KaiserCesar

I hate to say this, but if Albert keeps up this pace he's gonna be the best to ever play the game. He's ok. Albert is no Todd Walker. Why are you insulting Todd by mentioning a scrub like Albert in the same sentence? You better learn some respect.

Because Ronny Cedeno, our most ready rookie right now (not counting Murton-he's had a little more service time) certainly is playing as well as Pierre-except that's not true, and the gap is widening every single day. So no, the minors are not full of guys who can provide Pierre's production. Edit: Actually, the way that it's going, Pierre will probably have better numbers than Murton by the end of the season as well. Do you think Murton should be replaced? Okay, if what you mean by Murton being replaced is not being relied on as an everyday corner OF, I'd be open to that. His best utilization is as a platoon partner. Now, as for Pierre's replacement, Angel Pagan, Luis Montanez, Buck Coats, Miguel Negron, Chris Walker, Nic Jackson, and a few months into the season, Felix Pie. Pierre isn't really a shining example of production, his absence will not be noticable with any of these guys patrolling CF.

Yes, I have Superman on DVD.

Ozzie.

Same thing as Buerhle. He's had 200 IP+ since 2001 and 249 total last year including the playoffs, although he is 2 1/2 years older. This is why its hard to repeat, your pitchers throw a lot of innings and have a shorter recovery time in the offseason. Also, Garcia threw in the WBC, if that means much of anything.

Garcia and Vasquez have been really shaky this year. The market for relievers might be able to get something even more valuable seeing the Reds deal that was just made.

Yeah, the fact is, you combine all of our OF and you get one very productive outfielder - Murton/Jones platoon while Juan Pierre pinch runs or something. But really, get a big bat corner OF and a CF with a nice OBP to be a stop-gap for Pie and you got yourself a good outfield.

You've got to be kidding me. Augie Ojeda should never be on a big league roster again. He defines mediocrity-in fact, he's worse than mediocre. Please tell me you're kidding. It's the sole reason that he is so far below average that he's wonderful. Have you no sentimentality? I don't have any sentimentality for him. I'm saving my sentimentality for a championship team. Augie Ojeda will never, ever be a part of a World Series winning team. He's a waste of a roster spot. The fact that this organization keeps players like Augie Ojeda around is an indictment of their judgement, and the fact that fans reflect fondly on his time here, and wish his return-even in September of a lost season-reflects on how misdirected the energies and focuses of the fanbase actually is. I think he's just roster-filler at AAA. I'll agree that he's awful, terrible, and I don't want him on my major league team when it counts, I just think it would be funny to watch if he got a couple of plate appearances.

Possible reasons for improvement in the Bears offense this year: - 2nd season in offensive scheme - Offensive line is returning, continuity is very important on the o-line - Grossman-Griese 1-2 instead of Orton being not so good for most of the games - Young receivers improving, Berrian wasn't healthy last year until late and was great in the playoff game and Bradley was improving when he got hurt - Ced Ben in camp and ready for this year, he could be more talented then Jones, and Jones fell off a little bit in the middle of last year, having Benson ready from week 1, even if he doesn't start, could easily mean more backfield production, Adrian Peterson also had a great game last year and is the 3rd stringer

He played him one on one the entire game. Even after he burned them for a TD on one of the first plays of the game. Then Holmgren did what everyone else should've been doing - triple-teaming him and basically daring Carolina to throw to a banged-up Colbert and a joke Drew Carter - and the Panthers couldn't get anything going. That's why. and that "one" wasn't Nathan Vasher. another problem was Mike Brown never coming back to form after the injury. Vash with a healthy Brown over the top and the Bears win the game. The thing with the Bears scheme is that they don't flip their corners, instead they allow the offense to dictate the matchups. Hopefully Lovie & co. learn from the experience and win some playoff games this year.

Then, depending on what those four players bring to the table as far as slugging, mix them in the 4-8 spots (4-9 if you're in the AL) in the order. Nobody expects every player to put up a .350 OBP. However, the leadoff hitter is the guy batting ahead of the heart of the order. Even if he's not leading off an inning, he's still batting in front of the guys that you pay to drive in runs. Might as well put a guy that gets on base in that spot to increase your chances of having someone on when the big hitters come up. The problem is, many of your top OBP guys are also your top slugging players. There are not enough #1 and #2 hitters left over to put up a .350 OBP for every team. Pierre is a little under that, but he makes up for the difference in OBP with the problems he creates on the basepaths. If Pierre was at his career average (approx. .350 OBP), I could accept it. I'd like it to be higher, but I could accept it. As it stands now, he is currently 75 points behind Kevin Youkilis and has 27 more stolen bases. Pierre has also been caught stealing 10 times, while Youkilis hasn't been caught in five attempts. Brady Clark has an OBP of .379 and only two stolen bases, and I'd prefer him at the top of the order over Pierre. There is no way that Pierre's speed can make up for that big of a difference in OBP. What if he follows his career average and has a .320 average after the break? His OBP should be around .350 then-would you re-sign him? The only way that I would re-sign Pierre is if he signs for less than 4 million per year and I can use the extra to pursue a slugging 2b ala Soriano or go after a really big time outfielder with the rest. Pierre is a one trick pony and frankly, he isn't doing that trick very effectively this year. Bingo, the discussion of whether or not to resign Pierre over the last few pages of this thread have somewhat ignored a major factor - price. It seems as if we are debating whether he is bad or decent. No bad or decent player should get the ~ 8 million/year in a long term deal that I think JP will get.

You've got to be kidding me. Augie Ojeda should never be on a big league roster again. He defines mediocrity-in fact, he's worse than mediocre. Please tell me you're kidding. It's the sole reason that he is so far below average that he's wonderful. Have you no sentimentality?

I think this could be the product of a lot of innings pitched accumulated at a young age finally catching up. Lets look at this - 2001 - 22 years old - 221.1 IP 2002 - 23 - 239 2003 - 24 - 230.1 2004 - 25 - 245.1 2005 - 26 - 236.2 reg season and 23.1 in playoffs + WS

The White Sox rotation is falling apart. If the Twins can get some consistency in the rotation behind Santana and Liriano they could easily make a run at 2nd place.

Augie He's actually in Iowa right now. Hopefully he gets some spot start in September or something.

According to my math: crappy OBP + crappy SLG = crappy offense According to your math: crappy OBP + crappy SLG + the proper leadoff man = good offense No, just that he is the best thing for the offense. That does not mean it makes the offense good, just better than it was before. I agree that the speed is more valuable with an offense like the current Cubs, but that doesn't make speed the most valuable asset of a leadoff candidate on this ballclub. I think improving the OBP and SLG would be the best thing for the offense.

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 It's the humidor! Gotta get them balls wet so you can't smack em out of the ballpark.

What Dusty doesn't realize is that Theriot is his 2nd best option at 2B and maybe his best at SS.

Didn't Harvey also have some back trouble earlier this year? It definitely doesn't serve as an excuse for his problems at the plate, but if he's healthy he's in a position to bring his numbers up. After all, it's hard to get much worse than where he is/was earlier this year.

Except he doesn't create run opportunities especially well and his lack of OBP is what matters most, much moreso than his speed. His speed does not offset his lack of OBP. Then quantify it. How many SB's, and speed does it take to make up for how much OBP lost? What would be the point where his speed would offset the lack of OBP? Pierre isn't an especially great basestealer, so I don't think he could make up that big of a difference with his speed. Also, if Pierre, .335 obp + speed, is equivalent to another guy, .360 obp + average speed, the guy with average speed is going to be paid a lot less due to the inflated market for speed and "leadoff men," so why waste money on Pierre.

Exactly, thank you I forgot to make that point. The fact that we are a bad slugging team only enhances our need to have somebody like Pierre. His speed becomes even more valuable on a team who is only able to score 1 run at a time. That is what I am saying about the low OBP team..they are not going to string enough hits together to score very often, so Pierre's speed creates the extra bases needed to at least drive him home some of the time. If Pierre is leading off, sometimes a hit behind him is not even needed. He can lead off, steal second, and proceed to home with 2 outs being recorded. For a team who can't get on base very well, and can't hit home runs, this ability to score with basically one hit can become very important. Yeah, speed I agree speed is more valuable, but it is definitely more worthwhile (and cheaper) to try to improve OBP and SLG than to resign Pierre and get league average OBP. While his speed has more of an improvement on this Cubs team, the "need" is really what makes the speed so valuable, the otherwise futile offense.

I understand what CubColtPacer is saying, but I think that speed gets more valuable on a team with low SLG rather than low OBP. Reason for that is that with a low SLG, each hit (or lack thereof) advances baserunners a lesser amount of bases. Therefore, the extra base is worth a lot more since there is a lesser likelihood of a double/homer where scoring is pretty easy for most baserunners. Also, the SB % necessary for positive run creation should also be less since that out is worth less for a bad offensive team (but this also factors in OBP).

That's likely a 110-115 million team and I don't think the Trib is going to authorize that much payroll. I also think it's a little worse than Vance's proposal. Not bad, but the offense is still pretty weak. Agreed, I also don't like that Rothschild is retained in 7897's proposal.

If his OPS gets over .900 I'm going to start using my caps lock feature while saying this. .315/.398/.483 right now :shock: :shock: :D :D

Showoff.