Transmogrified Tiger

that's not true. 2004-2006 LD%: 2004: 19.1% 2005: 17.7% 2006: 22.0% his HR/F is also higher this year: 2004: 12.5% 2005: 10.7% 2006: 12.8% THT It's probably even more exaggerated now, but I calculated his numbers minus his bunt hits and bunt hit attempts, and the numbers weren't pretty. A large portion of his hits this year are bunt singles. A smaller separate portion are infield singles (speed). He's basically Juan Pierre with a little more power. Oddly enough, the stats Dobson posted disprove your point that Corey is just pulling a Slappy. I was wondering if it was just me. http://aycu17.webshots.com/image/1456/1167794661288176820_rs.jpg

Obviously Notre Dame isn't trying to create a mirage with their schedule, and obviously it's made well in advance of the season. The problem with them picking their opponents(read: not being in a conference) is that what happens last year can happen pretty easily. Last year Notre Dame looked like it had a pretty brutal schedule, and it ended up not being much to write home about at all. With a conference schedule(read: opponents that play each other in addition to you) you're much less likely to have everyone fall apart(intentional exaggeration) because of basic math, someone has to win. Sometimes you have a bit of a regression to the mean, but most times a hierarchy will develop. As this pertains to Notre Dame, they don't really need a strong schedule to make the BCS because of how well they fare in the polls. So if their schedule turns out to be mostly garbage(intentional exaggeration) they can still make a New Year's Day bowl by only losing to the few strong teams remaining, which really isn't all that fair to those in conferences with tougher schedules and less respect at the polls.

i guess you'venever seen murton up close. he's a big guy who looks like he spends alot of time in the weight room. he has already hit some long bombs in the majors so i dont think power is as much of an issue as people think. it's the mind games and bad coaching that's doing him in imo. if the cubs do trade him away they might have another patterson situtation on their hands. how long will it take them to see that dusty & his crew are not the answer (unless the quesion is how do the cubs stay in the cellar). Yeah, Murton doesn't hit for power because he's not strong enough, like Rey Ordonez or something, he just isn't able to do it in game situations as frequently as necessary.

Welcome!

That is a crazily short-sighted idea. It's the exact opposite actually. I'd like to see what we have in Marmol, Guzman and Hill so we know who to trust with a rotation spot next year. If Maddux is still around, that only leaves one spot to use for them. If Prior is 0-6 or 0-7 with around a 9 ERA, it's probably better to just let him rest for next year instead of risking him getting hurt when he shouldn't be pitching in the big leagues anyway. I have respect for him as a professional and a human being, and I don't want to see him go through this embarrassment too much longer. We could use that extra rotation spot to give starts to Hill, Guzman and Marmol. These guys average about the same age as Prior, so I don't really get your point. The embarrassment? Give me a break. You don't give Prior < 50 IP to prove his worth in his return from injury. It's ludicrous. You apparently want so badly to show that Prior is washed up that you think it's reasonable to try and get him out of the rotation at the earliest opportunity.

Yep, primarily because of age.

You've got to be kidding me? He's a rookie. I cannot believe how quickly some people want to give up on young players. In Maddux first season he showed he might be a 5th starter. ----------------- In Adruw Jones' first full season in the bigs he put up this line .231/.316/416 Grady Sizemore put up this line .289/.348/.484 Vernon Wells put up this line. .275/.305/.457 Alex Rios put up this line. .262/.306/.397 All four of those guys are all-stars this year. It's not like Murton wasn't without questions before this year. All those guys you listed either put up much better minor league numbers than Murton, put up similar numbers at the same levels while being 2-3 years younger, or both(Rios excluded).

Guillen only selected Jenks and Buehrle.

That is a crazily short-sighted idea.

FJM does a pretty good job of illustrating how Buehrle doesn't deserve to be on the team.

Me too.

I saw that. Hitting .280 as a minor leaguer is not a negative(or bad or slightly above terrible), it's just not a positive.

No, it's actually not. The league average for the AA and AAA leagues ranges from .247 to .269. So again, it's wrong to say that Pagan can't hit. About how many prospects hit .250/.260 for their minor league career and make it to the bigs? I have no idea... but what does that have to do with anything? We're talking about Pagan, who isn't a .260 hitter. He's a .282 career minor league hitter - which is good, whether you want to admit it or not. Good question. 25 man roster complications for the Mets, I would guess. And I'm not saying that he's "so good." I am saying that he can hit though. And that's all I have been saying in this thread. That's the only thing in Jon's post that I took issue with. You are comparing Pagan to a bunch of guys that never make it to the majors and proclaiming that his numbers are good. Here's an analgoy compared to an 80 year old I am a pretty fast runner. Hitting .282 for a 5 or 6 year career in the minors is bad. It's just slightly above terrible, given his other offensive numbers. Using minor league averages as a bench mark for a prospect is not valid. Come on, hitting .282 is not bad, there are plenty of guys that make it and hit .280 in the minor leagues. However, that .280 isn't exactly a strength, in order to be a guy who's going to "hit for average" as a major leaguer, you need to do better than .280. As it pertains to Pagan, he does not get on base or hit for any power, and since he doesn't hit for enough average for that to be a particular strength, you have a pretty crummy offensive player.

Aside from Carlos Lee and maybe Barry Zito, who else has elicited this response from everyone? Oh, uh, Craig Wilson, Bobby Abreu, Johnny Gomes, and Frank Catalanotto.

I know people like to make that comparison since Grace was a good OBP guy who didn't hit for a lot of power, but his minor league OPS was about 100 points higher than Murton, and his IsoP was around 40 points higher.

I'm confused.

Matt Murton is a 4th OF, at best. "Speed bumps" are the only thing keeping more people from seeing that. I share your view on Murton for the most part, but it's not outside the realm of possibility that he becomes productive. Benching him in favor of the likes of Nevin, Bynum, and Pagan when we are hopelessly out of the race isn't going to help anything.

That's quite a stretch. How is it a stretch? Barrett is saying the team needs a new LF. No he didn't, he said it would be great to have him considering what he does in Wrigley. There's quite a leap of logic that has to be made to get that from what he actually said.

That's quite a stretch.

David Ross: .320-12-28, .395/.708/1.104 You forgot 109 At-Bats.

That Ibanez catch was amazing, definitely better than Crisp's.

Zambrano on the post game show is saying that he told Baker his knee was bugging him, and Dusty told him to go one more inning(the 7th, which he started with over 100 pitches). I just went from indifferent/kinda happy about this game to royally pissed.

No other real options outside of Montanez. 'Lix

Pagan for CF after Pierre is dealt

Wow.