Magnetic Curses
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OMG STEVE STONE FOR GM~! HE TELLS IT LIKE IT IS, CURVEBALL OUTSIDE CORNER!! I was just throwing it out there. I never advocated Stone as GM. I've pointed to Hawk Harrelson's failed short tenure as GM of the Sox as a precursor to Stone becoming a GM(which he never will). Maybe Steve sees him as able to improve offensively. If that's why he likes him, then I like him too. . first of all, i don't think that having izturis at short is the end of the world, although i see no reason, other than blind hope, to believe that he will improve drastically at the plate. he's exactly the type of player that hendry likes to acquire and exactly the type of player that dusty likes to pencil in at the top of the order--an overhyped, athletic player that can't get on base or hit for power. now, as i said, it's not the end of the world with him at short, after all, he's very good deffensively and if we get better hitters in the off-season, his offense won't mean much. ideally, he hits 8th in a good lineup. however, if we start ronny cedeno at second and expect him to play most of the season there next year, we will fail and fail miserably. my only hope, if this indeed happens, is that no one gets hurt, not one soul--so that the cubs obvious (to some) inability to get on base or hit for power is seen by all as the reason for their inability to score runs or win games. a lack of injuries next season will lay bare before us all why hendry's brand of baseball fails. you can't score if you make outs all the time and can't hit for power. Unless Ronny really picks it up the last two months of the season. He's seeing the ball alot better. We'll have to see how he does. You do need someone like a Carlos Lee for LF next year and another starter or two. carlos lee is not the answer, either. hendry will have to pull off a big trade to bring someone with a big bat AND a good OBP to this team in the offseason.
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a day later....
Magnetic Curses replied to bring stone back's topic in MLB Draft, International Signings, Amateur Baseball
Irritable or short-tempered; irascible. Define irascible.....just kidding. Yes, that is me but some attitudes here just bring it out in me. We all want the same thing...to see the Cubs do well. In the meanwhile, let's enjoy it for what it is, have some fun and see what happens. I prefer to watch the games and the players while having some beers and some fun. i better be having a lot of beers, then, because the cubs will have 3 hitters in their opening day lineup more than capable of putting up sub-.700 OPS seasons. one of those players (izturis) is among the very few major league players today who has put up a sub-.600 OPS in back to back FULL seasons of major league baseball. 2004 was a career year for izturis, he broke the .700 barrier by 11 full point, how fantastic! i repeat my point from an earlier thread: if the cubs start izturis, cedeno, and pierre, the cubs will lose a lot of games. the true fans won't have much fun at all because their team will be terrible. -
OMG STEVE STONE FOR GM~! HE TELLS IT LIKE IT IS, CURVEBALL OUTSIDE CORNER!! I was just throwing it out there. I never advocated Stone as GM. I've pointed to Hawk Harrelson's failed short tenure as GM of the Sox as a precursor to Stone becoming a GM(which he never will). Maybe Steve sees him as able to improve offensively. If that's why he likes him, then I like him too. . first of all, i don't think that having izturis at short is the end of the world, although i see no reason, other than blind hope, to believe that he will improve drastically at the plate. he's exactly the type of player that hendry likes to acquire and exactly the type of player that dusty likes to pencil in at the top of the order--an overhyped, athletic player that can't get on base or hit for power. now, as i said, it's not the end of the world with him at short, after all, he's very good deffensively and if we get better hitters in the off-season, his offense won't mean much. ideally, he hits 8th in a good lineup. however, if we start ronny cedeno at second and expect him to play most of the season there next year, we will fail and fail miserably. my only hope, if this indeed happens, is that no one gets hurt, not one soul--so that the cubs obvious (to some) inability to get on base or hit for power is seen by all as the reason for their inability to score runs or win games. a lack of injuries next season will lay bare before us all why hendry's brand of baseball fails. you can't score if you make outs all the time and can't hit for power.
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Now there's at least one member who might take that as a compliment, but I think most of those who differ with jmajew are pretty much red-blooded capitalists (not that communists don't have red blood too). As such, we have an aversion to over-spending for under-production. capitalism is actually much more inefficient than communism. if you lived in a commune, your basic living expenses for one year would be around $10,000. I could live in a cabin with no electricity and forage in the wild for free, too. i'm not even talking about camping out in the underbrush and eating rats and grubs for dinner, tim. less money spent on living expenses means more fun things to own.
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I'm not the only one who finds most scouting reports really creepy, am I? "GOOD, FLUID HIPS. RIPPLING BICEPS! HANDLES BAT FIRLMLY, YET GENTLY. SURPRISINGLY SOFT HANDS." slides around effortlessly; large, thick hands; strong legs producing a biscuit-like look on backside.
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Now there's at least one member who might take that as a compliment, but I think most of those who differ with jmajew are pretty much red-blooded capitalists (not that communists don't have red blood too). As such, we have an aversion to over-spending for under-production. capitalism is actually much more inefficient than communism. if you lived in a commune, your basic living expenses for one year would be around $10,000.
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Then you would suck as a GM. i'm pretty sure he's joking, right? anyway, i'm all-communist all-the-time so i don't care, he can lay it on if he wants.
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WE NEED PEOPLE WHO CAN ACTUALLY GET ON BASE. You can get that from other positions. If Izturis returns to his 04 form his 330 OBP will be just fine from the 7 spot. If we can hopefully sign Carlos Lee or Soriano this offseason we will be set. Pierre, Barrett, Lee, Soriano/Lee, Ramirez, Jones/Murton, Izturis, Cedeno. What makes you think his "form" is the 330? Could it be all of the other seasons where he has been much worse? I think that was an anomoly, not something to be expected. His minor league OBP was 311, and it's 295 in the majors. Fine i'm an idiot and all of you are right. There is more to baseball than stats. All of these GMs that rely on stats have not won a World Series, besides Epstein but he is different from teh rest of them because of his extremely high payroll. There is no possible way a guy can go from being a genious back in 2003 to a complete moron now. This is all hyporcitical. your views are intriguing to me and i would like to subscribe to your newsletter. Thanks for the sarcasm. It just seems that everyone on this board puts very little emphasis on the art of scouting. because there is no objective truth in scouting. there is truth in quantifying actions and behaviors and developing a scientific probability for success--it's taught in colleges, it's called "statistics" (it's required for anywhere from a computer science bachelor's to a psych degree). this is what some stubborn people are failing to grasp. baseball has changed, it's not ol' grampa's game anymore, you can't predict success based on how red someone's ass is.
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WE NEED PEOPLE WHO CAN ACTUALLY GET ON BASE. You can get that from other positions. If Izturis returns to his 04 form his 330 OBP will be just fine from the 7 spot. If we can hopefully sign Carlos Lee or Soriano this offseason we will be set. Pierre, Barrett, Lee, Soriano/Lee, Ramirez, Jones/Murton, Izturis, Cedeno. What makes you think Hendry will do ANYTHING to get OBP at any position? Huh? I don't know. But the fact that no one can predict the future is reason enough to be optimistic. YOu can't assume that something is going to happen a certain way. We need to patiently wait till the offseason and see what he does. If he does go out and get Lee or Soriano this will have been a great deal. So sit back and relax and hope for the best. There is no reason to be negative. That's how I'm viewing it. I like Izturis at SS and Cedeno at 2B. Now. I EXPECT Jim Hendry to go out and get Carlos Lee at LF and either Zito or Shmidt at SP. Or equivalent of those 2. And possibly even upgrade CF or RF in offense as well. If he can do that, I can be happy about this team. BUT, that stuff has to happen. no team can win with 3 sub-.700 OPS's in the lineup, no matter how much anyone likes them. with cedeno, izturis, and pierre in the order, we'd have to trade for arod, pujols, ortiz, and manny. and that ain't happnin'. what part of "WE CAN'T SCORE!" don't some people understand?
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WE NEED PEOPLE WHO CAN ACTUALLY GET ON BASE. You can get that from other positions. If Izturis returns to his 04 form his 330 OBP will be just fine from the 7 spot. If we can hopefully sign Carlos Lee or Soriano this offseason we will be set. Pierre, Barrett, Lee, Soriano/Lee, Ramirez, Jones/Murton, Izturis, Cedeno. What makes you think his "form" is the 330? Could it be all of the other seasons where he has been much worse? I think that was an anomoly, not something to be expected. His minor league OBP was 311, and it's 295 in the majors. Fine i'm an idiot and all of you are right. There is more to baseball than stats. All of these GMs that rely on stats have not won a World Series, besides Epstein but he is different from teh rest of them because of his extremely high payroll. There is no possible way a guy can go from being a genious back in 2003 to a complete moron now. This is all hyporcitical. your views are intriguing to me and i would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
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WE NEED PEOPLE WHO CAN ACTUALLY GET ON BASE. You can get that from other positions. If Izturis returns to his 04 form his 330 OBP will be just fine from the 7 spot. If we can hopefully sign Carlos Lee or Soriano this offseason we will be set. Pierre, Barrett, Lee, Soriano/Lee, Ramirez, Jones/Murton, Izturis, Cedeno. What makes you think Hendry will do ANYTHING to get OBP at any position? Huh? I don't know. But the fact that no one can predict the future is reason enough to be optimistic. YOu can't assume that something is going to happen a certain way. We need to patiently wait till the offseason and see what he does. If he does go out and get Lee or Soriano this will have been a great deal. So sit back and relax and hope for the best. There is no reason to be negative. i'm actually starting to think that hendry is doing the exact opposite of what statistics-minded GM's are doing around the league in a desperate attempt to prove that OBP isn't important. he's doing more to prove that it's important than he'll ever know.
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Not if he can move runners which many of the Cubs can't and neither could Walker. just moving runners over is a terrible way to approach hitting. slapping at any pitch in order to "just make contact" is gutless baseball, and is generally exposed--much like our team is being exposed as gutless. "oh well, at least they don't strike out much and move runners over." striking out is a small price to pay for attempting to put the ball in play effectively, not just slapping bad pitches around the diamond for the sake of moving up baserunners--who don't exist anyway because we never walk, either.
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this offense cannot a foord a MI of izturis and cedeno. it can get by with one of them, not both. if this lineup holds up and cedeno is placed in the lineup along with izturis and pierre--well, boys, there are 3 sub .700 OPS's right there. but hendry won't see it, won't look in that direction. somebody will get hurt and he'll blame it on injuries. i just wish for one second that people would stop getting hurt so that hendry can see just how bad his team was, and it was bad. pray for a healthy team next year, and pray that it doesn't get lucky and wind up within 20 games of .500--that would only encourage the hendry and his antiquated philosophies. Good grief, has anyone with a top 10 payroll ever put a team on the field with 3 guys who are almost assuredly going to have sub .700 OPS's?
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If they put a specific kind of "latino sausage" in there just to appease latino fans who wanted/were complaining about some sort of sausage representation, then yes, that would be stupid and I would call it "politically correct pandering." However, allow me to add that I think the idea is hillarious. I mean, have you seen the thing? It's awesome. And Chorizo's ridiculous sombrero is anything but politically correct. it's symbolic. while we have no problem with old, european-immigrant, white sausages, we have a problem with a new, central american-immigrant, dark sausage. it's okay though, because we put a sombrero on the sausage and watch it runs around like a crazy sausage and it humors us. as long as the sausage is a benign stereotype-sausage coceived of by white people, we find it funny and harmless. just don't suggest that mexican sausages are infiltrating the psuedo-sausage culture of old, white america. because, in the end, it's all about preserving our white sausage culture. sorry chorizo, you're a sausage too late, you should have been here 100 years ago, then you'd have been welcomed into our sausage culture--------perhaps. I just don't like the way they taste. But I suppose that makes me an evil American bigot. [sarcasm]You capitalist pig! How dare you ignore the plight of the Mexican sausage![/sarcasm] i don't think you guys understand.
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The Official Go Mariners Thread
Magnetic Curses replied to Ding Dong Johnson's topic in Chicago Cubs Talk
i lived in seattle during the 01 mariners craze. fairweathers, all of them. -
the answer: hendry is convinced that the cubs' problems this year were a direct result of injuries and injuries alone. he is prepared to bring back 7 of 8 positional starters next season (and more than likely prepared to allow dusty to start neifi at second a minimum of 100 times). although i could see him overpaying for soriano, who, when allowed to swing as he likes with clines returning as the batting coach, will have a large dip in OPS. expect no major changes, i'm afraid. hendry is married to this team: if it fails, he will perceive his philosophy as one of failure. he's not ready to do that yet.
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Successful pitchers with low K rates
Magnetic Curses replied to TruffleShuffle's topic in Chicago Cubs Talk
the answer right there on your chart. his G/F ratio is near superhuman. a pitcher, in order to sustain success in the major leagues, must either strike out a lot of guys or get a lot of ground balls--i prefer ground ball pitchers, they seem to be more durable as they throw less pitches and get a lot of poor contact (poor contact on early pitches is worse than a strikeout). it doesn't matter if you have a poor defense around you, if you get 3 ground balls to every fly ball, you're gtoing to be very successful--check maddux's ratios when he was in his prime. Maddux had good G/F ratios, but also had much higher K rates than Wang has been able to achieve. Also, does anyone know if G/F ratios are usually repeatable (i.e., can we reasonably conclude that Wang will maintain this level of G/F success in the future?) good G/F ratio is generally the existence of a good sinking pitch. if one possesses a good sinker, then yes, they are repeatable. -
Successful pitchers with low K rates
Magnetic Curses replied to TruffleShuffle's topic in Chicago Cubs Talk
the answer right there on your chart. his G/F ratio is near superhuman. a pitcher, in order to sustain success in the major leagues, must either strike out a lot of guys or get a lot of ground balls--i prefer ground ball pitchers, they seem to be more durable as they throw less pitches and get a lot of poor contact (poor contact on early pitches is worse than a strikeout). it doesn't matter if you have a poor defense around you, if you get 3 ground balls to every fly ball, you're gtoing to be very successful--check maddux's ratios when he was in his prime. -
Koskie is on the DL. i know, with a concussion, but a boy can dream.
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this trade, as well as the lee for cordero/mench/nix deal, frees up my earlier trade proposal. pierre and maddux for clark and koskie jones and ramirez for abreu
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Agreed. I will be disappointed if Maddux isn't traded. Not that I don't like the guy, because I do, but he isn't part of the plans for next year and we should get what we can for him. I agree, the Cubs should get what they can for Maddux, but with Ned Colletti at the helm for the Dodgers, I doubt he will give them much. Colletti used to work for the Cubs and left the organization with a lot of bad blood. He hates the Cubs. Some have theorized thats why Furcal is in LA right now, just to spite the Tribune. He, among all other GMs, will not want to give a lot in a trade with the Cubs. colletti will somehow find a way to squander the stockpile of young talent that depodesta left him with, you just watch.
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I like hearing the stuff about Benson. Very good to hear. http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/football/bears/cs-060727bearsmullin,1,447572.story?coll=cs-bears-headlines what bothers me are the people who call him a bust, and oft-injured already. benson had one horrible-looking injury last year, but he came back--a testament to his flexability and conditioning. the guy had a willis mcgahee-type looking injury and he didn't require surgery, that's amazing. i like benson a lot, and think he will be more durable than jones over the course of his career.
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If they put a specific kind of "latino sausage" in there just to appease latino fans who wanted/were complaining about some sort of sausage representation, then yes, that would be stupid and I would call it "politically correct pandering." However, allow me to add that I think the idea is hillarious. I mean, have you seen the thing? It's awesome. And Chorizo's ridiculous sombrero is anything but politically correct. it's symbolic. while we have no problem with old, european-immigrant, white sausages, we have a problem with a new, central american-immigrant, dark sausage. it's okay though, because we put a sombrero on the sausage and watch it runs around like a crazy sausage and it humors us. as long as the sausage is a benign stereotype-sausage coceived of by white people, we find it funny and harmless. just don't suggest that mexican sausages are infiltrating the psuedo-sausage culture of old, white america. because, in the end, it's all about preserving our white sausage culture. sorry chorizo, you're a sausage too late, you should have been here 100 years ago, then you'd have been welcomed into our sausage culture--------perhaps.
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Olney on ESPN Radio
Magnetic Curses replied to RynoRules's topic in MLB Draft, International Signings, Amateur Baseball
i will take this time to point out that abreu's power numbers aren't "rapidly declining". he's never been a guy to hit a ton of home runs. what he does is hit line drives. oh yeah, and he makes pitchers work hard, but we're the cubs, we just want guys who "put the ball in play" no matter what the cost. -
Never tried to say he was great, or even good, but given the dearth of pitching talent available these days he still has value. There are 14 out of 45 qualifying AL pitchers with worse OPSA including Jon Garland, Mark Buehrle, and ""All Star"" Mark Redman. not that i'm a garland fan, he's a pitcher without very good stuff but has been able to get a majority of ground balls over 6 full major league seasons, if koronka wants to turn serviceable, than he needs to develop an effective sinking pitch, because he's not going to get many strikeouts. as for buerhle, he has had a nightmare season, but has been one of the better pitchers in the AL over his previous 5 seasons and this year appears to be an exception. again, buehrle gets ground balls and has been effective at recording outs--koronka has not. if koronka had had any kind of success in the past and this season was simply an anomaly, it would be different. and i think that i can safely predict that if koronka stays in the big leagues for an extended period of time, it will be as a journeyman bullpen arm--hardly worth holding on to.