David

I know most here don't respect Levine's reports because of some report he made a year or two ago that a trade was about to go down which wound up not being true, but for whatever reason, I don't really agree. Levine was the only person reporting the Nomar deal for all of July 04 (might've even picked up on it in late June), while almost every other reporter said there was nothing to any Nomar rumors. Levine was also the only one who even suggested we could get him without giving up Clement. I think he gets a lot more crap on here than he deserves. Who knows if there wasn't a trade about to go down at the time he made that report and it didn't just fall through?

Quade gave him his #18.

technically that's MJ&H You are right. :x

Kendall now on WMVP with MJ&H

Sori's up to the plate first, and he can bust like a bubble Aramis and Fonzi together, now you know you in trouble Ain't nothin but a 'C' thing, babayy Thank you, thank you Hey, I tried...

Bonds, while not at his best, is still an immensely productive hitter.

the future? unless im mistaken he's a free agent after this season. I don't think he's a very good player anymore but this isnt the worst deal hes done. the money isnt an issue for the Cubs and its a buy low chance. there's a pretty damn good chance kendalls obp is .340+ the rest of the season. power? no but as long as hes not an auto out im happy. There really are uninformed fans here...first thing A's and Pirates are basically paying for Kendall, Cubs getting $1M, second he is FA after this year, no risk. 3rd Bowen was simply a body and some knowledge regarding what SD knows on Hill...Blevins is not a real prospect of note, a chance average FB, change and curve. That all said, what Kendall has is a CERA...best in baseball, hmmm that is not an offensive number for the fantasy heads, and he did have a good June at the plate, back at his usual numbers. Is he Gaitti or Karras, possibly but you guys know it all... A - IMB! made his post before we knew how much of Kendall's salary we were taking on. Did he react a little early? Maybe, but it was in the heat of the moment, if you will. B - Catcher ERA has been shown to be a worthless stat. A catcher who catches good pitchers will have a good one, a catcher who catches bad pitchers will have a bad one. C - He was not at his usual numbers in June. His OBP (his main strength throughout his career) was still only .326 in June. Was he better than he has been most of the year? Absolutely. It's one of the reasons I'm holding out a little hope that he can, to some extent, revert to his old form.

In other words what every single one of these type of interviews sound like. Basically.

A few things from the interview that I can remember... - Wrigley has always been his favorite place to play - Having caught for many years, you learn a lot of nuances and pick up tells from hitters that you can use to your advantage in calling the game (when asked about his reputation as a great game caller). - Nothing physically wrong with him. He feels good. Feels like bounces just haven't gone his way this year. All in all, not a whole lot of substance. I might've even made some of that up, wasn't listening that close. :)

Good stuff. I was thinking about the similarities between that team and this one the other night.

Just a heads up.

Just to reiterate... davearm and I are different people. Don't get confused by the somewhat opposing opinions.

I agree, completely.

The only shocker would be that another team wanted his services. Oh, and didn't Izzy try to give ARam a shocker in the dugout a few weeks ago? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GagIe5W_nI

Guesses on lineup? Theriot Fontenot Lee Aramis Sori DeRo Kendall Pagan Marshall

That would be pretty sick. Super hard to sustain, though.

I agree with the last point. I agree with the fact that ARam had no chance to reach 3rd there, either. I'm also not really bothered by ARam's occasional displays of a lack of hustle. I'd rather he stay healthy and continue to mash the ball. Still, to be fair, it's not really about whether he would've made it to second or not. It's process over outcome. Just like a lot of us will criticize Hendry if he makes a bad pickup and it turns out roses. You want people approaching their jobs the right way so that they will consistently achieve the best possible outcome. We want Hendry to make smarter decisions because that way more of his moves will wind up good and less will wind up bad. It's inevitable that some will go either way, but the right approach will yield the most consistent results. In other words, the only point of my rant there was that, "He wouldn't have made it to 3rd anyway" isn't really a valid argument against anyone criticizing Ram for what he did.

When did you meet Sullivan in person? And there is a reason Teddy is off the baseball beat...he isn't allowed to travel. LONNNGGG story. Looks like he's saying that Sullivan is as close as it gets for him to hate somebody he's never met.

I did this back in 2004...so maybe I shouldn't even bother this year, but in this thread I'll try to keep track of how the Cubs have to do the rest of the way to reach 90 (and 95 and 100, just for the hell of it) as it gets more and more realistic. I think the last time they won 90 in 162 games was in 89, although they definitely should've in 2004. It's a meaningless number, but it's sort of a milestone and I'd like to see the Cubs make it. If they do, they're in the playoffs, more likely than not. Probably won't even need to get there to make it. So.... as of 8/31 Cubs are 68-65 For 90 - need to go: 22-7 (barely doable...schedule allows for it, but will take lots of luck)

I have to admit, I do find that stat encouraging, because I am having a hard time explaining his two absolutely horrid months this year after being a very good (for average) and patient hitter for his entire career. I guess it could be easily explained in his age, but he was very good at not making outs just last year. I'd like to see what his OBP is over that same span. Yet in July, Kendall's line is 229/229/286 (one K). So if we've been looking at him the last two weeks we have been enamoured with his ability to put the ball in play weakly and not walk. Yup, that sounds about right. Ugh. How many games is that, though? I'm guessing like 11-13?

I have to admit, I do find that stat encouraging, because I am having a hard time explaining his two absolutely horrid months this year after being a very good (for average) and patient hitter for his entire career. I guess it could be easily explained in his age, but he was very good at not making outs just last year. I'd like to see what his OBP is over that same span.

The funny thing is, these same people are quick to point out that the only reason Rex Grossman has like a .750 winning percentage is his defense. It seems like people, even really dumb people (like much of the Bears fan base) are fairly open to statistical analysis, while brushing off most baseball stats outside of the triple crown stats and W-L.

I agree.

ERA+ of 171 and a 0.900 WHIP. Man, was he lights out or what? That he was. I remember having an argument with one fan who was adamant about W-L being the most important pitcher statistic. I tried to get him to concede the point by comparing Johnson that year (2004) to Sean Estes (who went 15-8 with a 5.84 ERA that year). He just said that Johnson was a .500 pitcher and Estes was a winner. I wanted to pull my hair out. I run into the same problem. I pose them this question: You have one game to win. Do you go with pitcher A (7-12 2.75) or pitcher B (16-8 5.50)? About 60% of the people I ask choose pitcher B, citing the fact that "he wins games". The worst part is that they're usually 100% convinced that you're an idiot, and that they're right. I got called a "stat guy" today just because I pointed out that the Cubs ERA since getting rid of Barrett hasn't really changed.

Was he the one who broke the Moises urine story?