Middle Infield = Womack & Neifi

[Caryatid]

Easy to say that when the team's 20-31 with the star first baseman out, the two main pitchers out, the 40 year old being the #2 pitcher, a long suspension coming up, and other sordid things.

 

This isn't a full blast 20-31 team, you seem to forget that. If it was, I'd have put Dusty's head on the block personally.....and I have twice anyway this year, not personally of course.

 

I'm not saying we'll win. We might go 63-99 for all I know. I'm just not going to go 51 games into the year saying it's over, it's over. I don't take the easy way out, and I never have.

 

Saying a team that's bad is bad is not the easy way out. Its honest. If you want to make excuses for a bad team, fine. I didn't see the Cardinals fold this bad when they lost their star third basemen, best pitcher, star center fielder, etc. They are bad. That needs to be accepted so that changes can be made so that this team improves for the foreseeable future.

[JakeSlater]

Easy to say that when the team's 20-31 with the star first baseman out, the two main pitchers out, the 40 year old being the #2 pitcher, a long suspension coming up, and other sordid things.

 

This isn't a full blast 20-31 team, you seem to forget that. If it was, I'd have put Dusty's head on the block personally.....and I have twice anyway this year, not personally of course.

 

I'm not saying we'll win. We might go 63-99 for all I know. I'm just not going to go 51 games into the year saying it's over, it's over. I don't take the easy way out, and I never have.

 

The pitching will likely improve if Prior and Wood can get back to 100%, and anything Miller provides will be an added bonus. However, adding Lee back to this lineup will not suddenly catapult them over bunches of other teams to put us in a position to be significantly better than we currently are. We had a weak lineup with Lee in it, and we have painfully seen how putrid it is without him. The optimism is admirable, but reality is saying the season is over. This isn't a lineup that will put together a 35-10 stretch.

 

Alot of people seem to think that Lee being out of the lineup is the reason the offense sucks. No one person makes or breaks an offense.

 

Wanna know what's funny. This offense was pretty darned good at manufacturing runs and doing little things without the homer when Lee was there. In fact, they picked Lee up when he started to struggle a bit down before the injury.

 

So I didn't think Lee leaving would make THIS much of a difference. It sure did.

 

And whoever thought Houston had the horses to catapult over teams to win the Wild Card last year? They had Clemens and Oswalt, but Pettite struggled off and on, and the other two sure didn't do much. Plus about this time, they averaged about 2 runs a game, which was about what we were doing. They came back.

 

Not saying our team will. I think they can, but they just have to.

 

And we don't have to catapult over 4 teams........only 3. There is a wild card too.

[JakeSlater]

Easy to say that when the team's 20-31 with the star first baseman out, the two main pitchers out, the 40 year old being the #2 pitcher, a long suspension coming up, and other sordid things.

 

This isn't a full blast 20-31 team, you seem to forget that. If it was, I'd have put Dusty's head on the block personally.....and I have twice anyway this year, not personally of course.

 

I'm not saying we'll win. We might go 63-99 for all I know. I'm just not going to go 51 games into the year saying it's over, it's over. I don't take the easy way out, and I never have.

 

Saying a team that's bad is bad is not the easy way out. Its honest. If you want to make excuses for a bad team, fine. I didn't see the Cardinals fold this bad when they lost their star third basemen, best pitcher, star center fielder, etc. They are bad. That needs to be accepted so that changes can be made so that this team improves for the foreseeable future.

 

It's the easy way out when it's not even June yet, and a TON of teams in history have come back from bad records and won.

 

Not a guarantee, but I refuse to just say it's over. I won't say we'll win either. Right now, this team's still a bad one, and still makes mistakes, 2 game winning streak or not. They need to play better.

 

Can they? Oh yeah. Will they? Only time will tell.

[goonys evil twin]

Not saying our team will. I think they can, but they just have to.

 

And we don't have to catapult over 4 teams........only 3. There is a wild card too.

 

What is with the "they just have to" stuff? Okay great, they have to. But they aren't. Teams very rarely ever come back the way Houston did.

 

Many knew this was a bad offense going into the season, with or without Lee. A hot start did not change that.

[Ding Dong Johnson]

a TON of teams in history have come back from bad records and won.

 

A ton? Maybe a few have, but the vast majority do not.

[Caryatid]

 

And we don't have to catapult over 4 teams........only 3. There is a wild card too.

 

In order to get the Wild Card, the Cubs would have to catapult over 9 teams. There are other divisions, too.

[JakeSlater]

 

And we don't have to catapult over 4 teams........only 3. There is a wild card too.

 

In order to get the Wild Card, the Cubs would have to catapult over 9 teams. There are other divisions, too.

 

Houston catapulted over 12.

 

Very tough road to hoe, but not impossible. We'll see what happens.

[treebird]

 

And we don't have to catapult over 4 teams........only 3. There is a wild card too.

 

In order to get the Wild Card, the Cubs would have to catapult over 9 teams. There are other divisions, too.

 

Houston catapulted over 12.

 

Very tough road to hoe, but not impossible. We'll see what happens.

 

houston had good players

[goonys evil twin]

 

And we don't have to catapult over 4 teams........only 3. There is a wild card too.

 

In order to get the Wild Card, the Cubs would have to catapult over 9 teams. There are other divisions, too.

 

Houston catapulted over 12.

 

Very tough road to hoe, but not impossible. We'll see what happens.

 

houston had good players

 

And achieved a near miracle with those players. Hoping for miracles is not good planning.

[Caryatid]

 

And we don't have to catapult over 4 teams........only 3. There is a wild card too.

 

In order to get the Wild Card, the Cubs would have to catapult over 9 teams. There are other divisions, too.

 

Houston catapulted over 12.

 

Very tough road to hoe, but not impossible. We'll see what happens.

 

Last time I checked, we didn't have Oswalt, Pettitte, Clemens, and Lidge.

Nor did we have Berkman, Biggio, Ensberg, et. al.

 

You're right. Its not impossible. But its about a once-in-a-hundred-years occurrence. And it takes a team much more talented than this one.

[JakeSlater]

Our first baseman is better than theirs, so's our third baseman.

 

And we have Dempster.

 

If Wood and Prior do come back and stay, that's the same thing. They have Clemens, we have Maddux.

 

I'm not saying we're going to do it. I'm saying that nothing is impossible. It'll just be tougher.

 

By the way, about the good players crack.

 

We have.......when healthy

 

Lee

Walker

Ramirez

Murton

Cedeno

Barrett

Jones(so far)

Pierre(he's not hitting .230-.240 all year)

 

You telling me those aren't good players?

[Ding Dong Johnson]

Our first baseman is better than theirs, so's our third baseman.

 

Check again

 

They have Clemens, we have Maddux.

 

Um, that's not even close to the same thing. HUGE advantage, Astros.

[Caryatid]

Our first baseman is better than theirs, so's our third baseman.

 

If Wood and Prior do come back and stay, that's the same thing. They have Clemens, we have Maddux.

 

Ensberg had a better OPS last year than Ramirez has had in any season other than one. And he continues to outperform him this year. Clemens had a 1.87 ERA last year. Wood and Prior have been .500 pitchers since 2003. There's nothing even close there.

[goonys evil twin]

They have Clemens, we have Maddux.

 

How in the world are they comparable? I mean other than age and Cy Young awards. Clemens was far better than Greg last year (221 ERA+ to 101 ERA+).

 

And Clemens is likely to be much better than Maddux this year.

 

You telling me those aren't good players?

 

I'm telling you you have to get over the 2005 Astros and start thinking realistically. The Astros were an amazing story last year exactly because they did something nobody else did, and that tells you nobody else is likely to do it again.

 

If you're a high school coach trying to rally the troops for the big game against a much better rival, go ahead with the "they did it, we can do it" speech. But spare the rest of us.

[JakeSlater]

Yeah, I know. We can't think that way because it lets the rest of this board be miserable.

 

As I said, it's easy to cash in the chips right now. Everyone that's ever been a success in history has been down at one point or another.

 

May happen, may not. I'll just take it one game at a time.

[UBlink]

Yeah, I know. We can't think that way because it lets the rest of this board be miserable.

 

As I said, it's easy to cash in the chips right now. Everyone that's ever been a success in history has been down at one point or another.

 

May happen, may not. I'll just take it one game at a time.

 

Thinking that way is like buying lottery tickets because, you know, you can't win if you don't play.

[JakeSlater]

Yeah, I know. We can't think that way because it lets the rest of this board be miserable.

 

As I said, it's easy to cash in the chips right now. Everyone that's ever been a success in history has been down at one point or another.

 

May happen, may not. I'll just take it one game at a time.

 

Thinking that way is like buying lottery tickets because, you know, you can't win if you don't play.

 

Not even a close second in comparison.

[goonys evil twin]

Yeah, I know. We can't think that way because it lets the rest of this board be miserable.

 

As I said, it's easy to cash in the chips right now. Everyone that's ever been a success in history has been down at one point or another.

 

May happen, may not. I'll just take it one game at a time.

 

Thinking that way is like buying lottery tickets because, you know, you can't win if you don't play.

 

Not even a close second in comparison.

 

No, it's actually a great comparison. Saying the Cubs can do rally and make the playoffs because Houston did something similar last year is hoping for extremely rare occurences to happen back to back. And it also deflects criticism from the awful job the people in charge have done in putting together this team. This is not a 95 win team that hit a few bad breaks. This is a bad team playing awful baseball because of a lack of foresight and gross negligence.

[abuck1220]

 

Lee

Walker

Ramirez

Murton

Cedeno

Barrett

Jones(so far)

Pierre(he's not hitting .230-.240 all year)

 

You telling me those aren't good players?

 

no, the standings are telling me they aren't.

[cheapseats]

Dayn Perry:

 

Cedeno isn't hitting well (.290 AVG/.377 OBP/.314 SLG), and he's also got Dusty Baker's longstanding preference for veterans working against him. Now that Tony Womack is in the fold, the Cubs may turn to a horrifying arrangement of Womack at second and Neifi Perez at short. Common sense may prevail, but Baker's tendencies and the veteran something or other possessed by Perez could squeeze Cedeno. It's not an appealing scenario for Cubs fans.

 

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/5648268?CMP=OTC-K9B140813162&ATT=49

 

Note that Perry has Ronny's OBP and SLG transposed. I wouldn't mind Ronny getting on base at .377.

[Ding Dong Johnson]

Um, Dayn, what's Neifi's line? Why can't anyone print that?

[goonys evil twin]

Dayn Perry:

 

Cedeno isn't hitting well (.290 AVG/.377 OBP/.314 SLG), and he's also got Dusty Baker's longstanding preference for veterans working against him. Now that Tony Womack is in the fold, the Cubs may turn to a horrifying arrangement of Womack at second and Neifi Perez at short. Common sense may prevail, but Baker's tendencies and the veteran something or other possessed by Perez could squeeze Cedeno. It's not an appealing scenario for Cubs fans.

 

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/5648268?CMP=OTC-K9B140813162&ATT=49

 

Note that Perry has Ronny's OBP and SLG transposed. I wouldn't mind Ronny getting on base at .377.

 

For a second I thought I was really misjudging Ronny's season.

[Fred Hornkohl]

Um, Dayn, what's Neifi's line? Why can't anyone print that?

 

Do you ask the dentist for root canal, too ?

 

04/03 - 05/31      AB    R    H   2B   3B   HR   TB  RBI   BB   SO     BA    OBP    SLG    OPS
Perez              97    9   20    3    1    0   25   11    3    8  0.206  0.228  0.258  0.485

[Ding Dong Johnson]

Um, Dayn, what's Neifi's line? Why can't anyone print that?

 

Do you ask the dentist for root canal, too ?

 

04/03 - 05/31      AB    R    H   2B   3B   HR   TB  RBI   BB   SO     BA    OBP    SLG    OPS
Perez              97    9   20    3    1    0   25   11    3    8  0.206  0.228  0.258  0.485

 

It just amazes me that 1) Dayn thinks it's possible that Ronny's line would get him benched for the likes of that and 2) that Dusty would actually do it.