SB Nation User Blog: Doggie Stalker

At least there is someone having a worse off season

Doggie Stalker — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 23:08:10 -0000

At least there is someone having a worse off season

One of the pleasures of living in New York

Sam Fuld off season update.

Doggie Stalker — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 18:15:34 -0000

Sam Fuld is now back playing for Aragua Tigres in Venezuela. He has been there less than a week because he was a little preoccupied with the birth of his first child a bouncing baby boy ( 8.2 pounds ) was born on Dec 3. I rather enjoy this bit from one of the local paper's in New Hampshire where he lives.

"The Cubs reportedly are interested in trading outfielder Milton Bradley, which could increase Fuld's chances of making the team out of spring training.

"I know they've talked about moving Milton. A lot will be determined how that plays out," he said. "I'm not going to worry about anything that's out of my hands. I'll be going to spring training with a relaxed state of mind. I'm not going to play scared like everything is riding on my spring training performance."

Really the Cubs are "reportedly" interested in trading Bradley ? Those New Englanders do have a way with understatement.

I was also amused by this article regarding how his wife always has the upper hand in any family discussions on athletic abilities but hopefully some day he can pass her.

"Fuld might not even be the best athlete in his family. Sarah played lacrosse at Princeton and won two national championships, something Sam was never able to accomplish at Stanford.

"She'll always have that on me," he said. "She won two national championships. She always reminds me of that. When she brings it up I have nothing to say. It's like the ultimate trump card."

Unless the Cubs win their first World Series in more than a century.

"That would be nice," Fuld said."

Never underestimate Scott Boras' ability to spin

Doggie Stalker — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 05:31:43 -0000

Never underestimate Scott Boras' ability to spin

Here is Boras explaining to the New York Times why the Granderson trade makes Johnny Damon MORE valuable to the Yankees. Good luck convincing Cashman of that.

Hey actual baseball news & stats . Really

Doggie Stalker — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 07:09:44 -0000

Hey actual baseball news & stats . Really

Well not as much fun as discussing the merits of Jake Fox and Lou but here the link for Cub players in winter balll Obviously you can ignore the AFL ones but it does have all the guys playing south of the border now. Frankly nothing that interesting. Blanco , Chirinos & Matt Camp seem to be doing rather well. Shark does not seem to have pitched in over a month and I don't know if this has been mentioned or not. Alas nobody really heating it up like um Sam Fuld last year but hey at least it is Cub players in actual games so fun to keep tabs.

Ticket prices that hide the truth.

Doggie Stalker — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 17:13:34 -0000

I am very disappointed at the handling of ticket prices and the phony way in which the Cubs make it appear many prices are less. The 5%-10% or more increases on season ticket holders is pretty steep but what really upsets me is the phony way they did it. They double the number of platinum games and separate out the tax to make it APPEAR as if many prices have gone down. Now technically if you only went to ONE big weekend game in the summer , the price went down a little for some seats but since so many more games are now more expensive that pretty much only works for one shot folks. However the bigger scam is the tax issue. Does anyone know of any other entity in the United States that charges the tax for an entertainment event separately ? Movies, sporting events, theater et ALL INCLUDE THE TAX in the round number for the ticket. The Cubs want you to believe that since the "price" of many tickets is listed as lower they went down but you add in the tax and many went up. I can't wait to see the signs at the ticket windows. I suspect they will not include the tax but just say at the bottom " city tax of 12% not included". Even better for the few folks left who pay CASH, imagine the fun of making change at the windows. For new ownership that promised to be fan friendly and look out for the little guy this policy sucks. If you need to raise the prices 5%-10% or higher than do it HONESTLY don't hide it in hidden fees to make yourselves look better.

Randy Wells (with a little help from Sam Fuld) doing good works in the off season.

Doggie Stalker — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 21:12:31 -0000

Randy Wells (with a little help from Sam Fuld) doing good works in the off season.

One interesting tidbit hidden in this article is Wells praise for Larry Rothschild who gets a lot of criticism here.

Muskat on Fuld : even DUMBER than usual

Doggie Stalker — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 01:14:56 -0000

Muskat on Fuld : even DUMBER than usual

There are a lot of perfectly valid reasons Sam Fuld should not be the starting center fielder for the Cubs but the two mentioned by MuskRAT are not among them. First she claims because his a diabetic they can't be sure he would be healthy enough. Fuld has NEVER had an issue with diabetes, now crashing into walls & fences, and other exuberant parts of his playing have over the years cost him playing time but none of it was related to his diabetes. His O'fer from June- Sept in RBI's was largely beyond his control. He had fewer than 100 ABs and most of those were in the 8 spot. He batted .299 with 29 hits so it is not like he was stranding runners in scoring position all the time like certain other players. The fact that Fuld has little power and has not played a whole lot of major league games are both pretty strong reasons not go into the season with him as your starting center fielder but Muskat is too stupid to put forth a logical argument.

This one is for you sabermetricians

Doggie Stalker — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 15:24:28 -0000

This one is for you sabermetricians

The New York Times explains the growing importance of new statistics in baseball. However I still think if old methods helped keep Clemens from getting another Cy Young they were not always a bad thing.

Starlin Castro Vitters etc LIVE Sat night

Doggie Stalker — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 02:00:48 -0000

A reminder that MLB network is broadcasting the AFL "Rising Stars" game. The four Cubs are Castro, Vitters.Parker and Cashner. So if you you are Cubs fan with no social life ( sound familiar) at 7PM CST time Saturday you can watch guys we hope to see at Wrigley someday ( not counting the Road to Wrigley game) play.

Convention Sold Out

Doggie Stalker — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:18:53 -0000

Less than 20 minutes which I believe is a little FASTER than last year. Tickets came to about $66 each with fees. So much for the theory no one would or should support them. I did in fact get through but I am unlikely to go ( before you ask my friends including Kasey have first dibs) If Maddux goes than maybe I will skip the rent for a month and come.. I think it will be a VERY interesting year . I am sure the whole Ricketts family will be there.