Magnetic Curses

taguchi has never made an out against us.

Makes no sense. He was hitting HRs last year with half a wrist. he hit one after the injury.

I wish this team gave us something to be optimistic about... Odds are we are gonna be in the race for the top draft pick again. If we keep raking up these draft picks we might have something to be excited about in a few years. Right like we did in the mid '90's. We will mess that up too. I think Mark Cuban may be our only hope. i don't think so. nobody can save this team. what we need is a witch.

well, if people can call zambrano a bum, i can say that lee's power is long gone. he hasn't even come close this season.

i think ward is going yard.

Has he had a good one since ST ended? lol, I'm just mad because he needed to be hitting to the right side. Wasn't there 1 out? Who cares what side he hits it to. Hitters should always be looking to advance the runner. There's no guarantee Blanco can score from 2B on a single... You can't predict the future, Lilly might have singled. It was a bad at bat by Izturis! wrong. hitters should always be looking to hit the ball hard. whether that means pulling an inside pitch or going the other way with an outside pitch. this "advancing runners" thing is no good.

looper's gameday picture looks like shrek.

i'm still waiting for cesar izturis to be omar vizquel.

keep looking, molina.

more weird things.

But they wouldn't do that before he retired, would they? no, but soon after is what i meant. :D

wow, mojo, i didn't know you were so hard on him. ouch.

Cool. I also remember a stats guy on Murph in the offseason who predicted a breakout year for Rich on the basis that his minor league numbers are some of the best in recent memory. The early returns are, he was right on. I don't remember his name though. iirc, he had the best jamesian game score last season, including sanchez's non-no. and yes, john dewan, a guy i don't usually like to hear from as he seems to turn away from meaningful stats and call attention to meaningless ones. I was pretty excited after listening to him. I make no secret I don't really follow the minors, so I wasn't aware of Hill's dominance (well, maybe a little but he was talking like Hill's minor league career was one of the greatest.......ever). i don't know about greatest ever, but his k/9 was legendary.

sammy needs to have his number on one of the foul poles, and soon.

Cool. I also remember a stats guy on Murph in the offseason who predicted a breakout year for Rich on the basis that his minor league numbers are some of the best in recent memory. The early returns are, he was right on. I don't remember his name though. iirc, he had the best jamesian game score last season, including sanchez's non-no. and yes, john dewan, a guy i don't usually like to hear from as he seems to turn away from meaningful stats and call attention to meaningless ones.

i was just bragging about what i had said before, not calling anyone out with what they've said. actually there's some fairly decent conversations in those threads, it's like reading a journal and remembering.

please, bask in my i-told-you-so-ness. http://northsidebaseball.com/PremiumForum/viewtopic.php?t=28009&highlight= http://northsidebaseball.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?t=28009&highlight=

Ok now that I understand. But, the posters hating the guy because he had a drug problem. That is ridiculous. Actually, I still don't understand that. I have a hard time not giving a crap about someone because they "put themselves in that situation". Addicts are not people that consciously say "wooo, I'm gonna do me some drugs or alcohol and party it up and waste all my good fortune that has come my way." They are sick, and it's nice to see ANYONE who has had problems with addiction break it. I don't care how much talent they wasted, how easy they had it growing up, any of it. The world would be a better place if fewer people were afflicted with the sickness that is addiction. Just because I can knock back some beers and not have a problem doesn't mean I'm going to think someone who becomes an alcoholic is just a weaker individual than I am, unworthy of my support. excellent post, wade. couldn't have worded it better myself.

Consistantly very very above average. Yes. Consitantly excellent? No. Now I'm not gonna argue Z doesn't have the STUFF. Because he does. The problem is is control and walks. The ONLY year where I think he has had stellar stuff, and stellar results, is in 2004. ERA === 03 - 3.11 04 - 2.75 05 - 3.26 06 - 3.41 This year is going to be very important for Zambrano. Is he going to continue to trend downward? Or shape things back up? So far it's not looking so good. He's going to have to have a couple more shutout games than previous years to end up in the low 3's of ERA. ERA+ last 4 seasons: 136 165 131 136 i don't see a real downward trend, he just had a great season in 2004. and he's got 31 starts left this year, let's relax on saying what he has to have and how soon. However his BB's have been rising since 2004. 81 in '04 209 IP 86 in '05 but 223 IP 115 in 214 innings in '06 '06 is the scary part. In less innins than '05. In '06 he walked 29 more batters. He's walked 16 so far this season in 4 starts. Which divides to 4 BB's per start. If you extrapolate that over 32 starts, he's on pace to walk 128 batters (over just 32 starts). That's generally not gonna help your ERA and ERA+ very much. So basically, yes I can say what Zambrano needs to start doing. He's going to have to stop walking batters, that's for sure. Each game he walks atleast 4, he is adding more pressure to walk less than 4 in order to not increase his BB total significantly from previous years. . i never said that he didn't have problem with walks, that's not what i'm arguing. even with all the walks in 2006, he still posted a better era+ than 2005. So ERA+ does not consider walks? it's actually more impressive to think that he was able to have a relatively better season and still surrender more walks--so, yes, it does. never said he doesn't have a problem with walks though. but that doesn't necessarily mean that a 25 year-old is on his way out of the league. that's ridiculous.

who had a 110 OPS+ in 340 plate appearances last season? i really like zaun. welcome to the platoon.

Consistantly very very above average. Yes. Consitantly excellent? No. Now I'm not gonna argue Z doesn't have the STUFF. Because he does. The problem is is control and walks. The ONLY year where I think he has had stellar stuff, and stellar results, is in 2004. ERA === 03 - 3.11 04 - 2.75 05 - 3.26 06 - 3.41 This year is going to be very important for Zambrano. Is he going to continue to trend downward? Or shape things back up? So far it's not looking so good. He's going to have to have a couple more shutout games than previous years to end up in the low 3's of ERA. ERA+ last 4 seasons: 136 165 131 136 i don't see a real downward trend, he just had a great season in 2004. and he's got 31 starts left this year, let's relax on saying what he has to have and how soon. However his BB's have been rising since 2004. 81 in '04 209 IP 86 in '05 but 223 IP 115 in 214 innings in '06 '06 is the scary part. In less innins than '05. In '06 he walked 29 more batters. He's walked 16 so far this season in 4 starts. Which divides to 4 BB's per start. If you extrapolate that over 32 starts, he's on pace to walk 128 batters (over just 32 starts). That's generally not gonna help your ERA and ERA+ very much. So basically, yes I can say what Zambrano needs to start doing. He's going to have to stop walking batters, that's for sure. Each game he walks atleast 4, he is adding more pressure to walk less than 4 in order to not increase his BB total significantly from previous years. . i never said that he didn't have problem with walks, that's not what i'm arguing. even with all the walks in 2006, he still posted a better era+ than 2005.

ramon- chronic injuries derailed his career, but he was posting above average numbers at 30. boswell- injured maloney-injured after 29 pedro- well.. ismael- promising career plagued by blister problem that wouldn't go away. nash- not near as effective or consistent as zambrano. petry- overused and abused to a much greater degree than z. peavy- good. benes- was posting good years as late as 30. barber- injuries put him in the bullpen, basically. unless you expect z to be injured, it's hard to compare his situation with theirs. injuries are difficult to predict.

Consistantly very very above average. Yes. Consitantly excellent? No. Now I'm not gonna argue Z doesn't have the STUFF. Because he does. The problem is is control and walks. The ONLY year where I think he has had stellar stuff, and stellar results, is in 2004. ERA === 03 - 3.11 04 - 2.75 05 - 3.26 06 - 3.41 This year is going to be very important for Zambrano. Is he going to continue to trend downward? Or shape things back up? So far it's not looking so good. He's going to have to have a couple more shutout games than previous years to end up in the low 3's of ERA. ERA+ last 4 seasons: 136 165 131 136 i don't see a real downward trend, he just had a great season in 2004. and he's got 31 starts left this year, let's relax on saying what he has to have and how soon.

Consistantly very very above average. Yes. Consitantly excellent? No. Now I'm not gonna argue Z doesn't have the STUFF. Because he does. The problem is is control and walks. The ONLY year where I think he has had stellar stuff, and stellar results, is in 2004. ERA === 03 - 3.11 04 - 2.75 05 - 3.26 06 - 3.41 This year is going to be very important for Zambrano. Is he going to continue to trend downward? Or shape things back up? So far it's not looking so good. He's going to have to have a couple more shutout games than previous years to end up in the low 3's of ERA. ERA+ last 4 seasons: 136 165 131 136 i don't see a real downward trend, he just had a great season in 2004. and he's got 31 starts left this year, let's relax on saying what he has to have and how soon.

i see no evidence that leads me to believe that this is anything but a slow start. if he's got a 5+ era at the end of the season, then i'll concede he's had a bad year. but please don't imply that a 25 year-old pitcher who's done nothing but be very good is on the downside of his career.