neely crenshaw

too much time on our hands...

Much like I said with Stewart, when you're hitting .230 as a team and are 3-10 can it be any worse to play someone else in many spots? Certainly Clevenger could play 2-3 days in a row or Dewitte, or Mather. Not that they are the answer but it can't be any worse. Nice win, I was starting to wonder if we would ever win again.

amazing what a solid pitching effort will do for you!

seems like the Reds are struggling with April weather..

wrigley field has invaded the Reds dugout...

no, there's more to be learned by leaving Soto there. :lol:

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/sports/wrestling/blog/KANE_12082009jg_00039b.jpg Mesoraco?

isn't it time to move dejesus to center and ask the other team to play right field outs?

He's got good stuff, it seems his problems primarily stem from a lack of control it seems. There's potential there, and I have no problem swapping one year of Zambrano for him. That's what this year is about. He's got at least a full season to make strides. Any way even if we had Zambrano at his absolute career best, exactly how many wins would that translate to...10? We are better off turning Volstad loose very 5th day and see what happens. Heck as bad as he has been I'd rather do the same with Wood.

On the bright side, at least we can help get Cincy get straightened out and hopefully give St Lou a run. Live by too many Cards fans to deal with Cubs being bad and Cards winning again

evidently has done this his entire life...

your right, it would not be a big deal to jump from .500 (actually it was .535) to .580 but it would jump to almost .650 which is a big difference on 1 flippin' HR. Even though it is not quite .750 that he had last year it certainly is not something that is going to earth-shakingly change our offense. It's too small a sample size to think that by having their OPS go up to normal that it is going to greatly help our offense. You simply can't say that when guys get their OPS up to normal our offense will be better. The difference in their numbers (which in 40 at bats is 4-5 bases and extra time on base) right now would not equal more than 1 or wins over our 14 so far, and that would only be if the hits came at the right time. Last year we had a team OPS of .715. We do not have Rameriz (our #1 last year) Pena (#2) or Fukudome(#5). I don't see any of the replacements matching those numbers, so unless someone(or several) have a career year our team OPS won't be .700.

I have seen the error of my ways. You guys are 100% right. When Soto and Soriano hit 2 HR's each over their next 40 at bats, our offense will be one of the best. No matter what facts there are; Stewart will hit .300 with 30 hr's, and Soriano will hit like he did with the yanks. Dempster will also win the Cy Young because he has an ERA through 3 games of 1.33, his career 4.38 era be damned! Everything is fine, our offense just needs to hit a couple of more home runs and we would be 11-3 instead of 3-11. My Bad!

Even if we're not contenders in 2-3 years none of those guys are on the team. That's my only point. They're bad, and They're stats say they won't do much better unless lightning strikes. As for 1998? It is completely absurd to use OPS when you talking about 30-40 at bats. As I said one swing of the bat could raise that stat 150 points or more. Yes, Soriano and Soto will hit their HR's but at this point of the season if Soriano would have hit ONE HR this season his OPS would be pushing .700, exactly how many games more games would that have won us? I am not even really upset with the team, I am OK with the process but when some "know it all" posters try to say that some of these guys will be markedly better this season and I am crazy to say they won't because their OPS is low right now and that will come up and magically make us better. Using OPS at this point of the season is like using a pitcher's ERA right now to decide if he's any good. It's probably the best stat long term but is too skewed by a single game or even inning to trust that it's going to be any indication of what type of pitcher they are going to be. Too many of you are sounding like Sox looking for any reason to prove that their players is going to be good because he has on the uniform. Just because Theo took a shot on them does not mean they are going to become a great player for us.

"Ok, everything in that unreadable blob of strawman is wrong" Actually it's not. * Soriano is is hitting .250, his career average is .274 but that is brought way up by his years with NY and Texas. His last 3 years with the Cubs he has .244, .258 and .241. I would tend to say his stats say he is hitting about where he will all year. * Soto hit .228 last year, .280 the year before but .218 the year before that. To me it is not a far cry to say he'll hit .230ish this year. He is hitting .125 so far, but with 32 at bats 2 more hits would have him right at last years stats. Is it really a far cry to think that Soto might go 9 for his next 32 bringing that sparkling average up to the 220 range? If he did would that make him a huge difference in our offense? *Stewart has a career BA of.235 coming off .153 last year. He has never hit .260 in a season. He has hit 20+ HRs Once. Best stat I can give you is he hits a home run every 23 at bats, which if he got 500 (which never has) He would hit 21 HRs. * As for the bench? Talk about small sample size. With pinch hitting being so large an amount of at bats right now of course their BA is down. Then again look at our bench. * We are a rock solid 3-11. * There simply is not a single stat that you can use that says that anyone will hit much better than they are now. We can hope. Heck maybe Stewart will hit 300 with 30 bombs and you can say I knew it all along but there is nothing that says any of that will happen. Truth is if he hit .235 with 15-18 hrs that would be as good as expected. With his improved defense over Rameriz that wouldn't too bad BUT if your 4 hitter hits .250 with 25 hrs (his cub averages), and your 5th hitter hits .235 with 18 hrs you have an absolutely awful offense. * Don't want to be negative but there is no upside to this team. The upside is if some of the untested young players prove they can actually play - That's it. If we are contenders in 2-3 years, Dejesus, Byrd, Stewart, Soto, Soriano, Johnson, Mather, Baker aren't on the team.Barney and LaHair probably aren't everyday players.

They are not sentences, they are simple statements. This is a message board not an English paper. (These are sentences) I will bullet my thoughts so that you can quit looking for something to be an @$$ over. * OPS in this few games is a ridiculous stat as it can change in one swing * The current Cub lineup has a OPS in the mid 600's, If they a had 1 HR and 1 2b (as a team) they would be above last years level without Rameriz, Fukudome or Pena * For an individual batter over 30-40 at bats, a Home run in your next at bat can bring your OPS up 100-150 points * For instance, if Soriano hits a HR in his next at bat, he will raise his slugging 109 points bringing OPS up to .650 * 2-4 with a couple of extra-base hits would bring his OPS to .667 * I don't know if Vitters will be an answer, I do know that Stewart can not be the 3B in 2 years * I also know that no one else is close to being ready at third

unfortunately you grasping for straws. Using OPS at this point of the season is going to be greatly skewed. If you hit 1-2 Hrs it'll jump. I would expect everyone's hr number to end up where they are normally. That will help our runs number but not our overall offense. DeJesus is hitting right where his career average is. barney has a small sample size but hitting better than last year. Castro will not hit .370 for the season that will fall to about .300 Stewart is a .235 hitter for his career and been fading. he is bouyed by hitting .259 one year because he has always been low .200's he is 4 years removed from his .259 25 hr season. soriano is hitting.250. his career average is .274. his last 3 years with the cubs he has .241, ,258, .244 so do you expect that soriano or the guy that hit .290-.300 with the yankees? lahair small sample byrd=way low soto= below average for career BUT he has a .280 average sandwiched around .218 and .228. right now he is 2 hits below being right up where last year was. My statement was that no one is hitting remarkably below where you would expect them to be. I would expect soriano to hit around .250, stewart maybe .220, soto .220, dejesus will probably dropn to ,250-260, barney .275 and castro low .300's. last year we hit .256 as a team we are .233 without rameriz, fukudome and pena- who provided alot of offense especially ops. hitting 20 points lower as for last season going into today we are actually 1 homerun and 1 single away from having the same exact slugging as last season without pena and rameriz. I think that should be very for seeable with this group? Slice it anyway you want -the offense is bad, short of divine intervention there is more reason to see it getting worse not better. Stewart, Dejesus, Baker, Byrd, Johnson, and most everyone else are not any long term solution.

Baker is a nice RH bat off the bench. That is all he is. Let him start vs LHP and pinch hit. Nothing more. why because Stewart is the answer? Bottom line Stewart is a career .235 hitter coming from one of the best offensive parks in baseball. He hit .153 last year. He is hovering at the Mendoza line this year. He is 27 on his 6th season in the bigs...there ain't a whole lot of upside or room to grow for him- He is what he is. We aren't going to trade or sign anyone else for 3rd this season. Give him til the end of May if you want. Then until Vitters shows he's ready why not play Baker? Seriously, yes I know he is career utility guy, he is best suited in the role he is playing now BUT this is certainly not a normal major league offense. Not that any change will make this team any good but he simply can not be worse than what it looks like stewart will be or is. The only 3b that is worse is morel on the other side of town. Why would you continue to play stewart if his play continues as is?

Also this is too small a sample size to judge against others in terms of bad offenses. The problem is that while our guys are basically playing to their career levels offensively...other teams are not. Chances are players and lineups that have traditionally competed at a certain level will come up to level over the long haul while those playing over their heads ill come back. in terms of runs scored we are ahead of the A's, reds, phillies and pirates. The only offense I put in our catagory is the A's. We have the 6th worst BA , 6th worst OB% and fewest HR's in the majors. The big problem is that we have no one other than Byrd who is hitting dramatically worse than their usual. what happens when Lahair isn't hitting .360 and Castro isn't hitting .370? my hope is that Lahair proves he is for real, barney and castro do what they have done. Dempster, Garza, Marmol all pitch their arses off so we can trade them for some prospects. Byrd plays like Byrd 2 years ago and maybe someone will take a vet OF for a prospect. As I said No one other than Castro is guaranteed to be here in 2 years. This year is and should be like a year long evaluation camp for anyone near ready for the bigs.

yes, vitters. And yes it is entirely possible that baker is our best 3b (considering offense along with d) stewart is a good defender but he hit .153 last year and seems to be heading that direction, he has never hit .260, hit 20 hrs once and he is a career .235 hitte (in colorado even) his career fielding is lower than bakers(not the best stat to decide) and baker had a .270 career average coming into this year doing the hardest job of hitting by pinch hitting and spot starting with no one else in the lineup that is a proven hitter at all, yes, it is entirely possible that Baker could be the 2nd best...who do you go with ? soriano at .274 career and .244 last year, dejesus .84 career, ,240 last year, byrd .279 career .276 last year? or barney and Lahair..young and unproven-small sample sizes. bottom line is we have a bad, bad lineup and a career untility guy could very well be our 2nd best hitter.

It might be a better idea to have him hit in another city...let baker play until the kid is ready. It's nice to have a guy on the bench who can play multiple positions but when he is probably your best 3b, and possibly 2nd best hitter...it may be time to play him full time even if he isn't one of the management's "guys".

Stewart is hitting .205 he didn't have a hit since the 1st game of the St Lou series and of his 8 hits on the year half were in back to back games vs Milwaukee.. stewart .205 ba .295 ob% barney .295ba .340 ob% the problem isn't 2 hole, the problem is every spot except Castro's. our lineup is blessed with a load of 7th and 8th place hitters...

god bless small sample sizes!

you're not allowed to play 2 rightfielders-also byrd hit the ball hard today. his career stats are every bit as good as DeJesus over a very long period so it seems that they should end up very close. losing your mind over 5 games is bit crazy

you have several that could. Dejesus has been in the mid 700 most years castro was close last year and should show a bit more power this Soriano has only been below twice, and those years were still in the 700s bird has been in 700's aside from last years atrocity stewart has been in the 780's with a high of 804 lahair has a shot if he continues to start all year