CubColtPacer

I would expect the Colts to play better in future weeks. Houston is maybe the worst matchup in the whole league for the Colts. The Colts have looked awful against them several times over the last few years. This game could have gotten ugly even with Manning. But all the flaws of the Colts that Manning has been obscuring over the last couple years came out in full force yesterday. Interesting to see Mario Williams admit that they were simulating the snap count to induce false starts which of course is a penalty.

And that was before last night...now LaHair is at .500/.565/.950. All kidding aside though, if the Cubs like his bat I think they have the luxury of keeping him on their bench next year. With Barney starting at 2nd, that makes keeping another backup SS unnecessary. Baker and DeWitt can backup pretty much every position besides SS, C, and CF. So you have a backup C, a backup CF (that could be Colvin, Campana, or a free agent), Baker, DeWitt, and that still leaves one bench spot. There's no real need for that to be another defensive backup so the Cubs can afford to put a bat in that spot, and if they think LaHair can put up a .750+ OPS he could be it.

That's really close. IIRC, the first down isn't the stick but where the last chain ends. It looks like the football is really close to there but I can't see it well enough to see if it made it or not. It definitely should have been reviewed though because the spot wasn't even for sure correct.

The Cubs had 37 losses on quality starts just last year.

who did they predict for the WC? Sorry I never answered this. Rosenthal has the Falcons and Cowboys. Florio has Saints and Eagles (with the Cowboys winning the division). Did the Cowboys add anyone to a 6 win team? How am I missing the sudden rise to playoff-caliber status? Romo being healthy is enough? More PFT staff picks.... http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/09/07/the-pft-postseason-picks/ Of the 5 that pick, 4 picked the Cowboys in the playoffs, and the one that didn't had the Lions. The Cowboys went 3-8 in games decided by 7 points or less last season. Add in the return of Romo and the fact they were a playoff team the year before and you could see why they are a popular pick to rebound. Also they were 5-3 after the coaching change last year.

Wonder how he'll get the MVP Award now Easy. If the Colts go 4-12 without him, how can Manning not get the MVP? People have speculated for a long time how good the rest of the Colts roster is around Manning. It looks like we could be finally finding out.

That's a great combination to have. If they could just improve either their power or their walks to be average (they don't necessarily need both) they'd really have something. A hitter really needs two of the following three tools to really be successful: batting average/low strikeouts (low strikeouts by itself isn't that important but it does help keep BA high and also helps players translate from level to level), power, walks. It doesn't really matter which two, but having just one unless it's extremely elite isn't enough.

Maybe, although this was a little different of a situation then tennis coverage where they aren't contractually obligated to cover any individual match. Anyway, the schedule was very tight. With the NASCAR race starting at 11:00 there was a decent chance it was going to run into soccer even if there hadn't been a small rain delay. I understand the frustration, but this happens anytime there are two sporting events scheduled back to back like this. Usually, the earlier event gets the priority unless the later event is considered much more important. And in this case, NASCAR was both the first event and also probably considered the more important one.

This is the second time in a month that ESPN has done this too. No shock that they delayed showing the second live event until the first one is done. In this case, I don't see how it's ESPN's fault that they have had so much rain in Atlanta. It's ESPN's fault because they had a block from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. ET on ESPN2 with nothing to show because the U.S. Open tennis matches which were supposed to air there were cancelled. So rather than have two things on channels they weren't supposed to be, ESPN could have switched NASCAR to ESPN2 and left the soccer game right where it was, thereby not screwing over tons of people who recorded the game on ESPN but couldn't switch because they were at work. And what happens to the NASCAR fans who were recording the race on DVR and suddenly it switches right before the end of the race? They have the same argument. It doesn't make sense to switch the event that is going to have higher ratings and is near the conclusion for the lower rated event that is just beginning.

That's what I'm wondering. Don't know where IMB is though and it looks like the draft time has been canceled for now until he makes that change.

This is the second time in a month that ESPN has done this too. No shock that they delayed showing the second live event until the first one is done. In this case, I don't see how it's ESPN's fault that they have had so much rain in Atlanta.

No injury that I know of. It sounds like he's been cleared of any charges in a shooting this offseason. But most people around the league agree those two pro bowls were a joke (he was good, but wouldn't have been a Pro Bowler on another squad). He definitely seems to have a bad work ethic and tends to do his own thing on the field instead of staying within a system.

Colts fans were surprised by this one, but from ESPN writer Paul Kuharsky:

I don't know if it will hurt as bad as people think. The Bears were excellent on kickoffs, but they only had a 1.6 yard difference between the average of their returns and the average they gave up. They had just under 60 kickoffs last year so just under 100 total yards advantage on kickoffs. Their punt returns while less returns (33 returns, 39 returns defended) were where they gained huge chunks. They had a 9.3 yard average difference. And the new kickoff rules should help a good punt returning team because there will be more punts from deep inside somebody's territory than there were before.

I think his bat has gotten better this season (the knock on him was always that he should be hitting for more power then he was, and this year is his best power season yet) but I would agree that it hasn't improved enough for him to be better than a low tier starter at second or a solid utility player. I think his numbers could still project slightly better than that over the next couple years as his BA has some room to move up, but he's close to his peak.

I'd greatly prefer a later draft time as well. But it might not matter if we can't find more people!

But their bats aren't comparable. DeWitt's bat is clearly better. They are the same age and DeWitt has a career OPS+ of 92 and wOBA of .313 (98 and .317 this year) while Barney has a career OPS+ of 82 and wOBA of .295 (86 and .300 this year). And DeWitt still has some possible projection in his bat while Barney has almost none. Barney does have the advantage of playing SS and being a much better defender so it just really depends on if a team values middle infield defense highly or not.

Why exactly would we want Upton when our best prospect is a CF? When Jackson shows that he's he can handle the job, then we can flip Upton. If we got him for something along the lines of what WSR suggested, we didn't give up anything too valuable for him anyhow. He's currently doing well in AAA. How much more does he have to show? I think (and hope) that Jackson is the real deal, but there are lots of players who do well in AAA and never make it in the ML. Sure, but the only way to know for sure is to give him consistent playing time. And to give him consistent playing time, you can't have somebody else blocking him. How can he prove himself in the majors if Upton is in front of him?

I understand that. I just don't see what I'm supposed to be impressed by since that specific sway does little except highlight how abysmally bad he's been. It wasn't intended to be something to be impressed by but just another piece of data. He probably would be having an very good month though if his BABIP would normalize a little bit.

? .200 .241 .453 .694 .204 That hasn't updated what happened last night yet. That fills me with even less confidence when a 1-3 with a walk-night can swing his OPS by 21 points. It's a 1 month split for a guy who doesn't play everyday. The numbers can sway wildly. I tend to think Colvin's a guy who could be improving and has enough signs in his numbers that I wouldn't be surprised if he was a starting worthy corner outfielder (albeit a lower tier one). But there's enough uncertainty in his numbers that I'm not sure I ever want the Cubs to give him enough playing time to find out.

? .200 .241 .453 .694 .204 That hasn't updated what happened last night yet.

So Colvin's gotten a bit more playing time lately and his BABIP woes continue. He has had a .715 OPS in August with a .211 BABIP. His total season numbers are a .523 OPS with a .159 BABIP. What do we know about Colvin? We know he can hit the ball a long way. In fact, Colvin probably hits the longest home runs of anybody on the Cubs. We also know he doesn't walk much. Other than that, everything seems to be up in the air. This year he's swinging and missing less and his strikeout rate is down to 22.1%. His HR/FB percentage is pretty low this year for someone with so much power, but that could be partially because his IFFB percentage has spiked. The main thing he's still missing this season though are singles. He has 16 extra base hits and 11 singles on the season. So how do the Cubs deal with him going forward? Should they be optimistic about his power and increased contact this year? Should they be worried about his overall struggles? He's still a very confusing player.

Agree that Barney could very well be a starting SS somewhere. I disagree that makes him viable trade bait. I just don't see a team trading for Barney to be a starting SS until they see him play SS at the major league level for awhile, and hopefully that isn't going to happen on the Cubs anytime soon.

Forced was a bad word choice. But I remember reading speculation right after that Flieta and Wilken have a strong chance to remain because Ricketts is happy with them. if beane gets hired you can bet that he's been given carte blanche to clean house, and then wilken and fleita are as good as gone. same with theo. no big name is going to come in and be told that he absolutely has to keep wilken or fleita, especially considering the magnitude and attitude and philosophies of those being mentioned seriously. i will change my screen name to raging anus if fleita and/or wilken are still with the cubs next year. if we hope to land a guy who can turn things around, he will not keep someone else's guys in such important positions. there's absolutely no [expletive] way, and it's insane to think otherwise. "hey billy, you can do what you want, we'll give you a mountain of money, but you absolutely have to keep these two guys who have pretty average to below average track records drafting and developing major league players. we all know the very reason we hired you was to change things beginning with drafting and player development, but you can't change the guys in charge of those two departments. they are untouchable." the only way those guys stay is if we hire colleti or the interim guy. not gonna happen. Wilken isn't considered average to below average by the industry. He is considered to be strange but still one of the best in his field. The funny thing is that Beane and Wilken are both considered about the same in their respective fields. Both still have great reputations but there are more question marks about both than there were 5 years ago. Now Fleita on the other hand doesn't have that great track record to fall back on.

We still need 4 more teams. Anybody out there?