Dirt Dog Sparly

There is still time.

I had to go with Morgan. It is him and him alone that drove me away from Sunday Night Baseball. Maybe its smaller doses but McCarver and Buck cant drive me away from playoff baseball. Morgan has done that too.

"The Mental Game" series by Harvey Dorfman is a great read. There is alot in the books that you can use in everyday life too. Then "Weaver on Strategy" is a great read. Earl Weaver was moneyball before most of the moneyball folks were out of diapers.

Vandy has three kids that I know and think well of. Mike Minor 6'3 LHP pitches low 90's good FB and CB. Needs to sharpen his secondary pitches. Great character kid, laser beam sharp. Very focused. Mark Lamm 6'4 RHP another Low 90's guy. Comes from a baseball family. Has two older brothers who have filled out and there is no reason to believe he wont to. Steven Liddle 6'1 OF LHH His uncle is a coach for the Twins. His last few summers have been spent with him working with the MLB club. Beautiful left handed swing. Played his HS ball in a huge park, (CF 390, Lines 330), as a Junior hit .400 with 8HR and 22 Doubles. As a senior hit 10 and 35+ while posting a .400 plus average. Minor has the highest ceiling of the three. Liddle isnt blessed with great speed, while Lamm is easily the most athletic of the three.

your first two batters walk on 8 pitches total, and you force the next hitter, who has been struggling, to swing at the first pitch? Treeman, you are absolutely right. I am nuts for putting on the Run and Hit in that situation. However it was a tight game. I had speed on the front end of the double steal and a line drive hitter at the plate, even if he had been struggling. I could read the coaches body language, he was not out there giving a pep talk. I knew, in my gut, that the next pitch was going to be a get me over fastball. I knew, again in my gut, that if it worked it would break their back. The "stats" and the "book" say dont do what I did in that situation. But that is what a coach is paid to do. Know when, and where, and most importantly why, to break "the rules." 99 times out of 100 in that situation I would play it by the book. However it those times where doing what is unexpected, for the right reasons, and having it work is a game breaker. It dosent always work, that is when guys like you and me come on places like NSBB and write; "That coach is an idiot." Even when it is played by the book and it dosent work. My point once again baseball is a numbers game played by humans. To eliminate one over the other is to miss half the game. The Cubs to their loss have not paid enough attention to the former, so they dont utilize the latter in the proper manner.

Someone should show Lou this: http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=5764 Only four teams did better than breaking even last year. Every other team gave up runs by trying to steal bases. Florida, Detroit, Washington, and Colorado each lost more than ten runs. A quick question for you in all seriousness. Do the stats take into account the runs that were created by pitchers making mistakes and getting to much of the plate trying to get the ball to the catcher quicker? Or the very human feel of momentum shift when a base is stolen, or its counter weight the momentum stopped by throwing out a baserunner to kill an inning? Stats are great, and very under utilized and less understood by this organisation, but if you forget the human element you are forgetting the GAME. Edited to add. A story to illustrate. In a tied game two years ago the first two batters of my team for the inning were walked on four pitches apiece. The pitchers coach goes out to talk to him, and judging from his body language it isnt a love ya conversation. Knowing that I had a hitter who was struggling at the plate I saw a perfect opportunity. I put on the Run and Hit, (I dont do the hit and run), with no outs. Yes I know you dont make the first out at third and dont help a struggling pitcher by swinging till he throws a strike. Yes if he hits to a MI and either runner gets a bad break I could be hitting into a double play and really reduce my percentages of scoring. Yada, Yada, Yada. My players get the sign and make the breaks and my batter? He sits on the get me over fastball and misses a HR by about a foot. Ends up with a triple. The next five batters all get basehits, one more off the same kid and then the reliever. I am brilliant right? Not exactly. The same relative situation happened about three years before that. The batter swung through the pitch and the runner was called out at third. We lost that game badly despite scoring four in the first inning. My point is that stats are great for seeing the overall picture, but dont lose the forest because of the trees. Situations and the feel of the game are as important as my spray charts, game stats, and the deeper stats that are in their way a part of the mythical book.

Please people. It is a set up for Marquis to say;" no, #21 means something to Chicago let me pick another. " Because as the good Lord knows he is going to need all the good will he can get pitching for us. Secondly I dont think Sosa is a first ballot HOF player and, to me, a first balloter is the only lock. Sosa like Mac has to many questions floating around them. Anyway the HOF is a joke until they install Santo.

Umm, Did you happen to catch the end of last season? Not saying we are an 84 win team or that we would be able to get to the series. But the exact scenario you said that can't get to the Series just happened a month and a half ago and they won. Yes I did catch the end of last season. It was proof that the playoffs are a crap shoot at times. If it dosen't rain out a couple of games the Cards are hard against the wall to get someone to go out there and give them good innings. No rain outs and we have a different WS winner. That I believe. I also believe that you never draw for an inside straight. For that WS scenario to play out for the Cubs again this year you might as well draw for that straight. This team is built to run money out there. I repeat what I said before. The players signed have done nothing to address the needs of the team. Why have a gold glove SS and a flyball staff? Why sign a guy who is a platoon player at best to be your everyday second baseman, when you could get the expected production out of Theriot? And dont throw the HR straw man out there as a measure of production in this case. As much as I am excited about Ron Jackson being the hitting coach, expecting him to make major breakthroughs in one year is fantasy. Murton and Jackson will have a love in, Lee, Barrett, maybe ARam. After that name the starters who post good OBP now. Dont expect to see a big change at the end of the year. It isnt something that you turn on and off. Plate discipline can be taught, in the minors as a player is working his way up, if they dont have it already. Since this organisation believes in BARISP and luck, well...... good luck.

But being the best team in the NL Central (which is the subject of this thread) wont amount to a hill of beans. Looking around all the teams in the NL have faults, but the Cubs at best are a .500 team as I see them. So say the Cubs win the Central with 84 (+/- 3 wins), it still isnt enough to get to the Series. Players have been brought in, but other than names, none of them really address what the Cubs need. Guys who get on, and pitchers who throw groundballs. If Izturis is going to drive in runs with his glove, why are we signing flyball pitchers? Like I said, Hendry is signing names, but not looking at how they make us better other than last years stats.

The 40 man roster is the 25 man roster and 15 additional players that the team wants to protect from the Rule 5 Draft and gain an additional year before a player could file for Minor League Free Agency if they are not on the 25 man roster. There is usually also some additional pay built in to contracts for minor leaguers who make the 40. The real effect of a player being on the 40 man roster is the time between the trading deadline and the end of the World Series. A player traded at that time must go through waivers. The fact that most teams will place the best prospects on the 40 man means that when you see one on a waiver wire at this time it usually means trade. That is a whole can of worms in itself right there. To be removed from the 40 man is a player is placed on "waivers with the purpose of removing the player from the 40 man roster" If another team wants that player they then make a "claim", pay a small fee, and the player is theirs. The hitch being that the player must be placed on their 40 man roster. If the player clears the waiver process they are removed from the 40 man roster, can be added again at a later time, ect, ect, ect. Actually to be called up to the show means the player has to be on the 25 man roster. Adding a player to the 25 man roster automaticly adds the player to the 40. Does a player have to be on the 40 before they are called up? No. See O'Malley, Ryan NP

Said he was at the GM meeting because Hendry wanted him down there. He and Hendry were going to meet some FA players yesterday. (It was a taped interview), Hendry wanted him there so he would be able to add his views into the discussion. Great opportunity having everyone together so that as they added players everyone could be on the same page. Yes Soriano is someone they have discussed, but there are lots of other good players out there and they had been discussed also. Interesting quote was, "... there are other options." How much of that is talk and how much is Having a plan, b, c, d, ect. will be interesting. Basicly that is the important stuff out of the interview.

According to the tease Lou will be on in the 9pm CST hour. XM 175

AWE-freaking-SOME. I love it. Sounds like Lou, Jim, and the Trib are eager to put a GREAT team out there. And it sounds like we might be discussing how we like our new pitchers, . . VERY soon. . oohh, euphoria. . :shock: :o :lol: :) Actually, on this board, we will be discussing how much Hendry overpaid for some guy and a long contract to boot if the past is any guide.

That hopefully player development wont screw up.

QFT A power bat to replace ARam is needed but I would rather have two average power guys and a pitcher minus some prospects/suspects than one POWER guy. My view, would you rather have 50 HR and a 350ish OBP out of two spots in the batting order or one 30HR hitter?

Opportunity never comes with out cost. Opportunity never comes without risk. Opportunity will never be your friend, it will never be your enemy, it is waiting on you to embrace it though. If we dont resign Aram the game isnt over. You replace his power in other signings. You take ARams money and give it to Drew, or Lee, or you make a trade. Dont go bury your head in the sand, the sky is still blue above the clouds. The sun is still out there. Embrace a future that might turn out to be better with change.

Down? Yes I am. I do love baseball and the Cubs though. The holes and problems that they have are real but in the end they are still my team. Good or bad I will be rooting for them. Besides a blind pig has to find a walnut sometime. I think we have had some positives so far, Piniella and Jackson come to mind as improvements already. Not getting ARam resigned before the window closed dosent mean that he is gone. It does mean that the money you have left has to be spent smarter if you do re-sign him. My prediction is look for a team with a heavy latin influence, especially from his home country if he dosent re-sign with the Cubs. Sign a quality #2 or 3 guy and a swing guy for the pen on the pitching side. I honestly believe that the light has turned on for Hill. Z, Hill, FA Starter, Marshall, Prior/Miller/cast of youngsters is a pretty good rotation. Right now the glass is, depending on your point of view, half full or half empty. I say it is the potentiality that is interesting.

Special assistant to Piniella = Advance ML scout / eyes in minors to look at talent there during the season?

Wouldn't hurt to inquire. Re-sign ARam, put Soriano in CF, Young at SS, and all of a sudden your offense looks a whole lot better. Then you go after the pitching problems. IIRC, his natural position is 2B so we could put him there also. His production would be very nice at either position though. No he is a SS and not to bad a glove guy that can hit a little bit. He switched to 2B when the Rangers picked up ARod. Before that he was the Rangers SS of the future and pretty well thought of by the BA folks.

So what is different for the last few years?

Because unless you know the scout, you don't know how reliable his performance is going to be until he's been in the job for a while. And the scouts that have a track record are already employed by other teams at that point in the year. Plus the pool is rather slim to start with too. The only "qualifiers" are former players, as the thinking goes, because they know what it takes to play at that level. Take someone like myself who did not play professionally. I would not be considered for a position in the MLB scouting department, where most scouts start, because I dont know the game well enough. IE; no pro experience. Most teams will hire new scouts out of the MLB scouting department. The teams can look at the reports turned in by the MLB scouts against thier own to see who has "the eye" before making the hire.

The kids only need direction, a little discipline, and to be tought how to win.

Piniella will be the guest on Sports Central tonight. WGN Radio just left the conference for regular programing.

They will hustle, it wont be a problem. My players always hustle.

Good nucleus but need to add a few players.