Jump to content
Check out our 2026 MLB Draft tracker, with player scouting reports, signing pool money, and much more! ×
North Side Baseball

XZero771679666304

Old-Timey Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    14,655

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Profiles

Joomla Posts 1

Chicago Cubs Videos

Chicago Cubs Free Agent & Trade Rumors, Notes, & Tidbits

2026 Chicago Cubs Top Prospects Ranking

News

2023 Chicago Cubs Draft Picks

Guides & Resources

2024 Chicago Cubs Draft Picks

The Chicago Cubs Players Project

2025 Chicago Cubs Draft Pick Tracker

2026 Chicago Cubs Draft Tracker: Picks & Bonuses

Blogs

Events

Forums

Store

Gallery

Everything posted by XZero771679666304

  1. XZero771679666304
    And because he plays so shallow, Edmonds gets beat on balls over his head more often than most. As for you opinion on 1B, Lee has a several advantages over Albert. First and foremost, his size and reach allow him to catch and pick more poor throws than Pujols (something Lee does better than anybody, IMO.). And from my observation, Lee's reflexes are slightly better. Lee's size (not just height, but his ridiculously long arms) allow him more range, and Lee is quicker (not by much, I'll grant you).
  2. XZero771679666304
    I'm not a big Buck fan on national broadcasts, but he's tolerable. Last night, however, I was reminded just how terrible he is. The other guy actually seemed alright. But Buck is just awful. He's a homer, much like Santo, but unlike Santo, he tries to portray himself as some sort of all knowing god of baseball knowledge. At least Ronny (who I do not like listening to) is brutally honest with his work. Last night must have been an aberration. Al Hrabosky is far from alright. His homerism is on par with Hawk's, and his public hatred of the Cubs is unparalled, IMO. But Buck is really homer-ific.
  3. XZero771679666304
    Agreed. Vick's emergence is keeping a lot of kids from being college WRs, but I give Cunningham the credit for giving guys like Vick (and the current crop) a chance to stay at QB. was warren moon before cunningham? warren moon was my favorite nfl player growing up! Warren Moon was awesome in that run and shoot in Houston. He was my favorite QB in the late 80's-early 90's.
  4. XZero771679666304
    One only needs to look at the leaders in defensive indicator stats at all positions to see that there is no accurate way to satistically quantify defensive ability. ZR, RF, FPCT.....all are very, very flawed. At this point, I think you have to see players consitently and compare them based on judgment rather than crunch numbers to decide who is better. There are just too many variables involved in fielding to rely on stats. As for the topic, Jones>>>Edmonds. Jones' arm is better, and his range is much better, regardless of what RF says. Edmonds can't get to balls that Jones can, pure and simple. The same applies to Lee and Casey. Pujols is better defensively than Casey. Casey may have less errors, but he gets to fewer balls. If there's a ball in the hole that Casey has no shot at, he doesn't get an error. If Lee manages to get a glove on that same ball but can't quite corral it, he gets an error. In that regard, a player with great range is often a victim of that range.
  5. XZero771679666304
    Yeah, the 2004 free agent class was ripe with busts. Beltran, Drew, Benitez, Percival... all have been terribly disappointing.
  6. XZero771679666304
    Giles is good, but he is aging and his numbers are down. I sincerely doubt he will command 10 million per. Having said that, I think Giles re-signs with San Diego. I think Hendry will most likely trade for a corner OF and extend them. I don't see the Cubs signing a SP. What I do see is the Cubs signing Furcal, letting Walker go and moving Cedeno to second. I also think Hendry will sign two of the top relievers on the market. After this year, I highly doubt we will such an inactive offseason as we did last year, especially without the Sosa circus holding up the works. There will be 30 million to spend, and I blieve it will be spent. On what is debatable, but spending that much will make it an active offseason by default.
  7. XZero771679666304
    Not to nitpick, but Sosa's 2001 season was better than his MVP season. As for Lee, I'd trade him, but only for a very good return. I may just be too tired, but I can't think of any teams that need a 1B who could give us an adequate young power bat in return. At least none that I would want to have Lee.
  8. XZero771679666304
    And it's darn good thing the Cubs didn't go hard after Beltran, and if Burnett wants a 5-6 year deal, the Cubs shouldn't go hard after him either.
  9. XZero771679666304
    What a fuster cluck.
  10. XZero771679666304
    Ronnie's gonna be anchored to the bench now. :evil:
  11. XZero771679666304
    By the metric you measure success, wins, we were better in 2004 than in 2003. In 2003 we just happened to play in a division with the mediocre edition of the Cardinals, not the Uber edition of 2004. It's only 2005 that has been a down year, and they will argue as such. On the manager opinion, yes that may be true, but every team's fans thinks that their manager is the worst in baseball. Yeah, but Cubs fans my be right.
  12. XZero771679666304
    I'm just not sure Burnett isn't Wood part two. Sure he's going to pitch 200 innings this year, but Kerry did the same in 2002 and 2003. I don't think it's wise to have to high salary, high injury risk pitchers in the rotation, but that's just me.
  13. XZero771679666304
    I know it has become cliche to say the Yankees will get players, but after this season's rotation debacle in the Bronx, I can't envision any scenario in which the top 2 or 3 starters on the market aren't in pinstripes next season, including Burnett.
  14. XZero771679666304
    Oh, I've long since given up on the Lee for MVP front. But the precedent for great players winning the award on poor teams (a la Dawson) has been set, so the desparity between clubs records really doesn't mean that much. I just think Pujols will get it because of the fact he has been overshadowed by Bonds in recent years. Lee would have really had to smoke him statistically to win it, IMO. I just made that last post because the thoery that Wrigley is responsible for Lee being better this year doesn't hold an ounce of water.
  15. XZero771679666304
    One thing worth noting, Wrigley Field is more of a hitter's park then Busch. I think you have to take that in to account. ESPN's Rob Neyer made some comments about this earlier this year http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/allstar05/columns/story?columnist=neyer_rob&id=2105528 AP had an 80 vs DLee's 137 Derrek has a higher OPS (by 100 points), AVG, SLG, OBP on the road. He has one more HR at Wrigley than on the road, and the RBI are dead even. I posted this back in July when someone else said something similar to what you posted. In fact they referenced the same Neyer article.
  16. XZero771679666304
    Not re-signing Alou wasn't a mistake. Replacing him with Todd Hollandsworth was.
  17. XZero771679666304
    I agree. Perez is not this team's problem. He's one of the pluses. Is he awesome? Heck no, but he's done his job. The problem with Neifi has been Baker. Neifi is an 8 hole hitter. Not a lead off guy. Not a 2 hitter. 8.8.8.8.8. Baker refused to see it. Neifi has a solid glove and puts the ball in play. He's pretty much done for the Cubs what he's done his entire career. .278 / 9 / 47 is way more than any of us would have expected when Nomar went down. What Neifi wasn't signed to do was start. While he has done admirably compared to his career numbers, he definitely wasn't supposed to have the 3rd highest # of games played (behind only Lee and Burnitz, one ahead of Ramirez). Yes, Nomar went down, but since his return, Dusty has still managed to get him into 5-6 games a week, usually at Todd Walker's expense (Walker has appeared in 86 games compared to Neifi's 124). People can debate whether or not Neifi should have started over Cedeno, but Neifi starting over Walker is indisputedly stupid, regardless of who is pitching.
  18. XZero771679666304
    And their bullpen has been an injury riddled mess all year, with their closer disappointing terribly. There is simply no excuse for what has happened this year, and the implication is clear: The field level management of the Cubs has been terrible.
  19. XZero771679666304
    I am not sure where this idea that Todd Walker cannot be a leadoff hitter has come from, but other managers besides Dusty have seen no reason why Walker cannot leadoff. He has 200 more ABs batting leadoff than any other spot in the lineup, and played 60 more games as a leadoff hitter than any other spot. Walker can also clearly hit, and has been a high OBP guy during his career. The Cubs don't have to go out and overpay for Furcal or Damon. They just need to find another guy who can OBP at a .350 or better clip that Dusty will put at the top of the lineup along with Walker. -Banghart As others have pointed out, todd has had 600+PA as a leadoff hitter in the past 3 years, posting a .297/.353/.830 line. Not stellar, but do people remember when sub .300 OBP Corey and Neifi were 1-2 while Walker batted 6th to "protect" Ramirez? Walker is more than capable of leading off, and should have been leading off very day he has been healthy over the past two seasons.
  20. XZero771679666304
    You make some good points, and while the talent may not be playoff caliber, it is certainly not sub-.500 caliber either.
  21. XZero771679666304
    I blame Hendry for much of the bullpen mess this year, but going into 2004, Farnsworth looked to be developing, Remmy was good, Borowski was a very good closer, and Hendry brought in the top setup man on the market. In fact, I recall reading many opinions in March 2004 saying that the Cubs had a top 5 bullpen, and if you looked at the talent at that time, it was hard to argue with that. But JoBo went down, Hawk was thrust in to the closer's role, Farns ran out of gas, and Remmy flopped. It's hard to fault Hendry for that. Hie didn't address the SS issue in 2004, but Walker did a great job leading off before Baker benched him, and the rest of the talent was more than enough to win it all. All in all, Hendry really improved the team from 2003 to 2004, and he went out and got an impact player at the deadline in 2004. From 2004 to 2005 is a different story. Even with that being the case, who would have predicted a team with the Cubs rotation and a lineup with a core of Walker, Lee, Ramirez, Garciaparra and Burnitz would finish under .500? Hendry sold the team short this year, but not short enough to explain this mess.
  22. XZero771679666304
    Perez is a very good utility IF. He was not used properly this year by Dusty, however, Nomar's injury wasn't planned either. I just don't understand what most people expect from a back-up SS around here, b/c the hate for Neifi here is completely unwaranted. He gives 100% all the time & has done very well since he has put on a Cubs uniform. I am fine with Neifi coming back next year as long as he is a back-up SS or utility IF. I agree with both of you. I have never understood the anti-Nefi stuff that goes on here. Its not Nefi's fault that Nomar has been made of glass since he got hee. Its not Nefi's fault that Dusty is stubborn and insistent on misusing the majority of his roster. Guys like Nefi and Holly have given their best efforts without complaint. They may not be as good as we'd like, but if you want to blame someone for that, blame the guys that put us in a position where we have to rely on them every day. Most of the anti-Neifi stuff has been out of sheer frustration at seeing him in the lineup everyday. Not his fault, but people will vent in any way possible sometimes, including myself. Having said that, Baker has really gotten the brunt of my frustration most of the time, and deservedly so.
  23. XZero771679666304
    Baker deserves to be fired for this alone. Pathetic. As much as I dislike Baker, this was probably Wood's doing. You know he is a competitor and pitching out of the pen doesn't hurt his arm (doesn't throw enough pitches to feel abnormal pain in his shoulder). I can just see Wood angling for another appearance after a disappointing season. Could you really turn him down if you're Dusty? The chances of Wood hurting himself any further than he already is are about nil. The chances of his hurting himself far outweigh any possible good that could come out of him coming in for one more appearance in a ruined season. Plus, one of the jobs of a manager/coaching staff is to look out for players when they won't look out for themselves. This includes sitting players when they don't want to sit, pulling players when they might not want to be pulled, etc.
  24. XZero771679666304
    Even more bizarre is how some people can't see how he could be a valuable asset to have on the 2006 Cubs roster. Paying $2.5 million for a second baseman that can hit for a decent average with a bit of power from the left side while getting on base around 35% is a steal. If the right deal came along, then sure, trade him. Otherwise, there's no need to create another hole on this team by trading away one of the few players in the lineup that can actually get on base. Yeah, his production/salary ratio is outstanding. A guy who in a full season will likely give you .300/.350/.800 with 15 HR and 60+ RBI for 2.5 million is nothing to give away. His defense isn't that bad.
  25. XZero771679666304
    As a manager you have to make the most of what you have, and Baker consistently made the worst of it. Hendry is certainly culpable as well, but a lot of the players failure is a byproduct of Dusty's no accountability country club environment. The more I hear Dusty talk, the more blame I assign to him. His attitude/ineptitude just boggles the mind. IMO: Dusty 45% Hendry 40% Players 15%
×
×
  • Create New...