Warpticon

Watching Bo run the bases made me sad, though. :(

Furcal is pulling a Renteria. He just isn't that good right now, and I wouldn't spend what he's likely to get, especially with the emergence of Cedeno. Hairston would be a decent leadoff option, but I want him at 2B if he's a starter.

While we're at it, what's his LD%?

HA! That is funny on several levels. First of all, the Cubs offense is carrying the pitching staff now? Secondly, the guy threw a shutout through 8 innings. How did the offense carry him today? The guy is a legend. He and Roger could be the last 300 game pitchers we see in a long time. Enjoy the man's accomplishments while you can. He is certainly a legend. I fail to see how that is in any way relevant to his 2005 and 2006 value. To get a lot of wins doesn't necessarily require pitching better. I hate to invoke Randy Johnson/Shawn Estes from last year, but come on. Maddux hasn't pitched consistently at all this season, and has been downright bad on many occasions. He wouldn't have so many wins without the run support he's been getting. TShuffle, I know you are kidding but you are taking things way out of proportion. I am not saying Greg is as dominant as he has been in the past, or as good as Clemens. Yet the guy has earn the right to continue pitching in the Cubs starting rotation. He is on target to win 15 games again this year. And if the team takes him out of that role because of financial obligation than it would be the worst move that the franchise has ever made. Sure, it's a lot worse than letting a willing Maddux entering his prime run off to Atlanta. That's not to say that I think the Cubs should sabotage his option vesting. That's just stupid. But let's not pretend that he's produced above his actual value this year.

I know that. Cedeno was called up on April 20th I believe, when Neifi was still "out of his mind." The first time. Currently, Neifi sucks, yet gets the vast majority of the playing time, even since Cedeno was called back up.

I like that we're still calling them the Expos.

Holy crap, a Razorback av. How have I not noticed you in 95 posts? Yeah, OBP is a problem. I'd like to see Cedeno start a lot and hit at the top of the order. Might work, might not, but status quo definitely isn't working, so...

I'm not trying to put you down, but you won't find many people here who pay attention to pitchers' W-L records, especially not ones that date back to the 1980's. You're right about folks here not valuing W/L, but nolanwood DOES make a good point about the relative value in the contracts the Cubs are paying Prior and Z. If those numbers were redistributed, I don't think anyone would have a problem. W/L record for a pitcher is an arbitrary, team statistic. A pitcher cannot control what his offense does. You're absolutely right!! He controlled what the other teams offense does - which is half the battle. But it's only half the battle if he goes the distance, and even then, it's not quite half (defense counts for something). Maddux had a shot at the win today. Do you think he deserved it? Wood pitched a much, much better game Wednesday and got a no-decision. Is that fair? And what could he have done about it? I guess he could have just pitched a perfect game and not have had to worry about it, but that's a pretty stupid expectation, isn't it?

I look EXACTLY like my avatar.

I'll assume that was directed towards me. (too lazy to see if anyone else has posted numbers on the first page) I'm not sure where you're going with that though. Corey played less than half a season in 03. Putting up his numbers in that year makes it look like he has regressed. I'll assume you forgot that he was hurt in '03. I'll also assume that you don't believe that '03 couldn't have had an effect on '04, especially at the end of the year. So I'll assume that your statistical analysis although accurate, does not tell the whole story. As warp wrote, we all wish Corey would be hitting better. But a bad Corey is still better than most CFers in the league. More accurately, a struggling Corey is still about a middle-of-the-pack CF.

Look, people. Why do people stick up so hard for Patterson? Because he takes more crap than anybody not named Macias or Perez. Basically, because there are more opportunities to stick up for him. I'm honestly not sure why I do it so much, myself; I end up repeating the same things over and over, frequently to the same people. See, here's the thing. Nobody's acting like he's not struggling. Nobody's saying you shouldn't be frustrated with his lack of production right now. I know I sure as hell am. The difference between the Patterson bashers and those that stand up for him is that we see it as a slump (those happen in baseball, you know), whereas the other side tends to proclaim that he's done, is stupid, has never improved, will never improve, doesn't care, is too stubborn to learn, hates Jews, lights gerbils on fire, whatever. And no, not everybody does that, but the sentiment is pervasive. People like myself don't comment just because we want to hype him up (it's amazing to me how many corey "bashers" talk about how hyped he is, or how his tolerable numbers are disappointed because of all the HYPE. Where is this hype coming from? I post here a lot, and I don't see it. Certainly haven't seen it lately. I see exponentially more bashing than I see hype.), but to defend him against the many misconceptions, unfair judgments, attacks, insults, and outright lies that come flying out when people are frustrated with his performance at any given time. The bashers also have been a lot more inclined to throw out past positive performance to support their stances than the supporters are to do the opposite. (gotta love the "can't bunt" guy leading the majors in bunting efficiency, and a guy with 16 bunt hits only caring about home runs.) Corey is sucking with RISP and against lefties. Corey did not suck in that capacity last season, nor the season before. But because he's struggling now, bashers would say that he sucks against them in general. This happens much more rarely coming from the other direction. DKWG, believe what you want to believe, but hyperbole does not help your cause. .329 and .320 aren't good, but they're a good bit better than .300. Completely incapable of making contact? That's an impressive stat line for a guy batting .000. Guess you missed the last two years? Extremely overrated defensively? Hardly, considering most outside of Cubs boards don't seem to know or care about his defensive abilities. Yes, his BB/k (and BB rate in general) is bad, but it's not everything. So if he breaks out of his slump in a week and starts putting up all-star numbers, are you going to reneg on your ascertainment? Not saying he's going to, but he's capable of it. If he continues to hit at as poorly as he has the last week or so over the long haul, then, certainly, there's serious cause for concern. I do find it interesting, though, how frequently other players get far more leeway with regards to struggle than Patterson does.

He's my pick to have the best pitching year from the Cards (as long as he can stay healthy). over mark mulder? Mulder is my pick for the Cy. If he's healthy (every indication he is). He should be a lock for 20 wins. Nobody is a lock for 20 wins.

Burnett is Bizarro Me, so I have to wish him well by default.

All this talk got me looking back at his numbers, and something really stood out to me. In 1992, when the Cubs traded for him, he was coming off a season in which he had an OPS of *.575.* Holy crap. I realized he hadn't lived up to his potential back then, but I didn't realize he was THAT bad. He truly has come a long way.