The Cubs will be so happy just to be in a World Series they’ll forget that they’re also supposed to win.

But all joking aside, a Cubs-Tigers WS would be about the best thing possible in 2008. 7 games, no question. Good games.

“Hitters do get the same luck treatment with respect to BABIP and line drive rates.”

Fair enough. I don’t often see BAbip and line drive rates for hitters cited, though. It also seems that the memory of a hitter hitting the ball hard for outs fades faster than the memory of a pitcher done in by bloopers. Maybe that’s only because there are so many at bats for a hitter as compared to starts for a pitcher.

As for Nate he’s kind of an enigma. The peripherals are good, but his line drive rate has been high for much of the season. So it’s not that he consistently gets pounded, but when guys do hit it, they hit it hard. The result is a mediocre pitcher, and one who has consisntently kept his team in the game while typically not dominating the opposition.

You’ve gotta be kidding me, Ron. I never want to see the Cardinals under LaRussa in the WS again. Lawyer Man will psyche out Smoky Jim every time. The Tigers would lose in 5 and commit 10 pitcher’s fielding errors this time. Brandon Inge would be the last batter and strike out – again. It would play out like a recurring nightmare.

Much more fun to play the Cubs, team of destiny, and put the nail in that coffin for another 100 years. Plus, I’d get to listen to Pat Hughes do the World Series play by play. As I may well get to anyway.

Clete’s an interesting story, coming out of nowhere because JL saw something in him and evidently still does. Score one for Jim.

judpma: Good point about Rodney. Uncertainty about him has been even greater than that about Sheffield. If they’re both back, well, look out.

I don’t think we need to apologize to Sheff. He needs to apologize to us, to the tune of a .900 OPS over the next 4 months.

“Put it all together, Nate has been pretty unlucky. That’s the only thing I see”

I don’t want to beat on Nate the Solid/Mediocre Reliable/Disappointing. I don’t want to beat on Mark the Perceptive and Thoughtful, either. But what is luck for a pitcher, and how far can you take accounting for the discrepancy between actual and expected with luck? I don’t see hitters getting that same write-off. A hit’s a hit, and you get no extra credit for smoking the ball into the third baseman’s glove.

Look at Nate’s 2008 splits on hit location and hit trajectory. These numbers interest me, but I’m not expert enough to come up with anything but (surely) very hokey theories on what it all means. Help me out. Someone. Anyone.

Even with no reference point (what would I know about the KC announcers?), that made me laugh out loud.