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CubColtPacer

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Everything posted by CubColtPacer

  1. CubColtPacer
    It's certainly not common, but that's how I would describe someone like Soto's game. He's a patient hitter, but really aggressive with anything in the zone. I would love Castro to force pitchers to stay in the zone more. He wouldn't need to hit a ton of homeruns to really rake if he could add a few more walks and make pitchers challenge him. Soto's not real aggressive even in the zone. Players like Ramirez, Byrd, Pena, Colvin all swing at a lot more pitches inside the strike zone. What is strange is that Castro is also below all those people at swinging at pitches in the strike zone. Castro has one of the highest percentages of any Cub at swinging pitches outside of the zone but watches more strikes than the average Cub.
  2. CubColtPacer
    Welcome back Jersey. That's very possible, although he's been pretty good in his last 700 of those 2000 PA. And he's showing signs of improvement in all the major categories. But it very well could be a mirage-there's no doubt about that. He needs to put up about 2 more seasons of good numbers to really be trusted. he also had a home run per fly ball rate that was up in ryan howard/mark reynolds territory, which can't be expected to last. True, which is why he needs to upgrade his K/BB ratio to be more than a .750 OPS 4th OF type. But the longer he is in the majors that number has continued to get slightly better. That's the number I'm focused on this year to see if Colvin can make improvements because he certainly has decent power in that bat. If that number was horrible so far this year during his slump I'd be a lot more concerned.
  3. CubColtPacer
    Welcome back Jersey. That's very possible, although he's been pretty good in his last 700 of those 2000 PA. And he's showing signs of improvement in all the major categories. But it very well could be a mirage-there's no doubt about that. He needs to put up about 2 more seasons of good numbers to really be trusted.
  4. CubColtPacer
    You don't enjoy watching Matt Garza give up 12 runs on the fuzzy channel? He can't watch them at all tonight as is the case for many on the board. It's especially annoying to have a WCIU game after an off day.
  5. CubColtPacer
    I'm hoping it motivates Rose to show that there's more to the team than just him by passing the ball a lot!
  6. CubColtPacer
    He didn't say they'd be particularly effective at it :D For once, I actually agree with Bob Kravitz's take on it though: http://www.indystar.com/article/20110413/SPORTS15/104130317/?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|IndyStar.com|p And while I think Chicago is a slightly easier matchup (Miami would have been even a better matchup) than Boston that doesn't mean that I think Boston is the better team.
  7. CubColtPacer
    You'll be happy to hear that it's Zambrano on Monday. The starter for Tuesday hasn't been named yet.
  8. CubColtPacer
    I'm not sure what to think. He obviously has struggled which is a big reason why his LD percentage is only 8 percent so far! Even with that horrible LD percentage his BABIP should be higher than .130 though. On the other hand, he has walked more and struck out less than last year. He is hitting home runs at the same pace, hitting doubles at a slightly higher pace, hasn't hit a triple yet (but only had 5 last year). So basically his only big problem in the early going is that he isn't hitting singles. And then look at his left/right splits so far: vs left: 12 AB's, .083/.154/.083, 33.3% K percentage, 7.7% BB percentage vs right: 22 AB's, .182/.280/.545, 22.7% K percentage, 12% BB percentage So he's been utterly lost against left-handers so far this year and has had excellent power and a good strikeout/walk ratio against right-handers. Colvin didn't have a problem against left-handers last year but he didn't play against all types of left-handers last year either. So I'm more inclined to think that he's just faced a few pitchers that weren't good for him. But it's really too soon to tell.
  9. CubColtPacer
    This is one of those games that the Cubs absolutely have to be patient. The Rockies had 3 1/3 innings of relief yesterday and have a doubleheader today. Being patient tomorrow night even if it slightly decreases the chance of winning tomorrow night's game gives them a better chance of winning the series.
  10. CubColtPacer
    Question about the Pacers...they still have all that cap space this summer right? Obviously everything is up in the air with the lockout and stuff, but who do you guys plan on targeting? Hoping to get 1 big piece, or fill some needed role players? They have over 23 million in cap space for next year compared to this year's cap. I haven't heard many ideas of who the Pacers are targeting. They really need 1 big piece at either power forward, point guard, or maybe shooting guard. But I'm not sure they'll be able to get that one big piece so they might have to settle for more depth. They definitely need some more big man depth as Hibbert and Hansbrough are their only big men for next year. At the end of the day though, the only thing the Pacers are missing is a star. They have lots of good rotation players. If the Pacers had been the one to get lucky in the 08 draft instead of the Bulls the Pacers could easily have been the ones to win 60 games this year. But I don't know where the Pacers are ever going to get that star. I can easily see the Pacers winning one game. They play really well at stretches which is why they have wins over the Bulls, Lakers, Heat, Celtics, Dallas, Denver, and New Orleans. But they could easily get swept and they probably won't win more than 1.
  11. CubColtPacer
    I'm not a big fan of Russell starting either, but he didn't exactly get lit up last night. 3 solid hits, a couple dinks, and a couple bunts coupled with some poor defense. He pitched poorly but not nearly as poorly as the result he got. As for why Russell came out, he was on a pitch count. I don't think it was for performance reasons. Dempster has plenty of times before managed to squeeze an extra inning out of a situation where he was already laboring. That's why he has managed to throw so many innings the last few years. The main problem I have with that is trying to do it so early in the season when he's less likely to have his maximum stamina.
  12. CubColtPacer
    Colvin has 4 extra base hits (2 HR+2 doubles), 4 walks, 6 strikeouts, and on the other 20 balls put in play he's managed only 1 single.
  13. CubColtPacer
    I actually looked at safety first. The first site I looked at had Carter as a mid-rounder but all the others seem to peg him as a 2nd rounder. The Colts could definitely use another safety with Sanders gone and Bullitt possibly being gone as well. I strongly considered the crazy Polian pick of Randall Cobb, but I'll go safe and go with Quinton Carter. I'll PM truffle.
  14. CubColtPacer
    The Colts could go so many ways here. I'll let Exile post his thoughts first.
  15. CubColtPacer
    On the Pacers side, Dunleavy would be quite the X factor. Even though he was still starting, he was starting to get less and less minutes under Vogel and only had scored in double figures 3 out of his last 11 starts before his injury and has only been back for 5 games now. That choice surprised me. I figured it would be Paul George maybe keeping tabs on Rose or maybe Tyler Hansbrough.
  16. CubColtPacer
    It doesn't sound like it's likely at all that Fukudome will be available for anything but pinch-hitting duty for several days.
  17. CubColtPacer
    Yeah, that's what I'm worried about as well. Signing a guy who won't even be ready for another 3-4 weeks to be your 7th starter is not a great sign for those two. It could be that the Cubs are being unbelievably cautious and they're selling these veterans on a chance that will be gone by the time they're ready but it definitely is concerning. I was worried that Davis had retired (because he pitched so little last year in either the majors or minors and was still available two weeks over a week after Opening Day) and was coming out of retirement for this chance but it looks like he is just getting healthy and was going to sign a minor league deal with somebody soon. That makes me feel better.
  18. CubColtPacer
    This will be an interesting preview on the Pacers side since their team philosophy changed so dramatically mid-year. It's hard to use their statistics for the entire year to define them. This was a team that was dead last in average free throws attempted in November and December and 1st in the league in free throws attempted in February and March. They went from a team who was averaging 22-24 3's a game to a team that only averages 16-18. Are they that much better after the change? Not enough to where they can put any serious challenge to the Bulls. But they have a lot of variable parts and they are hard to pin down.
  19. CubColtPacer
    I'm not off the Quade fan club yet: Pros He's taken close to the best 25 with him His lineups are pretty good (only things I take exception with are Byrd in the 3 spot and the times when Barney appears in the 2nd spot). His rotation for the leadoff spot is very good, and something many managers wouldn't do. He isn't forcing the action on the basepaths very much. Cons He tends to focus on batter/pitcher matchups a little too much As far as the pitching, he's been a little too trusting of his veteran starting pitchers. Sometimes it has worked (Z got an extra inning when he clearly could have been done that night) and other times it hasn't (Dempster last night). He hasn't quite got the right balance yet on how to try to win the game in front of him while trying to save his arms for the long season as well. As long as he doesn't abuse the young pitchers in particular, I care much more about the things on the pro list than the ones on the con list so I'm pretty happy with him so far.
  20. CubColtPacer
    He's really good against left-handed hitters. Last year in 20 2/3 innings against left-handers he had 29 K's to only 4 BB's and only 19 hits given up (pretty much the only bad thing was that he gave up 5 HR's against them). I'm not much of a fan of him starting though but because the Cubs chose to go with Cashner and let go/traded the other two starting options on the major league squad (Gorz and Silva) it has left them only Coleman as an alternative starting option. In 3 months they'll probably have more potential starting options but right now it's slim pickings for the 7th spot.
  21. CubColtPacer
    Baker is ahead of him if you count him but otherwise you are right.
  22. CubColtPacer
    3.14 ERA in 51 innings over 8 starts in the last 3 years. They've hit him well once or twice but not often. And besides, nobody beats Wandy at home. His ERA over the last 3 years at home is 2.59. He's an ace at Minute Maid.
  23. CubColtPacer
    The key is always going to be if Barney can hit for a little bit of power. He's not going to walk that much and so he's useless if he has no power whatsoever. If he can hit for a high average along with hitting 3-5 home runs and a decent amount of doubles he can be decent though. So far he's had no extra base hits but a couple strong contact flyouts. Baker against left-handers is always going to be a very good option. So this is still a wait and see position to see what Barney can do.
  24. CubColtPacer
    He's only had 11 at-bats against right-handers so far. I'm not worried about him just yet. Plus he's walking like he's supposed to and just hasn't hit the home runs yet to supplement his high strikeout tendency. He's going to be a guy who fails to get the job done a lot..that's just part of who he is even when he's going good.
  25. CubColtPacer
    True, but going 2 for 17 with RISP in a game where you have double digit hits is unusual. The offense played well today but just didn't get the key hits. It's frustrating but not really a big deal. Just hope to not get an above average share of these types of games because the team cannot afford it.
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