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Tracer Bullet

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  1. Murton's fate is very tied to anyone with a pulse on the roster who could conceivably play LF. Might not be fair, but that's the deal right now. Murton's problem is baseball philosophy. Not his, but those who currently run baseball teams. He is (or was) a patient line drive hitter capeable of a great BA and OBP but not a lot of SLG. But he plays a corner outfiled position where he's supposed to be a power hitter. He doesn't fit Dusty/Hendry's mold. Imagine if Mark Grace came up today. That's Murton. I agree w/ most of that - but he seems to be quite a bit faster than Grace. I think Matt would make a great #2 hitter - good average & OBP, decent speed, but not a ton of power.
  2. He will not opt out he can't a better contract than he has now. If he gets traded to the Cubs he'd opt out. He's already made $200m and he still doesn't have a ring. He'd opt out & take less to play for a contender.
  3. Actually the Cubs having no All Stars would be appropriate, but the rules are the rules, they had to pick someone out of this mess. That's BS. Barrett certainly deserves to be there.
  4. OBP, schmo-BP These guys are FAST! Have you see 43 run out his signature grounder to 2nd?
  5. And them: S. Podsednik lf T. Iguchi 2b P. Konerko 1b J. Dye rf A.J. Pierzynski c A. Cintron 3b R. Mackowiak cf J. Uribe ss M. Buehrle p
  6. Lineup: J. Pierre cf R. Cedeno ss D. Lee 1b A. Ramirez 3b M. Barrett c A. Pagan rf M. Murton lf N. Perez 2b C. Zambrano p
  7. I'm pretty sure that Paul Depodesta is available. good. i think depo deserves another chance. his replacement in LA is going to get all the credit for his team too. seconded
  8. I think their run of getting great performances from fill-ins, youngins' and utility guys has ended; Smoltz is hurt and aging; their bullpen is horrible. I agree - other than putting any blame on Smoltz. He's got a 1.20 WHIP, .255 BAA, 3/1 K/BB. The ERA is bad, but I'm not concerned about that. He's still getting it done this year. Am I missing something? Well - I have to admit, I was using Y!'s profile page. In my haste I looked at his career ERA v. Baltimore (4.37), not his ERA (3.73). So that's my bad. Guess that only further supports my point - Smoltz isn't the Braves problem.
  9. I think their run of getting great performances from fill-ins, youngins' and utility guys has ended; Smoltz is hurt and aging; their bullpen is horrible. I agree - other than putting any blame on Smoltz. He's got a 1.20 WHIP, .255 BAA, 3/1 K/BB. The ERA is bad, but I'm not concerned about that. He's still getting it done this year.
  10. I was just skimming and thought 4-3 was the date or something, and thought Walker was actually leading off. I almost had a heart attack, until I realized 4-3 was first. Shorten it to "43" and you have the best nickname for JP that I've ever heard.
  11. Probably true. But there's a very small part of me that's hoping that JH instructed Dusty to play guys like Nevin in hopes of increasing their trade value. I know, it's the irrational part of me, but I'm hoping.
  12. If you're Murton, wouldn't you rather say you lost your LF job to Carlos Lee, coming off a career year, rather than Phil Nevin...who lost his DH job in Texas (to a rookie).
  13. From the article. Not sure what paper they're referring to, but this is from his player profile on Y!:
  14. Great article and that was a great quote. But I have a bone to pick about this one: I think it's unfair to say Carlos was victimized by Eyre - he loaded the bases with 1 out. The fact that Eyre couldn't undo Carlos's mess w/o giving up 1 run isn't totally on Eyre. If Eyre had started the inning and given up the lead - then I'd say Carlos was victimized. As it was, Carlos just stayed in a few batters too many.
  15. Frankly, I'm not sure I agree w/ that (.350 AVG w/ .400 OBP > .250 AVG w/ .400 OBP; assuming same SLG, etc). It's more valuable while it's occuring, but I think it's more likely that a guy who is hitting .250 will be able to sustain that .400 OBP for a number of years. It's a rare hitter that consistently hits .350. More likely they're having a great year, but will fall back to the .280-.320 AVG range, and thus their OBP will drop to .350-.360. Obviously there's a lot about these hypothetical hitters that aren't part of your hypo, but I'm just saying it's not a given that the .350/.400 guy is better than the .250/.400. My basic point: I like to see guys w/ a significant difference b/t OBP and AVG - otherwise their OBP is so tied to getting hits, which are more influenced by luck than walks, that it's unlikely they'll consistently put up that .400 OBP.
  16. Mabry No way. Mabry is one player that has been even worse than Murton. I'd say he'll get traded at the deadline if he had any trade value. Um, Mabry PH for Murton in the 9th last night. I don't think Dusty thinks he's worse than Murton.
  17. I like KingOfPap myself.
  18. According to Dusty, he had some clause in his contract to allow him to be optioned rather than cut. And Blanco has a stiff neck - presumably from watching all of his homers since he took over the regular starting gig. link
  19. While I agree with your overall assessment that Dusty has repeatedly shown he doesn't have a clue, I don't think benching Cedeno or Murton due to their struggles against lefties and righties respectively is beneficial to the Cubs. The lineups you show above would be near the ones I would like to see if the Cubs were still in contention. But since this season is basically done, the organization should focus on developing talent for the 2007 team. Cedeno and Murton need the experience of facing MLB pitchers instead of watching them from the bench (as mentioned in other threads). I agree completely. Play Murton & Cedeno against everyone this year. I hate the idea of platooning guys early in their careers. I think it's too early for either of these guys to say that they "can't" hit RHP or LHP. Even if they do struggle against one or the other, if you sit them, they don't get the chance to develop and improve against those pitchers that give them trouble. They'll always be platoon guys b/c they won't have faced much RHP/LHP (whichever the case may be). Not to mention it kills their confidence to tell them at 23/24 that they can't hit RHP or LHP.
  20. I fully agree. Heck, the way Wuertz is throwing, let's trade Dempster while he still has value as a closer, and bring Wuertz up to close. It's not like a closer is essential to a 100-loss team anyway.
  21. If Beltran was subjected to Baker, Clines, etc for the last few years, there's no telling how bad he'd be now.
  22. One of the surest ways to expose yourself as a loser is to call yourself a winner. You either are or you aren't; you can't give yourself a winner label. Technically, he didn't call himself a winner, but it still sounds to me like he's throwing his team into the fire. link
  23. I don't really want Izturis, but he's a pretty good defensive SS, isn't he? More so than Neifi anyway?
  24. Tigers have been my second favorite team for some time. Then the As.
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