Tracer Bullet

It's weird - they just lost to the current #3 team and recently beat the #4 team. Where can you rank them that doesn't have some quirk? Can't be in the top 3 and you're not going to drop OU a spot to #5, so you had to know Texas would be below OU in the standings this week. 3 spots might be too many, but I don't see how you can rank them higher than 6th right now. ETA - if you're the AP, I guess you just drop OU 2 spots. Wow.

You deserve whatever crap you get on this board b/c you bring it upon yourself w/ posts like this.

Cubs don't have enough in their farm system to get this trade done. Face it folks that management has made some bad decisions in deals that they have signed. Nobody is going to be willing to take on Soriano's contract let alone all the stipulations that go with him, ex has to bat leadoff. Now you have Fukudome and its not a good thing when you get in Lou's doghouse but again folks management had to have this guy and now your stuck with him. There are deals that the Cubs could make but it would pretty much over haul their current roster. What a ridiculous thing to say. Yea its becoming quite apparent that Athletics36 holds a grudge against Cubs management for trading away his son. Id love to see his proof of all these "stipulations" regarding Sorianos contract. Im about 99.99 percent positive they are all media fabrications and are nowhere near the truth. As for the Fukudome comment, not only did Cubs management have to have him, but alot of other teams wanted him badly as well. Its not the Cubs management fault that he struggled in the 2nd half. I don't know about the extra stuff in Soriano's contract, but no one's going to take him at this point anyway. And Fukudome may make adjustments and be the hitter we'd hoped for, but he's definitely in Lou's doghouse, which isn't an easy place to escape. You may not disagree with his statements, but I don't think Athletics36 is too far off in his assessment. Unles Fukudome moves to CF, it looks like our corner OF spots are locked up for several years.

come on come onnnnnnnnnnnnnnn I think at this point he's just giving the people what they want. I would have been disappointed if that post hadn't been on the first page of this thread.

Yeah, it would be very reasonable to refuse to offer that much. I'd think about a 2 year with a vesting option based on appearances in 2010 though. Maybe. With our payroll, I'd go 3 years depending on the dollars.

Once the precedent is set, there is no stopping other teams and players from making similar arrangements. The player's union will not stand for this. Opt out clauses can be found in newer contracts that protect a team or player from uncomfortable situations. Contracts are meant to be honored, and the player's union will fight for the player anytime the contract is not honored, whether it's mutual or not. Didn't they step in on the ARod situation when he was almost traded to Boston? He was allowing them to rip up the contract or something and the union wouldn't allow it. I thought I heard that as well, but can't remember any of the details. I'm pretty sure that's how he ended up in NY rather than Boston. ETA: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C00E7DE173FF93BA25751C1A9659C8B63

Park factors are among the most overrated "stats" among statheads. Non-statheads don't even think about them. The use of statistical formulas in this regard is to normalize the data so that someone can make a judgment between two or more players that play in different environments. However, the SD for park factors is so small that most of the time the data have very little meaning. Outside of places like old Coors (before the humidor) and Petco/Comerica most places play relatively similar. The question that's important is, does player A perform better in park 1 than he would in park 2? A guy like Slappy was able to take advantage of Coors and Pro-Player because they had huge outfields. He really is/was a better player when he played in Coors b/c the park suited his abilities. A guy who drives the ball in the gaps isn't going to be as good in Pro-Player as he would in a more symmetrical park. A guy like Hamilton who mashes the snot out of the ball will still mash the snot out of the ball anywhere he plays. So that means he's very likely to play well in a hitter friendly environment and play well in a pitcher friendly environment. All and all I would just look at OPS+ to try to determine offensive output when comparing players. Thanks, but I get all that. My question is how (or why) does a place like Rangers Ballpark go from 5th to 19th to 1st in park factor in a 3-year span. If you don't change the structure (or something like a humidor) how can the same park be hitter friendly, pitcher friendly, than the most hitter friendly place in 3 consecutive years.

HOW IS THIS NOT GETTING MORE NOTICE This. There should be some punishment for starting multiple threads a few months apart about the same dumb thing in an attempt to get people to share your irrational hatred. Guy made a video with a supermodel. Who wouldn't? I'm thinking public stoning, but can be swayed.

I wouldn't give up on Fukudome just yet. I am a bit worried though becuase Fuk is clearly in Lou's doghouse, and I can't remember a player who has made his way out of there yet. Fontenot? Maybe that was just SS Fontenot that was in Lou's doghouse though. But we have never seen anyone get as entrenched in Lous doghouse as Kosuke. Murton waves...from the As minor league system.

sort of off of your point here but edward norton got to bang salma hayek AND kick the crap out of jared leto real american hero imo Swing and a miss. are you saying they never had sex when they were married because that would take a lot of restraint they dated, but they were never married were they? who knows all i know is i would've hit that like ray lewis THE POINT IS HE HAD SEX WITH HER AND RYAN IS WRONG AGAIN She's saving herself for marriage jerk. i knew she was pure as snow snow that's been urinated on regularly She's into watersports?

I'll admit I'm an idiot about some things, but how does a park that hasn't structurally changed vary so much from year to year? Rangers park has gone for top 5 for hitters in '06, to barely favoring pitchers in '07, to the best hitter's park in the game in '08.

Mine hit sometime last night. I checked yesterday afternoon and it wasn't there, but it's there now and dated yesterday. All but $6.

you're going to cause a riot.

:-k What's a musical group of the 80s doing in a movie thread? it wasn't an 80's group Completely agree, but this reminds me that vH1 had I Can't Go For That in the top 10 of their greatest songs of the 80s. I know that vH1 is stupid, but still. That's simply unbelievable.

I'm your huckleberry. [i know that wasn't Russell's line, but that's a great movie]

quotes from some of his contemporaries: I also like this stat: Top Win Shares of the 1960's: Hank Aaron - 340 Willie Mays - 337 Frank Robinson - 307 Roberto Clemente - 260 Harmon Killebrew - 257 Ron Santo - 247 Mickey Mantle - 247 Willie McCovey - 237 Brooks Robinson - 233 Carl Yastrzemski - 230 Other than the fact that WS is a better evaluation tool than simply hits how is this different from the "Mark Grace had the most hits in the 90s" crap that suggested that Grace was a great player? There are a lot of great reasons why Santo should be in the Hall. I don't think we need to rely on total WS during random 10-year periods.

where are you getting this delusional idea that everyone here loooooooves josh hamilton? this is the part I don't understand. If this were an Adam Dunn discussion, I could understand this argument (though the rumors of the board's love for Dunn are greatly exaggerated, as they are for most players). But I don't recall seeing thread after thread after thread created to praise Hamilton or having his name brought up in dozens of threads that weren't about him. Other than the HR derby and some random posts about how "the Cubs should have never traded him away," I don't see his name come up any more than any other non-Cub.

Doesn't Colin post here sometimes? I'd like to hear his thoughts behind some of those projections. The Lilly ERA really surprises me, given his performance the last 2 years. And I find it odd that Harden's ERA would jump 2 full runs from this year's performance with the Cubs.

except by Truffle 2 posts above yours... :wink:

If you want a real debate about Santo's HOF candidacy, you probably need to look somewhere other than a Cubs board, especially one with as many knowledgeable fans as this one. This is an odd request.

Yeah, it's pretty poorly worded.

can swisher play CF? I know he has in the past.

I'd definitely do a school board type position, but not much beyond that.

Does he really want to play for NY? Maybe he thinks it'll take more than just him to make the Yankees a contender, in which case he might go to any of several other teams throwing lots of money at him (LAA, Balt, Cubs - hopefully).

Orioles desperately want Tex, they'll go after him first. I'm no good at the transactions department. My brain doesn't work that way very good. I never submit trade ideas. You are right about Tex I'd think. However, in theory, that trade idea wouldn't be a bad one, right? it might be something they might be willing to do, but only if they strike out on teixiera. and if they whiff on him, that means that either we haven't signed him - in which case we won't be dealing lee - or that we have signed him, in which case lee suddenly has no trade value. I wouldn't go that far, unless Lee has said he's only willing to go to 1 or 2 teams. If he's open to being traded to a number of teams that need a first baseman and have something the Cubs want/need, he retains a lot of his value. Just b/c he's not as valuable to the Cubs after we sign Tex doesn't mean Baltimore isn't going to want to outbid LAA or whomever.