CarolinaCubFan

HRs should never be discouraged. They are better than any other possible outcome in any given at bat. Young or old, any player would be stupid to give up a drivable pitch just because it's the first one. Playing small ball yields small results. Pie and Soto have 15-20 HR potential this year. Should they just slap at the ball because they are young? When do they graduate to being old enough to swing hard? Poor wording on my part. HR’s can be bad for the development of young unpolished hitters such as Pie and Soto. Their success on this team is going to be based on how well they get on base. I want to see line drives going to all fields. Those line drives will begin to get hit harder and harder, with a few leaving the park. Routine fly outs and warning track power are unacceptable in my book by either Pie or Soto. Swinging for the fences isn’t going to help either player progress as a hitter. Lou and his staff need to continue the development of the young players.

If this deal gets done by opening day, I'll be happy. I'm excited about this move. Roberts Fukudome These guys should get on base a ton. Fukudome's patience will allow Roberts to be active on the bases. Opposing pitchers will get tested right from the start of the game. Lee Aram Soriano With Roberts and Fukudome at the top, Lee shouldn't see the bases empty very often. We know he's going to give us a great OBP and good power. Aram and Soriano should be in a battle for team leader in RBI's. The OBP starts a decline and batting Soriano 5th will allow him to "lead off" for the bottom of the order. Pie Soto Theriot Pitcher The bottom of the order needs to take pitches. Starting Pitchers will have been put to task from our 1-5 spots. Any of these young guys who swing at the first pitch need benched for a couple of days. HR's should be discouraged. Preach getting on base. Soriano, Pie, and Theriot will put a lot of speed on the bases at the bottom of the order. Playing small ball with the youngsters will help deal with the pitchers spot and transition well back to the top of the order.

I saw the numbers and had to shut up haha. It seems Lee starting slow has been a big topic every start of the season, I was wrong. I do have to say that I've been a little let down by Lee, I hope he has a great season. This spring, or as a Cub in general. If it's this spring, I don't understand what there is to be let down by. Spring training results do not matter at all. In general, I think I'm still hoping he comes close to 2005 again. Wishful thinking, but hey, I'm a Cub Fan.

Great point. the slow starters seem to be focusing only on the homers, but Lee was hitting like crazy. He was racking up doubles like nobody's business. Yes, very good point. He was hitting over .400 for a long time and could not stop hitting doubles. To me, he performed more like a 2 hitter, not a 3 or 4. The wrist being healed will help turn some of those doubles to HR's, but I'd like to see Lee coming out of the gates strong this season, with a little power.

I saw the numbers and had to shut up haha. It seems Lee starting slow has been a big topic every start of the season, I was wrong. I do have to say that I've been a little let down by Lee, I hope he has a great season.

Even if Lou can somehow see that Lee is getting the timing down, he can't punish a guy (ie, work him harder) into fixing such a problem. Hitting is a funny thing over the course of an entire season. It's downright hilarious in spring training. I'm hoping Lou was just tired of answering questions about the closer spot and Pie's nuts and decided to just make up a new story that he knew the writers would be forced to run with. Because if he actually is upset with the hitters for not hitting and thinks they need to completely change their plan based on two weeks of results of sporadic spring training stats, then he's an idiot. I don't see making Lee take some extra work as a "punishment", Lou is getting his team ready to play ball. I understand the opposing view, but I like Lou's approach on this one.

IT'S MARCH 12TH. What's your point? This is Spring Training. The time players need to get back to the grind, get their grooves back, brush up on the basics. Lee is not hitting. Lou wants him to work on it. Where is the problem? There is no problem. Lee not hitting in spring traning isn't a problem. Yeah, I'd rather him get off to a slow start again, no since in rushing him, he'll show up in June.

And this is a ridiculous mischaracterization of what I wrote. Spring training matters. Getting in game shape matters. Getting your timing down, seeing pitches, stretching arms, the daily grind, all that stuff matters. The results don't matter. The results should not have any effect on decisions. It makes no difference whether Lee is hitting .500 right now or .100. I was going to post this. Lou wants Pie to quit swinging for the fence and utilize his other talents. He wants Soto to try hitting to the opposite field. I'd rather this be worked on now, not during games that count. Same for Lee, work on it now, don't wait for the season to start.

IT'S MARCH 12TH. What's your point? This is Spring Training. The time players need to get back to the grind, get their grooves back, brush up on the basics. Lee is not hitting. Lou wants him to work on it. Where is the problem?

First off, I'll say I don't expect Lee to match his 2005 stats. I also understand a wrist injury takes time to heal. My heart went out to Lee and his family while dealing with the illness of his daughter. This is a new season, it's time for Lee to get his head in the game. If it means Lou putting a fire under his arse, fine by me. Lou knows how to manage a ball club. A spark like this might be just what Lee needs, and Lou is happy to oblige. Get on him Lou!

Cpatt still breaks my heart. When Tim started this site, his minor league information was the first time I'd really paid any attention to the farm system. Felix Pie was being tauted as 5 tool, but very RAW. Finally, he's progressed to the big show. He wasn't a burner, but has had success in all levels of the minor leagues. I've waited a long time for Pie to get here, I want to see him in the lineup everyday. Encourage and teach him through a couple of slumps and lets see if he's going to be our very own Carlos Beltran - I've dreamed it for 4 years, don't burst my bubble. He's been young for every level. I still believe he has the chance to be a star CF, but he's still young and raw. My biggest complaint, someone buy the guy some athletic briefs or something. If I have to see him adjust his junk 30 times in 3 pitches again this season, I'm gonna go insane.

So you would rather have a hitter K with a man on third than hit a deep fly ball to the OF with 1 out? I understand what you're saying but an out isn't an out straight across the line. Obviously not, but when is this "choice" going to come up? You can't base player personnel decisions on these types of situation, because by and large, hitters aren't coming up in these situations. I can bring up a choice of hypotheticals like this too, where the K would be the far preferable result. That's why I love baseball, all the variables are a chess game. Putting the ball in play pros: Errors - the NL made 1,616 of them last season Poor defenders / defenses - A guy that could hit the ball to Chris Duncan four times a game is likely to have a productive day. Prince Fielder may hit a ton, but he's not goin to have great range on Defense. Advancing runners - As Cuse pointed out. We all have our own opinions. My experiece tells me these hypotheticals do matter, I'm just not smart enough to back them up with stats. :D I think the mistake is thinking there are choices involved here. You don't just choose to put it in play or choose to strikeout. You try to hit the ball hard and go from there. Baseball is much less of a chess game than the myth makers in the media would like everybody to believe. The vast majority of outcomes are determined by the ability of the players taking part, mainly the pitcher and the hitter. Some players make a lot of contact, others don't. Each tries to hit the ball hard. One does, one whiffs. There are definitely players that aren't always trying to "hit the ball hard" and instead go up there looking to make contact just for the sake of contact. And they usually make weak contact. This is especially true in two strike situations. Some might not agree with me, but I'd rather my guy strike out while trying to drive the ball with two strikes than ground out weakly in an attempt to avoid a strikeout. It's this very same stigma against strikeouts that results in hitters with this garbage mentality. You have to compare like hitters though. Dunn and Pujols come to my mind. Both are comparable in power, high obp, and BB. The difference in my mind is Pujols makes better contact than Dunn.

In 97,556 chances. In other words, errors were only made on 1.7% of the chances that fielders had. My numbers are loose, but doesn't that roughly average out to "100" extra baserunners? Not necessarily. A fielder could be given an error on a dropped pop foul only to have the hitter make an out on the next pitch. An error could be charged on a throw that allowed a runner to take an extra base in a situation where a good throw would not have resulted in an out (i.e. a hitter lines a base hit to right field with a runner on second, the RF throws home to try to get the runner, throw goes past the catcher allowing the hitter to move from first to second). Don't necessarily assume that every error would result in an additional baserunner. True. Okay, then let's split that to 50 extra baserunners per year? That's still nearly a extra baserunner in 33% of the games. I could be way off on my numbers.

So you would rather have a hitter K with a man on third than hit a deep fly ball to the OF with 1 out? I understand what you're saying but an out isn't an out straight across the line. Obviously not, but when is this "choice" going to come up? You can't base player personnel decisions on these types of situation, because by and large, hitters aren't coming up in these situations. I can bring up a choice of hypotheticals like this too, where the K would be the far preferable result. That's why I love baseball, all the variables are a chess game. Putting the ball in play pros: Errors - the NL made 1,616 of them last season Poor defenders / defenses - A guy that could hit the ball to Chris Duncan four times a game is likely to have a productive day. Prince Fielder may hit a ton, but he's not goin to have great range on Defense. Advancing runners - As Cuse pointed out. We all have our own opinions. My experiece tells me these hypotheticals do matter, I'm just not smart enough to back them up with stats. :D I think the mistake is thinking there are choices involved here. You don't just choose to put it in play or choose to strikeout. You try to hit the ball hard and go from there. Baseball is much less of a chess game than the myth makers in the media would like everybody to believe. The vast majority of outcomes are determined by the ability of the players taking part, mainly the pitcher and the hitter. Some players make a lot of contact, others don't. Each tries to hit the ball hard. One does, one whiffs.

In 97,556 chances. In other words, errors were only made on 1.7% of the chances that fielders had. My numbers are loose, but doesn't that roughly average out to "100" extra baserunners?

So you would rather have a hitter K with a man on third than hit a deep fly ball to the OF with 1 out? I understand what you're saying but an out isn't an out straight across the line. Obviously not, but when is this "choice" going to come up? You can't base player personnel decisions on these types of situation, because by and large, hitters aren't coming up in these situations. I can bring up a choice of hypotheticals like this too, where the K would be the far preferable result. That's why I love baseball, all the variables are a chess game. Putting the ball in play pros: Errors - the NL made 1,616 of them last season Poor defenders / defenses - A guy that could hit the ball to Chris Duncan four times a game is likely to have a productive day. Prince Fielder may hit a ton, but he's not goin to have great range on Defense. Advancing runners - As Cuse pointed out. We all have our own opinions. My experiece tells me these hypotheticals do matter, I'm just not smart enough to back them up with stats. :D

Nice. If I wanted to read a bunch of immuture crap I'd go to Cubs.com

For real, I'm really tired of this getting attention. I know I don't care in the slightest. You say that, but I think you might care if somehow Lee, Aram, Z, or Woody showed up on the list. Odds are that one of them will. And I still won't care. Put it another way: Does ESPN rip Rodney Harrison for being suspended for PED's? How is baseball more sacred than football? Old-Timeyness is why. And I don't have a care in the world for Auld Thyme Base-Ball. Because it isn't 1927 anymore. Nor is it 1967. I want to know. What if Mark Priors name is on there. That would shine a lot of light on his career to this point. We just gave an eight year contract out, you wouldn't want to know if we're paying for production that's not there now? In Soriano's case, it's going to happen anyway, PED's or not. And furthermore, all the Mitchell report is going to do is shed light on guys doing things 2+ seasons ago, when the PED's were still probably legal, or when baseball wasn't testing. If a guy fails a test now, he's an idiot and deserves ridicule, because he's hurting the team doing something he knows people are now looking and testing for, but if this reveals that sometime in the past 4 years Derrek Lee took PED's, I fail to see how that matters in the here and now, other than to satsify certain writers' need to cleanse baseball of a percieved blight. I understand what you're saying about Lee. What about Prior? What if he was taking roids in 2003? Doesn't this affect his contract negotiations? Do we really want to spend that money? What about all the Santana talk? People talk about his stats fading the last couple of years. If a team is going to pony up the prospects and money to get him, don't you think steriods come into play?

For real, I'm really tired of this getting attention. I know I don't care in the slightest. You say that, but I think you might care if somehow Lee, Aram, Z, or Woody showed up on the list. Odds are that one of them will. And I still won't care. Put it another way: Does ESPN rip Rodney Harrison for being suspended for PED's? How is baseball more sacred than football? Old-Timeyness is why. And I don't have a care in the world for Auld Thyme Base-Ball. Because it isn't 1927 anymore. Nor is it 1967. I want to know. What if Mark Priors name is on there. That would shine a lot of light on his career to this point. We just gave an eight year contract out, you wouldn't want to know if we're paying for production that's not there now?

Wow. A measily 25m bump from his original contract. Someone will come along and beat that soon enough, and boy won't ARod be upset. :D Easily the biggest story of the offseason for me. The Cubs rumors are just blah. He's on pace to go down as one of the greatest ever, possibly the greatest and the Cubs haven't even batted an eye. The only time you hear Arod and Cubs in the same sentence - the Cubs are a largemark team and have the resources to make a deal. I really hope you're wrong BbB, but I've thought the same thing. If true, I'm gonna loose a lot of respect for my favorite ballplayer. Here's what I hope. Boras promised a deal for Arod that just isn't there. Well it was there and Boras passed it up. I think Arod would have welcomed a change of scenery, but this is looking like Boras is finally getting stood up by MLB teams. Arod going to the negotiating table without Boras? I really hope I'm not let down over the outcome here.

He just turned 26. Guys who are currently just 26 tend to become a little more than what they have been before that age. I would guess he could easily morph into a 25-30 HR hitter, given his age, and he could very easily surpass 30 once or twice in his career. His OBP is AVG driven, and that's his biggest weakness. I'm not sure why anybody would flinch at trading "anything of high value". I wouldn't throw the farm at him, no way. Cabrera is the type of franchise player you throw the farm at. But there's nothing wrong with giving up considerable value for a guy like Crawford. I've seen this a couple times, would someone please try to sell me on this. When is being able to put a ball in play, a weakness?

Because it is about the money. But so what? that's what they play for. ARod/Boras are floating a 262 million dollar number around. That is EXACTLY twice as much as the higest paid athlete in sports. According to Keith Olberman. If you want to say "for Boras, it's all about the money", then fine. Of course Boras is drooling to put Arod on the market. I can't stand the man, but if I were a ball player, he's the guy I want representing me. Arod opted out without even sitting down with the Yanks. If it was about the money, don't you think he'd at least sit down with them and hear what the richest team in baseball has to offer?

Listening to all the hoopla today, I'm left scratching my head. Hasn't Arod spent his Yankee career being booed? I wonder how many times he's heard he isn't a true Yankee? Jeter and Arod aren't BFF's. Arod's wife wearing the F#%* You! shirt to Yankee Stadium was classic. Arods already filthy rich. Why are so many people making this about the money? My gut tells me they guy just wants out of NY and I don't blame him.

Like I said, Tell Bill Buckner that, he'd appreciate it.

One error does not lose a playoff series. Tell Billy Buckner that, he'd appreciate it.