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8/21/2003

Around the Cubs Blogworld

What the Cubs Blogger Army has been writing about the past few days while I was away:

  • The Cubs traded for Tony Womack from Colorado in exchange for Double-A pitcher Enmanuel Ramirez. As The Cub Reporter notes, Ramirez was putting up good numbers in relief, but he’s 23 and not considered a top prospect, which means the Cubs didn’t give up much. But did they even have to give up as much as Ramirez? Let’s Play Two links to this Rob Neyer column wondering what the Cubs are doing here (and what they’re doing with the rest of the acquisitions they’ve made). And here’s Lee Sinins in one of his ATM reports today on Womack:
    After -23 RCAA/.652 OPS and -23 RCAA/.678 OPS seasons with the Diamondbacks, Womack is every pitchers’ dream, “hitting” .304 SLG, .251 OBA, .555 OPS, -32 RCAA in 83 games (61 with the Diamondbacks, 21 for the Rockies and 1 for the Cubs). He has a .675 career OPS, compared to his league average of .777, and -126 RCAA in 1002 games. Womack’s .158 offensive winning percentage is not only as offensive as they come, but he’d have to go on a big hot streak just to raise himself up to being as bad as an average Tiger. If you took a whole team of Womacks, they’d be an impressive 11 games behind the Tigers–and that’s assuming that they are given an average pitching staff. If they gave up runs at an equivalent rate below the league average as to how many they’d score, their 9-115 record would put them 22 games behind the Tigers.

    Womack has the 4th worst OPS vs. the league average, among active players with 1000+ games . . . .

    With Womack, Doug Glanville, and Randall Simon all on the same team, the Cubs’ out-making potential is off the charts.

    Northside Lounge, The Cub Reporter, Let’s Play Two, And Another Thing!, Weeghman Park, Dan’s Cublog, and Cubs Pundit all have comments on the Womack trade.

  • The Cub Reporter’s Womack trade post now has 121 comments. How does one wade through that many comments?
  • Ivy Chat and Cubs Pundit link to Mike Kiley speculating in today’s Sun-Times that Randall Simon might compete with Hee Seop Choi to be the starting first baseman next year. It’s depressing that I can’t just dismiss such speculation out of hand.
  • On Saturday, I discussed some comments made by Jim Hendry regarding Mark Grudzielanek that seemed to me that the Cubs would try to upgrade second base next season. Brian Carstens goes a step further and states that he thinks (he’s 80% sure) that Grudzielanek won’t be back. The reason? The effect of arbitration. Read his post for his explanation.
  • Cubs Pundit looks back at some comments made by Jim Hendry and Dusty Baker before the seaon and compares those to how things have actually turned out. Pretty interesting.
  • On a final note, here’s Phil Rogers writing in Thursday’s Tribune: “The Astros could be without ace Roy Oswalt for the rest of the season. [ed.: good news for the Cubs] . . . Oswalt won 19 games in 2002, taking a 33-12 career record into the season. But so far he is 6-5 with a 7.62 ERA in 17 starts.” How does one get a 7.62 ERA out of a 3.23 ERA (Oswalt’s actual ERA)? I thought at first Rogers somehow multiplied 3.23 by 2, but nope, that’s not it.


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