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Snark Weak
Snark is the blogging equivalent of pennies: easy to throw around, but no matter how much is thrown, it doesn't buy much. Using too much of it in one place is a real jerk move, but when one just don't have any currency more valuable to offer, for a short while you can make due with each.
That weak analogy aside, let's snark up the Cubs sports media. From the headlines at the Sun-Times, I learn...
Bench player doesn't mind the opportunity to play every day
Pitcher has a tired arm, therefore he will rest it.
Player would prefer not to hold an unflattering record.
From the Tribune, I learn that:
It is surprising to lose a game that you were winning.
Two bad innings do not warrant a demotion.
Moving to a new team causes you to root for them, not their rival.
From MLB I learn that:
A team's best player is the key to the team's success.
A manager wants his players to be healthy.
Companies want to make sure I spend money on their products.
From ESPN I learn that:
ESPN doesn't bring in enough money to pay for a coherent webpage layout.
(Update, thanks to Navigator) - Just because you are a TV personality and beat your meat-based-analogy until it's raw doesn't mean that you know flank steak about the Cubs. (Evidently, Skip Bayless is amazed at the notion of Cubs instructors turning catchers into pitchers. Marmol says hi)
And from some place calling itself THF CUB REPORTER I learn that:
Fearing anarchy, looting and pillaging in his absence, the most reliable contributor wants everyone to join him and his family on their vacation
The quality of articles posted in his absence warrants his fear of anarchy, looting and pillaging.
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anarchy, looting and pillaging...
couple of tough series coming up against the Huns and the Visigoths
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I loves a good Visigoths joke.
Re: Snark Week
anarchy, looting and pillaging...
I keep reminding myself that it's Pillage then Burn
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From The Cub Reporter I learned that statistical information can be both informative and fascinating for some. For others it's an invitation to an online swordfight. For the rest of uszzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. I just love the Cubs and enjoy Cubster's and Arizona Phils's insights.
Was at the game last night: a smallish but largely pro-Cubs crowd. I did not care for the home plate ump's interpretation of the strike zone-particularly for lefty batters. I thing "Stormy" Weathers agreed with me there. I think Randy Wells and even Zeus got screwed out of a strike three call. Fukudome made a game-saving catch. MB and Koyie Hill didn't seem to want to spend a lot of time at the plate which was a shame because the Haranguatang could have been hittable. It would be nice if we could stay in first place for more than a day. How about th enext few months? Go Cubs!
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I just love the Cubs and enjoy Cubster's and Arizona Phils's insights.
Trans and Rob G love you too.
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Thanks to your link to ESPN I learned that RANDY WELLS is a rag-arm who even a sportsreporter could hit.
Apparently that guy never saw Greg Maddux pitch.
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Thanks for reminding me why I don't watch that show. 100% pure unadulterated idiocy.
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or lying out of my ass...
phew, for a brief second I thought Trans was doing a gastroenterology related comment. I remember when Angel Pagan went on the DL with a bout of colitis.
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off topic:
STARLIN CASTRO (19) was promoted to AA last night. I know he was hitting .300 but this seems rushed. Maybe AZ PHIL will wade in...
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Interesting news, thanks.
I'm not sure you can rush that guy.
Anyway, the vacancy at Daytona is useful with the backlog of shortstops at the lower levels including Watkins and Flaherty. They probably want to get Lee out of Boise. Lake or Lee to Daytona?
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"Bench player doesn't mind the opportunity to play every day"
Onion headline if I ever saw one.
and for tonight's bold prediction:
I say Gorzelanny throws a gen tonight. a dusty baker team should be baffled by a lefty.
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Isn't there a guy in the bullpen called Snark?
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Rob, go on vacation more often, especially during the season. Hey, the umps take two weeks off during the season!?! Rob, are you blue?
Julio Castillo found guilty
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I remember when Skip Bayless was with the Tribune, I think in the middle to late 1990s. He was more of a football guy, and said dumb things about baseball regularly. He also had an intense dislike for Sammy Sosa, but loved Mark Grace, an "old-school" ballplayer. Obviously there were baseball-related reasons to criticize Sammy, but with Bayless, it seemed to me to go deeper than that; Grace looked and sounded like Bayless' image of a big-leaguer, Sammy didn't. I recall thinking to myself after reading one of his tirades, "This guy must have had to take off his pointy white hood when they took his byline photo." All in all, he defiled Bob Verdi's page-one slot. The current occupant of that slot, Rick Morrissey, also not strong on baseball in my opinion, looks good by comparison.
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I take personal offense when we derogate compulsive masturbators.
Wankers are people too!
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New tagline, perhaps?
Maybe, "Charlie: Biting the fingers of dumbass kids for the betterment of society"?
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I've been on vacation and missed this, but does anyone know why Jay Jackson was demoted to Daytona? He has made one start there and is still listed on their roster.
I also think that Castro may be moving too fast. He is only 19. Theriot is probably looking over his shoulder and the threat to his job is getting closer.
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I think it was in Bruce Miles blog at the Daily Herald that it was for disciplinary reasons.
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Per Wittenmyer's Twitter page, Cubs bring up Gorzelanny today and make room for him by putting Andres Blanco on the DL with a calf strain. He also says they'll probably bring Miles back tomorrow and send a pitcher down.
Raining pretty hard in Cincy this evening...not sure if they'll get the game in.
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well at least that explains why baker was a recent late-inning defensive replacement at 2nd over blanco.
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Looks like the worst of it blew through already. There's another system that could interrupt the game for a little while, but as long as the field's not a pond, they can probably play around it.
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pinhead's got competition...
Rolen went for a CAT scan, which revealed...
"They said I had almost the size of a normal human brain. I was real pleased with that," (said) Rolen.
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via Wittenmeyer (and cincy twitter) links...Bradley ''rest'' day against nasty-stuff RHP.
Tues lineup: Taveras 8, Rosales 5, Votto 3, Phillips 4, Gomes 9, Balentien 7, Gonzalez 6, Hanigan 2, Cueto 1
Lineup: fuky (CF), riot, lee, rami, fox (RF), sori, font, hill, gorz.
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Good thing we got more left-handed.
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does milton really need 2+ rest days a week?
recently when he was allowed to play more than a week without rest he tore it up...
at least he's getting rest with a wet OF, i guess.
still...it's getting a bit old. soriano didn't get this treatment and he got to lead off while doing it.
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You're implying that Pinhead plays favorites? We all know that isn't the case.
Bradley did poke his knee into a pitch last night, though, maybe it stiffened up on him. Or maybe Soriano stiffens up Lou and that's why he gets differential treatment.
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well, i probably shouldn't have thrown in the soriano statement, but i still don't understand why bradley gets so much "rest" when he's healthy and in the zone.
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Another possibility is that Cueto throws hard, and the guys who have been able to bust Bradley inside with 93+MPH fastballs have pretty much had their way with him.
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I want Bradley's gig. Get me a manager that gives me a day off when I have a difficult surgery to do.
...that is unless the manager thinks it's because I suck.
(that's why I'm the managing partner...)
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I just had the frightening realization that some people who willingly take part in this board are legally permitted to cut people. Perhaps there are others who prescribe medication, carry guns, or--oh no--approve mortgage loans!
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i guess a .400 ob% doesn't impress as much as it used to.
latey he's been playing at a level that warrants NOT benching him so damn much...and by lately im not just talking the past 2 weeks or so.
since june he's been doing his job, sans occasional power outages, but still loses 20+ ab's a month for some f'n reason.
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Maybe its because Bradley isn't doing the job he is paid to do? A single and a walk every so often isn't cutting it. He is right around the worst performing OFer in baseball because A)he doesn't get extra base hits B) He is a blackhole in driving in runs.
I remember last year Theriot being attacked a lot because "all is he is a singles hitter who takes walks." Where are these people blasting Bradley at a position where good offensive production is kind of expected? All i hear is silence.
9 doubles, 1 triple, 8 Hr, 26 RBI....August 3rd....has anyone figured out yet that is awful? I have.
Give me Jake Fox fulltime in RF, its time to end this pathetic season from Bradley.
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theriot plays SS...that's why he gets a pass. theriot's alternatives last year and this year aren't even mildly attractive.
milton isn't being attacked as much because besides the power outage he's getting on base at a .400 clip for quite a while now, playing decent D, and smacking an occasional double/homer/fly-out instead of pounding everything into the ground.
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But Theriot hasn't got a pass despite playing SS. Why does Theriot get attacked for being a singles hitter who takes walks and Bradley gets a complete pass for doing the same?
I know i have defended Theriot time again for doing what he does from that position. You think people would be more pissed about a RFer hitting worse than a SS who got a bunch of shit for his hitting.
So i guess the obvious conclusion would be if Theriot was playing RF for the past 2 years no one would bitch about him being a .290/.359 40-50 RBI RFer? Because no one really cares that Bradley is pretty much doing a worse version than that.
I personally am going to laugh my ass off when Ryan Theriot and Mike Fontenot finish the season with more RBI than Bradley. Theriot is at 43, Fontenot 35, Bradley 26. I don't mind the OBP from Bradley but we paid for, and expected more, than what we got so far. And for that he is a complete and utter failure. Even Jacque Jones and Jeremoy Burnitz delivered more offense than what Bradley is set to do, considerably more. And neither one of those guys put up seasons that people were entirely pleased with.
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i was under the impression TCR and cubs fans at large had just settled on the fact they got an average little SS doing an average job, but at least getting on base at a decent clip while doing it. he's got limitations all over the place, but he's a decent enough complete package that he's not worth worrying about until he needs to get paid 3-5+ million a year.
as far as bradley the player goes...right now it's nice to see him driving more into the air than pounding stuff in the infield on contact.
i don't know what people expected out of bradley, but when/if healthy i was expecting a 20-30hr clip, 30-40 doubles, high Ks, above average BBs, and a bit more running than he's been doing. he doesn't even inspire SB fear in the pitchers this season when he's on.
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I can't speak for what Hendry expected of Bradley when he signed him, but if he or Cub fans were expecting those stats (20-30 HR, 30-40 2B, etc.), we were setting ourselves up for disappointment. Over his carrer, he has only cleared 20 HR once, and 30 2B twice, and that included his best season last year, when he was playing in possibly the best hitter's park in the majors in Arlington. His career averages are .277/.371/.451.
A much more reasonable expectation would be a line just like the above, in about 120 games. That would probably get him about 500 PA, about 125 hits, about 50 BBs, 15-20HR, and 20-30 2B. Watching him bat, which I had not done much of prior to this season, gives a good explanation of why he doesn't drive in many runs. He looks for the exact pitch he wants, and he's more than willing to let borderline pitches go in hopes of getting on base with a walk. That's fine as a table setter at the top of the lineup, but when there are RISP, and you're in the 5th spot in the lineup, you're expected to drive those runners home. So I think it's very possible that what Bradley was expected to do is not in line with what his skills are.
Burnitz drove in runs because that was his style - similar to what Fox does. Jones was actually pretty good at that too: go back and look at his stats from 2006, and you'll notice the .499 SLG. I think a big part of the problem is that our expectations out of the RF slot are not realistic. We were spoiled for YEARS with our RF production. We need to realize that we will probably never have as good of a RF as Sosa. It was awesome to have a .320/.400/650 guy out there, batting in the 3-spot. But that's historically great production. If we have a guy who hits .280/.370/.450 and plays good defense, that's not bad. Now, if you want to argue that it's not worth $10M a year, I won't disagree with that.
As far as Theriot, he's an average hitter for his position, an average defender, never gets hurt, and has a minimal salary. It's incredibly valuable to have a guy like that on your team. He fills a position for near the league minimum cost, and allows you to spend money on other areas. You can't pay everyone $10M. So I have no problems with what he does. Sure you could do better, but it would be hard to find better value.
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I've never understood the Theriot hate, I wonder if everyone would be happier if he hit .230 but fielded like Ozzie Smith? Guh, he does just fine, on an overall basis he's league-average at worst. And as noted, cheap.
Bradley OTOH is a slug. I wanted Dunn or Abreu.
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Could someone please point out that Theriot didn't hit 8 HR's last year, in whatever it was, 700 PA's?
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Milt's OBP is impressive, but Please excuse me for not jumping for joy over his July #'s.
.275/.457/.420 3 HR, 9 RBI. Much better numbers, but from your #5 hitter?
Other RF in July?
Werth: .267/.424/.556, 7 HR, 23 RBI
Hermida: .253/.305/.402, 3 HR, 9 RBI
Ludwick: .340/.396/.570, 6 HR, 28 RBI
Pence: .2445/.302/.357, 3 HR, 11 RBI
Hart: .305/.380/.451, 2 HR, 6 RBI
Ethier: .287/.363/.545, 6 HR, 14 RBI
Hawpe: .250/.370/.393, 2 HR, 7 RBI
Winn: .276/.330/.378, 0 HR, 11 RBI
So MB is playing better. He still isn't exactly tearing the cover off the ball.
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So, Milton leads all NL right fielders in OBP, by over .030, and 6th in slugging. Then there's the counting stats. You forgot to show a very important counting stat: PA's.
Werth: 118
Hermida: 95
Ludwick: 112
Pence: 106
Hart: 92
Ethier: 113
Hawpe: 100
Winn: 107
Bradley: 94
The only guy with fewer PA's on the list than Bradley had fewer HR's and RBI's. Bradley ranked third in RC/27 outs for the month, and he's the only guy who you can expect to continue or outdo that pace.
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So the #5 hitter is getting on base. Excellent. 6th in slugging...WOW!!! am I impressed.
He isn't driving in runs, he isn't hitting the ball with authority, and looks like he is dying to walk every time up. Congrats. Hopefully Soriano will continue his hot streak, and drive MB in a bunch in the second half.
MB:319 PA's. 8 HR, 26 RBI, 40runs, .248/.387/.384
Werth:448 PA's, 69 runs, 22 HR, 66 RBI, .270/.379/.500
Hermida:405 PA's, 38 runs, 11 HR, 41 RBI, .254/.338/.385
Ludwick:347 PA's, 45 Runs, 18 HR, 68 RBI, .269/.332/.487
Pence:436 PA's, 52 runs, 13 HR, 43 RBI, .292/.358/.460
Hart:404 PA's, 56 runs, 11 Hr, 40 RBI, 2.646/.335/.433
Ethier: 457 PA's, 65 runs, 22 HR, 69 RBI, .275/.363/.510
Hawpe: 398 PA's, 15 HR, 63 RBI, 62 runs, .310/.397/.544
Winn:432 PA's, 2HR, 42 RBI, 52 runs, .268/.321/.375
Upton:436 PA's, 68runs, 20 HR, 66 RBI, .300/.374/.543
Great..so MB is outperforming Randy Winn, Jeremy Hermida, Corey Hart, and Hunter Pence. MB is getting fewer PA's than those guys. Sorry he was so ineffective and hurt most of the first half, that he wasn't getting at bats.
I'm also willing to bet that none of them have been hit by a fly ball, or forgot how many outs there were in the inning this season.
So if Bradley replicates his "breakout" July...another 3 HR and 9 RBI's?
Effing great.
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Had you been watching the Cubs games during the month of July, you would have noticed it was quite efficient for Bradley to get on base ahead of the #6 hitter.
But now I see you're one of the people who expected Bradley to hit 35 HR's and drive in 100 runs. And while you're at it, you blame Bradley for batting 5th, and not playing enough, since everyone knows it's Bradley, not the manager who makes up the lineup card. Too bad the Cubs didn't get rid of Aramis Ramirez when that ball hit him on the head - that's the sign of a good player, not letting a baseball hit you.
Quick questions: What was the Cubs record in July, and how many runs/game did they score?
Keep the faith!
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Nope. Dead wrong.
I'm one of those guys who hoped the Cubs would sign Abreu or Ibanez. Then, upon hearing they signed Bradley, expected him to hit....275/.380/.450...maybe 15-18 HR's...maybe 75 RBI...and get completely overpaid for the next 3 seasons for doing it...and hope he'd play 110-120 games a season.
I'm one of those guys who blame Bradley for being terrible in April and June, and having a decent May and July, with outstanding OBP in July.
I'm one of those guys who think Ramirez has been an integral part of the Cubs for 6 1/2 seasons, who does his job, and, while dinged up, managed to average 141 games from 2004-2008, while hitting 31 HR's and 105 RBI's with 87 runs each season. I will never expect Bradley to put up those kind of numbers...ever.
Milt still can't hit RHP this season...for whatever reason. If they want to hit him 2nd in the order, and let him hit .207/.379/.348 (lefthanded)...hey, go for it.
On most teams, the 5th place hitter should hit 80-100 RBIs...and score some runs...not score 70 runs..and drive in 55.
ESPN projects Bradley's season to .248/.387/.384, with 13 HR, 43 RBI, and 66 runs. I wonder how far off that will be...for $7 million this season.
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Of course TRN, I agree on keeping the faith, and being excited by a really good July from the Cubs.
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When Bradley sits, it's usually against righty pitchers, since Lou has a hard time watching Bradley trying to hit left-handed.
Of those 9 RBI in July, only 6 were against righty pitchers. Of those 6, one was an HBP on July 11 that drove in a run.
So, 5 RBI swinging the bat from the left side. On July 4th he hit a 2-run shot off of Looper--so 3 RBI swinging lefty from the 5th through the end of the month.
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On July 4th he hit a 2-run shot off of Looper--so 3 RBI swinging lefty from the 5th through the end of the month.
HAHAHA. Thanks for the brilliant analysis, telling us that when you take away some of Bradley's RBI, he has less RBI.
Arbitrarily choosing to not count a home run that drove in 3 runs makes your analysis look very, very silly.
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Using the quote you used, that's not what was said. He said Bradley had 3 RBIs from the left side from July 5 to the end of the month. He wasn't subtracting any RBIs since he was talking post-HR.
Also, the HR in question drove in two runs, not three.
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The 2-run homer drove in 2 runs, like I said.
When you take away the first week of July, you get a pathetic number of lefty-hitting RBI for the remaining three weeks of July.
I didn't remember Bradley having a decent month, certainly not batting lefty, so I tried to look underneath the numbers--not that the 9 RBI were impressive to begin with.
Numbers can be deceiving, as I've tried to remind you several times in connection with Soriano's fielding. Last night our leftfielder welcomed our new starting pitcher to the team by dropping a catchable ball in the first inning. But as usual, he did it off the record. He wasn't charged with an error. Statistically, it didn't happen.
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When you take away the first week of July, you get a pathetic number of lefty-hitting RBI for the remaining three weeks of July.
Again, you use arbitrary cutoffs to try and prove your point.
Numbers can be deceiving, as I've tried to remind you several times in connection with Soriano's fielding
You seem to have an inabiltiy to stay on topic, and instead try to bring up old conversations that are irrelevant to the conversation. I have already previously addressed Soriano's poor defense this year, and you know it.
Statistically, it didn't happen.
Huh? First of all, I have NEVER used fielding % or the number of errors as a justification for anyone's defense, so you pretty clearly don't know what you are talking about. Second of all, yes, it still did "statistically" happen. Just because it wasn't an error doesn't mean it "didn't happen." That really shows you know very, very little about defensive statistics, or any statistics at all.
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It's just common sense that "error" is the only stat that indicates that a ball was catchable. As far as errors are concerned, infielders are held to a much higher standard than outfielders, which is why Soriano can impersonate an outfielder.
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You really have no knowledge of recent advances in defensive metrics, do you?
As I have said before, Soriano has been awful defensively this year. But I also think that he has also been much worse this year than in previous years.
He was never a great outfielder, but in past years he has arguably had decent range and a very good arm, which has mean that he has had some value as an outfielder.
Now can we stop bringing up this straw man anytime you disagree with me on something? Because I really don't think that you want me to bring up every time that you have been wrong. Because all I would have to do would bring up 99% of the minor league players that you have liked better than than major league players.
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BTW... Bradley only had 20 plate appearances with RISP in July; it isn't like he has has had a ton of opportunities.
I know that you don't like to deal with reality, but RBI are one of the most team dependent stats that we can talk about. A player isn't going to get many RBI if they don't get many RBI opportunities.
By the way... you should really like Milton Bradley. He hit pretty well in the minors.
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I might have liked him earlier in his career.
He hit pretty well at Texas, too, but they let him go and put a rookie in right field.
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If he had 20 plate appearances with RISP in July, and he drove in 9 runs, that's not terrible. We'll see if the mini-trend continues. So far he has no RBI in August.
I know that 9 RBI versus 20 RISP opportunities does not mean that he drove in 9 runs in those 20 opportunities: you can drive a runner in from first base, and you can drive yourself in. But the two numbers yield a useful percentage, .450 in this case. That's very close to Micah Hoffpauir's percentage (25 RBI, 56 RISP, .446) for the season. I would say Hoffpauir has had a rough and disappointing season, having to scramble for at-bats.
In general, you don't want to bring up RISP in connection with Bradley. Bradley's RBI versus RISP numbers for the season are 26 RBI, 83 RISP, .313. I looked at Ramirez, Lee, Hoffpauir, Fontenot and Soto, and they were all higher.
Ramirez 33/49, .673
Lee 72/114, .632
Hoffpauir 25/56, .446
Fontenot 35/83, .421
Soto 27/80, .338
Bradley 26/83, .313
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Don't get me wrong - Milton Bradley has struggled to get hits and drive runners in with RISP. No one has denied that. But as I pointed out below, his BABIP is .244 in those situations, well below his overall BABIP this year and his career BABIP numbers.
Also, the ratio that you use (which I have issues with, but that is for a different post) is way off from his career numbers, which would make us think that it is an outlier that will not continue.
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Snark from Vin Scully calling last night's Brewers/Dodgers game after Bill Hall failed to get to a ball hit to him in the outfield:
"That might have been a catchable ball, but you can only play three of them out there."
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Classic. I guess Hart is in bad shape.
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Scully is great.
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soriano timing his hop rather than soriano tracking the ball to get under it puts a runner on 3rd.
i swear, dusty lets these guys do anything. fire rothschild...to hell with hendry. yeesh.
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and gorez/cubs keeps the run from scoring...woo. 1-0 cubs.
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no time for parachat but I didn't pay much attention to this guy Gorz whatever during the trade. Is he really kinda good? Or is his slider just working? He looks young. He's wearing one of those dumb choker things so he's obviously under 30.
EDIT: Okay, it's not really a choker, it just looks a lot like the chokers we wore in the 70s.
It's a fucking necklace. A 70's choker-style necklace.
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well, this is one of his best starts in his career..and his control was there...and it is vs. a weak CIN team.
he threw a lot of fastballs and little else. he had decent control over all of it.
great start to a cubs career, but i wanna see more vs. a different team.
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You didn't explain about the choker/necklace crap. What the fuck is that about? Not even my kid wears that shit.
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I hate the fucken Cardinals, how can any team have so much luck? You're a big pussy, K-Rod.
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I'm probably different than most Bears fans but at least when Favre was QB I sort of, what. Respected the Pack? Maybe even a little more than that.
But I hate the Cardinals so much my bone marrow expands when I think of them.
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Poor Petit. Of all the MLBish hitters that could break up yr no-no with five out to go, it's Ronny Cedeno?
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I can't believe we traded Hart for that guy!
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Well see above, Crunch isn't convinced. But I saw quite a bit of the game and, Crunch, I didn't see a lot of fastballs. I saw a lot of nice sliders. I don't know shit about the guy other than tonight. His sliders WERE hit hard, but at somebody almost every time. That might be something to think about. And Aram fielded quite a few nicely.
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Augh -- Neal, you got me by a few minutes. Shouldna skipped them typing classes.
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- I really, really miss Kevin Hark. Harp. Whatever.
- The Mets are clearly trying to throw the game against the Cards. Bud "Whaaa? Hunh?" Selig will get to the bottom of this.
- Why is the 9th inning so different from all the others when it comes to Cubs pitching?
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If the bullpen continues to struggle, and Gorzellany looks good beyond one start against the feckless Reds, might Lou entertain the notion of moving Dempster to the bullpen when Lilly returns? It would only be for five weeks, I bet Dempster wouldn't bitch about it. The Cubs have the luxury of having 7 starting pitchers (if you count Marshall) on the roster when Lilly returns, seems like you could move them around some to get maximum results for the good of the team.
Sure looks like a nice trade so far for Jim Hendry, he was due one I guess.
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After watching Marshall today Marshall as closer doesn't seem so idiotic.
Guzman was actually okay, too. First inning.
Second inning is when the wheels fell off a little.
Lou has time to replace Gregg.
That's all I'm saying.
He's paid a lot to figure this shit out while we whine and bitch.
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Nice to see we have gotten things turned around:
- Cub hitters used to make crap pitchers look like Cy Young.
- Now, Cub relievers make crap hitters look like Babe Ruth in the 9th inning.
Serious question -- what's the scoop on Cashner? A sub-1.00 ERA through 6 starts in AA? Is he starting in order to work on arm strength and secondary pitches? On paper (or a computer screeen), he looks great.
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Is Cashner a better prospect at this point than Vitters? If he stays successful as a starting pitcher, I have to think yes. Dominating starting pitchers don't grow on trees, and Cashner has dominated all season long.
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I notice Cashner has an unusually high proportion of unearned runs given up: 5 of the 8 runs he's given up are unearned. Some research has shown that RA is a better evaluation of pitcher performance than ERA (at least in the majors), but still his RA is 2.35, which is mighty impressive.
I don't care what the pundits say, I think the Cubs have a number of very interesting prospects in the minors. Vitters, Cashner, Castro, Flaherty, J. Jackson, LaMahieu, Castillo, and some others could all be significant contributors to the big league club in the next 2-3 years. Besides, it doesn't matter as much what they do in the minors, as long as they perfom in the majors - who had Randy Wells, Jake Fox, or Geovany Soto high on their prospect lists a year or two ago?
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PS--and Albert with the granny. Thanks Mets!
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Uggla'd by the entire Mets organization.
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Dear Mets:
you suck.
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I swear to God the Mets are throwing this game.
- Bases loaded HBP with 2 outs (DeRo) to force in the go-ahead run.
- Followed by a Pujols grand slam on an 0-2 pitch. Who in their right mind throws Pujols anything remotely hittable on 0-2?
The fix is in.
Re: Snark Weak
did any one mention:
do you really need to use every pitcher every night?
are you so fucking senile to remember that sean marshall is a starting pitcher? he can go 2 innings!!! i
we are sunk with this guy. we can barely hold on to a game against the crappy reds. two nights in a row.
Re: Snark Weak
Relax Chad. There are Cubs Help Groups.
In case you are not familiar with the process:
Step One: We realized the Cubs suck and we were powerless to stop it.
Re: Snark Weak
Gorz's next start is at Coors. That should be a decent test. If the rotation held, he would go v. Pit, @ LAD and v. WAS after that. I'm convinced after tonight. Let the guy work a few games.
Re: Snark Weak
Geo Soto 1-3 tonight, 1 HR, 1K -- looks like Tenn in a rain delay. Starlin Castro impressive SS debut with AA Tenn, 2-3, 2 rbi and 1 BB (no errors). Castro listed at 6'1", 160 lbs -- he's no 'idgit, room to grow.
Re: Snark Weak
It's probably not a good sign you felt compelled to mention that he made no errors.
The only Barney is probably the only 'prospect' who has a chance of making the big league team this year at short. I was afraid we would see him tonight after Theriot took that one off his wrist.
Re: Snark Weak
Castro erred on a toss to second in the ninth when the score was 8-8. It cost them the game, actually.
Re: Snark Weak
Submitted by SheffieldCornelia on Tue, 08/04/2009 - 2:59pm.
Per Wittenmyer's Twitter page, Cubs bring up Gorzelanny today and make room for him by putting Andres Blanco on the DL with a calf strain. He also says they'll probably bring Miles back tomorrow and send a pitcher down.
SHEFF: One other thing about Gorzelanny. He is presently on target to accrue enough MLB Service Time (2.160+) to qualify as a "Super Two" for salary arbitration purposes post-2009, UNLESS he spends just one more day on optional assignment to the minors in 2009. That's because he spent 24 days on the Pirates Active List (25-man roster) earlier this season, and if he stays on the Cubs Active List (25-man roster) for the rest of the MLB regular season (through October 4th), he will accrue another 62 days of MLB ST, giving him 86 days of MLB ST in 2009. And a player can only qualify for salary arbitration as a "Super Two" if he accrues at least 86 days of MLB ST in that season. So it will be interesting to see if the Cubs option Gorzelanny out at some point later this month to keep him from qualifying as a "Super Two" post-2009, because it would save the Cubs about $500K in 2010 payroll if they keep him from qualifying for salary arbitration.
Also, Aaron Miles 20-day minor league rehab expired today, so the Cubs can either activate him from th DL, or DFA him (trade or release him), or just leave him on the DL indefinitely (or at least until rostersx expand on 9/1), but he can't play any more games at Iowa. But with Blanco going on the DL, I would think it's a virtual lock that the Cubs will activate Miles tomorrow, and send out either Sam Fuld, Jeff Stevens, or Jeff Samardzija. And then another player will have to get sent down when Geovany Soto is reactivated (as expected) on Friday.
Re: Snark Weak
This is fascinating. AZ Phil, I don't know how you know the details of all the transactions, DL moves, service time, options, etc., but it never ceases to amaze me how you can explain roster moves, and even anticipate them to this degree. One more day for Gorzelanny on options and he won't be a Super Two? I'm certain the Cubs will figure out a way to make that happen. Unless - is it possible that the number will move, depending on the service time of the other candidates for Super Two?
Re: Snark Weak
One more day?!?!? Would've been WELL worth it to bump up Harden a day and have Gorz start the Wednesday finale.
Now they have to figure out a way to send him back down for a day, or presumably for 10 days. If he keeps pitching like he did last night, it's not going to happen.
Re: Snark Weak
I tend to look at these things a bit differently. We're talking about this guy's livelihood, and in baseball your future isn't a certainty. If I were Gorz, I'd be pretty upset if my GM sent me down for a day to fuck me out of an extra $500K.
If every move a GM made were simply about money, and not about keeping his employees happy, Milton Bradley would have been DL'd or benched before ever reaching his 75th game to avoid his 2011 contract.
Maybe Hendry does send Gorz down for a day, but I think that extra $500K means a lot more to Gorzellany than it does to Hendry right now.
Re: Snark Weak
I hear you, and I can certainly see it from Gorzelanny's point of view. But it seems like players spend a lot of time in the minors when they shouldn't be there. It's not that much different from a guy who's ready to play in the majors, but they keep him in AAA for the first month to keep his MLB clock from starting, thus avoiding him becoming a Super Two down the road. It just isn't as blatant when it's on the front end.
The other question I'd have would be about free agency - if he doesn't qualify for Super Two, he doesn't get to go to arbitration this year, right? Does that mean his FA eligibility gets pushed back by a year as well? If so, I can see that as another very reasonable excuse to avoid Super Two status.
Re: Snark Weak
Hendry seems to have a reputation as a player's GM. I've heard a few quotes from players saying things like he's a real straight shooter, always up front with them, etc. There's definitely some value to that. I'm sure players from different teams talk about these things on occasion, and this is an example of something Hendry could do that could either make a player happy or piss him off.
Re: Snark Weak
It depends on how you look at it, but that extra $500K number you've got can be pretty far off. If he's a 4th starter type the difference between one year of arbitration and one year of free agent salary can be more like $5 million, and that doesn't count the time value of the money.
Re: Snark Weak
anything is possible, but Gorz doesn't really have a roster spot when Lilly gets off the DL, so this whole Super-Two thing shouldn't be much of an issue.
Re: Snark Weak
Submitted by Iowa Cub on Tue, 08/04/2009 - 9:09pm.
I don't care what the pundits say, I think the Cubs have a number of very interesting prospects in the minors. Vitters, Cashner, Castro, Flaherty, J. Jackson, LaMahieu, Castillo, and some others could all be significant contributors to the big league club in the next 2-3 years. Besides, it doesn't matter as much what they do in the minors, as long as they perfom in the majors - who had Randy Wells, Jake Fox, or Geovany Soto high on their prospect lists a year or two ago?
IOWA CUB: Speaking of Jake Fox, I heard on the ESPN Cubs-Reds game broadcast last night (or maybe it was the Reds feed) that the Cubs are planning to send Jake Fox to the AZ Instructional League post-2009 to learn to play second-base.
Re: Snark Weak
Jake Fox at second?? That almost sounds like a joke. I'm as big of a believer in the guy as anyone, but he already seems stretched at 3B or LF. I can't imagine him having the agility/quickness it takes to play 2B. But hey, I suppose it's worth a try. The worst that can happen is we find out that he can't do it. The best case scenario is we get a guy who can hit .300/.360/.520 and play a respectable 2B for near the league minimum.
Re: Snark Weak
Sounds like the Cubs are really trying to make Jake Fox into Mark DeRosa. You know, like Mark DeRosa jumbo. His value would definitely be more on the offensive than the defensive side, but they clearly intend to make him an option at 3rd, 2nd, 1st, LF, RF (and Catcher?), which were DeRo positions during his tenure as a Cub. It'd be great if we could just put him in one of those positions and leave him there, but we have star-ish players at all of the corners and he'd be very stretched at either 2nd or Catcher (where we also have a star-ish player).
Brewers successfully moved Casey McGeehee, a 3rd/1B/C in the Cubs organization, to 2nd base. Schumaker moved from OF to 2nd. Didn't KC move Mark Teahan from OF (previously 3B) to 2B? So, similarly strange things have happened.
Re: Snark Weak
Is Fox too big to be gritty?
Re: Snark Weak
Yes. But he can be both "tough" and "a real gamer."
He's both too big and hits with too much power to be "gritty" or "scrappy" or to "show a lot of hustle."
Re: Snark Weak
Submitted by Iowa Cub on Tue, 08/04/2009 - 9:16pm.
This is fascinating. AZ Phil, I don't know how you know the details of all the transactions, DL moves, service time, options, etc., but it never ceases to amaze me how you can explain roster moves, and even anticipate them to this degree. One more day for Gorzelanny on options and he won't be a Super Two? I'm certain the Cubs will figure out a way to make that happen. Unless - is it possible that the number will move, depending on the service time of the other candidates for Super Two?
IOWA CUB: Ther are two aspects in regards to determining if a player qualifies for salary arbitration as a "Super Two." One is that the player MUST accrue at least 86 days of MLB Service Time in that season (and that's a hard & fast rule), and the other has to do with the player being in the top 17% in MLB Service time of players who have accrued at least two years of MLB Service Time but less than three years.
Historically, the cut-off point for MLB ST for players qualifying for "Super Two" status is right around 2.130 MLB ST, sometimes a bit less, sometimes a little bit more (it's never been less than 2.120). But at 2.160+ MLB ST, Gorzelanny is a lock to qualify as long as he accrues the 86 days he needs in 2009. And he projects right at 86 days right now AS LONG AS he doesn't spend one more day on optional assignment to the minors in 2009.
Re: Snark Weak
Gotcha - it's the 86 days of service time this season that he's up against. I think that even further supports the theory of the Cubs' intentions to block his attainment of Super Two status. This is probably why he was optioned to Iowa right away instead of brought to the Cubs, and then brought in today to replace an "injured" player. If they hadn't done it this way, they would have had to have optioned him 3 or 4 days earlier at the end of August, which would have caused a problem with the rotation, under the best-case scenario that he pitches well and remains in the rotation.
Re: Snark Weak
Two other things to keep in mind about potential Cubs roster moves this month...
Neal Cotts (who is out for the year after undergoing season-ending TJS last month) will almost certainly be recalled from his optional assignment sometime before September (probably August 31st) and be placed on the Cubs 15-day DL. (He is presently on the Iowa DL). By doing this (recalling Cotts from Iowa and placing him on their MLB DL prior to 9/1), the Cubs will get a second post-season roster-exemption (Chad Fox is the other one), allowing the Cubs to exchange a 12th pitcher for a 14th position player, and/or exchange a starting pitcher for a reliever, and/or exchange a lefty reliever for a righty reliever (or vice-versa), and/or add a DH bat for the WS (presuming the Cubs get that far), depending on match-ups (the rosters can be altered before each series).
And David Patton recently suffered a setback in his minor league rehab at AA Tennessee (he aggravated his groin injury) and might be shut-down for the season, and if so, that would give the Cubs three post-season roster-exemptions, providing tremendous roster flexibilty from post-season series-to-series.
Re: Snark Weak
Can we please start calling Jake Fox Mark DeRosa Jumbo from now on?
Re: Snark Weak
Submitted by Iowa Cub on Wed, 08/05/2009 - 9:55am.
The other question I'd have would be about free agency - if he doesn't qualify for Super Two, he doesn't get to go to arbitration this year, right? Does that mean his FA eligibility gets pushed back by a year as well? If so, I can see that as another very reasonable excuse to avoid Super Two status.
IOWA CUB: Having qualified for salary arbitration as a "Super Two" earlier in his career has no bearing on a player's opportunity to be a free-agent once he has accrued six years of MLB Service Time. Qualifying as a "Super Two" merely gives a player a chance to make more money a year earlier than he otherwise would if he had to wait until he had accrued at least three years of MLB ST (which automatically qualifies a player for salary arbitration).
Also, requiring a player to accrue at least 86 days of MLB Service Time in a season in order to qulaify for salary arbitration as a "Super Two" is NOT a requirement for players who have accrued at least three years of MLB Service Time. Any player on a 40-man roster who has accrued at least three years of MLB Service Time and who is not signed for the following season and who is not eligible to be a free-agent is eligible for salary arbitration, even if the player spends the entire season on optional assignment to the minors.
An interesting case is Neal Cotts (who underwent TJS surgery last month). Cotts had accrued 4.028 days of MLB ST going into the 2009 season, and while he will be eligible for salary arbitration post-2009 even though he has spent most of the season on optional assignment to Iowa, he needed to accrue at least 144 days of MLB ST in 2009 in order to stay on target to be eligible to be a free-agent post-2010, and there is no way he will accrue 144 days in 2009, Now, he probably will get non-tendered (and become a free-agent) on 12/12 because the Cubs won't want to go to arbitration with a pitcher who will miss most of the 2010 season rehabbing, but even if he had stayed healthy, he would have had his free-agency delayed by a year (becoming a FA post-2011 instead of post-2010) because he spent too much time in the minors this year. .
Mike Fontenot is the other Cubs player who will likely qualify for salary arbitration post-2009 as a "Super Two." Fontenot will have accrued 2.139 MLB ST by the end of this season (and that should make him a "Super Two," although it's not as certain as Gorzelanny), as long as he avoids spending 20 or more days on optional assignment to the minors this season. (If a player spends less than 20 days on optional assignment to the minors in a given season, the player gets credit for a full season of MLB ST and does not use up an option year)..
So if Fontenot were to get optioned to Iowa for at least 20 days this season, his projected accrued MLB ST by the end of the 2009 season would go below 2.120, and he would very likely NOT be eligible for salary arbitration a a "Super Two," and the Cubs would save about $500K in 2010 payroll. Of course there is a difference between playing without Fontenot for three weeks just to save $500K in 2010 payroll versus sending Gorzelanny down (between starts) at the end of August to save $500K in 2010 payroll.
Re: Snark Weak
He's hitting .203 with RISP (59 ABs) this year. It'd be nice if he did better than .203 in the opportunities he does get.
Re: Snark Weak
Of course, he also only has a .244 BABIP in those situations, and has a .422 OBP. But lets just focus on batting average, because it tells us so much in an 83 plate appearance sample size.
Re: Snark Weak
All I said is that it'd be nice if he could hit better than .203 with RISP. .203 sucks no matter how you sabre-slice it. Obviously, the .422 OBP helps. But wouldn't anyone want better than .203 with RISP? I guess that's just me.
Re: Snark Weak
Well... considering that the .244 BABIP is a) below his 2009 overall BABIP (.300), b) his career BABIP (.322), and c) his career BABIP with RISP (.301), it would appear that a decent part of the .203 would be a lot of bad luck.
Re: Snark Weak
That's a good point! Of course...if MB would go up to the plate with RISP looking to swing at an effing pitch instead of looking to walk, he might drive some in.
I'm all for OBP, taking bad pitches...but he sure likes to take borderline strikes at all costs..swinging only at the perfect waist high, outside corner 85-88 MPH pitch that he can drive to left-center.
Recent comments
good news is now 5 K's for Lester through 4 (in a quest for 200 for season). Bad news is he's already at 86 pitches.
be curious how long Maddon sticks with Lester to try and let offense get back into it and get him the win (4-2 as I type, was 4-0)
Fwiw, he needed 2.1 IP to cross 200 for season so he got that at least. He also needs 9 K's for 200K's on season and he has 4 through 3.
cubs score 2 runs thanks to predictable reds pitching and horrible CIN defense...cubs only down by 1 now. heyward even got a gift 2rbi double out of an easy popout. neat.
something named Ty Blach has outpitched Clayton Kershaw through 6 innings (1-0 Giants).
not that finishing 2nd place will matter much nor did this game, but have to think if Hendricks pitches well tomorrow, he could leapfrog Lester in Cy Young voting. Don't see anyway Scherzer doesn't win it regardless and it doesnt' look like Lester has any incentive clauses that matter. Also might give Cueto some votes.
Rather remarkable how many teams have really good 1-2 options this year.
Nats: Scherzer and Roark (and Strasburg was great before injuries)
Cubs: Lester and Hendricks (and Arrietta is still damn good just not as consistently lately)
pretty much what I'm gathering from this thread is that it doesn't matter who you play in 5-game series, but no one wants to have to deal with Cardinal fans if we end up losing.
I can respect that.
first game for lester giving up more than 2 runs since july 24th. hell of a run.
doh, yes...dunno what happened there. jake arrieta is all "bro wut?"
lester going for #20...cubs haven't had a LH (thanks jpep for the correction) 20 game winner since d.ellsworth in 1963.
fwiw, all the games are free on mlb.tv
Short rest for MadBum would be 2 days. WC game is Wed., Games 1 & 2 are Friday/Saturday.
A left-handed one...
J-Hey not finishing with an offensive onslaught.
If Geoff Blum could be a Playoff hero, there is hope still...
Giants scare me. I think you're wrong about Bumgarner, he would pitch on short rest for Game 2 and then full rest for Game 5. Cueto would go Game 1, then short rest in game 4. Add in some really tough outs in that lineup and I want nothing to do with them. With that rotation they can easily steal a series.
Cards are a tough matchup. The rivalry evens out their comparable lack of talent. And like someone said, they love HRs, which is how to beat the Cubs. The upside is that I would feel really good about Lester twice against STL.
j.buchanan with a nice start...5ip 2h 1bb 3k, 0r/er
zobrist with 2HR and a double through 8
heyward 0-4 :(
Mark Gonzales @MDGonzales
Soler likely to return Sunday, Maddon says


text:
Runnergirl wrote:I agree with you Old Scout. Having a drink is legal and at that point the user does not inflict anthing negative to the people around them. A smoker does. Driving under the influence is a crime and that is a different issue.
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text:
[B]Installing Open Source Operating Systems :- Relishing the Tasted Freedom[/B]
While I was getting milk(mixed with horlicks),I was relishing the evolution of FOSS group in my university and thought of writing it here,again.When I conducted Software Freedom Week last year,I installed various operating Systems and other FOSS software for faculties of my university.In patricular I need to mention about Prof.Sairam,I installed ubuntu in his system and Netbeans 6.0 last software freedom week.When I met him some time again in January,he told me that he ordered latest version of Ubuntu from cannonical and he informed that with a deep sense of proud.I met him again some few weeks before in a meeting and asked about his laptop.He replied me saying that,he has ubuntu 9.04 as a native installation and is using Netbeans 6.7,Matlab and said that he also writing his python scripts.I was able to see some exquisite happiness in his gestures.It may look simple now,but it meant a lot to me.He further surprised me by asking me about writing PHP scripts in Netbeans.
Well,the past is over.I am gonna speak about recent past.We had install fest today as a second day of our Software Freedom week celebrations presented by Harish(Mr.Tall) and he explained about importance of open source operating systems,then about the various filesystems like ext 4,ZFS and then about partitioning(as there were a lot of freshers) and demonstrated installing Ubuntu and then told them repositories(Including one at SASTRA) and then he also answered some queries like Whats fascinating about non-window operating systems.
After this,I thought of showing some cool demos like compiz effects,customizing Desktop so that it will poke their interest to use open source operating systems.It was great session overall,but again I was frsutated with Mr.powersupply because he disturbed us a lot.
It was also from the organisers,that they have started doing installtions for their friends and faculties.Overall Software freedom Week celebrations gaining its momentum!
[B]Next session:[/B]
Topic : Netbeans 6.7 - Devlopment Simplified
Date : 23.08.09
Time : 5.00PM
Venue:Tifac seminar hall II
Stay Tuned!


text:
The Cubs and No-Trade Clauses
There was a brief discussion in the comments earlier this week about general manager Jim Hendry's liberal use of the no-trade clause. Reader WISCGRAD did the legwork to see if indeed Hendry hands them out like a lollipop after leaving the doctor's office or if it's line with other ballclubs.
No-trade clauses in player contracts are controversial. On the one hand, they are often necessary to attract or keep high-value free agents. On the other hand, towards the end of player's career a team may wish to trade a player whose skills have declined, but are unable to do so. No-trade clauses can range from full – where the player must approve any trade during the length of the contract – to limited – where the player has no-trade rights for a specified period of time or to specific teams. Making the issue more complicated, the current collective bargaining agreement between the Major League Baseball Players Association and Major League Baseball automatically grants a player full no-trade rights if he has 10 or more years of major league service time and has been with his current team for 5 or more years. The following table lists all players with no-trade rights for the entire 2009 season. This excludes those players who recently signed as free agents and cannot be traded until June. The information was taken from Cot's Baseball Contracts, and each player was coded for the type of no-trade that applies to the 2009 season only. As one can see, with only a few exceptions, these are the cream of the crop of major league players (ed note - it's important to remember that the details of no-trade provisions or even their existence are not always made public and the information on Cot's Baseball Contracts should not be considered 100% reliable, but more as a good guide).
|Tori Hunter
|Vladimir Guerrero
|Kelvim Escobar
|Gary Mathews Jr.
|Lance Berkman
|Roy Oswalt
|Carlos Lee
|Kaz Matsui
|Eric Chavez
|Jason Giambi
|Scott Rolen
|Blue Jays
|Vernon Wells
|Blue Jays
|Alex Rios
|Blue Jays
|Javier Vazquez
|Chipper Jones
|Jeff Suppan
|Mike Cameron
|Ryan Braun
|Albert Pujols
|Chris Carpenter
|Troy Glaus
|Kyle Lohse
|Carlos Zambrano
|Alfonso Soriano
|Aramis Ramirez
|Derrek Lee
|Ryan Dempster
|Ted Lilly
|Kosuke Fukudome
|Jeff Samardzija
|Eric Byrnes
|Manny Ramirez
|Jason Schmidt
|Hiroki Kuroda
|Juan Pierre
|Rafael Furcal
|Barry Zito
|Aaron Rowand
|Randy Winn
|Bengie Molina
|Travis Hafner
|Ichiro Suzuki
|Adrian Beltre
|Jarrod Washburn
|Johan Santana
|Carlos Beltran
|Francisco Rodriguez
|Billy Wagner
|Melvin Mora
|Brian Roberts
|Nick Markakis
|Jake Peavy
|Brian Giles
|Chase Utley
|Jamie Moyer
|J.C. Romero
|Jack Wilson
|Michael Young
|Kevin Millwood
|Francisco Cordero
|J.D. Drew
|Red Sox
|David Ortiz
|Red Sox
|Mike Lowell
|Red Sox
|Daisuke Matsuzaka
|Red Sox
|Jason Varitek
|Red Sox
|Tim Wakefield
|Red Sox
|Todd Helton
|Gil Meche
|Zack Greinke
|Magglio Ordonez
|Carlos Guillen
|Joe Nathan
|Joe Mauer
|Mark Buehrle
|White Sox
|Jim Thome
|White Sox
|Paul Konerko
|White Sox
|Jermaine Dye
|White Sox
|A.J. Pierzynski
|White Sox
|Scott Linebrink
|White Sox
|Alex Rodriguez
|C.C. Sabathia
|Mark Teixeira
|Derek Jeter
|A.J. Burnett
|Mariano Rivera
|Jorge Posada
|Johnny Damon
|Hideki Matsui
The Cubs have the second-most players who cannot be traded this year (8), trailing only the Yankees (9). The Marlins and Nationals do not have any players on their current rosters with no-trade rights for 2009. It would seem that teams with higher payrolls are able to attract the type of free agent talent that demands no-trade clauses. They are able to pay higher salaries and commit to longer contracts. These teams are also able to keep players for longer periods of time and thus accumulate more players with ten-five rights. The graph below illustrates this point. The teams are ordered from left to right based on their 2009 opening day payrolls. One can clearly see the concentration of players with no-trade rights towards the large-market, high payroll teams on the right side of the graph (Click for a larger view).
Does having too many of these types of players on the roster limit a team's flexibility and hinder its ability to win? There is no doubt that in some cases a team would gain more by being able to trade a particular player, however, across baseball having no-trade players is indicative of success, not failure. This is not due to the presence of these players themselves, but the fact that they predominantly play for large market, high-payroll teams as outlined above. Yet it is important to note that having too many types of these players does not appear to drag a team down. The graph below orders teams from left to right based on the total number of combined wins in 2007-2008. While the relationship is not as stark as the payroll relationship, one can still clearly see the winningest teams in baseball, concentrated on the far right of the graph, have a significant proportion of the no-trade players on 2009 rosters.
Quick Cubs news note from Rob G. here...Milton Bradley had his suspension reduced to one game and will serve it today. Convenient how MLB waited unti lthe middle of a game he wasn't penciled in the starting lineup to finally hand out its decision. Bradley is naturally upset.
"It figures," he said Thursday. "I never get treated fairly. It's exactly what I expected."
Bradley may have a point when you see that MLB doesn't plan to suspend ump Paul Schreiber for shoving Magglio Ordonez in the back.
Re: No-Trade Clauses
Classy! Go Internets!
Seriously though, very nice piece Wiscgrad.
One important thing to note is that it looks to me that ARam converts to 10/5 at the end of this year. Soriano's contract that everyone is so nervous about (me included)? I believe the no-trade converts to 10/5 after next year. I look at that list and the only two players that I think are at all controversial are Fukudome and Samardzija. Given that Samardzija's contract doesn't cost us that much (at most $16.5M over 7 years if we exercise the club options), that one's relatively low risk as well.
Assuming the players listed are all either No-trade or No-sign, who do you give up or trade away before becoming 10/5 from our 8 to avoid the no-trade?
Re: No-Trade Clauses
Soriano signed before the 2007 season, so his 10/5 wouldn't kick in until after the 2011 season.
Re: No-Trade Clauses
Well Manny, maybe you don't know this, but 2011 is indeed "after next year."
Classy! Go internet!
Re: No-Trade Clauses
Sorry, I took "after next year" to mean after the 2010 season. But in reality it is after the 2011 season that A-FONSE gets the 10/5 privilege. Of course that is if he is still with the Cubs at that time and not traded before.
Re: No-Trade Clauses
This is what always happens. Voice your opinion and then get smacked down rudely. Anyone else makes this comment and RobG wouldn't put up with it.
Woo! Go internet!
Re: No-Trade Clauses
I <3 Mr. Whipple!
Re: No-Trade Clauses
except Manny is right that Soriano doesn't reach 10/5 status until after 2011, or the start of the 2012.
I guess it is after next year (as every year in the future would be), but its not immediately after next year.
I'm sure Manny will say Soriano's 10/5 shouldn't count as part of his desire to spin anything into an attack on Hendry, but in this case he knows the technical details, he just chooses to ignore them when they don't fit his agenda.
Re: No-Trade Clauses
Oh, c'mon BB. I'm not an idiot. I'm just f-ing with Manny. It was a typical Manny move: make a mistake (which it was a real one on my part), then go down swinging defending it. Then act like a victim when people treat you like the asshole you are. See above for Act III of my performance art.
Re: No-Trade Clauses
I appreciated your early morning Internet performance piece.
Re: No-Trade Clauses
Without the annual donation drive, I have to figure out some way to contribute.
Re: No-Trade Clauses
To bad nobody treated you like an asshole, but it was a great performance. When do you get your Razzie? I <3 Mr. Whipple!
Re: No-Trade Clauses
in that case, well played
Re: No-Trade Clauses
Pitch perfect, Whip. You're like the Frank Caliendo of the interwebs.
Do me next!!!
Re: No-Trade Clauses
Thank you, thank you all. In the end, I do it for you, the fans.
For my next act: Navigator!
I keed. I keed.
I don't think NTC's are that big a deal
in general...but I don't get the Lilly one to be honest, especially if it is indeed a full NTC.
The ones to Soriano, Lee and Ramirez and Z to bridge the gap to their 10/5 rights don't mean much to me. They're making so much that there's only a few teams anyway that would even remotely consider making a deal for them and if the Cubs are in such bad shape that they need to move them, the player would probably want to leave anyway. At least in Lee and Ramirez's cases they saved some money on it that let them sign other players. It would be nice if they could have saved some money on Soriano's deal on top of it, but can't win them all.
Re: I don't think NTC's are that big a deal
I agree about Lilly, he's really the only guy on the list who stands out from the other situations. He was signed as a 2nd tier pitcher, and while he clearly was Hendry's first choice that offseason (and turned out to be the best choice of the bunch), but he wasn't a player in a category all by himself.
All of the NTCs were given out for pretty obvious reasons:
Lee, Ramirez, and Zambrano are all cases where they would already be getting NTCs during their contracts anyway and possibly took less money in exchange.
Soriano was the one big splash that Hendry's critics always used to say he would never make. He was the top free agent of that offseason and to get him, and the NTC was part of showing that the Cubs wanted him for the long term. Throw in the fact that its tough to trade anyone making 18 million a year, and its just an obvious one to give.
Dempster was already a 10/5 when his contract was done.
Fuk and Samz were obviously a different type of bidding war. Fuk being the top player to come out of Japan, and Hendry being so desparate to get anyone who was left handed that he treated him like a top tier player, and Samz was done to convince him to play for the Cubs instead of playing football. I'm not thrilled with those, but there was a pretty obvious reason for giving out both of them.
Re: I don't think NTC's are that big a deal
"They're making so much that there's only a few teams anyway that would even remotely consider making a deal for them."
If you can't trade them, they're overpaid. It's true, I suppose, if you're going to pay above market for all your signings, you may as well give them NTCs.
Hendry overpays for good players. If I say that, people start yelling, What are you talking about? They're good players! (It's hard to have a reasonable conversation with an infatuated Cub fan.)
I like Soriano (11 HRs, 23 RBI), but since he steals few bases at this point, you could have put Adam Dunn (11 HRs, 28 RBI) in left and paid much less for two years, and not had to worry about what to do with a fading star in 2012-2014.
Hendry overpays. Dempster is the latest example, Marquis the latest proof.
Re: I don't think NTC's are that big a deal
Assuming players are only interested in money (a pretty safe assumption), than you always overpay for free agents.
Re: I don't think NTC's are that big a deal
The Soriano - Dunn comparison is basically retarded anyway. Had Dunn been a FA after the '07 season he would have signed a 6 year $96 million contract. Dunn hit FA after a 2.1 WARP season. Soriano hit it after a 7.9 WARP season.
Re: I don't think NTC's are that big a deal
Had Dunn been a FA after the '07 season he would have signed a 6 year $96 million contract. Dunn hit FA after a 2.1 WARP season. Soriano hit it after a 7.9 WARP season.
What? Defense matters?
Soriano gets paid more than Dunn because... Soriano is better than Dunn.
Re: The Cubs and No-Trade Clauses
Couple Positives:
- It shows we have a legit window of having our key players locked in for the next few years at least. We have at least a 2-3 year window left to try and win a WS with this nucleus.
- Guarantees the team will be one of the higher spending teams in baseball, which while that doesn't guarantee more wins, it really does help overall.
Couple Negatives:
- Have almost as many NTC guys as the NYY, yet we aren't, nor shouldn't, be in the same situation as the NYY contract wise, IMO.
- BOST and PHIL, the past 2 WS champs, have less NTC guys than we do and were able to win a WS.
Overall, I think NTC's do limit the flexibility of a team in the later years of a contract, but I could see only 3 guys right now as a worry (Soraino, K-Fuk, Smarzjiakskfhskasdfaf). It hurts the flexibility more when the team is more limited in its budget, but the Cubs no longer fall into that category, where just a few years ago it was a different situation.
Re: The Cubs and No-Trade Clauses
"It hurts the flexibility more when the team is more limited in its budget"
It hurts flexibility either way, because teams don't sit their rich players. Fukudome was never benched last year--or if he was benched briefly after failing badly for three months, he was reinstated in the lineup in the playoffs. As much as Lou disliked Marquis, Marshall could never step ahead of him in the rotation.
Hoffpauir can't earn the first-base spot on the Cubs, it's above his pay grade!
Re: The Cubs and No-Trade Clauses
Kyle Lohse has a No Trade Clause? Now that's a case of a GM handing a NTC out like candy.
It is interesting that 3 of the Cubs with current No-Trade clauses will convert to 10/5 guys before their contracts are up. If you wanted to advance this article, I'd be interested in knowing what percentage of No Trades are given in the early years of a contract, prior to a 10/5 kicking in.
Re: The Cubs and No-Trade Clauses
This is a good suggestion, I'll take a quick look and post something.
Also, at least Lohse is no JC Romero!
Re: The Cubs and No-Trade Clauses
Jesus, Zito was a terrible signing. 7/$126, full no-trade. He's looked decent lately, but you can find "decent" for a hell of a lot less than $18 mil/year for 7 years. Funny, but I really was hoping the Cubs would get either Zito or Schmidt that year, instead they got Soriano and I think it was Ted Lilly. And I don't think there's any doubt Soriano alone changed the complexion of the team.
In other news, Ryno is sometimes wrong.
Re: The Cubs and No-Trade Clauses
Take solace in the fact that there were probably hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of other Cubs fans openly pining for Zito and/or Schmidt (I think myself included).
Anyone think Schmidt might be a PED guy? He sure fell off a cliff fast.
Re: The Cubs and No-Trade Clauses
I would not be surprised at all if Schmidt or Zito were PED guys.
But speaking of falling off a cliff. What has happened to David Ortiz? His numbers last year were a big dropoff and now he hasn't hit a HR yet (150 PA). He is batting .220. If that doesn't scream PED, I don't know what does.
Re: The Cubs and No-Trade Clauses
Zito is a finesse pitcher. I don't think peds help with that. I could be wrong.
Re: The Cubs and No-Trade Clauses
A) Who is the female in the pic with Hendry? She defines cute.
B) I wouldn't be shocked at all if Ortiz is a PED guy. He really came out of nowhere in '03. Pitchers are harder to tell because of the whole injury proneness, so a guy might dominate but then suck if he has any kind of shoulder/elbow issues and doesn't come back the same. Unless of course you're Clemens throwing better at 38 than 28.
Re: The Cubs and No-Trade Clauses
where I took it from said "Mr. and Mrs. Hendry"...my Dad had a brief interaction with Hendry and his wife a few years back and claimed she was a looker. I think it's his second wife as well. Whether the person in that picture and the one my Dad met are one in the same I can't tell you.
Re: The Cubs and No-Trade Clauses
It's good to have money, I guess.
Re: The Cubs and No-Trade Clauses
Uh, if that's Hendry's wife, then Ryan Theriot is going to hit 50 homers this year.
Re: The Cubs and No-Trade Clauses
Hendry's teenage daughter, maybe?
Re: The Cubs and No-Trade Clauses
this brief meeting he had with my Dad, he had some toddlers with him and that was 4-5 years ago (I think they were from his first wife)...
this is where I took it from...
says Catherine and Jim Hendry fwiw..but there's other pictures of this Catherine so probably just her personal site or something like that...
-edit- some other pictures of this Catherine Osterman are there if you look around, so just looks like had some connections to get on the field.
-edit 2- looks like she's a somewhat famous USA softball player...
Re: The Cubs and No-Trade Clauses
I was in grad school at the University of Texas while Cat Osterman was pitching for the Longhorn softball team. She was a BEAST. She was probably one of the top two or three best collegiate softball pitchers to ever step on the mound.
Even in Texas, where football is king, Cat Osterman was a big deal. I have a couple of students each semester at Saint Joseph's University (in Philadelphia) who are on the SJU softball team, and when they learn I lived in Texas, the first thing they ask about is Cat Osterman.
And she is very tall (and legendarily good-looking), so it doesn't surprise me that she can see over Hendry's head.
Just FYI.
Re: The Cubs and No-Trade Clauses
FWIW, Jim Hendry's first wife is my second cousin of some type (once removed, twice removed? IDK) My great-uncle (my grandmother's brother) was her grandfather.
I never met Jim and if I met my cousin, it was only one time when I was 9 years old and don't remember it.
Re: The Cubs and No-Trade Clauses
I never really suspected Zito, but yeah I think most people just kind of assume Ortiz was a juicer. From 2003 - 2006 (his age 27 - 30 seasons) his HR totals went:
Then he dropped off to 35 HRs the next year, then fucked up some sheath in his wrist, and now he's horrible at age 33.
Of course we can't be sure he used, but it's all a bit suspicious. Really at this point I'm suspicious of everyone. Including Pujols and, to be fair, 2005 DLee.
Re: The Cubs and No-Trade Clauses
Doug D.
Yeah, of course we can't be sure and it is all speculation. I just assume everyone did it. But DLee very easily could have really done it at that point.
Re: The Cubs and No-Trade Clauses
Schmidt was throwing 95 when he was in the minors, and was considered the Braves top pitching prospect. He's just a guy that figured it out, like a lot of pitchers (Schilling, Johnson, Maddux etc) do given enough time. Unless the PED's were helping him keep his shoulder joint in one piece, I can't think of a reason that he should be singled out.
Zito's lost a little bit of heat on his fastball and break on his curve - could be from PED's but probably just his shoulder changing as it got all those innings when he first came up.
Re: The Cubs and No-Trade Clauses
It's not like the Giants didn't have numerous warning flags about Zito before they signed him. He was started to lose his pinpoint control the prior season (if memory serves), and we all know what the end result of that problem usually entails (see the former Cub pitcher in Baltimore for reference). OTOH, you could make a fairly strong case for a pitcher being able to right himself the next season, and perhaps the Giants needed to make a big free - agent splash for their fanbase, regardless of the risks involved.
Re: The Cubs and No-Trade Clauses
The real problem I have with the Zito signing was that it was reported at the time that SF wasn't negotiating against anyone else.
Re: The Cubs and No-Trade Clauses
I heard the same thing too. It is amazing Sabean still has a job. I will be shocked if his club option gets picked up for next year.
Re: The Cubs and No-Trade Clauses
Yes, his recent success is not due to him throwing any harder. He's pinpointing like vintage Zito. Will be interesting to see if he can be consistent with it.
Re: The Cubs and No-Trade Clauses
I missed Helton as a 10/5 in the table above. Also, it turns out that Pujols has only a limited no trade clause in 2009. It was full from 2004-2006, limited from 2007-2010, and if they pick up his option in 2011 or he signs a new contract he becomes a 10/5.
Re: The Cubs and No-Trade Clauses
I tweaked the table to reflect those.
Re: The Cubs and No-Trade Clauses
Was that report ever confirmed about the Giants regarding the Zito signing? If true, then I'd have to agree with your point about fiscal impropriety.
Re: The Cubs and No-Trade Clauses
So here is the analysis on who gets NT Clauses.
Only 8 Players had their 10/5 rights simply kick in without having a previous NT in their contract: Vladimir Guerrero, Kelvim Escobar, Chipper Jones, Chris Carpenter, Ryan Dempster, David Ortiz, Jorge Posada.
36 players on the list either had or are having part of their contract covered by no-trade rights simply as a bridge until their 10/5 rights kick in.
22 players don't have 5 years with the same team, but will reach 10 years of service at some point in the contract. Some of these players are simply veterans that can demand NT clauses, while others could have chosen to sign with their previous teams in which case they would have gained 10/5 rights, so it would be natural for them to demand this from a team signing them away.
There were 20 players that probably stir the most debate, since they are not going to reach 10 years of service in their current contracts, but were given no trade clauses anyway. 5 of those are easy to explain, Japanese players K. Matsui, Fukudome, Kuroda, Matsuzaka, and H. Matsui.
The other 15 are more interesting to look at. Many are young stars tagged as franchise players - Ryan Braun, Alex Rios, Eric Byrnes, Nick Markakis, Chase Utley, Joe Mauer, Zach Greinke, K-Rod, and we can probably throw Samardzija in there as well since he fits more with this category than the next. While some have not turned out as expected, there is no real debate over those names.
The other 6 are the most intriguing of all. Ted Lilly, Juan Pierre, JC Romero, Jack Wilson, AJ Pierzynski, and Scott Linebrink.
Re: The Cubs and No-Trade Clauses
Nice article. A couple of other things I would have liked to see was if it was just a straight line function of having free agents or free agents on a certain contract length (4+ years or something).
Re: The Cubs and No-Trade Clauses
Speaking of curve ball pitchers. This is kind of neat.
Re: The Cubs and No-Trade Clauses
That is very cool. I wonder if there's something to the fixation of a batter's gaze that relates to one being a better curveball hitter than others.
Re: The Cubs and No-Trade Clauses
David Shuster reporting Ryan Theriot's displeasure with the "When Even Theriot Raises Suspicions..." headline on WSCR.
Honestly. We're going to get into if Theriot is juicing or not?
Re: The Cubs and No-Trade Clauses
When one of his HR's actually makes it over the basket, they can start worrying.
What's WSCR?
Re: The Cubs and No-Trade Clauses
Not sure if you are kidding or not, but it's 670 AM in Chicago. The article is in The Sun-Times apparently.
Re: The Cubs and No-Trade Clauses
Bad sentence structure. Figured it was a radio station, just couldn't figure out how a radio station ran a 'headline'.
Re: The Cubs and No-Trade Clauses
I didn't word it very well, did I? Maybe I should write for the Sun-Times.
Soriano, Theriot, Fuku, Lee, Hoff, Soto, Fontenot, Scales, Wells
Re: The Cubs and No-Trade Clauses
Thanks, Ryno.
I like that Scales continues to make it into the line-up.
For those of you watching, what did you think of Ascanio?
I followed Gameday and liked that he threw strikes with what Gameday thought were at least three pitches-- FB, slider, change-up.
Would be NICE if Ascanio and Wells can come close to their AAA numbers this season. That would fucking solve a lot of problems (i.e. Cotts), especially if Gooz continues to pitch as well as he has.
Bullpen of Gregg, Marmol, Heilman, Guzman, Wells, Ascanio, and Patton might be alright even if it is completely right-handed.
And...having nothing to do with Ascanio or the bullpen...JAKE FOX is making AAA pitchers look like Ass Clowns. All of them. You pitch to Jake Fox, you become an Ass Clown.
Re: Ascanio
Word, dawg.
Is this blog becoming the Jim Rome show? Chad will be pleased.
Re: Ascanio
I was hopin' you dopes would hear my Rome voice on that.
Re: The Cubs and No-Trade Clauses
If you want to vote for Theriot for the ASG do it now. He's 2nd in the league in Slugging and OPS behind Hanley. Fukudome is 4th in the league in OBP so get your justified vote in for him too, while you're at it.
The New Daily Double?
Ryne Sandberg's got Thomas and Barney batting at the top of the order for the Smokies, and they're really tearing it up. Thomas is a little BABIP lucky, but he's showing power that he hasn't displayed before with 6 HR's already .352 .441 .611. Having trouble stealing bases.
Barney's numbers aren't as eye popping .330 .394 .423, but with only 11 K's in about 110 PA's - that BA and OBP may be legit.
Wellington Castillo's fluky numbers from last year have kharmed out on him this year - yuck.
Re: The New Daily Double?
I was impressed by Barney in spring training. He looked like a bigger Theriot-type of player that might be a better fielder with a stronger arm. He's not likely going to hit a ton in the majors, but probably a lot like Theriot.
Re: The Cubs and No-Trade Clauses
My latest annoyance when visiting Cubs.com: all of the advertisements about how the price of Gameday has dropped!!! Now it's even cheaper to bring the Cubs closer!!
F-that, it should drop, a 6th of the season is gone. It should be prorated like every other similar utility. They always do this. At the all-star break they will be touting another "price drop" and similarly during the last month of the year.
Re: Delay?
Doesn't look good. Len just said 'Let's hope we get it started'. Raining now and ground crew didn't seem to be doing anything in the brief shot they did.
Re: Delay?
WGN Radio reporting the game has been postponed.
Makeup game rescheduled for July 30th, 1:20
Re: The Cubs and No-Trade Clauses
Brewer's prospect Brad Nelson just refused his AAA assignment and became a free agent. He is from Algona, IA and went to HS with one of my old college roommates. During college we drove down to Clinton, Iowa to see him play in a minor league game. I think at the time he was maybe a Beloit Snapper. We talked to him for a bit after the game. Real nice guy, hopefully he'll catch on somewhere.
More Theriot
video clip in the right corner with Bradley and Hendry talking about the suspension was mildly interesting...
Re: More Theriot
In the clip Bradley says something to the effect of he never does anything rash. Though it may appear rash, he doesn't do things off the cuff and he thinks things through.
Wow. So his trip to the press box was pondered and judged to be prudent. I'd thought he was a just a fly off the handle guy. Now I know he's a no-problem-solving-skills/flawed-reasoning-guy.
Re: The Cubs and No-Trade Clauses
Game called. Rescheduled July 30th
via Rotoworld...
The Cubs will juggle their rotation as a result. Friday's scheduled starter, Randy Wells, will start Saturday. Rich Harden gets pushed back to Sunday, and Sean Marshall will be skipped this turn in the rotation, pitching next Thursday. Roy Oswalt will pitch Saturday for the Astros.
That has all the makings of Marshall to the pen when Z comes back, doesn't it? Dude can't win...
Re: Interesting...
Marshall to the pen could = Cotts to DFA.
Re: The Cubs and No-Trade Clauses
Skipping Marshall is a bad sign, he's actually been one of the Cubs best starters his last few times through, other than Lou having a brain cramp and sending him out to start the eight inning and give up two more runs 2-3 starts ago. I understand the bullpen is crap, but I have to see more of Wells before I would effectively diminish the arm strength Marshall has been building up. If he goes to the bullpen for 5-6 weeks and has to go back to the rotation when Harden eventually gets hurt, he won't be throwing into the 7th or 8th innings for quite a while. Plus, the guy is just starting to blossom.
Tough break for Marshall.
Re: The Cubs and No-Trade Clauses
Who knows, but I wonder if maybe Hendry et al have some designs on "Sean Gallahgering" Wells. Squeeze 2-3 decent starts out of him and then ship him off in July with other parts for impact-now sort of player.
I have no idea. It does seem odd to skip the reasonably effetive Marshall.
Re: The Cubs and No-Trade Clauses
Marshall must really have pissed in Lou's Wheaties. I feel bad for the guy. I don't really like him much out of the pen, but think he could be a very good #5 starter for us. Picking Wells over Marshall definitely sends a message that Marshall is not high on Lou's list. Wells did well last time, so good to see him get another go.
Re: The Cubs and No-Trade Clauses
Let's not make Wells into something he's not. He struggled through 5 innings in Milwaukee, having several jams. For a major league debut against a good offense when a team needed at least 5 innings, he did the job. I think Wells projects to be a Brian Lawrence type, a bottom of the rotation guy who doesn't have great stuff, doesn't throw very hard, and will be around .500 but likely not have a long career. He might not even be that. If he gets shelled by the Astros this weekend Lou might have to rethink things. I still think Marshall as a starter has a higher ceiling than Wells. Marshall won't be a top of the rotation guy, but he could be a solid middle of the rotation, Lilly type. With no top starter prospects anywhere near the majors, I don't see why they are so interesting in moving Marshall back to the bullpen.
Re: The Cubs and No-Trade Clauses
Marshall = Scott Eyre? I never fully understood why Eyre was so quickly thrown under the bus last year, while Howry and now Cotts get every available chance to right their ships, so to speak.
Re: The Cubs and No-Trade Clauses
My best guess is that Eyre's not running with all the other players means that he was lazy and Lou doesn't like lazy players.
Re: The Cubs and No-Trade Clauses
I don't think Marshall is in the doghouse or should be compared to Eyre. From everything I have heard, it is the opposite, Lou loves him because he can use him anyway he needs to and he performs well and never complains.
Recent comments
J-Hey not finishing with an offensive onslaught.
If Geoff Blum could be a Playoff hero, there is hope still...
Giants scare me. I think you're wrong about Bumgarner, he would pitch on short rest for Game 2 and then full rest for Game 5. Cueto would go Game 1, then short rest in game 4. Add in some really tough outs in that lineup and I want nothing to do with them. With that rotation they can easily steal a series.
Cards are a tough matchup. The rivalry evens out their comparable lack of talent. And like someone said, they love HRs, which is how to beat the Cubs. The upside is that I would feel really good about Lester twice against STL.
j.buchanan with a nice start...5ip 2h 1bb 3k, 0r/er
zobrist with 2HR and a double through 8
heyward 0-4 :(
Mark Gonzales @MDGonzales
Soler likely to return Sunday, Maddon says
Right now, I'd like to see the Mets first, Giants 2nd.
I believe that since most of the team from last years' NLCS is on the squad this year, they will really amp their game up even more to kick their ass in payback for 2015.
The Giants just do not have the depth in years past, and I think all things equal - and at Wrigley - they could handle them.
I do not want to see the Cards, period. Or their fans, media, or Joe Buck.
I don't want to play Braves in the first round. Any friggin team in the league can win 3 of 5..I hate the first round. Furthermore, I wanted to play the Marlins in 2003 and the Mets over Dodgers last year.
With that said in reverse order:
3. Cardinals: It will be devastating to lose in the first round, but even worse to their main rival. It is increased incentive for the Cardinals, especially after last year. Cards would have nothing to lose, Cubs have everything to lose.
2. Giants: Rotation in the playoffs scare me a bit, but what a lousy team.
1. Mets--because of the losses in the rotation
2. Giants--because they're not the team they were BUT they maybe have bullshit even-year magic?
3. Cardinals--because rivalry and not making the playoffs hurts them more than losing in the NLDS plus getting eliminated by them in the playoffs would make for horrible sports commentary next throughout next season.
Who's asking?
CLE/DET rained out last night already, possible rain-outs in New York (vs. Baltimore), Boston(vs. Toronto) and Philly(vs. Mets) this weekend too.
Not only games involving playoff spots that would need to be played, but any that involve home field advantage.
I got the first one! Second one I'm not even sure what even/odd betting is.
any opponent preference for NLDS?
Mets are down to 1 great pitcher instead of 4. Syndegaard may pitch Sunday which means if Mets win the WC game, he'd be set up for Game 1. There's a chance they clinch a spot by Sunday so he'd pitch the WC and then we'd probably get Colon for Game 1. They've certainly had the hottest bats over the last week and month out of the WC options.
A couple of Cub related puzzles.
Can't teach height and thinness
Hopefully Pirates don't call up A. Lincoln.
j.buchanan going friday...should be...baseball...or something like it.
Wow. I didn't know they could do that.
Nice for Willson, not so much for Addy.


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Several people were stabbed at Lone Star College's CyFair campus in northwest Harris County, Texas, on Tuesday. Take a look at the scene just outside the campus.
Several stabbed at Texas collegeUPDATED 5:25 PM EDT Apr 09, 2013
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Source: Oregon Live
quote: What gets me, is why do they give primo parking spots for EV's.
quote: For a restaurant, bank, drug store, etc., you're not going to be there long enough for a meaningful charge.
quote: Probably easier to run 30A+ circuits through a wall rather than trenching out to parking spaces.


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what is you favorite style of clothing
ill wear anything if it doesnt make me look stupid and i can pull it off. Wut about you?!!?<~~not knowing you, and likin you from a distance its nice~~>
life is rough.so dont take it lightly.
Pretty much anything that looks good and is comfortable, black clothes mostly but not goth, I don't have the money for that lol
Love... is just a different kind of pain.
Elfen lied rules
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Anything Comfy...


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Celebrity News
See inside Stars player Tyler Seguin's $1.9M home he bought from Mike Modano
Photo: realtor.com
An image from the 4-bed, 6-bath 7,250-square-foot North Dallas home of Mike Modano and his ex-wife, Willa Ford. The house was recently sold to Stars forward Tyler Seguin.
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Jeff Gordon posted the fastest single lap in the second practice session of the weekend at Dover International Speedway for the Citizen Soldier 400. His top speed was 160.514 mph.
Jimmie Johnson has 10 Dover wins, which is the most among active and inactive drivers alike.
The AAA 400 at Dover International Speedway this June ran counter course for Matt DiBenedetto. In both 2015 races, he started and finished in the 30s in a 43-car field. This spring, he finished last in 40th.
Chase Elliott had a chance to win the AAA 400 Drive for Autism at Dover International Speedway this spring in his inaugural attempt on this track. He finished third after starting 13th.
Justin Haley and Kyle Benjamin led the way as NASCAR's youth movement conquered the "Monster Mile." It was Haley who lifted the big championship trophy at Dover International Speedway, while Benjamin took the final NASCAR K&N Pro Series East checkered flag of 2016.
Kyle Benjamin dominated the Dover 125 Friday en route to his third NASCAR K&N Pro Series East win of the season.
Rookie Jeffrey Earnhardt has made one previous start at Dover International Speedway. He finished 35th this spring after starting 39th.
Carl Edwards has failed to finish in the top 10 in his last eight attempts at Dover International Speedway.
Trevor Bayne finished 10th in this spring's AAA 400 Drive for Autism at Dover International Speedway after starting 25th, which made him one of the top dark horses of the weekend.
When Kurt Busch finished fifth this spring in the AAA 400 at Dover International Speedway, it snapped an eight race streak of failing to finish among the top 10 on this high-banked oval.
Kyle Busch posted the second slowest fast lap in the first practice session on Friday for the Citizen Soldier 400 at Dover International Speedway with a speed of 160.851 mph.
Cayden Lapcevich, the 2016 NASCAR Pinty's Series champion is also the Josten's Rookie of the Year for the series. He becomes the first driver to win both awards in the same year.
Todd Gilliland proved he was the driver to beat this season in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West, and he's already started collecting the trophies.
With the Citizen Soldier 400 set by owner points, Martin Truex Jr. will roll off the grid from the outside of the front row.
Rain canceled qualification for the Citizen Soldier 400 and the roster will be set by owner points. That puts Brad Keselowski on the pole as the points' leader.


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PITTSBURGH - The Pittsburgh Steelers have finished other seasons with a meaningless game.
But not like this.
The Steelers will end the 2012 season with this Sunday's home game against Cleveland, the result of being eliminated from playoff contention by Sunday's 13-10 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals at Heinz Field.
In past years, the Steelers have closed with a game that didn't matter because their playoff position had been secured and was immune from the final regular season game.
This time, they know they're packing to go home after the 16th game.
"You play to get the opportunity to win the Super Bowl," safety Ryan Clark said. "And when that is gone, it's a tough reality, especially when you're one of the teams that expects to play for it every year."
There's also a sense that some of the experienced players won't be back. The Steelers face contract decisions on a number of high profile players, including linebacker James Harrison, nose tackle Casey Hampton, running back Rashard Mendenhall and receiver Mike Wallace.
The team has been in transition, with veterans Hines Ward, James Farrior, Aaron Smith and Chris Hoke all departing after last season.
The turnover will continue, but the expectation of success will, too.
"I don't worry about next year," Clark said. "I barely got through today to worry about tomorrow. When you win, you can make everything rainbows and pots of gold. For us, we didn't get it done."
The Steelers can finish no better than 8-8, and need to beat Cleveland to avoid their first losing season since 2003 and second in the last 13 years.
This is the second time the Steelers have failed to reach the playoffs in Mike Tomlin's six seasons as head coach.
"It hurts bad not going to the playoffs," cornerback Keenan Lewis said. "We're going to be home with the rest of them, watching."
Cornerback Cortez Allen said, "We have work to do. We have things to work on, like how we prepare and execute. We will continue to grow."
Falling short
Shaun Suisham came into the game having missed just one field goal attempt all season.
He missed twice Sunday in a game that ended up being decided by three points.
Suisham's first miss was from 24 yards at the closed end of Heinz Field. Greg Warren's snap was off the mark, which disrupted the timing. When holder Drew Butler put the ball down, Suisham ended up kicking it on the laces. Tomlin said the low kick was tipped by a defensive player, and the ball was wide left.
"It stabilized, but it wasn't going to go in anyway," Suisham said.
The second miss came late in the game from 53 yards to the open end of the stadium. Suisham's career best is 52 yards. His kick was accurate, but fell short.
"It's my job to make every single one and that's what I strive for," he said. "When it doesn't happen, obviously, I accept it and I should have been better. I should make a field goal."
The miss gave the Bengals the ball on their 43. Tomlin said he didn't consider punting to pin the Bengals deep.
"We've got a great deal of confidence in Shaun and rightfully so," Tomlin said. "We wanted to give him an opportunity to do the job."
Suisham said he was ready for that challenge and embraced it. He didn't think the kick was beyond his range.
"I missed," he said. "I should have made it. I knew it was going to be close. That's, unfortunately, part of being a kicker in this league. Everything I do is to prepare to be perfect. And when it doesn't happen, it is a tough one to take, especially this late in the year when it could have been the difference in the game and our season."
Suisham has won several games for the Steelers this season with late kicks. He couldn't deliver this time, and it bothered him.
"Everything I do goes into making that kick," he said. "It's been a long year. A lot of preparations go into that. I failed."
No party zone
Defensive end Brett Keisel had just sacked quarterback Andy Dalton and was heading off the field, having forced the Bengals into a fourth-and-15 on their first possession.
He celebrated as he always marks a sack, dropping to one knee and miming an archer firing an arrow.
This time, though, that action drew a flag and a 15-yard penalty for going to the ground for a celebration. That's one of the components of the NFL rules against excessive celebrations.
"They told me I can't go to my knee and can't shoot a weapon," Keisel said. "I told them I've been doing that for 11 years and no one ever said anything. It would have been nice to get that info before the game."
What a relief
Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis acknowledged the burden his dubious strategy put on his team.
"I told them thanks for bailing me out, plain, flat and simple," Lewis said. "I made decisions to try to win the game. It kind of backfired on me."
The victory put the Bengals in the playoffs as a wild card entrant. They're in the postseason for a second consecutive season. The last time they qualified for the playoffs two straight years was 1981-82 under coach Forrest Gregg.
"It's a big win for the city of Cincinnati," Lewis said. "I know they just think that there's some complex. There's no complex. You just have to come to play and win. This group in there has very little history of anything. You play football out here every 60 minutes, their guys against our guys. That's what it comes down to."
Quarterback Andy Dalton said past Bengals failures are ancient history to the current group of players.
"We come in and we expect to get to the playoffs," Dalton said. "We are in the right position at the end of the season. You want to be in position to control your own destiny, and we were able to do that this year. And now it's time to really make a run at it."
Tough yards
Bengals receiver A.J. Green caught 10 passes for 116 yards, but said it was difficult to get anything done against the Steelers defense.
"It was a grind today," he said. "Pittsburgh is a great defense. They're number one in run-stopping, number one in pass-stopping, so we just went out there and played sound offense. Our defense played great, lights-out today so we made plays when we needed to."
One of those plays came in the last minute, a 25-yard reception that set up the game-winning field goal.
"It was just a corner route," Green said. "Andy laid the ball up there and I just tried to make the play, and we got it close enough for a field goal."
Pressure point
Defensive tackle Domata Peko said the Bengals made a particular emphasis of getting pressure on quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.
"That was our game plan," he said. "It seems like when you get pressure and rattle him early he tends to overthrow balls."
Getting revenge?
Bengals kicker Josh Brown was signed by Cincinnati on Dec. 6 after regular kicker Mike Nugent was injured.
Brown was with the St. Louis Rams last season, but was released. He went to camp with the New York Jets and didn't make the team. He was out of work until the Bengals called. That gave him the chance to settle a score with the Steelers.
"It's very satisfying, quite honestly," Brown said. "I've had some bad runs against Pittsburgh, including a bad game with the Rams last year, so really I just needed to exorcise some demons. It's a good Christmas."
Brown was with Seattle when the Steelers beat the Seahawks in the Super Bowl. Brown was overheard saying, "That's for Super Bowl 40" as he left the field Sunday.
"That was my only opportunity to possibly win a Super Bowl," Brown said. "Now I get the opportunity to take something from them. That is something that's probably a small chip on my shoulder."
Oh so close
Sunday's loss was the Steelers' fifth this season by a margin of three points.
Other stats and streaks:
Roethlisberger has passed for 3,131 yards this season, his seventh consecutive season with at least 3,000 yards. However, his passer rating for the game was 58.6.
The Steelers were 2-for-14 on third down.