Sammy Sofa

Now THAT'S ridiculous. Come back when you can actually argue an opinion. There's nothing unreasonable in my last post that someone shouldn't be able to break down and argue against if they have an arguable conclusion that goes beyond "some guys who have big power surges use steroids." Why are you unable or unwilling to break down the situation as I did to argue your point? If you find yourself unable to argue your point and giving up so easily then it probably wasn't very sound to begin with.

Yeah, there's been the long established meme that he's a vastly overpaid player who is worthless after April, and the average dimwitted Cubs fan isn't going to realize anything else with the end of Fukudome's time as a Cub in sight.

Yes, the "bottom drops out" for his .272 .379 .392 .771 career May line. People can never seem to agree when Fukudome has his "bad months." The common idea is that he falls off after April, but it's actually June and September that have been his worst months by far.

Which is still ridiculous. He's deciding that the swing and stance analysis is "inconclusive" because...well, frankly, I don't know why. It's a weird position to take based on the analysis available and the lack of evidence for PED use outside of the power increase. I mean, how many guys can you point to who were busted for PED use or are strongly suspected of it who had their big power surges occur DURING a season? Remember, Bautista started displaying this power at the end of 2009, when he hit 10 of his 13 home runs that season in the final month+ and his slugging lept to about 300 points higher than the average he was displaying the previous 4 months, not coincidentally when he also started consistently sticking with the changes to his stance and swing that have been broken down here. Sure, maybe this was some elaborate ruse to mask the fact he inexplicably started a major PED regimen in the middle of the season...but really, how likely is that? Or was it just happy coincidence that he and his coaches' efforts to work on his swing coincided with the PED's kicking in (again, the PED's he inexplicably started taking during the season instead of starting the regimen in the offseason, or was he taking them the whole time and they just never "worked" until the swing/stance changes?)?

Well, I agree first off. But, I just don't know who I'd like to see consistently hitting there especially since Quade says Ramirez is the only constantly in the lineup at the 4. Not Byrd, not Pena...what would you like to see? Soto. Or even Soriano while he's this hot power-wise. If Pena is still looking improved through the weekend I'd put him there. Put someone there who is an actual threat to do some damage with a single swing.

Why do we want Quade to keep batting people displaying not nearly enough power in the #3 spot?

McGeHee COULD regress? Hasn't that ship already sailed since last June (with the exception of one month)?

Flip the Celtics and the Bulls and you have my list.

Or there's all the obvious changes in his swing and approach at the plate. Unless you somehow think that is PED-enhanced, too. Why does it have to be one or the other? Remember when Sammy Sosa changed his swing in 1998? Remember when he turned into a gigantic monster? Do we really have to take the Soul way of things and be afraid and not trust everything and everyone? It's really frustrating to see people laying out and quoting and linking to the really well done analysis that makes it perfectly clear the huge difference in Bautista's offensive approach prior to the end of 2009 and then afterwards. He started raking at the end of 2009 because he started making obvious changes with his swing and stance. He didn't suddenly balloon up or even get significantly bigger; yet of course you have people leaping to the idea of steroids. It's really disappointingly lazy. Maybe it is lazy. It's been the case way too many times. And there's nothing that says a guy needs to balloon up like Bonds to get extra power from drugs. Not in the face of the ever-evolving world of PEDs. Why should I trust? Why should I continue bashing my head against a brick wall for these guys when they repeatedly go out and do things like juicing up? Not going to happen. You can call it fear if you want. I think that's pretty stupid, but whatever man -- these are the kinds of posts you like to make to rile people up. It's what you do. The fact that there's analysis of a swing change isn't conclusive. Not in the slightest. I read the posts on that, looked at the link. The bottom line is, a guy can do more than one thing at a time. Sorry if you think pointing out the ridiculousness of your position is "riling you up." Maybe that should help you realize how terrible your approach is. Let's break this down to the very basics to see if we can all get a grasp on your reasoning. OK, evidence as to why Bautista has had the recent success that he's had: 1. Significant and well-analyzed changes to his swing and stance. Pretty short list, yeah, but we've got some great breakdowns as to why this would lead to him having such an improvement to his game. You, inexplicably, think this is "inconclusive." Why? What evidence do you have of him juicing besides the dramatic increase in power? Are there any physical signs at all that would lead you to believe he is using? You yourself said it's suspect that a guy who typically displayed HR power in the teens suddenly can hit around 50...so do you really think that someone doing that could so so without using PED's that would lead to a pretty drastic change in his musculature? I mean, here are your own words: I agree; of course guys don't need to get huge to get a power boost from PED's. But that makes more sense if you're talking about a guy who goes from hitting, say around 10 home runs a year to 20-25. You really think a guy is going to suddenly tack on almost 3 times the amount of doubles and over FOUR times the amount of home runs from his previous season without a noticeable physical change? You really think that a man can increase his slugging power between season by over 200 points courtesy of PED's and not display any significant change in his physical appearance? Ah, but you dismiss this with this throaway line: So now they're comic book drugs that effectively can give people amazing abilities they only hinted at before with almost no change in physical appearance? Look, we're not talking about someone arguably using PED's here to boost their modest power based only out of their strength or somebody using PED's to to stay off the DL. We're potentially talking about someone who used PED's to go from hitting around 15 HR a year to over 50 and 200+ jump in slugging. I'm sorry, but you're not going to get that dramatic a result courtesy of PED's without some very noticeable physical changes.

Hasn't Berkman been battling injuries for the last few seasons? I'm guessing that is the reason that Hendry went with Pena. It certainly wasn't money. It is also possible that Berkman didn't have any interest in coming to the Cubs. Couldn't blame him for thinking that the Cardinals had the better team and gave him a better chance to play in the playoffs. Injuries, but defense probably significantly played into things given that whoever was manning 1B was going to be having Aramis and (especially) Castro across the diamond.

Man, Fuld sure sucks again.

Nobody said he was.

Q: What does everyone in that .gif have in common? A: In two months, they will all have nba titles No faith in the Thunder? How many teams have ever gone from winning 0 playoff series to making it to/winning the nba title? These are 21-year olds, im sure in their mind, they're playing with house money. TOO BIG, TOO FAST, TOO STRONG, SON. THIS IS SPECIAL!!! RRRRRAAAARRRRGGGGGH!!!

imb is swatting down Bulls fans like their [expletive] doesn't even matter. SSR...well, at least he's trying.

How soon until someone argues that it wouldn't have mattered because of Cardinal pixie dust as if that's a real thing?

Hahahahaahaah!

I agree, this savage needs to be locked up.

HUH.

I love how Deng was singled out as being a "black British guy," as if it somehow was a flaw. Really, that whole post should have been demolished.

When you're young hotness you can do that. The NBA are desperate to give Old Man Celtics another shot at things so they give them time to heal their brittle bodies.

Or there's all the obvious changes in his swing and approach at the plate. Unless you somehow think that is PED-enhanced, too. Why does it have to be one or the other? Remember when Sammy Sosa changed his swing in 1998? Remember when he turned into a gigantic monster? Do we really have to take the Soul way of things and be afraid and not trust everything and everyone? It's really frustrating to see people laying out and quoting and linking to the really well done analysis that makes it perfectly clear the huge difference in Bautista's offensive approach prior to the end of 2009 and then afterwards. He started raking at the end of 2009 because he started making obvious changes with his swing and stance. He didn't suddenly balloon up or even get significantly bigger; yet of course you have people leaping to the idea of steroids. It's really disappointingly lazy.

Or there's all the obvious changes in his swing and approach at the plate. Unless you somehow think that is PED-enhanced, too.

I always assume all of the games on the godforsaken west coast trips are late games. It feels like it.

Bulls are going to win this series handily, but they are going to get [expletive] annihilated by the Heat.

Am I crazy or doesn't Berkman hit lefty most of the time? Has he dropped switch hitting and I didn't notice it? The only strictly right handed option Hendry had this offseason was Konerko and he wasn't really an option at all. Derrek Lee says hello A lot of people do. It's polite. not when i'm wearing a cape ssr is going to SWARM-SWARM-SWARM your sister.