Sammy Sofa

AKA "PAY ATTENTION TO MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!"

Klaff sounds like a bad James Bond villain.

I've changed my mind. Keeper does live up to his name.

:( That...is beyond depressing.

Overall and specifically so far this offseason, a high C.

The name "Keeper" is terribly ironic.

Gee, I wonder why.

Last year he had alot to prove. His 2006 and 2007 seasons weren't that impressive. He was being given the chance to go back to starting in 2008,which has been his preference. It was the last year of his contract and he has a career year. I hope i'm wrong but.... You're still making a huge leap without explaining why. You keep saying "career year" like it's some magic cure-all that allows a pitcher to have an Cy Young-sniffing year. I understand why the perception of the "career year" exists, but how would he have just turned it on like he did and then either totally forget all of his changes or, what? Choose to suck or be mediocre because he got paid? What is the thinking here? The why matters a lot less than whether or not the phenomenon has been observed. Right, and typically you can find or track reasons for the player's downall. Dempster made it through the year with phenomenal results after making very noticeable changes. He didn't breakdown. He didn't have to rely on luck or be saved by the defense. Obviously, repeating or exceeding last year isn't likely, but people just keep tossing out "career numbers" or "career year" like it negates what he did last year and makes a huge regression all but inevitable with little else to back up such declarative assertions.

Last year he had alot to prove. His 2006 and 2007 seasons weren't that impressive. He was being given the chance to go back to starting in 2008,which has been his preference. It was the last year of his contract and he has a career year. I hope i'm wrong but.... You're still making a huge leap without explaining why. You keep saying "career year" like it's some magic cure-all that allows a pitcher to have an Cy Young-sniffing year. I understand why the perception of the "career year" exists, but how would he have just turned it on like he did and then either totally forget all of his changes or, what? Choose to suck or be mediocre because he got paid? What is the thinking here?

Yes, and he maintained it all season (single playoff game at the end aside). That's not say he'll regress, but again, to say he's likely to fully regress to a Marquis-like season would be a really impressive downfall. 13 wins,era 4.00-4.60 ? What did you see last year that indicates you think that's likely? And what about the other pitching stats that are far more valuable to evaluating a pitcher...what's your prediciton for those? I know his past history as a starter, but what do you base such regression on besides that?

Yes, and he maintained it all season (single playoff game at the end aside). That's not say he'll regress, but again, to say he's likely to fully regress to a Marquis-like season would be a really impressive downfall.

The space between how excellent Dempster pitched last year and how Jason Marquis usually pitches over a season is pretty gigantic. I agree he almost certainly won't repeat last year, but to just assume he'll plunge all the way down to Marquis' level is incredibly pessimistic. Dempster and Marquis both have a 4.55 career era. Marquis career 198 starts 79 wins,Dempster 195 starts 76 wins.Marquis has averaged 13 wins a year for the last 5. Dempster was a regular starter from 98-03. Only once in that span was his era under 4.50. Dempsters history suggests that if he makes 30 starts,he'll pitch more innings than Marquis. But,Marquis making 30 starts is more likely. So your basis for this argument is wins and ERA? Partially.Last year was a career year for him. It was a contract year and he was able to keep the walks down (until the playoffs). If his walks per inning reverts to his usual standard,most likely his era will rise,win total will drop etc. The playoffs was only one game for him and clearly he was trying to be too perfect and that threw him off his game. I think from the way he pitched and what he said last year he figured out that he has to pound the strike zone and get ahead of hitters early in order to be successful. I don't think it is unreasonable to believe that a guy could figure out as he matures a better approach to pitching and that could make him more effective. Hope so. Marquis never had a year like Dempster did last year...not even close. It seems unlikely Dempster is just going to forget to keep his walks down simply because it's not a contract year. Will he repeat? Probably not. But looking at his year, it's pretty clear he wasn't just lucky or that it was the result of smoke and mirrors.

The space between how excellent Dempster pitched last year and how Jason Marquis usually pitches over a season is pretty gigantic. I agree he almost certainly won't repeat last year, but to just assume he'll plunge all the way down to Marquis' level is incredibly pessimistic.

Is that the batting order? Please...no.

That's ridiculous. You'd rather the Cubs not regularly be a playoff team?

And if they get swept out again, it'll still be rather anticlimactic and ultimately, meaningless. I'd still take that over 5-10 year droughts between playoff appearances. If they can keep getting to the playoffs with a high level of frequency, sooner or later they are bound to get hot at the right time. At least that is how I look at it. Exactly. I'll take regular or semi-regular playoff heartbreaks like we've had 3 times in the last 5 years (and just barely missed a 4th) than the huge droughts that Cubs had since their last WS appearance. Hell, 5-10 years would have been nice compared to some of the gaps. The more often they go, sure, the more often we could see collapses...but it also drastically increases the odds of them breaking through and winning it all. "Meaningless" implies there's little to no difference between a Cubs team that wins 97 games or 57 games. If the playoffs are all that matters, why even watch or follow baseball before September?

What good? Do his HR's not count if they're hit with nobody on base?

wrigley23 is every cliche of "angry typing guy" rolled up into a single adorable package. Now he can't be bothered to counter points against his arguments because he "has a life."

i think the games won that should have been loss is about even with the games lost that should have been won. this is one weird team. they only won because they suddenly started running the ball in the 4th. this is one of the worst passing teams (in terms of personnel AND scheme) i've ever seen Wonder if any of the coaches noticed that when they stopped only running Forte up the middle things happened. Naaaaaaaaaah.

Disgusting. But awesome.

It's like having pity on the "special" kid, I guess.

Only 4 days until the Blackhawks win 8 in a row. The who do what now?

Epic stupidity.

Bears should draft Tebow. Noooooo.

Orton stinks.