Bull

Apparently this is a 100 loss team after all. Putrid. Here's hoping it was worth it!

Maybe Beane needed 40 man space and now owes Theo a favor?

with the thread coming up so late, I just assumed we were going to discuss Cubs games in the "games in which the Cubs are not playing" thread.

http://espn.go.com/chicago/mlb/story/_/id/8185283/chicago-cubs-ryan-dempster-makes-start-amid-trade-talk i thought the red sox said they were out on dempster. could be that they're out because he's unwilling to switch leagues.

WGN production crew played "The Last Time" and the end of Dempsters outing today.

Never happen. Good idea. Never happen.

Say what ????? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbaPQSoYbEw

Conclusion #1: Barney over campana in the two spot?

any news on whether he's been claimed?

according to this Marmol used to get the most called strikes of anyone in baseball. he had BOTH a high swinging strike rate and the lowest z-swing rate (swings at pitches in the zone i.e called strikes) in baseball. This confirms what I remembered: the slider would start out headed at the batter and end up in the zone for a called strike or start out in the zone and end up low and away for a swinging strike. Lack of movement makes the former a ball inside and the latter very hittable. The lack of a decent fastball leaves him nothing to fall back on.

This. I don't see where people are saying he's lost something on the fastball. It has little or nothing to do with his fastball. His slider has always been his best pitch. His ability to throw it for strikes in any count was what made him great. Once set up he could throw it away out of the zone and get even great hitters to flail at it. This year especially it doesn't have the movement it did and he can't locate it because of the lack of movement. It doesn't tail into the zone for called strikes and it stay in the hitting zone when he's trying to get the swing and miss, making it very hittable. The thread title says it all. The thing us though, that he didn't consistantly throw it for strikes, but it was so nasty that hitters used to flail away at the it and look foolish, and more often than not it ended up well out of the zone. As hitters and coaches picked up on that, they were more inclined to keep the bat on their should knowing that they had a pretty good chance of either getting a free pass or inducing a meatball. I disagree. A couple years ago he could throw it for strikes and get k's looking just as well as getting guys to flail at it out of the zone. When I get to my computer, I'll have to look for some data.

This. I don't see where people are saying he's lost something on the fastball. It has little or nothing to do with his fastball. His slider has always been his best pitch. His ability to throw it for strikes in any count was what made him great. Once set up he could throw it away out of the zone and get even great hitters to flail at it. This year especially it doesn't have the movement it did and he can't locate it because of the lack of movement. It doesn't tail into the zone for called strikes and it stay in the hitting zone when he's trying to get the swing and miss, making it very hittable. The thread title says it all.

What was done to bring about any animosity anyway? Theo's old boss was fairly unhappy with the compensation process.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned that it's nice to see that we still have a relationship with Boston that's good enough to agree to a trade. Obviously, they are trading for the present while we're collecting pieces, but its still nice to see that Larry hasn't imposed a trade embargo.

Getting a cortisone shot. Should not need DL time.

I almost want them to do it in LF too I would bet heavily that is what they do. It would help restore the symmetry. Wait, what?

yikes. If Carpenter's production dictated the return, the PTBNL might be dead.

the talent level in the cubs system has improved. not because THEO hath graced us with his presence, but because he and his team have added quality talent to the system since they've arrived. i think the question on everyone's minds is how well we will be able to convert talent into results through this regime's efforts at development. we won't really have a reliable answer until this draft class starts to blossom. I think the expanded front office, change in approach organization wide, and hopefully added player development personnel with a congruent approach will improve the results even if the talent/tools level was the same.

Since last June, we've added Concepcion, Torreyes, Rizzo, a boatload of other Cubans and the great (or at least expensive) draft. The system isn't getting better just because of who we hired. It's getting better because better players have been added to it. intentional?

no prob. I have others if you like.

ive seen it, it's terrible. it looks like you sawed your foot off with a hacksaw Except less sawing and more like ripping a chicken leg off a rotisserie. But yeah.

do not GIS this. He essentially ripped his foot off.

Since it seems to be a little quiet around here, I thought I would give guys a chance to speak their minds and yell at my stupidity. So here goes: I know we don't believe in clutch, and some discussion has been given to anti-clutch (ie nobody gets better in pressure situations, but some may get worse). If we could define clutch as the ability to not get worse in pressure situations, I think we can avoid arguments over semantics. (pipe dream, I know) In looking at why some hitters might not get worse in pressure situations, I think we have to look at the pitchers. Pitching hurts. Throwing too many breaking balls hurts more. Swelling, icing, rest. It is stress. You want to minimize stress while not giving up quality. Baseball pitchers talk about "mistake hitters" and pitchers "going after a hitter". Is it possible pitchers "save something" for the best hitters or the more important situations? I know I've seen Zambrano (bad example) add 4 mph to his own demise. Is it possible pitchers put more torque on breaking pitches in pressure situations? Is it furthermore possible that some hitters feast off average pitching and flail at great pitching? Is it finally possible that when pitchers notch it up, anticlutch hitters (who put up great overall statistics) are completely overmatched? Sorry to bring this up again, but its not like there's anything better to talk about right now.

Real low or real stupid? Well if they win 72 and significantly outperform his expections presumably he would be very happy with the new regime and therefore I wouldn't call his plan real stupid at all. He didn't really call his plan stupid. He called his expectations stupid, seeing as how that's what was referred to as "real low" in the original post. And his expectations were deliberately set really low so as to make it an easy go to hurdle. So if you say the expectations are stupid you are saying his plan to deliberately set those plans low is stupid. really guys? you're better than this.

Hard to believe the DeWitt saga isn't on here.