bukie

Ronny's IsoP (Isolated Power, SLG-BA) is .03 higher, and his IsoD (Isolated Discipline, OBP-BA) is .017. The power difference is basically the difference between Soto and Lee this year. The major difference right now between the two is that Theriot gets quite a few more singles, basically, to prop up the OBP and SLG with batting average. The OPS difference overall is quite minimal.

Cedeno has a lot of physical talent, seems to have an improving approach at the plate, and his minor league numbers dwarf Theriot's. And he's younger. Theriot is a nice decent league minimum player who doesn't hurt the team too much, but it's not like he's a great player. Why is this so astounding? Have you watched Cedeno at the plate? He is clueless. How about in the field? Remember the double play up the middle he muffed and lost us a game 2 weeks ago? I never want the ball hit to him past the 5th inning. He may be one of the least intelligent players I have ever seen. That's certainly a fantastic example of cherry picking a play. Nobody's saying Cedeno should get all the playing time, but I'm dumbfounded by anyone who thinks it's a slam dunk. Advantages of Cedeno: Extra-base hits, range, throwing arm Advantages of Theriot: Walks/getting on base, success rate on balls hit in his zone I'd still like to see Cedeno at SS and Theriot at 2B on days when both of them play. Not necessarily because Cedeno is that much better of an option at short, but because the defensive weaknesses Theriot has are scaled down a lot at 2B, and the defensive weaknesses Cedeno has exist at either position, so the overall defense should be improved.

Considering there are only 16 teams that have existed this long, yes. The rest of the list: Pirates 14 Cubs 15 Red Sox 19 Braves 20 (after 14 in a row prior to 2006) Cardinals 22 Giants 23 Athletics 23 Dodgers 24 Yankees 47 EDIT: One more step into math geek land...Since the inception of the World Series, there have been a total of 167 playoff teams in each league (1 per year from 1903-1968 minus no 1904 series (65), 2 per year from 1969-1993 (50), 4 per year from 1995-2007 (52)), and the Yankees have represented 47 of them, or 28% of them.

I'm not sure how 5 innings of 2-run ball where the hardest hit ball was hit twice is costing the Cubs.

Another well placed grounder. Some days it's just not meant to be.

He's given up a perfectly place lazy pop up, A perfectly placed slow grounder, and 2 hard hit grounders. If he loses his playoff spot to Bob ---SOAPDROPPING--- Howry over this I'm gonna lose it. Perk up, SSR, he isn't going to lose his spot to Howry. It'll probably be McGehee that gets the spot.

Gaudin pitching around Santana for fear of being hit with a broken bat on the mound...

When did Howry switch to #57?

Yeah, Marshall was being knocked around all night...wait, what?

6 pitch inning for Santana, but all 6 pitches were strikes in the middle of the plate, so what can you do.

Geez, I check on my kid for a minute, and I come back to see not only did Marshall get through the heart of the order, he struck out Beltran and Delgado doing it.

So, facing a LH pitcher who is better against righties than lefties, the only lefty in the lineup is 2-2. Crazy that.

Some of us are jabbing you about the "You're/your" grammar error, actually. :)

Yeah, that "you're" vs "your" thing pisses a lot of people off! I was so bothered by the improper word usage that I already put him on the foe's list.

I'm guessing Lou will plan things similarly to yesterday, beginning the game with the starters, and then inserting backups for rest in the later innings. I imagine the lineup will start out as Soriano Johnson Lee Ramirez DeRosa Cedeno Theriot Blanco Marshall

Err, Purdue/Duke is the ACC/Big Ten challenge, not Maui.

The Cubs are running out of teams they can rip hearts out of...first the Cards, then the Astros, then the Brewers, now the Mets. Somebody has to win that wildcard. Who's left, Florida?

Well, it did happen in 1998 as the Giants overcame a 5 game deficit to two teams in one week to force a playoff tiebreaker.

The Brewers will have Gallardo and Parra as frontline starters next year, which should be sufficient. They won't have a deep rotation, and are probably going to try to get as much as they can for Fielder this offseason. Their ownership is spending a decent amount in payroll (I think around 90 mil for this year, correct me if I'm wrong) to field a good team, and they'll probably still try to see what they can do to bring in a FA starter to offset the loss of CC and Sheets. The Cardinals will always be somewhat competitive because of Pujols. Similar to how the Giants managed to stay competitive with Bonds even though Baker managed that team for 10 years. LaRussa may be a meddler, but he's probably one of the best managers in the game overall, and Duncan can always get something out of nothing with the staff. Maybe not a dominant team, but certainly an 85-90 win team year-in-year-out as long as things fall right. Houston is a mirage. Their month-long hot streak has only masked this fact, and their owner was foolish in being a buyer at the deadline. They've struggled this week because they're simply not playing way above their heads anymore, not because of their stupid owner not planning ahead for the hurricane. Pittsburgh is finally looking like they have a 5-year plan, as they begin to restock a barren farm system to supplement a barren major league team with talent, like any team that operates as a small market team has to do to compete. If they keep drafting well and trading for good parts, they'll be competitive 3-4 years down the line. The Reds are the same as they've ever been the past 10 years. Promising young hitting talent (Votto, Bruce today, Dunn, Kearns, Encarnacion, Lopez in years past) with a potential arm or two (Cueto, Volquez today, Harang, Wagner in years past) ready to take this team to the next level. They foolishly spent their FA money to shore up the pen this past offseason, neglecting a rotation and lineup that both fell under league averages. Combine that with Dusty's penchant for destroying young arms, and I have a tough time seeing them being competitive unless Votto and Bruce turn into Bonds and Pujols.

Looks like the Cubs are starting to build that lineup for the Monday Houston game, just in case. ;)

Nope, we want Mets v.s. Brewers in a Wild Card playoff game. The day after two playoff games between the Mets and Phillies, and the Dodgers and D-backs.

EDIT: Nevermind, couldn't have picked poorer timing if I had tried.

A Fuku-slam would top off this evening pretty well.

Felix Pie is fast. The pitcher was on a full run from the mound and Felix still beat him there from home. Too bad there isn't a PR for Ward, because the PRs are all already used this game.

Yes, but technically they already had HFA clinched if they didn't have to play that last Houston game.