goonys evil twin
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Everything posted by goonys evil twin
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Cards to reduce payroll over the winter?
goonys evil twin replied to The Voice of Reason's topic in General Baseball Talk
A GM who whines about player underperformance is probably just guilty of poor planning. I'm talking to you Jim Hendry. -
It only looks that way if you look at it without context (and even then it's hardly tame, it's blatantly ignorant of the value of OBP). Dusty is a moron. He doesn't value OBP. The Cubs suck. Their offense has been lacking in OBP for a long time. And even now, with the team at such a low, Dusty is refusing to admit it's a problem, or that more OBP could help. I see no reason for you to keep making excuses for him and glossing over this issue. It is the number 1 problem with Dusty Baker's managerial style, from an offensive standpoint. It stands right up there with his pitcher abuse. The only difference is pitcher abuse usually has repercussions down the road, while ignoring OBP kills you right away.
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Oh yeah, definitely. I'm just saying this shouldn't be a shock to us. He's as old school of a baseball guy as Dusty, just without having been on deck when Hank Aaron hit a ball hard. I let him fool me into thinking he could get it done his way.
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Again, you're giving him too much credit. He's proven he doesn't care about OBP. He's proven it over and over. Why somebody would be willing to give the guy the benefit of the doubt that he actually wants better OBP is beyond me. He doesn't care about OBP. If he has more of it, great. If he has less, so what. Nomar is not know for OBP ability. He's as big a free swinger as there is. The difference is he's really good at it and has a great SLG. He's one of the very few players that actually fit the Hendry/Baker mold, and are successful. The problem is those guys are very rare. No, it really isn't. MLB is about competing against 29 other teams. It's not enough to win games. You have to win more games than everybody else. It's not enough to score some runs. You've got to score more runs than the others. Everything in baseball is about how you stack up against the others. You could make that argument that Neifi Perez is actually a really good baseball player. The problem is he's one of the worst players in MLB. You could pretend Dusty would like a little more OBP, the problem is he doesn't place enough value in it to get more of it than everybody else. Dusty doesn't value OBP, it's clear as day. To think otherwise is to lie to yourself. There's evidence that he actually thinks OBP is bad, hence the clogging, but that's debatable. What is not debatable is that Dusty doesn't see the value of OBP, doesn't see the need for OBP and that the lack of OBP has been killing this team's offense.
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Hendry isn't a young man. He's 5 years younger than Dusty. And he was around the college game most of the time. As far as I can tell, college baseball is even more "old school" in its approach than MLB. There aren't too many Beanes in NCAA. Hendry is a "baseball man", the kind of guy with relationships throughout the sport, and a complete unwillingness to think his contemporaries are anything but the best at what they do. I had high hopes for Hendry, largely because I ignored all the signs that he completely undervalued the walk (both in terms of negative value associated with giving them up, and positive value when taking them). C'mon now, Goony, I think we can all agree that "the game has pasted Dusty". I'm not questioning his pastedness.
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I knew he was a wimp the day he alligator armed a pass across the middle when Mike Brown and Urlacher wanted to kill him. I've never trusted his heart since. I think he's exactly the kind of guy, and in exactly the kind of situation, where he would lie about an injury in the preseason to avoid the work. Ditching practice isn't the same as skipping the Super Bowl. He thought he could get a huge raise with a big Super Bowl game. Financially, these practices don't do him any good.
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Hendry isn't a young man. He's 5 years younger than Dusty. And he was around the college game most of the time. As far as I can tell, college baseball is even more "old school" in its approach than MLB. There aren't too many Beanes in NCAA. Hendry is a "baseball man", the kind of guy with relationships throughout the sport, and a complete unwillingness to think his contemporaries are anything but the best at what they do. I had high hopes for Hendry, largely because I ignored all the signs that he completely undervalued the walk (both in terms of negative value associated with giving them up, and positive value when taking them).
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Renting Out Wrigley & Skipping Practice
goonys evil twin replied to Laura's topic in Chicago Cubs Talk
How many teams that schedule night games are actually practicing before 3:30 anyway? Fielding and batting practice can take place within a couple hours of the game. -
He hates when his pitchers gives up walks. Same with Hendry. That makes this all the more confusing/maddening/idiotic. I don't think that's true about Hendry. He's never been afraid to acquire pitchers who walk everybody, and the staffs he puts together routinely give up the most walks in baseball. He's much more interested in hard throwers that miss bats than guys who don't walk people. He's never put an emphasis on pitchers who don't walk, and went out and got guys who do give up walks, so my guess is he doesn't really care about the walk in general (at least in comparison to how much the rest of the league cares). Dusty, he cares. He hates pitchers that give up walks, because he thinks the only person that influences whether or not there is a walk issues is the pitcher.
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And he's right that the SLG needs to improve, but the SLG was not a problem in 2004 and 2005 while the Cubs were still poor offensively. He of all people should be able to see that. I don't think he would have had a problem improving the OBP in 2004 and 2005 while the SLG was good (except for having the middle guys of the order walk more, which would probably reduce SLG, which he wouldn't want-but I think he would be just fine to have the other people walk more, and he'd always be fine for increasing OBP by increasing people's AVG). We were average offensively in 2004 (16th) and below average in 2005 (20th) while being 3rd and 6th in SLG respectively. How would walking more reducing SLG? It wouldn't. Quit making excuses for Dusty. He undervalues OBP, and undervaluing a valuable commodity is as bad as saying you don't want it. OBP is a problem, OBP has been a problem, and OBP will remain a problem because Dusty and Hendry put so little emphasis on it. It's not good enough to be willing to have a higher OBP, after SLG improves. That's simply not good enough. They have to actively work to improve OBP, not just be open to the notion that it might improve on its own. The Cubs offense's number 1 problem, without question, without doubt, without debate, has been a lack of OBP. Fail to address that problem, and you fail the team. No he isn't. Quit trying to give him credit for stuff he's not doing. He has no interest in improving OBP. The Cubs had great SLG, but were a mediocre to bad offense when they had it, and they did nothing to improve OBP. There is no possible justification for claiming Dusty wants to improve OBP after SLG. He had the SLG before and ignored OBP, he will always ignore OBP because he's an ignorant dinosaur.
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I don't know if Hendry has talked about clogging. He has paid lip service to OBP, but from what I can tell, always qualifies it by saying avg with RISP is what really matters.
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He directed Vacation. Wrote and directed Caddyshack. Wrote Animal House and Stripes. Being a principle in those 4 films is enough for me to call him a genius. That's not even counting the several other quality films he was involved with.
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The thing is, he doesn't make a point. He makes half a point. He acts as if OBP is meaningless, and that SLG is most important. Yet in 2004 and 2005 the Cubs were 2nd in the league in SLG but middle of the road or worse in runs scored. Why? Because they didn't get on base. Why? Because they didn't walk. Don't be fooled into thinking he has a point. Dusty is promoting a practice that still resulted in failed offenses that fell short of producing a winner. A half a point is not good enough. The goal of the team should be to be the best they can be, not to be good at some stuff. More OBP is an absolute necessity. More power is an absolute necessity. OBP is the bigger of the two problems because it's been a problem for much longer. This team doesn't have a problem getting SLG when it tries.
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Come on, you know Hendry's m.o of overpaying for mediocrity isn't just confined to players. I can't wait to see Pierre's contract next year.... better yet, yes I can wait. I'm guessing you won't have to wait more than 2.5 months.
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On this site? I don't know, probably, if you just think of the percentages. But I know there are people on here that don't think increasing OBP should be a priority.
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That is exactly what I would do. At this point, I would assume he could do the job until he proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that he cannot. A guy like that is going to at least match the production Neifi would give you (without the threat of the manager playing him all the time).
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The Cubs were the 2nd highest slugging team in the leage in both 2004 and 2005, yet they were only middle of the road or worse in runs scored, because of their lack of baserunners. It is so blatantly obvious what the problem is. Everybody can see it. But some just refuse to admit it. And some wonder why people are rude to the ignorant non-believers.
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That's just not true. The Cubs have promoted plenty of guys to the next level without any semblence of success behind them.
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Simply put, more baserunners means more runs. Dusty doesn't think that's true. Dusty thinks baserunners can be a negative. There's no way to spin this. Dusty doesn't like guys getting on base. He likes power, and he likes runners, but getting on base, in and of itself, does nothing for Dusty. And it shows in the pathetic results the Cubs have put up under his watch.
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Ryu was the rumored starter for O'Malley's scheduled start, I wonder if that's changed.
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God I hope you're kidding.... Animal House, Caddyshack, Stripes, Back To School, Ghost Busters, Groundhogs Day, Va-freaking-cation. The guys been involved with some of the greatest movies ever made.
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Harold Ramis is a genius. I forgot the Cubs were even playing, haven't been bringing my XM to work. What an explosion.
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Williams had a career ERA+ of 110 coming into this season, including a 130 as a 21 year old rookie. I have not been a Williams fan, but he at stood a good chance of being a decent starter. Although I'm not even sure that was the guy Hendry was even banking on. They seemed to have a problem with his motivation going back to last season. I think Hendry was banking on kids plugging the holes. But his big problem was hoping Wood would be okay, and not factoring in any insurance for Prior going down. There's nothing wrong with taking a risk like the one they took on Miller. But if you are going to take risks on your rotation, you better have some sure things in the lineup. Likewise, if you are going to take risks with the lineup, you better have sure things pitching. Hendry chose not to have a solid lineup nor a solid rotation.
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debunk is a great word
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I remember Lennie. As an aside, is anybody else concerned about the lack of youth on the Bears line? I've long been concerned about depth of that unit. And the age just keeps going up. Garza is the only guy under 29. A few of them are well over 30. We are hoping for the offense to keep getting better, but it won't happen if the line suffers any setbacks. I hope they can find some young depth on the waiver wire.