CarolinaCubFan

If he's that ticked off at Boston, I could see him signing with the Yankee's, but I think Manny is digging the Vibe in LA.

Bob Ryan through out a stat the other day on Around the Horn. Z's no hitter was 1 of only 4 in MLB History done in a playoff chase. I think that's what was said.

Not at all. I go to parks like PNC and Camden and think, "man, outside of the ishtty baseball, this is livin'." I also don't place stock in what's around Wrigley when it comes to me actually liking Wrigley Field. I like the stadium...I don't give a crap about the bars and stores around it. I agree. I'm a product of WGN and Harry. I have no ties to the city of Chicago, I love the Cubs and I love Wrigley Field. I'd like to see a newly renovated Wrigley Field, more out of town Cub Fan friendly. Has their been any talk of what the TV situation will be after the sale? The Cubs will loose a lot of fans if they aren't broadcasting nation wide. The complaining from the Brew Crew made me laugh. Granted, it wasn't a home game for them at Wrigley North, but tell me where outside of the state of Texas? Cub fans are in every market.

Kruk was trying to make the arguement that OBP can also be determined as a team stat. If Pujols is batting in back of you, you're likely to have a better OBP than if you have no protection. I see his point.

Lou being old school, a major league hitter should be able to lay a bunt down. In Little League, Babe Ruth, High School, and College, batting practice never changed. You lay down a couple bunts and then the coaches let you swing away. It's not something I did in game situations very often, but if the boss calls for it, you better be able to do it.

A guy at 2B with one out is not statistically more likely to score than a guy at 1B with no outs. I think he's less likely to score. None were as good at hitting as Soto. And that would have still been better than no one on and two outs, which is what happened. I'm not hell-bent against bunting, but not in that situation. If Soriano got on in front of Theriot, with Lee and Ramirez due up- I'd probably have him bunt. But not with a good hitter up and no one as good due up for two more spots nor on the bench to come in. You guys are whooping me. It's hard to argue period, even harder when the result was a DP. Regardless, I love the analysis. If it makes you feel any better, I didn't know or believe anything I typed above until about 5 years ago. I.E., there was a time not too long ago I'd have been right there calling for a bunt. Don't get too excited, my mind isn't changed, just not smart enough to argue it with you guys haha. 15 years of playing the game and 30 years of watching, you see things work. I'm a big fan of speed and nobody will ever convince me there is no such thing as chemistry. Like I said though, great analysis.

A guy at 2B with one out is not statistically more likely to score than a guy at 1B with no outs. I think he's less likely to score. None were as good at hitting as Soto. And that would have still been better than no one on and two outs, which is what happened. I'm not hell-bent against bunting, but not in that situation. If Soriano got on in front of Theriot, with Lee and Ramirez due up- I'd probably have him bunt. But not with a good hitter up and no one as good due up for two more spots nor on the bench to come in. You guys are whooping me. It's hard to argue period, even harder when the result was a DP. Regardless, I love the analysis.

Bunting with runners at 1st and second is different than bunting with just a runner at 1st. On top of that, Pie was pinned to first because a) he can't get a good read on the pitcher (he's never been able to) and the reliever continuously threw over to first. On top of that, Soto is one of the hottest and best hitters and has never had a big league sac bunt (the guy bunting for the Cardinals doesn't fit that bill). Whether or not TLR is a good manager, that grounder to second wouldn't have won it for the Cards if Lou actually uses his brain to load the bases and cause a force at home. Who has a woody for the Angels? Lou should look at the mirror before he explodes. He has his hands all over yesterday's loss. I agree. With a runner only on first, the only force play is at 1st and 2nd. With runners on 1st and 2nd, it gives the defense one more option for an out at 3rd. Kinda like what Lee just did a night or two ago. The goal was to get Pie home. A successful sacrifice puts that runner in scoring position with 1 out. We still had some pretty nice bats sitting on the bench. I understand that people feel the bat was taken out of Soto's hand, but I'm not one of them. Too many things could have happened to leave Pie still sitting at 1st with 1 out. I like your thinking about loading the base, but at the same time, Marmol against Izturis? You can't blame Lou for giving that a go. Load the bases and you'd be looking at the leadoff hitter who went 2-4.

Who did the great LaRussa have bunt in the situation you just described? A 20 homer guy? ROY candidate? I understand what you are saying. I'm just not all up in arms over it. It could have went either way.

Lou is awesome. Just the sight of Dusty during the last series had me all upset. Let's look at the other side of the picture for a minute. Runners on 1st and 2nd. An evil, good for nothing bunt moves the runners up. A grounder to second and Cards win. I hate LaRussa, but he knows how to win. We left 8 men on base, seems like a common theme of late. I don't look at manufacturing runs as a bad thing. Seems to work well for the Angels which everyone seems to have a woody for.

What do you mean? I invested a lot of money in a hobby that I love. I won't have any fond memories of the steriod era.

1 unopened case of 84 Fleer Update 12 unopened cases of 87 Donruss 4 unopened cases of 87 Fleer 19 opened cases of 87 Topps 2 unopened cases of 85 Topps........I could go on and on. WOW!!! I'm going to blow my top just thinking about it. I thought it would be a good investment for the future.

I really like Holliday with Fuku going to CF. Realizing it won't happen, but I'd shoot for DLee, Pie, and prospects to Cleveland for Sizemore and sign Teixeira. :pig:

You seriously have something against people that try to gain a better knowledge and understanding of a game they really enjoy? No, I have something against people who discount parts of the game because they can't figure out how to crunch the numbers. I've read this board everyday for years, and what's kept me hooked is the stats. I enjoy the conversations of people who understand "old" baseball and use the stats to make it better.

-- Fans that don't understand the beauty of the game, and try to decifer everything with statistical analysis.

Ramirez' wife gave birth. That's why he wasn't with the team for a few days. I'm not sure what to say in response in your thoughts on Lee, except that I think it's kind of absurd. Thanks for the info on Aram. I'm just venting about Lee, but my dislike is growing more and more. It's sad that I'm more excited to see Theriot at the plate than I am when I see DLee.

I'd say most of my frustration is with Lee, he looks like a sad puppy dog out there. He shows no energy at the plate. His numbers are respectable, but watching the games it sure doesn't show. I'll give him a pass for when his daughter was sick, and I'll give him another one for the wrist injury, but I'm growing tired of DLee. I'd be on board for a Lee / Texieria trade. I haven't seen anywhere what problems Aram has been dealing with in the Dominican. Can anyone fill me in?

If the opposing pitcher is willing to throw up and in on our batters, I think it's only fair for that pitcher to step in the box against our pitchers. Taking that aspect away is a turn off to me.

Dude's got bad knees

Weird, your profile says this is your 1st post. Another thing about breaking up lefties is the Cubs also have another lefty, Pie. And from time to time, they will have Ward, and if Patterson or Fontenot gets some playing time, those guys as well. I think the breaking up the lefties thing is completely overblown. But the Cubs always seem to focus on silly secondary issues. Great Post Ivy, I wish there were more discussion on the boards like this. As for what you are saying Goony, I agree. I love the way Lou manages this ball club. His knowledge of this game is top notch, and I'm more of a traditional baseball kind of guy. I like to see the game of baseball played. On the other hand, stats are for real. The guy who finds the perfect mixture of old tyme baseball and stats will be a guru in my book. Lou will talk OBP, he's trying, but some of his moves just make me scratch my head. Lou is a baseball god compared to Dusty though.

Meh. Andre Dawson? I don't even remember that guy. You missed out my friend. One of my all time favorite players.

Gee, and Baltimore fans wonder why they suck every year in and out. Until Angelos stop meddling around, Baltimore won't be a very good baseball team for awhile. Angelos is a George Steinbrenner wanna-be. Even if all the rumored players are involved in the trade, Baltimore will still suck even if they make this trade. When the smoke clears and Roberts is traded to the Cubs, all Baltimore will have gotten for Miguel Tejada, Erik Bedard and Brian Roberts is Adam Jones and a bunch of guys who may or may not piece together a decent major league career. There is plenty of reason for Angelos to balk on this deal. I say screw it if they don't like the offers currently out there. Promote Eric Patterson and let him platoon at 2b with DeRosa. This frees up DeRosa to sub at other positions and slowly grooms Patterson at 2b, mostly facing RHP. The combination of Patterson and DeRosa is probably not all that far off from what Roberts can provide, but for less money over less years. When Baltimore is in last place on July 31 and they still have Brian Roberts, and Roberts is miserable and is speaking loudly that he wants to be traded, maybe the demands will soften and maybe Patterson will have increased his trade value. I'm not ready to start thinking about backup plans just yet. I'm still sticking to an opening day deadline, but I don't have a problem with putting a little pressure on the O's to make a choice. Roberts Fukudome Any back up plan you can come up with won't match the production you would get with Roberts and Fukudome batting 1,2. That's a whole lot of OBP and speed on the bases with DLee, Aram, and Soriano to follow. We've been begging for OBP at the top of the order for a long time now. We are one transaction away from having it. I know people are getting impatient, but I also feel some folks are undervalueing what Roberts would bring to our offense. I doubt that Lou will bat Roberts and Fukudome 1, 2 because he wants to seperate the lefties in the lineup. I would think it would be Roberts and then Soriano, with Fukudome batting 5th. You're probably right. I could be wrong, but everyone 1-5 seemed to have pretty good splits. Soriano in the 2 hole will decrease the OBP in front of Lee and Aram. Fukudome will probably be more OBP than power, so he makes better sense in the 2 hole to me. Two table setters in Front of Lee, Aram, Soriano. If Lee doesn't drive anyone in, he'll clog bases with decent speed and a .400 OBP. The same for Aram with his .360 ish OBP. Soriano in the 5 hole can just mash, his low OBP and power would be a good fit here. I don't disagree that Roberts and Fukudome would be great at the top, but the Cubs seem to really emphasize splitting up the lefties. Hopefully Lou has a brain fart one day while tinkering with the lineup. I know a big reason to mix lefty and righty's is to posibly force a pitching change. Scoring lots of runs will force a pitching change too.

Gee, and Baltimore fans wonder why they suck every year in and out. Until Angelos stop meddling around, Baltimore won't be a very good baseball team for awhile. Angelos is a George Steinbrenner wanna-be. Even if all the rumored players are involved in the trade, Baltimore will still suck even if they make this trade. When the smoke clears and Roberts is traded to the Cubs, all Baltimore will have gotten for Miguel Tejada, Erik Bedard and Brian Roberts is Adam Jones and a bunch of guys who may or may not piece together a decent major league career. There is plenty of reason for Angelos to balk on this deal. I say screw it if they don't like the offers currently out there. Promote Eric Patterson and let him platoon at 2b with DeRosa. This frees up DeRosa to sub at other positions and slowly grooms Patterson at 2b, mostly facing RHP. The combination of Patterson and DeRosa is probably not all that far off from what Roberts can provide, but for less money over less years. When Baltimore is in last place on July 31 and they still have Brian Roberts, and Roberts is miserable and is speaking loudly that he wants to be traded, maybe the demands will soften and maybe Patterson will have increased his trade value. I'm not ready to start thinking about backup plans just yet. I'm still sticking to an opening day deadline, but I don't have a problem with putting a little pressure on the O's to make a choice. Roberts Fukudome Any back up plan you can come up with won't match the production you would get with Roberts and Fukudome batting 1,2. That's a whole lot of OBP and speed on the bases with DLee, Aram, and Soriano to follow. We've been begging for OBP at the top of the order for a long time now. We are one transaction away from having it. I know people are getting impatient, but I also feel some folks are undervalueing what Roberts would bring to our offense. I doubt that Lou will bat Roberts and Fukudome 1, 2 because he wants to seperate the lefties in the lineup. I would think it would be Roberts and then Soriano, with Fukudome batting 5th. You're probably right. I could be wrong, but everyone 1-5 seemed to have pretty good splits. Soriano in the 2 hole will decrease the OBP in front of Lee and Aram. Fukudome will probably be more OBP than power, so he makes better sense in the 2 hole to me. Two table setters in Front of Lee, Aram, Soriano. If Lee doesn't drive anyone in, he'll clog bases with decent speed and a .400 OBP. The same for Aram with his .360 ish OBP. Soriano in the 5 hole can just mash, his low OBP and power would be a good fit here.

I don't think many people are undervaluing what Roberts would bring to the offense. What it sounds like to me is MacPhail/Angelos are asking way too much for Roberts. Why keep playing the game? DeRosa has just as good of an OBP as Roberts. Turn it into a platoon situation at 2nd with Patterson, and the potential is there to get the same production between Patterson and DeRosa as you would/could get from Roberts without having to give up any of the players mentioned so far in the trade rumors. Patterson's career minor league numbers look just like Brian Roberts. How that translates to MLB remains to be seen, but continuing to up the ante for Roberts because Baltimore can afford to be as patient as they want to be is not what I would call good business practice. Patterson/DeRosa make for a nice platoon at 2nd. The thing to remember about the Roberts deal is that Baltimore is attempting to shed some salary. Some of these deals seem to include Payton and his god awful contract. The only way Baltimore is going to shed some of that salary is to sit down at the table and negotiate a fair deal for both teams. The Cubs can provide relief, but not at the expense of the entire farm. Baltimore will suck whether they trade Roberts or keep him. It doesn't appear right now as though they really want to trade him, so now is the time to start getting Patterson and DeRosa ready to share time at 2b. Unless or until a trade actually happens, Hendry should not waste another moment of time drooling all over Brian Roberts' baseball card. It's time to get down to the business of being ready to start the season with what you have. I agree with you, Carolina, that this is the time to go for it. However, going for it doesn't necessarily mean throw caution to the wind and make stupid trades. Our corner spots have all been bought on the FA market, or through trade. It's a lot of money, but thank goodness the Cubs have it. I like seeing a good mixture of proven vets and young players. Lucky for me, Soto is a legitimet ROY candidate. If he's for real, we'll be looking good at C for the next couple of years. In CF we are getting to see if our 5 tool #1 prospect can have his breakout. These two young guys have earned a chance to play. That leaves SS and 2nd base. SS depresses me. Theriot isn't awful, but he leaves me wanting more out of my SS. I think trading Cedeno is going to be a huge mistake. Jim and Lou need to go out a find this kid a good woman. I think if he got out of the party scene, we'd have our answer at SS. I just don't think Ronny is mature enough to avoid the temptations of the Chicago nightlife. I like Derosa at 2nd and EPatt has to be acknowledged as well. If Cedeno would have hit this spring, I'd like to see a DeRosa / Epatt platoon. Since Theriot seems to have SS locked up, I'd prefer to upgrade to Roberts at 2nd with DeRosa being the super sub. We loose Cedeno, which I don't like, but of the 3 young guys left starting, 2 are top prospects. It just feels safer to me.

Gee, and Baltimore fans wonder why they suck every year in and out. Until Angelos stop meddling around, Baltimore won't be a very good baseball team for awhile. Angelos is a George Steinbrenner wanna-be. Even if all the rumored players are involved in the trade, Baltimore will still suck even if they make this trade. When the smoke clears and Roberts is traded to the Cubs, all Baltimore will have gotten for Miguel Tejada, Erik Bedard and Brian Roberts is Adam Jones and a bunch of guys who may or may not piece together a decent major league career. There is plenty of reason for Angelos to balk on this deal. I say screw it if they don't like the offers currently out there. Promote Eric Patterson and let him platoon at 2b with DeRosa. This frees up DeRosa to sub at other positions and slowly grooms Patterson at 2b, mostly facing RHP. The combination of Patterson and DeRosa is probably not all that far off from what Roberts can provide, but for less money over less years. When Baltimore is in last place on July 31 and they still have Brian Roberts, and Roberts is miserable and is speaking loudly that he wants to be traded, maybe the demands will soften and maybe Patterson will have increased his trade value. I'm not ready to start thinking about backup plans just yet. I'm still sticking to an opening day deadline, but I don't have a problem with putting a little pressure on the O's to make a choice. Roberts Fukudome Any back up plan you can come up with won't match the production you would get with Roberts and Fukudome batting 1,2. That's a whole lot of OBP and speed on the bases with DLee, Aram, and Soriano to follow. We've been begging for OBP at the top of the order for a long time now. We are one transaction away from having it. I know people are getting impatient, but I also feel some folks are undervalueing what Roberts would bring to our offense.