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They also may be protected by the Shield Law. I'll be interested to see what the 9th Circuit has to say.

link I hope we go get Fredi Gonzalez before Florida does. But something tells me JH will welcome Girardi with open arms.

Actually, I'm fairly convinced one of my giant tomes sitting on the bookshelf came to the opposite conclusion... though it was quite a close outcome. I suppose tomorrow I'll get to digging through the books and trying to figure out how they came to that conclusion. I don't want to hijack this thread and I don't know what book you have, but I think it's wrong. And I'm pretty sure Tango Tiger and Bill James agree with me. The folks at FJM have this in their definition of OPS: I'm not going to take the time to search for more support at this point, like I said, I don't want to hijack the thread, but I just wanted to point that out.

"What's a computer?"

On the Cubs.com site, it has JP current obp as .330 for the season. Ichiro's obp is .360. I'm not advocating JP over Ichiro, just pointing out that even tho Ichiro's obp is .30% points higher, that is not a significant difference. Disagree

I'm glad I don't know many Michigan fans. I shudder at what they'd say after the Irish smack them around on Saturday. I live and work in Grand Rapids. Be glad you don't know many UM fans.

So you don't like debating it, however will say with ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY BY FAR, about ND's SOS. Consistent arguments plz. In the other thread, he was responding to another post about schedule strength. I don't believe he brought it up. Not wanting to debate but defending your team isn't inconsistent.

I'm confused about why ND is even a choice in this poll. Most ND fans know that a lot of people hate ND. But, as ndistops said, most don't care - they just want to win.

Club had a $7m option for next year according to Cot's. DFA'ing him didn't save them any money, they still have to pay the remainder of this year's contract.

I agree that he was bad for most of the year. But it's not likely that Leyland woke up in the 8th and said "wow, DY sucks...Hooper - you're in." Just a bit odd to me.

Despite what they're saying, I don't think it was solely performance related. The guy was hitting 3rd in the lineup yesterday and got yanked in the 8th with the tying runs on base for a PH. That's a little odd to me. He was 0-3 with 2 Ks. The only odd part was batting him 3rd. I agree that it was odd to bat him third. But do you really make decisions based on 3 ABs? If he was good enough to bat 3rd at the start of the game, those 3 ABs convinced Leyland he should be PH for with a rookie with the game on the line? That's odd. If DLee was in the same situation and was 0/3 on the day, do we PH w/ Coats? Even Dusty wouldn't do that. Something else was going on. My guess is DD caught wind of something during the game and told Leyland to yank him in his next AB and then cut him after the game.

Despite what they're saying, I don't think it was solely performance related. The guy was hitting 3rd in the lineup yesterday and got yanked in the 8th with the tying runs on base for a PH. That's a little odd to me.

One the other jv football coaches and the jv baseball coach was Paul Maneri. Paul Maneri is the current head baseball coach at Notre Dame. I knew that Maineri was a close friend of Hendry's (probably part of the reason Johnson and Shark are in our system now) but I didn't know where that came from, thanks for mentioning. Maineri left ND this summer for the job at his alma mater, LSU. Is Shark a nickname for Samardzija? Samardzija's agent, Mark Rodgers, was another of our jv football coaches. yes

That's assuming we actually got replacement level production in his place. And since the primary beneficiary of the injury was Neifi, with Walker moving over to first base... it's quite possible we didn't get replacement level production from either position. While I haven't looked at the numbers yet, I'd be quite surprised if the tandem proved to be above replacement level as a whole. Two things: 1. If I'm not mistaken, those numbers are for the year. If Lee finishes the season, he will have played roughly 2 months total. So if over the year he's worth 7 games over a replacement, we lost about 4-5 games w/ a standard replacement for the 4 months he was out. 2. You have to give credit/blame where it's due. Yes, the loss of DLee = more Neifi and Mabry. But we could have used Walker and Theriot at 1b/2b or acted earlier to get a replacement level 1B. Even after we acquired Nevin, Dusty was still playing Mabry regularly at 1B. So whatever we lost above the 4-5 games calculated in 1, I credit to Dusty.

Dusty also invented the question mark.

I'm not arguing with the accuracy of his stats. But without additional comments, it's difficult to understand the point he was trying to make (i.e., whether he supported the switch or not). Maybe he was offering no interpretation at all, just data. Also a possibility. My only response would be (as I pointed out above), are we really making decisions based on 9 ABs? Dusty has said he makes them based on less. He's talked about what, "3 for 6" vs "1 for 5" against a specific pitcher not that long ago I don't doubt that Dusty thinks 4/9 justifies this move. I just think it's stupid.

I'm not arguing with the accuracy of his stats. But without additional comments, it's difficult to understand the point he was trying to make (i.e., whether he supported the switch or not). Maybe he was offering no interpretation at all, just data. Also a possibility. My only response would be (as I pointed out above), are we really making decisions based on 9 ABs?

The real question is - how many have been hit by backup catchers against the Cubs? Gary Bennett - the 2006 winner of the Fernando Vina award. Why is it that the Cardinals worst players always kill us in big spots?

08/21 - 08/27 AB R H 2B 3B HR TB RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS Blanco 9 1 4 2 0 0 6 1 0 1 0.444 0.444 0.667 1.111 Barrett 18 2 1 0 0 1 4 3 1 2 0.056 0.105 0.222 0.327 I can only assume, since you didn't type any text, that you think these stats support Baker's decision. I don't care if Barrett is in a terrible slump (though he's also recovering from injury, may not be fully healthy, and some of the days covered by your stats, he clearly wasn't 100%). The fact that Blanco is 4/9 in his last 2 games doesn't justify putting him in a tie game w/ the division leader (and your rival) over the guy who has been your best and most consistent hitter all season. Seriously, we're making decisions based on 9 ABs? I think the more important numbers were Barrett there. He is just coming back from his injury, and he is 2 for 18 since-and didn't look that good on his swings Sunday night. So even if Blanco remains at his career numbers, he might be just as good as Barrett right now (obviously Barrett when he gets his hitting stroke back is 100 times better). Also, Dusty was looking at a tie game and already using his 3rd reliever in the 7th inning. He didn't want to have to use his 4th reliever in the 8th already in case the game went into extras (especially since we knew the limit for Howry was 1 inning and Ohman can't go all that long either-so the only people who could give you innings down there was Dempster and Rusch). He had to try to stretch Novoa out to a couple innings at the time, and so he had to double switch-and Barrett not hitting well was the most obvious choice at the time. Given Dusty's inability to use the double-switch properly this season, I just can't assume that this was his thinking.

I'm not arguing with the accuracy of his stats. But without additional comments, it's difficult to understand the point he was trying to make (i.e., whether he supported the switch or not).

08/21 - 08/27 AB R H 2B 3B HR TB RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS Blanco 9 1 4 2 0 0 6 1 0 1 0.444 0.444 0.667 1.111 Barrett 18 2 1 0 0 1 4 3 1 2 0.056 0.105 0.222 0.327 I can only assume, since you didn't type any text, that you think these stats support Baker's decision. I don't care if Barrett is in a terrible slump (though he's also recovering from injury, may not be fully healthy, and some of the days covered by your stats, he clearly wasn't 100%). The fact that Blanco is 4/9 in his last 2 games doesn't justify putting him in a tie game w/ the division leader (and your rival) over the guy who has been your best and most consistent hitter all season. Seriously, we're making decisions based on 9 ABs?

I'd take either/or - but I'm easy to please.

the cubs need offense imo. they have plenty of good young pitching already. Exactly why they should trade Pierre. Since this year is shot, how about Rowand and a significant prospect? If trading away Pierre eliminates (or even reduces) the chances of Hendry wasting significant money on him for the next few years, I don't care what we get back.

the cubs need offense imo. they have plenty of good young pitching already. Exactly why they should trade Pierre.

over