fromthestretch

If you throw out Blanco's 2007 when he had that bad neck injury and only got 54 at-bats, he's been significantly better than Bako in their last three seasons. On top of that, Blanco is a better defensive catcher.

If you saw it on cubs.com, it was most likely on the message board. Otherwise, you're either mistaken about the quote or where you saw it. A keyword search of cubs.com for the phrase "blew it" yields no results.

that really doesn't sound like something hendry would say.... or any GM for that matter well, not sure what to tell you. he said it. i read it on cubs.com. He didn't quite say it the way you put it. This is what he said: "Rich has gone from a very quality starter in the National League to having a disastrous-type season," Hendry said of the lefty, who led the Cubs in strikeouts and won 11 games in 2007 but struggled last season. "In winter ball, he was very up and down again. This is the big leagues. You've got to earn what you get." http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090114&content_id=3744406&vkey=news_chc&fext=.jsp&c_id=chc

cherrypicked the endpoint? umm, if you want to include a 4th year, wolf is still better. and how is it roughly equivalent? because you say so? like you said that relievers ERA's are usually a lot lower than starters (they're not)? sorry, but you're going to have to give me something better than that before i'm convinced. Okay. So you want me to prove to you that parks effect ERA? no, i'm not an idiot of course they effect ERA. you cant just arbitrarily make up how much of an effect each park has. *sigh* I'm not. San Diego's pitching park effect for the last three years was 89. That means it deflates ERA by roughly 11%. Wrigley's pitching park effect has been 104, which means it inflates ERA by roughly 4%. Guess which parks the two pitchers we are talking about spent a plurality of their innings in the last three years? Wolf last year had a 2.78 ERA at home and a 5.76 ERA on the road. Overall, nearly every stat was significantly better at home. Unfortunately for your argument, his home park was Minute Maid Park, not necessarily a pitching friendly place. That was only his home park from July 22 on. He made 11 starts in San Diego and five in Houston. The rest were road games for him. While he did pitch very well in the five starts in MMP, there's not much to indicate that he'd be able to keep up that level of performance. He's not as bad as he pitched on the road last year, and he's not as good as he pitched at home.

cherrypicked the endpoint? umm, if you want to include a 4th year, wolf is still better. and how is it roughly equivalent? because you say so? like you said that relievers ERA's are usually a lot lower than starters (they're not)? sorry, but you're going to have to give me something better than that before i'm convinced. Okay. So you want me to prove to you that parks effect ERA? no, i'm not an idiot of course they effect ERA. you cant just arbitrarily make up how much of an effect each park has. No need to arbitrarily make them up when there are sites out there that actually calculate it. Randy Wolf's ERA+ the past two seasons: 2007: 97 2008: 93 Jason Marquis' ERA+ the past two seasons: 2007: 101 2008: 99

it's really not though, that's the thing. all you have to do is look at their statistics to see who the better pitcher is/has been. who will be better in '09? no one knows, obviously. but based on past performance, wolf is the better bet. While Wolf is slightly better, he's not "far better" as you originally claimed. The past two seasons: Randy Wolf 293 IP, 4.45 ERA ER, 7.86 K/9, 3.38 BB/9, 9.25 H/9, 0.95 HR/9 Jason Marquis 358.7 IP, 4.57 ERA, 5.02 K/9, 3.66 BB/9, 9.08 H/9, 0.93 HR/9 Wolf is a better strikeout pitcher, while Marquis is more durable. Add in the fact that Wolf has pitched in a much more pitcher friendly environment the past couple seasons, and it's a lot closer than you think.

god what's wrong with you??? If you can't appreciate the drunk ramblings of Yeti, then perhaps you need a drink yourself.

Weren't there some strange quotes about him wanting to leave the game or something and having his brother and/or dad talk him into staying? And wasn't there also a weight/health question about him? Or am I making this all up? He's the Hawaiian with the necklace right? There were issues surrounding his weight/conditioning.

Jackson appears to have better control than Clement though.

Or he could have worked through his struggles with a little extra work. I don't think it's safe to assume that his ERA would have skyrocketed with more innings.

By the way, can Ted Valentine just go away? How does he still have a job officiating college games? I'm not claiming he did anything bad against Purdue last night, just that he's a horrible official in general. You don't want to get IU fans started on Ted Valentine. Oh, I know. I witnessed a few of his verbal altercations with Knight first-hand. Even as a Purdue fan, I can admit that Valentine wasn't exactly objective when it came to reffing games where Knight was involved.

He called it on the dude defending in the post who gave a little shove to the back before the ball arrived. The only problem with that was he waited to call it a full second and a half later once Moore came down and stripped the ball. Weak. plus it looked to me like the second defender got him across the wrists. i think it was a good call. they called way too many off-the-ball fouls but whatever, northwestern shouldn't have been playing basketball's version of prevent D for the last 8 minutes of the game. That was a good call. The defender shoved Johnson in the back with his forearm. There are plenty of calls to complain about from Northwestern's perspective, but that wasn't one of them.

I didn't agree with the call until I saw the replay. The first swipe the kid took was at the ball. The next swipe was at Kramer's shoulder, and the third one was at the back of Kramer's head as he was going down. I think if the defender would have stopped after the first (and possibly second) swipe, it might not have been an intentional foul. Regardless, Purdue played like crap and did not deserve to win that game. By the way, can Ted Valentine just go away? How does he still have a job officiating college games? I'm not claiming he did anything bad against Purdue last night, just that he's a horrible official in general.

uhhhh yeah. let me know if you change your mind and would like to do so. how is making baseless accusations about a player "talking baseball", but exposing it as stupidity is not? you're right though. players can't possibly stay injured for 5 years if they are committed to getting healthy. it's impossible effort, willpower, desire, commitment. look those words up. they all actually mean something. And not a single one of them was going to make him healthy any faster. If you want to say you think he's lazy, so be it. What I do have a problem with is your claim that working harder was going to make him healthier or recover faster. It wasn't going to help, unless he was so dedicated that he went to medical school, became a doctor, examined his own shoulder, found the problem that other doctors (yes, that's plural) missed, and surgically repaired it himself. what a stupid, stupid thing to say. working hard to recover quickly isn't going to make him healthy faster? lol, are you serious here? have you ever had an injury that knocked you on your ass for a bit? i'm guessing not, otherwise you would know that your recovery can be expedited depending on how you intend to recoup. you're just not understanding his point. he's not saying you don't have to work hard. he's saying that at a certain point, with certain injuries, you've maxed out the effect that working out has on your recovery. with serious injuries like prior had/has, working only can do so much. despite what fantasy you want to believe, there are injuries tht you can't just "work off". you can do what you can to help speed the process along, but prior couldn't just cure his injuries with work. The biggest issue here is that he's flip-flopping between arguing about Prior's injury and injuries in general. Hard work can help in rehabbing from most injuries. I don't think anyone is questioning that. In Prior's case, which is what most people here are discussing, hard work wasn't going to do a damn bit of good. In fact, you could argue that working hard to get back on the mound to continue pitching with misdiagnosed structural damage still present in his shoulder could have risked making the injury worse (through no fault of Prior's).

uhhhh yeah. let me know if you change your mind and would like to do so. how is making baseless accusations about a player "talking baseball", but exposing it as stupidity is not? you're right though. players can't possibly stay injured for 5 years if they are committed to getting healthy. it's impossible effort, willpower, desire, commitment. look those words up. they all actually mean something. And not a single one of them was going to make him healthy any faster. If you want to say you think he's lazy, so be it. What I do have a problem with is your claim that working harder was going to make him healthier or recover faster. It wasn't going to help, unless he was so dedicated that he went to medical school, became a doctor, examined his own shoulder, found the problem that other doctors (yes, that's plural) missed, and surgically repaired it himself. what a stupid, stupid thing to say. working hard to recover quickly isn't going to make him healthy faster? lol, are you serious here? have you ever had an injury that knocked you on your ass for a bit? i'm guessing not, otherwise you would know that your recovery can be expedited depending on how you intend to recoup. And you're telling other people they need to learn how to read? Yes, hard work can help you recover a little faster WHEN YOU KNOW WHAT THE INJURY IS AND YOU HAVE IT FIXED. In Prior's case - which has been stated no less than 79 times in this thread - he had a shoulder injury that doctors (again, plural) missed. He had this injury for several years. It wasn't even discovered until he was with the Padres. Seriously, please explain to me how someone can magically work hard to rehab an injury WHEN THEY DON'T KNOW WHAT THE INJURY IS IN THE FIRST PLACE. he had that specific injury for years, or that injury was a result/effect of other previous injuries that occurred? I remember reading that they thought the injury may date as far back to his collision on the basepaths. That would point to the injury being there for at least a few years. Again, it becomes very difficult to rehab an injury when you don't even know what the injury is.

uhhhh yeah. let me know if you change your mind and would like to do so. how is making baseless accusations about a player "talking baseball", but exposing it as stupidity is not? you're right though. players can't possibly stay injured for 5 years if they are committed to getting healthy. it's impossible effort, willpower, desire, commitment. look those words up. they all actually mean something. And not a single one of them was going to make him healthy any faster. If you want to say you think he's lazy, so be it. What I do have a problem with is your claim that working harder was going to make him healthier or recover faster. It wasn't going to help, unless he was so dedicated that he went to medical school, became a doctor, examined his own shoulder, found the problem that other doctors (yes, that's plural) missed, and surgically repaired it himself. what a stupid, stupid thing to say. working hard to recover quickly isn't going to make him healthy faster? lol, are you serious here? have you ever had an injury that knocked you on your ass for a bit? i'm guessing not, otherwise you would know that your recovery can be expedited depending on how you intend to recoup. And you're telling other people they need to learn how to read? Yes, hard work can help you recover a little faster WHEN YOU KNOW WHAT THE INJURY IS AND YOU HAVE IT FIXED. In Prior's case - which has been stated no less than 79 times in this thread - he had a shoulder injury that doctors (again, plural) missed. He had this injury for several years. It wasn't even discovered until he was with the Padres. Seriously, please explain to me how someone can magically work hard to rehab an injury WHEN THEY DON'T KNOW WHAT THE INJURY IS IN THE FIRST PLACE.

uhhhh yeah. let me know if you change your mind and would like to do so. how is making baseless accusations about a player "talking baseball", but exposing it as stupidity is not? you're right though. players can't possibly stay injured for 5 years if they are committed to getting healthy. it's impossible effort, willpower, desire, commitment. look those words up. they all actually mean something. And not a single one of them was going to make him healthy any faster. If you want to say you think he's lazy, so be it. What I do have a problem with is your claim that working harder was going to make him healthier or recover faster. It wasn't going to help, unless he was so dedicated that he went to medical school, became a doctor, examined his own shoulder, found the problem that other doctors (yes, that's plural) missed, and surgically repaired it himself.

Your exact words were: His level of dedication to his rehab is pointless considering that his shoulder problems were misdiagnosed. How do you rehab an injury when no one can tell you what the injury is?

what a stupid thing to say. umm no. i think we all understand who is saying the stupid things in this thread. i see. this must be the "group think" that i've been told by others is northsidebaseball's biggest downfall. There's no "groupthink" in this thread. It's common sense. The guy had misdiagnosed arm problems. He could have worked 24/7/365, and his arm still wouldn't have been healthy.

no, of course he's not. no one is suggesting anything in that ridiculous scenario. i think the notion that he's spending "hours upon hours" working out is equally as absurd, though. knowing the mark prior that we all got to know in his brief time in the cubs organization, i cant see the guy busting his ass to get back. dont you think that he'd be back and healthy by now if he had tried busting his ass in the past? it's a pretty fundamental approach. to getting healthy, that is. We aren't talking about a guy with weight issues who needs to get on the treadmill. We're talking about a guy who withstood serious abuse by a horrible manager and who sustained very serious arm injuries in the process. You can't just decide to bounce back from those things with extra effort. On top of that, he had a shoulder injury that the Cubs never found. No matter how hard you work, it's tough to get healthy when you have something structurally wrong with your shoulder. tougher, sure. absolutely. but we're not talking about a two month period. or even a one year period. it's been years now. let me ask you this... at what point do you question his committment to getting healthy? five years of being hurt? ten? ever? He had a shoulder injury that the doctor's didn't find for years. The guy was pitching in constant pain. When you have pain, and no one can tell you what's causing it, it doesn't matter how freaking hard you work.

Ginormous boobs are always relevant.

no, of course he's not. no one is suggesting anything in that ridiculous scenario. i think the notion that he's spending "hours upon hours" working out is equally as absurd, though. knowing the mark prior that we all got to know in his brief time in the cubs organization, i cant see the guy busting his ass to get back. dont you think that he'd be back and healthy by now if he had tried busting his ass in the past? it's a pretty fundamental approach. to getting healthy, that is. We aren't talking about a guy with weight issues who needs to get on the treadmill. We're talking about a guy who withstood serious abuse by a horrible manager and who sustained very serious arm injuries in the process. You can't just decide to bounce back from those things with extra effort. On top of that, he had a shoulder injury that the Cubs never found. No matter how hard you work, it's tough to get healthy when you have something structurally wrong with your shoulder.

i wouldn't say that so surely. atlanta is putting together a pretty good rotation. it shouldn't take a large amount of wins to take the nl wild card in 2009. i really hope we don't have to face him in the playoffs again either way though. and if we do, maybe the hitters will be prepared for the low and away pitches this time. Atlanta's pitching staff should be fine. Their infield offense shouldn't be bad, but it might not be good enough to make up for the complete lack of offense they could get from their outfield. well if it's good enough to get them to the playoffs, i like their odds from that point on. Their pitching staff was dominant from 1991 until about 2004, and while they reached the playoffs annually, their pitching staff didn't exactly lead them to postseason success very often.

what makes you say that? Is it because he was a top prospect back in 2003? All Chris Burke has shown is he can constantly put up mediocre BA's for a guy who doesn't hit for power. I'm no fan of miles by any stretch of the imagination but Chris Burke is a white Freddie Bynum. As discussed earlier in the thread:

not sure. did he ever do a movie about "the place for discission about the chicago cubs" where baseball is actually discussed in baseball posts? that would be a great movie!! That sounds like a pretty crappy movie. Yes, but did abuck like it?