RegulusBlue

Wuertz?!?! You have to be kidding. :shock:

I wonder why these stats are not turning into runs for us? BP is still convinced that we're a decent team, but I just don't see it. I think too many of our hitters are extremely flawed, especially when they decide that a HR is the only way to get runs late (JONES, BARRETT). The numbers look pretty, but the problem is that our OBP is lining up with the players that do all the hitting. Sure Lee is an OBP monster, but he's not hitting HRs this year, and we're certainly not driving him in often. Aramis gets on often as well, but Jones does very little other than hit into DPs and Murton, Floyd, DeRosa, Izturis are not gonna hit for the power to score those guys without stringing three singles together to satisfy our station to station base running habits. There is hope on the horizon, however. If we tinker with the lineup a little, I think we can generate some more runs by putting some OBP threats ahead of the guys who can drive them in, rather than batting them 1, 3, and 4. If Soriano were moved to the fifth spot, he could drive in Aram and Lee with doubles and HRs, and Lou can still waste outs and try to play super manager when he gets on ahead of people who can bunt. Bat Murton and Theriot in either order at the top of the lineup, probably putting Murton first so he won't get Theriot doubled off due to his high grounder rate. That puts two nice OBP guys ahead of our RBI core. If you did those two things, our run production would more accurately match our stats, which is what we all want. Then the bullpen wouldn't have to be amazing to keep us in a game.

What you are seeing is players who lack patience and good coaching becoming tight and trying to hit a home run on every pitch. It's not clutch, its weakness. Our players hit better when ahead early because they don't fall into horrible habits when the situation isn't dire. These girls forget their entire approach at home whenever a "clutch" situation occurs. The notion that clutch does not exist is based on the assumption that players are the same in mind and body under duress. History bears this out in many great players with large sample sizes. If anything, clutch exists, but only as a negative, such as when Jacque Jones is the worst player in baseball history if we're down by one, or if the bags are juiced.

Yes

I wouldn't necessarily consider your discussions in this thread to be rational. Give me a break...Murton simply is not as good as most around here thinks he is. Especially the dude that has started a church named Murton. I wish he were. We'd probably be undefeated. But hey, people posting on an internet board are much more knowledgable then people actually running the teams. LOL The lunacy of it all. Murton is far from great, but he's better than Floyd and that's the point. Murton is not a god to me, nor anyone that I know. I am enamored with the fact that we have an OBP threat on the team finally who comes at a great discount, and its exactly what this team needs. Murton IS as good as I think he is, because he's proven it with numbers. He's also likely to get better over time. He is a .297/.365/.444 hitter who showed flashes of being real good last year, and pretty much throughout his career with the Cubs. His second half last year was tremendous at .320/.392/.527 and 9 of his 13 HRs on the season (after the ASB). He can play LF, and get a real shot at being a contributor for years to come. I think he's a missing cog in our broken down offensive machine, which is why I like him so much. I think you'll find that sentiment all over this board.

Who is this person?? The only person who ever seems to fit people's definition under this is Ivan Rodriguez. Pudge is only much of a hitter against lefties now. Against righties he's a 7 or 8 hitter. About the only relatively available catcher I can think of who's above average with both the glove and the bat is Greg Zaun in Toronto... and he's only above average with the glove by a slim margin. Mauer and McCann both fit the billing too, but they're gonna be in their respective organizations for a long time. LET US TRADE FOR SALTALAMACCHIA!

This guy is the pinnacle of the minority politics black market. MLB brought him in to try to stir up something, just as they did with all the Jackie Robinson stuff. I don't know how the african-american community allows people like him and Sharpton to lead them in any way.

Why, because it points out one of your corner outfielders is as about as prductive as Neifi Perez with about 1/3 of the ABs. It certainly ruffles the feathers around here to point out the flaws of the boards favorite son. Quick, guess who has the best OPS this year out of Murton, Floyd, and Jones. Hint: The answer is not Floyd or Jones He's had a couple of good games. I hope it is a sign of things to come. Ruh roh, you just backed off! The easiest way to prove that you have no case is to back off the moment stats that make a lot of sense directly ruin your point. Nice try but you are wrong. I gave him credit for a good couple of games. So shoot me. It still doesn't make up for his poor play up until Saturday. Yeah he was good the last couple of days and all of his supporters are coming out of the woodwork. I'll be sure to come back and let you know when he has his next 0 for 4 and playing the outfield like a drunken sailor. Yes it does. Players have bad games all the time, and then they have good games, and that's how it goes. One bad game is as irrelevant as one good game. Outside of the one bad game, I can really only remember a young player not getting to bat more than once a game, and then only under extreme need scenarios. The strength in the Murton camp is that his career numbers are very good at this point, and the sample size is no longer small. I'm sure you will point out his next bad game as well, because your agenda is to ruin the cubs, or just to see them ruined. Playing the bronze statue of Floyd and Jacque Jones will cost us games, and that ruins the cubs. I'm not surprised you can't see that, from your ridiculous comments. Your flimsy arguments can't hold up to the fact that even if Murton isn't better than Jones, DeRosa, and Floyd (he certainly is), he should still get the starts. He's going to get better, the others are not. You should go debate something that you have even the slightest knowledge about, which is quite possibly anywhere but here. Note: For those keeping score at home, he's backed out of two opposing viewpoints now. Thanks for playing.

Why, because it points out one of your corner outfielders is as about as prductive as Neifi Perez with about 1/3 of the ABs. It certainly ruffles the feathers around here to point out the flaws of the boards favorite son. Quick, guess who has the best OPS this year out of Murton, Floyd, and Jones. Hint: The answer is not Floyd or Jones He's had a couple of good games. I hope it is a sign of things to come. Ruh roh, you just backed off! The easiest way to prove that you have no case is to back off the moment stats that make a lot of sense directly ruin your point.

I think Omar is half of this entire thread right now.

We've actually lost more games than we've won, dude. Incorrect. Not one run in the history of baseball has ever been scored without a hitter reaching base safely. It makes absolutely no sense to bat low OBP guys in front of the best offensive player in the NL. Remember when Lee had the best season in the MLB and still had crap RBI numbers? Batting Soriano there will cause that same thing to happen. And you have no reason for this.

He's not a leadoff hitter, and he won't be as he ages. Why not put him at 5th? Good god, play Murton or Theriot first and the other 2nd. Or DeRosa can do it as well. Sorry, I had a crazy idea that Lou would use rational baseball thought for a moment. My bad. :pig:

Murton is our second best defensive OF, and our second best offensive OF. He's not getting to play enough, and was pressing in some of his sparse opportunities. He had a horrid game the other day. He is still a really good player on the upswing. He should be playing. I hope the Cubs lose every game they aren't smart enough to start him in. Sitting Murton is the Cubs losing the struggle to actually play their best players through history. Sitting the Matt Murtons of the world is the reason that we always have aging veterans with their wheels coming off sucking for us. Its why we don't develop position players. Its why we never win or build for the future. To willfully ignore this for 100 years is criminal, and Hendry should be publicly hanged for it along with the Trib, Dusty, and now Lou. This one player is the focal point of our current battle in the war on front office ineptitude, and the fans are losing big on this one. Many think we're better than our record, but that's only true if play the best players. Playing more low OBP hackers who only swing for the fences when we're down a run will only cost us the season, as it has been already. My one question is: Who came up with the devious plan to tell us that Murton would start and bat 2nd, and Lou wants eight guys who walk all the time? Its like they do know how a good team should be run, but they're doing it their own way to spite us. I am beginning to believe that the Cubs would rather lose and collect cash than win.

This year couldnt' really get any worse.

Its really aggravating how this whole "rap music is to blame" bullcrap is coming to the forefront again. People like to find scapegoats, and rap is somehow convenient in this case. People are afraid to talk about these issues for whatever reason, so they bring up rap music and alcohol as reasons for the behavior. Its more a symptom of some extremely, pathetically weak fools taking out their out of control emotions and anger on the other sex. Anyone who hits a woman is worse than a subhuman, regardless of how it happened. Its not rap or drugs, its just foul souls who don't deserve the lives they have.

Sweet Justice. Hit the showers, Cliff.

God he is not better than Murton. Neither is Floyd. This team will lose more than it should as long as we play

Jones is an abomination to Cubdom. Worst ABs ever. I predict 4-3.

LOL He can't run at all. This team is the biggest joke on earth. I hope we lose every game until Hendry is fired and Murton gets to play.

Cliff is a bad player. I like Murton here better by far.

There are so few elements of a good team on teh Cubs this year. Lee, Ramirez, Barrett (I guess), Hill.

Did everyone leave?

Come on now. We are the worst against bad pitchers.

DAmmit.

This is irrelevant. Nobody should make this a class or race war, which is inevitably where this is going. Let's just talk about men beating their wives. (First time I've ever said that.)