cubfan1955

Yawn...so the Cubs finish 6th instead of 5th. At least Hendry should be out of nails to drive into the coffin now.

I will be working on that integration long term. There's actually two different packages I'm using for the forum vs the rest of the site, so it isn't straightforward to have the same menus & look and feel everywhere. I'll get there, but the day job & family are pretty consuming at the moment. The good news is that I finally got the robot registrations tackled over the weekend, so I can shift my focus to other site issues now. Are you using a bridge to integrate phpbb with Joomla? I ask because my forum login does not work on the front page and ideally they would both get the user data from the same database so users don't have two separate logins for your site. Understood about the time constraints though. And again, the site is looking great.

Just wondering why the menu on the front page is not on every page for site consistency? Then the front page or the forum would only be one click away from everywhere. But the site looks great none the less.

It would be a heckuva bench though. :twisted:

I still don't get why it needs to be locked? What is it hurting? Are people that don't want to see it any longer really incapable of staying out of it? Or is just a case of "I don't like it so no one should get to enjoy it"? Now if it's going to help with world peace or something I'm all for it. :)

That's a rehash of the Sun-Times Ceda article. Thanks. Does that mean there has been an official offer or just more speculation there has been an offer? (Didn't see the Sun-Times article either)

I don't have ESPN Insider. Is this new? Old? SOS? What did we offer? http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/features/rumors http://www.b4print.com/Junk/robertstocubs.png

I'm still waiting on that follow up trade after the Sammy Sosa trade that was guaranteed to happen. :pig:

I smell a 1-0 shutout against the Cubs coming on. :evil: Of course it wouldn't be the first time...

How about if we just forget about Roberts, Payton and/or Crisp and make Cedeno the SS, DeRosa the 2B and let Theriot be the utility guy and send Gallagher to AAA to get ready when either Lieber's arm falls off or Marquis starts throwing batting practice?

I really hope this trade goes through now just to see if Lou will move Soriano down in the lineup.

There is legitimate arguments to both sides. At this point I don't see either side changing their views so on that I agree, let's just drop it. The Cubs won 12-6 yesterday and Ryan Theriot was our leadoff hitter. Hopefully Lou doesn't fall in love with that idea.

Alright, this ongoing argument is obviously annoying people, so this will be my last post to you. Do you not see theridiculously flawed and short minded "logic" you're using? Why do you insist that Roberts can't be used as a number 2 hitter? I feel like I'm talking to an infant. "Oh, because he's a LEADOFF hitter!". You have yet to name one thing that Roberts can do as a leadoff hitter that he can't do as a 2 hitter. You said it yourself, Roberts is designed to get on base. Is that not his goal as a number 2 hitter? You've got some bizarre concept of baseball in your mind that makes a leadoff hitter completely different than a number 2 hitter just because he has a specific name. It's like "no, a leadoff hitter can't possible bat 2nd! Then he wouldn't be a leadoff hitter and would be completely useless!" Do you really not see how incredibly foolish that is? That's like criticizing the Phillies choice to start Myers on opening day (to line up their rotation) by saying somthing like "Hamels as a number 2 starter!? But he's an ACE! A number 1 starter!! What's the point of even starting him if he's going to be a number 2 starter?! We might as well just trade him if he isn't our ACE!. That sounds ridiculous, but it's exactly what you're doing. "Leadoff hitter" is a spot in the lineup, not a position in the lineup. It's not like we're getting Roberts so he can play right field or something. I've yet to hear any examples of what Roberts can do in the leadoff spot that he can't so in the 2 hole. Roberts is every bit as valuable in the 2 spot as he is in the leadoff spot. Would he hit 2nd? I really don't know for sure, but neither do you. Stop it with this ridiculous and warped logic. Ok, I'm done. I promise this time. Everytime I see a post from this guy I can't resist, but I won't be reading them anymore. I apologize to everyone on this board. You're doing the exact same thing with Soriano! HE CAN'T HIT ANYWHERE BUT LEADOFF OR THE EARTH WILL IMPLODE! As you like to say...just STOP it. You criticize wrigley23 for saying the same things over and over and you are doing the exact same thing. I'll give him credit. At least he can see possibilities with Soriano batting someplace other than leadoff while you have tunnel vision and you can't see Soriano doing anything other than sucking if he isn't batting leadoff. Players improve as they mature. It's not a stretch that Soriano could have a monster year in the middle of the Cubs lineup. If you are so sure-fired sure Soriano will suck anywhere other than leadoff because of past years why can't you believe Roberts could have a .385 OBP. He's done it before. The stats prove it. Brian Roberts has never hit 2nd in his MLB career so how do you know he can do everything as well hitting 2nd as he does hitting leadoff? Maybe he's got a mental block hitting 2nd? That's about as logical as Soriano having a mental block hitting anywhere besides leadoff. I'd be just fine with moving Soriano down if we could get a viable replacement to hit leadoff...like Roberts. The guy (Soriano) has considerable talent and is entering the prime of his career. He'll get his hits and it makes no difference where he is hitting.

I used the Lineup Analysis tool at Baseball Musings: http://www.baseballmusings.com/cgi-bin/LineupAnalysis.py If you take the Cubs splits from 2007 for the 2nd through 9th spots in the order and plug in Soriano's numbers in the leadoff spot, you get 4.712 runs per game, which equals 763 runs over the course of a 162 game season. It's not that far off considering the Cubs scored 752 last year. If you take the same splits for the Cubs but substitute Roberts' numbers for Soriano's, you also get 4.712 runs per game. Probably a bit of a crude method, but to me it shows that a .377/.432 line out of the leadoff spot is not going to yield a significant number of runs over what a .337/.560 line would, even if you factor speed into the equation. So what do you get when you plug Roberts into the leadoff spot and plug Soriano's numbers into the 2 thru 9 position? My response was to his claim that Soriano only scored more runs due to a superior lineup. I used the Lineup Analysis tool to show that there isn't much of a difference between Soriano leading off and Roberts leading off. Soriano's clear advantage in slugging pretty much makes up for Roberts' advantage in OBP. The question remains, would Roberts leading off and Soriano in the middle of the order be better than Soriano leading off and Roberts batting second? Probably, but I doubt the difference between the two lineups would be very big. I think it would be a nice dilemma to have. I know Sorianio's numbers have been a little better from the leadoff spot and this could be debated forever. If he hits 40 homers from the 4-6 spots he's going to have more RBI's than if he hits 40 homers while batting leadoff. I guess it depends on whether you believe he'll hit worse from down in the order. Personally I think if he was moved down and left there he would be a force and I would not mind seeing him hit between Lee and Aram. Pitchers would have to throw hittable pitches to one of them. If we don't get Roberts, and I don't believe we will, I'd leave him in the leadoff spot because without Roberts there is no one else nearly as good at it as he is. This is all just an opinion though. No sources to prove any of it. There's a good article on BP right now explaining how dumb it is batting Soriano leadoff. It's free also. http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=7184 Thanks, great article. I especially like this paragraph:

I used the Lineup Analysis tool at Baseball Musings: http://www.baseballmusings.com/cgi-bin/LineupAnalysis.py If you take the Cubs splits from 2007 for the 2nd through 9th spots in the order and plug in Soriano's numbers in the leadoff spot, you get 4.712 runs per game, which equals 763 runs over the course of a 162 game season. It's not that far off considering the Cubs scored 752 last year. If you take the same splits for the Cubs but substitute Roberts' numbers for Soriano's, you also get 4.712 runs per game. Probably a bit of a crude method, but to me it shows that a .377/.432 line out of the leadoff spot is not going to yield a significant number of runs over what a .337/.560 line would, even if you factor speed into the equation. So what do you get when you plug Roberts into the leadoff spot and plug Soriano's numbers into the 2 thru 9 position? My response was to his claim that Soriano only scored more runs due to a superior lineup. I used the Lineup Analysis tool to show that there isn't much of a difference between Soriano leading off and Roberts leading off. Soriano's clear advantage in slugging pretty much makes up for Roberts' advantage in OBP. The question remains, would Roberts leading off and Soriano in the middle of the order be better than Soriano leading off and Roberts batting second? Probably, but I doubt the difference between the two lineups would be very big. I think it would be a nice dilemma to have. I know Sorianio's numbers have been a little better from the leadoff spot and this could be debated forever. If he hits 40 homers from the 4-6 spots he's going to have more RBI's than if he hits 40 homers while batting leadoff. I guess it depends on whether you believe he'll hit worse from down in the order. Personally I think if he was moved down and left there he would be a force and I would not mind seeing him hit between Lee and Aram. Pitchers would have to throw hittable pitches to one of them. If we don't get Roberts, and I don't believe we will, I'd leave him in the leadoff spot because without Roberts there is no one else nearly as good at it as he is. This is all just an opinion though. No sources to prove any of it.

I used the Lineup Analysis tool at Baseball Musings: http://www.baseballmusings.com/cgi-bin/LineupAnalysis.py If you take the Cubs splits from 2007 for the 2nd through 9th spots in the order and plug in Soriano's numbers in the leadoff spot, you get 4.712 runs per game, which equals 763 runs over the course of a 162 game season. It's not that far off considering the Cubs scored 752 last year. If you take the same splits for the Cubs but substitute Roberts' numbers for Soriano's, you also get 4.712 runs per game. Probably a bit of a crude method, but to me it shows that a .377/.432 line out of the leadoff spot is not going to yield a significant number of runs over what a .337/.560 line would, even if you factor speed into the equation. So what do you get when you plug Roberts into the leadoff spot and plug Soriano's numbers into the 2 thru 9 position?

:lol: :lol: :lol: and Izturis is going to lead MLB in OBP. Probably. He does play for the Cardinals now ya know.

Did we suddenly acquire Brian Roberts? You can't bat him leadoff for the Cubs when he plays for the Orioles. Ship...sailed.

Last season I was an advocate of moving Soriano down to the middle of the order. It was discussed at length with some great arguments from both sides: SORIANO HAS ARRIVED! With the addition of Fukudome though I'm fine with leaving Soriano leading off and DeRosa hitting #2. What concerns me more is a bottom of the lineup with Soto, Pie, Theriot, and any pitcher not named Zambrano. A SS that can hit would be nice.

I could see it if he hit from the right side. On the other hand, why would he ever agree to come back?

Ugh...that's not a great plan.

Trade overall seems believable. Would solve their problems of needing a top prospect and MI help. Solves our need for top of lineup help and a fall back plan if Pie doesn't cut it. I think its a decent deal. We are probably giving up too much, but we would control Roberts for 2 years at a decent cost. Just thought I'd pass along the rumor. Why is it we're so fired up ready to trade Cedeno? (Actually give him away as stated in the post you quoted) Who else can play SS if Theriot either A) royally sucks or B) gets injured. Not only are we thin at SS to begin with but with that deal we'd be even thinner.

So where can I find a list of list of projected EqA for all players for this upcoming season? I'd like to steamroll my fantasy league. :twisted:

Yeah, I vote for giving them Marquis and Murton.

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/7777230/After-long-process,-M's-finally-nab-Bedard In that article Rosenthal also states: Interesting that it says Sean Gallagher AND outfielder Felix Pie instead of Sean Gallagher OR outfielder Felix Pie. I'm sure Hendry will way overpay though.