mcgoobs

To save or come close to saving the $11 MM that Peavy's contract costs this year, the team would have to move Brian Giles - who nixed a deal to the Red Sox when they were contending - and one of Adrian Gonzalez, Chris Young, Jody Gerut, Heath Bell, or Scott Hairston. That seems like a tricky thing for the Padres to do right now. Link Additionally moving Peavy will remove the albatross for the coming years, as has been noted on this board many times.

The kid might enter June without having given up a home run. Awesome.

His BABIP (Batting Average on Balls hit In Play) is horrifically awful (as are most of the BABIPs for our offensive regulars), so he's hitting into some terrible luck (balls are going right at players far more often than they should). He does need to start hitting the ball a little harder, but even the hard hit balls are right at people right now. I'd think he's likely to break out of this funk. He has a LD rate of 14.1% and a BABIP of .221. While that's a little low on the BABIP, it's not completely out of line. His expected BABIP is either 20 or 30 points higher, that qualifies as out of line, especially when he's done much better the entirety of his career at both hitting line drives and on balls in play. It doesn't follow the rule of thumb of LD Rate+.120, but over the course of <150 PAs 20 or 30 points off the trend isn't wildly out of line. Regardless the issue isn't his BABIP it's his LD rate, which as you say, is way off his rate last year and 2007.

His BABIP (Batting Average on Balls hit In Play) is horrifically awful (as are most of the BABIPs for our offensive regulars), so he's hitting into some terrible luck (balls are going right at players far more often than they should). He does need to start hitting the ball a little harder, but even the hard hit balls are right at people right now. I'd think he's likely to break out of this funk. He has a LD rate of 14.1% and a BABIP of .221. While that's a little low on the BABIP, it's not completely out of line.

You should start taking a look at some of the weight loss threads as a preemptive measure then.

TARP funds the banks who finance the transaction. The transaction allows the Cubs to get Peavy. This allows the Cubs to win more games. Which spurs higher ratings on TV for Cubs games, more Cubs jersey sales, etc Which creates jobs. And also more income for people to buy more Peavy jerseys. This is exactly what TARP is for!

personally i think it's really hard to get a reliable correlation. i'd rather have a guy with a 1.40 WHIP who walks 0.7 guys per inning and gives up 0.7 hits per inning, than a guy who never walks anybody but gives up 1.4 hits per inning. the guy who gives up more hits is going to give up significantly more runs because the walks are station to station advances whereas some of those hits will be for extra bases or guys can go 1st to 3rd, etc. there's also the matter of how much extra base power a guy tends to give up. much like OPS's major flaw being a point of OBP equaling a point of SLG, WHIP's big flaw is that a walk and a hit are each valued the same. i'm sure there is a rough estimate but if you're looking for expected ERA, i wouldn't just use whip. I would guess that looking at OPS against would show a tighter correlation to ERA.

We have also had Soto, Bradley, Ramirez, DLee, and Zambrano injured. 4 of those players were in the All Star game last year. Offensively I think we are definitely better then last year, unless Soto continues to struggle all year (which I dont think he will). Starting rotation I think we are definitely better as long as nobody misses significant time. We are just missing a piece in the bullpen. Due to injuries, I don't think we should expect that Lee or Ramirez will put up numbers like they did last year. If each of our players performed up to their potential I would agree that this year's team is better offensively than last, but that just isn't the case. Last year's team was the best offensive team in the NL - the next best team scored 56 fewer runs than us - while this year's team is middle of the pack. I do agree that a return of Soto, Bradley, and even Fontenot to form will clearly improve the team's performance. Soto and Bradley are putting up .302/.380/.419 and .263/.349/.447 lines for the month of May respectively, so hopefully a corner has been turned.

If Kerry Wood were still here and performing like he has been with the Indians I think people would be considering him more part of the problem than part of the solution. Yep. They've both been awful, but Kerry Wood is more overpaid at this point than Gregg is.

The 2008 team had outscored opponents by 44 runs and were 19-15. The 2009 team has outscored opponents by 15 runs to reach 20-14. This year's team is averaging just a shade over 5 runs a game and is ranked eighth in the league in runs scored. Last year's team was at 5.7 runs per game, the second best in the majors behind Arizona at that time. Just taking a peek at the schedules they look don't look wildly different. I'd like to believe this team is as talented as last year's, but right now it just isn't.

These two guys have as much proof against them as Sammy. Piazza especially. There are all sorts of stories of his bachne. You're right, and later in my post, I didn't count Sammy among the 9 out of 21 users. But, if I didn't mention anything next to his name, someone would have said something to the effect of, "Everybody knows..." It's pure conjecture at this point. Unfortunately, I think he's going to be kept out of the HoF based on pure conjecture. I don't know. There's rock-solid proof on Bonds, Arod, Manny, and Clemens, and McGwire all but admitted usage, but Sammy has never been linked to any steroid story, nor was he named in the Mitchell report. Agreed there's nothing as rock solid as the evidence against the players you mention. How do you think about the fact that he pretended not to know English when he testified in front of Congress? Aside from the other evidence which can or can't be explained away this is the most damning evidence against him.

The 2005 release of the new drug testing policy indicated that testing will occur during the offseason. Link

they should DL him and strap him to a treadmill for 15 days. It looks like he was strapped down this offseason in a different conditions. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Pqpmm2T6j4g/Rxs5nVnK4II/AAAAAAAABzg/v1hx9-MNsF0/s400/devil.jpg

Is he still dating Dusty Baker's daughter? If so he has a very easy way to get himself into more money.

Fukudome should be included in the first sentence.

Seriously though, Pujols is probably the most prolific non-steroidal offensive force any of us have seen in our lives. His numbers are just disgusting. If Pujols continues his performance for another year or so this point becomes moot, but Frank Thomas's beginning of career numbers compare well to Pujols's.

You mean right now it's really, really good. Unless you think Chris Duncan will stay a 1.021 OPS hitter, Molina an .882 OPS hitter, Brian Barden a 1.047 OPS hitter, etc etc Chris Duncan: .362 BABIP Yadier Molina: .348 BABIP Brian Burden: .364 BABIP Molina does have a 23.9% LD rate, but I can't see that being sustainable either.

Two bad contracts if you include Hinrich. One option is the Bulls could let Gordon walk and not look to immediately fill up the opening in their budget. The Bulls have three sizable contracts worth $25 MM in aggregate coming off the books after 2010 - Brad Miller, Jerome James (assuming he exercises his player option in 2009, which I would assume he would), and Tim Thomas - which should set them up nicely for a run at one of the 2010 free agents. The number becomes close to $30 MM if they don't exercise the 4th year option on Tyrus Thomas. Looking at the list of free agents here are some players who could be enticed to come to Chicago: - LeBron James - Dwyane Wade - Chris Bosh - Amare Stoudimire - Yao Ming - Carlos Boozer - Joe Johnson - Manu Ginobli - Dirk Nowitzki - Josh Howard - Brandon Roy (restricted FA) - LaMarcus Aldridge (restricted FA) LeBron likely won't come to Chicago and a pairing of Wade and Rose would be tricky since both of them are at their best when the offense runs through them. One of the guys with size - Bosh or Stoudimre - would be a good pairing with Rose and leave them with enough money to make a run at a 2nd tier free agent or leave enough room in the budget to lock up Rose if they're not able to move Hinrich. For 2010-11 we could have an 8-man rotation of Rose, Hinrich, Salmons, Deng, Bosh or Stoudimre, Noah, Free Agent #2, Player B.

Aren't we paying $1.6 MM of Gaudin's salary, and will pay Vizcaino $4 MM if nobody picks him up?

It's pronounced "aahps."

Natch.

Would this thread be happening if the Cubs were 11-3 right now instead of 8-6?

I thought the fences were the same at the new park? Isn't the only difference was the slight shrinkage of the foul territory behind home plate? Those who say new Yankee Stadium is a home run box believe it's because the design of the stadium causes a slight wind tunnel that wasn't at the old stadium.

I should know this but I don't: who calls the pitches when Lilly is pitching? Is it Rothschild or is Soto calling the game?

Must be a Wisconsin thing.