stitchface

Why, you expect the Cubs to even make an offer? Why waste team talking about a player, when you KNOW in your heart the Cubs have no interests in. Meaning even if Ichiro is available, the Cubs ain't interested. Willy Pierre Juan Taverez Makes me no never mind. I expect the Cubs to acquire SOMEBODY else with Taverez to make a deal worthwhile, I would love to take Brandon Backe off their hands. why are you so sure the cubs aren't interested? He's fast, a great defender and bats leadoff - all things the cubs value.

Tavares will be out of baseball in three years. Ichiro should age well.

I don't think there was any bad blood at all. The Twins just weren't going to pay his price. Didn't he get a good ovation when we went to the Metrodome? I'm feeling the love here....Mr. Hendry, get those Twins on the phone! My feeling is that Hendry won't trade Jones because he wants 2 more years of what we already have. The only way Jones is traded is if he becomes a malcontent and forces the issue. Yeah....selling high would really suck and that's not the Cubs way. I'll wait for Hendry to trash him in the press before he trades him. Jones is a decent player who I think should be in left. The Cubs just need a big banger in left or right or another postion if they can find one. If Jones is moved I would like some very good prospects for him. If he stays on the Cubs, I would try him in CF. Sadly, I think you are correct that Hendry won't trade him though he should. He will not be part of the next Cub's playoff team and that should be the only criteria.

I would offer a year's worth of salary for legit prospects - do the Twins have any?

I don't think there was any bad blood at all. The Twins just weren't going to pay his price. Didn't he get a good ovation when we went to the Metrodome? I think he is well liked there - I don't really get how they think they are in the race but I would hate to face Johan and Francisco is a short playoff series.

Maybe he likes the fans better there? http://sportsline.com/mlb/story/9557340

RHCP should have gone away about 15 years ago. the other band invented new music forms - tough call!

benito's time on the cubs is officially wiped from my memory.

Want to bet on Palmeiro ever being in the Hall of Fame? The Cubs have stolen at least one HOFer though and Sosa will be two if the 'roids don't keep him out.

It wasn't brought up when Baylor was fired. Like I said before, there is a difference getting mad and arguing at a fan because the fan yells, "You suck" vs. a fan getting personal with the insults. I wasn't there and most of us weren't, but if the fan(s) started yelling about his wife, mom, etc, I think Jacque had every right to yell back. It's amazing how "liquid courage" seems to make fans feel like they're entitled to make asses of themselves. so, we weren't there so we can't assume jones was out of line, but we can assume the fan was drunk and insulting his mother? Even if he was, Jones responding is idiotic and pointless.

Go Aggies! Do they have a team? Go Broncos (suddenly much less popular . . .)

BAN THE TRAITOR!

wow, that is painfully bad grammar. unreadable.

slugging decreases your LOBs. the equation is simply: R=PA-27-LOB therefore the goal is to increase your plate appearances and decrease your LOBs.

Unless that .330 OBP guy has a huge power advantage over the .360 OBP guy, there's no way he's better for your ballclub. You can talk all you want about guys who hit instead of walk, but the fact is you need guys who get on base, no matter how they do it, and you'd preferably take the guys who both hit and walk. Taking a guy who hits a little more but walks a lot less, just does not make any sense whatsoever. There aren't many players out there who primarily walk well, whatever that means. Guys either get on base or they don't. It's simple, you want the guys who get on base. Let me give you a closer example then, we have Morgan Ensberg and Matt Holliday of Colorado. Ensberg is batting .237 with a .390 OBP Holliday is batting .337 with a .387 OBP Ensberg has 19 HR with 44 RBI's Holliday has 16 HR with 57 RBI's Who do you take? (disregarding things like park or position-just simple hitting and creating offense for a team) Are these hitters even that close? Let me give you some other numbers-Holliday has a .587 slugging to Ensberg's .500 slugging. Therefore, Holliday's OPS is 84 points higher. Is this because he has more power? No, obviously not. It is no wonder that many of the middle of the order people who have high batting averages have high slugging numbers, power or not. They are hitting the ball into play, getting their slugging up using singles or doubles. To use another example, this is why Freddy Sanchez has a much higher slugging percentage than Bobby Abreu. Abreu gets on base .50 more of the time, but Sanchez has the same .53 edge in slugging, even though he only has 5 home runs, while Abreu has 8. A person with a low average and high OBP will have to have a significant number of home runs to get even close in slugging to a person with a high average and even a much lower OBP, like Abreu and Sanchez. If you just wanted to get on base 1 base at a time, you'd have to have 4 of those in any inning for one run. These middle of the order type of guys need to put the ball into play, to let baserunners advance (2nd to home, 1st to 3rd) and to hit things like doubles to make it much easier to score, which increases your run production. depends whether those batting averages are sustainable. obviously holliday is better so far. but, the ability to be selective and take walks is more sustainable than the ability to hit for high batting average. the idea is not to take walks, but to hit for power by being selective and to not make outs. walks tend to come when you are selective and can hit for power. as such, walks are an indication of a player's selectivity. I tend to agree that walks as a solo metric aren't that indicative.

someone should talk to the commish about eliminating this week from league play - would make the final only one week instead of two.

Remember before I say this that I like walks much better than Dusty seems to..but what if I came on the board last Sunday and said see...the Cubs took 0 walks, and scored 15 runs! It looks like they should keep preaching agressiveness. I would be roasted for looking at that one game as evidence, because the 2 stats are not well correlated. So it's silly to look at this game as evidence of the other side, however a help it might have been. except the stats are well correlated (that is obp and runs) Yes, but OBP is not exactly what we are talking about here. Most of the correlation between OBP and runs is inherent in the correlation between batting average and runs. For example..there are 11 teams with over 300 walks this season. 6 are in the top 10 of runs scored, 2 are between 11-20, and 3 of those teams are in the bottom 10 of runs scored. Out of the bottom 5 teams in walks, 1 of them is in the top 10 of runs scored, 2 are in between 11-20, and 2 are in the bottom 10. Also, look at this. The average number of walks by the division of 10 Top 10: 313.2 BB's 2nd 10: 277.2 BB's Last 10: 280.4 BB's Do walks have an affect on runs? Definitely. Does it have as much of an affect as a change in batting average? Not a chance. That's why OPS is such a good stat in evaluating runs for a team. The top 10 teams in OPS are also the top 10 teams in runs scored. That has direct correlation-while walks do not. And remember, it is walks alone we are talking about, since the original posted did not say that we had 9 walks and also had so many hits, which would be the components of OBP. Instead, he singularly wanted the Cubs to walk more, and walks have only a slight to moderate correlation to runs scored. except the stats are well correlated (that is obp and runs)

Remember before I say this that I like walks much better than Dusty seems to..but what if I came on the board last Sunday and said see...the Cubs took 0 walks, and scored 15 runs! It looks like they should keep preaching agressiveness. I would be roasted for looking at that one game as evidence, because the 2 stats are not well correlated. So it's silly to look at this game as evidence of the other side, however a help it might have been. except the stats are well correlated (that is obp and runs)

ah, the joys of moving - finding buried treasures - like Rockies seat cushions! Perfect for throwing on the field!

in the reality, the order of the lineup is far less important than the content. so finding the right combination isn't going to happen until you have good hitters.

finally I'm thumping somebody . . . I think the odds of two teams finishing with the same record and exact same number of points is pretty small.

of the scoring system, but is Ramon Hernandez the best player in baseball?

so, he's making 4 million a year to win if he has the best team? Terrific. Great stuff dusty.

the east pummels the west this week - fuzzy our only winner.

meh, the fishbulbs and I are mired in a defensive standoff - I win on bases allowed but he has a CG coming if those are scored overnight.