OleMissCub

Nawlins baby! If the Aints stay healthy, I think they are certainly a threat. Last year they had extended periods without Bush, Colston, Shockey (although what else is new), their only decent players in their secondary (Tracey Porter & Roman Harper), and still managed to be 8-8 despite losing several games they had NO business losing (thank you Martin Gramatica). I expect good things from them this year if they stay healthy.

Would Vikings have any interest in Vick now?

He could knock your eyeball out if he wanted. I remember that when I first saw that scene I couldn't breathe from laughing so hard. It was one of those laughing fits that was actually painful.

yes and he also said "struggling" and referenced other players who "struggled" early in their careers at Wrigley. Having an OBP at .350 or whatever Milton's was for most of the season isn't what people are talking about when they say "struggling". When talking about the other players struggling at Wrigley, you think they are talking about "taking less walks"?? He also referenced "turning things around". Milton's OBP isn't something that people would look to and say "damn, he sucks! he needs to turn that around!" Of course not, they are talking about his abysmal hitting and lack of power. I can't recall many posters on here bitching about Milton's lack of patience at the plate or anything like that. If damn near everything you read about Milton is that "he can't hit and hasn't given us much power", then it is a logical assumption to think when someone talks about him "turning things around" that they are talking about him actually hitting the ball. i can't believe you're actually this dense, so I'm assuming you're still trying to cover your ass. in milton bradley's specific case, he is showing signs of life by upping his OBP and OPS. What do you call it when a player reaches base 43 percent of the time and raises his OPS .40 points over the previous month? struggling? just give it up, you're making a fool of yourself. ya nice try. i'm not arguing that milton isn't contributing more. the stats support that, so don't act like I don't understand the vast importance of ops and obp. this argument isn't about what I believe as regards Milton being more productive as of late, it's about what I assumed the POSTER was talking about. considering that milton had just hit a pinch hit HR and considering his language about "struggling" and referencing other players struggling, I figured he was talking about Milton's bat turning around...which IS what most people have been desiring Milton to do all year. getting on base hasn't been all that much of a problem for him all year. again, you are positioning this as concerning what i personally believe to constitute productivity. this isn't about me, it's about what i thought the POSTER was talking about, which was Milton's actual bat. you can have the last post if you want, i'm done wasting my time on you.

as a lefty hitter, it would be Randy Johnson with no one else even close.

Mainieri should have brought his daughter

I just turned the TV back to the Cubs game and saw that Reds pitcher walking off the mound...when the hell did Dorf start pitching?

Zambo has been hanging out with these guys it seems. What the heck is up with that hair??

I've said this story a couple of times I think, but when I went to school at Cambridge they always had cricket on TV. So I wanted do an experiment and see if I could learn a game from scratch just by watching it and never reading the rules or anything. Like three hours later I was still completely befuddled. As a baseball history fan, I did find it interesting to watch the fielders. It kind of helped me imagine what baseball must have looked like back in the 1800's when they didn't use gloves.

They are throwing lots of Helton stats out in the paper lately and here is one that is fun. Only 5 players in history have a .325 average, 500+ doubles, 300+ HR, and 2000+ hits: Babe Ruth Lou Gehrig Stan Musial Ted Williams Todd Helton

yes and he also said "struggling" and referenced other players who "struggled" early in their careers at Wrigley. Having an OBP at .350 or whatever Milton's was for most of the season isn't what people are talking about when they say "struggling". When talking about the other players struggling at Wrigley, you think they are talking about "taking less walks"?? He also referenced "turning things around". Milton's OBP isn't something that people would look to and say "damn, he sucks! he needs to turn that around!" Of course not, they are talking about his abysmal hitting and lack of power. I can't recall many posters on here bitching about Milton's lack of patience at the plate or anything like that. If damn near everything you read about Milton is that "he can't hit and hasn't given us much power", then it is a logical assumption to think when someone talks about him "turning things around" that they are talking about him actually hitting the ball.

look at what the poster said: When someone is talking about batters "struggling", they normally aren't talking about the fact that said player's OBP is .345 when their career rate is .370 or whatever. He's using the phrase "turning things around". I highly doubt that he, or most people, thinks that taking more walks = turning things around.

The evidence doesn't show that. In July he is hitting .245 and in June he hit .273. are you serious? his OBP is like 60 points higher in July than in June. I thought you were better than this. Yes I'm aware. However, I don't think that is what the poster was talking about. Is taking walks considered to be "signs of life"? Usually that term is applied when someone is hitting the ball better. no, signs of life means being a more productive hitter. but by all means, keep dancing dance dance dance Yeah because I totally don't understand the value of OBP as opposed to BA. I'm well past thinking that BA is all that important. But if it helps your argument to imply that I'm that foolish, then by all means... And I'm hardly dancing. I interpreted his statement to mean that he thought Milton's bat was waking up, not some notion that he is "contributing" more as a player. The biggest knock on Milton all year is that he can't hit for [expletive]. His OBP hasn't been much of an issue at all. So, considering that people have bitched all year about Milton's lack of hitting, if you don't think that it is a reasonable interpretation to think that "showing signs of life" means "finally hitting the ball", then you're lying for the sake of trying to win your point.

The evidence doesn't show that. In July he is hitting .245 and in June he hit .273. are you serious? his OBP is like 60 points higher in July than in June. I thought you were better than this. Yes I'm aware. However, I don't think that is what the poster was talking about. Is taking walks considered to be "signs of life"? Usually that term is applied when someone is hitting the ball better.

The evidence doesn't show that. In July he is hitting .245 and in June he hit .273.

Helton has made a pretty nice career for himself with his rate stats. He is 12th all-time in career OBP at .427 and his OPS at .998 is 10th all-time. Also, looking at his stats, you come across his 2000 season which was just DOMINANT. That year he led the NL in hits (216), doubles (59), RBI (147), BA (.372), OBP (.463), SLG (698), OPS (1.162), Total Bases (405), Times on Base (323), and Runs Created (192). Sosa was second in Runs Created with 159.

Well hello there, stranger

WWF match from 1998

breaking news: blind squirrel finds nut

Milton should try and hit RH next time we face a righty and he is in the lineup. I know if you are a career switch hitter that'd funk you up, but maybe he should try it though because he uber-sucks hitting LH this year.

shot that down pretty quick http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/8410/doc3.gif

I had forgotten about Dunn's splits at Wrigley. 23 HR in 217 AB's.

oh please.

x 1,000,000,000

Todd Helton recently hit his 500th Double and that got me looking at some numbers. Helton may be the best Doubles hitter in baseball history, and certainly of our era. In recent history, here are the guys with more doubles than Helton, but check out how many more AB's they had: Helton: 500 doubles in 6,286 AB's G. Anderson: 5 more doubles, but in 1,957 more AB's Edgar Martinez: 14 more in 927 more AB's Griffey Jr: 15 more in 3,281 more AB's Manny: 19 more in 1,465 more AB's Pudge Rodriguez: 38 more in 2,620 more AB's Jeff Kent: 60 more in 2,212 more AB's Raffy Palmeiro: 85 more in 4,186 more AB's Luis Gonzo: 96 more in 2,871 more AB's Bonds: 101 more in 3,561 more AB's Biggio: 168 more in 4,590 more AB's