UBlink

Fixed - I don't trust the Cy Young voters.

That's not what my stats sheet says. 8) Well, who are you going to believe, your stat sheet or Professor Maddux? :-k

Another way of saying it is all walks are not created equal.

Jon's comment in yesterday's game thread:

Freudian typo?

You know Todd's son is hitting .325 for the Carolina Mudcats.

Man, don't take your credit cards with you to Vegas!

Not in the last 5 minutes!

At this rate I still might get a decent night's sleep.

You can't argue this poster's integrity. Or mine...

That would make sense, but in actuality Ronny's hitting MUCH better with the bases empty--409/409/636, 22ABs--than with runners on base: 263/263/368, 19ABs. That could be the point - being more aggressive probably doesn't make anyone, especially a virtual rookie, a better hitter. With time, and listening to the right people, Ronny may learn that.

Shameless self-promotion. I like it!

Unless he comes back 10 years from now as The Rookie.

Well, at least the theory that the Rangers would get hot out of the gate and entice the Rocket to join their playoff run is looking pretty shot at this early stage. I don't think Tom Hicks has enough money to make Clemens want to join that mess.

Since the stories I see haven't updated since February of 2005, I think that section could be removed.

I'll add my own $0.02 here. In order to make premium membership somehow special, Tim had various options to differentiate it. One would be to have special content available only to premium members. Another would be to restrict posting rights in the forums for non-members. A third is to have a "premium" user interface for premium members. Of the options out there I think Tim made a reasonable choice. Non-members have access to all the same content and all the same forums. Members get a few bells and whistles and don't have ads in the forums. And I know, for me at least, I look at my premium membership more as a donation to help offset Tim's personal outlays. Another way of saying it is that while the additional benefits for premium members may not be worth $50, the overall value of the site is easily worth the $50. I say, if you can afford the $50, please contribute.

ask Dusty. he's a major league manager, so he obviously knows more than we do. :roll: Are you WATCHING the game? :roll: Are any of you who are assuming Dusty called the sacrifice watching the game? I already said I'm at work... I'm pretending to work, too.

Awesome. From the mouths of babes

And if you remember the article describing his off-season workout regimen, you know he wants to be really good.

There were plenty of people last year saying that Maddux's option vesting was way down on the list of Cubs problems. They were probably a little quieter last year, just like the critics are quieter this year.

One thing I can think of is making a defender rush a throw inducing an error. I know Pierre has gotten on by error at least once this season, and I seem to recall the error appeared to be a rushed throw. I don't know if there is a way to quantify this effect, but if you counted that as hit it would raise his average 33 points - even if you only didn't count the AB it would raise his average 8 points. I'm normally heavily in the stats camp, but I do believe that a fast runner can induce errors. And if DLee or ARam knocks him in, while it may not be an earned run it will still help you win the game. So obviously if all other things are equal, you go with the speedy guy. But if things aren't totally equal, would it be reasonable to add 5 or 10 points to someone like Pierre's OBP to reflect that he's likely to get on 3-6 times through an induced error? Pierre reached on an error yesterday, while the throw was rushed somewhat, it was an easy play for Hatteberg and he just dropped the ball. However, I see what you're saying about forcing errors. The problem with crediting his OBP is that it isn't really relative. How many more errors does Pierre force than someone with Todd Walker's speed? How many would be errors no matter how fast the player is? It's a dangerous road to imply anything the hitter did forced the error(aside from the ball in play itself). I might say it is equally dangerous to imply (as current statistics do) that the hitter had no influence on the error. My point is that if I were comparing players as a GM, I might make a subjective adjustment to Pierre's stats - say if he reached via error once every 30 PA while an average hitter gets on by error only once every 100 PA.

One thing I can think of is making a defender rush a throw inducing an error. I know Pierre has gotten on by error at least once this season, and I seem to recall the error appeared to be a rushed throw. I don't know if there is a way to quantify this effect, but if you counted that as hit it would raise his average 33 points - even if you only didn't count the AB it would raise his average 8 points. I'm normally heavily in the stats camp, but I do believe that a fast runner can induce errors. And if DLee or ARam knocks him in, while it may not be an earned run it will still help you win the game. So obviously if all other things are equal, you go with the speedy guy. But if things aren't totally equal, would it be reasonable to add 5 or 10 points to someone like Pierre's OBP to reflect that he's likely to get on 3-6 times through an induced error?

Sample size

Do you not remember game 1, when we needed him for his defensive assists?

How silly will Hendry look if Pie keeps tearing up AAA while leaving a black hole in RF? Forget the contracts, forget the trades and put the best 9 players you've got on the field. Anything else makes you look petty as well as stupid.