Did We Just Blow Our Best Shot?

[VanceJergins]

Corey Patterson, Hee Sop Choi, Mark Prior, Juan Cruz, and Kerry Wood are only going to get better...the Cubs are going to be a force for years to come.

[WarningtrackPower]

I dont know if anyones noticed, but the Cubs are still one of the best teams on paper in the NL, and this group has played together for the first time. A lot of them are in long contracts, and whoever becomes the new owner will surely want to make a splash and add some more big names.

 

Im not worried about the Brewers. They're streaky and the team doesnt have the revenue to to fill the neccessary holes properly. Im quite confident that the Brewers will take care of themselves as Wisconsin teams always do.

 

Hmmm...so much to comment on.

 

First off, the Cubs added Soriano, arguably the biggest name FA last season as well as Floyd, DeRo and Lilly and look what happened.

 

Then you state that the core with "long contracts" will be added to by "big names". Assuming they still want to develop youngsters, where are they gonna fit all those guys? They still get 25 players, right?

 

But I'm not quite sure where the throwing stones at Wisconsin teams comes from. A Wisconsin baseball club has won the WS more recently than the Cubs and a Wisconsin football club has won the Superbowl more recently than da Bears.

 

And unless "streaky" means something different than blowing hot and cold all season, then that describes the 2007 Northsiders too, methinks....

[C.C.]

As nice as the Colorado and Arizona stories are, neither team was great, and I'm not sure Milwaukee is going to be much better, because all their talent is just going to get more expensive.

 

I disagree. Colorado is still possibly able to deal Helton for something young and usable, while Atkins will shift to 1st and Ian Stewart will take over at 3rd base. I think they have a great young core to build around.

 

Arizona won 90 games with the youngest team in the majors.

 

Milwaukee is still a couple years away from feeling the pinch of arbitration and post arbitration.

 

If any of these teams sign ONE key free agent, they all get better. They will all be looking at pitching, but even without it, they still look good for years to come. We have young guys who can play, and we have bigger payrolls, but we got lucky this year. We played in the worst division in baseball, and we barely pulled it out. I just don't see it for next year, short of signing ARod and finding a legit RF.

 

One key signing doesn't always change things. Atlanta picked up the hottest player on the market and then promptly tanked. It happens quite a bit, actually.

 

It's a little more complicated that you are making it out to be. Every year is a different year. Nobody knows what will happen in '08, standing here in Oct '07.

 

I agree. Just look across town and see how fast things can change. Or the Mets. Hell, their is only 1 team that is in the playoffs from last year.

[Guest]

The only team I'm really concerned with is the Brewers. Like SSR, I'm not too fond of the competing within the division mantra but that's really all any team needs to do to get into the playoffs. The playoffs are a crapshoot and anything can happen once you get there. The key is to get there.

 

As far as Milwaukee goes, I'm not so sure they're going to be significantly better next year. Yeah they'll have Gallardo for a full year (he made 17 starts this year) but who knows what they'll actually get from Sheets (he made 24 starts this year). Additionally, Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun aren't going to get much better than they were this year and could actually drop off a bit.