KingCubsFan

What's terrible about making Pie a leadoff hitter?

There's nothing wrong with it, except that we're effectively ending our top prospect's season because we want a free-agent-to-be to get as much playing time as possible. It's a ridiculous statement. Can we only play one rookie at a time? Can't Jacque take some days off? We all know Murton isn't going to play every day anyways, so you might as well replace the days Pagan plays with Pie.

Gotta say that this is more offensive terminology to me then most swear words. QUIT http://www.users.muohio.edu/rothkr/catching%20feelings%20copy.jpg http://www.users.muohio.edu/rothkr/joker.gifhttp://www.users.muohio.edu/rothkr/joker.gifhttp://www.users.muohio.edu/rothkr/joker.gif

This quote is bad because Dusty is again trying to make excuses and totally ignoring a huge problem of the offense. Are the Cubs the only team in baseball where, after finishing last or close to last in an important (some may disagree on the degree of importance) offensive category, they continually overlook this weakness and try to mask it with things such as speed? Dusty is right about having to knock in baserunners, but our team's hitting approach is so awful that we'll never hit for a high average with RISP anyways. I think this quote signals we'll be moving back into the "solo homerun" offense we mastered a few years ago.

Of those names, the only ones I think the Cubs considered untouchable at one point were Patterson, Wood and Prior. Maybe Guzman, as well. The other players were either prospects that have been traded or low-level prospects that were never that highly regarded and probably couldn't get much in a trade. Kelton and Hill may be exceptions (although Hill still has time to prove he's a quality starter). And while I agree the Karchner trade was horrible, I would hardly call Garland a "stud" pitcher. He basically has had one good season.

http://www.users.muohio.edu/rothkr/joker.gifhttp://www.users.muohio.edu/rothkr/joker.gif

Bad starts and lack of offense are part of the game, but an error isn't? If you want to win a championship, than, no, an error like Gonzalez's (not saying every error) should not be part of the game. People can ridicule me all they want, and keep making absurd claims using "my" logic, but I think we all know that, had Gonzalez made that play, we would have most likely gone on to the world series. Therefore, I don't understand how people on this board seem to dismiss defense and claim that, because it's such a small part of the game, it should be completely ignored. There's a reason the Red Sox traded Nomar for Cabrera, and there's a reason the White Sox have had .200 hitting Juan Uribe as their shortstop the past two years: defense matters. Obviously, it doesn't mean as much as offense or pitching and if you build a team solely around defensive players like Izturis, you will most likely be a bad team. But to be a championship team, you need defense from critical positions along with good pitching and hitting.

Sarcasm or not, I'm in the camp of in any sport, defense wins championships. Defense in football, basketball, soccer, etc. means preventing the other team from scoring. In baseball, that's overwhelmingly the task of the pitching staff, not the guys behind them. Defense in baseball doesn't compare to defense in other sports and is a relatively small factor in keeping the other team from crossing home. exactly. defense (as in preventing the other team from scoring) is very important in baseball. but actual fielding makes up a very small % of defense. Defense may not win championships, but it can certainly lose them. (See Gonzalez, Alex) Every time someone points this out I'm going to point out AGonz's .980 OPS and 4HR's in the postseason, without which no one would ever remember the ground ball to SS. Offense and pitching are so much more important that defense it's not even funny. And every time someone points that out I'm going to, again, point out that defense can lose championships. You can say what you want, but the fact is that AGon blew a routine double play and cost us the World Series. Not Bartman. Especially at shortstop, defense is crucial at that time of the year. I don't really care what Gonzalez hit during the playoffs. If he hit .000 in the series, but made that play, he would have done his job because he wasn't an important part of our offense, but he WAS an important part of our defense, and he blew it. I don't remember any games hinging on Gonzalez's offensive exploits. You can put just as much blame on Zambrano's Game 1 performance, the offense not showing up for Game 5, Wood's Game 7 performance, etc. It's not all about one play. Well, I don't have to put any blame on Wood's Game 7 performance because if Gonzalez had made that play, there wouldn't have been a Game 7. The other things are simply part of the game. Zambrano didn't pitch particularly well in any playoff game, and there will be times when the offense gets shut down. These type of things are different from botching a routine play in the late innings of a playoff game. Even with those things accounted for, it is very likely we still would have made the World Series if Gonzalez had simply made a play he was supposed to make.

Sarcasm or not, I'm in the camp of in any sport, defense wins championships. Defense in football, basketball, soccer, etc. means preventing the other team from scoring. In baseball, that's overwhelmingly the task of the pitching staff, not the guys behind them. Defense in baseball doesn't compare to defense in other sports and is a relatively small factor in keeping the other team from crossing home. exactly. defense (as in preventing the other team from scoring) is very important in baseball. but actual fielding makes up a very small % of defense. Defense may not win championships, but it can certainly lose them. (See Gonzalez, Alex) Every time someone points this out I'm going to point out AGonz's .980 OPS and 4HR's in the postseason, without which no one would ever remember the ground ball to SS. Offense and pitching are so much more important that defense it's not even funny. And every time someone points that out I'm going to, again, point out that defense can lose championships. You can say what you want, but the fact is that AGon blew a routine double play and cost us the World Series. Not Bartman. Especially at shortstop, defense is crucial at that time of the year. I don't really care what Gonzalez hit during the playoffs. If he hit .000 in the series, but made that play, he would have done his job because he wasn't an important part of our offense, but he WAS an important part of our defense, and he blew it. I don't remember any games hinging on Gonzalez's offensive exploits.

Sarcasm or not, I'm in the camp of in any sport, defense wins championships. Defense in football, basketball, soccer, etc. means preventing the other team from scoring. In baseball, that's overwhelmingly the task of the pitching staff, not the guys behind them. Defense in baseball doesn't compare to defense in other sports and is a relatively small factor in keeping the other team from crossing home. exactly. defense (as in preventing the other team from scoring) is very important in baseball. but actual fielding makes up a very small % of defense. Defense may not win championships, but it can certainly lose them. (See Gonzalez, Alex)

Any reason why his home numbers are so much better than his road numbers? I don't remember Daytona's stadium being known as a hitter's park, but those are some serious splits.

That's better than paying your shortstop 4.5 million to do that. Oh, wait...

Anyone know Felix Pie's BB/K ratio over the past month or so? Just looking at the box scores over that time period, it seems like it's improved a lot.

I agree. I don't know if his swing will ever allow him to hit for a lot of power, but I think his bat is good for CF (and he might even hit leadoff because, in Dusty's mind, CF=leadoff position along with SS, 2B). The White Sox did it with Rowand and Reed, so it might be possible.

What did he do then? He created an 88 win team, the same win total from 2 year before. Big freaking deal. I didn't say there is nothing in his past. I said there is nothing in his past that indicates he can make the moves that will make this team a winner. That team was already in place, including a HOF corner OF and several great young pitchers (before he allowed the manager to abuse the crap out of them). This team needs a ton of work, and what it needs most is OBP. Jim refuses to get OBP, so we know that won't be addressed. He didn't prove me wrong, he actually lived up to my worst nightmares by hiring Dusty Baker, ignoring the value of walks, sticking with antiquated baseball theories that have since been proven wrong..... etc. Jim started making mistakes at the beginning, only the mistakes just kept getting worse and worse. It's a downward trend that shows no signs of abating. For the most part, I'm not disagreeing with you on this stuff. Just that there is nothing in his past that suggests he can succeed. I think saying that he refuses to get OBP is an inaccurate statement. He brought in Ramirez who was a huge OBP upgrade over what was there before. Same with DLee, and Michael Barrett has improved upon the OBP coming out of the catchers position. Pierre's OBP is an improvement over Patterson's. And I think Murton's OBP is an improvement over Alou's, but I haven't looked that one up. He's lost OBP a ton in RF and has struggled mightly to get it back. But its not like .400 OBP guys are easy to come by. Would I have liked him to get Beltran? Yes. Does he need to improve the OBP coming out of the middle infield now? Probably. He has had to deal with the unexpected loss of Prior and the partially expected downfalls of Wood and Sosa. Both of those kingpins completely failed him and he has failed to overcome the gaping holes that have been left in their place. But to say that it has been a steady decline from the beginning of Hendry's reign would be revisionist history. There was a decidedly huge uptick before the decline. I don't think that can be accurately challenged. Again, not challenging much, just those statements that seem unbalanced and inaccurate. On the whole, I agree. But you never addressed the point I made about there being more than nothing in his past. You just changed the subject. I think you're missing the point. The players you mentioned all were OBP upgrades, but that's not why Hendry got them. Ramirez and Barrett are OBP upgrades because they're good hitters, not because they're necessarily proficient at taking walks. In fact, they are perfect examples of the type of players Hendry was talking about in his interview a few weeks ago. Lee could always take walks, but that didn't seem to be the reason Hendry got him. If I remember correctly, Hendry consistently mentioned Lee's power, defense and athleticism when he acquired him. Anytime you allow a top of a lineup to have the OBP the Cubs' teams have had the past couple of years, you don't really value it that much. And I don't think it's inaccurate to say that there has been a steady decline since the beginning of Hendry's reign. Every year has been progressively worse, unless you want to count 2004's 1 win gain and overlook the fact they blew a spot in the playoffs in the final week of the season.

Don't forget squandering the depth that we once had in our system, retaining the wrong players and holding onto others long after their values peaked. I think we can blame John Stocksill for squandering the depth in our system.

I don't think Prior could get any of these players, and I don't know how anyone would rather have Upton or Dukes over Young. I'll take a 20 year-old hitting .348 in AAA with a .900+ OPS and 30/30 potential any day. I'll take a guess and assume it's because he only has 10 walks.

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=5358&PHPSESSID=37cf313bceec14645c9f5c6215b8ecaa Looks like the Devil Rays are getting tired of the character issues involving their top prospects. If Young, Upton and Dukes were all available, would trade a package revolving around Zambrano for all 3?

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=5358&PHPSESSID=37cf313bceec14645c9f5c6215b8ecaa Not much regarding proposals, but the article says he remains a possibility for the Padres. I think any discussion should start with Josh Barfield or Chris Young, as long as Aramis is willing to stay past this season.

I could see Nevin staying and being resigned next year now to serve as insurance when Lee's not ready to go next year.

Johnson hasn't really had success as a starter since he came into the system and, more importantly, his stuff has apparently been pretty mediocre. If he can get back to the mid-90's as a reliever, he's got a good chance. Along the same lines, does anyone know why Pawalek is relieving in Boise? It seems kind of odd...

I love how Isaacson tries to make it seem like Corey was brought down primarily by us (the fans). That's ridiculous. While I was never a fan of people booing Corey at every oppurtunity, the comments made by the Orioles hitting coach show we weren't the ones destroying Corey's career. Patterson should be the clearest example to Hendry that A)Dusty does not "get the most" out of his players or whatever you want to call his one supposed skill. In fact, he often puts them in positions to fail. (See LaTroy, Neifi). B) Dusty can't construct a batting order and identify the strengths and weaknesses of his players. If you notice, Corey is doing all of this while batting 6th in the lineup (where a lot of us advocated he should hit in the lineup) rather than being forced to become Dusty's version of Lou Brock. C) Gene Clines may go down as the worst coach in recent Chicago sports history. I think it's time we examine the idea that: Gene Clines http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/images/2004/10/11/S5eooa6Y.jpg = John Shoop http://www.raiders.com/uploads/photos/perm/main/OJNHCMLNDIED/shoop-coach-2005.jpg

Why? So you can replace one injury-prone pitcher with another? Schmidt may not have the injury history of Kerry Wood, but he's pitched a lot the last few years and is on the downside of his career. And if Dusty is still the manager, he'll never make it past the all-star break of the first year. I'm not really in favor of giving five year deals to pitchers, but Zito is one I would consider.

Is that LaTroy Hawkins on the mound? He's thrown nothing but fastballs except one failed curve

"Dude, we don't need Aramis, man. He can take his time getting back. Neifi's finally developing some power. I've always said, dude, players peak at around 34."