goonys evil twin

Hard pressed? Among NL catchers with 150 or more plate appearances, 8 have a higher AVG, 13 have a higher OBP and 1 has a higher SLG. Michael Barrett is a talented athlete, and has pop in his bat. But like many Cubs, he's terribly unrefined and has a terrible approach at the plate. His sub .300 OBP is a huge drag on this offense. It's truely an awful number, and that alone makes it impossible to call him productive. A handful of homeruns doesn't change his season long inability to get on base.

I don't really understand lumping in Walker with the no approach gang. Todd hasn't done anything the last three games, but he's been a good hitter since coming to the team. And he's one of the rare players on the team to consistently put together solid at bats. That doesn't mean he'll draw 3 or 4 balls every at bat, or never make a first pitch out.

1 year, or 3.5, whichever you prefer.

Well, maybe we can start getting worried tomorrow. 2-3 today with his 5th Dope slap and maybe most importantly, 2 walks. Moore is tied for third with six home runs. Dope really isn't far off the pace of the league leaders (other than Harper). They already played today? Nice turn of events. I'm not really interested in his place on the HR leaderboard. Totals don't really tell you much. I'm much more interested in the AVG/OBP/SLG line, and even with today's numbers he's nowhere near the top of the league. Check what Marte is doing so far this year: .253/.317/.453. I doubt he's going to lose his top-prospect status over a couple of cold weeks. Players go through adjustments at new levels. If it's June and Dope's still got a similar line, then I'll start to worry. It is July 5 and Dope's line is ugly: .247/.294/.360 Brian went from 23 to 1 on NSBB's top prospect list between 2004 and 2005. If he fails to improve his numbers this year, will he fall back as far? How about his reputation among the rest of the league, will he hold any value as trade bait? With guys like Cedeno, Murton, Pie and Sing producing solid numbers, it makes it easier to deal with Dopirak's struggles, but given this team's extremely poor history of developing hitters, and their lack of top notch offensive prospects in the pipeline, it's still tough to watch a guy we had such highs hopes for fail like he has this season. Add in the fact that soon to be 21 year old Ryan Harvey isn't exactly threatening to challenge Dopirak's numbers from the Midwest League last year, and the concerns about this organization's ability to draft and develop competent hitters aren't going away.

Update time. Well, when I started this thread the Cubs had 6 games left in June, they finished 4-2 in those games. You can't complain. Now it comes down to the 10 games before the all star break. 6-4 and they reach the conservative goal of going 10-6 over the 2.5 weeks leading into the break. That would leave them at 46-41 going into the second half, and probably no worse than 2-3 games out of the wild card. However, I'm really hoping for 7-3. With the aces pitching well, there's no reason they can't pull that off.

If you don't count Roberto Alomar, that is. Alomar was the best defensively for sure, but do his production numbers add up? Plus he was controversial, spit on an umpire, and really faded badly at the end of his career. Alomar's 90's offense certainly add up in comparison to Biggio during that time. They each had 4 seasons with an OBP over .400 and they each had two more over .380. Roberto had a SLG over .500 3 times, Biggio had 2. Biggio had 4 silver sluggers, Robby had 3. Biggio led his league in runs twice, Alomar once. They are all right there.

This sure isn't the way to go into that series. The Cubs owe the Nationals some payback for the crappy series they had in DC. The pitching matchups are somewhat favorable, hopefully they can get it done.

Why does Ricky Bot own the Cubs?

Stop talking, Jon. It's just so frustrating that Hendry can't see the obvious here. Sergio should not be in the 'pen. He's a sinker ball pitcher with control issues, for goodness sake. I agree that Mitre doesn't belong in the bullpen. But control problems? I thought one of his strong assets was the lack of bases on balls. His problem is too much contact, and when you are a sinkerballer coming out of the pen, it can be hard to get the necessary downward movement on your fastball to turn that contact into weak grounders.

Peg Capuano Serg. You idiot.

alright

I don't think Maddux to the pen is realistic. Unfortunately Maddux right now is a little worse than he was last year at this time. In June 2004 he had 1 disaster outing, giving up more runs than innings pitched. It was his third of the year. Unless he goes 3 more innings without giving up a run, this will be his second in June 2005 (3rd on the year). But his ERA will close June about 4.75 or worse. Fortunately we can expect some improvement in July and August. But he probably will not be as good as last year.

I think the Dread Pirate Roberts could steal off Maddux even after being mostly dead all day. To the pain!

Cubs aren't.

You need the pitchers to hit for themselves though since you only have 5 bench guys and don't want to run out early.

Are they supposed ot be so stupid they're funny? They are very odd.. I just let the MLB.TV run on my computer at work, I swear it doesn't decrease my production any more than normal... My assumption is they are trying to play off of Chicago's notorious provincialism, thinking the locals will be so excited to have their neighborhood mentioned, with little tid bits of local flavor, that they'll appreciate the ads.

Wow, Jose Macias is the starting right fielder. That is sad. Although it's kind of funny that after Dusty finally sat Neifi, he had to insert one of his other pet projects into a spot he has no business occupying.

What about the ones for Old Style? Are they the same concept?

I hate Old Style Light radio commercials. They are truly awful and nothing close to funny.

Where to begin.... Its the 1st inning. Is Overbay really a much better matchup? If you want to blame somebody, blame Madux for laying a meatball in there. I can't remember the last time I saw an intentional walk in the 1st inning. Not everything is Dusty's fault... I concur. Maddux has to make better pitches.

If Dubois is moved - and every trade on the board seems to suggest that - Hairston becomes the primary RH bat on the bench. Could argue that he's that already. I like Jason, but I'd rather have Hairston than Dubois on our bench. Burnitz and Holla aren't great options in center, so Hairston is the backup in CF, as well. Any trade involving him would need to add or move someone to the bench. Also, Ford's numbers aren't appreciably better than Jerry's. Afraid we don't have much major-league ready stuff to offer from 3B. I think Kelton would be a decent right handed bat off the bench.

Wanna give me an advanced weather report for next week's series in Atlanta? :joker: This weekend in Chicago and next week in Atlanta. Are you interested in next weekend in Miami?

Coooooo stan za

Being a lefty, Rem still has some value. Joe has pretty much been terrible since the start of 2004. I really liked the guy and appreciate what he did for this team at a very low price a few years ago. He earned his cash. But he's unlikely to bring much to this team. Even though Rem hasn't lived up to his contract, he hasn't been awful. This year his ERA is pretty high, but it's still lower than Joe's, and he's given up fewer HR in more IP than Joe. I still have moderate hope for Remlinger to either pitch halfway decently for the Cubs, or be part of a trade to a big market team in need of bullpen help (NYY, NYM and BOS need relief).

Newman, you wouldn't eat broccoli if it was deep-fried in chocolate sauce.