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Magnetic Curses

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  1. Magnetic Curses
    Would Gerry Hunsicker be interested? 3 words- Paul De Podesta the only currently available guy whose philosophy i agree with. give him 5 years to develop a farm system full of patient ballplayers and we'll be a perrenial contender. No way the Cubs would hire him though. Especially not after the high profile Dodgers experience. I just don't see it happening. if they want to go cheap, depodesta would be the way to go, though. and i don't see why everyone says that he failed with the dodgers. he was given just over 2 years, not nearly enough time to draft and develop his own players. they could give him an 80 mil payroll and tell him to make his own "luck".
  2. Magnetic Curses
    bad luck is a very valid reason for a lack of success over a 5 game stretch, but when the stretch is over 20 games, then bad luck is a lame excuse for poor management at every level.
  3. Magnetic Curses
    Would Gerry Hunsicker be interested? 3 words- Paul De Podesta the only currently available guy whose philosophy i agree with. give him 5 years to develop a farm system full of patient ballplayers and we'll be a perrenial contender.
  4. Magnetic Curses
    baker's philosophy of "always be aggressive" is killing the team. i think hendry's more at fault than dusty, but firing dusty---and, most importantly, gene clines, will go a long way towards improving the OBP and SLG of this ballclub.
  5. Magnetic Curses
    Here's something I would love to see: You all have seen that long Bonds sign in (is it?) soccer's sig. Every home game, as often as possible before the trade deadline, I'd like to see a sign of similar proportions that says, "IT'S ABOUT THE OBP, STUPID" hovering just above the juniper bushes in center. no OBP and no SLG make jim a stupid boy.
  6. Magnetic Curses
    so the greg oden dream is still alive.
  7. Magnetic Curses
    i never said he was the answer, just that he'd be one of our best hitters instantly, even with minimal improvement over his current average. His current average is .100. What do you consider minimal improvement? i was being facetious, do you want the definition, too? I'd rather have Alfonzo's "absolute psychological profile." :roll: ahh, the roll means you're being sarcastic! i get it, i get jokes.
  8. Magnetic Curses
    the bulls have the knicks' 1st rounder next year, too, right?
  9. Magnetic Curses
    i never said he was the answer, just that he'd be one of our best hitters instantly, even with minimal improvement over his current average. His current average is .100. What do you consider minimal improvement? i was being facetious, do you want the definition, too?
  10. Magnetic Curses
    Agreed. I've even invented a phrase for it - "neck-down baseball". I could be wrong, but I don't think that is what goony means. I don't think the players on the Cubs are any more dumb then the average baseball player. Hendry drafts and covets players who look good in a uniform and have physical talent, while shortchanging or neglecting to look at other, more important things like the ability to get on base or the ability to throw strikes. one of the points of "moneyball" (a point i think is even more interesting than the undervalue of obp in the past) is that there are some players who are natural ballplayers. beane remarks that lenny dykstra was just one of those guys who didn't have an inkling of doubt in his mind when he stepped up to the plate, a characteristic that nick swisher apparently has. it's not about playing smart or being smart, it's about having the right psychological makeup. i think todd walker has the same makeup, he doesn't go up there looking for walks, but he gets them if he doesn't get his pitch, he's not constantly second-guessing himself in the batter's box, which would lead to poor PA after poor PA. that's not to say that you absolutely cannot turn an athlete into a good ballplayer with the right smoke and the right mirrors. that said, i'd definitely develop some sort of absolute psychological profile on any player that i was going to draft. i wouldn't simply watch them run and throw and then say "i'll take him!" something that gary hughes has done more than enough times.
  11. Magnetic Curses
    i never said he was the answer, just that he'd be one of our best hitters instantly, even with minimal improvement over his current average.
  12. Magnetic Curses
    what is league average?
  13. Magnetic Curses
    this may go hand-in-hand with the "sox walk, cubs don't" thread, but i think this topic deserved it's own thread and i don't start many threads so hopefully i'll get the benefit of the doubt from the mods (please). i could be wrong, but i've noticed that, overwhelmingly, cubs hitters are not willing to take strike 3--not even with a full count. cubs hitters are the easiest hitters in the league to pitch to with a full count because the one and only reason they've worked the count full was to get to a guarateed fastball, a fastball which doesn't always come. it's like they've made up their mind that the pitcher positively, absolutely is going to throw a fastball down the middle and it's going to be the most hittable pitch they've ever seen. i saw podsednik do something yesterday that juan pierre just doesn't do very much--take strike 3 in back-to-back at-bats. in pods's 3rd AB, he took 3 straight pitches after getting down in the count 1-2, the first 2 were very close (many conventional minds would have said that they were "too close to take") but they weren't something he'd decided that he could have hit very hard. so instead of flailing at borderline pitches that he probably would have just grounded to the left side, he took them, made zambrano work harder, and nearly got to first to show for it. those AB's may have been pathetic to some, but they were absolute things of beauty to me. that is what a lead-off man is supposed to do, and it appears that pods has dicovered it it in the past season or two. pierre needs to discover that you must make a pitcher throw you YOUR pitch, not his. if you don't get YOUR pitch, you either walk to first base or you don't--it's not often that a pitcher can consistently be in the strike zone and not give you a picth to hit. rickey henderson was the most amazing player at making a pitcher come to him, and never giving in, never going out of a very small zone to swing at an errant pitch. the "aggressiveness" approach needs to go. baseball is a cerebral sport, not an adrenal one.
  14. Magnetic Curses
    how can anyone be less valuable than neifi perez? EDIT: upon further review: alfonzo is instantly one of the best hitters in the lineup.
  15. Magnetic Curses
    can we possibly find a way to get macphail fired and then hendry fired before anything comes of this? ps- please have every coach on the staff fired as well. it's not that the trib is cheap, because they're really not, they're just not very good at this baseball business. if they really wanted to save money while putting a watchable product on the field, they'd hire PD (you know who), tell him to cut the payroll to 85-80 mil--and have him start drafting and developing the farm. this would actually make me very happy, plus it would cut payroll. pss- gary hughes is satan and won't stop drafting athletes until he is removed, no matter how bad at baseball said athletes are. the worse they are the more resolve he has to prove those "moneyball" fellas wrong. save money, hire depo.
  16. Magnetic Curses
    i like the sig.
  17. Magnetic Curses
    He isn't used in a platoon situation. He has almost 100 plate appearances against right handers. From a quick count he's started 31 of 36 games, and saw at least 1 at bat in 3 others. So he's played in every game but 2. He is struggling as is the team, so there is nothing wrong with giving him a couple of days off. Rational statements like that aren't appreciated around here! :wink: you're right, it's much more rational to put bynum in left.
  18. Magnetic Curses
    To be fair, Bynum has only had a couple starts, although that's more than he should ever get. bynum is worthless, his acquisition is as a headscratching move as i've ever seen. i partially blame dusty for playing him, but i wholly blame hendry for getting him.
  19. Magnetic Curses
    this is the definition of fantatstic damage. i'm so glad that neifi and bynum are not only on the team, but starting and playing consistently.
  20. Magnetic Curses
    yeah, sandberg's in the hall because of his bunting prowess. 31 total sacrifices in his career. If he were playing for Dusty, he'd hit that total in four or five months. Bunting is what second basemen do, dude. So then why can't Hairston or Bynum do it? Sandberg at least knew how. These guys obviously haven't put in the work on basic fundamentals. And Dusty isn't insisting that they do. That's poor, IMO. would people stop calling bunting, stealing, and hitting and running "fundamentals" please? if anything, those are what one would call "peripherals" or something of that nature--maybe "frivolous" is the word i'm looking for. "fundamentals" are, at least on the batting end of it: getting on base and driving the ball--and that's about it. any team that can't do these things can't score runs, that's about as fundamental as i can think of. the jury is still out on whether sac bunting increases or decreases the odds of scoring a single run in a single inning--the jury is in on whether or not it decreases the odds of scoring many runs in an inning, guilty as charged. that's not anywhere close to a fundamental skill (ie- a skill which all others are based upon and flow out of). sacrifice bunting (at least for a non-pitcher) is more "frivolous" than fundamental.
  21. Magnetic Curses
    lou Piniella is terrible and would be somehow worse than dusty baker, here. we don't need old-school managers that think blood and guts and the sacrifice bunt will win championships. we need a manager who will make nice with the press, not use the word "dude" or "man" so much (and definitely not swear at them), let the players do the playing and stand on the top dugout step with his chin up. lou Piniella won't use the same language that dusty uses, but he won't win any more games, either.
  22. Magnetic Curses
    the hilariousness would also be precious to all. dusty, plz give us some more photoshop material!
  23. Magnetic Curses
    technically, it's less healthy to bottle up rage and internalize it to the point where it can cause a heart-attack. people who show their frustration more openly are generally healthier people. however, throwing a tantrum in the clubhouse will not get juan pierre to understand the importance of taking walks or trying to put the ball in play effectively.
  24. Magnetic Curses
    I wouldn't give 3 first rounders for Davis. That's absolutely insane. technically, it would only be 2, this year's first round pick would just be improved. considering our track record with 1st rounders, we're bound to miss on the next two years anyway, why not make this year worth something? especially with a tight-end that gives you so many different options. 2 first rounders for a potentially great player is an easy deal to make. barring injury, vernon davis is a virtual lock to be a perrenial pro-bowler in the NFC. Wow, a little overhype there, no? I heard the same about Bubba Franks. to be fair, bubba franks is a multiple pro-bowler himself. And that shows you something about the quality of TEs in the game, not to mention the supposed "need" to have a great one. Franks isn't any better than most second-tier tight ends. But he was hyped up a lot before being drafted, and averages just about 300 yards per season and 4.5 TDs. And he did it playing in a great offense with the best QB in the game. go up and read the bolded part of my post. bubba's a better blocker than a pass catcher, tho.
  25. Magnetic Curses
    You had me fooled...I was in the midst of a nasty reply there.... :D i was waiting for someone to misinterpret the sarcasm! :P
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