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I was just digging around Baseball Prospectus (for subscribers only), and I came across a great article written the day after the Cubs won game 2 of the LCS vs the Marlins in 2003. The Cubs had an 8-0 lead after the 5th inning, but Dusty sent Prior back out to pitch the 6th inning anyway. Prior ended up throwing 116 pitches. From the BP article by Joe Sheehan: There's a lot more to the article than that, but it was intriguing to me that there have been people critical of a few things that we at NSBB have been critical of recently, namely: 1) Cubs poor approach at the plate and inability to develop young hitters 2) Baker stubbornly sticking with poor starting veteran pitchers 3) Baker having starters throw more pitches than necessary when games are already decided 4) Dusty letting guys rot in the bullpen Even when the Cubs were winning, some people were seeing what it took me a couple of years to see.

Nolan Ryan once threw 235 pitches in a game. This 120 pitch game is child's play. :shock: :lol: I know, I know. And Fergie Jenkins once through back-to-back extra inning double headers and then worked long relief the next day. Kids these days are so pampered. :twisted:

No, Len, Dusty has not pulled all the right strings today. Inexcusably stupid to bring Z out for the 8th. Baker should be fired immediately to prevent damaging arms in order to make his own W/L record look better.

120 pitches. And he's still in the game.

Don't say something you can't take back. I wouldn't want to see Greg's stats in Minute Maid. fwiw, Wrigley has been a better park for hitters than Minute Maid this year: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/stats/parkfactor That makes the Cubs offense that much more pathetic.

Yep, fixed it already !! :wink: I see, thanks for the updates. I am greatful and don't want to seem as ungreatful. serious question: Is it grateful or greatful? grateful

:oops:

Neifi saves us once again. I wish Dusty would save us from his .272 OBP.

Arod is injured. That's why he didn't play. No he's not he played in the eight and ninth inning of that game and played the entire game today. No, he was injured. He was expected to miss two or three day, but he's playing through it. I know about his toe. But, Torre even said and I'm paraphrasing here that the reason that Arod was not starting was due to his three errors and give him a chance to get his head back in it. On "Mike and Mike In the Morning", that is what they were saying about the situation. And Mike Greenberg applauded Torre for not hiding and saying it was injury related. He may have said that, but I saw a clip of Torre on ESPN News after the X-Rays came up negative saying he wasn't starting A-Rod because he wanted to give him a day for his toe. He then said he might be able to pinch hit (which he did), and that he should be back in the lineup Wednesday. Yep, if Torre said anything about Arod not starting because of the errors, no one at the NY Times or the Daily News heard about it. In the NY Times, Torre specifically stated that he was giving Arod a day off for his toe. It really doesn't matter, anyway. It would be stupid for Torre to bench Arod after his errors just as it would be stupid for Baker to bench Walker for the same. Bench a guy who doesn't hustle, but don't bench a guy for misplaying a grounder or bobbling a ball.

Arod is injured. That's why he didn't play. No he's not he played in the eight and ninth inning of that game and played the entire game today. No, he was injured. He was expected to miss two or three day, but he's playing through it.

Arod is injured. That's why he didn't play.

Yep, as stated earlier in the thread, Walker has a career .388 OBP and .512 SLG vs Clemens in 47 plate appearances.

I don't think the Cubs will score tonight.

Yes, he can! I was standing by the visitors' bullpen during batting Marlins batting practice last year. Juan was playing catch with one of the Marlins pitchers. Juan was standing on the outfield side of 2nd base. He threw one ball that overshot the pitcher and hit a little kid standing at the bullpen wall trying to get autographs.

I'd like to see him try. For another team.

Over/Under: 125 pitches by Neifi out of the pen tonight. Neifi's a starter, dude. He was throwing a side session to prepare for a weekend start. Little known fact: Neifi can pitch with either arm. This will allow Dusty to blow out his right arm and his left arm. Hopefully. In Dusty's defense, Neifi's already experiencing dead arm on the right side because he can't stop grabbing himself.

Over/Under: 125 pitches by Neifi out of the pen tonight. Neifi's a starter, dude. He was throwing a side session to prepare for a weekend start. Little known fact: Neifi can pitch with either arm. This will allow Dusty to blow out his right arm and his left arm.

He's good at saving us.

Walker vs. Clemens: .349/.388/.512 in 43 AB. If Neifi had done that against Clemens, he'd be hitting cleanup tonight.

I've never believed the argument that batting order has very little effect on run production. How many more RBI would Derrek Lee have had last year with 2 .400 OBP guys hitting 1st and 2nd in the order? How many more RBI would Neifi Perez have had? How many more RBI would Burnitz have had? Good OBP gets wasted when it is followed by poor AVG/SLG. There is a particular reason that it makes sense to have good OBP guys hitting first in the game. There is also a particular reason that it makes sense to have your biggest boppers hitting directly behind those guys. And just less than 1 run is a significant increase offensively. Just less than a run a game would propel this Cub team from 30th in the league to 10-12th in run production. That is very significant. I consider 1 run a game significant, too. However, note that the worst possible lineup, the one that would produce just 3.5 runs a game, is one in which the pitcher bats first, Juan Pierre hits cleanup, and Barrett and Nevin bat 8 and 9. As bad as Dusty is at lineup construction, he's never filled out such an atrocious card. Therefore, adding 1 run per game through batting order construction is a pipe dream. The difference between the optimum batting order and the one Dusty used last night is .273 runs per game. That would be good enough to put the Cubs in 29th place in runs scored instead of 30th.

The misconception is that batting order doesn't make any difference. It does make a difference, but the difference isn't as much as some would think. Using current OBP and SLG numbers for each player, according to the Lineup Analysis tool at Baseball Musings, here's the worst possible order for the players the Cubs put on the field last night: Marmol Cedeno Jones Pierre Perez Lee Ramirez Barrett Nevin Not even Dusty would do that. The difference between the best possible order and the worst possible order above is just less than 1 run. Dusty's orders, as ridiculous as they are sometimes, don't approach the level of stupidity of leading off with the pitcher, batting Pierre cleanup, etc. Dusty's batting orders might be able to cost us a third of a run or half a run sometimes, but, as others have said, who is in the lineup is more important than the batting order. That's where Dusty really fails.

Get used to it. Dusty has his horses now.

False dilemma. He could do both, you know.

Tony LaRussa often mistakes activity for achievement.

The hit and run is the stupidest play in all of baseball. I hate the hit and run, too, but if the manager calls for it, it would be nice for the guy at the plate to swing at the ball.