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I would agreee with you that Dusty treats veterans with a different type of approach most of the time. However, the Murton and Jones situation doesn't work IMO. Murton is not in a platoon, instead it's a matter of Baker wanting to get Pagan at-bats as well. Also, because Baker wants to get Pagan more at-bats, Jacque has started to be in a platoon as well-Pagan has started several times in RF as well over the last month.

I would agree with the overall sentiment, but Pierre just completed his third consecutive month with an OBP at or above .346. I wouldn't just classify it as simply a "hot streak." That said, he's not worth the money he'll get, is only okay as a base stealer (runs into too many outs), is only okay at best in the field with a terrible arm, and doesn't provide enough offensively to offset the periods where the abundance of ground balls aren't falling into the right gaps. Does Pierre even have that many ground ball hits anymore? It seems to me the last couple months that most of the time he has hit ground balls he has made an out-it has been more line drives and bloops into left field that have dropped in front of the outfielders. I'm not sure what is classified as a ground ball versus a line drive versus a fly ball (is a line drive off the bat that hits the back of the infield and keep going a line drive or ground ball? Is a bloop into left a line drive or fly ball?). However, Pierre doesn't hit many sharp ground balls, and his infield hits aren't that much this year-so it's his line drives and bloops that have kept him hot. I would agree that Pierre will likely be better next year than this year, but that doesn't necessarily mean he'll be worth the money that he'll command, and definitely not if the deal is multiple years.

to the decade or Pierre's numbers? A year or 2 off the right decade, and about 60 points of slugging off the numbers also.

That's how I feel-if Pierre was the worst problem, we'd have a pretty good team-hopefully we don't re-sign him for big money, but there's other areas that need to be fixed first.

vs this It's slightly different because there was one out instead of two, but I think the double standard is pretty clear. One out and 2 outs are a huge difference-stealing 3rd with 2 outs does almost nothing for you, while stealing 3rd with 1 out can be the difference between needing a hit to score, or just a fly ball. Also, didn't Theriot try to take 3rd with a 2-3 run deficit? Pierre's was with only a 1 run deficit. Finally, there were completely different hitters coming up for Pierre than Theriot. Did Dusty go too far to defend Pierre? Yes-but Pierre's situation was completely different from Theriot's in every respect.

The one thing I'm not sure about that exchange is how the Phillies can lead the league in runners left on base. They have a .344 OBP and 736 runs scored on the season, while the Dodgers have a .350 OBP and 693 runs scored. Which of those teams is it far more likely that they've left more runners on base? So I would be surprised if that stat is correct-but the Cubs are probably the team with the fewest runners left on.

What rally? It was only him :D

Wow..Pierre really must be in contract drive now...he's reached base 11 out of his last 15 times up now.

What happened? Why was Ramirez thrown out?

One positive we have-it appears that Lee has fully recovered from his injury-it's nice to see him playing well again.

As far as I'm concerned, Aardsma and Williams did way more for this team than Hawkins ever could have done. We still robbed them. Yet you're very wrong. Aardsma and Williams have combined to do absolutely nothing. Hawkins was actually a very effective relief pitcher. The problem is relief pitchers are notoriously inconsistent and have a short-shelf life. The proven closer label is just an excuse to overpay for inconsistency. Williams did better than Hawkins did for SF last year. Aardsma has almost exactly the same stats as Hawkins does this year (with Aardma being just a tick better). Hawkins makes 4.4 million this year, Williams and Aardsma did not. Hawkins is 33-Aardsma is 24. We might not have gotten that much better-but we certainly got better when we made that trade, if only to get rid of some salary.

Thanks for the help. I actually already got the Boldin+Horn for McGahee+Addai deal done-the person is considering the other deal, but he told me he was strongly considering it (he needs the depth badly). I'm going to wait and see on Vick-I didn't really want to take him, but in round 11 or 12 he was a better option than some other QB's-his running does help at times, and I only hope to start him a couple of times.

Don't forget Nebraska at USC (5:30 pm PST) FIGHT ON!!! Except Nebraska-USC is not until a week from Saturday, September the 16th.

One more note on Harben that I noticed from his splits before somebody who knows a little more hopefully takes over. It seems like that most people want to make him a reliever, and his splits may tell why. This year: Against Right handers: .195/.328/.258 WHIP 1.13 Against Left Handers: .327/.423/.452 WHIP 2.05 I'm not sure if this is a trend that will continue (because I don't have splits for previous years) but this is a pretty extreme split.

Ok-a little bit of information from a dated article (Harben was ranked as the Twins 11th best prospect before 2005, still looking for the one before 2006). He has a fastball that is in the low 90's that tops out at 97. He is supposed to have a big upside with good command of the strike zone. At that point, they said he needed to have more command of his slider and change. I know that's dated, but that will give you an idea-still looking for more recent info. Edit: Apparently as that article said the command was only good with his fastball. The knock on him still is to improve his control-he's had a BB/9 rate around 4 most of his minor league career.

It took me a minute to find Harben's numbers because apparently his first name is Adam :D. He's 23 years old-here are his last 3 years 2004-A ball-9-7, 3.09 ERA, 1.28 WHIP, 10.79 K/9 2005-High A Ball, 10-5, 2.66 ERA, 1.21 WHIP, 7.91 K/9 2006-AA, 3-7, 3.89 ERA, 1.49 WHIP, no K/9 numbers, 5.41 K/9 He went up to the Twins for a small time this season, had a 6.75 ERA in just under 7 innings. He's a right hander, 6-5, 210 pounds. The other thing I like about his numbers is that he's given up 16 HR's in the last 3 years combined. When I find more of a scouting report about what he throws, I'll post it.

Currently? No. In history? No. I don't know about currently but historicly, they're Years Existed/Championships Won Ratio makes a case. It's not even the worst ratio in the National League alone. Exactly. If we date the start of championship baseball as the start of the WS (1903-also 1904 was skipped) then the Cubs have 2 WS titles and 8 other appearances in the WS in those 102? WS chances. Compare that to some other NL teams Reds-5 championships, 4 appearances-better than Cubs Braves-3 championships, 6 appearances-I'll give it to the Braves-1 more title is worth more than 2 appearances Phillies-1 title, 4 appearances-here we go. The Phillies have been around since the start of the WS also-and they have had less success than the Cubs have. Teams that could be on their way to less success than the Cubs: Astros-0 titles, 1 appearance in 44 years-they would have to win a title in the next few years to have a better ratio than the Cubs. Padres-0 titles, 2 appearances in 37 years-they have a bit of time-but they are on their way Expos/Nationals-0 titles, 0 appearances in 37 years-this franchise is well on their way to be worse-in my understanding, this franchise has only been in the playoffs one time in its existence. As far as ratio of championships won, the Cubs are ahead of teams like the Phillies, and might be ahead of teams like the Astros, Padres, and Expos. When you throw in WS appearances, it shuts the door completely-the Cubs have historically been more successful than these franchises still.

Nice start Jones. Come on guys!

Well, I'll quote my own post here..I think we'll see Jones batting 2nd this inning.

So..who do people think is going to be the pinch-hitter in the 9th?

Coats was sent down less than 10 days (or games-I can't remember which one it is) ago, and to bring him back up they had to put somebody on the DL. I don't think that rule applies any more since rosters have expanded. In 2002 Zambrano was sent down, then called back up just a couple of days later when rosters expanded. This was done to make room on the roster for someone coming off the DL. He didn't miss a start and didn't even report to Iowa. To me the only reason for putting someone on the DL at this point is if it's the 60-day to create a space on the 40-man roster. I'm not sure..that's just what Len and Bob said why Barrett was put on the DL.

Wow-Pierre and Pagan with 4 walks combined today. Nice to see out of them. BTW, Pagan continues to do pretty well-he should be a nice reserve outfielder next year.

Coats was sent down less than 10 days (or games-I can't remember which one it is) ago, and to bring him back up they had to put somebody on the DL.

I doubt Z told anyone if it was stiff before the game-with his personality, there is no way he lets anyone know-he is just too competitive for that.

That might be the best thing for Z-stiffness in the back won't be a major injury, but it might shut him down for most of the rest of Dusty's tenure.