chopsx9

No no they are right its time to yank Pierre just like Lee should have been released in 2003 when he was sucking wind at the start of the year. I mean Pierre's numbers are not nearly as bad as Lee's were but still. And there was that Sanberg guy who sucked in April all those years. How he made it into the HOF with numbers like that in April is mindboggling.

I know [expletive] is Rusch. Is there a reason why? (Although quite frankly there doesn't have to be).

How much of Bedard's success can be attributed to Mazzone's presence though?

Eric Hinske?? Rios is staking his claim to what was supposed to be a platoon. He hit well in the spring and is continuing to do so through April. I can't imagine it would take too much to get him.

That is pretty much how I read it too.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/baseball/mlb/04/21/extra.mustard/index.html I'm going to say no. At the "certain" part at the very least.

It's early yet but this is the funniest line so far: "if i could have punched him in the balls, i would have" Was it a height issue or did the cup get in the way?

"Turk Wendell thinks Sosa was on the juice" Well Turk also thinks his head will explode if he steps on the foul line on the field so if you want to take this as hard evidence please go ahead. It speaks volumes about the motivation for your decision making. (Not directed at any one poster in particular, just the group in general that seem to take great joy at grasping at any straw to knock Sosa down a notch.) Turk also admits he has not one shread of proof. There will be no end to my criticism of Sosa if evidence comes to light. However I will wait for some actual evidence. And for the 100th time Sosa did not go from 30 to over 60 hrs. In 1996 he hit 40 before he got injured in August. He would have surpassed 50 fairly easily if he had remained healthy. So the jump to 66 is hardly monumental. There is plenty of on field evidence of Sosa becoming a better hitter through this time - holding off on the low outside pitch, hitting more to right field etc.

if you have it, ill give you like $20 for a copy of it Ditto. ..and I'd love a copy of the Sandberg game from '84. Can these be purchased anywhere? I know ESPN Classic replays some of these games from time to time but I can't get that here in Canada.

I am cautiously optimistic about Maddux this year. I commented last year that I thought he needed to do more conditioning in the offseason. He has never relied on strength and power to get the job done, but now that he is older I think he could benefit from extra conditioning. He has apparently worked out with a trainer this off season so, again, I am cautiously optimistic. A few have stated that Lee will almost certainly hit .300 again. I hope so, but I’m not as convinced as some. I think I need to see one more season of elevated production (not necessarily at the heights of last year) to become a convert. I keep coming back to his career avg in the .260’s prior to last year. Don’t get me wrong I hope he has turned a corner (The 2006 team is going to need it!!) but I need some more proof.

Yes I noticied the name too and thought it was funny.

From the Mets. (from my works Bloomberg Terminal so no link sorry) Anyone know anything about him?

None of them went from 30 HR power to putting up 243 over 4 seasons either. That's not accurate though. In 96 Sosa hit 40 in 126 games (which projects out to 52/53 in a full season) . In 97 he hit 36 in what. if you look at his numbers - most of which were his worst in 4 years, can be considered a bad/down year. Regardless of whether you want to consider 97 a down year saying he had 30hr power is a significant understatement. Is 50 to 66 in two years that big a jump? It's certainly not Brady Anderson like.

Nobody has ever had back to back to back 60+ years. Sammy did it three out of four years. His HR totals below (the number in paranthesis are his projected total for 156 games - the lowest total he had in a non strike shortened season from 93 onwards) don't appear to "fall off the face of the earth". 98 - 66 99 - 63 00 - 50 01 - 64 02 - 49 (51) 03 - 40 (45) 04 - 35 (43) His OPS in 2003 was still .911. (Six years after first hitting 60) Was there a decline - absolutely - but I don't think it was fall of the face of the earth bad. Lots of power hitters have taken worse falls - Dale Murphy, Corey Snyder, Howard Johnson, Mattingly.

I didn't mean they would neccesarily post similar numbers. Green took a couple of years in the majors to break out (as did Olreud, not sure if that is a Toronto thing??) and I think Rios will have a similar developmental pattern. But, yes Green was better than Rios at a similar stage.

Look for Rios to have a Shawn Green type break out season. Reduced playing time for Hinske adds 3 or 4 W's on it's own. (Add another couple of games if they dump him). Chacin was very good last year, Towers was surprising if those two can repeat or improve (which is very possible) they could do some damage. They could fairly easily improve on Johnson in left (although he is a nice player). I look for them to surprise a lot of people. Yes they have spent some big money but 5 of their starting 9 and several of the pitchers are home grown. I think it is a good mix.

ESPN is blocked at my work. Can anyone give a quick synopsis? Thanks in advance.

I am pretty sure Hinske is gone (I think they are hoping he just dosen't show up for ST) with Hildenbrand/Koskie/Glaus manning 1B/3B/DH...oops forgot about Overbay..my guess is that H'band would be next to go.

Yeah, but dude... THREE times. Do you think they were just picking on him the third time? ...and just for the record I still have not stopped laughing.

I am sure there are a couple of things but for my money this is the best. http://www.retrosheet.org/hidden.htm Ozzie - 3 times. I still haven't stopped laughing!! Someone should bring it up at a press conference "Ozzie we know you won the Series and that's great, but dude, three times??

How about Lee and Walker to Toronto for Overbay, Hudson, Rios and a prospect.

1B+SB

I asked this in another thread and it never really got answered. Is it just common knowledge that Pierre is not a good centerfielder? I've never heard anyone speak bad of his defense before all the Pierre to the cubs talk started. Is he considered worse than Patterson in center? I'm asking because i honestly thought he was considered a good CF. I've always known about the weak arm but have never heard all of this talk about bad routes and late jumps. Wher is the information coming from? And who does he compare to defensively in CF? "Baseball" men who know "the game" think Slappy is a good defender because after all, a Center Fielder has to have good speed. Peirre has great speed and that saves him from tottaly screwing up. He will take a bad angle but make up for it somewhat with his speed. He will break late but make it up with his speed. But he will also not get to some balls because his speed cannot always overcome his judgement. He has a very weak arm, even for a centerfielder. All and all he is a medicore defensive centerfielder in my estimation. He is neither bad nor good. But if he is hobbled in any way he will immediately become a bad defensive centerfielder. Slappy is a one trick pony. All speed. His entire worth is tied up in his foot speed. I am not trying to disagree with you or pick a fight, because like the OP I don't know, but what is that assesment based on? Is there a scouting report somewhere or this based on your eyewitness accounts. In his defense he has a .305 lifetime average so I would think that makes him a two trick pony. Yes he dropped to .27something last year, but I remeber Grace's avg dropped one year into the .270's but returned to above .300 again after that, so maybe there is hope.

Fixed for you. .329 This thread is a hoot. If you are going to factor in his cs's into his OBP (which is logical) you also have to factor the other 40 odd times he got himself into scoring position as a positive. I believe he did in an earlier post in this thread. I did. And it was somewhat refuted by Lefty, who argued that a stolen base is worth less than a total base because a double advance runners already on the bases further than a single and steal. I apologize for missing it (there must 15,000 posts so you have cut me some slack!!) Yes, generally, 1B+SB < 2B (although there would also be benefits of having a baserunner on - altering the defense etc. )but it is still a positive and he should be given credit for it. Which he has..so okay then.

Fixed for you. .329 This thread is a hoot. If you are going to factor in his cs's into his OBP (which is logical) you also have to factor the other 40 odd times he got himself into scoring position as a positive. Which offsets his lack of power to some degree. (Unless we just want to say how terrible he is - in which case nevermind) Pierre is not a great player but he's not terrible either and he has a chance to be a decent upgrade. Yeah they overpaid some but I think the key prospects were kept so I view it as an OK trade.