Tracer Bullet

What I gathered from his chat is that he thinks that this is reflective of the current market for relief pitching. If so, we really should be selling some of our relievers.

Small point: you're taking a player who is not among the league leaders in OBP (Vizquel) and comparing him to a player who is second in the NL in home runs and fourth in SLG (Howard). How would your eight Ryan Howards do against eight Nick Johnsons? (Or eight Scott Hattebergs, or Freddy Sanchezes, or Brad Hawpes. Man, baseball will be cool when it's played by clones. Less cool when the Cubs spend $80 million on eight Phil Nevins, though). Howard's RC/27 is 7.22. Sanchez, who has 25 fewer home runs, is at 7.58. You're right about that point. I was intentionally trying to do that to show how slugging can be just as important as OBP, which at the time I thought that the person was dismissing slugging as only a nice bonus if the person had a high OBP already. Freddy Sanchez vs. Ryan Howard is actually a very good battle. Like the numbers say, I would probably take Sanchez first (production of this year mind you, if I was projecting forward I would take Howard), because he has a high OBP and still hits lots of doubles. I think 8 Ryan Howard's would beat 8 Scott Hatteberg's. 8 Freddy Sanchez's and 8 Nick Johnson's would be a very close match-I would guess because of speed factors that Sanchez would beat Howard, and Howard would beat Johnson. Finally, which stadium are we playing in against Hawpe? (no answer needed, just a joke, but I think that really would be the determining factor in that particular matchup). If you're really trying to show that SLG is equally as important as OBP, how about you take a team of Bill Hall's (.310/.536 - on pace for 25-30 homers) and I'll take a team of Ichiro's (.398/.444) They have nearly identical OPS's (.836 for Hall; .832 for Ichiro). RC/27: Hall 5.55; Ichiro 7.76. Just making the point that OBP > SLG. Ideally you'd get both with every player. But as between the two, OBP is more important. Just look at Giambi and Dye. I won't post the numbers, but Dye is 1 point higher in OPS. Dye 20 points more in SLG; Giambi about 20 points more in OBP. Nearly equal in doubles and homers, Dye has more hits and much higher AVG, Giambi more walks. Giambi's RC/27 is .5 greater.

Oddly enough, Hawpe's numbers on the road are much better than his home numbers this season. Just to emphasize, Brad Hawpe 2006 splits: Home: .277/.357/.455/.802 Away: .337/.424/.639/1.063

First two look good in hindsight. Early in the year, I made the mistake of mentioning something about Dye in passing to a buddy in my league and he picked him up the next day. I'm not sure about the last deal. I understand Gomes is having some major shoulder issues...in both shoulders (#s dropped after April and only 4 HR in last 40 games or so). And CPatt's numbers (including SBs) have been in steady decline since early June. Just 2 SBs in his last 20 games and 5 in his last 35. Include the steadily declining AVG, OBP, and SLG and he may not be too useful if he doesn't get on another hot streak.

I flat disagree with this. We need guys with good OBP. We have Lee, Ramirez - who have a lot of power. For the foreseeable future, we have guys like JJ and Barrett, who can contribute 20-25 HR, and 15-20 HR respectively. Add that to the 30-40 HRs a healthy Lee & ARam will have - and we have good power in the middle. Could we use another power guy? Sure, who couldn't use more power. But, what we need is OBP and lots of it. We don't need a 25 HR guy who gets on base at a .310 clip. Now, as others have said elsewhere, Hendry has no idea of the importance of OBP. As between a toolsy guy w/ no OBP and no power and a toolsy guy with no OBP and a high SLG, I'll take the latter. Thus, I hope we get a guy like Soriano, b/c Hendry just doesn't think a guy like Dunn is that valuable.

I can only assume that this is a poor attempt at humor.

Nomar - he was one of my favorite non-Cubs and I hated to see him tear himself in half during his "prove it" season. I'm glad he's doing well, but I wish he were still here.

Regardless of his bat, my dad has suddenly decided to hate Barrett all because of the Pierzynski punch. That punch made me love him ten times as much as I already did.

Tool got DESTROYED by RHCP. Don't see how they'd put up much of a fight against LZ.

Ok, I'll give you a team of 8 Omar Visquel's production of this year (.374 OBP) and I'll take 8 Ryan Howards (.344 OBP). My team will score many more runs then your team will over a season. While my team gets on base at a .3 less clip, it will usually take only 1 or 2 hits to drive runners home, while it takes your hitters normally at least 3 hits in order to get your runners home. Since you have a less than 1 in 2 chance of getting on base with each runner, the most likely result of each inning will be for you to get 1 or 2 hits and no runs. We will be more likely to get 1 hit then 2, but my team will hit many solo home runs and 2 run homers and outscore your team. Now, would I want either of these teams? No-because there should be a balance of high OBP hitters and great power hitters, no matter how you can get them. Mathematically, does slugging matter as much as OBP? Yes-that's why OPS is the true measure of run production, because it combines OBP and slugging equally. If you look at the correlation between runs scored and OBP or slugging, slugging matches up just as well with runs as OBP does. So why is it assumed that OBP is the more important of the two stats, instead of giving each their equal place? Well, I don't agree with your claim that OPS treats OBP and SLG equally b/c they are equal. Neyer has written several times that it's a matter of convenience b/c they are two stats that tell you a great deal about a hitter. He (and others - Tango Tiger maybe? Someone around here) also says that OPS undervalues OBP relative to SLG - OBP is more important. But even setting that aside to examine the rest of your post... I'd like you to look at my first post and tell me where it says I'd rather have 8 Vizquel's rather than 8 Howards. I bolded for you the same section I just bolded for BBB. If we can get a power hitter who gets on base regularly-I'm all for it (I'd take 8 Dunns over 8 Howards, but Howard's .350-ish OBP qualifies as "regular" to me). I never said to go look for the 8 position players with the highest OBP and put them out there. I just said don't say "this guy hits 30 homers a year - sign him up" when that guy also puts up OBP around .310 (Soriano last year - though his OBP has improved greatly this year). Obviously we need power hitters too. But I don't think we need a balance of power and OBP guys. I'd prefer 8 guys with solid to great OBP, 3-4 of which have decent to great power. ARam and Lee both put up great power numbers last year (but also OBP over .350 - well over for Lee). If we had 5-6 other guys with good OBP (say .340 or higher), esp 2 to go at the top of the order w/ real good OBP, and had 1-2 guys with solid SLG (not just HR power) - we'd have a team capable of scoring some runs. If we keep JP for another year, lose Walker and replace him w/ a Neifi-ish .300 OBP, keep Jones and his .320-ish OBP in the heart of the order, and Cedeno never comes around - we'll have 4 pretty bad OBP in our lineup. Not good for scoring runs.

A lot of those power guys provide good OBP, though. A power guy with a good OBP is better than a non power guy with a good OBP. See bolded part - I didn't say we should try to get good OBP/bad power guys. But if we just get a bunch of "HR hitters" and ignore the fact that they have an OBP of .310, well that's bad. Esp when you consider that this isn't a team full of high OBP guys anway.

The Cubs need guys with high OBP. They don't need more "power hitters" who can't get on base regularly. Sure, if they could bring in a guy like Dunn, who gets on base at a great clip AND hits for power - fine. But don't go looking for power and say "if we get a couple high OBP guys, that's just icing." The reason the Cubs suck is b/c they don't score runs. They don't score runs b/c they don't get enough guys on base.

I'm cheering for him to do well, but only b/c I want him traded. I don't think he's as good as he's been this year and I don't think he'll be this good for the next 2 years. So I'm hoping someone makes Hendry a deal he can't refuse.

Esp based on 1 game. I like to evaluate all my players on 0/5 nights. That's when I really know how good they are.

:shock: :shock: :shock: I'm such a huge fan of this stuff, I just can't imagine someone HATING the Stones, Zeppelin, or the Beatles. I can understand it not being your thing, but to actually hate such a great band with such wide-ranging influence...don't get it.

The biggest msitake was keeping the LH Walker instead of the RH Grudz. Sorry, but most of baseball agrees that Walker sucks. Maybe in your mind we can get Jason Schin=mdt for him, but I don't think so. Maybe a medium AA prospect but I even doubt that. Please link to a survey or study or list each of the baseball executives you've spoken with. Otherwise, quit making up evidence to support your opinion. Walker, for the last 2 years, has been a great player for the Cubs. His OBP is great for the 2nd spot. He's struggling after an amazing April, but I'm still glad they have him. I'd bring him back next year as well for a similar contract. You'd prefer if we dumped his .360 OBP and let Neifi hit 2nd again?

Why anyone wouldn't cheer for Barrett in the middle of a career year, I don't understand. And I cheer for all the young guys b/c I want them to get a lot of playing time and develop. Frankly, the only guys I'm not cheering are Neifi, 43, and JJ - b/c I never wanted any of them and I wish they weren't on the team. I hope they do well while they're here, only to increase their trade value (43 & JJ) or try to justify a contract they can never live up to (Neifi).

Brown Sugar, Angie, Wild Horses, Angie, Happy, Beast of Burden, She's So Cold, Can't You Hear Me Knocking, You Can't Always Get What You Want, etc. Those are all post-1960s. I know it's not as much as they might have had during that decade, but that's a hefty amount of good rock hits. Basically, all of Sticky Fingers and all of Exile on Main St make post-60s Stones still really good. There's a lot of crap mixed in, but the hits are still hits.

My vote should not have broken a 3-3 tie. Where are all the Led Heads (is that even a phrase)?

Not even a fiery bus crash could kill Keith Richards at this point.

Michael Barrett and his .909 OPS would like to meet you (and everyone who agreed with you) at home plate for a "discussion." [That's supposed to be a joke] Lee has struck out 22 times since returning to the lineup 16 games ago. Lee will be a good reason not to give up on baseball when he's back to his '05 form.

Double and a triple. That's enough power for me from Theriot.

Finished behind Yadier Molina in the voting. Yadier is at .244/.292/.343/.635 What's funny about that is I had an argument with a Cards fan before the season began. I said Molina would bat near 350; he all but called me stupid and said it would be close to 300 if not better and there was no way it would be lower than 275. I'm feeling confident that my prediction will be closer to the truth. I assume you meant that you said he'd bat near 250.

If you bring up Bartman in your speech w/o laying the vast majority of the blame on Gonzalez, I will be very, very upset.

I very may well have misread those charts, but doesn't that article also say that Griffey is the worst CF, A.Jones is below average, and Pierre is the 4th best? That's what it says. I can believe Griff Jr is the worst NL CF right now (if he runs too fast at this point, his legs will actually fall off of his body). I'm a little surprised to see Cliff Floyd ranked #2 for LF's though. I always thought of Cliff as being less than great in LF.