Soul

Wait til he signs for $30mil/yr. People will call him a villain for that, too.

Ichiro's is a superstar right now, so how does BP defend their graph since it appears to be incorrect as of this moment?

While I normally don't enter the discussion in the game threads on this subject I have always been more impressed with the argument TT is making. When a pitcher has been wild and needs to avoid a walk and the batter is a competent batter, have him look for his pitch on pitch 1 (and pitch 2 and pitch 3 etc.). In that situation there's no reason to swing at a pitcher's pitch because he's unlikely to be able to get that over the plate. If the pitcher knows you're not going to swing at pitch 1 it just puts you down in the count automatically. I think it depends on the player. The problem is that the player often doesn't swing at "his" pitch and grounds out weakly or pops up. I don't necessarily have a problem with swinging at the first pitch as long as the batter has good plate discipline. Pujols is a disciplined enough hitter to give him the greenlight, Corey Patterson, not so much. Oh we gave Corey green lights. Green lights all the way out of town :wink: Friggin' police escort and green lights all the way.

The power of evil. Keeps you going longer than you should. Soon his eyes will start to glow.

Haha, all I saw was "Garcia"and I thought it was Freddy :lol:

Wait. So first it's an 'abysmal offseason' and then a couple paragraphs later it's 'somewhat disappointing' ?? Which is it then? The media said we had a terrible offseason last year too. We didn't add any offense, and the Lions & Vikings were therefore going to catch us. Did that happen? Nope. We'll see about this year, but I wouldn't be too keen on taking to heart comments from CNNsi, who apparently can't even decide what kind of offseason we even had.

Isn't the Mariners' ownership from Japan, too? That must have played into this, or at least I would think it did.

CARD FIGHT!!! I like it.

That's alot of buckaroonies. I can see why Seattle did it, Ichiro means alot to that franchise. I wonder how many Mariners unis they sell over in Japan because of him.

Correct, there's no malice, per se, but there is definitely a blatant disrespect there, and I really hope this gets noticed by league officials. A player doing that to an umpire would result in a suspension for sure (at least, if the ump noticed and made a stink about it), and if there are any rules against general d-baggery, this ump should definitely be held accountable. That's stupid, pointless, rude, and disrespectful. I agree as well. There's plenty of grass behind the umpire, why did the umpire for whatever reason, decides to throw it right towards an area where there are alot of players are located at? Why not toss the gum out by the foul territory, away from the players, like right behind him? Not sure about the depth perception on that shot. He could have been way far back -- if so, I wouldn't expect him to turn around and throw it toward the foul line (which would also take his eyes off the field, too). Not necessarly. All you have to do is put the gum in between your thumb and your finger, and just flick it away behind you without having to move your head/face/eyes just to see where it goes. Now the depth perception, it can be argued that if the gum truly went past Michael, wouldn't it be safe to say that he would had looked back to see where that gum came from? Personally, I wouldn't make any assumptions about it at all. I can't tell what really happened in that shot. I know what it looks like, but as I said the depth perception in some of those shots can be tough to gage.

I was pissed too. Maybe it will cause further bad feelings between them, that would be good.

Grif pegs out ARod @ home. All those leg injuries, but the arm is still ready & willing for Grif :)

HIS OBP IS LOWER THAN NEIFI'S AVERAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What kind of new Cub hell is this? Someone please wake me from this nightmare!!!

I never considered Stone a serious GM option, but yeah I'm also not keen on him being our GM, because he's never done it before. We need someone who knows what he's doing, not a deadbeat like Ed Lynch, and not a rookie like Hendry was (and still is by many people's reckoning). Just my 2 cents. I'd still like to see Stone back in the booth at some point, I always enjoyed his color commentary. I don't understand why people think first-time GMs are a bad idea. There's enough retread GMs out there to convince me I'd be more than happy with a guy who has never done it before. Theo Epstein was a first-time GM and brought a title to Boston. That should convince anyone that a first-time GM is no worse than an old veteran. Really, why should our attitude about GMs be any different than players. Just because a guy has experience doesn't mean that he doesn't suck. Because we've been down that road before and have proven we can't pick a rook who has a clue. Who's "we"? New ownership means different people making those decisions. Are you sure McDonough will be fired when the team is sold? Maybe, maybe not. McDonough has never picked a GM, so that's not relevant to what you were saying. The relevance is that he's still a product of the same old Cubs, which hasn't picked a solid GM since Dallas Green.

Correct, there's no malice, per se, but there is definitely a blatant disrespect there, and I really hope this gets noticed by league officials. A player doing that to an umpire would result in a suspension for sure (at least, if the ump noticed and made a stink about it), and if there are any rules against general d-baggery, this ump should definitely be held accountable. That's stupid, pointless, rude, and disrespectful. I agree as well. There's plenty of grass behind the umpire, why did the umpire for whatever reason, decides to throw it right towards an area where there are alot of players are located at? Why not toss the gum out by the foul territory, away from the players, like right behind him? Not sure about the depth perception on that shot. He could have been way far back -- if so, I wouldn't expect him to turn around and throw it toward the foul line (which would also take his eyes off the field, too).

BS, nobody noticed 70 bats being taken out of the home locker room? Beware 4-year late 'revelations.' Shame on you, Fred. You're paid to be better than that.

I never considered Stone a serious GM option, but yeah I'm also not keen on him being our GM, because he's never done it before. We need someone who knows what he's doing, not a deadbeat like Ed Lynch, and not a rookie like Hendry was (and still is by many people's reckoning). Just my 2 cents. I'd still like to see Stone back in the booth at some point, I always enjoyed his color commentary. I don't understand why people think first-time GMs are a bad idea. There's enough retread GMs out there to convince me I'd be more than happy with a guy who has never done it before. Theo Epstein was a first-time GM and brought a title to Boston. That should convince anyone that a first-time GM is no worse than an old veteran. Really, why should our attitude about GMs be any different than players. Just because a guy has experience doesn't mean that he doesn't suck. Because we've been down that road before and have proven we can't pick a rook who has a clue. Who's "we"? New ownership means different people making those decisions. Are you sure McDonough will be fired when the team is sold?

I never considered Stone a serious GM option, but yeah I'm also not keen on him being our GM, because he's never done it before. We need someone who knows what he's doing, not a deadbeat like Ed Lynch, and not a rookie like Hendry was (and still is by many people's reckoning). Just my 2 cents. I'd still like to see Stone back in the booth at some point, I always enjoyed his color commentary. I don't understand why people think first-time GMs are a bad idea. There's enough retread GMs out there to convince me I'd be more than happy with a guy who has never done it before. Theo Epstein was a first-time GM and brought a title to Boston. That should convince anyone that a first-time GM is no worse than an old veteran. Really, why should our attitude about GMs be any different than players. Just because a guy has experience doesn't mean that he doesn't suck. Because we've been down that road before and have proven we can't pick a rook who has a clue.

I never considered Stone a serious GM option, but yeah I'm also not keen on him being our GM, because he's never done it before. We need someone who knows what he's doing, not a deadbeat like Ed Lynch, and not a rookie like Hendry was (and still is by many people's reckoning). Just my 2 cents. I'd still like to see Stone back in the booth at some point, I always enjoyed his color commentary.

From what I've seen of Hill, he's at least marginal defensively too. Probably better than Barrett, but I think it's a stretch to say Hendry went with obvious defensive advantages. It seems more to me that he made a knee-jerk, desperate move and prayed Hill and/or Bowen would give him something. We all agree getting Blanco back will be a good thing for this ballclub. Stop and think about that for a moment -- that, my friend, is how bad it's gotten.

Not that I really care about Bonds -- he's spit to me -- but I find it interesting that his final act as an All-Star in this league is to crap on the fans who got him in. Bonds won't be doing the HR derby, not even in his house, not even for the only fans on the planet who care about him, not even in a season where he has nothing else to play for other than a record which he will break regardless of whether he competes or not. He remains the biggest ass in sports history -- a characteristic I will always associate with him, and not the home run record. The fact that Selig has allowed this All Star Game to become a tribute to a cheater and a malcontent is a disgrace to the history of MLB. Victor Conte should throw out the first pitch. And all Selig is worried about is banning ESPN since they had the nerve to broadcast publicly available information and promote his sport. What a complete moron. Selig hasn't made his decision yet whether to attend Bonds' faux coronation. He could at least do something right before he retires by not attending. But I'm not holding my breath.

Pujols starting to look thinner, and his skin is clearing up.... Just sayin'.

Not that I really care about Bonds -- he's spit to me -- but I find it interesting that his final act as an All-Star in this league is to crap on the fans who got him in. Bonds won't be doing the HR derby, not even in his house, not even for the only fans on the planet who care about him, not even in a season where he has nothing else to play for other than a record which he will break regardless of whether he competes or not. He remains the biggest ass in sports history -- a characteristic I will always associate with him, and not the home run record.

It's got to. The stink coming from behind the plate is unbearable.

Yes, but he didn't actually get 300+. He got 100, and has been in the minors for weeks now. You're dealing in projections. Murton got ABs at the very beginning, but then started to get subbed out and eventually just got the boot. He's had nowhere near the play time we figured he would get. Also, he had 455 ABs last year, so even if by some miracle he did wind up with 350 that would still represent quite a dropoff. Not what most around here were hoping for.