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Santana faced 880 batters last year, that can't be ignored when looking at a typical 650 plate appearences by a batter. Potentially, Lee could impact every game in a positive way, but that never will happen or he could impact the game in a negative way.

Better philosophy, better farm system, better manager, better GM. It'll be difficult to compare any team with the Braves, especially one that has performed as badly as the Cubs this year.

Don't know, but everything I seen so far on Blackford is that he is a raw power arm. As far as Burrows, he was voted as having the strongest OF arm in the SAL after '03 and while he was an OF'er probably the strongest in the Braves system, stronger than Francouer's.

I doubt that will happen. The Elias Sports bureau rankings determining FA compensation are generated from a players previous two year stat. average in relation to his peers at the position. Nomar hasn't done the Cubs any favors with his performance at the plate thus far this season.....I doubt he'll rate as a Type A FA. Tedward, any guess where Lawton will end up? The Cubs would not have offered him arbitration as no one would have likely signed him before mid-December, but with a weak FA OF class, could he sneak into the type A?

I like this trade obviously b/c the Cubs gave nothing up as well as hopefully getting some ABs for Murton, but I like the potential of Blackford. Hopefully, he has the makeup that allowed Lerew to develop from a thrower with a strong arm to a pitcher with a strong arm. So far, I have no complaints about the arms the Cubs have rec'd lately. As far as Burrows, that should be interesting, Marmol is the most obvious example of when that works out for the Cubs. But, Burrows is a smaller guy with a big arm, hopefully he can show he can spin a breaking ball.

I'll be there tomorrow and possibly Wed., they did pass out free tickets as we were leaving tonight for Wednesday's game. Free tickets? Wow. Beloit, WI. General admission on a Wednesday Night, there was probably about 1,000 maybe 1500 max. there tonight. Part of the reason why I like going to Beloit, plus I sit in the reserved area regardless.

I'll be there tomorrow and possibly Wed., they did pass out free tickets as we were leaving tonight for Wednesday's game.

Question about an event during tonight's Beloit/Peoria game. Why was the Beloit player out on the DP that was a foul out to Bernard? He clearly got back before throw reached Larsen. Didn't feel like bothering you before the game or I would've said, hello...

Small recap from lovely Beloit... The triple from Fuld was a 1-0 FB down the middle, he hit a high fly that hit the wall, but was a play that should've been made by the RF'er as he had plenty of time to get under it and didn't have to jump to catch it. his other ABs mainly consisted of fouling to 3B Harvey was swinging at the high FB, his first AB he reached for a slider that he was outguessed on and hit a lazy pop to short RF. He just missed a pitch that could've been driven 450ft, it got just enough inside to break his bat and end up to the LF'er. He also struck out by being outguessed. He did make a nice play in RF early in the game. Billek was pretty impressive, his FB was getting hit early as it is just an avg. pitch and topped at 91 and sat around 88. But, his curve and change were really impressive, he spotted them well and hitters had trouble picking them up. He did hang a couple of curves and one of them led to the only run allowed by Sanchez. As previously mentioned, his Fb topped at 91, curve sat at 74 and his change at 81. The player of the night for me was Rivera at 3B, had one of the 3 base hits, but some great plays at 3B. I was impressed with Teasley, show a FB that was around 93 and a nice change to go along it. Bernard showed a nice arm as usual, one PB which helped lead to the only Snappers run, but hit an 0-2 FB that was right down the middle for an RBI.

You had me excited about him as a potential Cubs LOOGY last year, he's really fallen off. And now Aardsma has given up 5 baserunners after getting the first two outs. Haha, Eck is batting for himself. He's got good stuff, low 90s FB and a solid slider, but he's always had problems with control, even in Little League thru HS. In HS, he was hitting about 87 as Junior and showed a nice curve. He could be shaken mentally, though.

Um, EPatt was born in 1983. Last time I checked, 2005 - 1983 = 22. Eckenstahler not Patterson.

I feel bad for Eric, he's had a rough year at AA and hasn't found the plate at all. I have no idea what'll happen for him this off-season as he'll be 29 in December.

FWIW, Livan Hernandez's durability is greater than just about anyone in the game today. Some of his high pitch counts this year include: 123, 125, 127, 130, 131, 136, 145, 150. He was different pitcher back in '97 than he is in '03, he could hit mid 90s on his FB and lost his velocity during the '98 season. After seeing Sanchez on there, I don't this was exclusive to Hernandez.

Leyland is also known as a pitcher abuser, look at what he did to Livan Hernandez in '97. From Rany (Chicago native) over at BP:

Sure, it's possible to present such a stat. What are the batting averages of the players that hit behind him when he's on base versus when he isn't. If he's such a huge distraction to the pitcher that he impacts the game that much, those batters should hit, what, 100 points higher when Furcal's on base? (btw - without looking it up, I'd put money on the fact that they don't) A little while back I did a similar case study with Juan Pierre and Luis Castillo, since they spend the vast majority of their time hitting 1-2 over the last few years. IIRC, Castillo every year had worse numbers with runners on than without, and when Pierre's numbers went up from year to year, Castillo's went down, and vice versa. It was almost a perfect ratio with their OPS. I've done such a thing, as well and came to the same results. However, I've seen a much more comprehensive study that found that the top few basestealers in the league actually can have a measureable impact on the game. But it's along the lines of a few points better instead of 100. In other words, it was a measurable difference but one that I felt showed that it wasn't really worth that much anyway. Interesting, was that study done with the fast runner on base vs. the pitcher in the wind-up or was it done with a fast runner on base vs. a slow runner on base? To me, I don't see any validity in comparing a fast runner on base vs. no one on, there are too many variables; Pitching from the stretch vs. wind-up and the variation of a good start vs. a bad one. If the leadoff hitter goes 3-4 with 2 runs scored and the following hitter goes 2-4, did the second go 2-4 b/c of the leadoff hitter or b/c the pitcher didn't throw well? Of course, if both the leadoff hitter and second hitter go a combined 0-8, did the second hitter not hit well b/c no one was on base distracting the pitcher or b/c the pitcher had real good stuff. Personally, the variable of the pitcher's performance weighs more heavily in the outcome of the 2nd hitter than the theory of runner distraction.

I can't see him shifting to 2B either, he'd provide the offense at a higher rate for a 2B, but the wear on his body would be the same at SS. SS trying to prevent injuries would be the advice I'd give him at this stage. As well as a different off-season and in-season conditioning program. Age and wear and tear can't be the only reason why he has become so fragile.

Despite the decreased production of 3B in Baseball (minus this recent surge of Wright, Ensberg, Ramirez, Rolen), Nomar given his decline might not have the offense to become anything but an avg. 3B offensively while learning a new position..

A trip to Beloit, WI. I'll miss not seeing Patterson there.

If Walker was the worst offensive player of the position players and they had the financial capabilities to add Soriano, I do it. That'll never happen, but I still like Soriano.

If he tested positive, no, as it stands now, yes.

I thought Wood coming out of the pen would be the difference between the Cubs making or missing the post-season. :titanic:

Theo in '04 made the mistake of going with Pokey for part of '04, before going to Bellhorn (another offensive 1st 2B) and the rest is history. But, they didn't think his offense and lack of defense in '03 was worth the 3-4mil. Defensively, '03 was the worst of Walker's career. Of course, Boston has an offense and to sacrifice some offense for defense can make sense if they already have the ability to score runs, but Boston found out that a bat at 2B can help and did once they got Horny. The Cubs can't score runs and taking away what little offense they have is a poor move, unless easily replaced. Perez puts them in a bigger hole offensively than they're already in, which is saying something.

If they love him so much why didn't they make more of an effort to keep him? Excellent question and thank you for raising it. Walker lovers the floor is your's. :D I'm still waiting for you to answer my previous question.

Tim sneaking Theriot in there! :)

Hope that's sarcasm. Uh, no. Wow. So I guess the '04 White Sox were one of the best teams ever, huh? No, and the fact that they were 25th in MLB in ERA probably had a hand in that. Now, they happen to be the best in the AL. 2nd to the Cards overall, not surprising the teams with the two best records.