MSG T

Bump. Just wanted to keep it on the front page.

The part I found amazing isn't that he can still hit, it's that he's thrown out 29 of 78 trying to steal. With four fingers on his throwing hand that don't move. :shock:

Agreed. I've been showing all these pics to my boys, and trying to describe the players, and the game, with each one. I started showing them Ken Burns' series, and along with your pics, they're starting to get a good feel for the game's history. I'm starting to create a monster though, my younger son(8 y.o.) wanted to know how his OPS+ this season compared to Babe's. I had a tough time explaining the difference between the majors and Pee Wees. That's great!! I'm glad someone is enjoying it. I feel like I'm talking to myself sometimes in this thread! I wish I had more to contribute, but as Erik said, I don't know where to find some of the great stuff you've accumulated. BTW, I'd love to show the pic of you had of Stan Musial's batting stance to the guy that keeps trying to get my kid to keep his elbow up, since his stance is similar to Stan's, only nowhere near as hunched over. I might have to print it and show him the next time I see him. I don't like it, but he hits well with it, so I'm not changing him. I knew I'd seen it before, but couldn't place it until I saw your pic. So if you see a rookie in 15 years or so, that stands similar to Musial, and is a lefty, that's my boy!! :grin:

You are wrong. No, I'm right. Assume that leaguewide median expected performance is a .750 OPS. Assume that there are 20 hitters and pitchers that are anti-clutch performers who are worse in high-leverage spots -- the 10 pitchers in this group collectively have a .900 OPS against in high-leverage spots (but would otherwise expect to be at .750) and the 10 hitters in the group have a .600 OPS in high leverage spots (but would otherwise expect to be at .750). As a matter of mathematical certainty, the remaining hitters will have a collective OPS in high leverage spots of greater than .750 and the remaining pitchers will have a collective OPS in high leverage spots of less than .750. How does a median OPS come into play here when discussing clutch? Based on your example above, would Albert Pujols be considered a clutch hitter if he posted an .800 OPS in high-leverage situations? I would think that would make him decidedly un-clutch, considering his career OPS is 1.047. Your performance in pressure situations shouldn't be measured against the league but rather against your normal level of performance. Take Derek Jeter for example. Career OPS of .845. In high-leverage situations, he has a career OPS of .854, a whopping .009 difference. Does that make him clutch if the league averages a .750 OPS in those situations? No. It makes him everyday Derek Jeter since it's practically the same as his normal production. This is a better, easier to understand version of what I was trying to say.

If you were to take a season-long sample of every hitter with 500 plate appearances or more, it is certainly within the realm of possibility that every single one of them could hit worse in clutch or high-leverage situations than their overall numbers. What he said. Warren, maybe I'm completely confused by now, but it looks like you're figuring clutch based on an average of different players, and you can't do that. If you're looking at Derek Jeter's clutchiness, you can't use the Yankees at a whole to do that. He may be better in clutch situation than some of his teammates, but his overall numbers are going to be better as well. Completely hypothetical, but who's more clutch( or less anti-clutch, whichever you prefer) .750 OPS overall---> .800 in "clutch" situations or .900 overall---> .825 in "clutch" situations The second players numbers fall in "clutch" situations, but I'd still rather have him at the plate with 2 on and down by one in the 9th. Your arguement doesn't address this, in fact it completely ignores that possibility. In you're scenario, you're stating that those 25 have to worse, because their numbers fall, but that's not always going to be the case. Maybe they started on the high end and drifted towards the mean and the other 75 stayed at their positions, relative to the mean.

That's sexy. Win Cubs.

Agreed. I've been showing all these pics to my boys, and trying to describe the players, and the game, with each one. I started showing them Ken Burns' series, and along with your pics, they're starting to get a good feel for the game's history. I'm starting to create a monster though, my younger son(8 y.o.) wanted to know how his OPS+ this season compared to Babe's. I had a tough time explaining the difference between the majors and Pee Wees.

This was my second choice. My first? I Touch Myself... The Divinyls. Edit: Correction, that was 1991. Sorry, carry on. I hope you're joking. Or at least a chick. Weren't the options bad 80's songs. I thought that would qualify. Unless you like the Divinyls.

Bring it back!!! It's just not the same with the Cubs running out on the field to "Runnin' Down a Dream" or "It's a Beautiful Day." The two main songs I affiliate with the Cubs the most are "Jump" and The Romantics "What I like about You" Why?? I highly associate that with the 90's Bulls, but not the Cubs at all. Was it something before my time? I could be remembering wrong, I think they used them for some of their game promos sometime in the mid-late 80's. Or it could be age catching up with me.

This was my second choice. My first? I Touch Myself... The Divinyls. Edit: Correction, that was 1991. Sorry, carry on.

He doesn't cover the Cubs, he's a columnist. And a bad one. Ah, my bad, I've only read a few of his stories, and haven't been impressed with any.

Fixed.

Most Improved? I realize who I'm talking about, but has Rozner not been paying attention the last 4 years? ARam is doing pretty much what he's been doing since he's been a Cub. Although he did run really hard on that easy groundout last week, so that must be the difference. He's hustling on outs now. Geez, this guy has a job covering the Cubs?

The Cubs already owe massive amounts in backloaded deals, what's to keep them from offering Ryan a 3-4 year deal with a lower first year and a big raise in subsequent years, after Marquis is off the books. Not that they won't try to get Marquis off the payroll this offseason. Especially since they'd probably much rather have Demp in the rotation in the future and not Marquis. BTW , I'm not saying that's what they should do, just something I could see them doing.

I'm pretty sure at least Babe Ruth has done that. Probably plenty more in the early 1900's. Since the WWII era, though, possibly not. In '98 Maddux hit .240 and had an ERA of 2.22. EDIT: Just looked. Mike Hampton hit .311 and had an ERA of 2.90 in 99.

In 1925, Walter Johnson posted this line batting: .433 .455 .577 163(OPS+) and was 20-7 with a 3.07 ERA(137 ERA+) in 29 starts( 30 games total). Babe Ruth had BA's of .272(121 OPS+) and .325(162 OPS+) in 1916 and 1917. He posted ERA's of 1.75(41 starts) and 2.01(38 starts) in those two years. BTW, Z has an OPS+ of 147 this year. Not too bad at all. I just used Johnson and Ruth because they seemed like the most obvious ones to me, I'm sure there are plenty of others.

Over 10,000 White Sox fans own a computer? :shock: Who knew?

Lee is supposed to be getting tonight off with Ward playing 1B so I don't know if Lou would be want to put a lineup out there without Lee or Ramirez. Theriot Fontenot Soriano Edmonds Soto Ward DeRosa Johnson Still looks like a damn fine lineup. However, it would probably be more like Soriano Theriot DeRosa Edmonds Soto Johnson Ward Fontenot ewwwww You do realize that DeRosa and Edmonds( at least with the Cubs) have better numbers than Lee and ARam. DeRo 116 OPS+/ Lee 111 OPS+ Edmonds( with Cubs) 148 OPS+/ ARam 129 OPS+ I understand your thought, but there shouldn't be any drop off from what Lee and ARam could do against Sanchez.

:shock: I'll have what he's having.

If the Cubs won the World Series, I would not expect the Cubs to make major moves. Cubs started the season at $118M Zambrano gets a 2.75M raise Ramirez gets a 1.65M raise Soriano gets a 3M raise Lilly gets a 5M raise Fukudome gets a 5.5M raise Marquis gets a 3.5M raise DeRosa gets a 750K raise Harden will get a 3.5M raise if option is picked up Gaudin will probably get a 1M raise in arbitration Thats 25.65M in salary added right there Dempster is a FA and if the Cubs try to resign him, he's going to make significantly more than the 5.5M he made this year. Kerry Wood after a All Star mostly successful year as closer will want significantly more money than the 1.75 (+ incentives) he received this year. Howry (4M) is off the books, Edmonds (insignificant) is off the books, Lieber (3.5M) is off the books, Reed Johnson (1.3M) is off the books, Ward (1.2M is off the books) Blanco has a 3M option (made 2.8M in 08) That's 20.05M lost off the books The rest of the team is making under 1M and mostly under arbitration and won't get more than 300-500k in raises (I think) Meaning our payroll will roughly be at 123.60M for 17 players. You are then missing a reliever (can be filled in minors), number 3 starter (can resign Dempster for 10M or fill in minors), a closer (can use Marmol, fill in reliever spot in minors or resign Wood for lets say 5M guaranteed + incentives), a CF (both sides of the platoon), a LH bench player (Hoffpauir can fill this role), a backup catcher (can be found cheaply most likely) and a long reliever (not significant to speculate, but probably minors) Lets say the Cubs resign Dempster and Wood and fill the rest of the needs internally. That brings the payroll to roughly 140M, a raise of 22M just to reach status quo. Then throw into consideration the fact that the team's ownership will change hands during the offseason, I would think its completely unrealistic to suggest that the ballclub is improved with anything other then a possible trade. If the option is Dempster for 10M or Sabathia for 18M, I'll take Sabathia. (Granted, we'll need to see just how badly the Brewers abuse him the rest of the way.) Not that I don't like Dempster, but if you can get a Cy Young caliber lefty, you do it. Zambrano, Sabathia, Harden, and Lilly as your top 4? Dang. Just a thought, if they did this, by not resigning Demp( currently at 7-7.5 mil) and trading Marquis to someone who'd pick up his whole salary(even if it meant getting back very little), that would make up around 3/4 of the money needed( for next year anyway) to get Sabathia. The payroll for the rotation would go up 3-4 mil, and Z/Sabathia/Harden/Lilly/Marshall(Hill/Shark/Gaudin/whoever)>Z/Harden/Demp/Lilly/Marquis. That's worth it, even if it means just giving Marquis away. OK, now someone convince me that is even remotely possible. I can't think of a realistic rotation that's anywhere near that sexy. With the current lineup( minus Johnson/Edmonds and adding Pie) and that rotation, they'd be tough to beat. Again.

Not true. Baserunners advance at their own risk and the ball is only considered caught if it is actually caught. what? If it isn't caught you can't force the batter at any base, thus you can't turn two off of it. The runners aren't forced to run, but you can still get a double (or triple) play off of it if you let it drop and the runners try to tag up. If the ball hits the ground, the runners still don't have to advance. They can, but the don't have to.

RF, with Kosuke to CF? Or LF, with Sori to RF and Kosuke to CF?

I'm in North Liberty but grew up in that area. most of my family went/goes to Starmont and I have several relatives that are good friends of his. I played softball against him and his dad for a few years as well, but I haven't seen either in probably 3 years had many a friend in the strawberry area his mom used to work with me in manchester, the family on both sides definitely has baseball blood in cedar falls now, did you go to starmont? sure did, class of 92 wd '92 here you guys were about 100 miles down hwy 3 from where I grew up. Always like to see an Iowa kid get drafted. Saydel '87 here. And I love seeing the Iowa kids get picked also. OT, It's kind of a personnal thing, but I played against Joe and Ben Blake( Two of Casey's older brothers) and got to know them a little bit, so I'd love to see the Cubs get him, just from a personnal perspective. That was a few years before Benj Sampson's time, right? He married my old neighbor. The name sounds familiar, but I don't really remember any specifics. I went into the Army right after baseball season and was travelling the world for the next ten years. I only caught snippets during that time. From what I remember, each Blake brother that came up was better than the one before. There's one between Ben and Casey, but I don't remember his name.

I'm in North Liberty but grew up in that area. most of my family went/goes to Starmont and I have several relatives that are good friends of his. I played softball against him and his dad for a few years as well, but I haven't seen either in probably 3 years had many a friend in the strawberry area his mom used to work with me in manchester, the family on both sides definitely has baseball blood in cedar falls now, did you go to starmont? sure did, class of 92 wd '92 here you guys were about 100 miles down hwy 3 from where I grew up. Always like to see an Iowa kid get drafted. Saydel '87 here. And I love seeing the Iowa kids get picked also. OT, It's kind of a personnal thing, but I played against Joe and Ben Blake( Two of Casey's older brothers) and got to know them a little bit, so I'd love to see the Cubs get him, just from a personnal perspective.