cheapseats

They think we don't get enough of him announcing all through baseball and football season? :? I could do without him myself. He's on the list of famous people I'd like to punch in the face.

It's kind of creepy how much they talk about him.

Yep. Despite his wretched beginning of the season, he's about at his 40th percentile PECOTA projection, so he hasn't quite put up the numbers expected of him, but he's headed in the right direction. Even if he cools off a little bit, he should end up doing about what was expected of him before the season started. And with Lee back in the lineup (and hopefully a couple more bats) next year, he should continue like this all year next season. Pretty much. He's projected to decline slightly each year until 2010, when the decline is projected to be a little more pronounced. Wonder why they think he'll decline every year? Not like he's old. PECOTA isn't really a "they." It's a system that analyzes past data from years and years and years of baseball. It does a pretty good job. It's especially useful for tempering enthusiasm about career years; the Dodgers GM (DePodesta) wasn't going to give Beltre anything close to what the Mariners did because he believed Beltre's year was an anomaly. PECOTA also did a great job of predicting Ryan Howard's stats this year. Anyway, Aramis's decline isn't projected to be very sharp from year to year. Next year is projected to be pretty much the same as this year, for example, except for maybe a 2 or 3 point drop in OBP. However, PECOTA does expect him to see fewer plate appearances over the next few years, bottoming out at 90 less in 2009 than he sees this year, so it's likely that he'll have to deal with some minor injuries in the upcoming years. These are the same long-term projections from the beginning of the season, right? Unless they've pegged Ramirez's season this year real well, at this point I'd think that the long term projections at the best need revision and at the worst are pretty useless. It's been pretty close on Aramis this year - he's between the 40th and 50th percentile - but of course we won't know how accurate the prediction was until the season is over. Of course, with each passing year, there is more data with which to project, so estimates should be more accurate.

Yep. Despite his wretched beginning of the season, he's about at his 40th percentile PECOTA projection, so he hasn't quite put up the numbers expected of him, but he's headed in the right direction. Even if he cools off a little bit, he should end up doing about what was expected of him before the season started. And with Lee back in the lineup (and hopefully a couple more bats) next year, he should continue like this all year next season. Pretty much. He's projected to decline slightly each year until 2010, when the decline is projected to be a little more pronounced. Wonder why they think he'll decline every year? Not like he's old. PECOTA isn't really a "they." It's a system that analyzes past data from years and years and years of baseball. It does a pretty good job. It's especially useful for tempering enthusiasm about career years; the Dodgers GM (DePodesta) wasn't going to give Beltre anything close to what the Mariners did because he believed Beltre's year was an anomaly. PECOTA also did a great job of predicting Ryan Howard's stats this year. Anyway, Aramis's decline isn't projected to be very sharp from year to year. Next year is projected to be pretty much the same as this year, for example, except for maybe a 2 or 3 point drop in OBP. However, PECOTA does expect him to see fewer plate appearances over the next few years, bottoming out at 90 less in 2009 than he sees this year, so it's likely that he'll have to deal with some minor injuries in the upcoming years.

Marmol wants Baker gone.

Yep. Despite his wretched beginning of the season, he's about at his 40th percentile PECOTA projection, so he hasn't quite put up the numbers expected of him, but he's headed in the right direction. Even if he cools off a little bit, he should end up doing about what was expected of him before the season started. And with Lee back in the lineup (and hopefully a couple more bats) next year, he should continue like this all year next season. Pretty much. He's projected to decline slightly each year until 2010, when the decline is projected to be a little more pronounced.

Yep. Despite his wretched beginning of the season, he's about at his 40th percentile PECOTA projection, so he hasn't quite put up the numbers expected of him, but he's headed in the right direction. Even if he cools off a little bit, he should end up doing about what was expected of him before the season started.

Matt Holliday tags up and goes from first to second on a fly ball to center. And Holliday promptly scores on a single. If defense is so important to Hendry, how does he explain away runs that Pierre's arm has cost the Cubs?

Len's saying we may see Wade Miller in a few weeks. I don't want to see Wade Miller in a few weeks. He's not a part of the future, and we're 21 games below .500. I'd much rather see Guzman or Mateo or whomever than Wade Miller.

Assuming you're rooting for the Cubs to win. :wink:

Don't worry folks. 4 runs won't be enough to win this game. :roll:

Len with a tacit indictment of Dusty: Todd Helton is a pretty good candidate to hit #2 with a .390 OBP.

How about 8 threads about guys getting thrown out stealing with the heart of the order coming up? Dusty Ball!

Lane has a higher OBP and higher OPS than Wilson. If Houston was serious about the wild card, they would have DFA'd Wilson instead of sending Lane down to AAA. Make no mistake, Lane hasn't been good this year, but he's been better than Preston Wilson.

Nevins strikes out? Unbelievable.

Pitchers are coddled too much these days. :roll:

I believe Seattle scored 9 runs in the 9th inning against Boston earlier this year - May 24, IIRC. We can still win this game, and we can still win the wild card. GO CUBS!

And Eyre gives up a 2-run homer for good measure.

Scott Eyre gives up a 430 foot line drive.

I bet they lead both leagues in sac bunts with RISP and two outs in the ninth. I know we have at least one attempt, courtesy of Neifi.

Rockies announcers are saying it's not Baker's fault. He's not the one on the field making the plays, blah blah blah. I always HATE that argument. If it's up to the players, why are we paying him $4 million. Now they're blaming injuries. Perhaps Wood shouldn't have thrown 1,434,488,199 pitches in 2003? They say if the Cubs don't bring him back, he'll have no trouble finding work. Probably true, as baseball organizations are generally stupid.

Another fun fact: the Cubs are tied with the lead league with 30 sac bunts with runners in scoring position. What?

The Cubs have the second most sac bunts in MLB. The team who leads the league: Colorado. Jim Tracy is plenty stupid, too. I want Dusty gone yesterday, but there are plenty of lifetime baseball people who don't know how to win a ballgame.

Fun fact: the Cubs are 16th in MLB in batting average, but dead last in runs. Thus far, they're outhitting the Rockies, but losing the game. How does such a thing happen, Jim Hendry?

Rockies announcers suggest that the popularity of the Cubs is sliding because of their poor record.