According to MLBTR, the Cubs have signed Scott Baker to a 1-year deal. Baker missed the entire 2012 season after undergoing elbow ligament replacement (Tommy John surgery). His last start was August 8th, 2011 and he made 2 appearances in late September that year as a reliever.
Prior to his surgery, Baker was quietly putting together a very solid MLB career. He has a career 4.15 ERA and a 3.95 FIP. He's been worth 17 fWAR and 14.7 rWAR. He has a career 19.2 K% and has walked only 5.6% of the batters he has faced. That's a very good K-BB% and those two stats are by far the most predictive stats a pitcher has. If all you knew was the strikeouts and walks, you could do a fairly good job at predicting how pitchers perform in future years.
What you wouldn't be able to predict very well is how pitchers coming off TJS will perform. Each pitcher is different and while some return to form, some don't. The terms of the contract have not yet been disclosed, but it's probably a contract worth around $1-2 million. It might also have a club option for 2014.
CAIRO projects a 4.21 FIP.
UPDATE: According to Patrick Mooney, the Cubs will pay Baker $5.5 million with incentives that could make the deal worth a total of $7 million. I'm a little surprised at how much money it's taking to sign a reclamation project. Typically these guys are signed for much less.
Carne Harris wrote:
Sappelt isn’t much of an upgrade. Neither is Castillo. Castillo’s wRC+ in AAA the last two years has been 112. Better than average sure, but factor in that MLB is much more difficult and he’s just not all that much of an upgrade.
I don’t mean to piss on anyone’s parade here, but you’re working under the assumption that some of these marginal prospects are better than marginal MLB players. You’re also assuming that Rizzo is going to be considerably better than what they got from LaHair. It’s possible, but as I pointed out last night, Rizzo has been terrible, outstanding and average. Overall he’s been about average or probably below average for a 1st basemen. I think he’s better than that, but even the projections are expecting from him what LaHair was projected to do a year ago.
You’re right that we don’t know yet, but it’s going to be very difficult for this team to get to 73 wins. Could they just get lucky? Absolutely, but they could get lucky enough that they win in the mid 80s.
It seems like there was an actual market for Baker, so I’m glad they were able to get him for just the one year.
Castillo has a career .325 wOBA and at 25 years old he’s not going to get much better (probably not at all). Sappelt has a career .302 wOBA and simply doesn’t have the power or on-base skills to be much offensively.
There’s no option year like with the Maholm signing. So the team that trades for Baker won’t even have the unlikely option of trying to snag a draft pick off of him. I also wonder if the higher price tag is due to inflation a la Shapiro.
@ GBTS:
I’m glad it’s one year and it’s only money, but if there is much of a market for Baker then the Twins should have exercised the option, paid a couple million and traded him for a prospect or two.
Unless the value of the win is going to skyrocket because of the new CBA (entirely possible), this just seems like a lot of money for a reclamation project. As said though, it’s only money so who cares?
Are post Tommy John pitchers still widely viewed as reclamation projects? Just anecdotally it seems like they are coming back with a decent amount of success.
@ Rice Cube:
I wonder why there is no option year. This seems like it is a total reclamation project without hope for the future from him.
I’m happy about the pick up though.
@ GBTS:
I think anytime a pitcher misses an entire season with a serious arm injury they have to considered reclamation projects. Not only are they going to be dealing with the pain of pitching again which can lead to stress, which leads to further injury, they’re a year older and less conditioned.
Is TJS as serious as some injuries in the shoulder? No, not at all, but you still don’t know what you’re going to get from a pitcher who missed an entire season.
http://gbtshumor.com/2012/11/13/theo-epstein-assures-fans-that-newly-acquired-scott-baker-will-pitch-in-the-playoffs/
@ GBTS:
(dying laughing) (dying laughing)
So tell me how you REALLY feel about Strausburg..
For any Royals fans and/or Game of Thrones fans, here’s a whitehouse.gov petition jointly asking KC to release Jeff Francouer and for GRRM to finish writing the Game of Thrones series.
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/propose-law-demanding-kansas-city-royals-release-jeff-francoeur-and-make-george-rr-martin-write/kbW49HXf
(dying laughing)
(dying laughing)
(dying laughing)
@ Aisle424:
Especially if the Cubs are contending. (dying laughing)
http://www.twirlit.com/2012/11/13/and-the-oxford-american-dictionarys-word-of-the-year-is/
@ EnricoPallazzo:
I like this move quite a bit. I think Baker is a better pickup than Marcum or Liriano would be at this point. A second year club-option would be nice, but I suppose that’s asking too much.
@ Aisle424:
The Salvation Army Santas on State Street ——————–> blindsided
Anyone know if Baker is expected to be ready to start the season? He made one appearance in the minor leagues in 2012 (April 5) so I wouldn’t be surprised if he won’t be available until later in that month.
@ mb21:
Would you ask Tom Petty that question?
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20121113&content_id=40265986&vkey=news_mlb&c_id=mlb
.
@ mb21:
Nah, you’re not pissing on my parade. Just two different opinions. If they lose more than 90 games, I’ll admit I was wrong. If they lose less than 90, you’ll admit… they got lucky. *insert taking-the-piss emoticon here*
Nice pickup on Baker. Seemed tailor-made for us, good plate control coming off an injury so we could buy relatively low on him without a lot of years. Only question was whether he’d leave the Twins. Glad he did but wish we’d have gotten a team option year. I’m man gay for team option years after that Maholm haul.
@ Carne Harris:
The thing is, you won’t need to admit you’re wrong. Even if you think they’re a true talent 73 win team, by luck alone they’d win anywhere from 59 to 88 games. We could probably even expand that a little bit more than I have, but if you think they are a 73-win team and they win 65 games, you’re not necessarily wrong. If they win fewer than 59 it’s very likely you overestimated their true talent. Bad teams end up winning a lot more games than you’d expect. It’s just how it goes. If you really believe they’re a 73 win team, there’s really no reason to say you’re wrong. You may not have been wrong.
They might win 62 games and it’s entirely possible your 73+ true talent estimate was more accurate than my 67 win estimate.
We’ll know a lot more in March so until then it’s really just a lot of discussion about what we don’t know. By then we’ll have a very good idea of the Cubs true talent.
MLBTR wrote:
@ WenningtonsGorillaCock:
Holy fire sale, Mish!
I was hoping the Cubs would go after Josh Johnson.
The Marlins need to be contracted and Jeffrey Loria needs to go to prison.
http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/jeremy-affeldt-and-valuing-relievers/
dave cameron is daring mgl to come out of retirement with another article speaking definitively about a reliever’s platoon splits.
@ WenningtonsGorillaCock:
Look. Twitter sources. We know those are absolutely reliable. Hope the Blue Jays fans are buying season tickets now in hopes of getting into the World Series ticket lottery.
Wake me when there is real, substantiated news.
/grumpy
http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2012/11/blue-jays-close-to-acquiring-josh-johnson.html
Wow.
Olney says it’s done. Reyes included. Hot damn!!
Does anyone know if Dempster was blindsided by this?
Oops.
@ Carne Harris:
@ mb21:
Carne, I’m more bearish on the Cubs than MB. But if they win 73, I’m happy to say you are right and not go the Bayesian margin of error route, even though I agree with MB’s analysis. Why? Well, 73 wins is still a lousy season, buy why give the props to luck when instead someone here in the community can get a little credit. Might as well have some positive from 73 wins. (dying laughing)
(dying laughing) @ this place being more excited than tney have since we started the blog. All because a major trade took places between two teams and neither of them is the Cubs.
2013 Cubs: Nowhere near as exciting as every other team
“I’ve built stadiums in Brockway, Ogdenville, and North Haverbrook, and by golly it put them on the map!”
@ Aisle424:
he better be careful lest they give him some punishment time in the minors like they did to lomo.
If they mention any more players in the Tweets, the entire rosters of both teams will just change addresses.
@ GW:
It would be hilarious if he came back just to shit on some article and then got pissed when someone calls him out. I hope it happens.
@ GBTS:
Marlins-fail…Marlins-fail…MARLINS-FAAAAAAAAAAAAAIL!!!!
Actually I can’t even call it a complete fail trade-wise, they got quite a few interesting prospects back.
@ Rice Cube:
i like this one from the comments:
“I will never laugh at a fan made trade proposal ever again. “
Had to share your fish stadium pic GBTS. Amazing stuff.
@ GBTS:
I think the Marlins should move to Brooklyn. NYC could easily absorb and support another team. Oakland should move to Charlotte or Raleigh/Durham if they can’t find another home in the bay (though I think there should be some home in the Bay area for Oakland).
@ SVB:
There’s some recently burned and cleared land in NYC with an ocean view that could be developed….
too soon?
SVB wrote:
yes, this. unfortunately, my impression is that the purpose of the luxury tax is to prevent this sort of thing from happening.
@ SVB:
We should just pick someone at random and heap the adulation on them. Of course it might backfire into Bartman 2.0 when the headline reads, “John Smith responsible for Cubs 73-win season!”
@ GW:
Because the rest of baseball can profit off the Yankee’s spending? What happens when Cashman finally gets them under the threshold. (Or maybe I’m missing something.)
@ Aisle424:
“Wait, no, sorry. That’s Clayton Kershaw.”
@ SVB:
I think the A’s example is illustrative. MLB says, sorry, all the good markets are off-limits, but here is a yearly stipend to keep you going.
@ Carne Harris:
(dying laughing) (dying laughing)
Headline could be John Smith’s outlandishly optimistic predictions keep the Cubs from sucking worse.
“We wanted to live up to Smith’s expectations, so we really pushed hard despite all the guys we lost mid-season,” said Cubs third baseman Ty Wigginton.
Uh oh, it’s all beginning to unravel:
I think relocation was a lot easier decades ago, but now that there is so damn much money involved, we may not see it again.
every twitter-rumored trade that goes through is a victory over evil curmudgeons like SVB.
Do we have any sort of indication of the return at all?
Edit: I’m a dumbass, I totally missed that.
We are proud that SVB has so ably represented not only our point of view, but also our general personality.
You can’t have Twiitter without Twits.
Paid for by STFU.
Marlins are only sending $4MM. Am I wrong in thinking that this is not that great of a deal for the Jays now?
@ Rice Cube:
yes
@ GW:
It just seemed to me that they’re taking on a buttload of salary and gave up a pretty good prospect package for good but not great talent. Seems like an overpay but that’s just from first glance as I don’t have this in a spreadsheet
@ GW:
I mean, well, that’s just like, my opinion, man.
@ Rice Cube:
looks like pretty great talent to me. and the names in the return seem a little light.
@ GW:
I think the one that bugs me most was Jose Reyes who I thought was probably on the downslope. I was fine with the two pitchers.
@ Rice Cube:
Oh, forgot about Bonafacio and Buck. Maybe I was wrong (dying laughing)
SO, read the one comment on this story. I beg of you. It is a work of pure stupidity.
http://www.csnchicago.com/baseball-chicago-cubs/cubs-talk/Cubs-will-have-to-pay-the-price-for-pitc?blockID=801543&feedID=661
@ Jed Jam Band:
(dying laughing)
When THoyer are tired of dealing with whiney Cub fans, they might just do it!
From Theo’s quotes in the article:
GW–have you received your offer yet?
And Toronto gets $4M. For those of you not compulsively refreshing at MLBTR like Dr. Cube is. Maybe the best thing about this deal is that Toronto gets to unload Yunel Escobar.
So… the Marlins just moved a bunch of “immovable” contracts, it seems.
mb21 wrote:
Hmmm. Your argument used some selective statistical analysis and the phrase lies, damn lies and statistics comes to mind. Here was Rizzo’s performance last year month by month:
June: 913 (only 15 at bats)
July: 942
August: 642
September: 866
And of course he had a great season at AAA.
So in other words, it wasn’t a bad last half season it was a bad August. And given how highly rated he’s been at a prospect, I think it’s fairly reasonable and not wishcasting to think that Rizzo will outperform the average first baseman next year.
(dying laughing)
(dying laughing)
(dying laughing)
@ Evil Curmudgeon Club:
uh oh. Is this falling apart?
@ Aisle424:
Starlin Castro –> Michael Jackson disease?
@ Aisle424:
Damn, they changed it recently (dying laughing)
Just saw that Marlins news. (dying laughing). I’m surprised that this hasn’t been linked already
http://www.theonion.com/articles/struggling-marlins-begin-construction-on-new-stadi,29042/
/drunk on Dragon’s Milk
It’s still (dying laughing)-worthy due to James Russell as starring attraction.
SVB, I didn’t know you drove a compact SUV.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-cleveland-school-bus-idiot-20121113,0,4234355.story
@ Aisle424:
“Come to the Cubs Convention! Featuring Darwin Barney as Starlin Castro!”
@ Berselius:
This line gets me every time:
@ jtsunami:
I wonder if that’s more racist than if it were the other way around.
tem wrote:
It did use selective sampling, but then you argue the opposite of what I said not by using another method, but by using selective sampling. Had you stuck with his raking in AAA and being a top prospect you’d have been a lot more convincing though his production in AAA is already considered in the projections.
He has a career .727 OPS and last year he ranked 16th in wRC+ at 1st base (300 or more PA). We’re not talking about an instant superstar here.
Look, I already went through this with Castro and we’re now 3 seasons into his career and he’s still just slightly better than a mediocre hitter. To Rizzo’s credit he has the one thing that can make him much better than that: power. His walk rate this past season was a lot lower than you’d like, but if he keeps hitting for power there’s plenty reason to believe he’ll be selective at the plate and become a good hitter. A great hitter? Probably not. Rizzo also adds value with his glove. He’s a valuable player and will provide a lot of value to the Cubs over the years, but he’s probably not nearly as good as a lot of Cubs fans are expecting him to be. That’s true of most players.
@ Suburban kid:
(dying laughing). But I only do that maneuver when I’m in drag.
http://www.nydailynews.com/tebow-terrible-jets-mates-rip-qb-article-1.1201722
@ mb21:
So he’s Mark Grace with some of the doubles converted to homers? Oh, I’d take that in a second. A whole team full please, and a hepa filter in the locker room.
Here’s a question.
Is it the presence of a new young players that leads fans to think he can be great? Or is it entirely the media’s doing (hyping)?
Fans (myself included) are terrible at knowing what to expect from free agents and they’re even worse when it comes to prospects (or young-ish guys without much experience like Micah Hoffpauir, Bryan LaHair, Bobby Scales and others).
If you plotted the fans expectations for any top prospect the day he reaches the big leagues, it would probably center around all-star level. You could do this exercise for year 2 and year 3 and they’d be just as terrible. They’d factor in the most recent information while completely ignoring what happened prior. If the prospect struggled, the fans would say he’s shit. If he hit really well, they’d expect him to hit better than he did.
@ Aisle424:
Guess we all have our crosses to bear.
@ mb21:
Yeah, this. Didn’t we both say we thought he’d peak at around 4 WAR? A great asset to have, but not someone who’s going to win an MVP anytime soon. Adam LaRoche could be a good comparison of this type of 1b.
@ SVB:
Grace is a borderline hall of fame candidate so I’d say no. We can probably expect Rizzo to walk at about the same rate as Grace over the long run, but he’ll strikeout a lot more than Grace did. This will lead to a lower batting average, OBP and probably a comparable slugging. Overall, he won’t be as good, but even if he ends up being close to as good as Grace, the Cubs are in good shape at 1st base for awhile.
@ Berselius:
Yeah, we’re in agreement on both Castro and Rizzo. Good and valuable players, but neither of them is likely to win any MVPs. They’ll make some all-star games (Castro more than Rizzo because Rizzo probably isn’t going to be hitting among the best 1st basemen in the game). I think he’s probably a 4 to 5 WAR player at his peak. Another decent comparison is Derrek Lee. Good fielder, good hitter, lots of value. Maybe a season or two like Lee had in which he could have won the MVP, but otherwise just a good player.
By the way, I don’t know what’s wrong with pointing this out, but it really seems to get some fans upset. It’s like by saying Rizzo won’t be the best 1st baseman ever that it means I think he sucks ass and should quit baseball. It was the same thing with Castro though I think the fans have now accepted that Castro is who he is (mediocre hitter, healthy, valuable).
Berselius wrote:
It has. You should skip elevensies for not reading every word.
mb21 wrote:
I never noticed how he switches between ‘and’ and ‘&’. (dying laughing)
mb21 wrote:
It’s a combination of things I think.
Most fans don’t even know about the top prospects without the media’s help aside from the guys picked in the first round. If you look at other sports, being picked in the first round has a much higher chance of success than other players. So you hear about a player being picked in the first round (Vitters) or being traded with someone picked in the first round (Cashner for Rizzo) and you assume the player is going to be a superstar.
Also I think the casual fan doesn’t understand projections based on the minor leagues. They see a player who hit .342/.405/.696 in AAA and think this guy is going to be a superstar, because those are the stats that the media presents when a player first comes up. They don’t give comparables or projections, they just give a history of what he has done.
This is magnified with Cubs fans because of the fact that the Cubs are
a shitty team and any chance of HOPE invigorates Cubs fans.
http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/14/the-statistical-case-against-cabrera-for-m-v-p/
@ Mish:
The best argument I’ve read yet is one I saw on The Book Blog. If the two leagues were combined, Cabrera doesn’t have the triple crown and more than likely Trout wins the MLB MVP. About the only argument in favor of Cabrera is that triple crown. Take that away and the clear favorite becomes Trout.
It’s kind of funny to think that if the leagues were combined, Trout probably wins, but since they’re separated, he probably won’t.
@ mb21:
It proves he isn’t a robot or using a macro. He actually types the same comment over and over. (dying laughing)
@ mb21:
Or the fact that if Cabrera had .005 less points of batting average or 3 less home runs, a lot of people would not be on his bandwagon.
Re: The Marlins (potential, but not yet confirmed, confirmed) firesale and Stanton’s tweet:
Does anyone actually think the Marlins will trade him, or will he calm down/do they even care?
@ WaLi:
Yeah, I think it’s a combination. I just think it’s interesting how bad we are at this and especially bad when it’s “our own” players. Not to pick on DJ, but I remember a few years ago (2009 I think) he suggested the Cubs trade Ryan Theriot for Madison Bumgarner. I asked in what world was Theriot worth a Bumgarner. We’re talking about a guy who reached the big leagues at the age of 19 after dominating the minor leagues. DJ points out how his strikeout rate had fallen in AA, which it had, but the guy was 19 and pitching in a league in which there were players who were 22, 23 and older. Not to mention, his walk rate was so damn good that he still had a K-BB% of nearly .1, which is good and great for his age and level. You get a pitcher who reaches the big leagues at the age of 19 you don’t trade him for Ryan Theriot. Bumgarner’s scouting report suggested he’d become a top of the rotation starter and his numbers did little to suggest otherwise. It’s an example of how we tend to overvalue players on our favorite team. Bubbles has already penciled in the Cubs prospects in to their 2016 lineup and they’re all way above average. We all do it. I’m as guilty as DJ and I was once as guilty as Bubbles (about a decade ago I did the same thing). I recently suggested trading Jackson and others who aren’t that valuable for Justin Upton.
Even as intelligent as I like to think this place is, we’re prone to the same silliness. It’s strange.
@ mikeakaleroy:
I think he just keeps hitting like he has to drive up his arbitration salary and basically force the Marlins to trade him that way. I doubt he can do much else other than just play through it. They have him under club control for a while.
I don’t see how he could get traded. He’s the most valuable player in the entire league besides Trout and Verlander. It would take pretty much a team’s top 3 prospects and then some.
@ mb21:
Cabrera’s team also made the playoffs, which has historically been a huge advantage.
@ Rizzo the Rat:
That’s one way of looking at it
Though if you break it down (as in Mish’s link) the Angels had to deal with two very good teams while the Tigers just had to suck less than the White Sox did.
@ Rice Cube:
Kind of what I figured. I know the Cubs certainly wouldn’t be anywhere near stocked enough to trade for him, but it’d be fun for him to leave the Marlins, since I seem to hate them more and more every year.
Brett has a nice blurb about him not going anywhere as well, and does mention LoMo, which would be a fun pick up, but we have a seemingly rejuvenated old man playing LF right now.
mikeakaleroy wrote:
Fixed.
Poor Mark Buehrle
@ Rice Cube:
That’s such bullshit. Any dog can be evil, it’s all about the owners. My wife and I are proud owners of a rescued pit bull (pictured in avatar) and she is the sweetest dog towards kids.
Heck, that’s the whole reason we rescued her. My wife volunteers as a board member for the animal shelter and we were walking dogs in a Christmas parade to try to get more dogs adopted. She was walking the pit bull and all these kids kept running up and petting her and our dog just sat, looked at my wife, and let the kids pet her. But there is so much discrimination against pit bulls it is sickening. Even my own family did at first.
@ Rizzo the Rat:
@ WaLi:
I agree it is all about the owners, however, because I can’t ever know what kind of owners a dog may have, I don’t trust the dog. In a pit bull’s case, I would never let my kids pet an unknown pit bull. I’d not want them to pet any unknown dog, but let’s face it, there are far less stories about golden retrievers or poodles tearing someone’s arm off for no reason.
It isn’t fair, but those dogs (and bigger dogs like rotts and german shepherds) will always be viewed with a certain amount of fear. If a dachsund is a mean dog, you bleed for a few minutes until you get a band-aid. If a big dog decides he doesn’t like you, you can lose limbs.
@ Aisle424:
Poodles are vicious, evil little bastards.
http://oldtimefamilybaseball.com/post/35708961682/marlins-unveil-new-marketing-slogan-go-f-yourself
(dying laughing)
@ mikeakaleroy:
Yeah, I don’t like them, but I don’t fear them either. I’d probably rather own a pit bull over a poodle, but I’d openly stay away from an unknown pit than an unknown poodle.
My mom has black lab/rott mix that seems mostly rott in looks and pure strength. Sweetest dog ever and super smart, but I wouldn’t want to go anywhere near her if I didn’t know her.
@ Aisle424:
Be afraid!
@ Aisle424:
One of my best friends when I was a kid had a rott, and that thing was the most cuddly horse I’ve ever seen. Then one of the neighbor kids threw a bunch of rocks at it one day, so the dog defended himself and bit the kid, so of course the dog had to be put down.
@ Rice Cube:
Congrats.
Condolences for having to have the conversation near houston.
Are we talking about dogs now?
A few months back, a stupid golden retriever picked up my min-pin/chihuahua in his mouth and threw the poor doggy across the sidewalk. I was pissed off at the time but the doggy was unhurt, just got knocked down a few pegs. All small dogs seem to think they’re about 100 times bigger than they actually are until someone picks them up and throws them.
@ mikeakaleroy:
When I was a substitute paperboy the only two mean dogs I had to contend with were a St. Bernard and a cockapoo. The St. Bernard was only mean if you went in its yard or if you were another dog. The cockapoo was pure evil.
The shepherds, dobermans, and pit bulls ok the route were no problem.
/cool story dawg
I don’t let unknown small children pet my dog. She’s a sweetheart and only weighs 30 pounds, but there’s just no way I’m going to risk it. When I’m out walking her I just don’t let it happen. I’m not going to have to put her to sleep because some dumbass child pulled her ear or slapped her in the face. Fuck that. It’s easily avoidable by not letting children I don’t know get too close to her. I’m not worried a bit that she’d attack, but I am concerned enough that other people’s children are too fucking stupid to handle a dog. My kids are brilliant! (dying laughing)
I do agree it’s on the owner, but at the same time there are a lot of irresponsible pet owners.
@ Aisle424:
I can agree with that sentiment. I don’t let my dog away from me when people come close or other dogs just because I know how people think about it.
Maybe it is because a lot of people
who own pitbullsare idiots. My friend/acquaintance and his girlfriend have two huge pitbulls who they keep outside mostly. One of them actually got out and attacked a cat. This couple doesn’t keep a collar on their dog because they don’t want something like that to be tracked back to them. My mom’s little peekapoo just got attacked by a pitbull in her neighborhood. The thing is, this is the second time this dog attacked another dog. The owner needs to not be introducing other dogs to their dog when they know it is aggressive.Any dog, even agolden retreiver or poodle, can be agressive though.
Torii Hunter —> Detroit
@ Rice Cube:
Not relevant to today’s discussion
@ mb21:
There are many dogs in Detroit.
@ Rice Cube:
You’re right. You may continue to discuss baseball as long as the possibility of a dog exists.
@ mb21:
mb21 wrote:
do hot dogs count?
Somebody in the Levine chat wants to know what it would take for the Cubs or Sox to acquire Andrew McCutchen.
Also…
@ WenningtonsGorillaCock:
If you haven’t noticed, I heart dogs.
i’ve always thought it is extremely odd when parents let their children walk up to unknown dogs and start touching them. i am not a parent so maybe this is one of those things that is way harder than it looks though.
@ EnricoPallazzo:
I tell my son to ask before he reaches out. Other dog owners are usually good about telling whether their dog will get along or if kids should stay away.
Rice Cube wrote:
A huge wolfhound did the same to our cairn terrier (like Toto in Wizard of Oz). However, it ripped her up pretty good and she needed surgery. The owner of the other dog just stood there like a dumbass while her dog was annihilating our dog and my wife was hanging on to the leash for dear life. That was a few years ago and she recovered. However, we just lost her over the weekend unexpectedly and now I sort of know how Aisley felt recently.
Last year, I was walking down the sidewalk and this mom and kid were walking like 3 sheepdogs. I walked out near the street to get away, and this kid karate chops his fucking dog thinking that will calm it down. It breaks free and jumps to bite me in the face. I still have a pretty nasty scar on my arm from guarding my face.
So yeah. Its really about the owners. Also, people who live in a duplex in downtown Chicago shouldn’t have 3 big ass dogs!
@ EnricoPallazzo:
Same here.
I hate the dumbass dog owners that leave their dogs off the leash as if they’re never ever ever going to disobey them. Our nearest neighbors are like that, but fortunately they’re about a half mile away. One time I was talking the dog and on my way back it was loose and comes up to my dog. It scared the shit out of her (the other dog is huge). Being scared, my dog acts out and the other dog was about ready to kick the shit out mine until I kicked it. Broke my heart doing it and it still breaks my heart thinking about it, but if it’s my dog or someone else’s, it’s going to be my dog every time. The lesson here is to keep your fucking dog on a leash. It’s not always going to listen to you.
@ akabari:
Pet owners are just too irresponsible so I do understand banning certain breeds. I’m not in favor of it, but I also recognize that people don’t know what the hell they’re doing with dogs.
@ mb21:
Sigh.. I’m slightly guilty of this.
I like to run with my dog on the beach (which is pretty secluded in the off-tourist season). I keep her off the leash so I can play fetch with her in the water, HOWEVER, I do have an electric shock collar on her. I never have to shock her (though I did test it on myself first to make sure it was okay), but it has a beep function which gets her attention without shocking her. So I use that to keep her close and then put her on the leash when I see another person/dog coming my direction.
We recently adopted a half pit bull/half labrador and he’s the sweetest dog on the planet. He sat at the shelter for months b/c people were turned off by him being part pit. It’s also a big pain in the ass in the city. The vet warned us that when applying for City of Chicago tags and permits for using dog parks to just put down “lab mix” b/c they harass you a lot if you put down pit bull. And the shelter made wait a week and go through a series of training before we could take him home. We also frequently get comments from other people walking their dogs (or they just cross the street to avoid us) since he’s intimidating looking. I understand the concerns and the stigma, but a lot of it seems unfair. Also, a vet friend of mine took one look at our dog and said he’s probably not even a pit bull, he’s probably this other breed that looks very similar, but most people can’t tell the difference (dying laughing)
@ WaLi:
If you’re not around people, it’s no big deal, but here in the big city of Topeka, Kansas, it just pisses me off. We live in an area where there aren’t many neighbors, but it irritates me.
Here’s a picture of my dog taken last month sometime.
Yeah, my dog has a Cubs collar. I figured I’d force her to be miserable.
@ Suburban kid:
Yes, I love the owners who do nothing while their pet tries to destroy your pet.
/sarcasm
Sorry about your loss BTW.
@ mb21:
Lovely doggy.
@ mb21:
I wouldn’t have known unless you said something (dying laughing).
Since we’re posting dog photos now, here are my fearsome beasts. Two of them are blind.
@ mb21:
I can understand banning certain breeds in neighborhoods or apartment complexes, but for an entire county or province to ban a certain breed seems way over the top.
http://www.suntimes.com/16382306-761/firefighter-in-kane-county-killed-in-attack-by-her-dog.html
SPOILER ALERT: The Mastiff did it.
@ Suburban kid:
I’m sorry to hear that, SK. That really sucks. We at least knew it was coming at some point, so we got to say goodbye. That made it harder in some ways too though. I don’t think there is a good way to lose a pet like that.
This is the little guy that I just want to g grab from the rescue right now, despite him being 11 years old already and kind of scared of strangers.
If you guys want to watch a good documentary, HBO has one called One Nation Under Dog: Stories of Fear, Loss, and Betrayal.
It pretty much sums up everything you guys have talked about with bad owners, shelters, etc.
P.S. – I haven’t cried that hard in a long, long time while I was watching it. But don’t worry! It ends on a positive note.
akabari wrote:
From what I’ve been reading, the bigger dogs are actually the best city/apartment dogs because they don’t require as much space for exercise. The dogs that make every Best Apartment Dog list I’ve seen include Great Danes, Mastiffs, Bulldogs, and St. Bernards. Then the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel (seen above) that were bred to be lap dogs for royalty are also on every list. And strangely, Greyhounds. I guess when a Greyhound isn’t racing they’re actually pretty lazy.
@ Aisle424:
I could see how that makes some kind of sense. But I guess to amend what I said, people in apartments shouldn’t own 3 of any animal, except like, fish.
@ Aisle424:
I’ve got two Cavalier King Charles Spaniels. Wrigley (with a Cubs collar) and Basie (after Count Basie)
/cubs & band geek’d
@ mikeakaleroy:
Have you had any health issues with them? I’ve seen they are prone to lots of ailments from generations of in-breeding. Otherwise they seem to be the perfect dog for the city (unless you need a guard dog, because they are all but worthless at that).
Scott Maine —> the hellhole that is Miami
@ Aisle424:
They each had umbilical hernia’s that needed repaired when they were pups, but other than that, nothing yet. (Other than prone to getting sick from eating leaves and stuff in the backyard, because they’re dumb) The oldest is 5, and the youngest is 4.
@ Aisle424:
Spaniels in general (and especially Cavaliers) can have lots of ear and eye problems simply due to their physiology. Back when she had eyes, our oldest dog would get eye infections twice a year or so. Our youngest Cocker has a very narrow ear canal and gets ear infections several times a year unless we are super on top of things with regards to cleaning them.
@ Aisle424:
He’s practically begging someone to take him.
@ jtsunami:
I think I’d hate that documentary. I know I would.
Berselius wrote:
I’ve had to be on top of that since my dog was a puppy. She got ear infections all the damn time. Anytime it’s wet outside I make sure to dry her ears and that has mostly worked. She still gets one on occasion, but it’s not very common now.
@ Rice Cube:
@ Aisle424:
Thanks. I was a reluctant dog owner at first. My parents never had a dog till I was in college. And we had three kids already, so I needed a dog like I needed another hole in my head/wallet. But damn if that little mutt didn’t work its way under my crotchety old skin, apparently. It seems really wrong and weird not having her around.
http://andyspoartsthoughts.tumblr.com/post/35721125879/peds-and-you-the-benefits-of-cheating
N=1, but an interesting read.
Price and Dickey ——> Cy Young winners
Wow, Bruce Miles had a ballot! He voted for Dickey BTW.
@ Berselius:
Did your dogs lose their sight because you made them watch the Cubs?
@ mb21:
Not bad choices, but I’d have gone with Kershaw and Verlander (again).
I find it hard to see why anyone would pick Price over Verlander, though. Well, besides wins and raw ERA (Verlander’s park adjusted ERA is better and he had more innings.)
Price is now a good rebuttal to those who used Felix as proof that sabermetrics fundamentally changed the Cy Young race.
@ Rizzo the Rat:
One of the suggestions was that one had to deal with the AL East while the other dealt with the AL Central. Then again, Verlander had to deal with a porous defense so maybe it evens out. It wasn’t like Price was unworthy though.
@ Rizzo the Rat:
Cabrera will be another example come tomorrow.
SK, sorry about your dog. That sucks.
Here’s my pug, asleep in the kid’s bouncy chair about a month after he was born. She was a little jealous.
@ mb21:
http://nooooooooooooooo.com/
Blake Lalli —> Brewers
@ Rizzo the Rat:
I agree. If anything, the Felix victory lessened the import of W-L. But I still very few people understand the differences in IP and what that entails (e.g. 30 less innings for a bullpen arm ).
@ Mish:
Obviously the best examples being people who voted for Rodney and Kimbrel over people w 3x innings.
http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/al-cy-young-race-price-good-verlander-better/
Dave Cameron agrees with you statsy dudes.
@ josh:
My wife wishes to know if a similar site exists with the Price is Right fail horn. I suppose I should Google it myself.
@ Rice Cube:
Google!
http://priceisrightlosinghorn.com/
@ Mish:
IP and adjusting for park effects. Price had the better ERA, but Verlander’s adjusted ERA+ was better.
I can’t complain too much about the CYA results, though. Price had a great season and Verlander already has his. But I think Verlander was objectively better and by a decent margin–probably more than a win. (The NL was really close, so I’m fine with Dickey.)
SVB wrote:
Glaucoma. I should see if I can get a medical marijuana prescription for them.
@ Berselius:
All of our eyes will probably be clouded over by the end of a few months of watching next season’s Cubs. We might wish we had glaucoma. Probably better would be to skip the disease and straight to medical marijuana treatment. I understand it helps frustrated Cub fans too.
Rice Cube wrote:
Any reporter in dead tree media who has covered baseball for 10 years can get a ballot. Wait. If it’s the same deal as HOF ballots.
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