Magnetic Curses

i have a tough time believing that lofton will be a .256/.322/.319 player, real tough time. like i said, i'd take .275/.346/.395 and that's what i think he'd deliver. i don't think we'll make a play for bradley, and if we sign giles i'd rather him play right. that leaves us with a few subpar choices and a decent one.

why new york or boston? i think we have a decent shot with the money we have to spend. I have no idea why the Cubs would even consider signing him. He's no more reliable than Wood, and no more accomplished. Would you sign Kerry Wood to a 4 year $50m contract this offseason? I wouldn't, and I sure wouldn't sign Burnett to one either. i wouldn't compare him to wood just yet. while he's no more accomplished, he's thrown over 200 innings this year and has shown no nagging shoulder or elbow problems since his tjs. like wood, though, he's a very good pitcher, which is why i'd sign him.

there's nothing a general manager can do to imrpove hitting w/risp, absolutely nothing. good hitters hit will hit better in every situation. a guy who hits a career .275 will not hit .400 w/ risp for his career.

why new york or boston? i think we have a decent shot with the money we have to spend.

I heard that too. You're a good one to only chuckle, I laughed and almost threw a shoe at the tv. When Perez comes to the plate the first at-bat of every series, I think broadcasters should make this public service announcement: "Neifi Perez once had 200 hits in a season (a very good thing), yet he failed to hit .300 in that season (a very bad thing when you have 200 hits). How? Why? Because he had over 700 plate appearances in that season because he won't allow pitchers to walk him." most other hitters who've made it to the bigs understand that while hitting the ball is important, taking a walk is often necessary to winning. i don't know why we have to acquire every player who doesn't understand this.

i'll take lofton at his 04 numbers of .275/.346/.395 over anything else. torii hunter's never put up an obp like that in his career.

something that made me chuckle: the brewers announcer, the other night said that perez "doesn't walk much, but puts the ball in play and gets on base a ton." just another reason to scratch your head at "conventional wisdom".

not much, but he had a terrible payroll to pare down and a system to cultivate. it's not like you can just change the course of a franchise in 3-4 years. So you're admitting that Ricciardi has done nothing to warrant the thoughts of him being better than Hendry. why do you hate him so much? does it bother the "old school" fan in you? it must also bother you that beane continues to be successful in oakland despite losing his 2 top starters, a move that many "smallballers" said would be his undoing because his "system" doesn't work.

conversely, i'd say that many dislike JP simply because of his former association with Beane.

what about his altercations with the fans, managment & teamates? with pie in the minors, i would prefer a stopgap like lofton myself. we got rid of the "troublemakers" last year, it didn't help.

i guess i didn't understand this statement. my argument would be the propensity of someone putting it in the air would come with a propensity to give up xbh's. pitching to contact, if you are a hard throwing, strikeout pitcher that doesn't get an overwhelming amount fo ground balls, like prior, pitching to contact is a bad idea.

as long as bradley plays 140+ games and produces like he usually does, i'll leave the cops to sort out his personal life.

what's his LD% to go along with that? and i agree with the bradley thing.

with men on base, that is not true. that's why a strikeout pitcher is preferred by some to pitcher who pitches to contact. the drawback is the high pitch count...which doesn't matter if they aren't laboring, but obviously leads to stints on the DL if your manager is oblivous. it all depends on the situation. 99.9% of the time, a popout = strikeout, no matter what. in many situations, a groundout with a man on first is better than a strikeout, because of the potential to get two outs. the point is this. his infatuation with the strikeout leads to high pitch counts. high pitch counts do matter, laboring or not, because it leads to the starter not working deep into a game. our bullpen sucks and has sucked all year and Prior has made zero adjustments to start pitching deeper into his starts. what I would prefer is a pitcher who pitches to contact when he can and pitches for the strikeout when he needs to. Mark Prior tries to strike everyone out. its the same argument everyone has used to detract from Kerry Wood for years. the difference is Wood has always been called a thrower. Prior has always been called a pitcher, but I'm seeing less and less pitching out of Prior and more and more throwing. its just another example of the rampant dumbness that infects this team. the whole damn roster is a little thin between the ears. untrue. strikeout and groundball pitchers are the most consistently effective pitchers in the majors. pitchers who get more flyouts than groundouts and don't have high k rates generally suck.

Furcal isn't worthy anywhere near that number. Not even close. which is why we keep nomar and try to add giles and (please don't hurt me) lofton, who'd offer the most reasonable stopgap. it also would probably give us the ability to add some pitching help, preferably burnett. i honestly don't think a lineup of: lofton walker lee giles ramirez nomar murton barrett looks that bad.

Anytime you have a staff, save Maddux, who generally pitches away from contact makes the opposing scouts' jobs easy. I have ticked a few people off with my criticism of our scouts and minor league instructors. Then again if you constantly sign and trade for guys who have aggressive approaches at the plate what can you expect? i'm curious to know if hendry is aware that: 1. his team throws the most pitches per game. 2. sees the least pitches per game. or if he has connected the dots yet, and "why not?" if he hasn't. the cubs woes are right in front of you jim, and jacque jones is not going to be your savior next season.

i wonder what he said? i just can't believe that he hasn't been fired yet.

i wouldn't call it a microcosm of the season at all, but it was very indicative of just what our problems have been in the pitching department this season. i'm not sure if anyone noticed this or not, but brewer hitters went up there with the bats on their shoulders against our relievers. iirc, each reliever in the ballgame, save dempster and ohman, walked the first hitter they faced. and even dempster went 3-2 on his first hitter: miller, who didn't swing at a pitch until the count was full. nelson cruz, for crying out loud, the first hitter that van buren saw, looked as if he had absolutely NO INTENTION of swinging at anything JVB could throw up there, ball or strike. this philosophy is true team-oriented philosophy, at least as close as you can get to team-ball in baseball. hitters that go up there and walk put pressure on the pitcher to plate pitches, which was extremely important for novoa against hall. teams DO this against us, and we never do it against anyone, which is why we aren't in any kind of playoff hunt. dusty needs to get his hands on the book on the cubs, because he obviously hasn't read it himself.

Murton, Lofton or Pierre, Wilkerson would look pretty nice, too. And a lot cheaper, leaving tons of $$ for the likes of Furcal, Ryan and Burnett. No OF with Pierre in it is going to look good to me. the idea of pierre at wrigley kind of scares me as well. i think that lofton would come pretty cheap. and believe me, i'm not one of those "bring back lofton because he's the awesomest leadoff hitter we've ever had and single-handedly won us the division in 2003"-guys. i like his OBP, and we can bridesmaid dress-him in 2007, provided pie is ready, uninjured and successful.

Why do you automatically equate fundamentals to bunting? I think of executing a run down properly, shifting your weight in blocking pitches in the dirt, turning a routine double play, hitting the cutoff man........ i think you're right. it's weird, but it's what i think of when people start talking about fundamentals. i'm not sure why it happens.

you're kidding, right? please tell me you are.

i hate when people talk about "fundamentals". it always seems to me that they're really talking about bunting people over with their #2 hitter, which is not fundamental at all. one half-sentence on discipline, the whole damn thing should be about a lack of discipline. discipline is the only fundamental that i care about.

not much, but he had a terrible payroll to pare down and a system to cultivate. it's not like you can just change the course of a franchise in 3-4 years.

Why don't we just get Vlady, Tejada and ARod as well? Geez, man, you can't get a unicorn and a leprachaun, you greedy son of a gun. If you spend on a unicorn you'll probably have to settle for a couple gnomes at best. But stay away from the daggum gremlins. "what about Jesus, he's like....6 leprechauns." "Yeah, but much harder to catch, stick with the leprechaun."

wilkerson strikes out alot but he also walks alot 106 bb/152 k's in 04. Sarcasm is fun. Sulley loves walks so much his first born's name is going to be B.B. guess i missed the sarcasm. sometimes its hard to tell around here who is being serious & who is being sarcastic. dude, come on. i was laying it on pretty thick.