neely crenshaw

who on this staff other than z is excellent?

i think they both will leave. hopefully rusch has another decent start and a team wants him to be a starter full time. i think neifi will look for a full time gig. this is his only shot a decent contract...got two words for ya- tony womack. if he can spin one decent year into a starters deal, so can neifi.

it still puzzles me why people think neifi sucks and he has been terrible. he has had a great year for a back up. he is still hitting near .300 with 500 at bats- we were all waiting for him to revert to his career averages, but he didn't. he has played good defense on a really bad defensive team. despite his obp, he is one of the few players who actually take pitches. he will never,ever have a high obp simply because who would walk him? i have said this many times...you get to 2-0 on him and you just set a bp fastball in there and take your chances. it is not his fault that dusty a). hits him 2nd or b) plays him in front of cedeno or that hendry c) signed a very injury prone ss that neifi would need to get 500 at bats i do not want neifi to be the everyday shortstop and i do want cedeno to start every game down the stretch but i still appreciate the year that neifi has had, he has been one of the few cubs that have actually overachieved this season you do realize that this obp you are freaking over is except for eckstien, 30 points or less. that means that furcal gets on base about 30 times more often in 1000 at bats..or about 2 seasons. that means you think a guy sucks over 15 times on base per season(or less) and those players are their teams starters....neifi is a back up

I'm curious as to how many runs he has given up in those games and how these totals compare to others in the league. Go for it. That is too ambitious for me. However, to me, this is why averages count. His Earned Run Average is that of the entire year. Its sitting around 4.27, or something like that. The average run support for Maddux per start was 5.51, but that was questioned, so I provided the breakdown above. At some point, unless there is an obvious statistical exception that can be pointed to, averages need to be trusted for what they are, for what they represent. It's also too ambitious for me. I was just trying to make the point that if an offense happens to score more for a particular pitcher (who knows the reason, but it happens), I could care less if that particular pitcher has a higher ERA. Prior's ERA is 3.69 and his Run Support Average is 4.69 Maddux's ERA is 4.28 and his Run Support Average is 5.51 When Prior pitches, the Cubs are +1.00 run When Maddux pitches, the Cubs are +1.23 runs Does this mean that he (Greg) is a better pitcher statistically? Clearly, no. Does it mean that he has been more important to the team this year than Prior? The answer is not so cut and dry. The bottom line in baseball is scoring more than your opponent. That's how you win games. When Maddux is on the hill, that occurs to a greater extent than when Prior is pitching. Is he worth $9 million this year? Nope. But I can understand why he may be making more than Prior based strictly on performance. (Clearly all other things considered, Prior has the advantage because of his potential and age!) nice to see you do some stats. next time you may want to do them correctly. you can not count all the runs allowed in his starts against him. can't blame him for his relievers work. maddux has given up 22 runs in his 12 wins. less than 2 per start. his worse ouiting was the one a few weeks back. he gave up 4 in a 11-4 complete game victory. he gave up 2 in the eighth while he was up 11-2 and finishing the game to save the bullpen(do we remember that) he could have easily be out after 7. he was at his highest ptich total but stayed in to help the team. he has 2 other games that the cubs won big 14-6,11-5 but maddux gave up only 3 in each. for the record,the he has given up 0,2,1,4,0,2,3,3,3,2,0,2 in his 12 wins....thank god he has all that offensive support! he has not won a single game where his offense won it for him.

what if pitcher just wins for 15 straight years?is it still circumstancial? and what if pitcher misses 20 starts in a 2 year period with those stats?

what makes you think the cubs will try to win it all next year? they needed 2 players in 2004 to make a real run and got neither.(closer-leadoff man)now they have many, many holes to fill and now they will fill them? sorry don't see it.

More could have been done the previous offseason. There was enough on the market to make the Cubs a very good tream. Why couldn't they get Tejada or Vlad? Hendry was very shortsighted, and now I could definitely see them overspending on crap this offseason. Whose the last player the Trib signed to a contract lasting longer than 4 years?? Hendry doesn't sign the paychecks. no, he negotiates them. he makes the decisions on who comes here, for how much and how long.but he doesn't sign the checks... as for giles getting 10 mil? no one thought that maggs would get what he got or drew would get what he got. it is even thinner this year and it only takes one stupid gm. (see mets:beltran) i, for one, do not care to hear about free agent busts. there are risks but i would rather see my team go for it. if you signed drew(like nomar), then yes it's the gm's fault. if you igned benetiz, who had never been hurt..then it's bad luck not decisions. please do not try to say that hendry knew that these injuries would happen. if he was so good at that he really should have seen nomar's coming. it's a crap shoot but you can't win it, if you sit on the sidelines....and hendry has sat and watched for two years.

he has got to be on the block. i can't see where he fits in with what we do next year. it's pretty obvious we can't count on even.250 and 25hrs. we need someone to leadoff. if it's an outfieder, we can't afford to have a leadoff guy and corey (hitting .220 and batting eighth) in the outfield.that would also mean no way murton can play. i know hr's are slightly overarted but you can't have an outfield that hits 30 hrs total in wrigley!

why do you hit your egular 2 hole hitter(walker) down in the order against a righty so neifi can hit 2nd?it's not like we need to protect burnitz! i mean is anyone going to pitch around burnitz...

Fixed for simplification purposes. :D we should probably get rid of hendry too.

i understand sitting a kid against a very nasty pitcher. but this doesn't seem like that situation. this guy was in triple a this season. this is the type of guy they faced all season. we have had two awful hitting performances.....both time the kids weren't playing. the play with so much more energy and enthusiasm....can we please see them 90% of the time!

over/under on 90 pitches for cain? i say over but just barely....of course he will go 7-8 innings

run support! a truly misguided stat. i think you should look at the support in maddux's wins vs losses, not too mention runs allowed in wins. maddus has not won many slugfests. he has gotten some runs but he does not have 12-10 wins. maddux is also the anti-stat when you talk about wins. he has won 15 games every year he has pitched. he has won with good teams, not so good teams, good offense,not so good offense, good defense and not so good defense. 16 years of winning fifteen is not about run support or luck...this is not bob welch of the oakland winning 25 once in his life...i would be willing to bet that if our 4 studs-z,wood,prior and maddux would all win 15 games..we would win the central. unfortunately, wood has never done it, prior has done it once and z will probably get his 2nd this year. if my no. 3 starter can win 15 and give me a shot in 8-10 more wins, i am in good shape!

if you can assure the cubs will use the money better than, great! if we are not going to do anything more than sign steve trachesl...then i'll keep maddux. if their was some history to the cubs to indicate they would make a bug free agent signing we could think about a buyout...but our big free agent signing under hendry is...maddux. unless you call it burnitz.

the argument has been that maddux has not been our second best pitcher. that's where it started. it really wasn't even factoring in who is overpaid. that should be on hendry... z has been our best pitcher the last 2 years..no argument wood should not even be in the discussion. he has missed 30+ starts in 2 years. if he had 10 no hitters in his other games he still wouldn't be in the discussion. rusch,hill, mitre,williams? no chance over the last 2 seasons . so it comes down to prior and maddux. no doubt that at this point prior has more talent but he has not outperformed greg. he will also have missed 16-18 starts in 2 years. his stats are not as good. i am sorry to point this out, no matter how many games you list, prior is not throwing real well over the last 2 months and has been heading down since may. 2004-05 prior= 16-9 3.85 era maddux= 28-22 4.14 era if you take away prior's april, which right now looks like a fluke...they have the basically same era while prior has 18 fewer starts. with his era steadily rising, more starts would hurt prior's stats, not help. how can anyone say that a pitcher who has fewer wins, a slightly better era and has missed 18 starts has been a better or more valuable pitcher? you can not just overlook the missed starts to help your argument.

those were just examples...

the problem with burnitz is not his performance. i think most people are happy with what he brought. he has actually outperformed my hopes. the first problem is that this may be the best he does. as was mentioned at 37, he probably drops in output. the second and major problem is that he is the cubs best outfielder! at 60th best that means that basically every single team has 2 outfielders who have outperformed our best. if we had a johnny damon in center and a basher in left then burnitz would be a nice player in right, he plays hard. it's not burnitz' fault that he is expected to be the big bomber in the outfield and hit 4-5. he has done what he can do, but he isn't that player. that is the cubs fault.

i think there is a better chance that they do nothing(or next to). the prices will be high and the talent slim. i see an offseason like 2004, where we take care of our own and make some serious reaches. i do not see the cubs paying giles 10 mil, which it will probably get too, or furcal. burnett will be looking at at least 12..and maybe higher. wagner? if they(closers) 7 mil last year, better look at about 9 for 3 years this year.

lousy ol' greg maddux is once again your team's leader in wins and innings pitched. if you would like to say he is overpaid, fine. there is absolutely no way to argue that he hasn't been at least our second best and second most valuable starter over the last 2 years(whuch is what the statement was)

i removed his 3 worst starts. they were ones where he went 3,4 and 5 innings. he gave up 7,6 and 6 runs. without those starts he is 11-8 with a 3.70 era. prior is 11-6 with a 3.69 in his 21 starts. maddux era has continued to come down, which it did last year also. he got better as the season went along. prior's continues to grow, he is getting worse. i am not dragging anyone down, i am just pointing out facts. prior and wood have not pitched as well as maddux overthe last 2 years.

you don't think they would have performed worse without maddux? did you watch mitre fill in for prior at the start of last season? how about rusch for wood the last 4 weeks with a 9 era? without maddux we would have had mitre in the roatation all last year and this year...not too mention williams and rusch....can you say colorado rockies record? if you want to talk wasted money...why not start with wood? and then nomar, or jobo,hawlins and sammy being paid to play elsewhere...how about patterson? there's 3/5 mil well spent. and clement...please. whatwould his record be here? 4-11? or worse. you want to talk run support start with clement. he has a higher era than maddux, and his run supprt is out of this world. do you think the cubs could score 11 runs a game for any pitcher? yes, 8 mil a year for a guy who still hadn't won 15 ina year is much better than 9 mil for a guy who basically does it every year.

here some more for those of you dogging maddux. wood has missed 30+ starts in the last 2 years.....that's really helpful this year he gave up 10 hr's in 10 starts...that would be 29 in 29 starts. prior has given up 23 in 22 starts...maddux has given up 24 in 29 starts. prior has missed 16+ starts..he has 6 fewer starts this year(than maddux) and given up 1 fewer hr. his era has gone from 2.66 on july1 to 3.70 today. maddux has gone from 5.02 on that date to 4.40. his era during that span is 3.50. prior's almost 6.00(5.86) during that time span prior is 6-3 and maddux is 4-6. prior's era in 21 starts last year was 4.02 maddux's in 33 starts was 4.02 maddux at this poit in his career has some bad games. when he is off, he is really off. that does not happen very often but when it does it sky rockets his era. he has had 3 terrible starts out of 29. without those his era is 3.70, same as prior. i can certainly live with a number 3 starter that puts out 29-30 very good starts and 3-4 poor ones. i hate to say this but save for a very good april and may this season, prior's stats have not been as good as maddux's...not even factoring his missed starts. fewer wins, higher era, more hr's...i don't know what you want to base it on, but for thses two seasons maddux has outperformed prior and been much more durable....now if you want to talk strikeouts then wood and prior have been better.

you can not just factor in a "when healthy" whenever it fits your argument. wood has been an absolute non factor for 2 seasons. it's great that he has a better era but that and a quarter can get you a cup of coffee. same with prior...it's great that has a better era but a better question is how valuable has a pitcher been that has 25 total decisions in 2 seasons? i am really sorry to tell you that maddux has out performed everyone but zambrano since july 1. prior is not close except in wins. and as you all say wins don't matter it's era..etc. prior and wood may be better but half of their starts it's been rusch or nitre or hill or williams not prior and wood...so who has been our second best pitcher?

this is just another example of why hendry should have spent a little more last year and have a bigger payroll for a season instead of hording all this cash for a pretty sad free agent market. we will either badly overpay for less or once again walk away from the offseason with nothing and state we didn't want to pay that salary for so and so.... also what in hendry's history makes anyone believe he will make all these deals and signings? he has yet to sign anyone who wasn't a gamble.

one point of contention.....dusty has not become a worse manager. the problem is that the team that hendry has put together has progressively gotten worse. no longer can they overcome poor managing because plain and simple they aren't very good. if they extend hendry, it will end any chance of the cubs winning during this window of oppurtunity. the window is just about shut. as soon as prior and z are arbitration eligible, we are done. if the cubs and hendry screw up this chance, it is very likely that the cubs will not win in the next 20 years. there is nothing that tells us they will ever get an oppurtunity like this again. their front office did not do this, pure dumb luck did. if minnesota does not pass on prior the cubs would not have ever gotten him or someone like him.we would have z and wood but that is a far cry from prior,z and wood.