XZero771679666304

Baseball players can't fight. Was like watching a fight in the NBA. Volstad should be ashamed of himself for being that big and still getting tackled by Morgan. I would pay to see what Z would have done to a player Morgan's size in that situation. But yeah, baseball fights are usually pretty lame. Unless they involve Kyle Farnsworth.

Yes. He has a suspension for that (I believe it's five games) pending an appeal. After this incident I think he has zero chance of any reduction of that suspension. And he completely bypassed home plate to clip the Cards backup catcher a few games ago, too. I mean, where did this come from? I never heard anything bad about Nyjer Morgan before, and now he's making Milton Bradley look balanced. Dude's out of his mind.

It's not that most intelligent people don't have the time, it's that they have more sense than to voluntarily become emotionally invested in something over which they have zero control. On the surface, it's just not a great idea, to say the least. Well that, and most intelligent people had parents who turned them on to things other than sports as children. Unfortunately, I got turned on to the Cubs and baseball as a small child. I often wonder why I let myself get so worked up over it, but what can you do? Once it gets it's hooks in you at a young age, you're done. As for the topic, Dunn may not be ideal, but if you can get him for 3 years for 10-13 million per, you have to bite.

The best part about that was reading the comments section. I learned that Marlon Byrd is by far our best player solely because of the effort he gives, I learned that Andres Blanco should be our starting 2nd baseman, and that Adam Dunn will cost the Cubs more runs at 1st BASE! than he will drive in with his bat. Fascinating stuff there. Stuff like that and the Cubs Facebook page really give you a sobering insight into the bulk of fanbase. Not just Cubs fans, but fans in general. What's that saying, something like the dumbest people tend to be the most vocal? I wouldn't judge based on all the stupid comments. I just think the smart ones tend to not waste their time posting on facebook. It's not just Facebook. People at the ballpark, fans I run into casually whose eyes glaze over when you start talking numbers, people who call into sports talk radio, etc., etc. I think there are relatively few people who take enough interest to dig below the surface and have intelligent discussion, and they congregate in places like this. I think most sports fans are either casual or ignorant. IMO.

When you put up 40+ homers but barely top 100 rbi, and put up 100+ BB (in the same season as the 40 homers) but barely top 100 runs, that's not a great ratio. I think they're relevant for judging him as an offensive player. And like Northside pointed out, he was on some pretty good offensive teams in Cincy. Holding his lack of runs against him is stupid. You want a guy to get on base. Once he does, he really doesn't have much control, unless they're a base stealer or get caught attempting SB a lot or are an abysmal yet over agressive baserunner. RBI are also poor. Remember Lee in 2005? 99 XBH and only 107 RBI, does that reflect badly on him? Runs and RBI are highly contextual, team dependent stats, and are piss poor ways to evaluate a player, right up there with wins.

The best part about that was reading the comments section. I learned that Marlon Byrd is by far our best player solely because of the effort he gives, I learned that Andres Blanco should be our starting 2nd baseman, and that Adam Dunn will cost the Cubs more runs at 1st BASE! than he will drive in with his bat. Fascinating stuff there. Stuff like that and the Cubs Facebook page really give you a sobering insight into the bulk of fanbase. Not just Cubs fans, but fans in general.

If the Rox creep back into or happen to win the wildcard, Carlos Gonzalez has to be squarely in the mix as well.

Disagree with you. Fuku's contract is a sunk cost. Colvin's contract in comparison is minimal. Colvin is younger, will be cheaper and is under team contract for longer than Fukudome. The team should be thinking about the future not this year. Colvin should be playing first, with Kosuke in RF. Nady getting ABs is what makes no sense. Getting a team to take a portion of Kosuke's contract would have been easier if he were playing as he is every day. And it is not sunk cost, or at least it didn't have to be. It's the same sort of stupidity that sending Z to the pen the second times was. And what if Kosuke can't be traded? Then we have the same problem going into 2011.

so, if he's hurt he's hurt, and when he's not hurt, he should get back out there and play, except if he's really hurt and then he's hurt. And unless you're a sissy, you'll pretend you're not hurt when you get hurt, unless you're really hurt, in which case you'll be put on the DL so you don't hurt yourself.

your friend was right with the wrong reasoning. he pitched only around 120 innings this year, which wasn't a huge jump from the 109 last year with SDSU. he never went over 100 pitches this year. in 2009 and 2008 he averaged nearly 7 1/2 innings per start, and considering that some of those starts he was striking out 15-20 batters, one would assume that his pitch counts were going above 100. poor mechanics, previous workload, act of God, etc. are better excuses for strasburg's injury than his workload this season. short of not pitching him ever, there really wasn't anything the nationals could do to stop this from happening. That's what I told him. They were being cautious with him, and I didn't think it would happen so soon. That's why I mentioned Riggleman. He has to feel snakebitten.

I was talking to a friend about a couple weeks ago, and he told me with conviction Strasburg would end up getting TJS before next season, that the workload this season would get him. I knew he was an injury risk, but I thought it was a rash prediction. I guess not. I wonder how Riggleman feels. Strasburg isn't his fault, but still, it's gotta be deja vu for him.

First base is the easiest position to field in baseball. It's totally anecdotal, but I was a pretty darned good OFer, but I struggled when I tried 1B. It was picking short hops, I was no good at that.

I love how you say this like he got hot for the last month or so when in reality, his worst single month OPS after April was May with a .955. Last 5 months of 2009: .955 .973 1.027 1.014 1.295 Yeah, that's finishing on a hot streak. If by finishing on a hot streak you mean being an elite level hitter for the last 85% of the season. Even after an abysmal April, he finished 4th in the NL in OPS.

We're not going to get our top 5 pick if the Cubs keep up this nonsense. Need to get back to winning at a .200 clip.

That's a part that encourages me - when he hits homers, he really hits them. If he were hitting wall scrapers, it would be a lot easier to discount what he is doing. Still, virtually all of his offensive value is in his homers, and they are very likely to decrease.

Yeah, it'll be great when he does and the Cubs give him a starting job for 2011, and word gets out that you don't have to throw him strikes to get him out, and we're stuck with a corner regular with a .650 OPS. The homers are encouraging. The fact he looks utterly overmatched at the plate most of the time isn't. No one is saying he's doomed, but he has a lot of red flags. Unlike Starlin Castro, it's too soon to hand him anything without a solid contingency in place.

All of this is true. However, if Colvin's hr rate comes down (as it almost certainly will), and pitchers start to exploit his glaring weaknesses (as often happens as a book gets out on a player), we could see some pathetic numbers. Soriano's innate physical ability has allowed him to partially overcome his pitch recognition and discipline problems. I don't think Tyler has that luxury. Colvin could be good going forward, but I wouldn't be surprised to see him post a sub-.700 OPS in a full season, either. Regardless, counting on him as and everyday player at an offense first position would be ill advised at best, and a catastrophe at worst.

Soriano destroyed that ball.

Wouldn't it make sense, then, to pursue the guy who's going to be the most productive once we get competitive? Dunn will be 32 in 2012, which is probably the next time we'll be competitive, while Gonzalez will be 30 that year. We might get 1-2 seasons of production from Dunn once we get competitive again, compared to 3-4 out of Gonzalez. The Cubs can pretty easily be competitive next year. Dunn would go a long way to making that so. He's also going to cost a lot less in years and money. Yeah, just writing off 2011 is a bit much. If the Cubs get a typical ARam season, something close to what we've seen out of Soto, Castro, DeWitt and Byrd along with adding a typical Dunn season, that's a pretty good offense.

It's especially troublesome when it doesn't fit your pre-existing bias on a player. Or when it's propped up by SLG and has a really bad OBP. Like Soriano's lifetime stats ? Except Sori's lifetime OBP is higher than Colvin's, and Sori's SLG isn't also propped up by an unsustainable HR/FB rate.

There are a bunch of stopgap 1B on the market this offseason. Berkman is trending the wrong way, and will be 35 to start next season. No thanks.

If we're paying a reasonable price for him, I'll agree. If the bidding for him gets too high and we'll overpay for him, I'd rather wait since we're probably not going to be competitive next year anyway. Wait for what? A 29-year-old and 28-year-old who aren't going to put up vastly different numbers who are going to command a LOT more? You keep referring to Dunn like he's this old man, yet he'd be 30 if he starts the season with the Cubs next year. Fielder would be just turning 28 at the start of the 2012 season, so yes, he's younger but he's going to command a ton more money than Dunn, yet does he really bring THAT much more to the table? Gonzalez will be 30 when he's a FA, too, and he too is going to command much more money. Why do you think Dunn is someone they should pass on? Dunn will turn 31 in November. Gonzalez will be 29 at the start of the 2012 season. So Dunn will be about 1 1/2 years older at the beginning of his hypothetical Cubs career than AGon would be. AGon is also a much better defender, and a more well rounded hitter. Having said that, their offensive profiles are close enough that I think it would be foolish to pass over Dunn to wait on AGon, who will cost more and have more suitors. I'm not big on Fielder because he has played a lot of games on a challenged frame. I have longevity questions about him. Also he is 100 OPS points better at night (looking at 3-year splits) than during the day, whereas both Dunn and AGon are markedly better during the day (about 80 points for Dunn, and 150 for AGon). This is all provided Dunn's contract demands are reasonable.

I think he's right. I'm also a Bobby V./Fredi guy, but I think it's going to be Girardi. I'd put money on it.

Rob Dibble is the epitome of a meathead. I would be shocked if his IQ is north of 80, and nothing he says should be taken seriously by anyone. Ever.

My formative baseball years (where I went from being a little kid liking the Cubs b/c I was supposed to into really becoming a serious fan) were probably about '87-'91. So it was Sandberg/Dawson/Grace/Maddux with Sandberg my clear favorite. If you put a face on my maturation into serious Cubs fanhood, it would be Sandberg's. Having said that, Sandberg didn't put me into that grinning-childlike-in-awe state nearly as much as watching Sammy Sosa did. But it is still my Ryne Sandberg memories that I identify most with my being a Cubs fan. I'd just rather have my memory of him go sour because I resent him for being an awful manager. His HOF speech already delivered a hit to my perception of him.