seanimal

Just over an hour away...

Shucks

Are you kidding me? This is absurd. He's right in-line with his career average. They need him to be as good as he was in his career year. If his slugging being 38 points below his career average is 'in-line' than yes, you're right. If not, my statement is not quite as absurd as you wish it to be. 2007 - .288/.335/.471 110 OPS+ career - .280/.326/.509 115 OPS+ He's right in line with his career norms. I was attempting to have a discussion concerning his OBP and SLG and the implications of his lack of the latter on his production of important numbers, but you seem more concerned with participating in an argument that doesn't exist by putting things in my mouth. Like.. Cool. Never said that. or that. I am concerned. What I said was I'll make a judgment when the year is over, or close to it. What is silly is judging a player based on a very limited amount of AB's coming off a career year in a low pressure situation, who has just signed a huge contract with an organization with huge expectations, who is slightly injured, and expecting him to put up career numbers. But that's just me. Didn't say that exactly, but I'm not surprised you would take it there. The fact of the matter is that yes, his contract is too much money over too many years, however, for an organization that can afford to spend money at the rate that the Red Sox do, there are bigger worries. Unless something catastrophic happens, I don't foresee this contract impeding the ownership's ability to go out and get marquee free agents, considering the amount of revenue they pull in. Obviously. NO! WAY! "Peanut butter sandwiches don't taste that great. Sometimes they taste great. I need this peanut butter sandwich to blow my mind."

Are you kidding me? This is absurd. He's right in-line with his career average. They need him to be as good as he was in his career year. If his slugging being 38 points below his career average is 'in-line' than yes, you're right. If not, my statement is not quite as absurd as you wish it to be.

Like the Michael Jordan statue? Hmm, I think there is a distinct difference between Banks and Jordan that begs exception. That being that one of those individuals was the single finest player in the history of his sport, the other being one that put up decent numbers that have since been surpassed by an even better player. So. You said it would be weird if they built a statute of him while alive. Jordan is just one of many examples of statues built for live people. Which I said 'begs exception', which means, he's different. Ernie Banks deserves to be honored, I just think it's weird to immortalize someone who hasn't yet fulfilled the expectations of mortality, Jordan or not. But I think the case for Jordan is a lot stronger than Ernie Banks. Just my opinion.

No, no it's not. That is simply false. If, and only if, his numbers stay static or fall by October then I'll gladly tell you you're right, but denying something such as 'small sample size' just because people say it often rather than providing some sort of logical reasoning other than 'it's 25% of his year' as to why it's irrelevent is beyond me. 150 AB's is enough to have an idea where a player is going and where he has been so far, but it certainly is not enough evidence to say where he's going to end up. I guess not. They bid on an upgrade. It cost a lot. They don't need him to be great, they need him to perform at his career average, which he isn't doing yet. How much money they pay for him is wholly irrelevent when you're speaking of one the largest profit margins in professional sports. They paid for the right to obtain him, not to fulfill your bloated expectations of what certain amounts of dollars should exact. Prudent. Silly. Tomato. Tomahto. Cool, lets ignore that he's our most productive outfielder offensively, save 'small sample size' Angel Pagan. But it would be 'silly' to wait and see.

No matter what, i'll never stop rooting against the knicks. Y? The 1990's among other reasons...

No matter what, i'll never stop rooting against the knicks. Y? Because it is a Chicagolander's duty to despise every and all sports teams that originate from the New York City area. Though, NYC itself is pretty sweet.

What time is the lottery taking place? IBL?

Like the Michael Jordan statue? Hmm, I think there is a distinct difference between Banks and Jordan that begs exception. That being that one of those individuals was the single finest player in the history of his sport, the other being one that put up decent numbers that have since been surpassed by an even better player. Awesome, can this be arranged?

Well, that's only 5 points off of where he's at right now, looking more thoroughly at the numbers, but his SLG is way down, and I don't expect that to continue, more specifically.

That's the part that makes me chuckle. 8 freaking RBI's? That's terrible! His defense hasn't been all that bad. How many assist's does he have 5-6 already? His arm has been fine. His glove and his routes are terrible. I'm willing to bet that his defensive play has negated the OF assists as far as runs scored go. And 8 RBI on May 22 is pretty lousy. True. His routes are terrible. I still can't get over the 8 RBI's...Unreal! Who would've thought that Sammy Sosa would be more productive at this point in the season. Oh man... I'm not surprised, typical Cub, if something bad can happen, it will, if a player who has put big numbers is going to struggle, he will. Not really. Barrett, Lee, and Aram where all better then expected... Some of those weren't good at the beginning of the season though. The big time position players that the Cubs acquire during offseasons have had a habit of struggling early in the season in their first year with the team. If you look back at the past 6 offseasons, the 6 newcomers who I think had the most expectations placed on them were this: 1) Soriano, 2) Alou, 3)Lee, 4)Pierre, 5) Burnitz, 6) Jones. Only Burnitz had a good start to the season, and even he had an awful May. Everybody else had to overcome their horrible starts with the club to try to salvage a good year. I'll wait to see if Soriano can do the same. I meant since we first aquired them. Not just this year... I think that's what he meant too, if I read it correctly.

:-k Umm. Small sample size is in play right now. Over the course of 600+ at-bats we'll be able to better judge Soriano's value to the team. He's 31, which is still a 'prime' year. A career 115 OPS+ seems like a decent history of production that gives me confidence that he'll turn things around. I'm not even sure these statements make any sense. In fact, I'm pretty sure they don't.

Hmm, don't get me wrong, I'm all for honoring Ernie Banks as the next guy, but uh, to make a statue of someone who's still alive seems kind of... odd.

Actually, it's more RBI's and HR's than everyone besides ARam, more doubles than everyone but Lee and Soriano, more total bases than everyone but Ramirez and Lee. Of players with at least 50 PA's he has a higher OPS than everyone but Ramirez and Lee. Not bad for a guy just flailing away for HR's. Oh, so he has better stats than everyone on the Cubs not named Lee, Ramirez or Soriano? The Sosa man-love crowd is a weeeeird bunch. Well, Sosa is a man. Being a good to great baseball player will inspire love. I hope you were being sarcastic, as all available evidence would prove (sample size be damned) that this team would obviously would benefit from having Sosa in the lineup.

I just fell out of my chair.

ugh

that's real encouraging. this organization is mind-boggling in its incompetence. That's good. Last time out, his fastest pitch of the night was 84 mph. At this pace, in 3 more starts, he'll hit 100 on his fastest pitch! Touche!

It would be even better if it was Juan Pierre. That'd be like... $200,000. That money would be better spent on Juan Pierre's rap studio. "Wrigley Field, Wrigley Field... (i'm not going to say anything else cause my command of the english language isn't capable of rhyming with 'field')"

and probably drive up his price quite a bit imagine if he gets labeled as a good defender, then you could be talking some real bucks Just tell Jim that Dunn has 'tools' and he'll offer him a 10-year contract.

This is what the cliche captains call 'stuck between a rock and a hard place'.

Was he eating poppyseed muffins? Well that should be his defense. "I'm a sucker for lemon poppyseed muffins. 400 of them I eat a day. Betty Crocker."

Run-on alert! /grammar nazi mode off

At least that's... less bad.

hopefully something involving a hip-check and a woodchipper.