CubColtPacer
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Everything posted by CubColtPacer
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Most of those raises are just accounting tricks. Soriano may have only got 9 million in 2007, but he also got an 8 million dollar signing bonus that the Cubs probably counted in either 07 or maybe 07 and 08. Zambrano (5 million dollar signing bonus), Ramirez (5 million), Fukudome (4 million), Dempster (4 million), and Lilly (4 million) were the same way. All of those contracts were backloaded but not nearly to the extent as what looking at the first year salary would give you because of the signing bonuses.
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I agree completely with the sentiment around the league that Hendry has been given enough time and has no room to complain if he gets fired at the end of the season. I also agree with Rosenthal that the Cubs have done a good job the last couple of years with their new philosophy. If that is primarily from Ricketts or Hendry, I do not know. Their attempt to win now didn't work. The last 1 1/2 to 2 years they've been working to stay competitive while making room for a young core to develop. They've avoided long-term contracts and have been working hard to increase their flexibility. They've opened up spots for young players in a way they haven't done in a long, long time. They are slowly transitioning from a team who relies on FA to a team who relies on their farm. This is a philosopy that fits Hendry's strengths much better than the previous one did so I wouldn't be surprised if the Cubs did end up winning under Hendry if he stayed on. But I can certainly understand why people want a fresh start and wouldn't be upset if Hendry was fired tomorrow.
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Looks like that trade was a wash. Will someone else take a chance on MIlton? Nah, that ended up a clear win for the Cubs. They saved 5 million and got 2.1 WAR out of Silva. Bradley had a -0.4 WAR for the Mariners. Someone may take a chance on Milton, but he's pretty much done.
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I know that is the conventional wisdom, but I haven't seen that from how pitchers are approaching Castro. He's had a lot of hittable strikes lately that he just isn't hitting very hard. In fact according to Fangraphs, Castro has gotten more pitches in the strike zone than most of the team.
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The question is where. The Cubs 3 second baseman have been the Cubs best 3 infielders so far (who knew we would be saying that after just over a month!)
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Pena's OPS has now gone up 190 points in the last 5 games. Still really bad overall numbers (.647 OPS now) but the way he's crushing the ball that slugging will probably keep going up. And yes the ball rarely bounces out of Wrigley like that, but rarely does a ball be that much of a fly ball and yet not get caught either. That was a very poor play by the Reds on a well hit ball by Baker.
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The 9 spot ended the last inning-no need to double switch.
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That was a good use of Russell there. Had to take the risk to try to save Marshall if possible and 2 of the 3 being left-handers makes that a good spot for Russell. Also glad to see him pulled out when that stretch was over.
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Colvin is fouling a lot of pitches off this season. He's making better contact but he's not putting many more balls in play.
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I don't think Coleman pitched any different in the 7th than in the other 6. He gave up a walk on a close pitch and then gave up a bloop single. Sorry mean to say, Quade is terrible at not knowing when he needs to go to the actual strength of the team the 7, 8, 9 guys when he has a lead. That's probably true. 2 of the 3 pitched 3 innings yesterday though so you're in a little trouble tomorrow if they have to go 3 more innings today.
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I don't think Coleman pitched any different in the 7th than in the other 6. He gave up a walk on a close pitch and then gave up a bloop single.
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Well, you probably don't want Wood to pitch today. I would send Coleman out with a short leash.
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I'm going to take that bet against these announcers since that is not only Pena's first 2 strike bunt of his career, it's also not even his first 2 strike bunt this year.
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Because more people have them than not, so you may as well cater to the majority rather than the minority. I have a widescreen TV and I can still only see half the graphic (can't see the Reds score for example). You may want to check the settings on your TV. All the graphics show up as they should on my widescreen. Sounds like you may have your picture set to full screen or something. Thanks for the help. It says it is outputting in 16:9 but Wide fit is greyed out at the moment. Don't know why. Maybe it's because I'm watching in SD.
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Yup. And he started games 1 and 2 in that series.
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Soriano's 5 for 42 against Arroyo with a .603 OPS. Plus Arroyo has pretty big right/left splits (although the Cubs left-handers don't have good numbers against him historically either).
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Because more people have them than not, so you may as well cater to the majority rather than the minority. I have a widescreen TV and I can still only see half the graphic (can't see the Reds score for example).
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I would add the caveat that the Cardinals won't let Wainwright walk if they think he's worth anything. I could maybe see them declining the option after 2012 if he is showing signs of a poor rehab still. I don't expect that to happen (most pitchers recover very well) but it could. But the reason that the Wainwright injury was so devastating to them in the first place was because he was the key piece of the puzzle who was an elite pitcher that was still relatively cheap. They still have Garcia and Rasmus but having Wainwright become a question mark for the years ahead really hurt.
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Fukudome is in a mini slump right now. 2-21 with 7 K's. 3 singles hitters at the top of the lineup is a little too much for me (at least Fukudome has been a singles hitter so far this year). That's really the main problem with Barney at the top-he's fine as a 2 hitter but it causes problems for setting the rest of the lineup. You want Castro up near the top and Fukudome is a natural top of the order hitter (plus you don't want to have Fukudome and Pena too close to each other in the order). The question is, if the hitters are so interchangeable, do you rely primarily on people being hot? If that was the case, Soriano, Soto, and Byrd would be moving up right now while Castro, Fukudome, and Ramirez would be moving down in the lineup. But I don't know if you want to make wild swings in the lineup based on a week or two of results especially when they could so quickly reverse.
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Darwin Barney named National League rookie of the month.
CubColtPacer replied to Quakers's topic in Chicago Cubs Talk
If we're talking about Barney adding power, I would be more inclined to credit Camp Colvin. Barney added close to 20 pounds over the offseason and that might have helped him add just a touch more power. I also think he could settle in close to his minor league line. Barney's the type of player who wouldn't lose much facing better pitchers. -
Z's been good but LA's lineup is really bad today as well.
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Pena has increased his OPS by 110 points in the last 2 days.
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Against a left-hander? Not that strange. Probably the most interesting thing is the Cubs are not starting Reed Johnson today, who has been the Cubs best hitter through limited at-bats and has hit Lilly very well in even more limited at-bats. Maybe Quade wanted to keep Pena in there to show his faith in him though after that closed door meeting a few days ago.
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I'm much more optimistic about Pena than I was two weeks ago. Two weeks ago Pena was striking out a ton, hitting the ball on the ground, rarely driving it to the deep outfield, and hitting very few line drives. Now his LD percentage is up to 20 which is a very good percentage (and only has a BABIP of .234 to show for it), his strikeouts are back to his historical levels, he's hitting more fly balls which is key to his success, and his fly balls are reaching the deep parts of the outfield pretty consistently. So unless there is something physically that has zapped his power when he makes good contact with the ball, Pena seems a great bet to bounce back. There's nothing in his numbers (unlike Ramirez last year) that is different from previous years other than the fact that he's had several balls caught at the warning track this year that went over the fence in previous years.
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It was the technical on Jones that they took away. Pierce's technical stood.