FergieJ31

It would be nice if the Cubs learned a lesson from the last two years, and have decided to underpromise Wood's expected return date. Something tells me he'll only miss 2-3 April starts -- maybe just wishful thinking.

Let him be a backup OF. He's security if Pierre gets hurt, then if he gets hot you can spin him at the deadline. Like USS brought up, we hardly got anything for him, so it's not a huge deal if that deal isn't there next offseason, and there's a decent likelihood it will be. Keeping Corey would have been an inhuman, not to mention a media fiasco. I agree 100%. I was half-hoping the Cubs would either (a) keep CPatt as a $3M AAA player or (b) trade him for some other team's underachieving "talent" who also needs a change of scenery, or © make CPatt the last piece of a larger trade for an impact bat. That said, I don't have a big problem with this trade as long as the Cubs aren't paying Corey's salary (did I miss something or has this fact been reported yet??) I actually like the upside of this Spears kid from what I've read about him ... scrappy players tend to fly under the radar.

I don't remember anything notable about Corey in opening day '04, but he had a monster game opening day '03 against the Mets. 7 RBIs 2 HRs? Is that the game you're thinking of Tree? CFP well he did homer during his first atbat on opening day in 2004. Gave people hope he was fully healthy and ready to put up a year like 2003. But yeah, opening day 2003 @ New York was probably the best day of his life. opening day 2004 was better for me because i expected so much for the team in general, and then corey showed up and made me think that he was going to be amazing this year. Same here. I was reading the infamous SI "Hell Freezes Over" issue during that game, and watching Corey's performance made me think that maybe the temperature was dropping down there a little bit. Side note: Kerry Wood is, of course, the only holdover from the 1998 team. CPatt was the last holdover from the 2000 team (except for Wood). The player with the most seniority now besides Wood? Big Z, who had a rather inauspicious 2001 debut: 11 hits, 13 ER in 7 2/3 innings. The position player with the most seniority is now ARam with just 2 1/2 years tenure.

I've had similar thoughts about CPatt since all the talk about trading him for a bag of balls started last year. In an ideal world CPatt would spend the year in Iowa (a $3M AAA player, yeah I know, dream on) and come back for the next regime, instead of trading him now for AA junk. The Cubs still really need someone to spell JJ who can mash lefties.

It's a cross slider/curve, and there's definitely room for interpretation. Any breaking ball that's thrown hard, like a slider, but with a downward break, like a curve, might technically be called a slurve. Kerry wasn't the first to throw it. But what made the slurve distinctively his 'signature' pitch in 1998 was (a) just how hard he threw it: his slurve would come in the low 90's, as fast as many pitchers' fastballs, and (b) the now-famous "mechanics" issue , because he threw it violently across his body. If you watch a tape of the 20K game you'll see this was his out pitch. He pretty much stayed fastball/slurve the entire game, but most of his K's were rung up on the slurve. It was the big loopy breaking ball that made the Astros look foolish. Bagwell, in particular, had some hilarious "you've gotta be kidding" facial expressions after being called out on strikes after the slurve buckled his knees.

Just for grins I decided to take out the 20K game and recalc his number: #2 - 10.358 - Kerry Wood Still #2. My point is, Kerry's detractors say he's never won 15 (yada yada), and only made a name for himself with that 20K game. They're wrong -- he made a name for himself because he can strike out guys like there's no tomorrow. I'm a huge Kerry fan, always have been, and very very glad he's still a Cub. But if you take out his entire first season, which should be considered an anomoly because much of his success was achieved using a pitch he no longer throws, he drops to #3 at 10.06. Not that it really matters, he's still an outstanding strikeout artist. It just seemed somewhat relevent in the context of the discussion Good point - I agree it's relevant. Speaking of the slurve, I have a question: I didn't see all of Kerry's relief appearances last year, but some friends of mine who watched the games insist he brought the slurve out of mothballs a few times; mainly in tough spots. I found that hard to believe, simply on the grounds of the commotion it would have caused in the media if he had. Can someone confirm with (reasonable) certainty that Kerry never threw the slurve in relief last year?

Just for grins I decided to take out the 20K game and recalc his number: #2 - 10.358 - Kerry Wood Still #2. My point is, Kerry's detractors say he's never won 15 (yada yada), and only made a name for himself with that 20K game. They're wrong -- he made a name for himself because he can strike out guys like there's no tomorrow. I'm a huge Kerry fan, always have been, and very very glad he's still a Cub.

Some of you guys give these reporters FAR too much credibility. It's not about giving reporters more credibility than they deserve; rather, it's the likelihood of Neifi starting at 2B given: a) Hendry missed on Furcal, b) Walker is still on the block, and c) Dusty is still the manager.

I feel like Charlie Brown on the mound and someone just smacked another liner through the box. Good grief.

Not to me. I am a Wood detractor becuase he hasn't learned to be a pitcher yet. He is still a thrower. He has yet to learn to control the strike zone and seems to lose concentration at times. IMO, all this leads to arm and shoulder troubles. thank you for not mentioning "mechanics", i would have gone on my token steve stone rant. Sully, Without search being enabled, some may not know what beef you have with Stone and his criticism of Woody's mechanics. Can you elaborate? i think steve stone is full of crap when it comes to woody. does he have bad mechanics? probably, but there are many pitchers who have bad mechanics that are also very successful. pitching is very hard on your shoulder, and if you're good pitcher, it's also pretty hard on your elbow. overhand throwing is not a natural motion, so, you could say that all overhand pitchers have bad mechanics. woody has also gotten this far based on his mechanics, any attempt to perform a major overhaul to his motion and mechanics could result in him losing the effectiveness that has gotten him so far in this league. maybe you could slightly tweak his mechanics, but anything major would be detrimental. yes, we all want to magically fix our pitchers and make them superstars that never get hurt. we all want Dr. Tom Marshall to be some sort of sorcerer that has discovered some occult way of creating the perfect pitcher, but the reality is, any pitcher can get hurt at any time. wood has been a very above average pitcher during his career that has thrown over 200 innings twice, and thrown over 140 innings five times, it's not like he runs into the clubhouse screaming and holding his arm after his first spring training toss every season. leave it be, if he gets hurt again, he'll probably be close to being out of baseball, if he doesn't, he'll probably be a top 10 pitcher and a strikeout champ that throws the most insanely sick pitches in baseball, let's not try to mess with that. I agree whole-heartedly. I remember an interview with Damian Miller in 2003...at some point early in the season he was asked about catching Schilling/Johnson in 02 and Prior/Wood in 03, and who among those 4 had the filthiest stuff. He didn't hesitate, said something like "this'll get me trouble but I've gotta go with Woody. When his slider is on it's just sick." I've been on the Wood bandwagon (which I share with an MRI machine at the moment) since 98. NLDS game winning double vs the Braves...good times: http://a1259.g.akamai.net/f/1259/5586/1d/images.art.com/images/-/Kerry-Wood-2003-NLDS-Game-Winning-Double-Photograph-C10127556.jpeg

Why don't the Cubs value OBP more as an offensive stat? [ i'm sure he'll be able to doubletalk his way out of that -- maybe somone can recast it in a more clever or subtle way] Dusty is not exactly known to be fond of platooning players - do you see 2006 as a year he'll have to adjust his thinking on that?

At this point I'd welcome Sammy back with open arms if he were to take a 4th OF role and start in RF against lefties. Chicago fans have a reputation of being particularly forgiving. Even so, I know a Sammy return would never ever happen for a number of reasons -- that bridge has been burned to a crisp.

Yes but what do you think CFiCT? :wink: 37 ) Back-to-back no-nos against the Bucs (by 2 of Wood / Prior / Z) in the midst of an August winning streak will get Cub fans thinkin bout Red Ivy baseball again.

It's close to the 1-year anniv of the day Grudz signed w/the Cards: Jan 6 2005.

I agree 100% even if I never was a big Sammy fan even in his prime. I never cared for the "me and my supporting cast" type of athlete, including Michael Jordan, but the Sosa-bashing these days has gone too far. I was one of the few who wanted him to be traded in 2001 (assuming equal value of course), but I definitely appreciated what he could do with the bat. 1998 was a unique year as a baseball fan -- absolutely unforgettable. In a nutshell I do appreciate Sammy for the thrills he brought the ballpark everyday, even if I didn't care for his attitude. As someone else said , I sorely miss the offensive #'s from RF. I wish I'd seen Game 1 NLCS when Sammy hit the game-tying HR off Urbina in the bottom of the ninth -- I can only imagine the crowd reaction: http://graphics.jsonline.com/graphics/sports/brew/img/oct03/sosa1007.jpg

In the 5-year span 1930-1934, Lou Gehrig knocked in 813 runs. That's an average of 162.6 RBIs per year during that span, and the baseball season was only 154 games back then.

I hear that Pryer guy has a sore arm...well, the Baltimore Sun said so anyway.

Nope. Nope - really? Perez would be a solid pickup. He can spell Lee, and take some of the starts from JJ in RF against lefty pitching. 868 career OPS against lefties...yeah I'll take that please. EDIT: I'd be interested to hear from some of the Cards fans on the board and their take on Perez -- or if anyone knows what happened in 2001 (missed entire year) and 2002 (sub-par year).

No flames (btw happy new year CFiCT), but I'll say is that a lot of assumptions and speculation go along with your points. Everyone started speculating on the parameters of the deal using only what Levine was reporting as a source. It's easy to forget that Levine was the ONLY source (not the Cubs, not the O's) of the Prior/Tejada trade rumor. And I don't buy the "Hendry in a contract year so he's selling the future" stuff one bit. That said, I wouldn't be too surprised if at some point in the future the Cubs admit they were entertaining trade talks that involved Prior & Tejada. The Cubs' silence last week in the midst of rampant rumors was deafening. And Hendry only explicitly denied a straight-up Tejada/Prior swap.

I think more about ARam's groin than a straight man should, but I'll say: 85) A healthy & rejuvenated ARam groin = 0.950 OPS

So Jim knows when to hold em...knows when to fold em? Knows when to walk away and knows when to run? I hope Jim knows because Kenny Rogers has apparently forgotten: http://www.newsday.com/media/photo/2005-06/18262319.jpg

Ken Rosenthal, to Hendry: "Jim, I've heard you may have some interest in trading for Miguel Tejada. Is that true? Have there been any talks on the matter?" Hendry: "Obviously, we like him a lot. And, yes, we've had some prior discussions about Tejada." Rosenthal pulls a muscle running back to his computer. Shortly thereafter, NSBB implodes. hehe niiiiice :D Hendry would also give Rosenthal his sundry line: "We'll consider any trade that will improve this ballclub."

Noooo no no no no ... http://www.wordfiles.info/scream1-fr.gif

I agree, but it can be done. Did you know the Sox outdrew the Cubs thru the 1950-1970 and was pretty close attendence wise until this decade? TV was a big hurdle but WGN carries Sox games now. Chicago was more of a Sox town before and it can be that again. The Sox did outdraw the Cubs in the 50's / 60's and as recently as 1992. Taken out of context one might conclude the Sox were the more popular Chicago team at these times. In addition to the excellent points made by Voice of Reason, a few more reasons why the Sox drew at these times: (1) night games (2) the novelty of the new CF scoreboard (installed in 1950) (3) fireworks (installed in 1960) and (4) US Cellular (opened in 1991). As soon as these novelties and gimmicks wore off, the better place to watch baseball in Chicago rose to the top again. History shows it doesn't take more than a few years, maybe 3-4, for novelties to wear off. Meanwhile, especially in recent years, Wrigley is one of the few ballparks that has excess demand for most games. If Wrigley held 60,000 it'd still easily sell out for some of the Cubs-Cards and Cubs-Sox series in 04 (then again, Wrigley wouldn't be Wrigley if it held 60k). I fully expect Sox attendence to mean revert to the 1.5M-1.6M range as the novelty of winning the WS dies down, unless they put a perennial playoff contending team together. If that happens and the Cubs continue to flounder in 3rd or 4th, out of playoff contention by September, I think we'll see the Sox outdraw the Cubs within 4 years. Even if that happens it will not make the Sox "Chicago's baseball team" for the simple reason that casual fans will pay up to go watch a winning team, but true baseball fans enjoy the sport for deeper reasons. And there are many more casual fans in any city than true fans. I estimate (based on nothing but a hunch) that Cub fans outnumber Sox fans nationwide by a factor of 5-1 or more. True Sox fans are zealots for their team -- like Blackhawks fans -- there just aren't a lot of them. And by the way, we're seeing good old-fashioned bandwagoners walking around town in Sox hats and t-shirts. I don't care how many people are wearing Sox gear -- it's irrelevant to the question Serena posed. How many people do you see walking around town in Bulls gear these days?

I'm going to go not-so-far-out on a limb and predict Tejada will be an Angel very soon.