Hacking Out Machine

Especially in road games.

Team: Coming into 7/21 Away: .257/.327/.395 Home: .305/.387/.491 Here are some individuals who have some notable splits in this area: Ramirez Away: .218/.263/.391 Home: .338/.478/.613 Fukudome Away: .213/.311/.303 Home: .348/.450/.522 Soriano Away: .231/.280/.435 Home: ..337/.386/.663 DeRosa Away: .236/.312/.424 Home: .327/.430/.471 Edmonds Away: .277/.372/.567 Home: .298/.406/.789 Edmonds has been awesome in all situations, I just wanted to list him to note that home SLG. Unbelieveable. The splits are remarkable in my opinion. I really have no answer fr hem. It basically just drives home the idea that they better keep winning virtually all their home games.

Well...he certainly showed some impressive power on a 2-0 count when the chips were down tonight.

A guy with actual talent...... given cardinal pixie dust.......... oh, the humanity!! I don't know......perhaps the pixie dust only works on terrible players. We can only hope.

Couldn't agree more. Abraham Nunez, anyone? You could name about 10 more I'm sure. And don't even get me started on the pitchers.

unless wood blows a save in the ninth inning of game seven of the world series... then we go find budhouse and tear him limb from limb Knowing our luck as Cubs fans, he'll have saved 40 in a row giving up 3 runs in 45 appearances leading up to that game 7 WS blown save. I'm not sure my heart can handle another situation like this. '84 killed my innocence. '03 almost killed me. '84, game 4 - I can still see Lee Smith giving up that HR to popeye arms Steve Gravey, Henry Cotto climbing the fence in a vain effort to catch it - man, I hated Lee Smith. After that I knew it was over, sure the Cubs had an 3-0 lead in game 5 but, I knew it was over. Just like I knew it was over after we blew it in the 8th inning of game 6 in the NLCS. Wood on the mound, not withstanding. You don't lose a game the way we did and come back and win....and we didn't. ](*,) I gotta believe if Woody's the closer in a decisive NLCS or WS game, he's not going to let this happen again. He sucked in game 7 in '03. He knows it, he admitted it. You've got to believe a guy like Wood is going to destroy people if he gets the chance again. If he throws the ball like he did last night, no team in the league is scoring a run on him. Wood has been improving and will continue to do so, coupling that with Marmol and an improving Howry/Erye will lead to a point where you can mail it in if the Cubs have the lead after 6. Crap like the last 2 games of the Pittsburgh series is going to be the anomaly rather than the norm. It's already an anomaly, already not the norm.

I agree, and this is the inherent problem with this absolute disgrace of a park. In an effort to manufacture nostalgia, the Astros have embarrassed themselves. What they've done is essentially copy "quirks" of old baseball stadiums. The problem is that all of these prior quirks were not anyone's intent. The hill in CF is copied after the old Polo Grounds. Nobody built that hill, it's just the result of trying to fit a baseball diamond in a huge polo field. That's just the way the ground naturally was. The flagpole in CF is there to copy the fact that the monuments and flagpole used to be in play in the "Death Valley" outfield in Yankee stadium. It was so deep out there that the pole never came into play. It wasn't meant to be an obstacle, like this one is. Like someone mentioned before, it's a short porch in LF at Fenway because of the urban layout in that area, not because someone thought it would be cool to have a short porch. Nostalgia has resulted from all these unintended quirks in the old parks. You can't manufacture nostalgia, especially in a park that has had 3 names in 10 years. The freaking hill had a name before a game was even played there. The hill and the pole are a joke, and trying to be cute with the left field wall has led to only confusion, to the point where nobody can figure out where the ball even lands in more than half of the home runs hit there. Arena baseball? Lines on a wall determining a home run? It's a joke. I'm probably in the minority, but I'm actually offended by that park. Build something original, that brings nostalgia naturally. Don't plagiarize other parks to try to artificially get a feeling.

Considering that Brian Sabean parted with Francisco Liriano, Boof Bonser and Joe Nathan to get his hands on the veterany goodness of AJ Pierzinski, there is always hope. However, I'm afraid that at this point, even Sabean, the actual walking incarnation of stupidity itself would hang on to Lincecum at all costs. If you came to him in the offseason and offered him a tasty "proven veteran" the chances would have been better than average. I'd just roll the dice and offer him Bobby Howry and see what happens. Maybe throw in Eyre. :D The Mets should offer up Carlos Beltran. Sabean would probably drool over that one.

Todd Wellemeyer now pitches for the Cardinals. Previously terrible players magically become useful when they go there. It's been happening that way for about 10 years. You could make a lis of about 20 guys over the past few years who absolutely stunk, went to St Louis, played well, moved on to another team, then stunk again. It's almost uncanny. Wellemeyer is just the latest in the conga line, pitchers and position players alike.

I'll translate for ya. "I've got this player I have to play. Everyone in the universe knows he isn't a leadoff hitter because he flails at every pitch that's tossed up there, regardless of it's speed, location, or actual shape. Fortunately, when the pitcher happens to throw the pitch within 2 feet of the plate, he hits it, sometimes hard, and about 30-35 of those predetermined swings actually result in a home run. This makes him a decent 6 hitter. However, whenever he hits anywhere other than 1st, he hits to the level of an overmatched A ball player, and is even more useless than usual. Nobody can explain why, it just happens that way. At leadoff, he occasionally does something positive. I have to play him, so my choices are (A) Completely useless, or (B) occasionally useful. Limited choices, but I'm forced to take B. Booby Bonds was kind of like that. "

your definition of "certainly" is "certainly" very different than mine. I'm guessing that you would say that my definition of "certainly" would equal your definition of "not".

This depends on if the Soriano of 2006 in Washington is going to ever show up. You know, the one who would avoid swinging at a toaster thrown at the third baseman.... a far cry from the one who has been here, especially this year. At this point, if Sori is going to be the one guy in this lineup that hacks at everything offered, considering his contract, I'd give him away if the takers assumed the contract. JD Drew is certainly a better player than Soriano, and as for his fragility, I'd say it's not likely to be any worse than Soriano's given the gimpiness Alfonso's displayed.

One thing that I find interesting is that the Cubs usually do very poorly in All Star voting. With the reputation that Cub fans have, i.e. blind faith lemmings that jam the park every day, you would think that Cub players would regularly be at or near the top in all star voting. This has never been the case. Sosa used to always be up there, but that was due to his popularity around the league and his HR rep. Ramirez has never been close to starting, I don't know that Lee has, and there has never been an example of a Cub showing up among the voting leaders that made you scratch your head. Not sure why that is, but maybe since so many are doing well this year, Cub fans will be a bit more selfish and vote our guys in. (Kosuke, Soto, Lee, Ramirez, etc)

Definitely Soto...yes.

In my opinion, the thing that bothers me is people like Marty Brennaman's inability to remember that there is a big difference between "Cubs fans" and the people who show up at Wrigley Field and sit in the bleachers.. Instead of saying "Cubs fans are the most obnoxious...." He should say,"The general public that shows up at Wrigley Field for night and Saturday games...." I'd be willing to bet(as others have posted before) that Wrigley contains the largest number of "tourists" or people not even from Chicago of any park in the country with the possible exception of Fenway, and I'd doubt that even Fenway is close. For the record, "Cubs fans" are the 5,000-10,000 or so people you'll find for any Cubs series in places like Colorado, or Cincinnati or Atlanta, or wherever. I'll never forget Turner Field in '03, when Game 5 of the NLDS was pretty much turned into a home game.

My thoughts...not that anyone asked. 1. I thought that a Soriano injury would probably help the offense for the time being. It has. Not that it will be a permanent thing, but Soriano, this year so far, has swung at absolutely everything that has been chucked up there. His approach has made him look like a poor hitter, not just someone who's in a slump. I'm still hoping that we'll eventually see the Soriano that made such good strides in plate discipline during his year in Washington. Until he does that, he's going to be helpful only if he hits 35 home runs. Again, i'm not saying the Cubs are better off overall without him, because he's likely to get hot, but if he stays with the same approach all year, maybe they are. 2. Here's hoping that Theriot has figured out how to elevate the ball. His relative patience at the plate had been negated by his inability to make pitchers pay for giving him pitches to hit, because he was just hitting hard one hoppers to the SS when he was ahead in the count. This little power surge, if real, might lead to more walks because pitchers can't just lay it in there for him. You can be patient until the cows come home, but if all you can do on a 3-1 count is hit a grounder(A la Matt Murton), you're not gonna walk. 3. Since I've been a serious Cubs fan, this is by far the most patient any Cubs team I have followed has ever been. 4th in MLB in walks! It's no coincidence that they are scalding the ball right now. Mr. Hendry...are you paying attention? 4. Geovany Soto is probably the biggest reason why this year's Cubs team is so much better offensively than last year's, comparatively. By that, I mean the upgrade at any one position from last season. His ability to work himself into good counts, and then capitalize by pounding the subsequent pitch or taking it for ball 4 is a revelation. Oh yeah, and the fact that the studly Derrek Lee showed up this year instead of the slappy one from last year has helped too.

Ralphwiggum, First of all, great name and avatar, and fantastic first post. As you can see from above, I agree with you wholeheartedly, and thanks for articulating it very well.

Well that is a bit harsh.

I think the reason the Cubs have had such trouble coming up with good position players is due to their bass-ackward tendencies in the draft throughout the Hendry era, and what "skills" they value the most in their acquisition of players as a whole. This is especially true in the early rounds of the June draft, where most of the "top" talent resides. The Cubs have generally gravitated to players who can be described as "athletic" types. It's almost as if they are looking for players with more aggressive, hacking type approaches who have raw athletic talent. This is true with Montanez, Harvey, Dopirak, Colvin, Vitters, and probably many others. Even in the later rounds, OBP and SLG have not been priorities as the Cubs in a lot of cases have also gravitated toward "grinder/red-ass" types, i.e., the Joe Simokaitises of the world. Very seldom have you seen the Cubs draft any guys whose primary skill was high OBP or SLG.(Tony Thomas from last year was a welcome exception). My contention is that it's difficult to develop players when the players you draft have skills that don't necessarily make them good baseball players. It's more about the Cubs origanizational philosophy being suspect.

My favorite comment on Trachsel was in the team section, where they were skewering Hendry for that moronic and pointless trade: "The Cubs also made one outright terrible trade when third baseman Scott Moore and reliever Rocky Cherry , both of whom should become quality major leaguers were sent to Baltimore for a handful of starts from Steve Trachsel, who was only doing the rest of the NL Central a favor when he took the mound for the Cubs."

Well, don't forget that our boy Jim traded 3 solid arms for him only 2 years ago.....I'm still trying to get over that.

Actually, I think they still owe us for Shawon Dunston back in the mid 90's. If you look in baseballreference.com, you'll see that the Cubs never did get a player in return for him. I think this was back in '96 or '97, in Dunston's second stint with the Cubs.

In my opinion, there is no doubt that Ned Yost really had a profound negative effect on this game. Can anyone explain why he didn't go to Shouse in the 7th to face Jones? If he wasn't warm, shame on him. Bringing in Shouse in that situation puts Lou in a quandry. First of all, despite his decent numbers against lefties this year, we all know that Jones in generally helpless against lefties, especially sidewinder types like Shouse. (See his subsequent 9th inning AB vs Shouse for evidence.) So Lou has to make a decision:either bat Jones or use Monroe. Since they picked up Monroe for situations just like this, it would make sense to use him in that situation. However, if he pinches for him, Jones is obviously out, and wouldn't be available later to contribute against the right handed back end of the Brewers bullpen in the 8th or 9th. Lou would be stuck with the Monroe/Murton combination or Pie, which is obviously much less desirable than having Jones there. By sticking with Linebrink, Yost made is extremely easy on Lou, allowing him to avoid what could be described as a lose/lose, (Monroe in/Jones out, Monroe/Murton/Pie to hit against the Turnbow/Cordeo combo) and gifting Lou a win/win(Jones hits against a righty/gets to stay in the game). I think this is evidence of a manager falling into the "solid reliever reputation paradox", which indicates that as soon as a (set up type)reliever gets a reputation as being good, he isn't anymore. Case in point: Linebrink. Every year, the best non-closing relievers in baseball are guys you've never heard of until after the year is over. By the time they get a rep, they're usually toast, and subsequently overpaid. Jim Hendry is a master at this, as Remlinger, Hawkins, Eyre, among others become liabilities long before their contracts are up. Other examples of this are guys like Linebrink, Mota, Felix Rodriguez, Farnsworth(Yankees version). Yost probably thought, "hey, Linebrink is a "quality veteran reliever" I can't just use him for one hitter. " As a result, Jones gets to hit against a righty who's become steadily much easier to hit(note his K rate this year), and the Cubs win. Shouse eventually came in, but the horse was out of the proverbial barn by then. Also, any reason why Geoff Jenkins was passed over for gabe Gross with two on and Jenkins penchant for clubbing the Cubs? It was almost comincal when he ended up using Jenkins with nobody on and down by 2 in the ninth.

This whole topic reminds me of somethingI've never been able to figure out, and I hope my bretheren here can help: Back in '97 when the Cubs were in their second go-around with Shawon Dunston, they traded him to the Pirates at the waiver deadline(8/31) for a PTBNL. I was a Dunston fan back then, so I was paying attention in the weeks that followed to see who the Cubs actually ended up getting. I never heard. A couple years ago, I remembered the whole scenario and checked Baseball Reference.com. It mentioned the trade, but never indicates on the site who the Cubs ever got. I ended up being almost convinced that the Cubs forgot about this and never got anything in return. Obviously, this is beyond unlikely, but I still, despite several attempts haven't been able to find this out. Does anybody know, or remember who they ended up getting?

Check out this exceprt in the trade story on the Pirates website: Littlefield said that a possible Wilson deal did not play a role in the club's decision to go after Izturis. "This is simply about an upgrade," Littlefield said. Isn't Wilson in the first year of a 3 year $20M contract?? Wow. Littlefield thinks Izturis is an upgrade over a guy that they just made their highest paid player?? That doesn't say much for money management. And here I thought Eyre, Howry, Blanco, Neifi, Rusch, et al were bad signings.