JC

http://timstvshowcase.com/emeril2.jpg BAM!

interesting..... in that case, this Sox The real scoop may be Fanzone's advanced trolldar. Maybe I didn't really read things correctly but he never said to ban himand he also admitted that his "source" was a low ranking Reds person who would catch the occasional bit of big news before it happened. If the mods decide to do that, that's fine, but I am certainly not doing this for a laugh or to get people's hopes up. I think most folks conceded that he laid out the appropriate disclaimers. However, when a member comes on and indicates that they may recognize a pattern in a new poster's rumor, there shouldn't be any surprise if a more skeptical look is taken with respect to the rumor and/or the poster.

interesting..... in that case, this Sox The real scoop may be Fanzone's advanced trolldar.

As you noted, a crappy first couple of weeks at of the gate will do that to you. A good spring and 25 cents will get you a cup of coffee. Maybe.

The team has 14 wins or Mulder does? I though Mulder was sitting on 10. Anyway, Juan Cruz has a 1.86 ERA for AAA Sacramento in 5 starts (1-0). He has pitched 29 innings. Meanwhile, the jewel of the deal for Hudson, Dan Meyer, is still struggling for Sacramento with an ERA over 5.50 with a 1-5 record. As I suspected, Oakland will be fine with respect to its pitching. Beane now has to focus on cleaning up the offense.

Pujols is ominously lurking within striking distance in both RBI and homers. His +.330 average is worrisome as well. Can't the Cardinals give us anything?!

Don't take this the wrong way, but six commas on one sentence has gotta be some sort of record. ;) Quite a nice rate stat BK! :D In high school I had an English teacher who had us write the longest run-on sentence we possibly could as an assignment. I have no idea how many commas I used, but I do remember my particular entry clocked in at three and half pages. Ms. West was not amused. A conservative estimate of two commas per page gives you seven (2*3.5). Your estimate is way too conservative. A run-on sentence for even just a page would require many more commas lest the reader would pass out from lack of oxygen if it were being read aloud, or develop debilitating brain cramps if read silently.

Even if the trade doesn't go down it doesn't necessarily mean the poster made it up. We know from the Bruce Levine fiasco earlier this year that trades can be reported by reputable sources and still not get finalized. Perhaps one of the teams backs out at the last minute, or perhaps the poster's source got bad information. One false report (if in fact it does turn out to be false) shouldn't be grounds for banning somebody. If he repeatedly makes false reports (as opposed to one time) that would be different. I think this is right on. In addition, I would add that he made all of the appropriate disclaimers. If you go out and mortgage your house to bet it all on the Cubs winning the Wild Card because the will get Dunn based on this rumor, you deserve to lose your house.

Not to quibble with you, but just a reminder: in the last 8 games (3 against FLA, 4 against PIT and last night against CINCY), Jerry Hairston has had 40 plate apperances with just 10 hits and 2 walks. If you do the math, that's .300 OBP. I'm not satisfied with that. The Cubs may be 7-1 in those 8 games, but we can thank the starting pitching and Walker, Lee and Ramirez. Hairston has been pretty lousy lately. In defense of Hairston, we know he is not a .300 OBP guy. He isn't in a good stretch right now. And, while not getting on base, he still has had some quality ABs at the top of the lineup to make the pitcher work. That said, I wouldn't care if Hairston is replaced. I agree with CPatt's reasoning above. I've always been a Walker for leadoff advocate. If Nomar return, slip him in the two spot. If not, try Cedeno at the top. But, for the love of all that is holy, keep Neifi out of both the one and two holes!!!!

Walker Nomar Lee Nixon ARam Burnitz Barrett Gerut/Patterson Yeah, I could live with that... :cyclopsani:

Despite the reports of Corey's demise, I don't think the organization has given up on him, even for this year. The Cubs have expended a ton of money and time to develop Corey. I think drafting his brother was in part a demonstration of how much that value Corey and want to make him happy. While Dusty and Hendry are no doubt disappointed with him, I don't see him going anywhere anytime soon. Thus, expect him traded by midnight.

LOL! I know some posters may get torqued off with calling Dusty stupid, but the simplicity of this post still made me laugh harder than I should have.

No "Other". No "Neither". No "The thought of either choice made me stroke out so I can't vote." Pick one, and own your selection.

Between 1997 and 2004 (his full MLB seasons), Nomar has averaged about 123 games a year. Of course, those totals are due primarily to two injury plagued seasons of 2001 and 2004. While he played about 156 games in both 2002 and 2003, he missed 18-27 games in the years 1998, 1999, and 2000. (Please excuse me if some of the years are wrong, I'm going on memory here.) He hasn't been the most durable guy for his career, but was pretty healthy prior to the 2004 season. I really thought he would have a great year, but it was cautious optimism in light of his injuries, mostly because they seem like the type that can linger. EDIT: Crap. Had I waited a minute or so longer, I could have just read these stats from the posts above.

I suppose someone should ask, what exactly should we have "faith" in with respect to Hendry? Faith that the Gerut/Dubois trade was a good one? Faith that he will make another trade? Faith that if he makes another trade, it will be a good one? Faith that this team will make it to the playoffs as constructed? Faith that he will make a move to propel this team to the playoffs? Faith that he will make a move to propel this team to be WS champions? The responses that have been provided, including my first one, have been varied as the question is somewhat vague.

Synonyms aren't truly definitions, anyway. While some synonyms might be interchangeable, it certainly depends on the context in which the words are used. Personally, I don't equate irony with sarcasm. Perhaps that is a flaw in my language skills.

I think the Gerut deal was a precursor to something else. I don't know how if could factor into a deal for Moises, but I still think that could be a possibility, though I don't know how his All Star comments played out in Tribune Tower.

I'm no big fan of Hendry's as a GM based on what I've seen of his methods, negotiating philosophies, adherence to conventional baseball philosophies, etc. However, that is not to say that I don't recognize that there is more than one way to skin a cat. Hendry hasn't made any move that I can think of that blew up in his face. That, of course, is a good thing. But, threads like this tend to focus on his accomplishments in a vacuum. I have no doubt that he is doing his utmost to help the Cubs succeed. It would floor me if anyone is outworking him based on all of the reports about his personality and work habits. But, to say that he has earned my "faith" would be inaccurate at this point.

Good for Claussen. I like guys that don't try to hide it when they know they had a bad night. Tossing in a Gallagher reference demonstrates his range.

I've disliked the Cubs' road hats since they went to the two tone red/blue a couple of years ago. It looks like a party hat.

If you want to get something straight, recognize that your post is nothing but pompous hot air. Your post was more about spin than setting any record straight. The thread speaks for itself. If I misread one of your posts and responded inaccurately, it is there for everyone to fairly see. My posting history evidences that I don't try to manipulate people's posts. Your assertion that I ignored some aspect of your posts is garbage. I may have missed some point of yours, but I don't intentionally ignore points that detract from my points. If that is a tactic that you utilize, along with half-assed assumptions, please don't project those onto me. Your passive aggressive attack that I am unreasonable is likewise misplaced.

San Diego's road sandy road unis strike me as home uniforms that are just sweat stained. Road uniforms should be gray, not yellowish-sandy tan.

Over

no it wasn't. the assertion was that the Cubs underachieved the entire year due to injuries. it was you who decided that the analysis needed to be arbitrarily confined to post June 11' date=' for what reason I have no idea.[/quote'] You had said earlier that "looking at how a team does against .500 teams is really a useless measure of how a team performs." You had also indicated that the team's poor record against +.500 teams was due to the injuries to the starting staff. I then chose June 11 as a starting point because at that time, both Wood and Prior were injured and the Cubs had completed a run to reach their high water mark of 6 about .500. At that point, I took a look at exactly how devastating the injuries to the starting staff were to the team. I found little evidence that the bullpen was the primary reason for the 18 losses they had suffered during that time period. Again, with the starting pitchers putting the team in the hole in most of the losses since June 11, I see little evidence that an overtaxed bullpen was the culprit for only being a game over .500 on July 18. Perhaps you can demonstrate some specific instances which you believe are relatable to overuse.

During the recent 8 game losing streak, the following pitchers lost: Maddux Prior Williams Mitre Wood Maddux Prior Novoa Since the high water mark of June 11 when the Cubs were 6 games over .500, they have lost 18 times, 8 of which are accounted for above. The other losses can be attributed to Maddux x 2, Mitre x 2, Rusch x 2, Zambrano, Remmy, Koronka and Ohman. I don't see an inordinate number of losses coming from Wood/Prior fill ins. You are going to expect losses from bullpen guys like Ohman, Remmy, etc. Rusch and Mitre were slated to be #5/ML pen guys anyway, so I don't necessary consider them "fill ins". Blaming the Cubs poor play during that stretch on injuries to starting pitching doesn't persuade me. But how many of those games were lost because the bullpen had been used up because of a poor start the day before? You have to take into account the overall toll that the big guns being out took on the staff, not just who lost what games on what days. No, you don't. The assertion is that the Cubs have underachieved of late due to injuries in the rotation. They have suffered 18 losses, 9 of which occurred after Prior and Wood had returned from injuries. Maddux's other loss since June 11 was a 15-5 game in which he gave up 7 runs in about 4 innings. Zambrano lost 9-4 when he had nothing. Remmy and Ohman took losses when Z and Maddux had started and worked 5.1 and 5 innings, respectively. (Maddux's five inning stint shouldn't be unusual.) That accounts for 13 of the 18 losses. Then, you have 5 losses by Koronka(1), Mitre(2), and Rusch(2), one of whom would have been the fifth starter anyway. Thus, at most, the injuries to starters accounted for 3 losses during that stretch since June 11. Even so, the expectation that your rotation will remain intact throughout the season isn't a reasonable one.