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What's funny is that his OPS would still only be .029 higher than Bonds' 2004 OPS.

Sorry, I didn't even think about it.

I think it's funny that you guys just ruined any chance you had of keeping this thread open past opening day.

"How can you look at those numbers and say he's not more or likely to suck in clutch stats than a guy like Franceour?" Um... because I know about probability distribution? If you dig around long enough, you will find players with split stats that would seem to indicate that there's some sort of effect going on - clutch, unclutch, or any set of things you can look at with splits. But given the size of the population you're looking at, you would expect there to be some unlikely/unexplainable outcomes in the data set. One player's splits don't prove anything, not even about that player. It's not enough to know whether or not your sample is significant, but whether or not your measurement is significant. When you look at major league players as a population, "clutch" tendencies don't seem to persist from season to season, the way that, say, platoon tendencies do. haha, dextermorgan just got struck down out of nowhere, by a power greater than we could know. oh, the humanity. "did you want to talk about the weather or were you just making chit-chat?" No, not really. I understand what probability distribution is, but I don't buy the fact that Casey Blake sucking year after year after year after year after year in those situations is due to the fact that it had to eventually happen to somebody and he's just the unlucky one. Poor Casey Blake, he can't be blamed for him being a choke artist, he's just unlucky! Every year! Yeah, that's [deleted]. I really don't understand why people can't accept the fact that the mental aspect of the game sometime results in players reacting differently in important situations. Why is that so hard to believe? They aren"t robots, they're humans. Some people can handle the pressure, some people press and try to do too much. That's not probability distribution.

You obviously aren't familiar with Manny's work ethic. He's a douche but he probably works harder than any player in baseball. That guy doesn't take his hitting lightly by any stretch of the imagination.

.289/.375/.500- 28 home runs

This thread is [expletive].

Yeah you're right. The heading to that article was kind of deceiving ("Johnson, Fukudome hit 1-2 in potential lineup vs. lefties").

Can someone explain to me the point of switching Fukudome and Soriano against left handed pitching? I mean, I guess I like that better than the other, but I don't see his motivation for doing it only against lefties. Why not just do it all the time?

Or at least it's a tentative plan. Not sure if this was posted yet. http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080329&content_id=2465512&vkey=news_chc&fext=.jsp&c_id=chc

Haha that field looks so ridiculous. Has anybody gone yard yet?

Did anybody say it did? The original post said nothing about what effect clutch hitters have on a team. What? For a lot of players, it certainly is. Multiple players have been mentioned already in this thread who repeat their trend year after year. Again, he didn't say it was. People are derailing this thread by talking about building teams around clutch players when that wasn't the point of this thread at all.

Then why did you post here in the first place? Either discuss it or don't post at all. Don't make statements and then say "I'm not gonna post" when someone engages you in an argument. Like badnews said, I don't understand why people have to pretend that id doesn't exist. No, not really. If it was something like a guy sucking in 6th inning a-bats then that would be flukey. I don't think guys likethat exist, and if they do, there aren't many. Guys that either suck or excel in clutch stats are all over the league. That's a lot of "flukes". Hell, there are guys from both ends of the spectrum on our team alone. There's a reason why Ramirez hits better with guys on base, and there's a reason why Soriano doesn't. Now, I'm not saying it's smart to build teams around clutch guys, but pretending they don't exist just sounds ignorant and stubborn to me.

Whoa whoa whoa. 10 at-bats? Francoeur had 182 at-bats with RISP last season, 172 the year before, and 112 (out of 257 total) in 2005. Let's look at the situations for Casey Blake: 2007 Bases empty: .308 .382 .517 Runners on: .227 .289 .344 RISP: .190 .271 .294 2006: Bases empty: .315 .380 .562 Runners on: .242 .329 .379 RISP: .261 .360 .450 2005 Bases empty: .278 .351 .535 Runners on: .192 .250 .308 RISP: .171 .243 .248 2004 Bases empty: .280 .364 .544 Runners on: .261 .343 .426 RISP: .254 .359 .364 2003 Bases empty: .269 .327 .416 Runners on: .239 .291 .404 RISP: .233 .291 .426 Career Bases Empty: .286 .357 .504 Runners on: .234 .303 .372 RISP: .219 .303 .348 RISP w/2 outs: .195 .290 .302 That's not a coincidence guys, and it's not due to small numbers of at-bats. Those are large sample sizes and a definitive trend. How can you look at those numbers and say he's not more or likely to suck in clutch stats than a guy like Franceour? Now, you can't look at every player in baseball and determine whether he's clutch or not, but for guys like Casey Blake, you absolutely can.

I'd keep Hamilton.

Not to mention the writer doesn't even know what he's talking about. Ball through Agon's legs? Apparently he was watching a different game 6.

Abe Frohman, are you seriously trying to say that a 5 year age difference isn't a big deal? I'm not a huge Ronny fan, but the age difference is huge. Your logic is extremely flawed when you say that it doesn't matter what age a player is once he's on the team. You realize that players usually improve as they get older, right? Statistically, players peak at around Theriot's age or close to it. Players do not peak at age 23, not even close.

Theriot has very poor range.

http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/news/wrap.jsp?ymd=20070405&content_id=1880974&vkey=wrapup2005&fext=.jsp&team=away&c_id=chc Click "top play" and then "Ramirez's RBI double." Now tell me Fontenot isn't faster than that.

That doesn't mean he's faster. Pie is faster than Brian Roberts but Roberts is a much better base stealer.

I can't believe someone has actually pick Murton already.

I'd say the reason he gets infield hits is due more to the fact that he hits a lot of ground balls, not because of his speed.

Fontenot and I don't think it's even close. I often hear people say Murton is fairly fast and I just don't get where that's coming from.

This may just be semantics, but the new title of this thread is kind of inaccurate. MacPhail never said anything is dead. All he said was that a trade is unlikely before opening day.

I suspect that Belkast doesn't grasp the meaning of the word "brilliant".