imb

Are we supposed to ignore his '05 numbers? No. You are supposed to consider whether they are the norm or the exception. No. You need to decide whether at this stage, he is worth the risk of banking on it not turning into the norm. That is exactly what someone does when they "consider whether they (his '05 stats) are the norm or the exception". So you may have wanted to start your response with the word "yes" instead of "no". I dont think it is. Obviously his 05 numbers are the exception so far, everyone who says "HE HAS A CAREER .350 OBP" points this out pretty well. The question isnt whether 05 is an exception or the norm, its whether it will be. Again, that is the same thing. When one is trying to figure out whether what just happened recently is the exception or the norm, they are essentially trying to predict the future. So... No they arent. Obviously 05 is the exception, the question is will he revert back to the norm, when he was useful, or will the exception (worthless) become the norm. I mean, really, we're just arguing semantics. I imagine we both have the same feelings about Pierre.

Are we supposed to ignore his '05 numbers? No. You are supposed to consider whether they are the norm or the exception. No. You need to decide whether at this stage, he is worth the risk of banking on it not turning into the norm. That is exactly what someone does when they "consider whether they (his '05 stats) are the norm or the exception". So you may have wanted to start your response with the word "yes" instead of "no". I dont think it is. Obviously his 05 numbers are the exception so far, everyone who says "HE HAS A CAREER .350 OBP" points this out pretty well. The question isnt whether 05 is an exception or the norm, its whether it will be.

Are we supposed to ignore his '05 numbers? No. You are supposed to consider whether they are the norm or the exception. No. You need to decide whether at this stage, he is worth the risk of banking on it not turning into the norm.

I guess part two of this article covers Furcal's career .64isop Pierre's career .50isop, right in line with last years. This is just another article written by a caveman that hasnt discovered obp yet.

needs more cliches

he grabbed the bottle and slammed it into the stands

what is mlbtraderumors.com saying about this

How would UCLA get screwed. They would win the PAC-10 and get an automatic berth, right? I'm still unclear on this. I thought I read that USC could lose and still win the PAC-10 If UCLA defeats USC, there would be a 3-way tie for first place (Oregon, USC, UCLA). Then they'd go to losses against common opponents - losing to a worse team is worse. Obviously, UCLA will be eliminated there. Obviously it's their fault for losing to a bad Arizona team. But that 1 loss has more than likely eliminated UCLA from a BCS game, which I think is a screw job. If UCLA beats USC they should get an at-large over ND since ND's claim to fame is that they almost beat USC. I think Notre Dame's claim to fame is that they didn't get beaten by 35 points by Arizona. But I agree that if UCLA wins, it'd be hard not to give them a bid - certainly harder than denying Oregon. What team has ND beat that was any good, besides Michigan?

i really dont see how you cant get Farns for less than 5mil a year, but good for him.

It was a photoshop job. How do you know that? Look at the pic closer. If it were on tv the video would be floating around. So, maybe it wasn't taken off of video. Thousands of people have taken still cameras to games. I'm pretty sure that was a real picture. are you kidding me? Look at Mac's arms in that picture, one is horribly small because it was photoshopped. I mean, its a funny picture, but it's one of the most obvious photoshops ever.

Hahahha is this your m.o.? I swear, the next time you make a post that isn't an after the fact contradiction of someone, it will be the first.

I think he did an interview with them. probably the second best interview he did all year, imo.

We're the Cubs not the Royals. A budget is a budget. What do you have a degree in? (if you don't mind my asking) the main problem is everyone assumes we know what the budget is and how much we have to spend. We also assume we have a very strict budget. Has anyone seen the tribune say over the past couple of years we can only spend "X" much, or we must cut payroll to get below budget. If one or two million is standing between us getting a key player and us not getting him why are we that concerned. This is not going to prevent us from being able to make a big move. This is the thing though. Youre saying "hey, you dont know how much we have to spend, no one has said how much we have to spend! Dont complain about such and such" but then you say "if we need a few million to sign an impact guy, we'll do it!" It cant be both ways, you cant call someone out for saying the first thing, and then you say the second thing, that's not how it works. You dont know that Hendry will say "oh jeez, i just gave old jacque jones 7 mil a season, and look, Vlad is out on the market. Oh well, what's another 3 mil! Bring on Vladdy Daddy". You dont know that Hendry would say that because it's not his money. He's not out there writing out a check to these dudes from his bank of america checking account, this is the Trib's money, and who's to say they are going to eff around. "Oh sure Jim, you put a clunker out there the last two seasons, and now all this money we're giving you isnt enough. Here's another 2 mil you big irresponsiblt coot, you". We dont know, you cant say "you dont know how much we have to spend" and then say "we can spend a few more extra if we need to". Nobody knows, its a big mystery, it's D.B. Cooper's money here, it's a secret.

and the red white and blue snap belt, snazzy!

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Ironic isn't it? Do you think if Nomar was more 'motivated' he could have avoided such an injury? And here we are two years after the trade, counting on Murton and watching backwards Ramon take 55 out of town. Nomar has one of the most intense workout regimens in baseball. I think SI did a story on a while back. Good point. Don't try to piggyback his thoughts. Right. CPatterson never has an original thought. Gimme a break. See Cpatt? Even the mods are onto you.

Hawkins, Rojas, Alfonseca, etc. were good before becoming Cubs. If you gripe every time the Cubs sign a reliever via free agency, you're bound to be correct 95% of the time. It's a snake bitten organization. lol how was alfonseca "good"? How long you been following baseball?? Since 2002?? Alf had a good stretch from 99-01. Then he became a Cub. Alf had exactly two decent seasons before coming to the cubs (99 and 01), and one of those (99) was flukey. (his 2000 season, that you included in your list of good seasons, was awful) He's not good, he's never been good, he's like the majority of relievers in baseball, incredibly inconsistant. Maybe it's you should take up watching baseball.

Ironic isn't it? Do you think if Nomar was more 'motivated' he could have avoided such an injury? And here we are two years after the trade, counting on Murton and watching backwards Ramon take 55 out of town. Nomar has one of the most intense workout regimens in baseball. I think SI did a story on a while back. Good point. Don't try to piggyback his thoughts. no kidding, try coming up with your own thing everyonce in awhile.

Hawkins, Rojas, Alfonseca, etc. were good before becoming Cubs. If you gripe every time the Cubs sign a reliever via free agency, you're bound to be correct 95% of the time. It's a snake bitten organization. lol how was alfonseca "good"?

Yup. Here's Ryan v. Dempster, and remember that Demp began 2005 in the rotation: http://www.baseballreference.com/r/ryanb.01.shtml http://www.baseball-reference.com/d/dempsry01.shtml Anyone have Dempster's closer-only stats? Dempster as a reliever in 05': 4-0 57 G 1.85 ERA 33/35 sv/svo 58.1 IP 46 H 12 ER 1 HR 3 HBP 27 BB/ 53 SO Yeah, those are really good. I just hope he either a.) lowers the walk rate or b.) keeps that HR/A rate, otherwise his numbers could get ugly

That's what shook me - 3 years made more sense. The spending is over the top so far this year, and it ain't just Hendry. Well, Wagner was offered 4 years, and Ryan is younger (with far less mileage on his arm), so I guess thats not too surprising either.

We all figured it would take 9 or 10 a year to get him. It's a lot of money, but not that surprising, I guess. (Other than the years)

yamahama

i remember waking up at my friends house, seeing this deal on espnews and thinking "I NEED TO GET HOME SO I CAN READ NSBB" By the time i got here, the thread was at like 80 pages.

Good for him, he's a Georgia native, right?