Sammy Sofa

Yeah, it's not like they're missing Rose or Noah or anything. They're certainly not critical parts of this team.

The Cardinals have questions, but I don't think they have more than the Cubs. Sure, it remains to be seen if Carpenter and Wainwright can stay healthy, but if they can then the Cardinals have one of the best 1-2 pitching punches in all of baseball. The upside to that question is amazing. The upside if the Cubs' pitching questions are guys like Lilly, Z, Dempster and Wells: serviceable pitchers who can be very good have even have flashes of "ace-dom," but typically aren't aces. Yes, the Cardinals have hitting questions, but the lineup is still anchored by the reliable and reliably healthy production of Pujols and Holiday. The Cubs potentially have a much more balanced lineup up and down, but the questions regarding Soriano (who is streaky even when he's on) Lee, Soto and Aramis' health are still very significant.

Good analysis. Tyrus clearly has issues, but he also clearly has talent. He needed (and still needs) a coaching staff and older, established players to develop him and harness that ability. The Bulls of the last few years have most definitely not had that environment.

Another piece of the puzzle.

Seriously, your posts in this (and many other threads) show what a miserable prick you are. Stop reading the politics threads and you'll think more of him. He's willing to set aside preconceptions and learn from wellthought out arguments when the subject isn't how much he hates republicans. Whut? Where have I ever even implied that I "hate Republicans?"

With the rest of the team looking close to league average adding an average pen makes us average. It is hardly the most useful statistic for bullpens but the Cubs ERA from the pen was 11th in the NL. I think Guzman and Marmol are fine in their roles but I can't say that anyone else down their is useful. Even Sean Marshall is not utilized properly. An average bullpen is fine. It's assbackwards to think that a very good or exceptional bullpen needs to be constructed because it's usually a difficult crapshoot to do so in the first place and doing so requires way too much money to be wasted. It's ridiculous to say that you don't see how anyone beyond Guzman and Marmol can be useful in the bullpen next year. The pen is not and should not be a priority right now. They have more than enough in-house options to plug in if someone falters.

Perhaps not but the Cubs did not have a single relief pitcher in the top 30 of ARP last year and just one in the top 75. And? It would have been ideal to have at least one guy in the pen who was lights out, but in all the performance of the bullpen was average at worst. The bullpen simply was not a significant problem last season in the face of what actually sank their season.

I was saying less protection in terms of less hindering of mobility and speed and as such guys are potentially able to hit harder or more precise than before because of it.

Which doesn't negate any of the points here at all. If it's simply as matter of better diagnosis and recognition that doesn't somehow make things better. Arguing that it's "not really getting worse" is moot because even if it's not it's a still a huge problem. All the better understanding is showing is how widespread this issue has been for so long and how it's gone unrecognized/ignored. Couple that with how the players are getting bigger and faster and wearing less protection and it's a recipe for a longstanding problem to potentially get worse, if it hasn't already, but it doesn't have to be an issue of it "getting worse" right now for it to be a big problem.

Why are you talking about whether or not there are more violent hits today than before? That has nothing to do with the discussion. Yeah, I don't know where that comparison is coming from. Nobody is arguing for some kind of football regression to the "good ol' days" with the idea that it was less damaging to the players. The issue is as we go forward and continue to gain a better understanding of the effects on the players for ultimately trivial thrills for the audience, not looking backwards at was going on in the past. That's irrelevant.

I wouldn't go so far as "sucks," but they gave up way too many walks last year. Two of the main perpetrators - Heilman and Gregg - are gone, but Marmol and his 65 BB in 74 IP is back. If he can get his walk rate back to what it was in '07 and '08 he'll be fine. But right now, the scouting report on him should be, "Don't swing." Yeah, Marmol was walking way too many guys, but he really wasn't giving up the hits. Obviously I'd want to see that former come down, but in the big picture he was still very effective in ultimately keeping runs from scoring or guys getting hits, and he seemed to settle down once the closer's spot became his. You look at his 2nd half numbers last year and his walks nearly cut in half while his strikeouts stayed the same and the batters' OPS and his WHIP dropped. Heilman actually wasn't as bad as so many want to make him to be. He certainly was not ideal in the first half, but in the second half he was dramatically better: http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.cgi?n1=heilmaa01&year=2009&t=p#half The bullpen as a whole was very middle of the road at worst and actually just above average at best. It really is overstating things to say that the bullpen out and out "sucked" last year or that it was one of the main causes of the team underperforming. Yes, Gregg himself crapped the bed more time than you'd like, but he's not the whole bullpen. What happened was that a very standard bullpen was "exposed" by a lackluster offense that simply could not score enough when it was necessary, and it forced the bullpen to hold too many close games for too many innings than one can reasonably expect.

Exactly.

Love the opinions that this is just moving the game a step away from having no tackling as opposed to being a serious addressing of the debilitating injuries and conditions and diseases more and more guys are ended up with because the game has gotten so much more violent over the years. "Injuries just happen?" Get the [expletive] out of here with that [expletive]. Look at the skyrocketing stats of what's happening to player's [expletive] brains earlier and earlier in life and with ever increasing numbers. Pointing out how this type of tackling occurs as low down as peewee football isn't a justification for it continuing; it's a condemnation of how fucked up this mentality is from top to bottom and it needs to be changed ASAP. Nobody is talking about getting rid of violence in football with these arguments. It's attempting to lessen the mentality that convinces players and coaches that it's OK to get people to lay out their lives on every play without any regard to their own or anyone else's safety.

Which doesn't describe Theriot at all. That's what it comes down to me: putting my resentment of him aside, there's simply no way he can be accurately rated as high as he is defensively given the weakness of both his range and his throwing arm. UZR might be the "best" system at the moment, but that doesn't mean it's actually accurate. Defensive metrics are still very much a work in progress.

There was just no way Hester was going to have a long career of being a dynamic kick returner. Turning him into a receiver was the right decision. Trading him would have been an even better decision.

How do you know the pen sucks? Couldn't be because of last year, because they didn't suck then, either.

I think the team should be noticeably better than last year. The big three factors that seemed to dog the team for most of the season were Soriano playing hurt (and thusly crappy), Soto playing hurt/fat/unlucky and Aramis missing so much time. It is no way a lock that issues of similar impact won't hit this team again this year, and given how "old" this team is it wouldn't be surprising if it did, but it seems like Soto has a shot of having a good bounce back year given how much more in shape is and how unlucky a lot of his slump was last year. Couple that with at least either Soriano or Aramis not having years like year and offensively they should be in decent shape. Nothing spectacular, but workable. In all I think it's a very average to maybe just above average team. It's baseball, so a team like this in a division like this has a shot. They've got a decent amount of appealing prospects for a critical trade before the deadline, so if they're in it and Ricketts is willing to potentially take on potentially a decent contract then stranger things have certainly happened.

Louisiana is really pissing me off these days.

Some say black marks; others say brilliance.

Yeah, it's not like they suffered catastrophic injuries during a game or anything. It must have been the 'roids.

Thanks. The first one I had already seen on Youtube but the second one was new to me.

I've found a couple clips of Castro on Youtube and one good short one of him at the plate at The Cubs Reporter, but does anyone reccomend anywhere I can see good footage of the Cubs' prospects?

Seriously, your posts in this (and many other threads) show what a miserable prick you are. why, because you cant root for the Colts? thats illegal now? immoral maybe? I don't get it... What the [expletive] does rooting for the Colts have to do with the appearance of Drew Bees' child? Yes, that baby would be ugly regardless of who I wanted to win.

Seriously, your posts in this (and many other threads) show what a miserable prick you are. why, because you cant root for the Colts? thats illegal now? immoral maybe? I don't get it... If you're not drawn to New Orleans you'll just never understand.

Seriously, your posts in this (and many other threads) show what a miserable prick you are. I am indeed. I am vindictive as hell when things don't go as I wish.