Archive - Nov 11, 2008

This is a couple of weeks old, but Chris Dial at Baseball Think Factory came out with a huge spreadsheet rating every player in the league on offense and defense with the appropriately named metric OPD (Offense Plus Defense). It does not take into account baserunning though, and be aware that players are compared to those who play the same position.  He briefly explains the methodology in that link and a further description of the defense can be found here. I didn't spend a lot of time assessing the merits of his system, but it seems solid enough. It tells me Albert Pujols and Joe Mauer were the best players in their respective leagues last year and well that certainly passes the smell test, although by no means is it the ONE stat that will settle every argument from now until the end of days.

The full Google spreadsheet can be found at this link and I've listed the Cubs team ratings and individual players below. It would have been nice to put a ranking next to each player so I didn't have to count them out, which I'm not going to do for every player, but I'll let you know that Soto was 17th in the NL and DeRosa 18th. The numbers are runs relative to average, not replacement or wins, and of course, a positive number is above average, negative is below average.The general sabermetrician's rule of thumb is that 10-12 runs is good for a win.

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Just a little filler writeup. If you have any "pet Peavy's" keep them in Rob's Tuesday Hot Stove comments.

Over the weekend I heard that they have again added World Series Winner memorabilia into the Hall of Fame. This years addition is Cole Hamel's jersey worn in the rain delayed game 5 and Brad Lidge's glove for getting the save in game 5.

If they could just loosen up the criteria for getting stuff into the HOF a bit, I was wondering just what Cub trinkets would qualify?

Here's my short list but feel free to make it longer:

Stuffed black cat, Shea stadium circa 1969

Ron Santo's toasted gamer hairpiece from opening day in NYC 2003

Sammy Sosa's broken corked bat circa 2004

Moises Alou hand delivered urinalysis results, circa 2004

Videotape of Piniella's ejection June 3, 2007 with ump Mark Wegner

Autographed ball Cub infield, game 2, NLDS 2008...with 4 dirt smudges included

Ted Lilly (08) and Carlos Zambrano (07) game 4 NLDS warmup jackets

Of course plan B is to wait for our Carlos' (plural of Carlos? Carli?) Z and M to get their jersey/gloves into the HOF the way the Phillies pitchers did it this year.

- Rosenthal says the Braves are growing impatient and may pull their offer by Friday when free agency opens up. USA Today says "one team" is demanding a resolution by the 14th (let's take a guess on which team).  Rosenthal goes on to say the Padres have sent counter-offers to the Cubs and Braves, although he doesn't think either team will up the ante. In terms of players involved, he mentions Sean Marshall and possibly Josh Vitters.

- Sullivan thinks the Cubs are offering about 4/50 to Dempster right now.

- The Toronto Globe and Mail thinks Dempster is pretty likely to stay a Cub and says he'll take a discount if the Cubs acquire Peavy.

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UPDATE: Buster Olney says the Cubs and Padres are trying to get a 3rd team involved and that Josh Vitters might be in play. I'd be surprised if the Cubs dealt Vitters or Samardzija myself, but you never know.