cheapseats

Bob likes to believe that all the squeeze bunts and hit and runs he called with the DBacks were the reason they won the Series. I hate to say it, but he's becoming a douchebag.

Bob Brenly can suck it.

And where would he play? It's an away game, so he'd never get in the game. You'd pinch-hit for him in the first inning, and that would push the first at-bat by the real starting pitcher back by an inning.

I believe they adjusted that rule so you have to bat or play the field before you can be removed from the game due to some misuses by Earl Weaver. That applies to Designated Hitters: http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/official_info/official_rules/batter_6.jsp See 6.10(b)

For away games I would bat the previous night's starting pitcher third. Really.

SOLD to team a for $72 team a Maybe the name's not funny, but I'm convinced it helped me build this team: http://games.espn.go.com/ffl/tools/draftrecap?leagueId=312003

Think what you will about BP's Pitcher Abuse Points, but Prior was #23 on the list in 2002: http://www.baseballprospectus.com/statistics/sortable/index.php?cid=104254 And Prior only pitched in 19 games that year. Everyone ranked above him pitched in 25 games or more. Most pitched 30 games or more. He jumped to #4 on the list in 2003. I've linked to this before, but here it is again, a Baseball Prospectus roundtable from July of 2003: https://baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=2054 For those of you without a subscription, here are some excerpts: Gary Huckaby: "I give Prior 44 more starts under Dusty Baker, fewer if the Cubs are in a pennant race and the bullpen blows another save or two... I don't care if he's made of liquid titanium. I don't care if his mechanics were designed by Da Vinci. The organization he's in couldn't find its ass with both hands. They've shown no signs of understanding the precepts of not abusing their starters. Recent addition Dusty Baker isn't exactly The Bringer of Light. Prior will likely throw 220 innings this year at the age of 22. We can look for reasons why Prior is an exception to the rules all day long. I prefer to assume he's NOT an exception... Dusty Baker and the Cubs will burn up Prior..." Nate Silver: "On the SportsCenter recap, there was a comment to the effect that Prior felt taxed during the eighth inning, but Baker left him out there anyway. As a Cubs fan, I'm actually hoping that the team overpays for middle-relief help just so it discourages Baker from doing stuff like this. They left Carlos Zambrano out there a long time the other day (123 pitches), during which Chip Caray and Steve Stone commented that Zambrano would have to "take one for the team" since the bullpen was overworked. Isn't that what Shawn Estes is for? Prior does have beautiful mechanics, but that just mitigates the risk, not eliminates it. I try not to be a total fascist about this stuff, and I can see an argument for pushing a guy once or twice a year in the perfect situations, but Baker has done it indiscriminately."

Aaron Moles

Neifi Perez? Neifi Perez was actually a very good defensive shortstop. Aaron Miles is Neifi without the glove.

I'd rather see Jake Fox at SS.

Football Outsiders' KUBIAK projections do a great job of identifying guys who are likely to decline sharply. Off the top of my head, their projections were right on Edgerrin James when he moved to Arizona, Shaun Alexander when he was still being taken as a top 3 RB, Larry Johnson, Marc Bulger, etc. The system isn't so good at identifying breakout stars. On the whole, the Footballguys projections have been a little more accurate than the KUBIAK projections over the past 3 years. I consult both.

According to Bruce, we could see Miles as early as today: http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=311740 Huzzah!

Jim got himself another Mike Remlinger. Huzzah!

I just read lefties sport a .360+ OBP against Grabow this year.

I assume you mean there's no indication that Derosa was traded for the purpose of signing Miles? http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/team/transactions.jsp?c_id=chc&year=2008&month=12 It's pretty hard to argue that Hendry didn't already have Miles in mind when he traded Derosa.

I'm a glass-half-full kind of guy: their starters are well rested. :) And the Cardinals don't get to face Ortiz, right?

Can people set aside the player-crushes and look at this realistically for a second? Realistically it's ridiculous to pretend not offering arbitration was a good idea. If he accepts, we have a good reliever. If he doesn't, we get 2 draft picks. The downside is where? 8 million dollars that we don't have Because Hendry is busy spending it on Joey Gathright, Paul Bako, Aaron Miles, Chad Gaudin, etc.

Bucknor is a really bad umpire.

Within my immediate reach I have an empty peanut jar and a fork. That's about the equivalent of what we've given the Pirates in the past. Except that they now have a GM who isn't on Cubs' payroll.

Eyre for Schlitter.

Aardsma for Cotts.

But Jim Hendry kicked my dog. One day I am going to post his contact info on 4chan.

Are you really judging a prospects-for-big leaguer trade 6 months after the trade? Especially when the 3 prospects have performed rather well in the minors? Are you really saying you can't criticize a trade of a player when the team went out and replaced said player with Aaron Freaking Miles? This. Also, not offering arbitration to Kerry Wood to get the draft picks, Ceda for Gregg (even though Gregg has gotten somewhat better), Izturis, Ordonez, Bynum, Neifi, severely overpaying for Aaron Miles when you could have paid 1/10th as much for the same talent, trading Eyre instead of Howry, trading Wuertz for nothing, not giving Vizcaino a fair chance, not firing Dusty, Soriano's albatross of a contract.... need I go on? Yes, he brought Harden, Lee, Nomar, Aram, Lee, Lilly here. I'm not going to say he hasn't made good moves, because he has, but his bad moves outnumber his good ones. Don't forget Wuertz for a bag of crap.

Are you really judging a prospects-for-big leaguer trade 6 months after the trade? Especially when the 3 prospects have performed rather well in the minors? Are you really saying you can't criticize a trade of a player when the team went out and replaced said player with Aaron Freaking Miles? But that's different. That's a criticism of a free agent signing of the replacement player (especially when the likes of Orlando Hudson were available this offseason). Considering the Miles signing happened at the same time as the Derosa trade, it's disingenuous to argue against connecting the two.

Are you really judging a prospects-for-big leaguer trade 6 months after the trade? Especially when the 3 prospects have performed rather well in the minors? I think it's reasonable to do so. This team was built to win now, and whatever comes of that trade in the future, it definitely hurt us in the present. Hendry thought he could replace most of Derosa's production with a Fontenot/Miles platoon, and he was sorely mistaken.