CubinNY

grungy

First time ever.

I'm six ahead of you.

Better than Riot. Not ideal, but I don't mind. At least the riot can put together some competent at bats every once in a while. Jacque Jones at bat embarrasses me to be a Cubs fan. And yet, somehow, when Theriot came up to the plate, he was slightly more likely to make an out. Not arguing that fact, but I still have yet to figure out why. Easy. As many horrible swings as Jacque takes, he has the ability to make the pitcher pay for mistake pitches. Theriot doesn't have a very good approach at the plate either for somebody of his type (he doesn't see very many pitches per at bat and puts the first 3 pitches into play more than any other Cub). When you combine that with it being much harder for Theriot to take advantage of pitcher's mistakes, it means that even when Theriot drives the ball it turns into a lot of easy flyball outs. I agree. If Web misses up and away with a sinker/split JJ will nail it. The Cubs have to get to him early, because they won't get to him late.

I'll I've eaten today was a bagel. I've just had 2 serria nevadas and I'm sauced already. Tomorrow its an all liquid diet to prepare for colonoscipy on Friday, fun times! I probably won't be posting duirng the game so, Go Cubs!

TLR to follow?

Yeah, 1990s Maddux, and not a very poor-man's version. Webb is not that close to Maddux in his prime, but then again what non-power pitcher in recent times was? http://www.fangraphs.com/comparison.aspx?playerid=104&playerid2=1692&playerid3=&position=P&page=6&type=full

I won't be able to think about much for the entire day. Please ptich well tonight Z, you are the key to the game. I like the Cubs chances tonight. Webb is kind of a poor man's Greg Maddux, which plays right into the Cubs agressive approach at the plate. If he's on it won't matter, but if he misses in the early innings the Cubs will hit him.

I'm on record for going after Andruw. Pie can slide over to RF and the Cubs can trade Murton or Pie can play CF and the Cubs can trade Murton. They can keep Murton too, but they might as well as they don't seem to value his skill set. Idiots. A-Rod won't be leaving the Bronx, that is crazy talk dreamed up in lala land. SS aren't exactly cheap these days. Renteria and Tejada are also on the wrong side of 30 and would cost some serious talent to get.

Ain't that the truth.

Neither time with a team that won 90 games So? Because that is the traditional standard of a good team. It doesnt mean anything but I would venture to say that every team that has ever made the post season with less than 90 wins probably have a very low percentage of returning the next season. Edit. So after shooting off my typing I looked up every team that won less than 90 and made the playoffs. A surprisingly high number of them made the playoffs the next year. 10 of them made it the next season and 14 didnt make it. I only went back to 1969. I figured before divisional play there probably wasnt very many non 90 win teams to make the World Series. I didn't see your edit before you made your post. I think the pre-WC era is so different in terms of records needed to make the playoffs that it's hard to take data from that and try to extrapolate to the future in the WC era. As much as a 12 year data sample of the WC era is still too small, I think that's the only thing we can go on right now. I think the better question is how many 90 or less win teams make the payoffs each year and of the 90 or less win teams that do, what is their win total the next year. I'd venture to guess that the 90 or less win teams that made the playoffs the following year had a higher number of wins the following year. I'd also venture to guess that the 90 or less win teams that made the playoffs one and didn't the next failed to win 90 games the following year. The question is (I guess) are the Cubs a 90+ win team next year? I think that answer remains to be seen.

If this is 516, then it looks like row 1 seat 1 would be directly behind the pole. man that sucks.

I've said it before, I think Logan White is the best avail. GM. If you gave me the choice of the potnetial unknown of White and the expected results of Hendry, I'd go with White. Yes, this. As well as Logan White has done as a farm director, I'm not sure how well this translates into being a good GM. Our current GM who everyone bashes was hired when he was the farm director of the #1 farm system in baseball. I'm not sure how well these skills translate from one job to another. I don't necessarily disagree with your sentiment, but I don't think the Cubs ever had the #1 farm system in baseball. I could be wrong though.

Does anyone think the Cubs are on the precipice of a dynasty? Hendry's best acquisition in recent years was Piniella, (thanks Bruce Miles for the article yesterday. It really changed my mind about sweet Lou). But that might just be a contrast effect from the dark days of Dusty. His second best was Lilly. But Lilly had a career year this year. Let's all hope he can keep it up in the post season and beyond. Marquis was about what we all expeceted since May. DeRosa was another good signing, but he had another career year at age 32. We all know abut Soriano, how can you not like the guy? However, we won't be liking his contract in two or three years (if you like it now). The thing about Jim is that in order for his teams to do well he needs to have far too many career years from too many guys. In ballance he had a good offseason, but in total he's been a very mediocre GM with a very mediocre record, and spent a lot of money to do so. Unfortunately for us, he's likely to be around for a few more years hoping to catch lightning in a bottle.

It depends how many starters the Cubs go with. If they go with 4 starters, Marquis will certainly make it. If they go with 3, then they probably leave him off in favor of another reliever. I'm pretty bad at predicting rosters, but I would have to think the Cubs will have Marquis on the roster if for no other reason than that he is signed here for two more years. Lst year he was pretty pissed at being left off the Cards roster. If the Cubs leave him off the playoff roster they might as well release him.

That's awesome!

Almost exactly my thoughts. The only quibble I have is I don't think Soriano is in LF b/c he demands to be there. I don't think he made a fuss about playing CF for a few games and I think he'd welcome a move to RF if Lou asked him to. But Lou (and Hendry?) think Soriano's production will fall off if he doesn't hit leadoff and play LF. I think they're wrong and I think it's costing us runs (in terms of (a) having him lead-off and not maximize those XBH and putting fewer guys on base for Lee & ARam, and (b) forcing us to play JJ, Floyd, Murton, Monroe, Pie either out of position or when they shouldn't have been in at all). Given Murton's torrid 2nd half, I'd love to see Murton, Pie, Soriano from LF to RF next season, but I won't be holding my breath. If he doesn't clear a .900 OPS with a sub-.340 OBP in the lead-off spot and plays LF and misses 28 games every year, I'll be even less happy about this signing than I was when it happened. I agree with your agreement and I'll add that it is a damn shame the Cubs couldn't find a spot for Murton. I think he will be traded this off-season. I hope he can bring in a good return. If they hold on to Murton and then display a similar pattern of play for him next year, their are making a mistake.

Traschel you are old and you stink at pitching I am not happy the Cubs picked you up off the scrap heap and traded away even mediocre talent for you. Kiss off and take your sour puss with you!

me

Today was the last day of the season. Yost was kicked out of the ballgames 2 times in the last week of baseball and basically managed them to a worse record then they should have had. Sorry Cub fans, the Brewers should have won this division with the way they started the season. So when will Yost be fired?

Playoffs are a crapshoot. Any team that gets in has a chance to win it all. I like the Cubs chances as well as any other NL team. I'm not going to predict anything, but as long as Lou doesn't go into vet fetish mode the Cubs should be ok. I can hardly wait.

Actually, I hope this thread gets deleted.

Those aren't pillows!

Those good Catholic boys getting a little chippy in W. Layfette.

Why did Ty Willingham recruit such awful defensive players? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHAAHHAHAHAHAHAA