Holy Cow

Juan almost hit a walk-off shot today. Carlos Lee robbed it. He should have hit it harder. Bum. Wierdly enough, Juan looked angry with himself right after contact, even though it was hit hard enough to make it well over the fence.

And not really "proven." There are lots of 20-year-old pitchers who don't reach their potential, due to injuries or other things (like Doc). Felix has a very high ceiling, but being a pitching prospect means he also comes with a great deal of risk. It's not like you're dealing all of those guys and getting a guarantee that he'll have a Clemens-type career rather than an injury-riddled one. But think of how much it took to bring Doc down.

There's nothing funnier that scrolling through a Cubs message board and seeing everyone say "I don't know why, I just have a gut feeling like Wood and Prior are both gonna get healthy and pitch like 2003." What a funny group of people. Not that I don't have the exact same feeling....

Come on guys. I hate Dusty as much as the next guy, and believe that at least some of Wood and Prior's problems are related to him. However, there is no reason to jump on him for making a relativity funny and sensible fishing analogy. In fact, I rather like Dusty's personality, and appreciate it when a manager takes the media's attention off the team. Lets limit our criticisms to legitimate grips.

Hey, out in New York, I don't get to see many games, but I try to follow the baby bulls as much as I can. However, there are a lot of questions that box scores and sportscenter don't answer. For example, when Deng and Nocioni are on the floor together, who plays the 4? Also, why is Ben Gordon not starting? I understand that Duhon has been playing great recently, but Gordon seems to regularly get more minutes anyway, even during bad performances. Besides, he seemed to play better when he was the starter. Also, why is Sweetney the starter at center? My friend said it probably has something to do with Tyson's back. That doesn't make sense to me though, because Tyson always getes a starter's minutes . If you were protecting his back, wouldn'y you do the opposite, i.e. start him but cut down his minutes? Finally, why cut Tim Thomas? From the couple of games I have seen on national TV, my read his that we can beat any team in the league when our shots are falling. We are inconsistent because we have no secondary option to help tread water while the shots are not falling. Tyson has no touch around the basket, and behind him is only a hodgepodge of bench-caliber players. You're telling me we couldn't use Thomas' 10 points on .441 shooting as an option in the paint to take the pressure off our guards?

True fans NEVER root for their players to actually fail. Instead, what you should root for is for Dusty to use him properly and for him to succeed in that role. Thanks for telling me what I should and should not do. I guess I'm not a "true fan." :roll: More like someone who likes to see failure on their favorite team. In onder words, illogical. There's nothing illogical about what WB said, nor does it not make him a true fan. By this logic, if you've ever hoped for a sacrifice bunt, or hoped that one was successful, you are illogically hoping failure on the team. He wants the team to be ultimately successful, and the best way he thinks is for Neifi to be terrible to make Dusty less likely to play him. That's no different than hoping he does well and justifies Dusty's decision. Both want the team to succeed, and both are logical and indicative of "true fandom". We all know it will take Dusty at least two months of atrocious play from Neifi for him to bench him. That will hurt the team more in the standings than Neifi doing well, whether he plays a little or a lot. It comes down to whether certain people enjoy the Cubs winning more or hating Dusty and Neifi. But if Neifi does well, then he's guaranteed to play a lot. And soon enough, he will revert to his career mean. Then, he will absolutely murder us over the last 3 months of the season, hurting us more than if he had just sucked like we all expected. Anyway, this is the last time I'm ever going to post on this subject.

He was third in the entire league in GIDP last year. He puts the ball in play, but never in the right place. He doesn't advance runners, he erases them. Besides, hits and walls advance the runner as well. Walker is the obvious choice, followed by Murton, then Cedeno, Barret, and even Jerry Hairston. All are better choices than Neifi for the two spot. Luckily, lineups don't really matter all that much. p.s. Thanks JonMDavis for sponsering the Jerry Hairston page on baseball-reference.com. Pretty cool. He even plugs nsbb!

Eric, Does anyone ever involve you in the discussion about when it is time to move up a level? It seemed for a while like A-ball wasn't very challanging for you. Also, have you ever raced your brother? Who is faster? And how's he doing these days? I hope he know that everyone in Chicago is rooting for him to figure it out and become the player we all saw in him.

People need to stop saying that Neifi is "not that bad." Walker has a .348 career OBP (.354 with the Cubs). Neifi is has managed .301 over his carrer, including a cool .298 last season over 572 ABs for the Cubs. Derrek and Aramis are turning into a dangerous tandem, but they need walker in front of them getting on base.

And I hope he drills Edmonds again. He got panned for it but I thought it was appropriate and should win his teammates affection. I remember watching that game. IIRC, Edmonds got plunked once, then hit a HR and Z was yelling at him to go around the bases quicker and then didn't Edmonds get drilled a second time? The thing that bothered me was, Zambrano is young. No matter how good your stuff is you have to earn respect to be able to yell at a veteran for trotting around the bases during a homerun. Usually when someone hits a HR off of Clemens he will make sure they run or else he's likely to throw at them. I don't have much of a problem with this because Clemens has been in the league and has been a top 10 pitcher basically his whole career. I'm not the biggest Cubs fan, just come here to post since it seems much more civil than other Cub fans I've been around. But I do think Zambrano is a terrific pitcher, his emotions may hurt him once in a while, but I think he's just super competitive which is something you want in a pitcher. You saying that reminds me of the time Prior accidentally hit Bonds, and then motioned him on when Barry tried to stare him down. I like both examples of our young guys assuming veteran status because it would be impossible for our youth-led team to win the world series without doing so. And, soccer, I also can't wait to see what all the doubters will say about Z after this season. Will he finally earn the Clemens treatment?

I don't like this idea. Just because a good team assembled by Hendry and others manages to win while healthy doesn't mean we should forget about how poorly Dusty has managed it throughout his tenure here.

Who said that? Even Prior himself said that after the liner off the arm that his mechanics were out of whack. One of his goals of the offseason was to correct the flaws in his mechanics. He does have flaws in his delivery, don't need to be an expect or a mock expert to point them out. I'll trust my eyes and the knowledge I've accumulated. You watch his elbows after he breaks his hands and gets them parallel w/his shoulder, his elbows are back beyond his shoulder. Some say he has late pronation which puts excess strain on his UCL, which I don't buy. His delivery wasn't the same at the end of the year as it was early on. I don't quite follow. Were his mechanics great before the line drive, and he is still trying to work his way back to them? Or was it flawed even before that and he needs to develop something new? He always had a little chicken-wing action, but I don't remember anyone ever calling it a problem before the line drive.

What does BP project Wood to do? Less than 20 starts? If so, then i think the Cubs could improve on the above projection just out of a healthy season from Wood (yes, i know that may be asking a lot). BP projects Wood to get 100 innings of relief. And I think what you said was MPM's point. Anyway, the way to figure it out exactly would be to take his VORP from 2003 or maybe his career average VORP, subtract William's projected VORP, and plug into baseball's pythagorean theroem.

I liked when they talked about the new wave of stats that are coming. For example, finally referring to a hit by where it lands and the tragectory it takes, rather than just single, double, out, etc, so that a batter who gets a double stolen by Torii Hunter still gets credit for having done something good, rather than just an 0-1.

That's because the pitcher is only one person, and can easily be off or on on a particular night. Meanwhile, it is very unlikely that an entire lineup is having a good or bad night, simply because there are 9 of them and the odds even out. This is why the pitcher is 45% of the game while each hitter is 55/9 = 6.11%. This is asuming that they split the 10% that is fielding equally, which of course isn't true. However, overall pitching and hitting are equal, I believe, and in an individual AB, both the hitter and pitcher have equal control over the outcome.

I don't think that's true. A pitcher can make a perfect pitch, but the batter still has the ability to do something productive with it. The batter has a slight edge from being the one who acts second. Whether that makes hitting more valuable or important, I don't know. Maybe in that situation the perfect pitch is a breaking ball in the dirt that the batter can't do anything with. There is no such thing as an absolute perfect pitch, only a perfect pitch in relation to what the batter is expecting/trying to do.

Haha, word. I think the lack of powers is key. Its called cajones. And his dark side rocks.

I think pitchers get away with a lot more "mistake" pitches than people acknowledge. I've seen plenty of smashable pitches go by. Two pitches, they both hang in the zone. On one the batter doesn't swing because he's sitting dead red. On the other he knocks it out of the park. The pitcher didn't do anything better or worse on either pitch (assuming he didn't tip on one). A lot of pitches that get too much of the plate and are critiqued by analysts are the same exact pitch that earlier got a guy out. Not all big hits come off mistakes, and not all "mistakes" turn into big hits. Doesn't that add validity to the great pitchers though? If more hittable pitches go by than most expect, wouldn't that also include even the best hitters hitting a pitcher's pitch. If Lidge throws 2 more sliders like he did with the 1st pitch, Houston is getting ready to play game 1 of the WS, instead of game 6 of the NLCS. No, because Pujols can choose not to swing at them. An AB is like a dance between the pitcher and hitter, with both playing an equal role. Nothing that one of them does has any meaning independent of what the other did.

First of all, yes Lidge hung it really bad, and yes he does have the final say. But Ausumus has a very good reputation, so I kind of understand why a young reliever would not want to shake him off. But here's the important part: it looks to me like he was calling for a back-door slider for a strike. What kind of a call is that!?!?' I would have intentionally walked Pujols. Yes, its bad to put the winning run on base, but he isn't really a threat to score on a double. More importantly, Sanders had a 28.4 K% this season - thats the kind of guy Lidge can have his way with. Maybe if Pujols took a ball on the first pitch I would call for a strike, but after he just swung at a ball in the dirt? Just bad baseball. Do you guys see the same thing?

I miss deep-dish pizza, I'll admit it. However, in just a sense of overall quality, I have to admit New York has better pizza. You would be suprised how fanstastic a cracker thin crust can taste when it is baked in a coal oven. My favorite pizza back in Chicago was Malnati's. Speaking of which, does anyone know anything about getting Malnati's air delivered?

I don't get why its so hard to find a manager who simply knows what he is doing and avoids stupid mistakes. I mean, they do get paid a lot, and I'm sure all the top talent wants to be a manager. The problem must lie with the GMs. They simply don't know what makes a good manager, and hire the wrong people. But could a non ex-player get the respect of his team? If so, I'm surprised someone like Billy Beane hasn't simply hired a scholar of the game rather than only players of it.

I remember hearing somewhere that K came along because when stats were first beginning to be recorded, S stood for steal. I dont know anything about the backwards-forwards swinging-looking though. S is sacrafice. They decided that K is the second most notable letter in the word strikeout. I don't know about the backwards-forward thing either.

Please elaborate Tim? did they not want him to bunt and use his speed? or drive the ball rather than lift it? didn't dusty and the staff encourage him not to take the pitches over his head? (ie: Shwon Dunston like) Not being sarcastic just need clarification I have always thought CP was over-rated, possibly could have done him good to go to college and mature mentally/socially first, get with a good college coach down here at TX or ASU Dusty batted CPatt leadoff and in fact did the opposite of encouraging him to drive the ball. They tried to turn him into a slap hitter who puts the ball on the ground and runs. And I don't see any reason to believe his problems stem from immaturity - try bad pitch recognition and a lack of patience.

NO SAC FLIES AND WHEN IS THE LAST TIME YOU SAW SAMMY BUNT! HE SUKS!!@!

It's quite simple really. A pitcher can only pitch. Everybody else fields and hits. A pitcher cannot determine whether the team wins or loses, unless he throws a shutout and hits a homerun. But that's kind of a ridiculous request to make. The GM though actually influences every aspect of the team. He decides who will be pitching, who will be hitting and who will be fielding, not to mention, who will be managing. Hendry has the responsibility for the record because it is his responsibility to create the entire team. The pitcher only has the responsibility of pitching. I find it quite unbelievable that you can't see the difference. But Hendry can't actually put the guys on the field. He only has the responsibility of assembling the players. He can somehow manage to get us a hitter like Murton in the Nomar deal, but he can't write Murton into LF on the lineup card. He can't pull Wood, Prior, Chad Fox etc. when they obviously need to be pulled. He can't put Cedeno at SS or choose which bullpen guy to use in what situation. I honestly believe that I could have managed the team Hendry put together to 90 wins, so as far as I am concerned, he did his job.