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He did a good job of working the count, but I can't call any AB where the player had a runner on 3rd and 1 out and doesn't get them home (and doesn't get on base himself) a great AB.

So does Ramirez. Should we not pay him the big bucks because of it? Yes, and here is why. A-Ram plays 3B, a position that is at a failry high premium compared to outfielders. Also, I don't think A-Ram's numbers fluctuate as extremely as Adam Dunn's. Aramis' month of April was brutal, but that has been about it. I don''t think you can really compare the two in regards to your question. I'm not arguing that he is worthless or unproductive, he is certainly productive. But at the same time, he has some pretty big flaws and his lack of consistency holds him back from being a truly elite player, imo. So, you criticize Dunn for not showing up when you think his team needed him most, yet don't find the same fault that Ramirez didn't start playing until his team didn't need him. Ramirez in April: 197/321/394 Dunn in Sept: 145/330/250 Both are pretty bad. Ramirez in May:266/296/495 Dunn in August: 188/284/416 Both had two horrible months. Ramirez began his season with two bad months, while Dunn ended his with two bad months. Season stats: Ramirez: 290/350/558 Dunn: 233/366/493 Ramirez has had a better year, but not substantially. Ramirez may play third, but he plays it nearly as bad as Dunn plays left. Furthermore, a bad play by the 3b likely affects the team more than a bad play in left. Your argument that advocates signing Ramirez while piddling away his first two months while using Dunn's last two months as proof not to acquire him lacks as much consistinecy as Dunn or Ramirez combined. I'm advocating signing Ramirez because he is the most productive player the Cubs currently have, they need to keep him. I'm not dogging Dunn, but I don't think the Cubs should give the farm for him either. I would explore other alternatives through FA before committing a lot of young talent towards acquiring Dunn. I do thnk Dunn has hurt his team the last few months, the numbers show it. The Reds have had the equivalent production of Nefi Perez playing everyday in LF since August, well maybe not that bad, but pretty close. Dunn hasn't hurt his team any more than Ramirez hurt his in April and May. And there aren't a lot of options in FA except for Carlos Lee and Soriano. Both of those will be paid more than Dunn is due in the next two years. Dunn is also younger and likely to outproduce them. And based on his last two months, now might be the time to acquire Dunn who is just now entering his prime. Actually Vance, I think you just proved with the stats that Dunn hurt his team a great deal more than Ramirez did in those two months. Ramirez's April had 135 points better in OPS than Dunn's September, and his May is 91 points better in OPS than Dunn's August. Those are pretty significant differences. You are of course correct that the two players have not had a huge difference this year (which makes the worst two months argument kind of pointless anyway), although Ramirez has been better overall. I also am not sure about the contention that Ramirez's defense at his position is as bad as Dunn's, but that would be pretty hard to compare, so I'll just leave it there.

A very, very small one. They are 2 1/2 back.

a season is a marathon, not a sprint, like i said. although the games appear to matter more in august and september, they really don't. don't let the "music of the spheres" fool you. although a pennant race may appear to be more of a race in september, it's just as much of a race in april. I agree with you, but it is obvious his lack of production that past two months has hurt their chances. if he had had bad or average months in april, may, june, and july and then great months in september and august we'd be talking about how amazingly clutch he is, but the effect would be the same. i'll take dunn over any of our outfielders. I think most people would (although the case for Murton is getting stronger) but is Dunn worth the amount that it would take to trade for him, and then the amount that it would take to pay him? I think that factoring both of those in that Dunn is not a big enough upgrade to be worth it, although he definitely would be an upgrade.

I actually think this season is quite unforgetable. A lot of those early-to-mid 90's teams were forgetable, the Trachsel years. The Scott Bullet years. This year was spectaculiar in its failure. All those 3rd/4th/5th place teams just blend together for me. There's not much worse than a 77 win season. Losing 95/96 games, that's an accomplishment. This year reminded me of 97, 99, 00, and 02-and it looks like the record will be about the same as well-those years had 94, 95, 97, and 95 losses respectively.

Hmm...it looks like Boise State has the best chance now of grabbing that minor conference bid. They have 3-4 moderately difficult games left, but if they run the table they will be in the BCS now that TCU is gone from in front of them.

Other than possibly Moore we really don't have any kids that could provide good power off the bench. Pagan might provide okay power, but not the kind of power I would want when I need a big hit late. One or possibly two, depending on Moore vets would be useful for that purpose. As far as the bolded part, I don't think thats neccessarily true. If you go after a bench player who has had only one or two good seasons that both came in the last 2-3 years then it would be true. If it is a guy who has consistently put up solid numbers off the bench other than one or two years he is a better bet to do well than a rookie who is not used to coming off the bench and is used to being an everyday player. That's pretty much why I said "Unless the Cubs can get somebody likely to put up an 800 OPS, and/or dominate against LHP or RHP specifically". If you can find a guy who has consistently put up solid numbers, go ahead and get him. I guess where we differ is our believe in the ability for the Cubs to find those players. Hendry's record has shown he wont, with Hollandsworth being his only good bench signing. I think there are enough good bench guys out there, they just need to have a big hit in a playoff game so Hendry will notice them. Technically, Todd Walker was a bench signing by Hendry also, but I understand your point that the bench has been consistently pretty bad.

I agree here with most of your argument, so let me just clarify a couple things that IMO need to be slightly amended. Theriot has been a good baserunner overall, but he's had more than one glaring mistake IMO. I assume you're talking about him attempting to steal 3rd with less than 2 outs and behind. I can think of at least two other cases where he has been picked off of first, one of those in the 9th inning representing the run for the tie. Overall, I think he's still pretty good in the baserunning department, but he has made a few big errors out there as well. I would definitely take Theriot next year for those numbers, because as you said if we can trust Theriot to put those numbers up we can upgrade other positions with the money saved. I just am not sure he could hit that line-especially the slugging. One thing that has not been completely brought up is the platoon. It probably inflated Theriot's numbers. It wasn't a straight right-left platoon, but it seemed to be rather who Dusty thought would hit best off each individual pitcher, sometimes taking into account how hot each player was, and sometimes not. How large is that effect? I don't know, but it's another factor to consider.

No, Z has 70 AB's..besides, his OPS is .581 anyway.

Why does everyone think Crawford would make a difference on the Cubs? This year he is having a career year, and he wouldn't even be an improvement over the Cubs current OF's. Crawford .303 BA/.345 OBP /835 OPS Jones .287 BA/ .335 OBP/ .839 OPS Murton .298 BA/ .365 OBP/ .811 OPS It seems like the Cubs already have 2 similar players in the OF. You conveniently left out the outfielder he would be replacing: Pierre: .291/.330/.390/.720 Crawford is only 25 so there is the potential for him to improve even more and his OPS has improved every year. :oops: I saw him listed as a LF on his stat page. Even considering there is a spot for him to fit in the OF, would you trade Rich Hill for Jacque Jones? Considering how much everyone complains about how bad Jones is and how big of a waste of money he was, it is interesting to see everyone clamouring for a guy that actually puts up worse numbers(outside of SBs). It is also worth repeating that Crawford puts up his numbers at nearly half the salary of Jones and probably at least half of what Pierre will seek, at least for 2007. You simply cannot ignore the production per dollar and the expected increase in productivity. Hill is not a sure thing. He is probably going to be very good, but he could suffer a 2007 sophmore slump. I am sure that Hill would not be enough actually. Crawford will make 4 million in 2007, Jones will make between 5 and 6 million-that's not nearly half of the salary of Jones. In 2008, they'll make about the same salary when Crawford's salary jumps to 5.25 million. If he replaces Pierre in center though, he could be a definite upgrade-just as long as it is not at the expense of our starting pitching next year, because that's a spot we'll be even more desperate at.

Yes, it does.

No Bynum or Neifi, so not quite. But pretty damn close. No A-Ram, Lee, or Barrett either. And since Zambrano isn't pitching or hitting, this has to contend. I would agree that this is definitely the worst lineup of the year. Moore, Cedeno, Theriot, and Mabry is our worst infield combination of the year (Theriot is the best of the bunch by far, especially right now, but if Ramirez or Lee were in there with Neifi instead of Theriot the infield would still be better), and when you add Blanco at C instead of Barrett, it makes it the worst lineup. Of course you know that means we'll probably score a few runs.

How much of '05? Overall, he was bad. I wouldn't call him bad at least ERA wise in 05. 4.52 is right about league average. Rusch had 2 terrible months in 05 ERA wise. Here are his month by month breakdowns April (13.2 IP) 2.03 ERA May (32.2 IP) 2.48 ERA June (32.2 IP) 4.41 ERA July (12.2 IP) 7.82 ERA August (22.1 IP) 8.87 ERA September (31.2 IP) 3.41 ERA Rusch is still a left handed pitcher that in the last 3 years has had 1 good year, 1 average year (with some great parts and some horrible parts), and 1 absolutely terrible year. If he shows any signs of coming back to average at the start of next year, he will still have some trade value.

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/baseball/cubs/72365,CST-SPT-cub26.article I get Atlanta Braves radio, and during a game they were talking about how the same thing was about to happen to the rookies. I believe for them that it's the last time they have a series in New York, so they said the players have to walk through the airport in New York in those costumes. So it does happen at least in the Bobby Cox clubhouse.

You have some fine choices up there, but no poll like this is complete without Bill Walton.

Also Bruce confirmed in one of the threads the day after the trade that Hendry went after prospects, and the Dodgers refused him. If anybody really wants to know where, just respond here, and I'll try and find it for you.

You don't have to wait. Lou has already predicted ND to go to the national championship game. I wish I were kidding. Yeah, as an ND fan even I thought that was crazy. We have a decent shot of losing a game before USC (not a specific game, but just an upset where we don't come out to play), we then could very easily lose to USC, and even if those two things don't happen, we'd have to hope that the undefeateds go down and the polls favoring us over possible 1 loss teams like Ohio State, Texas, and let's say Auburn. All of those together makes our chance to go to the national title game as remote at best. I do think they have a good shot at going to a BCS bowl though-we would almost certainly get in to one of those with a 10-2 record, and I certainly hope we don't lose twice more-although I know with this team, anything is possible-good or bad.

Or do they mean to the right side? It was a bunt to the left side that the 3rd baseman threw into right. The Reds are just terrible defensively-bunting could be a good option against them because they can't field it.

Penn State cannot take advantage-missed field goal.

Tip Ball-another INT for Penn State-Penn State ball on the Ohio State 25.

They've done a ok job of running the ball (Pittman has the most carries, 8 carries for 42), 66 rushing yards overall-but when you only have 34 passing yards at halftime and an INT, it's just hard to consistently move the ball.

I don't have a link but I saw it a couple times on the ESPN2 bottom line but it said "Adam Vinatieri, Corey Simon, Bob Sanders, and Brandon Stokley out for Sunday's game vs Jaguars". Here it is..in addition to those is one of our defensive ends that plays a decent amount Josh Thomas, and a TE Ben Hartsock-one source has has Hartsock going to IR. What a loss for the Colts tomorrow-it will be an extremely tough game. http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060923/SPORTS03/60923002/1100

I was laughing at that too..the clock was running when he called that "unnecessary timeout" as they called it. Oh well, it was funny at least. BTW, for a game most of you cannot see, Colorado is up 10-0 in the second quarter on Georgia.

I just realized something..at least they didn't go to a 4 man rotation for once with the off day, so at least Z got an extra day off between starts. He looked like he was fine last start, but that's still good for him-and looking at the schedule, he should get an extra day again before his last start.

Middle of the order tonight is the ones not getting it done (besides of course Soto and the pitcher at the bottom): 1-2 hitters- 2 for 4, 2 BB's, 1 R 3-5 hitters-0 for 7, 1 BB, 0-3 RISP (Ramirez 0-1, Murton 0-1, Pagan 0-1) 6-7 hitters- 2 for 4, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 1 R 8-9 hitters- 0 for 4 Edit: Typo