Tracer Bullet

We're a few months into a contract that lasts a few years. I'm not eating anything until we're a little further down this path. Absolutely. But I'd be more than happy to start looking for recipes. Right, I don't disagree with the thread at all. Marquis has been an incredibly pleasant surprise thus far. I'd be happy to eat a year's worth of crow if Marquis is this good for the next several years. But we're talking like 6 starts, so I'm not even looking for recipes at this point. It's not like we all didn't suspect Neifi would come back down to earth after he carried us for a month in 2005 (was it 2005? I can't remember anything anymore, I'm getting old).

We're a few months into a contract that lasts a few years. I'm not eating anything until we're a little further down this path.

This is the line up I want to see, everyday! ditto

When do we next face a left-handed starter?

This sucks. I had him in all of my leagues when he was supposed to come up last week. Now he's gone in a few of them already.

I'm not going to read all 19 pages, again. But I'm not sure a less true statement has been made in this thread. And that's saying something. I would have said the same thing if Murton had gone 4-5. The point is, this team is having trouble scoring runs and right now, Floyd is producing more. Here's something we can all agree on - it's probably only a matter of time till Floyd gets hurt anyway... That's not my point. I'd prefer Murton starting over Floyd (or Jones) but it has nothing to do with his last few games or ABs. Determining that a player has "earned another start" b/c he went 4/5 is just a terrible way to run a team. If your starter needs a day off and your back-up comes in and goes 4/5, you say "thanks man - great game." And you put him back on the bench until he's needed to PH or the starter needs another day off.

I'm not going to read all 19 pages, again. But I'm not sure a less true statement has been made in this thread. And that's saying something.

I had Duncan for part of last year and it was a pretty strict platoon. But at least you know when he's going to play and not.

Damage? But everyone told me he was just soft and I believed them. [/sarcasm]

Soriano is still this team's leadoff hitter (when he plays). He's getting the day off because of the wet outfield. Lou said that when Soriano returns to the lineup, Theriot will bat second. Also, reportedly, Murton isn't playing because he has a stiff back. First I've heard of Murton's stiff back. Who's reporting it (I'm not questioning you, I just want to know more about it)?

[jumps off Lou bandwagon]

I'm guessing the reason now is that Pie is up for his defensive prowess in CF, so that only leaves 1 spot for JJ, Floyd, and Murton (in that order, I think).

I think you're over-estimating Murton's trade value. There simply aren't all that many teams that can afford his lack of power at a corner OF spot, and especially if he is going to play LF. I'm not sure of too many teams who would give up a decent return for him at all. Now, the sad thing is that Murton definitely does have quite a bit of value to a team, and the way the Cubs are constructed with power at scarce spots they don't really need a huge power bat in LF. So Murton with his high OBP would have quite a bit of value to a team like the Cubs (and any team built like them) but apparently not right now with this team. Cosign. Corner outfielders that post .800 OPSes aren't exactly in short supply. Really? Right now, there are 22 ML corner OF's with an OBP higher than Murton's career OBP. And there are currently 24 ML corner OFs with an OPS of .800 or higher. Last year 14 corner OFs had an OBP higher than Murton's and 21 corner OFs had an OPS higher than Murton's. Since there are 60 corner OFs in MLB, that leaves a lot of guys who would be worse than Murton's career numbers (and he's just entering his prime, so it wouldn't surprise anyone if those numbers got better). Come to think of it, the Cubs could use an OF with a .370 OBP and .800 OPS. Currently, we don't have any of those.

It's amazing to me how much the Cubs profess to "love" the guy...but still refuse to play him...sometime soon I expect Hendry/Lou to come out and say that "well, we like Matt, but just not in that way, we think of him as a friend" Lou has said a lot of the right things, but his actions haven't always matched up with his words.

Wait, we're going to support Jones with his .361 (now .351) OBP in 70 ABs, even though his career OBP is .328, but his atrocious SLG in those same 70 ABs gets a pass (it's not like his career .458 OBP is enough to make up for his sub-.330 career OBP). Oh, and Murton hasn't shown you anything yet? His .367 career OBP in roughly 630 ABs isn't cutting it for you (and we're quick to write off JJ's atrocious SLG to a slow start, but Murton's poor start means he hasn't done anything?)? On a team with a massive OBP problem, that .370 is just not going to get it done for you? If some team is willing to pay anywhere near the value of JJ's .833 OPS from last year, we're crazy if we don't jump all over it and stick Murton in front of DLee (whether it be in LF or RF).

It's not a cop out when the reliever really does it well. If used to get 1/2 LH out, Ohman would be a very effective pitcher. There's a place for that, esp b/c so many teams have LH starters (or PH) that just cannot hit LHP (Floyd and JJ come to mind). A true LOOGY can be very useful and it appears that Ohman is a LOOGY. Trading him b/c our manager refuses to use him in situations in which he would succeed doesn't make sense to me. If you're going to deal a RP, make it Eyre. He sucks but he's LHP. Trade him and JJ to Detroit. They think they need a LH bat and RP and we have that. I don't much care what we get back (as long as it's not neifi).

We're now a roto team?

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070422/SPORTS02/704220632/1050 More speculation from Detroit. Just to get this straight - the Detroit paper knows how to use our players better than our manager does? Ok. Great.

Who gives a crap what side of the plate a guy hits? I don't care if the Cubs have all lefties or all righties as long as they hit. What side of the plate a guy swings from is right up there with one of the most silly ideas in baseball. Lou Piniella cares. He plays the lefty/righty odds straight by the book. I don't see why it's silly - better odds is better odds. I suppose you want Jacque Jones hitting against lefties? You are missing the point. Getting worked up about what side of the plate someone hits from is less important (the point it's not important) than than whether they can hit. I don't want the Cubs getting a starting position player simply becuase he hits X handed. I don't want the Cubs to worry about trading a player simply because he hits X handed. I want the Cubs to start the best 8 position players they can regardless of what side of the plate they hit from. If the Cubs had a lineup of Damon CF Utley 2nd Bonds LF Caberra 3rd Abreu RF Dunn 1st McCann C Jeter SS I wouldn't complain that they had too many left handed hitters. I fully agree. JJ can hit righties well, which is great, but the Cubs problem, oddly enough has not been hitting RHP. Even though our lineup is full of RH hitters, we can't hit LHP worth crap. So hanging on to a guy (actually 2, if you include Floyd) who hits RHP well but is terrible at hitting LHP (so much so that we have to space these 2 out in the lineup so that 1 LOOGY can't pitch to both of them) just makes no sense. If you we had a right-handed dominant lineup that struggled to hit RHP, I could understand JJ's value. On this team, his ability to hit RHP coupled with no ability to hit LHP and field poorly is pretty useless.

I'd drop Weathers and Greinke for both Reyes and Frasor. Even when Frasor loses the closer job, his other stats have been great. I like Greinke but he plays for the Royals (so few wins) and in the ALC (so lots of bad matchups - like tomorrow against the Twins).

Why is Murton pissing you off? Is it because he's been thrust only into end game situations as a young player against pitchers he's never faced in his only AB of the game? Is it because Lou is putting him in that spot? Is it because the Cubs system hates OBP and tries to remove that quality from his plate approach? Which one is it? Even when he has played and started this year he hasn't looked good. He doesn't do anyhting good besides being patient, and he hasnt even done that this year. I find it incredibly odd that a player that's been historically very patient, even in 500+ ML ABs under Dusty, is suddenly swinging at so many first pitches. I don't know what's going on, but I can't believe that he suddenly abandoned his patient approach. I have no idea why he's doing it but it seems like he's swinging at the same type of pitch and popping it up each time. Perhaps, other teams have found his weakness. Could be. Maybe other teams have found a hole and he needs to make the adjustment. Hard to say.

0-1 is much better. He is on the All Star track this year, no doubt. yeah, that's what i said. on that note, i'll leave the game thread to you whiny babies. I don't understand why noone ever calls you out on your constant name calling. What other point were you making with your statement? 0-1 or 0-4 it is all horrible. I can't defend his name-calling here. But seems like a lot of people jumping all over Murton for going 0-1 here. I'd guess abuck's point is that a lot of starters sucked today, so why is Murton taking all the blame? B/c he popped out in a pinch-hit AB at the end of the game? Sounds a lot like the ARod-bashing Yankee fans from last year that a lot of people made fun of around here. Murton isn't the reason the Cubs lost today, he's a very small fraction of the reason we lost.

Why is Murton pissing you off? Is it because he's been thrust only into end game situations as a young player against pitchers he's never faced in his only AB of the game? Is it because Lou is putting him in that spot? Is it because the Cubs system hates OBP and tries to remove that quality from his plate approach? Which one is it? Even when he has played and started this year he hasn't looked good. He doesn't do anyhting good besides being patient, and he hasnt even done that this year. I find it incredibly odd that a player that's been historically very patient, even in 500+ ML ABs under Dusty, is suddenly swinging at so many first pitches. I don't know what's going on, but I can't believe that he suddenly abandoned his patient approach. I would say its that fact that he doesn't get to play and he's trying to be aggressive and show what he can do. I think that's probably a lot of it. Hard to say. Really frustrating though.

Why is Murton pissing you off? Is it because he's been thrust only into end game situations as a young player against pitchers he's never faced in his only AB of the game? Is it because Lou is putting him in that spot? Is it because the Cubs system hates OBP and tries to remove that quality from his plate approach? Which one is it? Even when he has played and started this year he hasn't looked good. He doesn't do anyhting good besides being patient, and he hasnt even done that this year. I find it incredibly odd that a player that's been historically very patient, even in 500+ ML ABs under Dusty, is suddenly swinging at so many first pitches. I don't know what's going on, but I can't believe that he suddenly abandoned his patient approach.

Hmmm, I can't see the game but surely on a walk it's a dead ball situation. no it's not. Why not? You can advance after a wild pitch on ball 4. You can keep running to 2nd base after a walk. You can steal a base as a walk occurs. It just isnt a dead ball. Rule 7.04(b) Comment: A runner forced to advance without liability to be put out may advance past the base to which he is entitled only at his peril.