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crap

Soriano flies out on 1 pitch. Lee takes 6 straight to draw the walk.

Also being discussed here.

I really like Cuddyer, but I think I'd rather be on your side of that deal that the other side.

Pat will also tell you what jerseys and hat color (and even the brim of the hats) each team is wearing. That always cracks me up. "Cubs wearing the blue caps with the red brim..."

TT's been saying this for a while and I've been agreeing. I love Wuertz.

Mine is hung up on Arroyo batting. What the hell is up with this? So are Y! and ESPN. crap.

fantastic

Then why did you post it? Yeah, I don't get that Fred. If you understand that the sample size make those stats have almost no predictive value, why did you post them? What was the point, other than to support the Floyd > Murton claim? If Floyd started hot and had a 1.000 OPS or something (or even .900), I could at least understand why Lou thought he deserved all the ABs. I wouldn't agree, necessarily, but I could understand. But Floyd is putting up average numbers and Murton is putting up a solid OBP and bad SLG, I think in large part b/c he feels like he has to be aggressive in order to win ABs. Lou is quickly losing my support.

You guys are crazy. This team is so full of guys with great OBP's that Murton would just be duplicative... [/sarcasm]

PLAYER SALARY (US$) 1. Derrek Lee 13,250,000 2. Carlos Zambrano 12,400,000 3. Alfonso Soriano 10,000,000 4. Aramis Ramirez 9,000,000 5. Ted Lilly 6,000,000 6. Jacque Jones 5,633,333 7. Ryan Dempster 5,333,333 8. Jason Marquis 4,750,000 9. Michael Barrett 4,533,333 10. Bob Howry 4,500,000 11. Cesar Izturis 4,250,000 12. Scott Eyre 4,000,000 13. Cliff Floyd 3,000,000 14. Mark DeRosa 2,750,000 15. Henry Blanco 1,775,000 16. Kerry Wood 1,750,000 17. Wade Miller 1,500,000 18. Daryle Ward 1,000,000 19. Will Ohman 900,000 20. Neal Cotts 825,000 21. Michael Wuertz 415,000 22. Matt Murton 415,000 23. Ronny Cedeno 400,000 24. Rich Hill 400,000 25. Ryan Theriot 390,000 26. Angel Guzman 384,000 27. Juan Mateo 383,000 Total Team Salary: 99,936,999 Actually....... it's approcahing $100m !! Yeah, that was a typo on my part. Point being - we have one of the highest payrolls in the league.

lol Our lineup is definitely small ball, I think we might actually do okay today. Seriously, what's our payroll? Isn't it approaching $200m? The Royals probably have a more threatening lineup today.

Y! doesn't seem to have posted the lineups yet. My guess is they saw ours and thought it was a mistake.

fixed

That's quite a stretch. Am I the only one who sees a pattern here? Tell me why a young pitcher, can't make it out of ST for four straight seasons ready to pitch in a big league game? Every year, he has had 5 months to rest, rehab, strengthen whatever, and he still can't get ready. How do the other guys do it? Please don't tell me he was overused by Dusty, that is the lamest excuse I have ever heard, and was 4 years ago. There are many pitchers, that have pitched 200+ innings year after year, and he has only done it once. This guy is missing something, and it isn't talent, but talent doesn't matter if you can't take the ball. He was overused by Dusty. Really overused. Then your saying one year of 211 innings fried this guy? If that is the case, he was not meant to be a starting pitcher in the bigs. It wasn't that long ago, starting pitchers would pitch every 4th day, compile 300+ innings per year, and complete 20+ games per year. Today, if you throw 200+, and have 4-5 complete games, you are abused. As several others have said, it's not just total innings (though you're leaving out playoffs). It's more about pitches per game - and there were a lot of them for Prior in '03. He was also quite young at the time and this was what, his second full year in the majors? And in terms of changes in the game, it's been a long time since guys threw every 4th day, 300+ IP and 20+ CG. That's just insane. TT addressed that one pretty well, so I won't add more to it.

And if he goes to TB he won't have to face Pujols this year. World Series. Somehow I don't see the Cards making the postseason this year let alone the World Series. :D fixed

That's quite a stretch. Am I the only one who sees a pattern here? Tell me why a young pitcher, can't make it out of ST for four straight seasons ready to pitch in a big league game? Every year, he has had 5 months to rest, rehab, strengthen whatever, and he still can't get ready. How do the other guys do it? Please don't tell me he was overused by Dusty, that is the lamest excuse I have ever heard, and was 4 years ago. There are many pitchers, that have pitched 200+ innings year after year, and he has only done it once. This guy is missing something, and it isn't talent, but talent doesn't matter if you can't take the ball. He was overused by Dusty. Really overused.

Well, really none of the candidates for the #2 spot have produced so far this season very well. The four people who have played in the #2 slot so far have produced OBP's of .321, .313, .303, and .182 so far. Even if you throw DeRosa in there, that's just .333. I fully expect them to pick it up, but they've all been about the same. :?: Murton has a .375 in the #2 spot. Upon closer review, I guess you probably meant his overall OBP. I haven't seen his pitches/PA numbers, but he sure seems more patient in the 2-hole. He probably also gets better pitches to hit b/c they're not going to pitch around a guy who scouts have to know is generally patient with Lee & ARam behind him.

As close as it was, I'm not sure he would really know. And the fact that someone didn't argue a call doesn't persuade me that the call was correct. I can't think of one time when a bad call was made in a close game, let alone a close game in the playoffs, and the victim of the bad call didn't argue it. Even if Giambi thought it was a tie, I'm sure he would've disputed it. If we're talking a matter of less than a second, would he really know if his foot was down before the glove hit his leg? He had to know the ball beat him, so maybe he assumed (as many people do) that the tag beat him too. I don't know - but to say "he didn't argue, so the call must have been right" is just not very persuasive.

I'd take 276/359/473 and 105 OPS+ from a 23 year old third baseman. I didn't even catch the reference to Narron. I was thinking of Juan and thought "might have helped the team." Wonder if biittner was too.

Bruce also has an article about the OBP problem we're having in the 1/2 spots. I like the idea of Murton/Soriano in that order, but I don't see Lou approaching Soriano about it and as long as he thinks we need more lefties in the lineup, Murton's not going to be in there anyway.

As close as it was, I'm not sure he would really know. And the fact that someone didn't argue a call doesn't persuade me that the call was correct. I wish there were a clear picture that showed either the foot on the plate w/o the glove touching it or vice versa.

http://www.onlinesports.com/images/ssm-01500_giamphs016007.jpg Stupid visual evidence. Is his glove touching the leg there? Jeter's fat foot is hiding the truth.

that's what I understand too. Although, I don't know how they'll determine who was a starter and who was on your bench.

Why is it so important that Z be kept on his schedule? It looks like they're going to mess up all the other starter's, but Z must pitch every fifth day? Just seems odd to me.