Tim

Ok? I guess I purchased an authentic Mark Prior jersey, as well as t-shirt Zambrano and Lee jersey's for the heck of it. Just because I don't drink Cub koolaid on every issue doesn't make me a Cardinal fan. The lineup will likely be the NL's best. The bullpen should be just fine. I'm just nervous about an old rotation with a lot of mileage/consistency issues. But you express fears that theirs has nothing but upside. Meanwhile: - Wainwright just came off a completely lost season (and is over 30 with a lot of mileage on his arm) - Martinez was shut down with a shoulder injury to end the year - Garcia is among the most fragile pitchers in baseball - Leake is fine as a league average innings eater, but is nothing more - Wacha was unraveling at the end of last year I like their rotation, but you can play that same game with every pitching staff in baseball.

I meant to imply that those are my expectations, not what should be projected by a system.

This is basically what i would've replied if I were on a computer and not my phone. And complaining about projections being too low when they ultimately combine for a 95 win median team projection seems kinda silly. Your last paragraph seems to ring especially true when our rookies came in as big league ready as their play showed last year. I wouldn't expect a lot of improvement and I would be more than happy if they were about the same as last year. I'm expecting improvements from Russell and Soler. I'm not expecting Bryant or Schwarbs to get much better (and both could/should regress some).

It drives me nuts when people hem and haw about the Cardinals' luck and "pixie dust," but last year really was a case of that kind of coming true, both in terms of their offense and pitching. It wasn't a matter of something teachable or signable; they had a LOT of luck. And as unlikely as it was for them to pull that off for most of one season, it becomes absurdly unlikely to think they'll somehow do it again the next season. The Cardinals didn't stumble across some mystic equation that cracks the BABIP code or allows them to strand runners practically at will. If the Cardinals win more than 85 games this year, it's not going to be a repeat of how they won as many games as they did last year. BABIP can be a huge factor. Some guys are good enough to maintain success with a high BABIP, but most tend to come back to Earth. It's not like they're being projected to fall off of a cliff. And people think you're a "secret" Cardinals fan because basically all you post about is how good you think the Cardinals will be. To expand, these guys didn't even carry BABIPs like that in the minors. There are hundreds of ABs we have data on them from their time in the minors, and they didn't prove to be some of those guys that can maintain high BABIPs during this time. Why should we believe that they suddenly figured out how to do so at a much tougher level? Also, it's not just the BABIP. They also carried higher ISOs than they ever did in the minors. And, I mean, it was like 250-300 PAs for both of them. If you want to draw some sweeping conclusion from 300 plate appearances that these guys just suddenly improved everything about their offensive games, despite facing tougher pitching than they've ever seen, then, sure, go for it. But, I'm a little more reticent to do so, as are the projections. Also, these guys are like 25 and were never top prospects. Sure, they might pull a Matt Carpenter. But, I'm really not that worried. Give me the 21- 22-year-old kids like Schwarber and Russell that have always been viewed as uber-talents and have always put up monster numbers throughout the minors as more likely to exceed projections. And even if Piscotty and Grichuk are to maintain those excessive spikes in BABIP and ISO and replicate their success from last year, who gives a [expletive]? The Cards would still be, like, 10 games worse than us. In conclusion, I have to agree, if this guy is a Cubs fan and has been paying attention to any of the events of the last year or so, then he is either completely un-discerning or the world's biggest pessimist. Otherwise, he is definitely a Cardinals fan. What he said. :good:

They're settable.

http://www.northsidebaseball.com/archive

Yeah, I started playing around with that, but wasn't satisfied and had to get back to my real job. I'll try again another time.

One more time, much more subtle.

This is a bit better...will have to do for now.

External links now open in a new window.

Test Link

dislike That got fixed in November. Now the only irritating thing is "Posted from Tapatalk on my iPhone!" or whatever.

Hmm...that header image seemed like a better idea before putting it online.

...and now tapatalk is turned back on.

You can now all love this post. You're welcome.

For those that don't have avatars turned on...avatars are now working again. For the people that actually care about avatars, you probably knew that before opening this post.

nope the old divorced men demo has nothing if not time to kill Man, I tried to come up with a comeback, but I've got nothing. Here was me: #-o :nono: :-k :dontknow: =D>

I feel like I must be the only person that pace of game doesn't really bother.

I put it on the list.

This, and I like getting rid of draft caps/tying draft funds to place in standings. There are plenty of incentives to go full Astros and punt seasons as it is and MLB needn't be creating more. That's pretty funny. :blush:

Get rid of teams having to give up a pick to sign a free agent. Let the team he's leaving get compensation, but don't screw over the FA's because they turned down one year offers from their old teams.

I have found it pretty easy to cheer for the Hawks and watch them with interest while still feeling that Kane is a sleezebag.

I had that working, right? I'll see if I can get that back up and running.

Likes are the post love thing. The avatars and the buttons must have to do with images...I'll check into that one.

Get Archives online Post Love (ability to "love" a post) Donation Link Ads Avatars Images on the bbcode buttons YouTube embedding Tapatalk Hyperlinks open in a new tab Get a nsbb header image back. Figure out why old members keep showing as being online Reinstall the front page of the site Fix the nsbb.com redirect Get the numbers to sync Fix new user registration I'll keep this thread up to date. Please use it to post your suggestions below.