goonys evil twin

Thanks for the numbers. The Phillies never thought of putting Sandberg there and since the Cubs have Patterson at 2nd behind him maybe that's the reason. I just want the Cubs to plug in some strong players from the minors and not just fillers. I think if Moore could do it he could be a very good numbers wise hitting 2nd baseman. That would make it just one less hole for the Cubs to fill. That's what I'm saying. How old is Epatt? He has to be at least 22 or 23 and his ops is around, what, 75 points lower than Moore's? If Moore could hack it there defensively, he probably would be already. With this regime's infatuation with ball catching, I don't see it happening. I think they are going to try to play the 8 best fielders at each position and then worry about offense after the fact.

Is that crap necesssary?

if the cubs produced someone the caliber of johnson or soriano, i'd be doing backflips of glee. Yeah, I'm not Soriano fan, but if the Cubs produced a guy like that I'd have a lot less to complain about. Besides, just saying that it's been a while since Jeter and Posada doesn't mean much. They did produce those guys just 10 years ago, and they are still playing and producing for the team. The Cubs have gone much much longer since developing just one similar player, let alone two. Take Soriano, Johnson, Jeter and Posada, and you've got 4 guys in 10 years that blow away anything the Cubs could put together the 12 years MacPhail and Hendry have been in charge.

I like the lack of disgusting Cubs performances for 4 days.

And the absurdity of calling it a HOF enshrinement ceremony has been a bit obvious as well.

I don't understand your point here...wouldn't Walker be attractive to other teams for all the same reasons you think he's attractive to keep for the Cubs? Maybe you're right...it's a gut feeling we won't get a lot for him though. If they're going to have a fire sale, then fine...trade him and get what you need. But I guess I just don't see that they have a real plan for 2B. Maybe they do, and if they do, fine. It's just my feeling that Walker is one of the few OBP sources you have on this team, and we're going to trade him away while keeping much worse players. I'm not even a huge Walker fan, or really all that attached to him, I just don't evision getting a player back for Walker that will make this team better. Maybe it's just the pessimissim that's been slowly growing in me while watching the Cubs the last couple of years. I'd question what they'd get for Walker as well. But you don't just have to trade him alone. You could package him with a reliever and maybe a young pitching prospect. I'm not sure they have a plan for 2B, but I'm pretty sure they plan on having somebody other than Walker out there next year, maybe Cedeno, probably Neifi. I would just like to see them at least get something of value in return, as the draft pick possibilities are higher questionable (even if he is Type A he could be signed by a team wtih a protected 1st round pick, lowering the value of compensation).

I don't understand your point here...wouldn't Walker be attractive to other teams for all the same reasons you think he's attractive to keep for the Cubs? I think his point is they should keep him around for next year. I like having Walker on the team, but I'm all for trading him if somebody is interested. He's 33 now, meaning his decline is coming. He's a nice piece to have, but by no means is he a difference maker or a cornerstone player. Combine him with a bullpen arm and you might have a pretty good trade package.

I don't think Hendry understands the concept of seeing what a kid has, or letting him work through early troubles. Jim is on record complaining about the young players not doing enough this year in their brief stints. He seems to think that if you are a good player, you will have good results as soon as you jump into the majors, then he takes it as an insult when a player doesn't do well right away.

I could do without a team that blames the results on bad luck.

I wish they would honor Dusty's wishes. It makes no sense to me whatsoever. If it is true he declined the offer for an extension. If his team is playing terrible and he won't be around next year anyway Then, why not get rid of him and get on with whatever the future holds? Hendry is doing everything he can to talk him into returning?

Yes, please no Type A middle relievers this year.

I second this, but it would mean Hendry saying that he made a mistake with Jones's contract. I think he might be too proud for that. If Hendry thought Jones was just the best option in a bad bunch, then maybe he'd view it as an opportunity to trade up. But if he really believes what he said about Jones, then he's keeping him.

John Hollinger. He's one of the founding fathers of APBRmetrics -- basketball's answer to SABRmetrics. He's an Insider columnist. ESPN makes a number of his basketball metrics available to Insiders. Do you have an Insider membership? Hollinger's latest article answers your comments so perfectly, it'd be a shame to have to summarize it. I should have insider, since I subscribe to that crap magazine, but I've never signed up.

I actually would not be surprised. The timing of Hendry's extension was stupid. Why wait to see how the team rebounds from last year and then give the extension so early, when you haven't learned anything. And Hendry had shown nothing but absolute love for Baker up until very recently. Every beat writer insisted there was a deal that was out there but it was waiting to be announced. And every story about Dusty suggested he hated Chicago, couldn't handle the criticism, and wasn't long for this job. It would be very poetic if our only way out of the Dusty mess was for Dusty to walk away.

But it's not. There are guys who could be worse, and there's no way to tell if he really is THE worst, but it's not hard to support the claim that he is among the worst. The defense that he can't control his playing time doesn't mean a thing. He got the playing time, he negatively affected his teams simply by playing. That's enough to judge the player. Just about any reasonable replacement player would have done better. A spoiled little brat of a kid might not be to blame for the way his parents raised him, but that's not to say you can't criticize the kid's actions. If Neifi didn't play for the Cubs I wouldn't care about how crappy he is. But he does play, and he has hurt the team because he's been so bad. So maybe Macias is worse. But he's not in the game anymore. Augie Ojeda is worse, but he's in the minors. It says something when the few guys that are worse are guys that can't compete at the major league level. As a rule, you can assume that every criticism of Neifi is a criticism of how the Cubs use him and the fact that they even employ him. But the complaints about his play are very real, and very much justified.

Agreed. Tinkering with a lineup is a necessity to give players the occasional day off. You also have to deal with injuries as well as slumps and hot streaks. Like you said, it's not a bad thing if done correctly. I don't agree that tinkering is good. I think adjusting is. Tinkering suggests you're just randomly testing guys in different spots. I don't like the idea of trying a kid in the 8 hole, then leadoff, then 6th, etc. It's one thing if you are flip flopping your 3 and 4 hitter for some valid reason. And it's great to platoon guys with obvious L/R splits. But just throwing out different combinations isn't likely to create a positive atmosphere.

Nobody that plays as often as he does is insignificant. Who cares if somebody else has been worse? The fact is he's dreadfully awful. There's no getting around that fact. He's proven it time and time again over the course of a long career.

The risk would have been completely reasonable if Hendry had even done a moderate job of filling out the rest of the lineup. Every team should try and blend in a kid or two a year, it'll allow them to spend more on actual difference makers. The problem is when you need those guys to be really good in order for your lineup to be any good. With the way this lineup was constructed, Murton had to platoon with Jones and they needed another impact corner OF.

http://www.northsidebaseball.com/PremiumForum/viewtopic.php?t=33557 fyi

No, it's not decent, a .299 OBP is pathetic. It's terrible overall, and it's bad even for a shortstop. Then what would you consider Ronny's line against lefties to be? This arguent blows up every couple of weeks it seems. Put me in the cam that believes Neifi catches a lot of unncessary criticism. SHould he have a 2 year deal? No. Would it hurt my feelings if he wasn't on the team? No. Is he as bad aas everyone wants to make him out to be? No. He's insignificant and doesn't merit as much discussion as he seems to generate. His playing time doesn't support the claim that he is insignificant. And yes, he is as bad as people claim him to be.

There's nothing wrong with pushing past previous highs. But he's coming off back to back years of about 80 IP, and he's on pace for 170. It's mostly the recurring injury issues that is causing me concern, more so than the career high thing. I do think they've shown some caution, but part of that is Marshall hasn't been very good the 3rd time through lineups, and they will have to pay more and more attention to the issue the further he goes. I think it would be wise to fit in more off days than just the all star break.

Since when did 150 innings become enough to blow out a pitcher's arm? Watching pitch counts is one thing, but this is a little absurd. You don't think there's any reason to be careful with a pitcher who is on his way to completely destroying his previous career high in innings pitched in a year? It's not a matter of shutting him down, but how about taking some preemptive measures with a pitcher's health instead of just assuming that health is completely up to chance? You'll have to point the area in my post where I stated there is no reason to be careful with a young pitcher...I can't find it either. I'm asking how 150 IP is the new arm blowout total, especially given 200 IP the gold standard for a durable pitcher. Marshall has only eclipsed 100 pitches twice this year, and those games were 102 PC. Seems to me Dusty's staff has been pretty careful with Marshall thus far. The kid needs to build up big league arm strength and putting him in long relief right now or removing him from the rotation only hurts his development. When you called it absurd that people were voicing concern of Marshall's IP numbers you pretty much insinuated there's no reason to be careful with his IP numbers. Nobody said 150 IP is the new arm blowup level. But 150 is beyond his career high, and he has had injuries in just about every year, so it's not absurd at all to say you would hate to see him cruise past his previous highs and blow his arm out.

Which one is Hollinger? I know the name, but can't picture him. I'm not a fan of Simmons' football or baseball analysis. I can't stand on my own two feet when it comes to basketball talk, but I assume he leaves a lot to be desired there. I just thought it was interesting that somebody referenced Simmons and his "3rd year leap" theory when defending the Bulls moves, given that Simmons doesn't like the Bulls moves (not to mention, he seems to be echoing what I think might be a problem). I just get the feeling a lot of people have gone overboard with Bulls elation due to a big drop in expectations. They made the playoffs in a league where it's hard not to make the playoffs. They are still just a .500 team, they replaced a young inconsistent player whose best strenghts were defense and rebounding with an older, declining players whose best strenghts are defense and rebounding, but they still lack a true game changer, which from what I can gather, is how you win in the NBA.

Sick of coddling? Dusty has abused his pitchers more than any manager in baseball. They haven't been coddled, at all.

Since when did 150 innings become enough to blow out a pitcher's arm? Watching pitch counts is one thing, but this is a little absurd. You don't think there's any reason to be careful with a pitcher who is on his way to completely destroying his previous career high in innings pitched in a year? It's not a matter of shutting him down, but how about taking some preemptive measures with a pitcher's health instead of just assuming that health is completely up to chance?