CubColtPacer

In what way shape or form? Well, Pierre is considered to be a marginally bigger threat on the bases than Posednik. Also, as much as we have been upset at Pierre for how he plays center, Posednik is that much worse. When their offensive games are so similar, the tiebreaker should either be amount of contract (which I don't know what either of them will ask for) or their other attributes, which Pierre is better at. It would still be a very close call between the two players, but the fact that a natural center fielder by both speed and the limited offense that Podsednik brings was moved to left is a telling sign I think.

offensively, he's far superior to pierre, who actually is quite pathetic. He's not far superior..38 points better in OPS this year, 20 points better last year-Posednik's last year is the same as this year for Pierre, and this year for Posednik is his best year in his last 3. Also, Posednik had his hot streak earlier in the season and Pierre is still going on his, so that gap could easily close to 20 points or so very quickly. When their stats are that close, you have to look at the other things that they bring to the table, and Pierre is better in every other category.

There is talent in the pitching department, but you still need hitting... agreed but there is some talent there for next year too. they have a core of aram, lee, barrett & jones. it looks like pierre might be re-signed soon due to his extended offensive surge and i hope they haven't given up on murton yet. if izzy can hit .280 + with a .750 ops and cedeno & fontenot can handle 2b. what in the world would lead you to believe that he'll be anywhere near .750 when his career high is .711 and every other year he's been under .700? i might also add that he has had back-to-back seasons posting a sub-.600 OPS. i reiterate, 3 players with sub-.700 OPS's in any lineup will kill said lineup. a batting order consists of 9 hitters, you cannot put 4 dead bats out there and expect to score any runs. i'd be interested to find out if it's ever been done before, you know, 3 players with sub-.700 OPS's on a playoff team. the pitching would definitely have to be superb, which i won't hold my breath on. EDIT: the astros made the world series last year with 3: taveras, burke, and everett. you know, the astros of the 3.51 team era. That's true-there are some other examples of that. The 2002 Braves had plenty of sub .700 OPS's-now, these Braves had several different starters (they only had 5 people get over 350 at-bats) but 1 of those 5 and 4 others with at least 200 at-bats had under .700 (2 of those can be combined though-Javy and Blanco both had under .700 from the catcher position). Houston just about did it in 2004. The Cardinals also have 3 this year (Eckstein, Molina, and Miles). It's actually not all that uncommon-and just about every team I looked at had 2 under .700 (I looked at all the playoff teams that were not the Red Sox or Yankees). Reason for Edit: Typo on one of the first numbers.

That is what Len and Bob said last night that both games would be on WGN. We shall see, but I certainly hope so. (The only reason I'm not sure is that once or twice the schedule has changed and they didn't show both games-but I doubt that will happen this time.) is this a day/night double header, or should the second game start around 3:30-4pm central? From what I have heard, this is not a day/night doubleheader-so yes, I think that the second game should start around then.

That is what Len and Bob said last night that both games would be on WGN. We shall see, but I certainly hope so. (The only reason I'm not sure is that once or twice the schedule has changed and they didn't show both games-but I doubt that will happen this time.)

Yes, so even though their OBPs weren't good, they still had a significantly better IsoD (more patience) than Izturis at age 26. Exactly. Both had more patience than Izturis at this age, which allowed them to progress as hitters. If Izturis doesn't learn how to take a walk, he will NEVER, I repeat, NEVER, be a consistently good player. Which is why...after the season....have Cesar and Ronny go visit Tony Gwynn and see if they can pick up a few tricks to hitting, such as....putting the wooden piece instrument on the white baseball, for instance. Or that just because the pitcher throws say ball, doesn't mean you have to swing. But none of the younger players on the Cubs are going to improve, unless they bring in coaches that DEMANDS plate zone judgment, something that Baker has a disdain for. I understand completely what you mean-but if you want patience and taking walks, you might not want Gwynn. Most of his years had about as many BB's as Izturis's last healthy year. I think he certainly could teach them better though how to hit a pitch and drive it into the gap, so that's still a very good idea.

Hendry said yesterday on the Score670 (in his interview with Mike Murphy) that he has all intentions to bring back Pierre for next year. So it seems he definitely knows what direction he wants to go in terms of CF. Here's a link to the interview for anyone who hasn't heard it........ http://670thescore.com/podspot/pages/murphy/4.shtml time to get a new hobby. if they go into 2007 with Pierre, Cedeno and Izturis in the line up, there won't be a point in watching or posting about the Cubs. The more I've thought about this, the more I think it might not be a completely lost cause. If those 3 are in the lineup, we'll have a similar offense to this year except for these things. LF will have possibly much more production if we sign a big bat. RF will have more production if we platoon Jones and Murton. Ramirez should have a better year next year at third. Izturis and Cedeno in the middle infield should definitely be better than Cedeno/Neifi/Womack (not including Walker because most of his at-bats were at first this year-and I'm saying it will be an improvement because Izturis is a better hitter than any of those options, and Cedeno should improve over his year this year). Lee will be back at first, and his production should help this lineup a lot. The only position where I see decreased production is from catcher, where Barrett is having a career year (Pierre I think would have a better year next year, but that's just a hunch-so for the purposes of this, I gave him the exact same stats next year). If this happens, we won't have a great offense-but our offense will definitely be improved over this year's version, probably in the 20th-23th range in the majors. Of course, that is not what any of us are hoping for, but an offense like that would at least give us a chance if our pitching was lights out.

Pedro-when you look at the past results of the two players, how can you believe that Cedeno will have a better year? Really-Cedeno would have to improve 59 points in OPS just to make it up to Izturis's year so far this year. If you take out the 3 months that Izturis played with the injury last year, he has improved every single year of his career-every single year until this year in which he is coming back from the injury. I am not basing it off of grit or hustle or anything else, but simply the stats-which show that Izturis has gotten better every year he's been healthy. If you think the reason is that he is not going to be healthy next year, then say so. Otherwise, I don't know how a detailed look at the stats doesn't reveal that he will probably continue to improve (although at a slower rate-it's much easier to progress at a fast rate when you're going from terrible to bad). So why do people think he is suddenly going to start to regress again? A simple no response would be better. Hey I agree with ya Colt. He had a decent year in 2004. And wasn't it the first 2 months of 2005 where he had the .350 OBP before he got injured? Correct me if I'm wrong here. It was the first 2 months of 05, but he actually had a .348 BA during that time and his OBP was all the way up to .389 during that time.

Pedro-when you look at the past results of the two players, how can you believe that Cedeno will have a better year? Really-Cedeno would have to improve 59 points in OPS just to make it up to Izturis's year so far this year. If you take out the 3 months that Izturis played with the injury last year, he has improved every single year of his career-every single year until this year in which he is coming back from the injury. I am not basing it off of grit or hustle or anything else, but simply the stats-which show that Izturis has gotten better every year he's been healthy. If you think the reason is that he is not going to be healthy next year, then say so. Otherwise, I don't know how a detailed look at the stats doesn't reveal that he will probably continue to improve (although at a slower rate-it's much easier to progress at a fast rate when you're going from terrible to bad). So why do people think he is suddenly going to start to regress again? So I portrayed him as something as he is not by saying that he has gotten better every healthy year? That is easily proven when looking at his stats.

Pedro-when you look at the past results of the two players, how can you believe that Cedeno will have a better year? Really-Cedeno would have to improve 59 points in OPS just to make it up to Izturis's year so far this year. If you take out the 3 months that Izturis played with the injury last year, he has improved every single year of his career-every single year until this year in which he is coming back from the injury. I am not basing it off of grit or hustle or anything else, but simply the stats-which show that Izturis has gotten better every year he's been healthy. If you think the reason is that he is not going to be healthy next year, then say so. Otherwise, I don't know how a detailed look at the stats doesn't reveal that he will probably continue to improve (although at a slower rate-it's much easier to progress at a fast rate when you're going from terrible to bad). So why do people think he is suddenly going to start to regress again?

They did say they were planning to air both games before they left for the evening..I'm in the same boat, so I'm very happy to see both games.

Two things: one, Izturis hasn't played any SS this year-so the numbers don't matter very much. Second-is there even a possibility that FRAA could be off? Sure, they might give gold gloves to people sometimes when there are other people who deserve it more. Do you truly think people are dumb enough though to give a gold glove to a person who is below average at his position? This can be backed up by looking at other players. Ichiro in 2004 only recieved a 1-so does that mean he was only a slightly above average defensive player in 2004? In fact, Barry Bonds had a 0 that year-so Ichiro and Barry were approximately equal defensively that year? Also, Sammy got a 7 in 2004. So, in 2004-Sammy Sosa was significantly better than most of the right fielders in defense-do you really want to claim that? I think these numbers can be taken roughly, but with a serious grain of salt when numbers like this pop up.

That's weird, since he said essentially the exact opposite on here the other day. No-on page 3 of the Bruces latest article thread from the other day, somebody asked him if prospects were truly available, and he said: "Couple things from above as I roast at the ballpark: Yes, Tim Wilken did have signficant input. Hendry mentioned that yesterday. It was Hendry, not the Dodgers, who initiated the prospect route. The Dodgers wanted none of it." I'm sorry I'm not sure how to link the thread, but if you go to that thread: Bruce's Latest Article 8/1: it's there

By the way, Bruce did say that Hendry could not get prospects from the Dodgers the day after Hendry's interview-so if you believe Bruce, no prospects were ever available.

They are two veterans anyway..don't you want to play the hot hand? July Nevin (45 ABs): .244/.327/.489 Mabry (29 ABs): .280/.440/.560 Now-I realize that's limited at-bats, but many of those for Mabry were I think at the end of the month. We might as well play Mabry a little longer until he cools down.

That's what I'm thinking-the quote doesn't necessarily mean that Izturis will be in the 2 spot next season any more tham it is assured that Cedeno will be at second next season or that all the young pitchers will be in the rotation. I like Izturis in the 2 spot for this season-the more at-bats we give him in the next 2 months, the more of an idea of how healthy he is and what he will do when healthy-we can probably almost triple his number of at-bats for the season. Can you please explain this? How can the #2 spot in the lineup hit three times as often as the #8 spot? Sure. I meant that he will get more at-bats in the 2 spot than in the 8th spot. The reference to tripling his at-bats was that he only has had 123 AB's after his injury this season-we should be able to almost triple that number of at bats if we start him the rest of the season, and especially if we get the few extra plate appearances that the top of the order gets. 350 at bats gives us a lot clearer picture of what he can do when healthy in 2007 than 123 does. Gotcha. I read that as we'd get him 3 times the number of at bats from here out in the #2 slot compared to #8. Which is obviously impossible. I'd also like to get a large number of AB's to Ronnie from here on out to see what we've got in him and if he can adjust to what the league is doing to him. His avg and obp have gone down each and every month of the season. I would like to see him out there each and every single day, get him the reps and see if he can turn it around by the end of the year. If not, then we know we need a new 2B for next year. I think we can be pretty certain that Jim's going to stick with Izzy, given his excitement about getting him in the first place. I would definitely agree with that-we need to know what we have in Cedeno, and we have to play him everyday to figure that out-so if he's not what we're looking for we don't spend 2007 figuring that out. For the rest of this season, I hope that we see Izturis and Cedeno at shortstop and second.

Point by point, bolded: -If you're basing your desire to have Izturis on the fact that you need a good glove at SS, why trade for Tejada? He wouldn't play 3B for Anaheim in a pennant race. He's not going to move to 2B for Cesar Izturis in Chicago. If Izturis moves to 2B, what does his glove at SS matter? -Cedeno will sometimes not make the routine play based on what? -The third bolded bit makes you sound like Joe Morgan. He's not fast, but you think he's a good baserunner? Based on what? -Knowing when to run is waaaaay low on the list of qualities you want in a ballplayer. -Again, why trade the cheap guy who would be willing to move to 2B (which you've already implied is the easier defensive position) in favor of the expensive guy who doesn't really hit better than the cheap guy, and only has an advantage as long as he plays SS, which, in your Tejada scenario, he wouldn't? If the Cubs wanted to trade for Tejada, the only scenario where aquiring Izturis makes sense is if the Cubs flip Izturis to Baltimore and move Cedeno to 2B. I can't see us having enough to land Tejada in any case, and I don't know why Baltimore would want Izturis. Keeping Izturing AND dealing for Tejada makes little sense financially and defensively. Cedeno has not made the routine play some times. I watch the Cubs believe it or not. I seen him boot, miss play, miss judge, a flyball, and a groundball, that is routine for the majority of ss in the league. Baserunner is very important. Take it look at Alou, and Jones. Getting doubled off on a flyball to the outfield when standing on second is unexceptable. You can blame coaching, but really its the player who has been taught since day one, to freeze on a line drive or a flyball since. Tejeda is the guy I want to play SS. Im willing to move Izturis to 2b in favor of Tejeda. In my opinion Iztruis is more valuable than Cedeno is. Iztuirs wont throw the ball in the dugout, when time wasnt called. You could blame youth on that, but really that is unexceptable. Cedeno has shown no signs of being a patient hitter. He wont be a big power guy either. If Izturis can return to his 04, and first half of 05 form, then im taking Ituris over Cedeno anyday. When has Izturis been patient or a power hitter? If my aunt had testicles, she would be my uncle. The first half of 2004 and 2005 he was an average shortstop for XBH. .381 slugging for a SS is about the median of shortsops, and he had a .425 slugging in the first two months of 05, and that would have been between 8th-15th every year for shortstop slugging. Also, his patience in 2004 was about average for a SS, and his patience through the first two months of 05 was very similar to 04. So, he may never have been the best at either of those two areas-but he was average for a shortstop in those two areas-which at least right now, Cedeno is not close to that.

Izturis wasn't an all-star in 2004-he was in 2005.

Uhh.... given the current roster, Murton makes a much better option for the 2-hole. I don't see that changing next year -- Murton will still be a better choice than Neifi or Izturis in 2007 too. Murton dosent hit enough to stay in the lineup everyday. He is more of a 4th outfielder on the Cubs. Quality of hitters on the Cubs active roster: 1) Ramirez 2) Barrett (I could buy him at #1, but I believe ARam is a better hitter overall) -- gap -- 3) Murton 4) Jones -- gap -- everyone else. The interesting thing is that Pierre and Murton's numbers are getting closer and closer. They might actually be very similar by the end of the year-not sure about and predictive value that might have, just an observation.

That's what I'm thinking-the quote doesn't necessarily mean that Izturis will be in the 2 spot next season any more tham it is assured that Cedeno will be at second next season or that all the young pitchers will be in the rotation. I like Izturis in the 2 spot for this season-the more at-bats we give him in the next 2 months, the more of an idea of how healthy he is and what he will do when healthy-we can probably almost triple his number of at-bats for the season. Can you please explain this? How can the #2 spot in the lineup hit three times as often as the #8 spot? Sure. I meant that he will get more at-bats in the 2 spot than in the 8th spot. The reference to tripling his at-bats was that he only has had 123 AB's after his injury this season-we should be able to almost triple that number of at bats if we start him the rest of the season, and especially if we get the few extra plate appearances that the top of the order gets. 350 at bats gives us a lot clearer picture of what he can do when healthy in 2007 than 123 does.

That's what I'm thinking-the quote doesn't necessarily mean that Izturis will be in the 2 spot next season any more tham it is assured that Cedeno will be at second next season or that all the young pitchers will be in the rotation. I like Izturis in the 2 spot for this season-the more at-bats we give him in the next 2 months, the more of an idea of how healthy he is and what he will do when healthy-we can probably almost triple his number of at-bats for the season.

It's no doubt Boston needs a catcher on the news that Tek has a torn meniscus in his knee and will need surgery. That's usually a 6 week limitation to starting physical activity. Blanco is a nice idea given need for a good signal caller and defender. ? I heard it was just a cartilage tear. About the same thing..the meniscus is made up of cartilage.

How many teams have the worst-hitting middle infield in baseball? Once again, we don't have the worst hitting middle infield in baseball-at least not this year. Check out the A's-Ellis and Crosby are worse. And again, those 2 guys make about as much as one of Perez or Izturis. That matters. Yes it does-and so if the people said we have the worst value hitting middle infield, then that would be correct. We don't have the worst hitting middle infield though. Here are the numbers: Crosby: .229/.297/.339 Ellis: .219/.289/.320 Cubs: Izturis: .260/.308/.366 Cedeno: .254/.279/.338 Ellis and Cedeno are pretty close-that's pretty much a wash, and Izturis is better than Crosby in every category.

How many teams have the worst-hitting middle infield in baseball? Once again, we don't have the worst hitting middle infield in baseball-at least not this year. Check out the A's-Ellis and Crosby are worse.

Five year PECOTA projections from BP: Year AVG OBP SLG VORP WARP 2006 .262 .305 .337 5.2 3.3 2007 .265 .308 .245 6.3 3.3 2008 .260 .309 .335 4.5 2.8 2009 .265 .312 .341 6.1 2.9 2010 .257 .304 .334 2.5 2.0 Doesn't look good. How would he get these numbers? That .245 slugging for example-the lowest slugging he has ever had in his career was .303-and that was when he was 22 and breaking into the league. Somebody brought up the point of why people would think he would improve-the simple answer is that he has improved every year in his career until he got hurt. His OBP went from .253 to .282 to .330 in 3 years, and was at .387 the next year-and then he played hurt, and it dropped down to the .302 number. We can't be sure about this years numbers yet-he hasn't had enough at-bats. For example, his OBP jumped 6 points tonight-and if he goes 0 for 4 tomorrow, it could go down those 6 points just as fast. So now that he's coming back healthy from the surgery, we simply expect him to keep improving like he did every year right up to the injury. Is it a sure thing that he will do that? Of course not-but it is perfectly reasonable that a man who improved every single year from 22 years old till 25 will continue to improve now that he is healthy again.