My buddy sent me this tonight.  It's a visual graph of each team's performance (i.e. record), updated regularly, compared to its salary.  Blue lines mean teams are doing well relative to their salaries, red means they are not.  Drag the bar at the top left and right to track season progress.  Enjoy!

 

http://benfry.com/salaryper/

 

Dan

 

PS - More words required: I do not enjoy testing null hypotheses for two or more correlations based on the sample size for my psychology in research and education class @ 1:05 am during finals week.

Man... I was pissed off when we traded Pinto in that Juan Pierre deal... and now I'm pissed off even more. We were developing a young lefty with good stuff, who can get guys out... and we dealt him in a package that has basically netted us nothing!

Let's look back at this deal yet again. We didn't land Furcal in the FA market, and grew desperate for a leadoff man. So, we dealt 3 young arms to the Marlins (known for their excellent scouting), and in return got a "toy baseball player" in the last year of his contract to play CF and leadoff. Not only that, but we also "cock-blocked" our top position prospect at the time, a CF named Felix Pie, with that move.

Then, as the season started sour... and grew worse by the deadline, we didn't even move Pierre... who was attracting interest by contenders. And, instead, we watched him walk away for nothing at the end of the season, signing elsewhere... and getting no compensation in return, with the exception of the draft pick awarded to us by MLB... which will probably go to waste on a bad pick anyway.

Man... am I pissed about this! Anyone else feel like I do?

 

 

It's been shown on YouTube off and on but the quality has been so so.  I finally got burnt off the videotape a better looking and sounding one and still, to this day, I get kind of choked up when I hear the song on the radio thinking about how close we got that year.

Thankfully, I think we're better this year. I'm still trying to figure out what the name of that song, along with the artist. Anyone remember?

When I get time, I think I'll post this someday here.

 

 

 

Iowa Cubs

The I-Cubs swept a double-header from the Portland Beavers, 3-0 and 3-2.

In the first game, Rich Hill got the start and his first win in the PCL this season. Hill threw 5.2 innings of shutout baseball, allowing only three hits.  The bad news was he walked four.  More good news is that Hill struck out eight Beavers. Jose Ascanio pitched the final 1.1 innings without allowing a baserunner for his eighth save of the season.  Ascanio struck out two.

Sam Fuld went 2 for 3 with a double and an RBI.  Andres Torres saw his 24 game hit streak come to an end with an 0 for 3.

In the second game, Justin Berg continued to struggle in AAA, as he started and gave up two runs on three hits and two walks in three innings.  Berg struck out one.  Randy Wells got the win by tossing a perfect fourth inning in relief.  Andy Cavazos got his first save of the season with a perfect seventh (and final) inning.

Neal Cotts threw 1.1 innings and allowed no runs on one hit, walked no one and struck out one.  Cotts ERA is now 1.31 in 20.2 innings.  He's allowed 15 hits, nine walks and has struck out 23.  I'm just saying. . . .

Right fielder Josh Kroeger went 1 for 2 with a two-run home run and a walk.

Tennessee Smokies

The Smokies fell to the Huntsville Stars, 7-2.

Yesterday, Jeff Samardzija struggled.  Today, it was Donnie Veal's turn to get knocked around.  Veal pitched 4.2 innings and gave up five runs, although only two of them were earned.  He allowed eight hits, including two home runs, and walked two.  Veal did strike out five.  I guess that's something.

First baseman Jake Fox went 1 for 2 with two walks and an RBI.

Daytona Cubs

Scheduled off-day meant doing whatever young, single ballplayers in Daytona Beach do.  Needlepoint, I think.

Peoria Chiefs

Although most of the Midwest League was rained out, the Chiefs managed to show up and got chopped down by the Clinton Lumber Kings, 12-4.

Zach Ashwood got walloped and his record dropped to 0-5.  Ashwood threw only 2.2 innings and gave up 10 runs, 8 of which were earned.  The home run was his enemy as Ashwood allowed four balls to leave the yard.  He gave up eight hits and four hits.

First baseman Jovan Rosa went 3 for 3 with a walk and a double.  Third baseman Marquez Smith had a 2 for 5 afternoon with two doubles, two runs scored and an RBI.  Catcher Josh Donaldson went 2 for 5.  Left fielder  Elvis Lara went 2 for 3 with 3 RBI.

Today, Sean Gallagher pitched 4 1/3 innings of I 4 ER baseball. Two of those earned runs were let up by Chad Fox as he walked in two consecutive batters with the bases loaded. There was no doubt that Sean pitched a solid start, but the wheels started going off in that last inning, which was predictable for an inexperienced pitcher making his first start at the Major League level.

Continue reading this post »

It was stars and scrubs week for the Cubs - 5 hitters with an OPS above .900 and 5 under .600 (4 under .500, 1 under .300).

Poll

The Cubs Hitting MVP this week was

• Alfonso Soriano (tied for week's lead in RBI and R with 3 each)
• Geovany Soto (1 HR, regular player leader in SLG)
• Ryan Theriot (on base half the time, tied with Soriano for most R)

  39 votes | Results

Continue reading this post »

I finally think  I am going to pull the trigger on some of these tickets this year.  I thought that some members of BCB may have some first-hand experience in participating in this day.

Per Cubs.com:

Families and fans of all ages have the opportunity to spend 50-minutes playing catch in the outfield, running the bases or chatting in the dugouts of beautiful Wrigley Field.

Participant tickets are $150 each and include a commemorative t-shirt, photograph, baseball and lunch in the Friendly Confines Café. Each participant entering the field will need a participant ticket.

Guest tickets are also available for $15 and include access to the stadium and lunch only for those family members who wish to watch but not participate on the field. Children three and under do not need a guest ticket to enter. If this pretty accurate?  Seems like a nice deal to allow a guest in for $15 dollars.  My girlfriend would be able to take some priceless pictures of us out on the field. Any experiences would be very helpful.

Trei and the team have been working hard to get the search function upgraded, and early this morning it was unveiled. I have tried it myself and think it's terrific. Here are the new features:

* Improved UI: clean, open search page designed for ease of scanning results and to quickly find what you're looking for

* Comments are searchable again

* With one search you can view the number of results for all content: front-page stories, FanPost, FanShots and comments. One click to view those results.

* Relevant excerpts with highlighted keyword matches are displayed with every result

* You can sort by date or by relevancy

* Pages for matching players, events and teams, including quick links to stats, rosters, news and schedule are displayed in results

* Power search allows you to fine tune your query, show more results per page and filter your search by user or date

* Easily increase the scope of your search by including results from the league or the entire SB Nation network with the tabs at the top

* If you're looking for something posted by a particular user, just click their name anywhere on the network and use the search box on their profile to automatically filter results by their name.

Trei and the tech team are looking for feedback, so post it here.

Happy Mother's Day everyone who is a mom and to your moms too!

And here's to the Moms of our Cubbies. 

Here's to their moms who fed them good food to help make them strong men.

Here's to the moms who held dinner late or moved around schedules to accomodate their practices, games and such.

Here's to their moms who drove them all over for various practices and games especially as they got older and their talent got them into more games.

Here's to their moms who went and cheered at every game.

Here's to moms everywhere whether your kid is a future all star or just a regular kid.

A few weeks ago you might recall the Cubs having every player on their team (minus pitcher) having an OBP I believe over .350.  Since then we've cooled off a little but going through the stats in the National League (I'd do Majors but it's a whole different league/pitchers) here is where The Cubs stand stat by stat in the top 25.

Please note that some players such as Ronny Cedeno will not qualify for all stats due to not having enough at bats.

Since I know we like to draw fantasy lineups around here I feel like having these stats could benefit anyone doing that.  If interested I can update this perhaps every couple of weeks.  Enjoy.

 

Hits:
#8 Derrek Lee with 47.

#14 Ryan Theriot with 44.

#18 Fukudome with 42.

 

Doubles:

#2 Soto with 13.

#20 Fukudome with 10.

#20 Aramis Ramirez with 10.

 

Homeruns:

#4 Derrek Lee with 9.

#21 Soto with 6.

#21 Ramirez with 6.

 

RBI's:

#12 Derrek Lee with 25.

#20 Aramis Ramirez with 24.

#20 Soto with 24.

 

Walks:

#11 Fukudome with 22.

#11 Ramirez with 22.

#16 Soto with 21.

#20 Mark DeRosa with 20.

#21 Derrek Lee with 19.

 

Strikeouts (Most):

#14 Soto with 31.

 

On Base Percentage:

#8 Soto at .421.

#9 Fukudome at .416.

#16. Theriot at .401.

#21. Derrek Lee at .395

 

Slugging %:

#7. Soto at .602

#10. Derrek Lee at .578.

#25 Aramis Ramirez at .525

 

Batting AVG:

#11 Ryan Theriot at .326.

#15 Soto at .322

#16 Fukudome at .321

#17 Derrek Lee at .320

 

It's still too early to do SB, Triples, etc...