2007...

[Schwarber Fan]

Around the horn:

 

C: Barrett will start obviously but do we need Blanco back to back-up? I say no, bring in a minor leaguer.

1B: Lee, obviously

2B: Ronny, especially lately is flat out slumping with the bat and the glove, a middle infield of him and Izturis, won't produce substantial runs. I would be interested in Soriano. Theriot is also impressing me right now but I don't know if he is ready to start everyday.

SS: Izturis

3B: For the love of god, please bring Aramis back, without him I have no idea what we are gonna do. We need to sign him to a long term deal.

LF: I think we would regret giving up Murton but unless we get a consistent second baseman, LF seems like the prime position for a signing, Carlos Lee possibly.

CF: I am in favor of bringing Pierre back. Obviously, Pie will be ready soon.

RF: Jones

 

The rotation is a mess.

 

Right now we can depend on: Zambrano. That's about it.

 

Wood's not gonna be a starter if he returns. Who knows what shape Prior will be in. I can see Marshall in the rotation. We need a free agent though, possibly Zito. Also, is it possible we see Wade Miller in the rotation?

 

The bullpen is sorta flustered too.

 

Eyre, Wuertz, Ohman have been our best relievers IMO

 

Howry, Aardsma, Dempster, and Novoa have had their struggles.

 

We should probably go after a free agent here as well.

 

Thoughts?

[Lefty]

No more FA relievers.

[C.C.]

Around the horn:

 

C: Barrett will start obviously but do we need Blanco back to back-up? I say no, bring in a minor leaguer.

1B: Lee, obviously

2B: Ronny, especially lately is flat out slumping with the bat and the glove, a middle infield of him and Izturis, won't produce substantial runs. I would be interested in Soriano. Theriot is also impressing me right now but I don't know if he is ready to start everyday.

SS: Izturis

3B: For the love of god, please bring Aramis back, without him I have no idea what we are gonna do. We need to sign him to a long term deal.

LF: I think we would regret giving up Murton but unless we get a consistent second baseman, LF seems like the prime position for a signing, Carlos Lee possibly.

CF: I am in favor of bringing Pierre back. Obviously, Pie will be ready soon.

RF: Jones

 

The rotation is a mess.

 

Right now we can depend on: Zambrano. That's about it.

 

Wood's not gonna be a starter if he returns. Who knows what shape Prior will be in. I can see Marshall in the rotation. We need a free agent though, possibly Zito. Also, is it possible we see Wade Miller in the rotation?

 

The bullpen is sorta flustered too.

 

Eyre, Wuertz, Ohman have been our best relievers IMO

 

Howry, Aardsma, Dempster, and Novoa have had their struggles.

 

We should probably go after a free agent here as well.

 

Thoughts?

 

No to Pierre, unless he wants a 1 year deal, which won't happen.

LF I'd rather sign Soriano then C.Lee.

2B No to Cedeno! Sign a Loretta type of Vet.

Bullpen is fine.

Sign another starter (At least!)

[Schwarber Fan]

 

No to Pierre, unless he wants a 1 year deal, which won't happen.

LF I'd rather sign Soriano then C.Lee.

2B No to Cedeno! Sign a Loretta type of Vet.

Bullpen is fine.

Sign another starter (At least!)

 

Do you really think the bullpen is fine?

 

We have lost a lot of games thanks to the pen this year. Howry has not been as good as advertised.

[mg420]

soto will be barretts backup in 07 imo. would love for them to get kottaras from the padres. robinson seems to be taking to the cubs and is doing great in a limited # of games. he might be the catcher of the future with fox's very limited defensive abilities.

get rid of cedeno. i havent seen much if anything that he does well. i'm sure the switching between 2b & ss hasnt helped but theriot and/or fontenot(what ever happened to mike btw?) should be at 2b unless and until epat is ready to take over.

murton needs to play every day in lf. it would be a big mistake imo to trade him as i think he can be a solid .300 25 .850 ops guy in the near future.

if pierre is wants to come back, pie probably switches to rf. if pie surges in iowa next year, trade jones and bring him up. other than carlos lee, i dont see many options for rf unless they want to trade the farm. either way, jones needs to be platooned in rf. no idea what they will do if pierre doesnt come back. lofton & pagan perhaps?

 

the rotation isnt as bad as u think imo. z is the only established guy but hill, marshall & mateo have been impressive imo. prior is the big key of course. they need to get 1 more guy like schmidt or zito (they should have the $$ to overpay for a starter) in case prior goes in the tank again. either marmol or guzman needs to be switched to closing imo.

[Soriano12]

 

Thoughts?

 

Drink up. 2007 might not be much better than 06.

[C.C.]

 

No to Pierre, unless he wants a 1 year deal, which won't happen.

LF I'd rather sign Soriano then C.Lee.

2B No to Cedeno! Sign a Loretta type of Vet.

Bullpen is fine.

Sign another starter (At least!)

 

Do you really think the bullpen is fine?

 

We have lost a lot of games thanks to the pen this year. Howry has not been as good as advertised.

 

Howry has been good, the problem is he's overworked. Pre-Allstar he's at a 3.12 ERA. Post-Allstar he's at 4.43. Our bullpen is 8th in the NL out of 16 teams and pitched the most innings. No reason to go out and spend more money on Relief pitching...

Edited August 30, 2006 by C.C.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

 

No to Pierre, unless he wants a 1 year deal, which won't happen.

LF I'd rather sign Soriano then C.Lee.

2B No to Cedeno! Sign a Loretta type of Vet.

Bullpen is fine.

Sign another starter (At least!)

 

Do you really think the bullpen is fine?

 

We have lost a lot of games thanks to the pen this year. Howry has not been as good as advertised.

 

Howry has been fine. Of course there's not much telling if it'll stay that way(like any other reliever), but he hasn't been bad.

 

As for the topic of the thread, the easiest thing to do is play Pie, keep Murton, trade Cedeno/Theriot, get Jones a platoon partner and get a 2B to hit at the top of the order. It's not great by any means, but it's feasible

 

2B/Murton

Murton/2B

Lee

Ramirez

Jones/Barrett

Barrett/Platoon

Pie

Izturis

 

Add a good starter, Schmidt is my favorite.

 

Z

Acquisition

Marshall/Marmol/Hill/Guzman

Marshall/Marmol/Hill/Guzman

Prior

 

Keep the pen, although if you can trade Eyre or especially Howry for something worthwhile, do it. Wuertz closes.

[mg420]

 

No to Pierre, unless he wants a 1 year deal, which won't happen.

LF I'd rather sign Soriano then C.Lee.

2B No to Cedeno! Sign a Loretta type of Vet.

Bullpen is fine.

Sign another starter (At least!)

 

Do you really think the bullpen is fine?

 

We have lost a lot of games thanks to the pen this year. Howry has not been as good as advertised.

howry & eyre would be fine if dusty wouldnt pitch them every single game. dempster would be much better with regular work. novoa needs to go asap.

[Lefty]

 

No to Pierre, unless he wants a 1 year deal, which won't happen.

LF I'd rather sign Soriano then C.Lee.

2B No to Cedeno! Sign a Loretta type of Vet.

Bullpen is fine.

Sign another starter (At least!)

 

Do you really think the bullpen is fine?

 

We have lost a lot of games thanks to the pen this year. Howry has not been as good as advertised.

 

Bullpen is the hardest thing to project. You have six or seven pitchers who couldn't cut it as starters. So your year-to-year performance will be volatile as their IPs are realtively low.

 

I actually think Howry has been OK, but he missed two years with injuries recently. The only reason we expect anything great is because Hendry gave him a huge contract. Hendry is an idiot.

 

Cubs are last in offense, starting pitchers' ERA we are 14th in the NL. It seems the bullpen is the least of our worries.

[Mizzou]

I think we should sign Lofton for CF. When he gets hurt, call up Pie. When Lofton returns from injury, move Pie over to RF.

[Soriano12]

Lets blow this thing up.

 

My 2007 lineup

 

2B Eric Patterson

LF Matt Murton

1B Derrek Lee

3B Aramis Ramirez

CF Felix Pie

C Michael Barret

RF Angel Pagan

SS Izturis

 

 

Zambrano

veteran FA pitcher so not all our young arms fall apart

Rich HIll

Sean Marshall

Mateo/Marmol/Gallager/Veal

 

Bullpen

Eyre

Howry

whoever doesn't suck

 

 

And they will be managed by staff SGT. Girardi

 

http://www.sportsnet.ca/images/mlb/fla/girardi_vert.jpg

 

TEN HUT...I WANT YOU..TO BE A CHICAGO CUB.

Edited August 30, 2006 by Soriano12

[C.C.]

I think we should sign Lofton for CF. When he gets hurt, call up Pie. When Lofton returns from injury, move Pie over to RF.

 

I wouldn't move Pie to RF and what would you do with Jones? Leave Pie in CF.

[Mizzou]

I think we should sign Lofton for CF. When he gets hurt, call up Pie. When Lofton returns from injury, move Pie over to RF.

 

I wouldn't move Pie to RF and what would you do with Jones? Leave Pie in CF.

Send him to instructional camp somewhere. I'd move Pie to RF cause he'd be a better fit than Lofton.

[soapy]

Ideally, (which I understand won't happen) I'd sign Soriano (to play 2B) and Schmidt. Maybe add one more SP if the money is there. Bring up Pie to play CF.

 

C: Barrett

1B: Lee

2B: Soriano

3B: Ramirez

SS: Izturis

LF: Murton

CF: Pie

RF: Jones/Platoon Partner

[Soriano12]

Guys...you have to ask this.....yeah they can spend some $$$ and try to get back to respectablity.

 

Maybe a big bat in LF, 1-2 new starters, and a new manger might get this team back to .500.

 

But more than likely Hendry will be unable to sign any of these guys Lee/Soriono/Schimdt/Zito...we will get 2nd 3rd tier guys like a Jose Guillen,

a Ted Lilly and the beat goes on.

 

 

What would give you joy in 07. For me its seeing Pie patrolling center.

 

EPatt trying to do what his brother couldn't in Chicago

 

Fundemantel baseball...Giriardi teaching, chewing arse, when needed.

 

Guys overachieving. Low expectations that are exceeded.

 

think about it.

Edited August 30, 2006 by Soriano12

[RichHillIsABeast]

Rotation:

 

Zambrano

FA Signing (Zito over Schmidt b/c of injury concerns)

Prior

Marshall

Hill

 

 

We'd better hope Prior is healthy for a full season, but you know Zito will be healthy. Zambrano and Zito give us great chances to win every start. Marshall and Hill should eat innings and keep us in games. Marshall's good for a sub 5 ERA. Hill...well his ERA will be inflated b/c of a bad start here and there, but he can be dominating. That's fine for a #5.

 

We're kind of stuck in a bind with the rotation next season. If Hendry gets too creative, we're going to end up with a bunch of mediocre vets and Zambrano. I hope he just bites the bullet and sticks with the younger guys.

 

If Prior goes down, we'll have Marmol, who should be refining his command in AAA. Guzman, well, I don't think he'll ever be the pitcher he could have been.

 

* I don't want to see Schmidt. He is an injury waiting to happen. We're stuck with Prior b/c of diminished trade value, but we shouldn't ever count on an injury prone SP again.

Edited August 30, 2006 by RichHillIsABeast

[UMFan83]

For those of you predicting that we got a top line FA, please name the last one that we got.

[soapy]

For those of you predicting that we got a top line FA, please name the last one that we got.

I didn't think that was the point of this thread. I thought it was to lay out what you would like to see happen.

[C.C.]

For those of you predicting that we got a top line FA, please name the last one that we got.

 

So True! I do think the management has to do something or else they are going to see dimished tix sales.

[baseball7897]

 

No to Pierre, unless he wants a 1 year deal, which won't happen.

LF I'd rather sign Soriano then C.Lee.

2B No to Cedeno! Sign a Loretta type of Vet.

Bullpen is fine.

Sign another starter (At least!)

 

Do you really think the bullpen is fine?

 

We have lost a lot of games thanks to the pen this year. Howry has not been as good as advertised.

 

Howry has been fine. Of course there's not much telling if it'll stay that way(like any other reliever), but he hasn't been bad.

 

As for the topic of the thread, the easiest thing to do is play Pie, keep Murton, trade Cedeno/Theriot, get Jones a platoon partner and get a 2B to hit at the top of the order. It's not great by any means, but it's feasible

 

2B/Murton

Murton/2B

Lee

Ramirez

Jones/Barrett

Barrett/Platoon

Pie

Izturis

 

Add a good starter, Schmidt is my favorite.

 

Z

Acquisition

Marshall/Marmol/Hill/Guzman

Marshall/Marmol/Hill/Guzman

Prior

 

Keep the pen, although if you can trade Eyre or especially Howry for something worthwhile, do it. Wuertz closes.

 

If that is the 07 Cubs, then we have NO chance in hell. Im going to vomit if I look at that again.

[UMFan83]

For those of you predicting that we got a top line FA, please name the last one that we got.

I didn't think that was the point of this thread. I thought it was to lay out what you would like to see happen.

 

Oh, well I was just pointing out that signing players like Zito and Soriano is highly unlikely

[RichHillIsABeast]

For those of you predicting that we got a top line FA, please name the last one that we got.

 

When have we had an upper echelon payroll and high fan expectations/demands?

[Soriano12]

For those of you predicting that we got a top line FA, please name the last one that we got.

I didn't think that was the point of this thread. I thought it was to lay out what you would like to see happen.

 

Oh, well I was just pointing out that signing players like Zito and Soriano is highly unlikely

 

I agree. So instead of signing some garabage like Jose Guillen, I would rather them just give the job to Murton

[soapy]

 

Howry has been fine. Of course there's not much telling if it'll stay that way(like any other reliever), but he hasn't been bad.

 

As for the topic of the thread, the easiest thing to do is play Pie, keep Murton, trade Cedeno/Theriot, get Jones a platoon partner and get a 2B to hit at the top of the order. It's not great by any means, but it's feasible

 

2B/Murton

Murton/2B

Lee

Ramirez

Jones/Barrett

Barrett/Platoon

Pie

Izturis

 

Add a good starter, Schmidt is my favorite.

 

Z

Acquisition

Marshall/Marmol/Hill/Guzman

Marshall/Marmol/Hill/Guzman

Prior

 

Keep the pen, although if you can trade Eyre or especially Howry for something worthwhile, do it. Wuertz closes.

 

If that is the 07 Cubs, then we have NO chance in hell. Im going to vomit if I look at that again.

I have to disagree. I think TT's team is certainly capable of making a run in a weak NL. It's a significant upgrade offensively IF Jones is put into a proper platoon and they add a decent hitting 2B to the top of the order. Loretta?