AlwaysaCub

Well, Hendry needs to have a contingency plan based on whether Maddux chooses to retire or not. Unfortunately, no one knows but Maddog himself.

On the White Sox, I almost want them to do well and get to the World Series, because that might be my only chance to go to a World Series game in a long time, now that they have extended Dusty.

By the metric you measure success, wins, we were better in 2004 than in 2003. In 2003 we just happened to play in a division with the mediocre edition of the Cardinals, not the Uber edition of 2004. It's only 2005 that has been a down year, and they will argue as such. On the manager opinion, yes that may be true, but every team's fans thinks that their manager is the worst in baseball. Yeah, but Cubs fans my be right. And I definitely can agree with that.

By the metric you measure success, wins, we were better in 2004 than in 2003. In 2003 we just happened to play in a division with the mediocre edition of the Cardinals, not the Uber edition of 2004. It's only 2005 that has been a down year, and they will argue as such. On the manager opinion, yes that may be true, but every team's fans thinks that their manager is the worst in baseball.

He is right, though, that if you go up looking for a walk, you won't hit home runs or singles or whatnot because you are so concerned about the walk. Walks come from aggression only in the strike zone, because you still have to swing.

So we should take the rotation this year, which has generally sucked, and return it completely unchanged and only hoping that perhaps things will turn out better? No thanks.

The Indians have always had the talent. It just took them a while for the pitching and offense to click at the same time. The 2004 Cubs never had a 15 game lead in August. This reeks more of the '69 cubs.

I agree with the basic premise of the first post, that the pitching needs more work than the offense. Look, beyond Big Z who can we trust? Prior now routinely pitches the basic quality start. Well, they are "quality", but if you do one of those every time out you have a 4.50 ERA, which is about twice the ERA we expect from Prior. Who the F% knows about KWood, Maddog is old and not getting any better like Clemens, and Rusch cannot pitch in the rotation for an extended period. So we go into next year with 1.5 pieces of known quantity (the half is Prior), and 3.5 questionables or question marks. That's no way to get to the playoffs.

Do you mean on the 40 man? Because I only see 2 spots on the 25 man roster, and another spot opens on the 40 man only if Wood goes on the 60 day DL.

It makes more sense to trade Lee? :shock: :shock: :shock: Walker doesn't make Lee better, in fact, the opposite is true. Lee's the anchor of the infield. Without DLee at first this team would be amazingly miserable defensively. Without DLee this team is pretty much the worst team in the NL, no better than the rockies or pirates. Trading Walker>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Trading Lee.

Blackford's k/9 absolutely blows. And he's only in the rookie league. It's not like when he moves up the ladder people will strike out more, in fact just the opposite. I don't like that number at all.

Does it really matter? I mean, with the modern smaller bat, all the cork does is make the bat less solid, so the ball doesn't travel as far off the bat. The Indians used to have a shop where they corked bats in. It's part of baseball like the spitball, all in good fun.

98 team nothing. Look at his 2001, which is possibly the second best season a hitter has had in the last 20 years. 425 total bases with NOTHING else around him except Fred Mcgriff and Bill Mueller very occasionally. But yes, 21 should be retired, those numbers don't come about very often.

Is it still legal to sell players? I would rather get $1 million in cash plus the buyout for Burnitz than some mid-level propect. $1.5 is the difference between a Macias and a 2 million dollar bench bat (Branyan or someone with a big bat). You can still attempt it, but any transaction involving more than $1 million is subject to review by the Commish's office, and can be rejected if it is felt it is unacceptable or whatnot.

Is Barrett really a cleanup hitter though?

yeah i wont. my honeymoon in hawaii isnt going to be stopped by non-Cubs played baseball in october... bums..... You all complain now. But when no ball is played on October 5th, on November 5th, on December 5th...we'll all be missing the Cubs. No, I'll still be pissed at the Cubs for throwing away yet another promising season with inept play and idiotic managing. Okay, they pissed away last year, but the year before that they did something with themselves. And before that, can you really call any of those seasons promising?

LOL

Of course he does. Too much baggage. I mean, how bad does your franchise look if you pick up a known juicer?

This night is shaping up fairly well for us. But we need the Crew to come through for us here against Houston.

Pittsburgh takes the early (top 2) lead 4-0 over Philly, complete with a 2-run shot by Kip Wells.

It's a 3:05 start in Colorado, which the cubs used to do. It's not that different from the 2:05 Friday start the Cubs used to have.

Whereas your statement is accurate that the season is probably done for the Cubs, I'm not too interested in what is probable anymore. It is painfully clear what is probable. The team is 5 back in the loss column with 41 games to play, it doesn't take a genius to see what is probable. I'm interested in what is still possible. And the fact that there are 5 teams to climb over isn't as bad as you are making it out because 4 of those teams are in the same division and will be playing each other a lot in the last 40 games. They could cancel each other out. Having those 4 teams go .500 against each other will actually make it easier for the Cubs to pass them. So the number of teams isn't really the issue. The Cubs winning enough games to pass them is. Who is hot amongst those 5 teams? If Houston loses tonight, they will have dropped 5 of their last 6 all at home. The Phillies just split a 4-game series at home against the Nationals, which is exactly what we wanted them to do. Ditto for the Nats. The Mets just got shut out by Pittsburgh at home and are 4-5 over their last 9. The Marlins are the hottest team of the bunch having won 4 of their last 5, but in their last 11, they are just 6-5. Any one of them could get hot and if they do it will be that much tougher for the Cubs to catch them. Thats why it is not probable for the Cubs to make the playoffs. And if the Cubs fail to get hot, then it doesn't much matter what the other teams do. However, funny things happen in baseball and they happen quite often. Hey, sorry for the "raining on the parade" commentary. I'm hoping as much as the next guy that the Cubs can do this and win the Wild Card... but I'm also keeping an eye on realism, which is that, when there's 5-6 teams between you and the leader(s), that makes the climb seem twice as much as just the games-back deficit. No problem, Hawks. And the key word is that the 5 teams to climb over only seems like a big problem. Again, the fact that the 4 NL East teams play each other so much and the fact that the Cubs have so many games left against Houston makes this thing doable. The problem is being 5 back in the loss column with only 41 to play, that and the Cubs have yet to get hot over a long stretch of games which is exactly what they will have to do to have any chance of winning this thing. Its official. Houston loses at home again. Way to go, Brewers. Shades of '03. Oh, I agree, its definitely possible - although (right now!), the odds make it seem not so probable. If the Cubs can go on a 7-8-9+ win streak, they can turn this race around quick. Seeing as how they got Colorado, then ATL and FLA, a big win streak may have to wait a week or so. Hopefully they can still go 7-2 over the next 3 series though. But I guess 7 or 8 out of the next 10 would be a nice enough streak in itself. :) More than being nice, it's pretty much necessary. I mean, we pretty much need to play .750 ball to have a decent shot.

Baseball tonight was about to go live to the Cell, and just as Karl Ravech said, "and we are going to take you live..." Everett got the hit. That was a combined jinx effort there.

I would say that in the homerun era, pitchers can't "coast" anymore when away from the heart of the order. Look, everyone tries to hit home runs today, partly because everyone is bigger, partly because home run hitters are the guys who get the big payday, and partly because of the new parks. My mom could hit a home run in Houston into those damn Crawford boxes. Pitchers basically have to bear down against every hitter, because EVERY hitter could be a run.

That was one of the oddest innings I've seen in a while. Also, this game ranks second in blood pressure level for the season, behind the Mitch Williams 4 walk save by Dempster a few weeks ago.