bukie

That's definitely tops. The next best would most likely be Hack Wilson from 1927-1930, when he posted a 1.051 OPS. His overall numbers in six years as a Cub are great with a line of .322/.412/.590 and an average of 31 HR, 108 R, and 128 RBI per season. Hack is problematic because his astronomical numbers were in large part due to the crazy offensive era in which he played. The ridiculous offensive numbers of the late 20's-early 30's stand as the only real rival to the steroid era as far as offensive production. Consider that in Hack's best year, 1930, the LEAGUE batting average was .303. Thus, one could (if they wanted to) quite convincingly dismiss Sosa (roids) and Hack (softball league stats) from their lists of greatest Cubs hitters. If one were to do that, I'd think the clear remaining choice is Billy Williams. Completely contrary to Hack, Billy put up the bulk of his numbers while playing during an era dominated by pitching. For example, take 1963 and see that the league BA was just .249. You have to go back to 1917 to find a league BA that low. So for Billy to hit a career .290 during an 18 year career when the league average was .254 over that same span is pretty impressive. His 133 career OPS+ over 18 seasons is pretty damn nice as well. I guess I've convinced myself in doing this research right now. I'm gonna go with Billy Williams. final answer. The thing is though, Wilson's OPS+ for his six years as a Cub was 155. Billy Williams' best six-year run was 141. Sosa's best six-year run was 162. So while Sosa and Wilson may have played in better offensive eras, their numbers are still better relative to their respective leagues. This certainly isn't a knock on Williams, who was a fantastic hitter. Isn't OPS+ adjusted for the league/era in which you played? It's compared to the league average for that year, so it's a decent measure of how much better a player was than the league at that time. So yes, it's decent for comparing between eras.

Pesky stats incoming... The best comparable stat I could find historically was RC/27 (runs created per 27 outs, a sabermetric measure of a player's individual offensive worth to his team). RC/27 numbers for various famous Cubs: Player (Years as Cub) RC/27 (as Cub) ---------------------------- Hornsby, Rogers (4) 10.4 Wilson, Hack (6) 9.2 Sosa, Sammy (13) 7.2 * Lee, Derrek (6) 7.2 * Ramirez, Aramis (7) 7.0 Anson, Cap (22) 6.9 Williams, Billy (16) 6.7 Hartnett, Gabby (19) 6.6 Grace, Mark (13) 6.4 Santo, Ron (14) 6.1 * Soriano, Alfonso (3) 6.1 Sandberg, Ryne (13) 5.7 Dawson, Andre (6) 5.7 Banks, Ernie (19) 5.6 Chance, Frank (15) 5.4

Best upset.

I'd probably keep Jay Cutler.

Baseball is also really the only major sport where the officiating is consistent for home and road teams. Basketball, hockey, football, soccer there are a lot of hometown calls. Not that there should be, just that there are. Especially in basketball.

I'm rooting for Pujols, in hopes that it'll mess up his swing the rest of the year and the Cards fall into a horrendous tail spin. But, I mean, at least he'll have that trophy from the HR derby.

Congrats! ...I thought we had rules about adding minors until the September draft. ;)

It's known for it, but really not that different from Wrigley in terms of HRs per year. Now, US Cellular Field is a launching pad.

Here's something to keep a rooting interest in the Home Run Derby: MLB.com's Home Run Derby Challenge Winner gets tickets to the 2010 All-Star Game. Basically, you pick the order of finish for each round, the # of overall HRs hit in the first round, and the # of overall HRs hit in the entire competition.

Yeah, if you're talking about just in the US, then Elvis is bigger and will remain bigger. If you're talking about global impact, it's Michael Jackson and not even close.

:-s Plus when is someone in their late 30's considered "December"? Probably when they end up dead from being shot by their girlfriend. At least, that's all I can guess.

If Ryan signed a major league deal, Marshall could transition back to the rotation. Sure, but with Dempster out, the rotation is currently Zambrano, Lilly, Wells, pray for rain. Even if Marshall transitions back to the rotation, either Harden or Hart would still need to start regularly.

I'm guessing Hart would go back down rather than Harden being DL'd. Hart is already down Ah...yeah...forgot about that. You'd still need a 5th starter. Hart is already down because of the lack of need for a starter between his start and the ASB. Either Harden or Hart would have to be the 5th starter in this scenario.

Yeah, don't go by CBS's current pitching schedule, as it's currently running under the assumption that rotations are continuing as normal, and merely skipping the ASB days. For example, from my team, Lannan isn't listed to pitch at all during the weekend Cubs series, but I'm pretty sure he's pitching Thursday, at least. (I'm pretty sure the Nats would let him pitch the other days as well if he could)

You should be on Last Comic Standing - Calling Gallagher, Patterson, and Murton major league ready players. :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: Wait...you are laughing at the absurdity of a trade proposal? What's wrong with it, doesn't involve enough teams?

Severe Tooterstorms at NC Cubs Tootielicious at Quakers The Fighting Manginos at Fuzzy Logistics Lynx at Galesburg Hand Sanitizers Saber Metrics at Tampa Bay Rays Alamo Stealth at Harrys Budcrew Valenzuela's Screwballs at Northside Baseball Raw Dawgs at The Eyes of Texas Two matchups between winning teams in the short week, including the anticipated stats vs. scouts matchup. :)

Is it fair to point out that if I would have actually remembered to use all 7 starts I had this week I would have gotten the high score? :)

Holy crap, I'm in first.

Does Sanchez's start count as a PG? I'm only asking because that makes a difference whether I'm down 60 or 10.

Well, that sucks.

Freddy Adu leaves US team to head back to Benefica Apparently this was arranged prior to the Gold Cup. Probably for the better, since he wasn't really effective on the squad. I'm not sure what really happened with him. He was rushed along as a teenager, and really hasn't developed into the player everybody thought he'd be.

I swear, this squad looked better against Honduras than the "A" squad did last month. Was the Honduras squad missing any key players from the qualifiers?

At least the Cubs are being patient, so there's going to be 6 outs available that aren't against Vazquez.

According to a handful of Cardinal fans I talked to a day or two ago Rasmus has it wrapped up and no one is even close. Pablo Sandoval in SF might have something to say about this (he had 145 AB last year, but most were after Sept 1, so I think he still qualifies). I believe due to having fewer than 45 service days prior to September 1 of last year, he still qualifies as a rookie.

Armageddon must be at hand. I was wrong about them starting with only one backup MI and finally going to 11 pitchers. The first one didn't last long though, wonder how long this one will. Taking into consideration how often the Cubs actually used Patton, it's as if they've been going with 11 pitchers all year. Now, at least, they can play with a full 25-man roster.