Two Things To Look Forward To (In No Particular Order)

[robnail]

1.) Santo Hall of Fame election (it'll be announced earlier this year).

 

2.) New ownership (At least we won't have a top exec calling priests before we even start choking).

[sneakypower]

well we'll surely be a favorite to take the division, making the playoffs again where anything's possible, unless we've all changed our minds that playoffs aren't a crapshoot anymore

[imb]

well we'll surely be a favorite to take the division, making the playoffs again where anything's possible, unless we've all changed our minds that playoffs aren't a crapshoot anymore

 

i hope we face a team with lots of lhp

[BCVM22]

1.) Santo Hall of Fame election (it'll be announced earlier this year).

 

2.) New ownership (At least we won't have a top exec calling priests before we even start choking).

 

Man is it gonna suck when Ronnie doesn't get the call and the new owners decide to cut payroll in half.

[sneakypower]

well we'll surely be a favorite to take the division, making the playoffs again where anything's possible, unless we've all changed our minds that playoffs aren't a crapshoot anymore

 

i hope we face a team with lots of lhp

like it or not, Hendry's probably REALLY going to amp up his efforts this offseason to find an impact LH bat

 

too bad he missed the boat on Kazuo!

[imb]

well we'll surely be a favorite to take the division, making the playoffs again where anything's possible, unless we've all changed our minds that playoffs aren't a crapshoot anymore

 

i hope we face a team with lots of lhp

like it or not, Hendry's probably REALLY going to amp up his efforts this offseason to find an impact LH bat

 

too bad he missed the boat on Kazuo!

 

ADAM DUNN THAT MEANS YOU

[badnews]

well we'll surely be a favorite to take the division, making the playoffs again where anything's possible, unless we've all changed our minds that playoffs aren't a crapshoot anymore

 

Wait, it's a crapshoot that Soriano will continue to flail away at outside breaking balls he has no hope of getting to?

 

I don't like the way this team looks for next year. DeRosa's probably had a career year, I don't know if Edmonds is going to be a .930 OPS guy again, Lee was a .750 OPS hitter most of the year, Fukudome is still here, Zambrano doesn't wholly convince me anymore, Rich Harden's velocity hasn't been what it was since his first couple of starts, just because the Cubs pay Kerry Wood $12 million a year doesn't mean he's going to be a $12 million a year reliever... seriously, I could see the 2009 Cubs being like the 2008 Mariners, high hopes, high salaries, low results.

 

I can just imagine the high impact left handed bat being a 37 year old Raul Ibanez who comes at vast trade expense can't play defense worth anything.

[sneakypower]

so everybody who had good years will regress, and the players who underperformed won't improve?

 

is this just a gut feeling, cynicism, or is there a methodology to your far-fetched reasoning?

[XZero771679666304]

so everybody who had good years will regress, and the players who underperformed won't improve?

 

is this just a gut feeling, cynicism, or is there a methodology to your far-fetched reasoning?

 

 

The players who had down years will get worse, and those who were hurt will be struck dead.

 

Things are not looking up.

[badnews]

so everybody who had good years will regress, and the players who underperformed won't improve?

 

is this just a gut feeling, cynicism, or is there a methodology to your far-fetched reasoning?

 

Does it make better sense than "hey the playoffs are a crapshoot dude keep sending the same bunch out there to get their ass kicked but at least we beat up the Pirates real good?"

 

I call it realism, but you can call it what you like. Lee looks like a .760 OPS first baseman to me. Fukudome just plain sucks. I don't think it's cynicism to say that in 2009 DeRosa will not be an .857 OPS guy, Edmonds a .937 OPS guy, etc. Maybe Dempster could post a sub 3 ERA again. I don't like where Zambrano is trending though. He's not maturing, he's getting more emotional immature all the time. I haven't seen Rich Harden's velocity lately, he's been babied and he's still a 5 inning pitcher, he's getting swings and misses on his split-fingered, yeah, but this was a guy who was clocked at 100 mph just last year. The Rich Harden we've been seeing lately isn't that great.

 

And Soriano can put up all of his good numbers against mistakes and bad pitching and have a 1.000 OPS and in the postseason, you know what will happen? He will swing through outside breaking balls he can't reach time and time and time and time and time and time again. Pedro Martinez made him look like a clown with that strategy in 2003 and 5 years later he has learned nothing except how to make every pitcher look like Pedro Martinez 2003.

[KenCub]

Does it make better sense than "hey the playoffs are a crapshoot dude keep sending the same bunch out there to get their ass kicked but at least we beat up the Pirates real good?"

 

I call it realism, but you can call it what you like. Lee looks like a .760 OPS first baseman to me. Fukudome just plain sucks. I don't think it's cynicism to say that in 2009 DeRosa will not be an .857 OPS guy, Edmonds a .937 OPS guy, etc. Maybe Dempster could post a sub 3 ERA again. I don't like where Zambrano is trending though. He's not maturing, he's getting more emotional immature all the time. I haven't seen Rich Harden's velocity lately, he's been babied and he's still a 5 inning pitcher, he's getting swings and misses on his split-fingered, yeah, but this was a guy who was clocked at 100 mph just last year. The Rich Harden we've been seeing lately isn't that great.

 

And Soriano can put up all of his good numbers against mistakes and bad pitching and have a 1.000 OPS and in the postseason, you know what will happen? He will swing through outside breaking balls he can't reach time and time and time and time and time and time again. Pedro Martinez made him look like a clown with that strategy in 2003 and 5 years later he has learned nothing except how to make every pitcher look like Pedro Martinez 2003.

 

This post is very realistic, very logical, and it's bumming me out.

The Dodgers exposed the flaws in this Cubs' team, although we've been seeing some of the flaws for a while now (Lee's power drought, Fukudome's increasing suckiness and unwillingness to make adjustments at the plate, Harden's velocity drop).

The Cubs have needs to address and realistically not a huge bump in payroll to address them with.

[ArthurVandalay]

The sad part is, it wasn't just Soriano swinging through the low and away stuff, the WHOLE TEAM was doing it OVER AND OVER AGAIN for THREE STRAIGHT GAMES!!!

[imb]

so everybody who had good years will regress, and the players who underperformed won't improve?

 

is this just a gut feeling, cynicism, or is there a methodology to your far-fetched reasoning?

 

Does it make better sense than "hey the playoffs are a crapshoot dude keep sending the same bunch out there to get their ass kicked but at least we beat up the Pirates real good?"

 

I call it realism, but you can call it what you like. Lee looks like a .760 OPS first baseman to me. Fukudome just plain sucks. I don't think it's cynicism to say that in 2009 DeRosa will not be an .857 OPS guy, Edmonds a .937 OPS guy, etc. Maybe Dempster could post a sub 3 ERA again. I don't like where Zambrano is trending though. He's not maturing, he's getting more emotional immature all the time. I haven't seen Rich Harden's velocity lately, he's been babied and he's still a 5 inning pitcher, he's getting swings and misses on his split-fingered, yeah, but this was a guy who was clocked at 100 mph just last year. The Rich Harden we've been seeing lately isn't that great.

 

And Soriano can put up all of his good numbers against mistakes and bad pitching and have a 1.000 OPS and in the postseason, you know what will happen? He will swing through outside breaking balls he can't reach time and time and time and time and time and time again. Pedro Martinez made him look like a clown with that strategy in 2003 and 5 years later he has learned nothing except how to make every pitcher look like Pedro Martinez 2003.

 

You haven't seen Rich Harden's veolcity lately ... so you didn't watch the game last night? way to go, superfan, you just lost your right to complain.