cubfan1955

The blazing speed of Neifi allows Maddux to bat! :D

There goes Murton being patient again. Dusty is going to have to have a talk with him.

INTERFERENCE ON WALKER, BARRETT OUT No, Barrett would not have been out. I think the rule is that it would be a basehit and Walker would be out and the bases would still be loaded. Cedeno would not have been allowed to advance. I guess my qustion is, why didn't Walker do it if the umps can't assume the DP and call two people out.

Question. On Barretts DP ball, if Walker had kept running and let the ball hit him can the umps assume the DP and call two people out or would it have been bases loaded and two outs?

Well then, if Cedeno was so "obviously" playing him to pull in such a sever manner, shouldn't Walker have been playing virtually up the middle? I guess that depends on what the spray charts say. Also, I don't remember Baker ever saying "walks are overrated". Does anyone have a link? Maybe I missed it. http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=2669 Nice work! Lots of really interesting quotes in there. Is it merely a coincidence that each year the Cubs are poor at OBP and scoring runs? Is it merely a coincidence that seemingly every time the Cubs pitchers walk the opposing hitter, that opposing hitter eventually scores? I'm certainly not against an aggressive approach given certain situations. However, I am a firm believer that drawing walks is a good thing. A walk, in and of itself, is boring. Everyone wants to see smashmouth hit and run baseball. A walk won't do that for you. However, a walk gives the next hitter the opportunity to provide smashmouth hit and run baseball. A walk extends an inning. Aggressive or not aggressive, the players that are currently on the Cubs are going to hit pretty much the same as they typically do. For example, Jacque Jones will probably end the season at .280 (+ or - .010) AVG. That's "acceptable" production in regards to AVG. The critical part is how often he gets on base via "other ways". If his OBP is only .300, then his .280 is virtually worthless in the big picture. If his OBP was .380, then he's providing many more extended innings and RBI opportunities for his teammates. Dusty asking players to be aggressive is likely not going to change the overall picture of their batting averages. It will, however, deeply affect their On Base Percentage. And that is where there is a real danger in what he preaches. That is why Hendry and Dusty will justify giving Jacque Jones a 3 year deal. He has 20+ HR power and his batting average is typically a respectable .270-.280, something these guys seem to cherish. True, walking to first base will typically NOT drive in a run. But, if you go in and look at the teams who score the most runs all year long season after season, the teams who score the most runs are the teams who have the best OBP, not the best AVG. Offense isn't the only thing involved with creating a winning team. Solid pitching, good defense and health are other very important factors, which is why the White Sox and Astros found their way to the World Series last year. OBP has been an extremely sore subject for me with this team over the past several years. Mainly because management clearly has no desire to consider the importance of it. Last year, the Cincinnati Reds hit .261 as a team. The Cubs hit .270 as a team. You would think that the team with the higher batting average over the course of the year would score more runs, but.... Cincinnati scored 820 runs last year. The Cubs scored 703. AVG or aggressive hitting isn't what had Cincinnati score more than 100 runs more than the Cubs last year, and it wasn't power either. It was the ability to get on base. The Cubs OBP last year was an atrocious .324 compared to Cincinnati's .339 OBP. The argument regarding "timely hitting" is one that I usually stay away from. One could argue that guys who get hits when people are on base are guilty of timely hitting or clutch. My counter-argument is that the more often you have guys on base, the increased likelihood that you will have more oppotunities to be found guilty of timely hitting. How does that happen? By having runners on base. Derrek Lee could have had 150 RBI's last year if he had guys with really good OBP's hitting in front of him all year. We can't argue that he just isn't very good at driving in runs. That would be a ridiculous argument. The correct argument is that he had a whole lot less opportunities to drive in runs, because the guys who were employed to hit in front of him were miserable failures of what should have been their most important job when asked to hit in front of him. GET ON BASE! I apologize for the rant. I won't be able to respond to any rebuttals as I'm heading out of town for the week. Improving OBP wasn't the only issue that needed to be addressed this offseason. They did improve the bullpen and they also improved team speed and defense. But, they set themselves up for failure by ignoring the importance of OBP, when there were so many options and so much money available to spend to improve it. Milton Bradley currently sports a .375 OBP. The A's gave up 1 minor league player to get him, and he makes HALF of what Juan Pierre makes. Juan Pierre was coming off a year he provided a .326 OBP. We gave up 3 pitching prospects and pay him quite well. The "need" for a lead off hitter isn't really what the Cubs needed. The "need" was really someone who could get on base 38% of the time instead of 29% of the time. Granted, Pierre is an improvement over the abomination that Dusty sent out there last year. But, I never thought it was enough. I won't even bother discussing Jacque Jones. Summary: It's easier to score runs when you have baserunners and it doesn't matter how they got there. :D

Where did you hear this? It's in the game thread. A couple of NSBB members have confirmed it with Dusty Baker and Jerome Williams has been sent down.

Same here, the point is he'll swing and miss at anything so why throw strikes? Ala Corey Patterson... Jones - 1 hr - 4 RBI - .194 Patterson - 1 hr - 4 RBI - .156 We coulda saved millions by keeping Patterson and got the same production.

Just the offensive firepower we're needing! :D J/K I'm glad to see Guzman getting an opportunity and I have to guess he'll replace Williams after his performance Friday night. Now if they'd just bring up Hill to replace Rusch.

No problem; I've done my share of teasing other posters about obvious goofs in their posts. It's all good-natured. No problem; I've done my share of teasing other posters about obvious goofs in their posts. It's all good-natured.LOL :lol:

I suggest Baker start Bynum, he bunt and run into Pujols breaking his wrist in 2 places. And if Bynum gets hurt too it's a bonus. :twisted:

Yeah, I knew what he meant too. The Cubs have just put me in an ornery mood lately.

Well then, if Cedeno was so "obviously" playing him to pull in such a sever manner, shouldn't Walker have been playing virtually up the middle? I guess that depends on what the spray charts say. Also, I don't remember Baker ever saying "walks are overrated". Does anyone have a link? Maybe I missed it. http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=2669

With our coaching staff...probably not.

I'm sure you meant that they are NOT permitted here. Just to clarify. :wink:

My guess is the coaching staff positions the defense and Cedeno was playing where he was told to play. Quite obviously they were playing Pujols to pull the ball.

The problem wasn't that we walked more of them than the other way around, the problem was we gave up most of our walks all in the same inning! What made me sick is the guys that we walked were So Taguchi, John Rodriguez, and Hector Luna. There's no reason to be giving free passes to guys like that. It was the only way he could get to Pujols. :wink:

After seeing the efforts of the lat two games Maddux might call in sick tomorrow. :D j/k

Well, that was a pretty uninspired effort today. They should have scored a lot of runs off of Ponson. Dusty did not have his troops ready to play...yet again.

This seems like a good time to say that I would switch Eyre and Lee's situations in approximately .0000005 seconds. Yeah, me too but what I meant was that it is nice that they BOTH aren't hurt but yeah count me in on letting them switch places.

It is nice to see Eyre is okay.

The whining is nothing that a 10 run Cub inning wouldn't turn around. But buy a lotto ticket because the odds are more in favor of you winning that.

WOW...we couldn't beat an A ball team with that lineup. :cry:

Another double switch and he's taking Murton out. Just wave the white flag Dusty.

Give me Pujols...I'll take my chances. :D

I like Lee a lot but if Jocketty called wanting to trade Pujols for Lee? Bye Bye DLee. Not even close. He's 26 years old and the best hitter on the planet and he's not that bad defensively.