jersey cubs fan

So what's it going to be?

Oh Ronny

Every fan of every team in all of sports? But for the rest of them, the rollercoaster occasionally ends on a high. Not every team. Pirates, AZ Cardinals, Tampa Rays, LA Clippers. There's plenty of fan bases that haven't been on anything like a roller coaster. Then there's Boston fans who may have spent time there in the past, but have basically been on cruise control to the moon for 5 years.

I think I've read that the once the Cubs get Wood warm, they will definitely use him in a game. But I have to imagine that if they break through here in the 8th, it could be worthwhile not to use him here.

Anybody have a good idea about what time the Bears would be expected to draft? I'll probably be on my way to DC.

No kidding. Me too. I told Hendry today that he'll have the Baseball Prospectus writers on his speed dial pretty soon. This is culture shock. Does Jim even know walks are a good thing? after being so vehemently against hendry's lack of love for the base on balls, i've grown to believe that he is at least partially right in a sense: walks are generally a symptom of being a good hitter. you can't really teach a hitter to be patient if he isn't already. when someone's isod goes up with age, it generally means that more and more pitchers are growing to respect his bat. you can teach a young hitter some tricks regarding pitch recognition, but if his core processor isn't fast enough, there's no way that having him attempt to shrink his strike zone will net positive results. it will probably just end up ruining a perfectly serviceable baseball player. great hitters walk a lot because they get pitched around. Yeah that is true, I think the big thing that was working against Jim in many of our minds was the manager he hired hated walks. very true. And Jim shared that hatred. While he may be right that you can't teach overly aggressive hitters how to be patient, the fact remains he targetted overly aggressive hitters repeatedly and didn't give a rat's butt about their patience, pitch recognition, approach at the plate or anything else. Jim was 100% pro-aggressive long before Dusty arrived. And he took 5 years as GM before even beginning to address a glaring problem that novices saw from the start (not to mention all the time as asst GM, and as the minor league boss).

What's their to understand? If they come to an agreement they won't run the risk of running out of time. They aren't free agents, but Miami is free to take any one of them. The rest of the team are not.

He hasn't been on the site since Sunday and we're almost 24 hours since the last pick.

What is he for them? Mazzilli is a studio analyst on SNY and hair care product tester. My wife asked last night, "You think he's got enough grease in there?" FYI, the Mets only come to Wrigley once this year.

Absolutely, and to top it off, I'm still not sold on the guy. Not enough to take at that spot.

Allen's a real good player, but I doubt he's worth that much. That's a king's ransom. Also, in other news, I heard the Bengals turned down an offer of two first round picks for Ocho Cinco. Not a good move on their part methinks. Was it Dallas? ESPN says the Redskins made an offer that was refused.

The next team would get him. I think the NFL used to ask the first team to wait to make the announcement, but I'm sure they guaranteed them the pick in advance and there was never any concern about losing it. With the new time adjustments, I wouldn't be surprised if the NFL went ahead and announced that pick right away.

Some guys walk more because pitchers pitch around their power. Guys like Fukudome walk because they have an incredible approach at the plate and a very good eye.

No mocking. ESPN reporting Miami signed Jake Long. The Miami Dolphins have reached a contract agreement with Michigan offensive tackle Jake Long and will select him with the No. 1 overall pick in Saturday's draft, sources told ESPN's Chris Mortensen. The announcement will come at a 1:45 p.m. ET news conference.

Game will start on time and probably won't be delayed, although the flights out of town may be.

Worried? Seriously?

I remember when the late 90's Yankees were dominant, this was a big reason why. The Cubs have one of, if not the best offenses in the league when they are this patient. According to Dusty the late 90's Yankees did not walk.

Bears draft talk has really died down of late. Guess a good Cubs team can do that around here. But this is an extremely important draft for the Angelo/Lovie era. If they don't find some significant upgrades in this draft, and the team continues to struggle, they could be out before the next draft class has a chance to contribute. With 4 picks in the first three rounds, 14, 44, 70 and 90, the Bears probably think they can get at least 3 guys who can contribute significantly in 2008, and might think they can find 4. Given his history, Angelo may still be looking to turn one of those picks into 2, giving him 5 top 90 selections. I've been begging for offensive line help for a few years now, and all signs seem to be pointing toward that being the primary target early. However, if they find a BPA at 14 who is not a lineman, will they be able to pass? Odds are you aren't going to find a 2008 starter at tackle past the first round, and that would leave the position a mess for this season.

If you go out to the bleachers, you will, without a doubt see people just boozing and hanging out. But that is true of every bleacher area. It's just so far away from the action, and baseball games can be so slow at times. Especially relatively unimportant games. The bleachers at Yankee Stadium are more or less a cage match. Between "show your t**s" chants and mini brawls there isn't a lot of attention being paid. But it's still a minority group within the entire crowd. I was just in Philly, and there you have hundreds of people wandering around the ballpark, doing lots of things that don't come close to paying attention to the game. You have bars, restaurants and other distractions that take people away from every field. But when the situation gets tight, the rest of the crowd gets into it, and those not paying attention are quickly able to grasp what's going on. Personally I've spent more than 1 inning not knowing exactly what the situation was on the field in my life. I pay money for the opportunity to enjoy myself. Sometimes part of enjoying the day is doing something other than staring closely at the field and keeping score pitch by pitch. I don't see the problem with that.

I didn't realize you asked for pre-1993. A big problem with that is pre 90's, weight lifting was frowned upon in baseball. My high school baseball coach hated those of us that lifted for football and wrestling. Drove him nuts. He wanted everybody lanky. He also wanted everything hit on the ground. Weight lifting became popular in the game around the same time guys like Sammy, Kent and Luis Gonzalez were adding a spark to their game later than normal. While I think it's likely that Sammy did stuff, I have zero proof to base that on and feel uncomfortable assuming he did.

Hickman had one fluke season. After his big year, he dropped back down to his career norms. Sammy's OPS jumped almost 250 points in one season, and it stayed there for a long time. That's completely unnatural for a 29 year old with more than 4,200 Major League at bats. Jeff Kent's late career OPS+ improvement is at least as interesting as Sammy Sosa's. From a 100-110 guy in his 20's to a 140-160 in his 30's. Sammy gradually went from sub 100, to above 100, to the 120's to 160+.

I doubt there is a consensus, but I think they are incredibly stupid and reflect poorly on Cubs fans in general and the people who wear them in particular. They aren't inherently racist. But the words or designs on them may be.

are Mets fans as obnoxious in public as they appear to be at the zoo? For the most part, no. The more crowded (and younger) the bar though, the more likely you'll see the idiots. One thing of note is there is no Yankees game tonight. And there's no Rangers/Devils game either. So any bar I'd go to is going to be dominated by this game. I might have to go out.

more details needed. tv size, drinks available at home, snacks, presence of wife, etc. 52" flat screen hd. All sorts of wine, beer and booze. I think there's water and milk somewhere too. Wife's arrival time depends on how busy she is today, probably a bit before gametime (same as me). If she's home by first pitch she will most likely want to make a good dinner. My guess is I'm going to get home before her, and therefore get dog walking duty. I'll dvr the start of the game in case I don't get back in time, then fast forward up to real time. Luckily the pooch spent all weekend wrestling other pooches and will be fine with a shorter-than-usual walk. if I could get a good meal with the game, I'd stay home I've had this debate before with friends, and I would say the biggest variable is distractions. Depending on the restaurant/bar, you can barely hear the game half the time or miss seeing the game due to people walking around, trying to talk, etc. Then again, if the dog or wifie or any other distraction takes away too much at home, then heading out may be the best option. Also depends on the game: Is it highly important that you want to get into (tonight) or is it a slacker game that you might throw in the backups for some PT (see: Pirates). In this specific case the distraction variables will be, any bar I go to will be made up with far more Mets fans than Cubs fans. Also, the home distractions are different with DVR.

more details needed. tv size, drinks available at home, snacks, presence of wife, etc. 52" flat screen hd. All sorts of wine, beer and booze. I think there's water and milk somewhere too. Wife's arrival time depends on how busy she is today, probably a bit before gametime (same as me). If she's home by first pitch she will most likely want to make a good dinner. My guess is I'm going to get home before her, and therefore get dog walking duty. I'll dvr the start of the game in case I don't get back in time, then fast forward up to real time. Luckily the pooch spent all weekend wrestling other pooches and will be fine with a shorter-than-usual walk. Been to Vick's old house? Almost. These two dogs look vicious when they play together. It's amazing neither of them ever get hurt. But they are exhausted for a whole week.