bukie

I think he's completely drunk on Boston success. He was much more accurate on everything when all his favorite teams were jokes.

Sosa in 1995 (linked for huge): http://homerderby.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/sosa-1995-card.jpg Sosa in 1996: http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:k_-RcmWR5MOC3M:http://www.checkoutmycards.com/CardImages/Cards/006/823/09F.jpg Sosa in 1998: http://internetfm.com/gif/sosa1.jpg Can't say I see a real marked difference in there. Can't find any images between 1990 and 1995, but it appears he did bulk up a bit in there.

Personally, since Felix is such a good defender, I'd like to see him get switched in more regularly in games where the Cubs build a sizeable lead. And early enough to get a couple ABs in those situations.

You should probably be more mad at yourself for counting on Eric Gagne as a fantasy reliever.

Updated through yesterday's game, yesterday's entire lineup (+Cedeno and Marquis, -Soriano) was hitting above average on the year.

If the only way something can be funny would be that a negative racial stereotype is hilarious, then it's not appropriate. The exception to this being White Men Can't Jump.

Similar to Ramirez getting pulled a few days back when he got hit by the pitch. Game was in hand, other players could use game time anyway, no use risking it.

Finally took a glance at Illinois' schedule. That's a rough beginning, with games at Missouri, Michigan and Penn State in the first 5 weeks of the season (with home patsies sandwiched in between). Get out of that 3-2, and they'll be in good shape.

And just like that, Houston's home court advantage is gone. They may not win a game this series.

I don't get to see them very often, but why doesn't Luther Head get more time for them? Veteran bias with Bonzi Wells and Bobby Jackson (before the trade), for one. Houston also seems to use him mostly as a backup for McGrady, who obviously doesn't sit much.

Through 17 games, the only Cubs regulars with an OPS+ under 100 (below average) are Aramis Ramirez and Alfonso Soriano.

I would think this game would be a good time to get Theriot or DeRosa a day of rest.

So, counting tonight, where the D-backs turned a 2 run deficit into a 7 run cushion in 2 innings, the Diamondbacks have the best record in the majors by 1.5 games. What's more impressive is how they're doing it. They are both the highest scoring team in the majors and have allowed the fewest runs in the majors. 9 of their 13 wins were out of save range, and 3 of their 4 losses were by 1 run. Simply complete domination so far. Question is, what does it mean? I'm less convinced of the Cards start, because they simply don't have the talent to keep it up. The D-backs had the best record in the NL last year, swept the Cubs, and then added Dan Haren this year to add to an extra year of experience for a very young lineup that includes Chris Young, Stephen Drew, Justin Upton, Mark Reynolds and Conor Jackson. Are they really this good? Because, if so, this is far and away the best team in the NL. EDIT: One last crazy stat: Thanks to today's win, the D-backs are 13-4, but their Pythagorean W-L is 14-3. That's unheard of.

Utah is really, really good this year.

Pie needs more than 1 AB per week if he's ever going to adjust to major league pitching.

So, the current Cubs lineup, if you pretend the pitcher is last: Fukudome DeRosa Soto Cedeno Murton Pie Theriot Ward P ...and I'm seriously thinking whether this is a better overall lineup order than the typical.

"groupthink" != "more than one person disagrees with me" Defensive fundamentals are difficult to quantify statistically with any sort of objective accuracy since there's no real way to tell who would've gotten to what if they were there (other than observation and speculation/estimation). Offensive fundamentals involve hitting the ball, hitting with power, avoiding pitches out of the zone, and not getting yourself out on the basepaths (combining speed, when to steal, and when to get your butt back to first base). Those are easier to quantify, and have been several times in this thread. Anyone who chooses to blindly ignore their effects is ignoring a significant part of the game winning equation.

They were 35-19 in 1-run games and outproduced their expected W-L by 8 games. That indicates to me they excelled at fundamental play and situational hitting (and featured a strong bullpen). They were 35-19 in 1-run games because they had 12 pitchers pitch out of their minds and their offense couldn't score many runs so they were drawn into close games. the astros pitchers pitched even more 'out of their minds' and their offense 'couldn't score many runs' even worse yet they managed a modest 25-21 record in their games. The Astros had 6 good pitchers, couldn't hit home runs, and hit even worse than the White Sox. They also finished with 10 less wins.

There is only one way to win a ballgame, and that is to score more runs than your opponent. This means that the run production of your offense against the opponent's pitching and defense has to surpass the run production of your opponent's offense against your pitching and defense. The White Sox excelled in 2005 because their pitching/defense was the best in the league, by a wide margin. Statistics show that every single pitcher on their roster was better than average, and they prevented runs better than anyone. On the flip side, statistics show their offensive run production was slightly below average, and it was only even that high because of their average slugging percentage and above-average HR count. Their ability to get on base was near the bottom of the league. So, then, to suggest that one Scott Podsednik was the catalyst to the White Sox winning the World Series flies completely in the face of objectivity, since he did nothing well that the White Sox actually excelled in. He did not pitch, and he did not hit home runs (aside from one in the World Series). The White Sox were offensively worse with him in the lineup than they were with Carlos Lee in the lineup. They had a lower OBP, a lower SLG, scored fewer runs, hit fewer HRs. They only things that the offense did better with Podsednik were to steal bases and get caught stealing bases. If stealing a base 67% (instead of 60% in 2004) of the time was able to overcome all the other offensive deficiencies the White Sox had, then yes, Scott Podsednik was the catalyst. EDIT: Correction, there are two ways to win a ballgame. The other team could forfeit.

At this point, I don't think there is further information on either side that will change anybody else's mind. The argument that Podsednik was an offensive spark and did all the little things is completely unquantifiable and subjective, even if it is true. The argument that the World Series win and the Podsednik trade were two independent coincidences has already been completely supported with every type of statistic available (apparently ERA and HR are sabermetric stats now, who knew?), and if that doesn't convince anybody otherwise, pointless bickering won't either.

Sounds good to me.

I would think OL as long as it's not a reach here. Plenty of quality RBs available, but not sure they're in the market for one this early.

I think all 4 of Reed's hits were against Righties too, am I correct? Yes, all righty pitchers for the Reds today. Might as well counter it with the "Glass is half empty" game reaction: 1 - Lilly is still giving up too many hard hit balls with low velocity up in the zone. 2 - Lieber doesn't miss many bats, so the ones he hits can't be hit as hard as they were today. 3 - Blanco and Fontenot both left 7 men on base and only manged to knock one in between them. 4 - Fukudome, despite averaging 6 P/PA today, didn't hit a ball hard and struck out twice.

Hopefully he finds his missing velocity, because I don't think he's going anywhere, at least for long. It's not even velocity so much as it's the location of his pitches. Everything is on the upper half.

"Glass is half full" game reaction: 1 - The Cub hitters were exceedingly patient today, forcing Volquez out after 5 with 112 pitches, and forcing Red pitchers overall to throw 190 pitches in the game. 2 - DeRosa and Johnson each reached base 4 times. 3 - Lilly had his longest outing of the year and lowered his ERA. 4 - Wuertz had a good inning.