Jehrico

(a) One is a huge number when you're talking about something that only happens about 3.3 times per 9 innings. (b) The pitching staff is already better than the league average in walks per 9 innings. I think that increase for the offense isn't impossible, though it's no easy task. I don't think there's a chance at all that the pitchers can accomplish that. If they do, Z will be responsible for at least 2/3 of it by himself.

Huh? They never received the email. That has nothing to do with the content of the email. Either the mail box was full, bad email address, or they've got internal problems with their system. Are you sure it's AOL and not a trib address? Either way, your assumption that you got the bounce message because they didn't like your criticism is wrong.

I would trade them Miller simply in exchange for them taking crapturis off of our hands.

Can Lee's streak extend back to the end of last season? I don't know if he ended the season with a small streak or not.

Yes, I could justify it. I'm a Cubs fan, and I'm a homer for the Cubs. Justification enough. :wink:

I used to be pretty damned good at all of that stuff when I was in college. I took alot of stats and analysis classes. I haven't used any of it in over 8 years. You guys just made me realize that about half of my college education is now lost and worthless. Thanks alot. :x

Vernon is now my favorite player in the AL!

I caught that too. Since when is a 2.82 ERA merely decent? Since it was printed in an SI article. You're talking about a publication whose writers still generally refer to pitchers' records as the end all be all in defining who is good and bad. Exactly. SI holds less credibility with me than ESPN, and that's saying alot. SI is the stodgy old school the only things that matter happened in the 1960's entity, while ESPN is the showy new school all style no substance, give me the next highlight and yell really loud behemoth. Ironically, you can catch Bill Walton calling games televised on ESPN, but you won't find him writing for SI. He's the exception to the rule.

I caught that too. Since when is a 2.82 ERA merely decent? Since it was printed in an SI article. You're talking about a publication whose writers still generally refer to pitchers' records as the end all be all in defining who is good and bad. Exactly. SI holds less credibility with me than ESPN, and that's saying alot.

I caught that too. Since when is a 2.82 ERA merely decent? Since it was printed in an SI article.

Sounds like this guy: He must have graduated from the Dusty Baker school of hitting.

There's got to be one of those Mastercard Priceless jokes in there somewhere.

You're acting as if that was a standing agreement the Cubs always had to be in-line with. They didn't have to come to that agreement. And they could have done a better job scouting him, to find out themselves that Hamilton was ready to turn things around. Knowing how early their pick was, they could have done so on their own. Why would the Cubs be scouting an OF in the Rule 5? Edit: And when Hamilton puts up 2 full years of decent numbers, then I'll call him legit. Because their OF has sucked for many years. Scouting is more than just watching a guy play in games. Scouting can tell you if a guy is signable, if a guy is a douchebag, or if a guy is ready to turn the page on past problems. I don't think it makes any sense to say that a team got extremely lucky to have an extremely talented player play well. If they had good reason to believe the drug issue was under control, there was no reason not to take a chance on the kid. Considering your definition of scouting, I don't see why you think the Cubs could have done a better job scouting hamilton. You can't scout a guy who doesn't play, and the guy didn't play any kind of ball for several years. He could easily meet your definition of a douchebag (speculation on my part as to what you consider a douchebag), and there's no way to tell if he really has turned the page on past problems. He's not been on the wagon that long, and he's fallen off of it on several past attempts. I don't know what the Cubs could have realistically expected to have done with regards to Hamilton. Buy a magic 8 ball maybe?

The age has to catch up to him one of these years. Here's to hoping it's this year, and the Yanks just threw millions away.

Soriano should be used at 2nd with about the same frequency that Marquis should be used as a pinch hitter.

Jim Hendry. :(

Why should you try to fix it when one of the top pitchers in the league has turned into the team's worst starter? One reason you might want to fix it is that the lower arm angle makes breaking balls break horizontally (staying in the same plane) instead of vertically. Also, it's pretty obvious that Zambrano is walking quite a few more batters than he used to. Maybe you need to work on it Larry. Zambrano has never been a great April pitcher, so it's difficult to differentiate how the angle is affecting him versus what other factors usually contribute to his April woes. I think you're overstating it when you say it's making his breaking balls break on a horizontal plane. It's not like he's dropping 90 degrees down into a sidearmer, and his problem isn't his breaking balls. He throws a sinking fastball that doesn't have the same action, plus he tends to leave more balls up when he drops down. That's the problem. Actually, he had a bad April last season, an ok one in 05 and a great April in 04 and 03. 05 was no good. He put up his second worse ERA of any month in april that year, 4.31 (not bad for some, not good for Zs standards). In 04, he wasn't bad (3.55), but comparatively speaking, April was again his second worse month, barely beating out August by only .07 runs on the ERA. If 07 follows trend, and I think it will, this will be 4 years in a row where April is either his worst or second worst month of the season.

Says the guy who is 30. Lol. :oops: Yeah, but I'm not a rookie at what I do, I've been doing this for 13 years!

I thought he was around 23-24, maybe 25 at the most. I just looked at his profile, and he's older than Prior, Hill, Aramis, Z, Cotts, Izturis and Theriot. Pretty amazing career path, for someone that old to make a jump from AA to MLB with so little time at AAA in the middle. Profile here: http://www.sportsline.com/mlb/players/playerpage/489771

cough, cough *Ichiro* cough, cough. cough, cough *Matsui* cough, cough.

Why should you try to fix it when one of the top pitchers in the league has turned into the team's worst starter? One reason you might want to fix it is that the lower arm angle makes breaking balls break horizontally (staying in the same plane) instead of vertically. Also, it's pretty obvious that Zambrano is walking quite a few more batters than he used to. Maybe you need to work on it Larry. Zambrano has never been a great April pitcher, so it's difficult to differentiate how the angle is affecting him versus what other factors usually contribute to his April woes. I think you're overstating it when you say it's making his breaking balls break on a horizontal plane. It's not like he's dropping 90 degrees down into a sidearmer, and his problem isn't his breaking balls. He throws a sinking fastball that doesn't have the same action, plus he tends to leave more balls up when he drops down. That's the problem.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2861194 How does lying and saying it was his back instead of his elbow give him more time? More time for what? I don't understand.

After they named us all man of the year I think we owe it to them to readit. No. They put me in the same group as Jim Edmonds, Hugo Chavez, and Michael Jackson. Previously, the only connection I had with those three nut jobs was we were all classified as the same species. Now I'm connected with all because we were all the Time co-people of the year last year. I don't like being affiliated with those guys in any manner, so no, I don't think I owe it to read anything of theirs.

Change Lou back to Dusty, and make that 181 pitches instead of 81, and you might have something.

Irabu, Nomo, Ishii...I can't think of any Japanese pitchers who enjoyed extended success in the majors. All the more reason why it was foolish to pay $50 million just for the rights to sign him. He's not going to be a 1.50 ERA pitcher, but he won't be a 9.00 ERA pitcher either. All in all, I think he'll be a decent #2 or #3 starter for most teams, but hardly worthy of a total $100 million investment for 5 years of service.