squally1313

I really wonder if we could talk Bradley into batting leadoff. Even when he was struggling so bad, he was still getting on base at a decent clip. And he's hitting better now, but the power still seems to be nonexistant, besides the fact that we've had a power or nothing guy in the leadoff spot for 2 and a half years now. Bradley Riot Lee Ramirez Sori Fuku (Would be an ideal 2 hitter if he can turn it around) Soto Font

Should be leading off for good.. I know no one is used to seeing out leadoff man get on base, but that's how it's done. Just so I understand your logic here, you make fun of the rest of us for celebrating a single good game for Fukudome, and supposedly ignoring his bad RBI numbers (of all stats), yet one game of Fuld, after basically years of subpar output in the minor leagues, should be our lead off hitter for good. One game of Fukudome: Who cares? He doesn't get RUNS BATTED IN One game of Fuld: Leadoff hitter for good That about right?

Yes, the worst. Can you tell me a worse outfield making equal to, or more then 40M a year? Soriano: 18M Fukudome: 12M Bradley: 10M Oh my god....seriously. For the last time, saying the worst offense in all of baseball is so much different than saying they are the worst outfield in baseball "making more then(it's 'than', but whatever) 40M a year." Guess what, they're going to get paid that amount no matter how they perform. We all know how much the players are making. At this point in the season, it has absolutely nothing to do with how they are performing. The contracts are signed, the checks are already written. So, basically, we have the most overpaid, non productive outfield in Baseball? Neat! :banghead: I love how those two terms apparently are related. Most overpaid? Probably. Worst production PER SALARY DOLLAR? Almost definitely so far this season. But worst production when you look at straight up statistics (no, salary is not a statistic)? Highly doubtful so far this year, and almost impossible for the rest of the year, given past track records.

Normally I'd agree, but he's been SO bad for SO long now. Something is up with him. At the very least he should be put on the DL if that nagging knee problem is helping drag everything down. I'm worried he's playing hurt and this team needs the old streaky Soriano ASAP. Continuing to play him hurt (if he is) isn't the way out of this. I'd say if he's not hurt then let him play out of it, but he's had well over a month to play out of it. I agree with everything you said in your post, but Soriano needs a break. Yeah I would definitely be in favor of a DL visit. Give him a couple weeks off, and throw him against weak AAA pitching on a "rehab assignment," see if we can jumpstart a hot streak by getting his confidence up. But I really don't believe he's done, but you're right about this prolonged period of awful production. At first I thought it was just my frustration towards the team unfairly directed at one person, but he hasn't had an OPS below 600 in any month before this one in the last 4 years, not to mention having a 657 OPS the month before it. Anyone watching him can see his legs are bothering him after supposedly coming into the year ready to steal bases again. I know it would give Fukudome a ton of ground to cover in center if he's got Fox and Hoff on either side of him, but honestly Fox has to be covering more ground out there than Soriano at this point. All we're doing right now is making Soriano's legs worse, which could have implications far beyond this season, especially with his history of being VERY slow to heal.

I think it's more nuanced than that. Vitters needs to show that he can distinguish between strikes/pitches that he can hit well and strikes/pitches that he cannot. Vlad Guerrero types that pan out at the big league level are very rare. And to elaborate further on that, why didn't Vitters have to show that he can distinguish between a ball and a strike against lesser pitching (ie, the pitching he faced in Peoria)? Is that a skill that becomes easier to acquire against harder pitching? I don't see any reason to rush him. If it was their intention to promote him midseason, I don't understand how they looked at his numbers a month ago, after he tore up May, and thought he needed more at bats, then watched his last month of sub700 OPS and realized that he was ready now.

Yes, the worst. Can you tell me a worse outfield making equal to, or more then 40M a year? Soriano: 18M Fukudome: 12M Bradley: 10M Oh my god....seriously. For the last time, saying the worst offense in all of baseball is so much different than saying they are the worst outfield in baseball "making more then(it's 'than', but whatever) 40M a year." Guess what, they're going to get paid that amount no matter how they perform. We all know how much the players are making. At this point in the season, it has absolutely nothing to do with how they are performing. The contracts are signed, the checks are already written.

Fukudome: 10th in the majors in wOBA for all center fielders this year with at least 200 PAs. Ahead of Ellsbury, Bossman Jr, Sizemore, Rasmus, Vernon Wells, and about 15 others. Guess they all need to get sent down too. Soriano: Near the bottom, but honestly, what are you going to do? Bench him and miss one of his hot streaks? Let's face it, the guy carries your team for 2 week stretches over the course of the season and doesn't do much for you otherwise. We got him for 5 more years, let's make sure he's really done before sticking a fork in what could still be a productive player. Bradley: 368 OBP in the month of June, 408 in the last 14 days. Oh by the way, his career OPS in the month of July is 924, next highest is 829. Let's not write him off yet either. Yeah, I know that might seem like cherry picking stats, but come on, by definition there are 90 starting caliber outfielders in baseball at any given time. You're telling me none of these guys crack the top 90? Two guys with with 875+ OPSs last year and a guy who's been above average offensively in center this year (not to mention his plus defense)? Yes, they're overpaid. By a lot. Yes, it absolutely sucks watching this team right now, and Soriano is my least favorite Cub in recent memory. But there's not much we can do about it now. We don't have a lot of places where we can improve and we don't have a lot of pieces that we can use to improve with. But let's not pretend this is some "worst team in baseball situation" with how incredibly good our pitching has been and how miserable the rest of our division is. I mean, at the end of July 2003, we were one game over 500, and that's been our best chance to win the WS in a long time. We did that with superior pitching, we've been hanging in there so far with superior pitching. Benching guys with really good track records for what have been career minor leaguers (Hoff, Fox) is questionable enough, calling to bench them for the likes of Fuld and Taguchi is plain laughable.

Their problems scoring go WELL beyond Soriano at this point.He is the number one culprit. You have a leadoff hitter who NEVER and I mean NEVER ignites a rally to start a game.What about the leadoff hitter for the other 8 innings tonight that "NEVER" ignited a rally?Two words: Eighteen million. Two more words: Sunk cost. His contract makes his problem one of the hardest problems to fix. What does his salary have to do with where he hits in the lineup?

Their problems scoring go WELL beyond Soriano at this point. He is the number one culprit. You have a leadoff hitter who NEVER and I mean NEVER ignites a rally to start a game. What about the leadoff hitter for the other 8 innings tonight that "NEVER" ignited a rally?

It's not enough that this team sucks. They find ways to get me worked up and actually care about them again before doing something like that. That's what...$40 million worth of total ineptitude?

I think it's fair to complain about being a Cubs fan, because when it comes down it I believe most of us are baseball fans first, Cubs fans second. And everyone here are clearly big baseball fans. At times I hate the Cubs, hate being a fan of the Cubs, but I'm 21 years old and have followed them my entire life. And I'm certainly not going to stop following the entire sport just because one team is playing like crap. So my only other option there is to switch teams. But everyone knows what that looks like: 'fairweather'...'bandwagon'...etc. So you stick with the team you grew up with, for better or for worse. This might be a bad analogy, but the only thing I can really think of is joining a frat in college. You really know very little about it when you first rush (much like going to Wrigley as a kid or listening to Harry on WGN), but you're pretty much stuck with that group of people, and find out along the way who they are. Sorry for long...rambling....somewhat misdirected, but just my two cents.

The thing about Kendrick is you have to decide what kind of BABIP is sustainable for him as he enters his prime years. Obviously since he's never shown much ability to take a walk, his OBP is going to be largely dependent on batting average. Coming into this year he had averages of .285, .322, and .306 the last three years, with corresponding BABIPs of .324, .381, and .357. This year his average is down to .231, with a BABIP of .269, far below his career average. To be fair, his LD% has fallen a lot, from 19% and 17% the last two years to 13% now. If he can get that back up to where it's been the past couple years, you can definitely expect his average to rise a little bit. Combine that with above average defense at second base, and it's more a matter of much it would take to get him, because he would definitely be an upgrade over Miles. And even though he hits lefties and righties about the same (740ish OPS, which obviously isn't great, but again...would be an upgrade), his numbers against lefties are significantly better than Fontenot's so we'd be upgrading the platoon at second when Ramirez comes back. Again, not saying this is the difference maker, but we've already pretty much established that we're more or less stuck with our offense as is, and minor improvements like this are the types of moves we should be focusing on.

Following it on Gamecast...Marshall warming up? Unavailable? Quit?

Hahaha, so in other words, 19

Sorry man I just get so pissed nowadays when it comes to the Cubs. No offense bud, but if you're this upset now, in the middle of June watching a clearly mediocre baseball team, I don't even want to know how you were in October the last two years. After 07/08, it's really hard for me to get worked up over this team, especially at this point in the season. As I think is the same for a lot of people people here now. Bottom line, our pitching's going to keep us competitive, and our division isn't very good. We're going to stay near the top of the Central for most of the season. One game doesn't really do much for me anymore. I can get pissed by Lou's consistent mismanaging, or Soriano's consistent refusal to lay off the low and outside slider, but one at bat isn't going to bother me

Wait...doesn't Soto have to come in anyways? How can any reasonable baseball mind think Reed is a better option against a righty than Geo? Anyone?

Oh my god....Reed?

I love how Lou would have kept Zambrano in last night to hit in a tie game, but not let him pitch the 9th, yet lets Miles hit here over him/Scales. Better yet, with double play candidate Soriano on-deck, why not use Soto here?

Can anyone explain the reasoning of putting Marmol up 2nd this inning? As bad as Riot's been today, he's so much better than Miles it's not even funny. We finally get good Marmol, and he can only throw 9 pitches. Solid knee jerk reaction on pulling Theriot there, Lou. Also, word's can't express how much I hate this team. Edit: I'm an idiot. Ignore me.

Un effing real

Now walk him

Am I reading this right? 95% of the time during that time span, a lead off single lead to a run? No...the numbers are the average number of runs scored in that inning following that scenario, not the probability of a run scoring in general. Hench, the bases loaded, no out scenario leading to an average of 2.4 runs or whatever it is...

I'm a big fan of small ball & sacrifices in general, but it generally is a better idea when your team is a high contact team, especially with RISP, that actually more often than not cashes in on a man on second with one out. Statistics show that you have a better chance of scoring with a man on first and 0 outs than a man on 2nd with 1 out. Really? I'm interested to see those statistics. http://www.tangotiger.net/RE9902.html A little dated, but still works...

I feel like I did when the Blackhawks went into OT with the Wings in game 5. Not if we were going to lose...just when, how, and how frustrating it was going to be.