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not very many. Like I said, I could point to you at least a dozen outs since he's come back that Lee made that the other first baseman wouldn't have made, due to Lee's quick feet and his ability to stretch out for balls. Don't you think that saves us some runs? i highly doubt that. And not all of those outs would have led to runs for the other team. Well, I agree with that-not all of those would have resulted in runs-but that's still 12 hits taken away in a short span of time-BTW, that was at least play #3 tonight-without Lee being so tall, the runner is safe at first.

not very many. Like I said, I could point to you at least a dozen outs since he's come back that Lee made that the other first baseman wouldn't have made, due to Lee's quick feet and his ability to stretch out for balls. Don't you think that saves us some runs? You're exaggerating. I really am not..I believe, for example, that the 1st and 3rd outs of the Braves 6th inning are not made by John Mabry (and that's not counting the stretch in the 2nd where he should have had the out called on the stretch of Ramirez's throw). I've seen multiple plays like this in several other games as well since he's come back.

not very many. Like I said, I could point to you at least a dozen outs since he's come back that Lee made that the other first baseman wouldn't have made, due to Lee's quick feet and his ability to stretch out for balls. Don't you think that saves us some runs?

I can't even begin to imagine how many runs Lee saves us with his glove. From fielding balls that are singles or doubles into right field to being able to prevent many throwing errors (he probably should have had that call on Ramirez'z throw tonight), not to mention the slightly smaller amount of time it takes to get to his glove because he stretches out so far. I've been thinking about this ever since he's gotten back-he's made at least a dozen plays that I've seen that other Cubs first baseman wouldn't have made over there since he was activated.

yeah, if you've already let him go to 110 and you've got 2 outs, it'd be silly to yank him in the middle of an at-bat. Exactly..he was at 109 at the beginning of that at-bat. I believe the entire time that they were planning to bring him out after that at-bat if it be a hit or not, they just didn't expect that at-bat to go 11 pitches.

Bynum has actually been pretty good at the plate since his disasterous start in the major leagues-since May 8, here are his numbers: .282/.330/.482 If I was sure that could continue, he'd be a good bench option-I'm not sure it can, but still he's been better then we'd like to give him credit for most of the time.

I never can stand how Michigan State does that to us. Many MSU players have had their career days against ND the last 10 years, and unless you see the ND-MSU game it just looks like ND lost to a 6 win team. Just like last year, when MSU started red hot including beating us, and then just absolutely collapsed.

I agree with that. I wish Izturis had a little more than a couple weeks left in the season, as he is just likely to be getting back into the flow of the game when the season ends. I would have liked to see more of an indication of what he is going to do in 2007 (which could have been partially done if he had played everyday in August and September), but the injury has really made him a question mark for how he really is after his surgery last year. The one thing I personally do not question is his defense-after the first couple of games with the Cubs where he was shaky (although not as shaky as Cedeno has been many times this season), he was great defensively the next 15 games before he went down with the injury.

LA's average park factor for 2001-2006 is .900 and Seattle's is .883. Safeco has been (marginally) a harder place to hit for the last six years. Six years is a little subjective. LA was tougher last year (which is where I got my info), Safeco was tougher in '04, LA in 03, etc. Some date ranges favor them, and others LA. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/stats/parkfactor Any time frame is subjective, but going with six years is better than going with one year. Why did you pick last year instead of this year, when LA is actually the 5th best hitter's park in the league? As for Beltre, I'm not so naive as to believe that there's a 0% chance that he had used PED's, but PECOTA projected him to decline, just as I imagine it will predict Soriano to decline this year. It's not unusual for a player to have a career year and never come close to it again. Which, by the way, is another reason Hendry really failed this past offseason. If DLee repeated his 2005, the Cubs had a shot at being a .500 team, but the odds are that Lee, while being a very good player, will never have a year like 2005. I'm afraid that Hendry will expect similar numbers from Barrett next year, for example, when making decisions. Chances are that Barrett will be one of the better offensive catchers next year but will not be as good as he was this year. I would agree that Soriano, Lee, and Barrett would probably never reach their career year-but I think that Lee, and then Barrett has a better chance. Why? They have both made adjustments to actually how they approach the at-bat. The change of stance for Lee was the biggest cause of his numbers. Because of that, he is far more likely to come closer to 2005 than other players when he has overcome his biggest weakness. This can compare to Sosa who overcame his biggest weakness (improved pitch selection) and had several years of career numbers. Barrett has been a much better hitter this year for a good reason. When he came to the Cubs he was a dead pull hitter-everything was right down the third base line. He has really worked on hitting to all fields, and that has made his numbers go up each of the last 3 years, including his height in 2006. I think that will probably be his best year, but I also think he has the approach needed to put up a few more years close to his 2006. As far as I know, Soriano has not changed anything in his approach, but instead is just having an amazing season (same as Beltre did). These examples are far more likely to regress to their previous norms-the only thing that gives me hope for Soriano is that it is not all tied to his hitting this year, but still I believe Soriano is much less likely to come close to his career year than Lee or Barrett are.

Wow, I didn't realize that Smolt'z splits were that extreme this year. Left Handers: .277/.347/.446 Right Handers: .217/.236/.343 That's the only thing I'm worried about Murton. I wish Dusty would play him against some of these guys who are extremely effective against right handers to see if he can hit them or not. Instead, we will go into next season not knowing if Murton's numbers have been artificially inflated by not playing against the toughest pitchers, or if he can come close to his season production against these pitchers.

It's close, but considering the Bears only have two more possible wins in September, I still have to give it to the Cubs-they will pull out a couple before the end of the season. The only way the Bears can win this poll is if they win their next two games and the Cubs lose every game for the rest of the season.

Regarding the PSU-ND discussion yesterday-what are the Bears doing throwing 2 passes with their starters up 26 with just a few minutes left? They must just be trying to run up the score :D Seriously, good game by the Bears.

...and said this... bynum hasn't outproduced theriot (or anybody, for that matter) in any way. Well-I wouldn't say anybody-he's been quite a bit better than Cedeno at the plate, but I do hope that they give Theriot at least most of the starts at second the rest of the season, as they have the last week or so.

Also now according to ESPN, Steve Smith has been ruled out of today's game-those two injuries have severly hurt my fantasy teams in Week 1.

anybody who disagrees with this is really just kidding himself Thats just not true. The Irish fell in the polls by not winning by enough last week. It would be idiotic to not "run up the score" every chance you get. You can't run up the score when you're losing most of the game. Notre Dame never had the chance to run up the score because they were holding on by the skin of their teeth. It's not like Notre Dame had the opportunity to score another 2 TDs and didn't out of sympathy for their opponent. Also, as I mentioned earlier, margin of victory is a factor in the BCS. To be fair to the other side, this is not true. The only way that margin of victory factors into the BCS is the polls (which you already mentioned earlier in your post, so you can't double count it). The computer rankings were forced to exclude any margin of victory component 3 or 4 years ago.

A FAKE PUNT And thanks for the update ndistops. Here is a quote from the Indianapolis Star today about why the fake punt was done. It definitely sounds like he was still worried about the outcome of the game. Up 27-3? :? With 6 1/2 minutes to go in the 3rd quarter? Definitely. Notre Dame can look to their team last year for proof of that. One, the defense has looked good so far, but not enough to still wonder if they could play like last year when they gave up long passing plays at will. Also, last year against Michigan State, Mich State scored a TD to go up by 21 on ND with 5 minutes to play in the 3rd quarter-and they then kicked off to ND, just as ND would have punted to Penn State. ND took that game into overtime, and could have easily won it in regulation. 24 point leads in the 3rd quarter are not automatically safe, especially with a team like Penn State who has big-play receivers that could burn you for a 70 yard TD very quickly.

A FAKE PUNT And thanks for the update ndistops. Here is a quote from the Indianapolis Star today about why the fake punt was done. It definitely sounds like he was still worried about the outcome of the game.

Air Force scores a TD, goes for 2, and fails-they are down 31-30 to TN now, and TN has recovered the onside kick.

Air Force is down 7 to TN, and has the ball again with a couple minutes left-the time should really be a factor with that AF offense though.

I was incredulous too...that was just one person standing straight up tackling another person standing straight up-it was not leading with your helmet whatsover.

FSU now up 24-17 on Troy-come on Troy, one more big drive to send it to OT! (I fear they are done)

3 quick score updates Indiana 24, Ball State 23-and Indiana is at midfield again. TN 31, AF 17 in the early 4th FSU has 1st and goal on Troy's 4 yard line after a Troy interception with 2 minutes to play.

Eyre doesn't think so. :lol: Agreed-Wuertz didn't do his job all that well there-he gave up a hit for a run, and then the line drive double play really helped him.

I have been really impressed with him. Other than stealing 3rd with 2 outs the other day, he's been great. At least he knew he was in the wrong. I don't think he'll be Jones part II. :lol: I think he's made the '07 team. You forgot getting picked off of first in the 9th inning when he was the tying run-but other then those two mistakes, he has shown really good baseball awareness over the last month.

Just great reaction from Theriot on that DP-most second baseman would not have been able to react that quickly and get over there on the line drive. Good work Theriot!