie
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Everything posted by bukie
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Three things actually good about the Celtics beating the Spurs: 1 - Bulls are now just 2 games shy of home court advantage throughout the playoffs, and with the Spurs closing schedule, it's a realistic possibility. 2 - Bulls are now even with the Spurs on the home court advantage tiebreaker at 22-7, with the Bulls yet to play Phoenix at home, and the Spurs yet to play at Atlanta. 3 - Not meaningful to anyone but me, but the Celtics just swept the season series from the Spurs, meaning the Bulls are now the only team that can beat every other team in the NBA this year (have to beat the Knicks yet).
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It's not that he thinks Rose is terrible at defense, he just thinks Thibodeau should get all of the credit for any defensive improvement, and Rose should get none. That's a little absurd. Problem is, there isn't a really good way to determine how effective a player is defensively. Going by straight defensive rating, Boozer is in the top 10 (along with the rest of the team, practically). Going merely by the difference in team defensive rating when a player is on the floor vs. without, Rose is the worst defender in the NBA, and Howard is in the bottom 10.
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Assistant Coach at Louisiana-Monroe.
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If you look at PER, there's a clear 1-2-3, and then 4-11 is basically grouped together. 1. LeBron James 2. Dwight Howard 3. Dwyane Wade 4-11: Kevin Love, Chris Paul, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Durant, Dirk Nowitzki, Russell Westbrook, Pau Gasol, Derrick Rose After Rose at 11, there's a dropoff, and then Amar'e, Z-Bo and Kevin Martin among others from 12 on down.
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Really, he's an idiot because he was wrong once about a pick 3 years ago? I'm pretty sure he doesn't feel the same way now. If you remember, it was a pretty even 50/50 split on who the best player in the draft even was that year. Sure, the Bulls chose right, but let's not pretend it was a slam dunk. His statistical tools are very offensive-skewed, which he fully acknowledges. It's a measure of efficiency, which says more about how effective a player is than simply looking at points per game, or even field-goal percentage. Sure, it'll overrate a guy like Paul who never takes a chance on anything, but overall it's a pretty accurate evaluation of how good a player is, at least offensively. His column today was about the MVP race, which he does every year. He says in the column that the MVP always goes to the best story, rather than the best player or even the most important player, and he doesn't think that should be the case. He says Rose is easily the best story, James is easily the best player, and Howard is easily the most important player. If he had a vote, he'd vote Rose in the top 5, but not to win.
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Castro should be hitting lower in the order NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. He should. Sorry. Best hitters 1, 2, 4. Lean more towards OBP than SLG from front to back. Then next best at 3 and 5. Then 6 & 7, pitcher 8, worst 9. Cubs' lineup, projected OBP (ZiPS): Fukudome .356 Castro .340 Byrd .336 Ramirez .339 Pena .363 (have I mentioned ZiPS loves Pena?) Soto .357 Soriano .314 Barney .309 I mean, sure, get Soto and Pena higher in the lineup, but I have no problem with Castro being where he is.
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There's gotta be a way to adjust that for competition doesn't there? One would think, but I haven't been able to find someone that adjusted for opponent quality.
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I love opening week, because it offers the best time for people to make huge kneejerk reactions based on wildly small sample sizes. Like Austin Jackson, on pace for over 400 strikeouts.
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4/1 - Pirates (Correia) @ Cubs (Dempster) 1:20pm WGN
bukie replied to ctcf's topic in Fred Hornkohl Game Thread Forum
:banghead: :banghead: :banghead: This would be frustrating anyway, but considering Baker has hit Correia pretty well there is no excuse for this. Oh well, Quade has done far more good things than bad to this point. I am pretty happy with the rest of the lineup, however. There's a decent chance Barney will get as many plate appearances against Correia tomorrow as Baker has in his career to this point. Then I expect him to go 2-5 with a homer. And yet the Cubs will still lose 11-1, because nobody can hit Correia and the Pirates murder Dempster. -
Here's an odd statistical quirk, though...people knock Rose because the Bulls are more efficient statistically with him on the bench as opposed to on the floor, but the same thing is true for Dwight Howard, the overwhelming favorite for defensive POY. Granted, that mostly has to do with the little fact that when they're not on the floor, the opponent likely has second/third-unit players on the floor as well.
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There were a lot of stupid questions that he posted from users. He's right, you know. Statistically, the best player is James. The most irreplaceable player to his team is Howard. Rose is the best story.
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4/1 - Pirates (Correia) @ Cubs (Dempster) 1:20pm WGN
bukie replied to ctcf's topic in Fred Hornkohl Game Thread Forum
:banghead: :banghead: :banghead: This would be frustrating anyway, but considering Baker has hit Correia pretty well there is no excuse for this. Oh well, Quade has done far more good things than bad to this point. I am pretty happy with the rest of the lineup, however. There's a decent chance Barney will get as many plate appearances against Correia tomorrow as Baker has in his career to this point. -
That is definitely the best use of Brandon Phillips in the first inning with nobody out and a runner in scoring position of the first game of the year.
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Baker's a much better hitter than either Barney or DeWitt, but hopefully the thing that puts it all together for this year's Cubs is the defense up the middle.
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If the Bulls beat Boston, 5-2 in the other games clinches the conference.
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On a side note, I'm starting to think Atlanta may give Orlando a series in the first round, and could even win, which would make the 1 seed all the more important.
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Not if Miami beats Boston and then both win out the rest.
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Nice to see the whole starting unit get the whole 4th off for a change.
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He's young, really the only speed the Cubs have, and projected to be outpaced in OBP by only Fukudome, Soto and possibly Pena. Since Soto and Pena (and Ramirez) are projected to hit for more power, I'd prefer players on base in front of them. If Castro hits the occasional HR anyway, so be it.
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ZiPS loves Pena the best, actually, but every projection has Soto better than Ramirez, anywhere from slightly to significantly. Projected higher OBP, similar SLG. Combination of last year's performance, previous years' performance, and age regression/progression. If I had my way, I'd like to see a lineup of Kosuke-Starlin-Soto-Pena-Ramirez-Soriano-Byrd-Baker, but I also think Pena is due for a nice bounceback year. And if Colvin is going to spell anyone, I'd prefer he spell Soriano on a regular basis since he's got a history of leg problems and can't move well anymore anyway.
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Well, at least he's not bitter.
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Sadly, Byrd was probably the Cubs' second best hitter last year after Soto. That doesn't mean he merits hitting in the middle of the lineup this year. You mean 1-2? I'd rather have Fukudome and Castro getting that most days. Soto should be hitting 5th. I mean 3rd. He was the Cubs' best hitter last year, and projects to be the same this year, even with anticipated improvement from Pena and Ramirez.
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Sadly, Byrd was probably the Cubs' second best hitter last year after Soto. The real question is why isn't Soto near the top of the order.
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http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=6245054 Err...that article is 10 days old.
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Pena looked fine this spring. .237/.357/.441 line. Ramirez was put on waivers and Castillo optioned so Hill did win that job. I prefer to think of it as Hill was given the job. Winning the job makes it sound like he did something to earn it.
