Call your shot - Hitters

[Derwood]

Soriano threatens to break the all-time strikeout record, but Sveum sits him down the stretch to save him the embarrassment

 

That's an extraordinarily bold prediction.

 

If you really mean "all-time" he'd have to strike out 1174 times this year to tie the record. (Incidentally, he's struck out exactly 587 times during his five years with the Cubs, which is exactly half of 1174)

 

If you mean single season... (the record is 223, by the way)

 

During his Cubs career, Soriano has struck out 21.8% of the time. At that pace, he'd have to have come to the plate 1030 times to break the record. At last year's accelerated pace of 22.4%, he'd only need 1007 plate appearances.

 

I meant single season. My bad.

[TheDude]

Ian Stewart will put up an all star caliber season at 3B.

This was my first thought as well, though I was leaning toward "pleasant surprise" more than all-star worthy.

[Wheelimus]

Not the first, but with the newsbit of Darwin Barney showing up with 20 pounds of muscle he's my pick. He'll have a career best year and be above average as he continues to pack on muscle throughout the year. At least until the 50 game suspension.

[toonsterwu]

Soto has a strong season and is dealt at midseason.

 

Rebel Ridling rakes in AAA and gets a call-up/add onto 40 when Soriano gets hurt. He forces the Cubs to keep him in the bigs, and steadily earns playing time over the 2nd half of the year. Eventually, the Cubs decide to just eat the Soriano money, letting LaHair/Ridling man 1st/LF. As a result, Rizzo ends up not coming up until September.

 

Brett Jackson wins ROY with a superb 2nd half.

 

Starlin Castro's ISOP inches forward, near the .135 mark, and he gets MVP consideration despite being on a losing team.

 

I really should have something negative to balance things out ... but I guess my expectations on the other guys aren't enough for me to think of something as hugely negative. I mean, I don't see Soriano doing all that well (though he probably still hits 10-15 HR's before my hypothetical waiver), and I think Barney won't do much offensively.

[javy knows my name]

Soto has a strong season and is dealt at midseason.

 

Rebel Ridling rakes in AAA and gets a call-up/add onto 40 when Soriano gets hurt. He forces the Cubs to keep him in the bigs, and steadily earns playing time over the 2nd half of the year. Eventually, the Cubs decide to just eat the Soriano money, letting LaHair/Ridling man 1st/LF.

 

*shoots self in face*

[Beer Kaese]

I gotta go with Castro shocking on the upside. A .310/.350/.440 line is a slight improvement on what he's done in diapers. I'm looking for something north of an .850 ops.

 

I'll go for a .321/.374/.487/.861 line for a kid that turns 22 on May 24. His real breakout season is next year. For 2013 I'll go for a .317/.391/.519/.910 line.

 

Darwin Barney? He'll be a utility infielder and we'll love him for his glove and low, low cost.

 

Tony Campana? Eventually, the outfield logjam will clear up and we'll love him for his speed, glove and cost as the 25th guy on the roster.

 

Ian Stewart will be a bust but Castro will move to third in 2014 so who cares.

[Cubs Fan Dan]

Castro reaches a .311/.355/.460 year with 17 homers and 29 steals.

 

Stewart crushes righties and continues to struggle versus lefties, Vitters gets a late June call up after destroying Iowa gets 300 ML at bats putting up a solid .280/.320/.440 line.

 

LaHair ha a huge first couple of weeks and then sucks. Rizzo is called up late May and hits .260/.350/.455 for remainder of the year.

 

Soriano posts just above an .800 ops in 420 AB's

 

Dejesus does not bounce back as planned

 

Byrd gets off to a strong start and is traded mid season. Jackson shows flashes of power and speed but struggles to hit over .240.

 

Soto hits .260/.360/.460 and reaches 20 bombs and 85 rbis

 

Sappelt fills in as backup after Johnson hurts his back, takes over has full time back up hitting close to .300.

[bukie]

Castro goes for .330/.380/.480 and still doesn't have the highest OPS on the team, as LaHair goes for .270/.370/.500 as a 1B on opening day and a LF after the Cubs unload Soriano onto a DH-starved second wildcard contender in the AL at the break.

[minnesotacubsfan]

Soriano will hit 40 hr's, steal 30 bases while being caught only 5 times.

[Little Slide Rooter]

Soriano will hit 40 hr's, steal 30 bases while being caught only 5 times.

 

The more outragious the prediction, the better it looks if it comes to be. You don't get rich by putting $5 down on a 2:1 shot.

[Clem Fandango]

The Cubs leader in home runs will be Joey Votto after he is traded by division rival Cincinnati in exchange for an old jockstrap found in the Iowa locker room that once belonged to Scott Moore, because Walt Jockety really likes jockstraps.

[Guest]

I don't like him either, but LaHair is a person you know. He has a name.

[javy knows my name]

I don't like him either, but LaHair is a person you know. He has a name.

 

hahahahaha

[Clem Fandango]

I don't like him either, but LaHair is a person you know. He has a name.

 

Not just well played... perfectly played.

[Sammy Sofa]

You don't get rich by putting $5 down on a 2:1 shot.

 

Thanks, NCCF.

[toonsterwu]

Soto has a strong season and is dealt at midseason.

 

Rebel Ridling rakes in AAA and gets a call-up/add onto 40 when Soriano gets hurt. He forces the Cubs to keep him in the bigs, and steadily earns playing time over the 2nd half of the year. Eventually, the Cubs decide to just eat the Soriano money, letting LaHair/Ridling man 1st/LF.

 

*shoots self in face*

 

Which part are you shooting yourself over? Hard to see letting LaHair/Ridling man 1st/LF in a rebuilding year as a shoots self in face thing. Eating Soriano's money? Perhaps.

 

Admittedly, I was just throwing Ridling out there for the sake of throwing something, but I'll give a mild defense/comment on Ridling. He's gone from an interesting minor league name (and someone I wondered if the AA jump would eat him up enough to force him to repeat the level) to at least Jason Dubois-ish for me (just picking a recent corner guy that was a AAA masher) where I wonder if he can fill some sort of role in the bigs. He's athletic enough, with a solid arm, for me to think that he could probably be average, or a tiny tick below, in LF (he's fine defensively at first).

 

Offensively, he had an interesting 2011, book-ended by two red-hot months, with 3 very mediocre months in between. He's clearly not that good to think that his April/August is representative of his ceiling, and statistically, there's enough to question whether or not his May-June is more indicative of his true abilities. I tend to think he's probably a tick better than his May-June. He's got a solid approach, and has more power ability than another big corner guy I liked once in Kyle Blanks. The swing doesn't look too long or awkward to my naked eye to think that he'll have a sudden major jump in his K rate (over a long enough sample size).

 

He might not be anymore than a Jason Dubois-level, but besides a cool name, I think he'll be fairly intriguing to keep an eye on in our rebuilding year, as I think he could mash a ton in Iowa, and I think there's enough there to wonder if he could perhaps be a good big bat off the bench, corner defensive replacement guy. He gets sort of lost amidst LaHair (and I believe that LaHair is improved and will be decent at first), the new guys (Rizzo, Candelario, Vogelbach, Shoulders). Heck, he sort of got lost last year behind Justin Bour (early because Bour's start was that good, late because Bour's struggle was that bad).

[javy knows my name]

Soto has a strong season and is dealt at midseason.

 

Rebel Ridling rakes in AAA and gets a call-up/add onto 40 when Soriano gets hurt. He forces the Cubs to keep him in the bigs, and steadily earns playing time over the 2nd half of the year. Eventually, the Cubs decide to just eat the Soriano money, letting LaHair/Ridling man 1st/LF.

 

*shoots self in face*

 

Which part are you shooting yourself over? Hard to see letting LaHair/Ridling man 1st/LF in a rebuilding year as a shoots self in face thing. Eating Soriano's money? Perhaps.

 

Admittedly, I was just throwing Ridling out there for the sake of throwing something, but I'll give a mild defense/comment on Ridling. He's gone from an interesting minor league name (and someone I wondered if the AA jump would eat him up enough to force him to repeat the level) to at least Jason Dubois-ish for me (just picking a recent corner guy that was a AAA masher) where I wonder if he can fill some sort of role in the bigs. He's athletic enough, with a solid arm, for me to think that he could probably be average, or a tiny tick below, in LF (he's fine defensively at first).

 

Offensively, he had an interesting 2011, book-ended by two red-hot months, with 3 very mediocre months in between. He's clearly not that good to think that his April/August is representative of his ceiling, and statistically, there's enough to question whether or not his May-June is more indicative of his true abilities. I tend to think he's probably a tick better than his May-June. He's got a solid approach, and has more power ability than another big corner guy I liked once in Kyle Blanks. The swing doesn't look too long or awkward to my naked eye to think that he'll have a sudden major jump in his K rate (over a long enough sample size).

 

He might not be anymore than a Jason Dubois-level, but besides a cool name, I think he'll be fairly intriguing to keep an eye on in our rebuilding year, as I think he could mash a ton in Iowa, and I think there's enough there to wonder if he could perhaps be a good big bat off the bench, corner defensive replacement guy. He gets sort of lost amidst LaHair (and I believe that LaHair is improved and will be decent at first), the new guys (Rizzo, Candelario, Vogelbach, Shoulders). Heck, he sort of got lost last year behind Justin Bour (early because Bour's start was that good, late because Bour's struggle was that bad).

 

I wasn't really taking context into account. I just hate that we're at the dark, dark place where people can say those things and they don't sound that far-fetched.

[PriortoTheoIhadWood]

Soto has a strong season and is dealt at midseason.

 

Rebel Ridling rakes in AAA and gets a call-up/add onto 40 when Soriano gets hurt. He forces the Cubs to keep him in the bigs, and steadily earns playing time over the 2nd half of the year. Eventually, the Cubs decide to just eat the Soriano money, letting LaHair/Ridling man 1st/LF.

 

*shoots self in face*

 

+1

 

Of course in a transition year like this the window is open for guys like those two to get their 15 mintues...Yuch and a Yuch Yuch.