champaignchris

Is it just me or was inter-league play just interminable this year? Did it go on for an entire month? Now we're hearing that each team will be playing 20 inter-league games next season. Hopefully they'll spread the series around a bit and not group them all together.

Woof! He's 32, hasn't played yet this year because he's coming off major - what was it? Achilles tendon? - surgery, and his rate stats have declined fairly steadily since their 2006/2007 peak. There's a strong possibility that contract is going to make Soriano's contract look reasonable in comparison.

The 8 Black Sox were acquitted, too. History hasn't been kind to them.

No. 25 on that list is Frank Robinson with 512 hits. Castro currently has 422 and I'd say it's a good bet that, barring injury, he'll get 90 more this year. That's not to say that Castro will be a HOFer or even a very good player, but the odds certainly favor it. Of the players with 3,000 hits, Castro has more hits before his 23rd birthday than all of them except Ty Cobb, Robin Yount, and Al Kaline. And that's with about 100 games to play before turning 23.

Disappointing about Stewart. He showed some flashes. You can see why he was such a high draft pick. A guy with power like that should not be turning into a good-fielding, no-hit third baseman like Steve Buechele. But you got to get the bat on the ball to make something good happen, and Ian simply didn't get the bat on the ball enough. On Vitters... No reason not to keep him at AAA and let him try to win the job next year in ST. Probably a September call up at the earliest.

I don't see how the two are mutually exclusive.

Going into the season, I thought the Cubs would be about a 75 win team, plus or minus about 7 wins. I think I was with the majority of the experts and fans on that. Considering that Castro has continued to be Castro, Garza has continued to be Garza, Soriano, DeJesus, and Dempster are all having solid to great bounce-back years, and Lehair and Samardjiza are both exceeding expectations, it's amazing how bad the rest of the team has really had to be for the Cubs to be only 20-40. Especially considering that the team has improved in both baserunning and defense. Barney has been a plus defender and average bat. Stewart has been a plus defender and below average bat. I don't think those are big surprises. What couldn't be predicted was the complete lack of production out of the catcher and center field spot. Byrd and Soto both should have been able to provide league average production for those positions. The Cubs currently have the worst OPS in the majors from their catchers and center fielders. (Obviously injuries have been a big problem with the catching - Did you know who the Cubs' 5th string catcher was at the beginning of the year?) The back end of the rotation has been spotty at best. Still, the rotation is almost a half a run better in ERA this year than last. The issue has been the awful bullpen. People may have predicted that Marmol would continue to be not very good, but to absolutely fall apart? Sveum basically has two reliable options out of the bullpen right now - Russell and Camp - mainly because the most proven members of the bullpen going into the year haven't been able to get anyone out all year. So, basically, if some of the holdovers from last year, K. Wood, Marmol, Byrd, and Soto, had been able to provide something close to the performances one would have expected from their career numbers, the Cubs would be significantly better.

If this were any other shortstop in the league, it would be something that people chuckle over and forget about.

ESPN did their little 10 years draft, drafting a player based on how they will do over the next 10 years. They had 30 experts and 30 fans pick their top 30. Castro went 9th for the experts and didn't get picked by the fans. It was hilarious. Castro probably doesn't look sexy to the common fan. They see the 10 HR and 66 RBI mid to high .700's OPS and supposedly terrible defense and ignore his age, position and hitting ability. Not to mention to expected increase in power. Castro's currently on pace to hit .317, 13 HR, 104 RBI, 211 hits, and 49 steals. If he keeps that up, those are the type of stats that will make the non-SABRE-metrically inclined fan take notice.

Two notes: 1. I had completely deleted Daryle Ward from my mind. He played for the team only 5 seasons ago. 2. Was there a scenario under which the Cubs weren't going to suck this year? The people who are acting like the sky is falling... The sky fell three years ago. Where were you?

Of the six players they got for Cabrera and Willis, not one of them is still with Florida, and only three of them have appeared in MLB games this season. They did trade Cameron Maybin to the Padres for two not horrible middle relievers that are currently on the team, but those are basically the only assets on the team that are remnants of the Cabrera/Willis trade.

Coincidentally, I'm in the middle of a re-read of MoneyBall. I just read the introduction on Bill James. For him, it was the hitting stats that bothered him. For me, it was the pitching stats. I remember very clearly in middle school in about 1986-1987, I would have been 13-14 years old, reading the box scores and league leaders in the paper and just thinking that stats didn't tell you anything about the pitchers. "Joe Blow is 3-2 with a 3.57 ERA." What the heck are you supposed to make out of that? My solution to this "problem" was mainly to zone out any time a broadcaster started blabbing about stats. It wasn't until much later, maybe about 2005, where I learned that other people had similar issues with the stats that I did and had actually done something about it.

according to baseball-reference he's signed through 2015. Cot's has him as a free agent after this season. Maybe br is more up to date?

The comments in the Angels' section... "Scioscialism." Awesome!

...because the Red Sox didn't win it all until they tore down Fenway?

Would Howie Kendrick be a good f.a. target at second base? He'd be 29 for the 2013 season.

With the improved defensive positioning and baserunning, I'll excuse a strange bunt call about once every 30 games.

So, is he hurt or is he "hurt?"

That and his aversion to bricks and ivy. And health or lack thereof at times.

Ryan Dempster: the living embodiment of why the win/loss stat for pitchers needs to be taken out back and shot. Since his last win on Aug 11, 2011, he's 0-7. 3.50 ERA in 90.1 innings pitched, 12 QS in the 14 games started. Pending tonight's game, 34 runs scored by the offense in those 14 games. The bullpen's blown all 4 save opportunities.

The obvious answer is to move Rizzo to left! :yahoo:

The Cubs' first 28 games can be neatly divided in half... First fourteen games: 3-11 50 runs scored 76 runs given up Last fourteen games: 8-6 48 runs scored 44 runs given up

I think it's a good sign that the Cubs' baserunning has improved so dramatically. I think that's a reflection on the coaching because I don't think we're a markedly faster team. It was so gawdawful last year. It wasn't just the (lack of) stolen bases and boneheaded plays. There was a BP article from last year that showed how the Cubs were the worst in the league at scoring from second on a base hit. What's amazing about the Cubs' offense this year is that they are just below league average in runs scored while essentially getting no production at all out of Soriano, Soto, and Stewart (and Byrd before he was shipped) and only Lahair is hitting above expectations. I'm not sure how to account for that. They seem to be scoring more runs than the peripherals would seem to indicate. It can't all be the better baserunning. That said, Lahair eventually regressing back to the mean should be more than made up for by Soriano, Soto, and Stewart eventually producing more like what their career norms would indicate (or being replaced by someone who can at least give replacement value numbers). The OP didn't post any fielding stats, but to my eyes it seems better than last year. I don't have any stats to back that up though.

I've melded Iowa City and Des Moines into one place in my mind. And really, can you blame me? Next thing you guys are going to try to convince me that Burlington and Davenport aren't the same place.

The Rizzo issue is tied up with the LaHair issue. If Rizzo weren't destroying it down on the farm, there'd be no reason at all not to just let LaHair play it out and see what he can do. But as it is, sooner or later, there's simply not going to be any point in having the guy you envision being your first baseman for the next 10 years still down in Iowa City. Now, the Cubs did play LaHair 14 games at right or left field last year. I neither remember him embarrassing nor distinguishing himself. If the Cubs think he can hack it in left, it'd make the most sense to play him and let Soriano sit. If the Cubs don't think he can hack it in left, you have to decide if trading him gives you more value than using him as a left handed ph. Given that the Cubs apparently weren't able to trade Pena for a box of used balls last year, the later might be the case.