soccer10k

It's sad to us because it's so ridiculous how this keeps happening. You can feel free to come up with counter-examples from our own team though. :wink: Matt Clement, Joe Borowski, Sammy Sosa, Jon Lieber, Mark Bellhorn, Ryan Dempster, Michael Barrett, and I'm sure many, many more. don't forget aramis ramirez And year one of the Glendon Rusch era. More than cancelled out by Years 2 and 3. (That's our own fault, by the way. Stupid Hendry.) Ok, Derrek Lee, Ted Lilly, JASON MARQUIS, Matt Murton, Jacque Jones, Eric Karros, Mark Grudzielanek... Ted Lilly went from the AL to the NL so his ERA was expected to drop. Jason Marquis should be an example about the Cardinals. He put up ERA's of 5.04 and 5.53 his last two years in Atlanta before putting up a 3.71 and 4.13 his first two years with the Cardinals which were also his first two full years as a starter. Matt Murton is still young and has an OBP over .400 and OPS over .950 in his career at AAA. Jacque's slugging was a bit up last year and his OBP was right about career norms. He wasn't that much better than he was in Minnesota. Eric Karros was only a bit better in Chicago than he was in Los Angeles the year before. You're really reaching with some of these examples.

It's sad to us because it's so ridiculous how this keeps happening. You can feel free to come up with counter-examples from our own team though. :wink: Matt Clement, Joe Borowski, Sammy Sosa, Jon Lieber, Mark Bellhorn, Ryan Dempster, Michael Barrett, and I'm sure many, many more. Sammy Sosa is a horrible example. The others I'll give you though.

It's sad to us because it's so ridiculous how this keeps happening. You can feel free to come up with counter-examples from our own team though. :wink: Matt Clement, Joe Borowski, Sammy Sosa, Jon Lieber, Mark Bellhorn, Ryan Dempster, Michael Barrett, and I'm sure many, many more. don't forget aramis ramirez ARam had already put up a .300/.350/.536/.886 line in Pittsburgh at the age of 23 and came to the Cubs at 25. Bad example.

C - Soto deserves a legitimate shot. SS - Theriot's line of .290/.352/.376/.728 would be seventh out of twelve SS in the NL which is fine if you have other hitters in the order. CF - Pie, like Soto, deserves a legitimate shot. LF/RF - Ditto for Murton. There's no reason to believe he can't repeat his .809 OPS from 06 if given consistent playing time. 2B - DeRosa. Obviously, if these guys underperform then the Cubs will be in need of another bat. But if Murton and Soto can produce the lineup will be fine. EDIT: Just playing a devil's advocate here. Yes, guys deserve shots. But the fact is, they need something close to guaranteed production in at least one of those spots. Ideally they would have played Murton all year and would know a heck of a lot more about what he might bring next year. I agree. CubinNY made it sound like the Cubs had complete scrubs at those positions who had no business starting. It would be good to see an upgrade at one of those, though.

I just signed up for the hell of it and I'm number 51646 on the list.

isn't that, like, the definition of inconsistent? Like, no it isn't. Telling me a player has been consistent doesn't tell you anything about his production because you could be consistently good or consistently bad. All that matters is that your performances don't fluctuate. A pitcher who allows six earned runs every single time he takes the mound is a consistent pitcher. A pitcher who allows 1 earned run every time out is also a consistent pitcher. I would classify an inconsistent pitcher as one who has two bad outings followed by a good outing followed by a bad outing followed by three good outings, etc. Because Z was bad for two months and then good for two months means he has been, for the most part, consistent. His good outings were mostly lumped together in June and July whereas his bad outings were lumped together in April and May To use some of the stats that Lord of Khemennu used: Z's average game score on the year: 53.9 Z's standard deviation of game scores: 19.3 But to look at it further: Z's average game score in first 12 starts from 4/2 - 6/1: 44.2 Z's standard deviation of game score over that time: 16.7 That shows that he was still a bit inconsistent but no more so than Marshall or Hill and I believe LoK said that "People should shut up about Hill's inconsistency" which would lead me to believe that a StDev of 16.7 isn't too bad. Now let's look at Z from 6/6 - 8/3 Z's average game score in next 12 starts from 6/6 - 8/3: 68.25 Z's standard deviation of game score over that time: 9.95 Yes, 9.95 which is far better than any starter on the Cubs. That is what I would call consistent.

C - Soto deserves a legitimate shot. SS - Theriot's line of .290/.352/.376/.728 would be seventh out of twelve SS in the NL which is fine if you have other hitters in the order. CF - Pie, like Soto, deserves a legitimate shot. LF/RF - Ditto for Murton. There's no reason to believe he can't repeat his .809 OPS from 06 if given consistent playing time. 2B - DeRosa. Obviously, if these guys underperform then the Cubs will be in need of another bat. But if Murton and Soto can produce the lineup will be fine. EDIT: Just playing a devil's advocate here.

Not yet, but I plan to start them this week. The preferences seem to be for straight picks for the pro contest and confidence points for college. Are you going to post a link for the signups here?

The Kobe fascination lasted maybe a week. Nothing was heard about him until the recent team USA things. With Kobe I'm referring to the whole demanding a trade and retracting it soap opera. The last couple years when the Lakers have been mediocre there hasn't been more coverage on the Lakers than any other team unless Kobe went off for 50+ which is something ESPN would do for any superstar.

I would say that yes, the Cubs will be playoff contenders for the next few years barring some major injuries. But the team that is more likely to be good for a while is the Brewers.

1. they moved Zambrano up to Thursday with Marshall pitching Friday 2. There is Monday plus one day in September where both teams have a scheduled off day awesome! Are you going to any of the Cubs-Giants games this week?

Then why was everyone soo upset when Neifi and Izturis went 1-2 in the lineup last year? If it wouldn't matter if they batting 7th 8th, or 1-2, I don't see what the uproar was all about. The uproar was because their pathetic bats were in the lineup in the first place. The lineup order thing is often misinterpreted. Some people think it means that if you replace Player A with Player B, it's not going to make a big difference, which is incorrect. What it means is that if you take your best 8 hitters (or 9 in the AL), it doesn't really matter where you put them in the order as long as you put your best hitters in the order to begin with. EDIT: Guess others have explained it better before me. Guess I should have read the whole thread first. Also, can somebody explain where the 10 runs scored approximately equals 1 win thing comes from. It's not that I don't believe it just curious how it was figured out.

hill is no more inconsistent than any of the other cub starters. i don't know why people keep saying otherwise. This is true. This probably isn't the best way to grade consistency in starts, but it's a useful way. Game score is kinda worthless but it gets the job done here. Average Game Scores - Cub Starters 1. 55.2 Ted Lilly 2. 55.1 Rich Hill 3. 53.9 Carlos Zambrano 4. 49.3 Sean Marshall 5. 48.9 Jason Marquis Standard Deviation of Game Scores - Cub Starters 1. 19.3 Carlos Zambrano 2. 17.4 Jason Marquis 3. 16.7 Sean Marshall 4. 16.7 Rich Hill 5. 14.7 Ted Lilly People should shut up about Hill's inconsistency. While Z has the highest standard deviation, I don't think he's been the most inconsistent starter on the team. He had a horrible first two months of the year and then a very good next 2 months (up until his last two stars). So far this year he's been either consistently bad or consistently good.

That's what I'm most ticked about. Why they waited this long to do it is something I would like to know. I could care less about Hill being gone, it's not like the Cubs are losing anything. But it's not like he suddenly started to suck the last couple weeks. He never was good in the first place.

I'd go with either straight or by the spread for college but definitely straight up for the pros. Have the league's been started yet?

Zito has the worst ERA on the Giants for anyone who has been starting for most/all of the year at 4.91. Only Russ Ortiz is worse at 5.95 but he's only made 7 starts this year. Plus the Cubs miss Noah Lowry who has the best ERA out of the starters on the year at 3.34. Plus the Cubs get to face Cain who is right up there with Rich Hill (though not quite as bad) for worst run support in the league. EDIT: Lincecum will face both the Cubs and Brewers. The Cubs get Cain and Zito while the Brewers get Lowry and Ortiz which is pretty much a wash. Plus the Cubs don't have to face Brandon Webb in the next series.

This guy http://assets.espn.go.com/i/mlb/profiles/players/65x90/6493.jpg 10-7, 4.25 ERA, 1.35 WHIP vs. this guy http://assets.espn.go.com/i/mlb/profiles/players/65x90/7981.jpg 7-3, 3.95 ERA, 1.23 WHIP 7/16 vs. Cubs: 6.3 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 5 BB, 8 K in 3-2 Cubs win. After winning two of three from the Cardinals and taking over first place from the Brewers, the Cubs now travel to the West Coast for a six-game road trip against the Giants and Diamondbacks. This looks to be a tough game considering Lincecum shut the Cubs down earlier this year and Marquis is pitching but I hope he proves me wrong. Winning two of three is necessary. This is also the only game of the three that I won't be in attendance. The game will be on FSN for those of you in Northern California.

at noon? Yikes, they can sell water to fund the stadium. It's going to be VERY hot on the field for the players because there's no shade and the Fieldturf is ridiculously hot. They were trying to get lights for this year but decided to skip it to focus on the necessity's to get the stadium open. They should have them in by next year.

I'm watching the Liverpool-Chelsea replay on Fan Zone and this is hilarious.

Why would they get rid of Hill now when they can wait 11 days and have both on the roster? If they wanted Hill gone, they would have been rid of him weeks ago and just brought Soto up.

Cobs lose.

Well done DeRosa. Well done.

Basehit for Ward and Pie in to run. Get the big hit DeRo.

Rammy went Cliff Floyd with his swing there.

Leadoff walk for Lee.