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Tracer Bullet

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Everything posted by Tracer Bullet

  1. Tracer Bullet
    Not today. Hairston - CF Lawton - LF Lee - 1B Barrett - C Nomar - 3B Burnitz - RF Perez - 2B Cedeno - SS Rusch - P
  2. Tracer Bullet
    I'm guessing Baker is thinking that playing 3B puts less strain on Nomar than playing SS. Plus this has the added effect of allowing Neifi to play SS while keeping Cedeno's butt firmly nailed to the bench.
  3. Tracer Bullet
    There is nothing meaningful to be gleaned from these numbers. The Cubs pitchers have a winning record when walking 3-7 batters in a game, but a losing record when walking 2 or fewer batters in a game. I'm not sure that's true. Although the correlation between BB by our pitchers and wins does not seem to be strong, there is definitely something going on with BBs taken and wins. Obviously the fact that AVG is .239 in losses and .310 in wins is a big factor, but the fact that we're giving up almost 100 walks more than we're taking in losses is also a big factor. And one thing can certainly be gleaned. The Cubs should never give up or take exactly 2 walks. :D
  4. Tracer Bullet
    From a Q&A session with Carrie Muskat: Just an example of my frustration with this team and most of those that cover it. Recognizes that pitchers giving up walks leads to a high ERA, relative to team BAA, but fails to recognize that a high AVG can skew your perception of how many runs a team should score, at least when the team takes so few walks. Muskat says the Cubs don't hit w/ RISP and don't do the little things. Those things might be true, but the lack of walks by the offense has been killing us. If you realize that walks by your pitchers are bad, why is it so hard to realize that walks by your batters are good? (In fairness, I like that she says we need "quality at-bats.")
  5. Tracer Bullet
    Alright? I think you at least have to admit that he's been a great offensive catcher this year. Again - not that he's untouchable, but he's been one of our most consistent producers this year. I didn't like trading Miller away either. But the offense would really be hurting if you subtracted Barrett's .857 OPS and replaced it with Miller's .710.
  6. Tracer Bullet
    Away from Billy Wagner. I don't think I want to throw $24m at Billy either.
  7. Tracer Bullet
    I don't think it's fair to blame this year's pitching woes on Barrett. I don't have the time or desire to look up stats to back this up, I just can't imagine that his presence alone has made our pitcher's this bad. The fact that we've had to use such a jumbled rotation, including Williams, Hill, Mitre, Rusch, and Koronka (others?) due to injuries and ineffectiveness, I think shows that this is more than just a question of who's doing the catching. Z's been pretty good actually, Maddux is about what you'd expect at this point, Prior hasn't been awful, and we can't blame Barrett for Wood's injuries (I don't think). The bullpen has been very shaky and again I don't think Barrett's presence has really effected them a great deal. I'm not saying you're blaming Barrett, but I don't agree with the argument I think you're making (Miller or another defensive catcher would have a significant effect on the Cubs pitching this year).
  8. Tracer Bullet
    I don't think Barrett is untouchable. Not in the least. If you can trade Barrett for another piece that makes up for the offensive loss you'll take w/ Barrett's replacement - fine by me. I just don't think there's a "need" to replace Barrett with a better defensive catcher. Moving Barrett should not be priority #1 this winter.
  9. Tracer Bullet
    Certainly doesn't sound like Nomar is going to the DL soon. At least not according to this.
  10. Tracer Bullet
    Right, Barrett is the reason the Cubs are underperforming. All those runners he hasn't caught stealing and that one messed up run down have ruined the Cubs season. Never mind that his .857 OPS ranks second in MLB (catchers w/ 200 PAs) to Varitek. Trade that lousy bum. :roll:
  11. Tracer Bullet
    Welcome to your 2005 Chicago Cubs! Or did you mean for Prior? In that case, good! I'm not watching the game so I just assumed Neifi & Corey went down in 4 pitches. Fair assumption on my part, I think.
  12. Tracer Bullet
    Welcome to your 2005 Chicago Cubs!
  13. Tracer Bullet
    Not often that you IBB to get to the clean-up hitter.
  14. Tracer Bullet
    Tried to hustle to first and screwed up his quad. So is this going to be good enough for the people who complained about ARam taking it easy on his leg? :roll: Hate to say I told you so if he is done for awhile, but... :x I said it before and I'll say it now: If you can't run to first base w/o your leg falling off, you shouldn't be playing. If we were truly in the wild card hunt, I could understand having ARam on the field, but the Cubs have been out of this for a while. It's not like he was trying to score from 2nd on a hard liner to the OF or score from 1st on a double. He was running out a grounder. That's a pretty basic play. If you're not healthy enough to run to first base, you probably shouldn't be on the field when your team is 7 games out (and has 6 teams ahead of them) in late August.
  15. Tracer Bullet
    Bite your tongue! Blanco did have it turned around for a bit there. And besides, how's Dusty sposed to make lemonade in there if he doesn't have at least 4 lemons in the lineup?? I don't know, but we're gonna need a lot of Vodka to get through all this lemonade.
  16. Tracer Bullet
    How is this team scoring any runs? Those 5-8 hitters are just not good (I'm not saying we have a lot of alternatives, which I guess makes it worse).
  17. Tracer Bullet
    If he'll take $3m to stay in Chicago, I sign him.
  18. Tracer Bullet
    The cookie cutter era was in the 70's. Riverfront, Veteran's Stadium, Busch, etc. are a thing of the past. The new era of ballparks blow those away, and are anything but cookie cutter. You can have your PetCo, GABP, and Busch II, give me Wrigley. No better place to see a ball game.
  19. Tracer Bullet
    This of course spoken before the game in which he hit 2 2-run homeruns, including the game winner in the 9th. Link
  20. Tracer Bullet
    Does Nomar really belong in this group? Yes, he had a slow start (.157/.228/.176), but I don't think you can judge him on a handful of games. Esp since he's tearing it up since his return (.348/.388/.543). If you don't want him back b/c he's injury prone, that's one thing. But he's not in Patterson or Burnitz's class.
  21. Tracer Bullet
    So the argument is: Pie strikes out a lot and doesn't walk much because minor league pitchers throw more pitchers off the plate. Since major league pitchers throw around the plate more, he will still swing a lot, but he'll hit the pitches because they're closer to the plate? If that's the case, I don't think I agree. If you swing and miss at minor league pitches that are a foot outside, you'll swing and miss at major league pitches that are 6" outside. Or maybe you'll swing and dribble them to 2nd or pop out. If you can't tell that a minor league pitch is going to be way off the plate so you swing at it (or worse, you know it's well off the plate but swing anyway), you're not going to be able to tell that a major league pitch is a few inches off the plate, so you're going to swing at that too. I'm not saying that this is what Pie is doing, nor am I saying that Pie won't be a great hitter, I just don't agree with the theory that a guy who strikes out a lot in the minors because guys throw more pitches off the plate will fare better in the majors because more pitches are around the plate. If a guy swings at a lot of pitches off the plate, major league pitchers will learn how to get them out - just ask CPatt.
  22. Tracer Bullet
    There are different types of steroids and there are some that are en vogue with pitchers. They don't bulk your muscle mass up but make your ligaments tighter so that you can snap the ball quicker and easier in your delivery, etc. I learned about them in this mandatory "steroids suck" class that I had to take when I played ball in college. Yeah, I know. Many steroids just help your body recover quicker. I had to learn about it in the same mandatory "steroids suck" class when I ran track in college. But down the line they contribute to the muscles deteriorating quicker. For someone at Clemens' age, he wouldn't really have an arm left. At least that's my opinion on it. Isn't it possible that Clemens only began taking roids in the last few years when it took longer for his muscles to recover (b/c of his age). Therefore, his muscles might not have begun to deteriorate yet. Just a thought.
  23. Tracer Bullet
    Couldn't have said it better myself.
  24. Tracer Bullet
    That's amazing. Hard to explain. But my thoughts (for what they're worth): Maddux has been really up and down this year. 10 wins sounds about right for him. Prior missed a number of starts with injuries. Wood can't stay healthy at all. Z is tough to explain. His numbers are actually very similar to last year (which surprised me). Fifth starter (Williams, Hill, Rusch, Mitre, etc) - I don't think anyone expected more than 10 wins out of this spot anyway. Plus our lineup has been feast or famine (or so it seems). And our 'pen has been really inconsistent. Dempster has probably been our best reliever (until Wood showed up down there), but even he can't seem to enter a game w/o giving up a walk and/or a basehit. We just haven't had consistent performance out of the pen this year. Those things contribute to a low win total for the starters.
  25. Tracer Bullet
    I can understand that. It's tough to admit to mistakes. On the other hand, if you make a mistake by signing a vet to a big deal, that's done. The fans know the vet stinks regardless of whether they're playing or not (and seeing them on the field stinking every day just reminds the fans of your mistake). So you can bench the vet and play the better player, regardless of money. Or you can compound the mistake by playing the vet and losing more games. Seems odd that a manager would play the vet rather than the talented player. I say that b/c if the team doesn't do well, even if the manager plays the vet, the manager gets fired. If the team does well, but the owner sees that the GM is throwing money at bad old players, the GM should get fired. So if I'm the manager, I play my best players in hopes of winning as many games as possible and keeping my job. Can the GM really fire a manager who is winning a lot of games for not playing overpaid crappy veterans? I'm thinking that'd be a pretty tough task.
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