RichHillIsABeast

Awesome. 3-0

ugh.

Carlos Lee sucks.

1 pitch. 1 out. Keep it up, Marquis.

Jealousy is a terrible emotion. I bet if you polled the people as they walked into the gate welll over 90% would know who's playing today. I really find it hard to believe when it's printed right there on the freaking ticket. Who looks at tickets? :D Scalpers?

Those are the same people who wave at the camera while on their cellphones. :axe: I love when they do it right behind home plate with a Cub pitching. Morons.

According to Cubs.com, Zambrano will be. They're skipping Miller this time through the order. Didnt Lou say they werent going to skip? It's not fair for the 5th guy because he can go a week w/o pitching?? If it keeps Miller from costing us a game, I'm all about being unfair.

What a crappy game.

We have Wade Miller! Well he's not making the league minimum, so there's your difference. :lol:

Is there a problem with playing the hot hand? Yes, yes there is. So when Murton was slumping horribly last season you'd still play him? This isn't the prospect development league. It's MLB. Wins and losses matter. Murton isn't some wildcard unknown, he put up an 800+ OPS last year in pretty much a full season. Floyd needs to be pretty much at his best to be worthy of more than just giving him a day off. "Playing the hot hand" is way too arbitrary and puts too much pressure on either player to produce or get benched. Either platoon them, or let one get the lions share of the starts. Considering there's probably not going to be a significant difference between Floyd and Murton v. RHP(at least one large enough to justify stunting further development of Murton, the difference between them defensively, etc.), then Murton should be starting the majority of the time. So far it looks like Lou has done the right thing production-wise. To say otherwise is 20-20 hindsight. Floyd has been great. Murton has been lackluster and impatient at the plate. His infield dribblers remind me of the first half of 2006. Infield hits galore. It wasn't until the second half that he started putting it in the air and driving it. I'm sure Murton will get his playing time through merit. He's a good player (not great). Floyd is outproducing him at 80% health right now. Over the long hall Murton will take ABs away from Floyd, but he'll have to earn it. He's not such a great prospect that a team will throw away productivity temporarily to develop him. That's the nature of the game. I don't know if you've been watching the games or following via gameday/radio, but Floyd is making very solid contact. Loud outs. Booming XBH. Murton is lost. You don't have to follow splits to get the most productivity out of a platoon. Part of it's it who's hot now. If you want to play some guy b/c of last year's stats, that's not going to work. Is Soriano raking right now? Izturis? DeRosa? Play the hot hand. It has been SIX GAMES. SIX. 6! Do you not understand how utterly insignificant a sample that is? This is the problem with playing the hot hand. Players look good and bad sometimes, and it varies sometimes at bat to at bat, game to game, series to series. To "play the hot hand" is just playing roulette with the lineup, short hot streaks are so far from being predictive it's ridiculous. At the same time, you want to reward good performance, but there needs to be a structure in place for that. Murton was better at everything last year. He's younger, healthier, a better defender, and is probably better at cards. He should be getting the majority of the starts. Now, this isn't necessarily a criticism of what's happened to this point, because it has only been SIX GAMES, but over the haul Murton needs to be getting the lion's share of the playing time unless something goes very wrong for him and very right for Floyd, for an extended period of time. Was Floyd not significantly injured last season? It's pretty dubious to rate Floyd vs. Murton based on last year's numbers. So far Floyd has outproduced Murton. The numbers don't lie (not to mention the naked eye for anyone that's watched the games). Murton has sucked so far. Absolutely sucked. Will that continue throughout the season? Nope. But playing Floyd over Murton has helped us win games so far. You're arguing long term and I'm arguing short term. Have you seen Murton lately? Crap. Until he gets it figured out, Floyd's the man. Sample size, shmample size. We're talking short term. Sample size is irrelevant. Geebus, Neifi was good at times. Are you suggesting we should have played some SS stud in a slump b/c his overall numbers warranted the start? This is baseball. Everyone slumps. A smart manager can take advantage of the depth on his roster. Otherwise he'd be playing his starters every day no matter what b/c their career numbers suggested it.

I don't think so. I've heard from a few people he had awful command during spring training. And he had that problem the past two seasons in Mesa and Boise. What's the problem? He didn't have extreme control issues in HS. In high school, he could throw it down the middle and blow everyone away. When he was drafted, they talked about some mechanical issues. It seems that he has had them each spring, then gets straightened out during the year. Yup. And the pitching coach who is credited with really helping him last season in Boise is now the pitching coach at Peoria. Thanks Raisin and Tim. The PC in question is David Rosario, is he not?

Soriano has flat out sucked at the plate. Let's hope he steps it up soon. I'd hate to see him booed at Wrigley.

Is there a problem with playing the hot hand? Yes, yes there is. So when Murton was slumping horribly last season you'd still play him? This isn't the prospect development league. It's MLB. Wins and losses matter. Murton isn't some wildcard unknown, he put up an 800+ OPS last year in pretty much a full season. Floyd needs to be pretty much at his best to be worthy of more than just giving him a day off. "Playing the hot hand" is way too arbitrary and puts too much pressure on either player to produce or get benched. Either platoon them, or let one get the lions share of the starts. Considering there's probably not going to be a significant difference between Floyd and Murton v. RHP(at least one large enough to justify stunting further development of Murton, the difference between them defensively, etc.), then Murton should be starting the majority of the time. So far it looks like Lou has done the right thing production-wise. To say otherwise is 20-20 hindsight. Floyd has been great. Murton has been lackluster and impatient at the plate. His infield dribblers remind me of the first half of 2006. Infield hits galore. It wasn't until the second half that he started putting it in the air and driving it. I'm sure Murton will get his playing time through merit. He's a good player (not great). Floyd is outproducing him at 80% health right now. Over the long hall Murton will take ABs away from Floyd, but he'll have to earn it. He's not such a great prospect that a team will throw away productivity temporarily to develop him. That's the nature of the game. I don't know if you've been watching the games or following via gameday/radio, but Floyd is making very solid contact. Loud outs. Booming XBH. Murton is lost. You don't have to follow splits to get the most productivity out of a platoon. Part of it's it who's hot now. If you want to play some guy b/c of last year's stats, that's not going to work. Is Soriano raking right now? Izturis? DeRosa? Play the hot hand.

Agreed. If you watched the play closely, the runner had every intention of taking Cedeno out. Had Cedeno left his leg planted on the bag at the time of the catch, he would be on the DL ala Todd Walker/Carlos Lee last year. That's the main reason umpires allow the phantom tag. To prevent needless injuries. its not even that, its he has been up twice (so far this year) and he needed to be clutch and he blew it twice. its not like the pitchers the brewers brought in were over powering anyone (well outside of turnbow and he was wild, we shouldve scored there as well). Sunday was the first game he's had more than 1 AB in a game this season. As far as not delivering in 2 chances - this is baseball, where getting on base 35% of the time is considered good. 35 percent is great, 30 percent is good, 16 percent is what Cedeno is at. small sample but its not like he tore it up in 2006 either I'm not a Cedeno homer, but give the kid a chance. He has plenty of ability, especially defensively. It was his first MLB season last year. Under Baker/Clines no less. I don't mean to make excuses for the kid, but there are loads of quality major leaguers who had underwelming debuts. The skills are there. give him a chance.

Is there a problem with playing the hot hand? Yes, yes there is. So when Murton was slumping horribly last season you'd still play him? This isn't the prospect development league. It's MLB. Wins and losses matter.

No you're fine. It's not like you're celebrating it. Early speculation says bone spurs; out 4-6 weeks. Blake Hawksworth will be getting the start tues. Wow, that sucks. I'm happy as a Cubs' fan, but Carp is an awesome pitcher to watch (well, when my team isn't losing).

I don't think so. I've heard from a few people he had awful command during spring training. And he had that problem the past two seasons in Mesa and Boise. What's the problem? He didn't have extreme control issues in HS.

Is there a problem with playing the hot hand?

Ridiculous. "Zero mound presence"? "Act"? As if anyone would act like that on the mound artificially. Zambrano's comments were a little odd and not very polite, but Estrada can stick it as far as I'm concerned. If I was an opposing player, I would hate Zambrano for his act on the mound. If I was an opposing player, I'd keep my mouth shut about Z's antics. 97+ mph up and in ends careers. Not after Z's comments, I wouldn't. If a player was afraid of 97+ mph up and in, he wouldn't be able to stand in the batter's box in the big leagues. 97 mph in the earhole ends careers. Sammy sure wasn't the same after getting earholed. He was elite. Bill Hall and Johnny Estrada are not. Z is old skool. Guys were pissed at Wood and Prior for rocking the inside in '03. None of them charged the mound. None of them ran their mouths. That's more than professional respect. It's fear. Z can pitch inside with the best of them. He's wild enough to get away with earholing someone w/o ejection. I don't think Z's comments were professional (I ragged on him in other threads), but there's a difference between theory and practice. Bill Hall and Johnny "Michelin Man" Estrada can KMA.

Agreed. If you watched the play closely, the runner had every intention of taking Cedeno out. Had Cedeno left his leg planted on the bag at the time of the catch, he would be on the DL ala Todd Walker/Carlos Lee last year. That's the main reason umpires allow the phantom tag. To prevent needless injuries. its not even that, its he has been up twice (so far this year) and he needed to be clutch and he blew it twice. its not like the pitchers the brewers brought in were over powering anyone (well outside of turnbow and he was wild, we shouldve scored there as well). Sunday was the first game he's had more than 1 AB in a game this season. As far as not delivering in 2 chances - this is baseball, where getting on base 35% of the time is considered good.

Murton's got a couple infield hits that make his average look ok, but he's looked like crap at the plate. Floyd has been better than fine. Murton .308/.357/.308 (13 AB) 1 BB, 4 K Floyd .375/.444/.625 (8 AB) 1 BB, 1 K Murton doesn't even have an XBH yet.

What the heck? He came into camp in shape but didn't make the rotation? Command? Something smells fishy.

Ridiculous. "Zero mound presence"? "Act"? As if anyone would act like that on the mound artificially. Zambrano's comments were a little odd and not very polite, but Estrada can stick it as far as I'm concerned. If I was an opposing player, I would hate Zambrano for his act on the mound. If I was an opposing player, I'd keep my mouth shut about Z's antics. 97+ mph up and in ends careers.

Carlos Lee owns Marquis, Wuertz, Dempster, and Eyre. Lilly has owned him in 14 AB.

The thing that scared me most was he wasn't able to keep his FB low in the zone. The low strike was being called by blue today. He's not going to blow anyone away up in the zone with an 88 mph heater.