jersey cubs fan

The Cubs had 1 guy play 150 games in 2007 and just 3 with as many as 140. They had 5 over 140 in 2006, 3 in 2005, 4 in 2004. There were only 74 players in all of baseball to play in 150 games last year, 2.5 per team. And of course, games played isn't the same as playing time, since guys can enter a game as a pinch hitter/late inning defensive replacement, or leave the game early for a variety of reasons. The average NL team got 720 PA out of its 4 spot. 90% of that is 648. And only 30 NL players had that many PA, 1.9 per team. In other words, the vast majority don't get 90% of their team's playing time.

What's the pitt/philly dynamic like? Of all the philly/south jersey people I know, I never hear much of anything about any of the pitt teams. They hate the mets and braves, cowboys, giants and redskins, and the devils and rangers. But is there much animosity with any pittsburgh teams? actually right here in state college is probably where you'll see the biggest "rivalry" between philly and pittsburgh, because you have a lot of transplanted fans of both cities' teams. I never cared about the Steelers til I got here, but one day I was at the bar watching the Eagles play the Jets, and Steelers fans were filtering in for their 4:00 game. The Eagles game was close the Steelers fans were passionately rooting for the Jets, or more specifically, against the Eagles. So I started to dislike the Steelers after that. Otherwise, Philly people don't really care about Pittsburgh. The Flyers and Pens are rivals b/c they're in the same division. I think if you asked a real Flyers fan which teams he hates the most, he'd say Devils and Rangers most and then the Penguins. I get the impression that most Pens fans consider the Flyers to be their biggest rival, though. I've only been to PSU a handful of times, and did notice a little back and forth between the two fan bases. But not much. I only know one Penguins fan, and I'm not sure who he considers a rival. He lives here and would probably say Rangers, if only because that's about the only place he sees them play.

Does he happen to hit left handed, or hit well against RHP? If so, I'd be for a platoon partner with Theriot, as long as they do actually improve the offense elsewhere. Because there's no way this lineup goes top 3 by staying with the status quo.

I don't remember Hollandsworth love coming close to the Theriot situation.

What's the pitt/philly dynamic like? Of all the philly/south jersey people I know, I never hear much of anything about any of the pitt teams. They hate the mets and braves, cowboys, giants and redskins, and the devils and rangers. But is there much animosity with any pittsburgh teams?

15 games in and the Blackhawks are in 3rd place in their division, 6th in the conference, and tied for 10th in the league in goals scored (13th in goals per game). That last bit may be the most surprising. They were at the bottom the past few years, and even when the 2007 season started out okay, they were still around 25th. They still don't have anybody flirting with the league leaders, but Kane and Toews are off to as good a start as anybody could have envisioned, and Robert Lang has been everything the Blackhawks could have hoped for. Erstwhile star in the making Tuomu Ruutu has notched 3 goals and 7 assists in his 14 games, and he's a +9. If Havlat really does come back and play 55-60 games at the level he's shown he's capable of playing, and if the defense/goalie situation settles in a bit, this team really could make some noise this season.

But not Fukudome? No clue about Fukudome. The Daily News mentioned Kuroda because the Dodgers are interested in him; given their OF situation, I don't think the Dodgers are interested in Fukudome. I think Kuroda will have more suitors because of how weak the FA pitching class is - especially compared to the FA OF class with guys like Andruw Jones and Torii Hunter. Fine with me then. The Cubs aren't in a need of back of the rotation starters, and they are in need of lineup help, including OF.

I hope he's smart enough to stay out of the free agent reliever market, but I know he's not.

What a jackass.

No use arguing with Hendry bashers. He's damned if he does and damned if he doesn't. He's damned because he sucks at his job.

Not sure how Miggy will be a fraction of the price. He's rapibly approaching a $10m salary, and will get a contract that pays him $15-17m, at least, if/when he signs longterm. Like I've said before, the Cubs may not have the same top quality prospects, but just because Florida asks for them, doesn't mean that's what they will end up with. The Yankees #1 need is a stud pitcher. They don't have one. I think they are going to be very hesitent to give up one of their potential aces.

Hamilton was a great risk/reward gamble when you could pick him up for nothing. Now that you'd have to give up significant value, I'm not sure he's worth the risk. Although I certainly wouldn't eliminate him from discussion.

Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner! I think if you asked Bruce Miles, he'd tell you that while Jim Hendry tries to be as honest an upfront as he possibly can, he doesn't reveal everything. Everyone would be wise to not take Hendry's remarks completely at face value. Jim Hendry has been around long enough, and has said enough, and done enough, to be reasonably certain that he actually thinks winning X games 7 years ago and being an All Star is reason enough to have faith in a guy. If he just said stuff like this for PR, but his actions indicated he didn't actually believe that nonsense, it would be one thing. But Hendry is Hendry, and we know how he thinks, and acts.

That's the only course of action that could salvage this "plan" in my opinion. Moving Demp to the rotation and trading Marquis still makes us worse. At least Marquis occasionally will pull a cg shutout out of his butt. You think Dempster could ever do that? Horrible, horrible idea. I think Dempster could, at the very least, come very close to equalling what Marquis gives you. And since Dempster is only signed through this year at $5m, and Marquis is signed through 2009 at $16.25m, trading Jason and replacing him with Marquis could improve the team. The problem, as I see it, is Hendry's ridiculous contract to Marquis is going to be darn near untradable. They will have to eat something. A team like Boston or NY isn't going to have a use for a guy like Marquis. I don't think they believe subpar NL Central pitchers will thrive in the AL East, and even if they wanted one. And any smaller team that might be willing to settle for such crap, isn't going to accept paying all that salary.

Are there still Bulls fans who think this team is championship caliber going strictly with their "core" group?

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There's no way Lee was even close to deserving that award. Ramirez was pretty good, but it's hardly a slight that he lost. Wright is a bit of a questionable choice though.

Baldelli isn't anywhere close to a stud producer. If his one half season of good production was maintained over a full season, maybe we could talk. But there isn't a whole lot of support for the theory that this would be likely.

I would say right now Zambrano and Lilly are the only ones that you can say are sure will be in the rotation next year. Hill or Marquis could easily still be traded. Marshall might be replaced or traded. I wonder if this means the end of going after Kuroda. I'm fairly certain Dempster to the rotation is something that has been a longtime in the making, and not something new that will mean the end of any other options. I think Dempster played the good soldier this year staying in the bullpen, even though he wanted to start, and give himself a chance to make a bunch more money next offseason. Any story like this can be used as leverage in negotiations with other starters, but unless they are negotiating against themselves, it won't matter for a guy like Kuroda. It probably makes them feel like they can justify letting Prior walk. But I can't see Mark being affected one way or the other by the news that Dempster may start. It could actually give them a good reason to convince Woody to take a lower guarantee with very high incentives for "games finished".

'Twould be true. I talked to both Hendry and Dempster about it. Ryan is excited about the resurgent Blackhawks, I might add. Coming off a 3/15 deal, I'm sure he is excited. One year of mediocre starting could net him a $50m deal next offseason. I really have a hard time seeing this turn out well for the Cubs though. If they can turn around and get rid of Marquis, then I'm fine with it. But I fear Marquis and Dempster each racking up 200 lousy innings. And with what is likely to remain no better than an average offense, that's going to hurt.

It's not the same thing, but 700sqft studio in a luxury building with a view are probably going to fetch $1m+ in most of Manhattan. It's not the space that people are paying for, it's the location. I completely understand why some people would find value in such a place. Anybody hear about that utility closet in London that fetched something like half a million GBP?

That's the other thing. As a starter Marmol's trade value is only a small fraction of Crawford's. Marmol hasn't proved anything at the big league level except as a reliever. Neither has Joba but he's widely considered to be an untouchable than most anybody would love to trade for. Just because he hasn't "proved" capable as a major league starter doesn't mean he holds minimal trade value.

How does Dempster to the rotation free up Marshall to be traded and Marquis out of the rotation? Marquis is going to be in the rotation. Dempster back to starting has disaster written all over. He's passable as a closer because more often than not he can get through 1 inning without giving up a run. But he'd be a terrible starter again.

Williams does have 8 letters in it. I don't think this is it at all. I heard they are suppose to announce the names (McCarthyism galores) after the Winter Meetings. This way George Mitchell can tell the Sox who to sign and the other teams get stuck with the 25 to 50 game suspension guys. I don't believe guys named in the Mitchell report will be subject to suspensions. It's basically about steroid use prior to the new rules, correct?

Interesting name. Probably a better version of Bobby Abreu at this point, although he's got to be a LF exclusively, right? His numbers are odd. He didn't play much in his 20's, and didn't start to hit much until 29. But he's been remarkably consistent year-over-year. His OPS+ has been higher than his career average of 111 in 6 of the past 7 years. I don't think I'd want to see the Cubs offer up a deal that Seattle can't refuse, but I wouldn't mind his bat on this team. He can't hit lefties worth a crap though.