Mephistopheles

I don't want to take anything away from A-Rod's stats. He is a BEAST (except his RISP). My point is that the Yankees won without him, and save the 30 million for pitching!! This team won with Scott B at third and went to the series with Aaron F'in Boone. I feel it is time to go back to the winning ways of "THE TEAM" concept. 1998 Yankees, no 40 hr guys but were 125-50 (including playoffs)!!! Do all Yankee fans think this way? It's utterly stupid to think that the 98 Yankees won because of the team concept. Come on. So how did the 98 Yankees win?? O'neill, Jeter, Martinez, Posada, Bernie, Knoblauch-- What would you call it?? Those guys all hit really well that year. Awesome offense, decent pitching and a great bullpen. Edit and when i say decent pitching, i mean that they had the lowest ERA in the AL. By almost half a run. The offense was also fourth in the league in HR and first in runs. Acting like it was a bunch of no names banding together to claw out a championship is totally wrong. I never said it was a bunch of no names. I was saying that it was a great team! But there was no A-Rod type. 2007 ARod OPS+ 177 1998 Bernie Williams OPS+ 160 2007 Yankees team OPS+ 118 1998 Yankees team OPS+ 117 The 2007 Yankees allowed almost a full run per game (0.75) more than the 1998 version. That's why you weren't as good. Not because ARod is "only interested in money". EXACTLY MY POINT!!! How is A-rod and his 30 million going to help our pitching?? The Yankees have had mediocre pitching for years. I would much prefer to spend that 30 million on pitching!! We don't need the offense. ARod is worth what, 80 more runs than Betemit (total estimate)? With this FA pitching market, it's going to be tough to spread out $30 million dollars in a way to make up that many runs. The Yankees offense will be fine. I am tired of hearing how we will have no offense if he leaves! Yes his stats are IMPOSSIBLE to replace, but didn't we have a good offense in 2003? Can't we have offense without him? is everyone convinced there is no life after A-Rod? Didn't SWEET LOU guide the A-Rod less Mariners to 119 wins and the playoffs the YEAR AFTER he left?? I ran the math on a friend (Yankee fan) about this a couple weeks ago (various possibilities): http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f189/kctigers23/Yankees.gif

I don't want to take anything away from A-Rod's stats. He is a BEAST (except his RISP). My point is that the Yankees won without him, and save the 30 million for pitching!! This team won with Scott B at third and went to the series with Aaron F'in Boone. I feel it is time to go back to the winning ways of "THE TEAM" concept. 1998 Yankees, no 40 hr guys but were 125-50 (including playoffs)!!! Do all Yankee fans think this way? It's utterly stupid to think that the 98 Yankees won because of the team concept. Come on. So how did the 98 Yankees win?? O'neill, Jeter, Martinez, Posada, Bernie, Knoblauch-- What would you call it?? Those guys all hit really well that year. Awesome offense, decent pitching and a great bullpen. Edit and when i say decent pitching, i mean that they had the lowest ERA in the AL. By almost half a run. The offense was also fourth in the league in HR and first in runs. Acting like it was a bunch of no names banding together to claw out a championship is totally wrong. I never said it was a bunch of no names. I was saying that it was a great team! But there was no A-Rod type. you are missing the point completely.

So you're saying the Yankees are a better team without Rodriguez than they are with him? That's insane.

That's not going to happen.

I don't want to take anything away from A-Rod's stats. He is a BEAST (except his RISP). My point is that the Yankees won without him, and save the 30 million for pitching!! This team won with Scott B at third and went to the series with Aaron F'in Boone. I feel it is time to go back to the winning ways of "THE TEAM" concept. 1998 Yankees, no 40 hr guys but were 125-50 (including playoffs)!!! Do all Yankee fans think this way? It's utterly stupid to think that the 98 Yankees won because of the team concept. Come on.

do you have to bold everything you post?

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2007/11/iwase-may-stay-.html

I don't know how long this deal will last, but it's worth getting: http://accessories.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=ca&l=en&s=dhs&cs=cadhs1&sku=A1320793 40 GB PS3 Spiderman 3 Blu Ray HDMI Cable Ratchet and Clank --------- $400 (!). If you can shell out 100 more dollars down the line you can get a 120 gb hard drive.

Florida would destroy Penn State and you know it.

it might be worth taking a flier on omar infante

now that hes shown he can stick in center, hes fine so we have a backup plan if (when) pie fails

id do that package if we had a 72 hour window to sign him to an extension and signed him

every year this happen in high school to a kid

id love santana, it just will not happen

on the bottom of the ps3 theres a latch where the hard drive is. http://www.consolesource.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/11/hddcover.jpg instructions i used http://www.gamersreports.com/article/43/

If they make no improvements I'd take the under on 790 without question. You aren't taking into account things like underperformance, injury, and substitutions by inept players. You paint a very rosy pitcher where nobody gets hurt or underperforms. That's how Jim Hendry puts together teams and why he's always so confused when they don't live up to his expectations. The Cubs haven't been an inept offensive ballclub for years by accident. I already showed why the Cubs offense didnt break 800 last year: Jones sucking and Barrett not hitting. It has nothing to do with injuries. Usually some guys underperform, but at the same time usually guys over perform at the same time so the effect cancels out that didnt happen last year for the cubs. it was bad luck

The Cubs had 1 guy play 150 games in 2007 and just 3 with as many as 140. They had 5 over 140 in 2006, 3 in 2005, 4 in 2004. There were only 74 players in all of baseball to play in 150 games last year, 2.5 per team. And of course, games played isn't the same as playing time, since guys can enter a game as a pinch hitter/late inning defensive replacement, or leave the game early for a variety of reasons. The average NL team got 720 PA out of its 4 spot. 90% of that is 648. And only 30 NL players had that many PA, 1.9 per team. In other words, the vast majority don't get 90% of their team's playing time. None of this means anything. As I posted earlier, I reduced it down to 85% and the runs went down by less than 10 runs. I was already playing DeRosa, Soto and Aramis at below that percent. Regardless of how you slice it up the Cubs can be expected to score at least 40 runs more than they did last season (thats 790) if they don't make a single move. That's been the point the entire time. 80% PT gives us 792 runs and gives just one player on the team more than 600 PAs. 85% gives this many PAs 650.3 Soriano 635.8 Theriot 621.4 Lee 606.9 Ramirez 592.5 Murton 578.0 Jones 497.3 DeRosa 426.4 Soto this isnt the issue you make it out to be. as a rough estimate its fine.

Assuming that happens, and the Cubs also overbid for Kaz Matsui, I wonder what sort of improvement that will be for the offense. Where do you want me to insert Fukudome? Rightfield (over Murton) or Centerfield (over Jones). I would assume RF for now. No changes: 808.7 Runs (91.5 Wins) Add Fukudome in RF with a .285 EqA and .375 OBP and batting him second: 820.8 Runs (92.6 Wins) Add Matsui at SS with a .320 OBP and a .250 EqA 824.5 Runs (92.9 Wins)

95% is 154 games. Most full time starters get between 150 and 160 starts a season. Bumping the PT down for each player to 90% (145 games) and we get 803 runs versus 807. Dumping down the PT to 85% and we're at 798 runs. So it isn't that big of a difference. Using a similar method for the 2007 Cubs I got I think 820 runs as well. Keep in mind that that was with Barett EqAing like .285 and our RFs having an EqA around .275 (Jones), LF having an EqA around .280 (Murton) and Soriano in CF. The Cubs got a .231 EqA from their catchers, compared to a projection of .275 (minus 33 runs). They got .282 out of LF, fine. They got a .245 EqA out of CF instead of .285 or so (minus 33 runs). They got a .264 EqA out of RF, compared to a prediction of about .275 (minus 10 runs). Those add up to be about -75 runs or so, which is about how many runs the Cubs were below 820. None of the other positions overproduced their expected value. As far as comparing to the projections, the 2007 Cubs offense significantly underperformed by 70 runs.

Do NOT worry about this. Sony was smart enough to make the hard drive removable. You can put ANY 2.5" SATA hard drive into your ps3. You can swap it out easily. I originally had a 60 gb ps3, but I found a good deal on a 160 gb laptop hard drive for $90 and I bought it and put it in my ps3. You can also hook up external hard drives to it. Though if you go that route the two USB ports on the 40 gig model may suck, though I think you can use a regular USB splitter thing. When you want to save something from online, you're given the option to save it to anything, so you can select an external HD. The PS3 will also become a DVR in a couple years too. Sony is planning that. You can upgrade your hard drive then to accommodate.

for giggles i put in tejada at a .290 EqA and .360 OBP --> 846 runs for giggles i put in greene at a .270 EqA and .310 OBP --> 828 runs for giggles i put in rodriguez at .325 EqA and .390 OBP --> 884 runs If you keep the pitching staff constant (from last year). Then Alex Rodriguez pushes us from 807 runs to 884 runs (+77 runs) and from 91.4 wins to 97.9 wins (+6.5).

It has nothing to do with the Cubs.

Using this: 2007 OBP * .5 + 2007 PECOTA OBP * .25 + 2006 OBP * .25 = 2008 Projection OBP 2007 EqA * .5 + 2007 PECOTA EqA * .25 + 2006 EqA * .25 = 2008 Projection EqA This amount of PT (and batting order) Soriano 95% Theriot 95% Lee 95% Ramirez 80% Murton 90% Jones 90% DeRosa 75% Soto 66% and soto's line is a .270 EqA with a .325 OBP. and theriots 2006 is thrown out We get 801 runs scored. That's with Aramis missing 35 games. Let him play 150 games and we're up to 807 runs scored. The projections for the starters: Name OBP EqA Soriano .344 .296 Theriot .327 .244 Lee .384 .297 Ramirez .362 .297 Murton .359 .275 Jones .337 .264 DeRosa .359 .274 Soto .325 .270 That's slightly optimistic on Soriano and pessimistic on Jones. The others? Pretty spot on. So 807 runs, sorry that's still going to be #3 or so.

Brandon Wood will be a Marlin soon enough. Miguel Cabrera, come on down! Honestly, if I am the Marlins I would ask for Kendry Morales over Brandon Wood.

Honestly, the Cubs could not make a change this year and their offense would produce more last year. Jacque Jones' offense in CF is really good even with a .330 OBP. Murton would be a good bet to EqA .285 or .290 and you would likely see more power from Lee and better production out of the catcher position with Soto. If the Cubs don't make a move, they'd finish #3 or so in the league in runs score IMO. It's not as big as a need as most people here make it out to be. This team can score 820 runs as it is next season -- which would place them third in the league and score 70 more runs than this season. Honestly I would rank the Cubs needs in this order: 1. Real Shortstop 2. #5 Starter 3. Good Corner outfielder I wouldn't put CF as a need. I'm content with Jones' above average centerfield defense (i know...) and his likely return to a .275 EqA next season. The pitching staff is likely to regress a lot.