More Maddux

The Cubs send me off with a couple of victories, thank you!

I'll be on vacation for the next week, so unless it starts storming a whole lot in Puerto Vallarta, there won't be much blogging going on.

Maddux throws another complete game with Javier Valentin ruining what could have been another shutout. 92 pitches, 0 BB, 6 K's. 2 more wins to the illustrious 300 and 6 more wins to keeping his 15 wins a season streak alive. Unlike Clemens who I always appreciated but never really liked much, I never could root against Maddux. Even when he tore our hearts out and left us, I always felt it was the Cubs management's fault in some way and all accounts point to that conclusion.

He's by far the smartest guy on the field everytime he steps out there, has never really been hurt and his glovework and respectable bat for a pitcher show me he knows every little thing helps to get a victory. Just sounds like a classy guy, who deserves all the success that has come his way. Plus that "Chicks Dig the Long Ball" commercial is still one of my all-time favorites.

While I'm on vacation, hopefully I'll come up with some regular features for the blog to keep you guys coming back, plus thoughts on some research projects I want to get started on. In the meantime I assume, Hendry and Baker will have fixed what ails the Cubs in the next week and we'll be back on top of the Wild Card by the time I get back. (I will not speak of catching the Cards unless we get within 5 games)

Good luck Cubs!!!!

I'm not happy

INT - CUBS LOCKER ROOM

(Door knock)

"What?" - (Disgruntled Cubs locker room)

(Clubhouse attendant opens door)

"Thought you'd might like these back" - (Cardinals messenger hands over a sack)

"What's this?" - (Cubs clubhouse attendant)

"Thought you'd like you your cajones back for the rest of the year...enjoy the wild card race along with the other 8 teams" - (Cardinals messenger as contingency of Cardinals players laugh in background)
---

To say the least we got it handed to us in Wrigley, I can't think of anything more embarrassing. As I mentioned the Cards have the "magic" going for them this year, today's magic was conjured up by the A. Pujols and his 3 freakin' HR's. The only saving grace was that it happened in July and we still have a chance to recover rather than the Cards meltdown in Wrigley last year in September. Not sure why Hawkins was so upset, I didn't watch much of the 9th especially after Pujols' 3rd of the day. I assume he felt he was being squeezed by the ump or maybe the ump gave up those 2 HR's. I tuned back in to see the Cubs load them up in the 9th and pitifully fly out to our new arch-enemy Edmonds.

Well let's hope Dusty gets the team refocused by tomorrow and expect some bullpen help via the trade VERY, VERY SOON!!

Wavin' Wendall Sends Cubs Home With a Loss

I crave to write headlines for ESPN.com one day.

We'll get to the Crazy 'Z' in a minute. Yesterday was a game of wasted opportunities, it started in the 1st when Sammy tapped a ball to the mound after Patterson aggressively took 3rd on the Lankford bobble and it got ugly from there on out. Now I didn't see all the replays but I'm going to blame Wendall Kim AGAIN on sending Ramirez home on that blooper from Barrett with NOBODY out. Yes 1st & 3rd no outs OR take a chance and get thrown out at home. Freakin' brilliant!!! There is the chance that Ramirez went through the sign and I'm all for being aggressive, but there's aggresive smart and aggresive stupid. Patterson trying to take 3rd with one out is aggresive smart (with the play in front of him no less), Ramirez trying to go home with nobody out...aggresive stupid. I believe that's the 2nd time this season Kim has sent a runner home against the Cards and had them thrown out, the other was in St. Louis on a blooper to Edmonds who nailed somebody by a mile.

And then there is Crazy 'Z'. At least he brings entertainment value to the mound. It was the kind of baseball you can't just help but enjoy. Plunks Edmonds the 1st time, who comes back and takes him deep and stops to admire it. Crazy 'Z' takes exception to the watching and lets Edmonds know it. Benches clear. Edmonds comes up a 3rd time and 'Z' brings the serious heat and gets him on 3 pitches & then lets Edmonds know all about it. After'Z' gives up the game winning homer, what the hell I'm not lasting much longer anyway, might as well hit Edmonds again. Too bad they won't face each other again this year unless it's in the playoffs. I expect a suspension for Zambrano for 5 games.

Morris is pitching tomorrow and if there isn't a warning before the game expect one of the Cubs sluggers to get nailed tomorrow. But here's the difference and why I HATE M. Morris & LaRussa. He'll aim for the head or hands, while 'Z' hit Edmonds square in the ribs & there is a big difference!!! If you're gonna hit a guy, hit him in the ribs or lower, when you start head-hunting, your what amounts to a piece of s***. I have no problem with throwing at guys, it's just a part of the game, but just nail him in the back & move on.

Tomorrow should be fun and a long one, as I'm sure the benches wil clear a few times. Well a Cub loss should just about put all hopes for a division crown to rest.

'Bout as big as they get in July

Okay it's a big series for us if not the Cardinals. The Cardinals don't seem to want to lose lately and the bigger the hole gets the harder it will be particularly with no more games left against the Cardinals. Although no official word yet at least at cubs.com but Rusch is listed as the probable on espn.com for tomorrow and he has not fared well against the Cards this year in 3 starts(plus one relief appearance):

5.31 ERA, 20.1 IP. 3 HR (1 less HR than he's given up to everyone else this year) .259 BA

The silver lining: He has a 2.40 ERA in day games compared to a 4.11 ERA in night games & 2.91 ERA at Wrigley this year(overall), compared to 11.12 ERA at Busch.

He had one good outing against them at home on May 22nd (7 IP, 1 ER), and a respectable at home one on June 7th (7 IP, 4 ER).


The weekend should have gone better especially since we beat Sheets on Saturday, but vintage Maddux on Saturday sure would have been fun to watch, although listening to it was just as fun. Here's Maddux line in the 2nd half last year compared to the 1st half:

2003 2nd half:
9-3, 3.03 ERA, 7 HR, 11/48 K/BB 92 IP

2003 1st half
7-8 4.63 ERA, 17 HR, 22/76 K/BB, 126.1 IP

His career stats don't show the same anomaly between 1st and 2nd half, but here's hoping for a big time 2nd half from Maddux as it would be just as good as a big trade.

I missed most of Sunday's game but it appears that Wood is at near the top of his game already.

We'll see if Dusty has the magic going for him this year starting tonight. GO CUBS!!!

Poor Clement

Another game, more run support issues for poor old Clement. He brought in his own run as well or it could have been worse. I guess the Cubs are missing A. Ramirez quite a bit & the weak bench minus Hollandsworth. Sosa's 0-8 does not bode well either. And Sheets pitches tomorrow so I assume runs will be a problem for at least another game.

I listened to the game over MLB radio as it wasn't on WGN. I chose the Milwaukee broadcast as listening to Uecker is always a joy. For those who haven't ever heard him and have the capabilities, try listening to him as he does the game mostly himself(some guy occasionally pops in, but he's not the color guy) much like Vin Scully and there's a reason he's in the Hall of Fame for it.

I love watching the games on TV, but the romance of a radio call is still quite enjoyable especially when someone as good as Uecker (or Scully) are painting the pictures. I love Pat & Ron and all but they're big-time homers which isn't a horrible thing but Ron's primordial screams can get a little much at times. I'm not bashing him...wouldn't dare especially with the "This Old Cub" sentiment going around, I'm just saying if you get a chance, click on another team's radio call and you may discover a great thing.

Update on Prior

Good news from Cub camp and apparently I jumped the gun a little bit. On cubs.com they had the following quote:

"The exact words used by Dr. (Stephen) Adams were that the ligament is robust and in perfect shape. There's absolutely no possibility of Tommy John (surgery) or ligament reconstruction or anything like that."

-- GM Jim Hendry

He's having a bone scan later today and I'll assume they'll probably stick with Rusch and we'll see Prior in a few weeks.

Prior injury resurfaces for Cubs

That's a shout out to ESPN and their ridiculous headlines. So Prior's injury is back and the Cub nation holds their collective breath until MRI results are announced. No matter what they show and judging with how cautious they've been with Wood and Prior earlier, don't expect to see much more of Prior the rest of the year. Cause honestly if it takes another 2 months out of his season and he's back in September on seriously limited pitch counts it's just not worth it. Let him get healthy and go to PLAN B.

I expect a Hendry to make a trade like last year to fill a huge hole caused by injury. I feel GM's tend to get comfortable dealing with certain other GM's and Hendry has made deals with the Pirates, A's and Marlins recently. A K. Benson/J. Wilson trade is possible but I pray it doesn't happen. Benson has to be the most overrated player out there and why does he keep coming up in trade discussions? We'd be better off with Rusch for the rest of the year. Here are Benson's numbers:

6-7 4.42 ERA 40/71 BB/K and a 5.81 K/9 ratio (2004)

The rest of his seasons have been worse except 2000 when he had the following line:

10-12 3.85 ERA 86/184 BB/K and a 7.61 K/9 ratio

And if we played Neyer's, which of these does is not like the others? 2000 would stick out and you would see that he's at best an average pitcher who happened to be a #1 pick. J. Wilson is having a career year in what I believe is his contract year. Good defender, probably would help us this year. If they get a pitcher from the Pirates I'd prefer it to be O. Perez:

5-4 3.24 ERA 37/117 BB/K and 10.82 K/9 ratio

But I'm assuming Littlefield plans for Perez to be the part of the next great Pirates team and any trades would be financially motivated hence all the Benson talk.

I also assume if the news is bad on Prior, the R. Johnson rumors will heat up. I hope so, I'd trade 2 pitching prospects and Dubois or Kelton for him. I don't know what the DBacks want and everything depends on Tribune opening up their huge cash reserves but when your this close to the playoffs and your as stocked as the Cubs I think you take that chance for a few reasons:

#1)To borrow from Baseball Prospectus: TINSTAAPP - There Is No Such Thing As A Pitching Prospect. Take the guy who's still at the top of his game...there are injury risks but there are injury risks with any pitcher.

#2)If you haven't noticed the Cubs pitching staff is quite stocked at the major league level. Wood, Zambrano, Prior aren't going anywhere. Maddux is signed at least for next year and I'm going to assume they year after that as his option is based on innings pitched. That leaves one spot for the next year and the year after, assuming Clement is not resigned. Sure I'd love to see Brownlie or Guzman in the rotation but do Dusty, Cubs fan, Hendry have the patience for the inevitable learning curve?Cause none of them as far as I can gather are the mortal lock as Prior was. So rookie learning his way or Randy "F*****" Johnson for the next 2 years?

The big dilemma is his contract as it would seriously hurt our chances to fill the potential LF and SS gaps. Not to mention the raise that Prior, Zambrano and A. Ramirez have to be due to get. But if they can make the finances work, I'd would seriously pursue it.

Ouch!!!

Elbow pain is the word on Prior and apparently it felt the same as in spring training. Not sounding promising. If the MRI doesn't look good tomorrow and Tribune opens up the purse strings, a R. Johnson trade is a definitive possibility. It would probably cost them 2 pitching prospects, & a position player. I think it's worth it and you let Clement go next year. In the mean time, Rusch gets to go back in the starting lineup after a stellar bullpen effort tonight.
 
As for the game, I was on my drive home when the Cubs scored most of their runs, but as I mentioned G. Rusch saved the day and the bullpen shut them down. Good way to start the 2nd half.

Prior goes down

I have a weird set-up at work where I can watch games on WGN but without the sound(Don't ask). Plus I wasn't really paying much attention except to see Prior walk into the dugout and lots of head shaking by Cubs players, coaches and McPhail. Considering everyone pretty much agrees upon that the Cubs need to stay healthy if they have a chance at the Cards....VERY, VERY BAD SIGN.

Plus D. Lee swung and missed at the 1st pitch in the bottom of the 2nd and fell down on the swing. That was comical!! And A. Ramirez is still on the bench. Not a good start to the 2nd half.

Right as I was about to post this Lee hits it out. Sorry for laughing at you.

Great Article on Playoff Baseball

Christian over at The Cub Reporter sent me this link from Hardball Times that somewhat statistically proves my point about playoff baseball.

If Beane is the genius we all make him out to be than I wouldn't be surprised to see him tinker his team a little come playoff time, if only in terms of telling Macha to be a little more aggressive. Easier said than done since you haven't worked on bunts all season or probably don't even have a sign for stealing, but we'll see if Beane isn't too stubborn.

Also thanks to David Pinto at Baseball Musings for mentioning me in his blog. One of my favorites and you should check it out.

Baseball is back

The last 3 days suck every year...at least that Laker trade finally went down & Kobe signed. (I live in L.A. and work amongst a group of Laker fans). Hopefully they'll go back to baseball on ESPN.

Anyway Cubs vs. Brewers for 4. I have never been to one of these games yet (I was supposed to go for my bachelor party 3 years ago, flew back to Chicago and everything, but the game got rained out.....party was still fun though). I do remember going to some Brewers/White Sox games when I went to school at Marquette. Now those were fun....drunken bafoonry, things flying around the bleachers, fights in the stands, fun for the whole family. So if anyone cares to let me know if the games are as raudy as that I'd appreciate a line.

So I'm still trying to figure out how to handle upcoming series, for now all I have to say is Play Ball & stay healthy Cubs!!!

And who can we pay so that Sheets gets lost coming to the park or possibly has an unfortunate accident involving the L-train? Any takers?

More A's & Billy Beane

First off, why I brought this whole topic up at this time was only cause it's been bugging me ever since the A's should have destroyed the Twins 2 years ago, except Art Howe decided to pitch Hudson twice instead of his lefties against a team that was horrible against lefties. Then managed to butcher a bunch of defensive plays and basically watched the control of Brad Radke whip through the walk-waiting offense. Obviously the Howe move was on his own, but the rest seemed to do with team construction.

I just wanted to clarify as my overall point is I think the A's fan are going to be about as frustrated as Braves fan. That's not a terrible thing making the playoffs every year, I just think they'll be losing a lot more than winning when it comes to the playoffs. Sure a lot of it is luck, but I think there are ways to help yourself in the playoffs and the big one is to be aggressive and realize that it IS THE PLAYOFFS. Normal rules don't necessarily apply. (By the way this is my biggest complaint with Dusty besides high pitch counts is he tends to stick with his guns come playoff time and that's normly a recipe for disaster) Bring J. Beckett back on 2 days rest, move players around to get your best lineup out there (McKeon took a chance on a hot-hitting Cabrera last year and left him in), bring R. Johnson back on one day rest, etc.

Beane has done an amazing job putting together that team, no doubt about that, but I think he's a little short-sighted to completely frown upon certain aspects of the game when they could be useful in certain situations. When it gets time to the playoffs, finding a competitive edge over another team is harder to find and maybe it will come in the form of taking an extra base, or a sac bunt, or whatever the case may be. And I'm sure if you ask Beane he'll say he's not against those things but I distinctly remember in Moneyball, I think it was the coach R. Washington saying he's never been on a team that frowned upon aggressiveness like the A's do. So I'm sure he's scared the coaches and players into believing that. Who really knows but that's the impression.

If they make the playoffs 10 years in a row, I guess their chances of winning one will go up, but honestly they've been hot every year going into the playoffs and that's been the complaint that the hot teams always win the Series. So for now I'm sticking to my theory that the A's will falter in the playoffs every year until I see a little change in their philosophy. And it's not just bunting or stealing, it's being aggressive and putting the pressure on the other team and their defense at times and looking for every edge possible at every point of a game.

Lineup constuction

Read this at Rotoworld.com which took it from Arlington Daily Herald:

ADH:
If the Cubs continue to have trouble scoring runs, manager Dusty Baker could be forced to retool his lineup by putting Todd Walker, Michael Barrett, and Aramis Ramirez in the top three spots.

ROTOWORLD COMMENTARY:
Moises Alou could be bumped down to the sixth spot, as he's hit just .201 since the start of June. And at this point of his career, Sammy Sosa is much better suited for cleanup duties than hitting third. Jul. 15 - 8:17 am et

Uh, what? Sammy is better suited for cleanup duties rather than 3rd compared to A. Ramirez. Doubt it matters much but I'd rather have the guy who walks a bit more in front of the guy who's raking the ball. Right now they are having very similar years and here are they're lines right now along with the rest of the regulars:

S. Sosa .279/.372/.567
A. Ramirez .326/.374/.550

D. Lee .304/.375/.516
M. Alou .276/.330/.506
C. Patterson .274/.329/.443
M. Barrett .291/.342/.492
T. Walker .283/.367/.496
M. Grudzielanak .286/.342/.357 (small sample size)

Whoever plays SS bats 8th.

My lineup would be:
T. Walker/Grudz
D. Lee
S. Sosa
A. Ramirez
M. Alou
M. Barrett
C. Patterson
SS

I like having the guys who don't mind walking Walker/Sosa/Lee in front of the guys who are hit first Ramirez/Alou/Barrett/Patterson. Why? RBI's (which actually matter) tend to happen when you hit the ball not when you take a walk, hence Ramirez''s gaudy numbers this year. That being said the Cubs offense has just been in a funk lately, I think it will come out soon.

Why I hate the A's & Billy Beane!

The sabermetric fans out there are going to hate me for this one. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big reader of Bill James, Rob Neyer, Baseball Prospectus and many more sites out there but the A's have gone from underdog team you want to root for to annoying juggernaut. (I guess that comes with winning but for some reason I don't have that same feeling with the Red Sox or the Giants or Twins and they've been winning almost as much lately).

Moneyball sort of started it for me although it's quite hard to seperate truth vs. fiction there. But Billy Beane does come off as quite cocky in that book and I hate cocky people. Confident is great....cocky is downright annoying. I know Billy Beane has done amazing things with a low-budget, revolutionized small-market baseball strategy, could sell salted peanuts to a man stranded in a desert, GREAT! (By the way, Terry Ryan is winning with less of a budget in Minnesota...where's his book...sure weaker division but winning is winning)

Why would you be so silly to shut your team options by force-feeding a philosophy through an organization. What do I mean? Well I think it's well known that the A's dont' sacrifice bunt much, don't steal much, don't BELIEVE in the productive out, and basically believe in taking lots of pitches, station to station baseball and wait for the extra base hit. And it's a wonderful philosophy and when you were the only team practicing this philosophy you had a distinct advantage over many of the other teams in the league and it was a BRILLIANT choice to move the organization forward with. And if they win a World Series I'll be utterly AMAZED!!

I know, I know, the regular season is a truest way to tell which teams are the best and the playoffs are pure luck(especially 5 game series). The A's losing the last 4 years in the first round is an anomaly and eventually their turn will come. For the playoff haters out there, would you prefer the BCS? Let the writers vote who the best team is. I mean really, nothing is more exciting than playoff baseball, some of it's luck and I'd like to see the divisional round go to 7 games and definitely don't add anymore teams but playoffs are a GOOD THING!!!

My honest belief is that the A's thrive on bad baseball teams, thus struggle against the better teams. I know many of you will say don't all teams do this? They might I don't know. It's a huge research project and I need to check it out but here's my theory:

Okay the A's philosophy from what I gather is load up on guys who take lots of pitches, get walks, hit the ball for power, and defense is not as important as offense (although I think Beane is changing his mind on the last one). Well during the regular season you're probably seeing bad pitchers more often than you're seeing good pitchers who are bad cause they give more walks and more extra base hits and Voila! your offensive philosophy works. Here come the playoffs, runs are harder to get by, the pitching is much better, guys throw strikes and you have to hit the ball and maybe just occasionally manufacture a run here or there especially late in games. But your the A's, we don't believe in sacrifice bunts or steals and we won't change that just cause it's the playoffs. Not only that but by not encouraging stolen bases you're telling your team not to be aggressive, never put pressure on the defense. NEVER a good idea in sports! And the big unwillingness to allow all facets of the game into your playbook is just silly, stolen bases can be helpful, sacrifice bunts can be helpful, hitting the ball to the right side with a man on 2nd and nobody out can be helpful. There's no reason to banish these things from your game when they may be useful in certain situations and that is basically what the A's are doing. And if you don't do it much in the regular season, you're going to do it a lot less in the playoffs, because in pressure situations you tend to play the conservative hand and the conservative hand is not a good idea especially in the playoffs.

So what's the research project, well I'm not starting it anytime soon but you'd have to get the A's records vs. well above .500 teams, well below .500 teams, near .500 teams and see how they compare to the rest of the league. It may not show anything, it may show something, but it's something I'm going to try and do someday.

I was thinking the same thing

Check this article out at Sports Illustrated.com. I was sort of thinking the same thing except for the whole inning rather than just Manny's at-bat. Sure would have been sweet justice.


REVISION: I guess the link changes every day but the theory was that Piazza pulled a Crash Davis on Clemens and told Manny what was coming after Clemens shook him off a few times.

Nomar to the Cubs? I don't think so

There's a rumor flying that the Cubs will get Nomar from the BoSox for prospects to Arizona who will ship the Big Unit to the Bosox. Rumors are fun...I love rumors...this one would surprise me though.

Any upgrade at short would be nice, but if Dusty has any say on it I don't think you'll be seeing Nomar. He does seem to like the defense at short which is apparently why Rey Ordonez still sees playing time(although butchering easy plays & then making great plays is hardly good defense). And Jim Hendry doesn't seem to like making the half season rental trade unless it doesn't cost him much. So unless Nomar is willing to sign an extension, I would be surprised. My assumption is they see how Gonzalez does when he comes back and maybe a deadline deal for Cabrera or Vizquel if Gonzo struggles.


More than likely the only move I expect to see is a deal for a reliever. A lot of people are saying trade Patterson and try to get Beltran as well. I don't see that happening either. The Astros by firing Williams today still believe they can make a run and honestly giving up on a 24 year old who has drastically improved over the last month is silly. Once again I go back to the don't expect half season rental trades unless they come cheap. I could be wrong but that's my belief on Hendry's philosophy.

But let the rumors fly.

All-Star Game

The midsummer classic.....not so much this year. I know Clemens is one of the greats and all but I haven't liked him since he left Boston and I didn't like him too much there either. Great pitcher....arrogant bastard.....only root for him if he's on my team. (If you substitute 'pitcher' with 'athlete' or 'player'...the preceding statement also describes such players as Dennis Rodman, Shaquille O'Neal, Kobe Bryant, Barry Bonds, etc.) So anyway I was glad he got bombed. If the Cubs make the World Series this year we can blame him when Game 7 is at Yankee Stadium and the Cub faithful are being pelted by beer caps and potentially larger objects and even larger cuss words.

I didn't watch much else of the game, just a little bit here and there. When I was growing up, the All-Star game was rather momentous and it was a major thrill to see the Cubs players doing well. Although I vaguely remember Ryne Sandberg almost never doing well.

Tonight Sammy had a broken bat RBI single and a groundout, I didn't see what Alou did but apparently he got a hit and Zambrano would have had a scoreless inning if Patterson was playing center instead of Berkman. For those who say they should eliminate the rule that all teams should be represented, you're fools. The biggest thrill of almost every All-Star is watching how your player does against the best, so hope they keep it. The home field thing was a 2 year experiment and it's almost as arbitrary as alternating home field every year, so either way I don't care. Interleague has definitely dampened the All-Star experience along with many other factors I'm sure, but you know what it's still baseball. Unlike the other All-Star games which play some sort of "Kids glove" version of their sport at their All-Star games, baseball is still pretty much the same. Bullpen usage patterns and lineup changes are obviously different, but the game is basically the same as a regular season game.

Well anyway tomorrow is the worst day of the summer every year. No scores, everyone takes the day off meaning very little player movement, no fantasy stats to check...time to catch a movie and hopefully some Laker news will permeate the sports coverage tomorrow. (ESPN will make up Laker news even if there isn't any).

2nd half...wildcard here we come.

Welcome to the Transplanted Cubs Fan Blog

Everybody has a blog these days, so what makes mine different. Well probably nothing. But after suffering the last seven years in Los Angeles without another Cubs fan to talk to(The AngelFan Wife Does Her Best) I felt a need to create something for me to do that. Thus "Transplanted Cubs Fan" has been born.

To say the least I'm a Cub fanatic, born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago (Schiller Park at first and then moved to Des Plaines when I was 8). My summers were kind of boring, no summer camp, not a lot of neighborhood kids to play with and no cable TV. So what was there to watch other than "The Great Space Coaster"? Well WGN, the Cubs and the occassionally drunken tirades of Harry Caray...good times!!! (I do remember liking the White Sox for a bit, some of that had to do with '83, some had to do with my Dad liking the team more than the Cubs, some had to do with they had fireworks at their park...little did I know at the time). But 1984 hit, Ryno, the Penguin, the big trade for Sutcliffe, Harry singing that ridiculous J-O-D-Y Davis song.....did I mention good times yet? And I was hooked, maybe cursed, who knows? Now my daily mood swings are tied very much into what the Cubs do every day (The AngelFan Wife loves this about me...really ask her).

So what can you expect from this blog? Well updates on Cubs player movement, scores and all that can be found anywhere on the net, so of course you'll be getting analysis of all that stuff. I'm sort of a stathead, but I'm not a slave to the stat. You'll all learn what I mean by that soon enough.I'm not a big fan of doing research and well there are others who will do a much better job than me like The Cub Reporter or Baseball Musings. I'll write up my philosophy soon enough.

Well here it goes...hope everyone enjoys.