BigSlick

I didn't know one way or another, but I definately knew that he has had to produce a birth certificate to travel back and forth. WELL THEN WHERE IS IT? EVERYONE ELSE'S BIRTH CERTIFICATE IS EASILY AVAILABLE AND ACCESSABLE, WHY DON'T YOU PRODUCE ALBERT'S? The truth is that Albert is really a robot therefore there is no birth certificate. Then what's his serial number??? 3152565 Also the amount of home runs he'll hit in his career. Against the cubs.

Not that anyone cares, but I'll be at my senior prom living it up. Have fun watching the Cubs flush another game down the toilet. I guess?

Yay for teh patented Dusty Baker "rally killing" bunt. Lets all root for bad strategic moves. The bunt's the smart move there. Lets waste outs! Don't be dense. It's late in a one run game, with a terrible hitter up and a singles hitter who has 2 hits on the day on deck. Absolutely you bunt there. I know, a little belated, but heres my response. If you can't bunt, don't bunt. How many times have we practically thrown outs at the opposition because we can't even lay down a bunt? Its sickening.

Neifi has done quite will in the clutch this year.... driving in 11 of 44 baserunners (25%) Bleh I wish he wouldn't do so well.

Yay for teh patented Dusty Baker "rally killing" bunt. Lets all root for bad strategic moves. The bunt's the smart move there. Lets waste outs!

Yay for teh patented Dusty Baker "rally killing" bunt. Lets all root for bad strategic moves.

Congrats to him, I'm rooting for the A's over here in Chi-town. With the Cubs sucking it up, I gotta root for a team that has a good philosophy.

I'm tired of comments like this. He can't force people to get on base. Home runs are home runs. You can't choose for them to be meaningful or not.

He certainly is better than Orel Hershcizerjasdlkjeawr (spelling) I hate that guy.

*swoon* He puts up a 900+ OPS without hitting above .250 I love this man.

And if the Indians actually decide to play to their potential, they can be included there also. You know the Yankees and Red Sox are both going to make the postseason. They have to. I'm pretty sure it's in the baseball rule book that they both have to be in the playoffs. if they aren't, ESPN will explode I'd love to see the 2 largest payrolls sitting in the clubhouse watching the games in October. Unfortunately we know it'll never happen. :cry:

Gah! The Mets have a huge stockpile of talent. If they get someone like Clemens, they would be very scary. Almost scary enough to challenge the Braves for a division title.

HE'S 21 YEARS OLD

/end thread

Enjoy it while it lasts. You wont see him after this year.

Yeah..... but we've put double digit hits in 5 consecutive games for the first time since 08-15 July 2005. (right after they left Atlanta last year.) Go CUBS !! And, amazingly, we are 1-4 in those games. I hate being a Cubs fan.

Oh gods no, this lineup is terrible. Starting with the top. There is no reason why Walker shouldn't be leading off or in the 2 hole, along with Murton somewhere up there. Pierre and Womack need to be way down on the order. (Preferably off it completely, but we wont see that)

I agree it is likely to go up but don't put to much thought into it. How many Braves did the Cubs strike out Sunday? And how many runs did they give up? Things like baserunners and opponents average are cool but I don't care about K's as long as they get outs. I'll take a one pitch at bat where a batter pops out all day compared to a six pitch strike out. The theory is that pitchers don't really have much control of the outcome once the bat strikes the ball. A low K rate therefore can be a sign of impending doom. FWIW, Sir Sidney has never been able to miss bats, or judges for that matter. That's an interesting theory, but seems pretty weak when you consider that the two top pitching teams in baseball (Detroit and St. Louis) have horrible K/9 rates. Same for the White Sox. Last year, the top 2 teams (St. Louis and Houston) were pretty mediocre when it came to K/9. Historically, K/9 has very little correlation to the success of a pitching staff. Not only k/9 are figured but also HR and BB rate. I think one of those 2 might have been A LITTLE below average yesterday, no? A little below average yesterday, for whom? For alot of teams, I suspect. Regardless, a one-game example isn't going to tell us much. I'm guessing that K/9 is less important if you play good defense, and more important if you play poor defense. For several years, the Cards have had a mediocre K/9 number, but have been at or near the top of the league in ERA. I'm guessing alot of that has to do with solid defense. You're proving the point. Pitchers don't have a lot of control over balls in play, that's why defense has an impact. That, and well, luck. Some pitchers might have some flukey years where well hit balls turn into lineouts, and they might have some bad years where they give up a ton of bloop singles that drop. Defense certainly has a part to play, but luck may have an even bigger impact.

Maybe they shouldn't be our 7 and 8 hitters? How long must it take for our highest OBP guy to lead off? cedeno's ops is a lot higher batting 7th or 8th. might be best to keep him there and let him continue to build his confidence. While I don't argue that, I must hope at some point Murton moves further up the lineup. Theres no reason he shouldn't be batting 1st or 2nd.

Thank you! If Bonds was on the Cubs, people on this site would have such a diffrent attitude on Barry. If you support Sosa especially, then how could you hate Bonds? Ludacris. Best hitter of our generation, people. Big difference between Sosa and Bonds. First off, Sosa's not breaking any records. Second, and most importantly, Sosa is a suspected cheater, while Bonds is a known cheater. Bonds is heralded as the greatest hitter of our generation because of what he has done from 2001 and forward. That's going back to when he was 36. The 4 greatest offensive seasons of his career occured after he turned 36. He was outstanding before that, but nothing he did in his prime was ever considered Ruthian. It's been everything he did after he started juicing in 99 or 2000. I'll give you that nothing he did before 98 was ever considered Ruthian. But Bonds was the greatest player of our generation before steroids and the steriods issue makes people forget about this. If Bonds wouldn't have taken steroids, he would have been a first ballot HOFer anyway. The guy was the quintessiential five tool player. He would have ended up with over 500 HR's and over 500 SB's. He wouldn't have 715 career HR's but make no mistake about it, Bonds was a great player without steroids. Also, I read Howard Bryant's "Juicing The Game" a couple months ago and there was a line that went something like "steroids turn a average player into a good player and a good player into a great player. But who knows what they would do to a great player." Well, I think we know and Bonds is the example. I agree that without his use of performance-enhancing drugs, Bonds would have been a fist-ballot HOFer. I also believe that his use of performance-enhancing drugs is cheating and should be punished by not receiving the honor of admission to the HOF. There must be consequence for his cheating. I can't even imagine what would happen to him if he is found to have juiced 1999-2004 or whatever. (Solid proof) I dunno what would happen, would he make the Hall of Fame? Palmeiro might have checked his ticket out after last years scandal...but Bonds has been such an incredible player, it would be hard to kick him out. Pete Rose was pretty good too. While I make no distinction between betting on baseball and steroids, others seem to have. Both, to me, are good enough to ban someone for life. (I don't think we should keep Shoeless Joe Jackson out now, what kind of example is it now? He's been dead for darn near 70 years or something) I think if you get caught red-handed with steroids, you should be outta the game. Harsh? Maybe. Unfair, maybe not.

Maybe they shouldn't be our 7 and 8 hitters? How long must it take for our highest OBP guy to lead off?

"Lined out" would be the preferred term here. What a great day at the plate Murton's had today.

Thank you! If Bonds was on the Cubs, people on this site would have such a diffrent attitude on Barry. If you support Sosa especially, then how could you hate Bonds? Ludacris. Best hitter of our generation, people. Big difference between Sosa and Bonds. First off, Sosa's not breaking any records. Second, and most importantly, Sosa is a suspected cheater, while Bonds is a known cheater. Bonds is heralded as the greatest hitter of our generation because of what he has done from 2001 and forward. That's going back to when he was 36. The 4 greatest offensive seasons of his career occured after he turned 36. He was outstanding before that, but nothing he did in his prime was ever considered Ruthian. It's been everything he did after he started juicing in 99 or 2000. I'll give you that nothing he did before 98 was ever considered Ruthian. But Bonds was the greatest player of our generation before steroids and the steriods issue makes people forget about this. If Bonds wouldn't have taken steroids, he would have been a first ballot HOFer anyway. The guy was the quintessiential five tool player. He would have ended up with over 500 HR's and over 500 SB's. He wouldn't have 715 career HR's but make no mistake about it, Bonds was a great player without steroids. Also, I read Howard Bryant's "Juicing The Game" a couple months ago and there was a line that went something like "steroids turn a average player into a good player and a good player into a great player. But who knows what they would do to a great player." Well, I think we know and Bonds is the example. I agree that without his use of performance-enhancing drugs, Bonds would have been a fist-ballot HOFer. I also believe that his use of performance-enhancing drugs is cheating and should be punished by not receiving the honor of admission to the HOF. There must be consequence for his cheating. I can't even imagine what would happen to him if he is found to have juiced 1999-2004 or whatever. (Solid proof) I dunno what would happen, would he make the Hall of Fame? Palmeiro might have checked his ticket out after last years scandal...but Bonds has been such an incredible player, it would be hard to kick him out.

Agreed. If we had a quality GM, we're basically taking the steering wheel out of Baker's hands. Its hard to flub up when you have quality players on the bench and on the field.

I agree it is likely to go up but don't put to much thought into it. How many Braves did the Cubs strike out Sunday? And how many runs did they give up? Things like baserunners and opponents average are cool but I don't care about K's as long as they get outs. I'll take a one pitch at bat where a batter pops out all day compared to a six pitch strike out. The theory is that pitchers don't really have much control of the outcome once the bat strikes the ball. A low K rate therefore can be a sign of impending doom. FWIW, Sir Sidney has never been able to miss bats, or judges for that matter. That's an interesting theory, but seems pretty weak when you consider that the two top pitching teams in baseball (Detroit and St. Louis) have horrible K/9 rates. Same for the White Sox. Last year, the top 2 teams (St. Louis and Houston) were pretty mediocre when it came to K/9. Historically, K/9 has very little correlation to the success of a pitching staff. Except tons of empirical evidence supports it.