jersey cubs fan

His .252 BABIP despite an 18% LD% is meaningless? Do you not buy into luck playing a part at any level or just in the minors? I don't believe much in the viability of line drive determination in the minor leagues.

Dubois/Hoffpauier platoon.

If they're talking about next year, then yeah there's no chance Vitters will or should be in Chicago next year. I thought CubinNY was saying Vitters wasn't likely to get to Chicago at any point though. He said anytime soon, and the previous guy was specifically talking about Vitters playing 1B next year.

He had bad numbers there this year, but he's young for the league and got some terrible BABIP luck. He was heating up when he got hurt, lending credence to the idea that he had potentially figured out AA. The injury keeps us from knowing for sure this year, however. But again, considering how young he is, he still has ample time to develop and still be on a normal track. Aren't they talking about the first baseman for the 2011 Chicago Cubs?

If it allowed them to afford Halladay, it's hardly been a dumb move. Some people were saying they could've gotten Halladay without Lee being involved, IIRC. Sure, some people were saying that. Doesn't make it so. I think it looked pretty clear like they were moving one guy to make room for the other. I'd have taken Halladay too.

If it allowed them to afford Halladay, it's hardly been a dumb move. But now they are trading for another starting pitcher who isn't as good but costs more and giving up more players. I didn't at the time and still don't buy that they traded Lee for financial reasons also the Lee trade didn't impact the Halladay trade in terms of needing more prospects to complete the Halladay deal. He doesn't cost more if Houston is picking up some of the tab. They are throwing in less than $12m he is still owed some of the $15m on his contract for this year, he makes $16m next year, and he's been requesting and demanding that his $16m option for 2012 gets exercised in any trade. Cliff Lee made $5.75m this year. Or $9m.

Doesn't want to go to Philly? He can miss the playoffs in Houston and still be a hero, or go to the Phillies and risk missing the playoffs, in which case he's a bum.

If it allowed them to afford Halladay, it's hardly been a dumb move. But now they are trading for another starting pitcher who isn't as good but costs more and giving up more players. I didn't at the time and still don't buy that they traded Lee for financial reasons also the Lee trade didn't impact the Halladay trade in terms of needing more prospects to complete the Halladay deal. He doesn't cost more if Houston is picking up some of the tab.

If it allowed them to afford Halladay, it's hardly been a dumb move.

It probably happens in several ways, depending on player and relationship with team. My guess is Jim keeps his players relatively informed along the way. But sometimes a team may dot all the i's and cross all the t's then hand it to the player to put the pressure on him to accept.

Splitting hairs....being accurate........too each...his own. We're not a last place team – there are two teams currently behind us in the standings. The Angels are also only 6 games better than us and still 8.5 games out of first place, currently sitting in third place in their division. Going to the Angels would only put DLee in a marginally better position to make the playoffs.

Just an idea.....and a stupid one at that.... Vitters cannot hit his way out of AA and now he's hurt. Why would the Cubs put any faith that he'll be playing in Chicago any time soon? That's just stupid as is the Lee is a loser stuff.

If he wants to stay in Chicago the smart thing to do is go to free agency and see what the market for your services is and then see how close to that market the Cubs are willing to get. If he's offer 2/16 somewhere else I wouldn't blame him for not signing a $3m contract here.

http://www.northsidebaseball.com/forum/topic?f=44&t=56101&p=2484332#p2484332 A shame. It's going to be interesting to find out if he knew his killers or not. Seems like there's been more and more robberies/attacks against professional athletes in the past couple/few years. The internet isn't that big of a place.

Chris Carpenter: Looks like Matt Clement, pitches like Matt Clement. Does he have the civil war veteran look going on? Ugh, Jackson really hit a wall this month.

I don't think industry standard has anything to do with it, but there's no question it's stupid. They should either be throwing him for 2 innings at a time, or allowing him to go shorter with back to back days. Having him pitch on back to back days and extending him on the 2nd day is just reckless, especially for a team that is out of the race by a mile and a half.

Check your math.

No idea where they will end up. But I believe the Jets could bomb as well. People overlove teams that lead the league in defense. That isn't necessarily sustainable. That great defense brought them 9 wins last season.

My you're a prissy little one aren't you. I'm not begging for starter help. I'm saying they should leave open the possibility of acquiring a starter. I'd prefer they focus on offense above all, but considering the lack of obvious candidates there, they can use all the help they can get. It's not like this is the greatest rotation in baseball. As for Wells, I thought a lot of what he did last year was smoke and mirrors. I was starting to think otherwise early this year until he started to go off the tracks a bit. He's been okay, but far from anything that can't be improved upon. He's also yet to throw a full season of quality major league innings, and I don't see what's so wrong with pointing that out.

You ask that as if he's got 3-4. He's got 1 so far in his career. And he's yet to do it over a full season of 180-200 innings either. Still, he could be your 2nd more reliable starter next year. That's not good. If you can call monthly end points over 2 seasons full years from Lee, can I add up the random innings Wells had before '09 and put them on to his 2010 season? And Wells threw 191.1 professional innings last year. Pretty sure Carlos Zambrano would be the 2nd most reliable starter behind Dempster. You're acting like these guys are getting by on pure luck this year and they're not. You trade Silva's bloated ass, fill out the 5th with Diamond/Jackson/Cashner and have the other 2 as swingmen/AAA insurance. It's not complicated, and that's an above average rotation. Again, this team may have Cashner pencilled into the bullpen and we have no idea where Zambrano will be. I'm not sure what 2008 innings would have to do with Wells' 2010.

http://deadspin.com/5598975/police-may-have-found-lorenzen-wrights-body

You ask that as if he's got 3-4. He's got 1 so far in his career. And he's yet to do it over a full season of 180-200 innings either. Still, he could be your 2nd more reliable starter next year. That's not good.

If you assume they have penciled Cashner into a relief role and are doing anything they can to get rid of Zambrano, they don't really have an abundance of starting pitchers. Silva is having a fluke year, Lilly is gone, Wells has hit a rough patch or two. Dempster is the only stable guy returning. Gorzo has been good for the Cubs but is in no way a lock for 200 innings of solid starting. You have some arms in the minors, but all of them have major question marks. The Cubs have 5 starters who have performed at an above average rate this year (Lilly included) They also have a guy with a better track record than all of them in the pen. They also have Cashner, Jackson, and Diamond as major league ready arms. Yes, if we're going to talk in the Cubs are [expletive] stupid terms, sure they might not be stocked enough because they'll turn Jay Jackson into a 3B and release Carlos Zambrano, but what is the point in talking about that. Well the Cubs like to carry 12 pitchers, and have talked about wanting 7 guys available for starting duty. If Lilly is gone and Zambrano is god knows what, they will be counting on a combination of Dempter, inconsistent track records and prospects to fill out a rotation. Who cares? At this point it is better to lose and get a better draft pick. Finishing .500 does us no good as a franchise. I'm not getting your response here.

FanGraphs was a big fan of his 2007-2009 years. Given his numbers, previous production, and the fact that he'll be 35 for a good chunk of next season makes me think he'd be worth a 2-3 year deal in the offseason. The 6 month period from May 2008 through April 2009 makes this season the second full season's worth of play (assuming he keeps playing like this) where he was a big disappointment. He seems to be a lot like a Vladdy type who is going to get a 1 year prove it contract.