SouthSideRyan

I don't want him and I think he's said he wouldn't want to play in Wrigley with the brick wall.

Not at the price and years he's going to get.

The original.

Obviously a team full of Ozzie Smiths and Willie Mayses aren't going to turn Les Walrond into anything good, but a great defense did turn Josh Fogg into a competent major leaguer at the age of 30 while a horrible defense has helped put Dave Bush a year away from minor league free agent of the week.

where is the proof and why isn't everyone convinced? pitching i'd agree with. i'd consider pitching 33% more valuable than hitting, just based on some simple statistical research that i've done. however, good pitching makes defense's look good. a pitcher who can consistently strike hitters out or induce ground balls also decreases error amounts. And vice versa. This is probably what I find most annoying about "pitching and defense wins championships" They're connected. They're the same thing. You can't have pitching without defense, you can't have defense without pitching. A horrible defense can make even the highest K pitchers look bad.

Some specified number of days following the end of the World Series. I don't recall the specific number of days, but I don't think it's much longer than a week. I believe it's 10 days. I believe you are correct, am I correct to assume you can start trading after the last out of the deciding WS game? I believe you can trade at any time, just as you can sign any players who are free agents already(released/indy leagues) at any time. Selig encourages teams to wait until after the postseason to make moves so as to not distract from the playoffs. Unless you want to leak something about steroids, then go ahead and do that during what should be baseball's peak.

I'm taking up the inenviable task of hoping Ohio St. keeps winning so that they're undefeated when we play them in Columbus. That 10% chance of us winning there is worth the filth I'll have to feel for the next 3 weekends.

If you changed your name to Sunshine McRainbow you wouldn't draw so much attention.

Why is it ok for people to be condescending to Asmodai/Meph/LoK but not the other way around? If Meph had said this, people would up in arms. That's not terribly condescending. Jaxx doesn't appear to be saying LOK is a moron through the sarcasm (assuming that's what it is), he's just indicating that he's unimpressed. If LOK made that statement, it would be condescending because the implication would be that the target isn't smart enough to understand. At least, that's how I took it. How would Meph's be implying he's not smart enough to understand the math, yet Jaxx's wouldn't imply he's not smart enough to understand baseball?

Not a fan of Gallagher?

That website hasn't had news for over a month now. Where did you see this rumor? Made it up?

What I'm think of is scarcity. Filling the 3B position is more difficult than 1B. Whereas if Lee were to play 3B and Ramirez 1B would Lee still have more value defensively?

Bellhorn was definitely a (much)lesser Dunn.

No, you shut up. would somebody ban Dibble already? Oh, come on man. A good juvenile joke is something to be enjoyed... not something to be exasperated over. Rob Dibble would never use the word exasperated. His account's been hacked. Shut it down before any more damage is done.

I think he said it earlier in the thread (and if he didn't I believe this would be why) but it's because DLee played in 150 games to Soriano's 135 and Ramirez's 132. Rammy's OPS was .915 while Lee's was .913 but that .002 point difference is more than negated by Lee's playing 18 more games. Additionally Lee's was OBP heavy. Still not sure I agree, as I see a big advantage to Ramirez on defense.(Above average defense at 3B outweighing great defense at 1B((That and Lee's defense seemed down to me this year(((untrusting of defensive metrics)))))) Point being I think it's far easier to find an average fielding 1B putting up replacement level offense than it is to find an average fieldign 3B putting up replacement level offense.

You can disagree with his methodology or his results, but saying his rankings are skewed by Cub favortism couldn't be further from the truth.

Bonds didn't K at record setting #s, and he didn't have a low BA. That's 2 strikes for Dusty.

Weis has really done a poor job handling the QB situation this year. Very disappointing. USC by 30. Anybody got a spare Illinois/Michigan ticket lying around? I don't feel like paying $100 on cragslist.

Dear Lord. UNLESS HE IS TRADED, DEROSA IS THE SECOND BASEMAN FOR THE CUBS IN 2008. Sorry for the "shouting," but the running theme amongst Theriot supporters that he or even Fontenot or anyone else should sniff 2nd base over DeRosa is one of the more absurd things in these threads. You want absurd, try the redeye where they suggested A-Rod to SS, Theriot to RF.

Actually, if we don't bring in someone from outside, I (and I think several others) are saying Cedeno should be handed the job. And he shouldn't be yanked if he sucks for 2-3 weeks. I think that's exactly what we're saying. Cedeno hasn't done enough to be handed that long of a leash. The Cubs cannot afford to give him 3 more months to struggle when they will have other young players who haven't gotten nearly the shot that Cedeno has that deserve longer leashes (Pie and Soto). Cedeno should be given a good shot to win the job in ST if nobody is brought in, and they shouldn't manage day by day. IMO, Cedeno shouldn't be given any more time to prove himself than Izturis did this year. If we head into next season with only Cedeno and Theriot available to play SS, Cedeno should be the starter and we shouldn't be eager to replace him with Theriot. If we had a league average SS and Cedeno won the battle for the starting gig, I'd be ok with a short leash. But since we can be fairly certain that Theriot isn't going to put up league average numbers all season, there's no reason not to give Cedeno a little more time (maybe not 3 months, I don't know, but more than 2-3 weeks - lots of great players struggle for 2-3 weeks, so you have to expect it from all players at some point). Why would you be so willing to have a guy with a OBP over .50 pts higher sit on the bench so you could play a guy with a career .600 OPS try to work it out? Maybe I'm crazy but, .55pts in OBP is a significant difference between players. Cedeno has already had over 500 Abs in one year to stuggle. Last year he had the same shot Theriot had to win the job. This isn't a beauty pagent, you play the player that gives you the best chance to win and so far that has been Theriot. Sure Cedeno can improve, but I'm not against making him earn it, rather than just blindly sticking with him because he looks like he should be a better player. Professor!!...lava!!!...hot!!! Cedeno's major league season was at an age Ryan Theriot was in A/AA. If Ryan Theriot's lone major league season was at age 23 he'd likely have worse major league numbers than Cedeno.

Arguing a point isn't grinding an axe. Additionally the money isn't equal. The Franklin deal is much better. Franklin has the better numbers throughout his career.

Actually, if we don't bring in someone from outside, I (and I think several others) are saying Cedeno should be handed the job. And he shouldn't be yanked if he sucks for 2-3 weeks. I think that's exactly what we're saying. Cedeno hasn't done enough to be handed that long of a leash. The Cubs cannot afford to give him 3 more months to struggle when they will have other young players who haven't gotten nearly the shot that Cedeno has that deserve longer leashes (Pie and Soto). Cedeno should be given a good shot to win the job in ST if nobody is brought in, and they shouldn't manage day by day. IMO, Cedeno shouldn't be given any more time to prove himself than Izturis did this year. Izturis had a long track record of sucking at all levels. He didn't deserve any leash except for one with which to choke him. If Cedeno doesn't deserve a long leash, than neither does Theriot. I keep repeating it over and over again but Cedeno was 23 in his replacement level season in '06. Theriot at the age of 23 couldn't handle A ball pitching competently. If the 2 swapped levels at those ages(A 23 year old Ronny in A/AA ball and a 23 year old Theriot in the majors) the numbers would greatly be in Ronny's favor. Giving Theriot the inside edge because he was brought up when actually ready unlike Ronny seems just a bit unfair.

I have to disagree. While Lou is light years better than Dusty at actually playing guys who deserve it, he's still prone to his favorites and I fear we'll be stuck with Theriot starting at SS and Fontenot on our bench because of it.

You're welcome.

What innocence? Everyone in the media already declared him guilty without trial. He could not appear on this list, and they'll just say it's proof that there are more names out there. Nobody will be satisfied that steroid testing is working until their own personal target is caught.