Transmogrified Tiger

i 'd like to see hill get a shot. but i'm resigned to the idea of the cubs never ever giving him one. hell, dontrelle willis would either be at AAA, or a rule 5 casualty by now. his cummulative numbers are good, i don't see why he doesn't at least get 10 starts in a row to see what he can do. This is a good point, and further illustrates the weird rush to keep, er, Rusch. I still like Williams, though. He was very good in '03, was pretty good as a Cub last year, and is younger than Hill. it's not that i dislike williams at all, i think he's been given a shot and has shown that he's okay. i just think that hill can be very good. Williams's ERA, WHIP, and K/BB as a Cub place him as a 2 starter in the NL. Also, despite his MLB experience he's younger than Hill. I think he's better than okay. last year his era was at 4.26, giving him an era+ of 100, right at "okay". he's not a bad pitcher. That's inflated by his terrible stint as a Giant. Like I said in the last post, his numbers as a Cub(109 ERA+ as a Cub if you wanted to know) are on par with #2 starters in the NL. Add in the fact he'll be only 24 for all of next season and he improved as the year went along(12 of his 46 ER were in 2 starts totalling 7 IP) and there's plenty to like.

Do you think the Bears defense has an ability to get turnovers closer to the opponent's end zone? I think getting turnovers deep in their territory is a coincidence in the way that if you force turnovers, some are bound to be like that.

Big men tend to have foot problems. I think DJ will be OK. I actually think this works in the team's favor. Look for Strickland to become as aggressive as he was at the beginning of the season. As for tonight, I love the matchups on the outside. Wilmont and Vaden vs. Ager and Brown should be classics. The 2 best defenders in the conference not named Dee Brown, against maybe the top 2 offensive wing players in the BigTen. Don't know what we are gonna do with Davis, other than Killer getting him in foul trouble. But I like the way IU matches up against MSU. Of course, the homecourt and desperation advantage are gonna make it tough for IU to escape with a win. I would like it very much for MSU to just come out guns a blazin'. Ager needs to make some shots, Davis needs to be a presence offensively(which means calling sets that put him closer than 20 feet to the basket), and Trannon/Gray need to continue to help out. Please win Spartans, preferably by a lot.

i 'd like to see hill get a shot. but i'm resigned to the idea of the cubs never ever giving him one. hell, dontrelle willis would either be at AAA, or a rule 5 casualty by now. his cummulative numbers are good, i don't see why he doesn't at least get 10 starts in a row to see what he can do. This is a good point, and further illustrates the weird rush to keep, er, Rusch. I still like Williams, though. He was very good in '03, was pretty good as a Cub last year, and is younger than Hill. it's not that i dislike williams at all, i think he's been given a shot and has shown that he's okay. i just think that hill can be very good. Williams's ERA, WHIP, and K/BB as a Cub place him as a 2 starter in the NL. Also, despite his MLB experience he's younger than Hill. I think he's better than okay.

Even if you take away McGwire's STL career(and therefore most if not all of the steroid scandal), he's hall worthy.

Are we back in last offseason? Hendry signs mediocre right fielder, then justifies signing with a frightening misuse of statistical analysis. New right fielder then promises production that he will likely not reach.

Rice was a better hitter than Dawson. Dawson was better on defense. I can't see how anyone would vote for Dawson, yet pass on Rice. I wouldn't be so quick to judge Rice the better offensive player. Rice's career OPS was 128, Andre's 119. if Andre hadn't hung on four years too long, he'd be right there with Rice. Rice benefitted greatly from playing at Fenway, whereas most of Hawk's career was spent in Montreal. Rice also spent his years in very good to incredible lineups. the Hawk played with Raines, Carter, Sandberg...and that's about it. finally, not the most beloved metric around here, but Dawson also stole 300+ bases. Rice also has 30 points in OBP on Dawson, which combined with his better overall OPS means that he's the better offensive player. first, let me correct what I wrote above. the 128/119 comparison was OPS+, not just OPS. so again, account for the four years Dawson hung on too long, and they are probably about dead nuts even through 16 years in OPS+. and I forget that OBP is the end all / be all of offensive stats. Andre didn't take walks. this is true. but up until the age of 36 he was equal to or better in just about every other team independant offensive catagory. I knew you were talking about OPS+, and the point is that OBP is more valuable than SLG in OPS(and therefore OPS+), which makes his advantage in that category larger. It's not just walks in OBP though, Rice also hit for 24 more points of AVG in his career, and had a similar declining period as Dawson. 1230 PA's of 95 OPS+ performance for Rice, 1111 PA's of 88 OPS+ for Dawson.

So you're saying we should have given Corey another chance, then. No, because Corey was "off" for five of his six seasons in the major leagues. Corey played in all of 11 games in 2000 following a SL Championship in West Tennessee. You call 11 games a "season"? OK. Fine. He was "off" for four of his five years in the big leagues. Not to get too technical, but he only had 131 ABs in '01. And put up league average or better numbers in two of the 4 remaining seasons. And there's the whole entering his prime years while Jones is leaving his, cheaper in money and years, not giving up draft picks, etc.

Welcome! I wonder if that's former MLB catcher Mark Parent.

v. RHP Pierre Walker Lee Ramirez Jones Barrett Murton Cedeno v. LHP Pierre Murton Lee Ramirez Barrett Jones/Restovich/Grissom Walker Cedeno

I like it, it works on several levels.

WOOT! Great effort to get a huge road win. I just don't understand Mizzou. How can a team look so bad and then go into norman and win? I didn't get to see their 3 cupcake games between Illinois and the conference opener, but they've turned it around for sure. They've played pretty good defense before and maintained that, better offensive flow, better effort, and someone in each game stepping up to help Gardner shoulder the load(McKinney against OSU, Brown against OU). Should be a fun environment to be in on Saturday, hopefully both teams take care of business so there can be some real fun on Monday.

That didn't happen all that often though. 1042 IP, and 240 of those were seasons where he was below league average in ERA.

WOOT! Great effort to get a huge road win.

Thomas Gardner may be the best shooter in the Big 12. He's made about 5 tough contested jump shots in the first half, without much of an offensive presence around him. Mizzou trails #22 Oklahoma 33-32 at the half in Norman.

He was saying what he would've done this offseason, so that trade could've been done before Marte got shipped to Boston.

Too bad Anaheim's a smart organization and wouldn't deal Kennedy straight up for Walker. On the whole they are pretty much equals. Similar OBP, and Walker's slugging advantage counteracts Kennedy's defensive advantage. I don't think they'd have any interest in taking back a 2B anyways.

Rice was a better hitter than Dawson. Dawson was better on defense. I can't see how anyone would vote for Dawson, yet pass on Rice. I wouldn't be so quick to judge Rice the better offensive player. Rice's career OPS was 128, Andre's 119. if Andre hadn't hung on four years too long, he'd be right there with Rice. Rice benefitted greatly from playing at Fenway, whereas most of Hawk's career was spent in Montreal. Rice also spent his years in very good to incredible lineups. the Hawk played with Raines, Carter, Sandberg...and that's about it. finally, not the most beloved metric around here, but Dawson also stole 300+ bases. Rice also has 30 points in OBP on Dawson, which combined with his better overall OPS means that he's the better offensive player.

Doesn't seem like that bad a deal to me. Durham was very productive. Since Sutter's career ended the same year Durham went back to the Cardinals to end his career, it makes for an interesting comparison. Sutter, '81-'88 PRAA: 54 PRAR: 229 Durham, '81-'88 BRAA: 122 FRAA: -15 Net RAA: 107 BRAR: 243 FRAR: 75 Net RAR: 318

You don't think Cedeno could match Lugo's production? If we have to trade Walker, I'd put Cedeno at 2B. That would be a pretty nifty defensive middle infield. He doesn't think Cedeno will get the chance with the inNeiffable Perez on the roster.

Some sort of spousal abuse charge. A couple days later his wife admitted she either made it up or really exaggerated it, can't remember which. A bit unfortunate for Julio though, I think the Astros released him because of it.

I think overhauling the physical mechanics of your swing at the major league level is very difficult, and probably unnecessary since you've been good enough to make it thus far with that swing. Minor adjustments are made all the time by coaches and players, and changing your approach can be done and may be necessary to continue to have success.

There's no such thing as "premium only". If you were clicking the links to get to the polls, some probably were linked to the premium format and some not. You can either get rid of the word Premium in the URL to get there, or go to the polls forum where they are all located.

Jose Macias is not a major league caliber player. He cannot hit for average, he cannot get on base, he cannot hit for power, and he cannot field well at any of the positions he claims he can defend.

And if he would ever figure out how to GET ON BASE, then his speed would become an asset. Until then, he wastes his speed. Exactly, there's plenty wrong with Patterson, his inability to not make outs being foremost among them. No need to pile on by claiming he can't do things that he does well.