Cubzfan64

Funny that I hopped on here to post a quick response and end up really wanting to say the same thing you did :-). Losing Lee of course hurts, but I agree wholeheartedly that if our pitching is good at a minimum of 2 of every 4 games (or preferably 2 of every 3), we have enough "potential" offense to win 50%+ of our games. Of course that's a big if on our pitching, and it also means some other guys are gonna have to kick it up a notch, but that's what a team has to do when adversity strikes like this - you either suck it up and give it your best shot, or you play "poor us" and put forth a half-ass effort. With a 9-5 start, I'm hoping we can stay within sight of the .500 mark by the All Star break which would hopefully put us in a position to either make some moves, or at the least get Lee back and give us a shot in the 2nd half. That said - if we see more health problems or poor performances from our pitching staff, I'll agree with the naysayers and toss in the towel.

I agree although I'm guessing he wouldn't have come here for that (not that that's a bad thing!). I don't care that Reggie Sanders could be someone's grandfather, I'd still rather have signed him for 1 year than most of the other options out there this offseason.

I suppose you're right, and I know it's still early in the season but all I can think of is being tied to 3 years with Jones in RF and how much I'm gonna dislike that. As a Cub fan, I'll have to suck it up though and hope Jones puts together 3 career years.

I know this sidetracks the thread a bit, but can someone give me reasons why we signed Jones for RF for 3 years instead of going for Reggie Sanders for a 1 or 2 year contract?

Ahhh, and yet the Cubs still hold the #2 place behind Boston in price of an average bball game ticket.

It remains to be seen what this team will accomplish in 2006, but the frustrating thing for me is that the Cubs can't seem to take advantage of the fact that we're in a relatively weak division and have been for awhile. No excuses whatsoever for this ballclub to not be a contender for the division most every year - we have a reasonably high team salary, so it either means the players we have year in and year out aren't playing up to their capabilities, or the guys who make the moves to put together the team and manage it aren't evaluating up their capabilities. I leave it up to you to decide.

Well, after watching Wily Mo barely make it around the 1st base bag on a dropped fly ball by the Cuban LFer, my opinion of Wily Mo has dropped significantly. Lazy ballplayer that lacks heart and hustle. How coincidental that he got traded a day later. I'm no big fan or apologist for Pena, but c'mon, unless you have alot of evidence to support you I think those comments are a bit harsh based on that one incident. David Ortiz spoke about Pena yesterday/today and mentioned that he had a great work ethic and the organization spoke with him and he's anxious to work hard on improving his defense and cutting down on strikeouts - at age 24, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and see if he can develop into a premier player - he certainly has the tools. All I know is that I hope he can learn something about hitting from Manny Ramirez, but the rest of the things like hustle, heart and hard work better come from Ortiz.

I agree with everything you said except that Bronson wasn't going to be useless to the Red Sox this year. Their bullpen is still up in the air, and Arroyo has shown that he has the rubber arm and temperament to pitch anywhere they ask him as opposed to Wells and Clement. Papelbon may end up having to pitch in the bullpen and there's no indication that Wells will be able to continue pitching decently. I agree that it was a good deal for Boston - especially as they look forward to 2007-2009, but it could backfire for 2006.

That's what I was wondering. If I recall wasn't that a big part of the reason he signed such a reasonable contract? Arroyo left a TON of money on the table with his contract. He signed an 3 year/11.3M deal. He would've got more than the annual salary in first year arbitration alone. They didn't guarantee him he wouldn't be traded, but said they wouldn't shop him, only trade him if somebody bowled them over. I'm quite sure they lied to him. So fine, blame Arroyo for being stupid and not getting a no trade clause for leaving 5M on the table, but don't ever complain about a lack of loyalty from a player when a player like Arroyo went out of his way to be loyal to a team and place that he loved and had his loyalty stomped on and he was sent away. I listened to an interview with Theo Epstein today and he denies that they ever made any kind of "wink wink" gentleman's agreement with Arroyo when he signed his home town discount contract. The word all around Boston when Arroyo signed that is that he was setting himself up to be traded and that's exactly what happened. From all I could tell by listening to people here today, Arroyo's agent tried to convince him not to take that contract with Boston without the guarantee, but he liked Boston and thought they would keep him here - he even said as much in spring training. You're correct that Bronson showed a definite sense of loyalty, but as much as you hate to admit it, baseball IS a business and Theo can distance himself from all of this too in the fact that he wasn't part of the negotiating with Arroyo, so he doesn't owe him anything.

Just listened to Boston sports radio on the way home. In general, more than half of the callers are not real favorable on the trade, HOWEVER it seems to be more of a "we liked Bronson" much more than any skill set. The "knowledgeable" folks (including Theo) are saying that Pena gives them what they hope for now is a real threat against left handed pitching and they seem to be convinced that Pena is a very hard worker who takes the game seriously and wants to become better. Apparently they feel that the fact that he was signed to a major league contract at such a young age with the Reds forced Cincinatti to bring him up to the big club sooner than he should have been, therefore his "growth" and development have taken a hit (again, in their opinion). All in all, Boston seems to believe that they while they understand Pena's weaknesses in regards to defense and SO ratio, they believe that he has a MUCH MUCH higher ceiling than Arroyo does. They plan to likely platoon him in RF with Nixon. There was some talk of 1B, but the belief is that something like that would take place in an offseason and that for now, he's on OF and their coaches are going to start working hard with him. IMHO - Boston got a very good potential player and although they didn't say it, I think in their vision of the perfect future, Pena blossoms into a "Sosa" like player and fills into LF as soon as Ramirez is gone.

Some of them shouldn't be too hard to do. Keeping track of first-thirds and pitch counts is something I already keep track of. Advancing on balls in the dirt shouln't be too hard, either, as most all of those are probably scored as wild pitches. Anything else you're interested in seeing? I was thinking the other day that it might be fun to have some subjective "awards" for each game and keep track of them throughout the year. Things like "best defensive play," "worst defensive play," "clutch hit," "game MVP" and any other such things that seem interesting. Not only might it provide for alot of fun discussion, but it might be fun to keep track of it throughout the year to see whether certain guys are are turning up more often than others and whether that's for good things or bad. Just a thought

I believe Hansen is scheduled for the setup role and possible closer if Foulke falters. Right now that's not the case unless there's more going on behind the scenes that I haven't been hearing about. Hansen is HUGELY targetted in Boston as a closer, but he really needs to develop another pitch and he showed last season while he was up that he definitely had talent, but that he shouldn't be rushed. I may be mistaken, but I think he was still playing college ball at one point last year. Being put into a closer role in Boston half way through the season for a guy with little to no minor league experience could be disastrous to him as well as the team and I don't think they want to rush him into that kind of spot unless he lights the minors on fire early. The sports "insiders" speaking in the Boston area believe that Foulke will be given every opportunity to fail or succeed, but if he can't cut it, Papelbon is the odds on favorite to close. The Red Sox were extremely impressed with his poise and confidence last year - not to mention his "stuff" and they have every reason to believe he can be a closer in the short term.

wait a sec, here...are these the same boston fans who booed him while he was a yankee and held up "(B)etrayal" signs when he came back to fenway as a blue jay? i don't know if i buy that, dude. I was going to point this out. This is the same Roger Clemens that gained 30 pounds and showed up out of shape for his contract year, underperformed, and then magically got himself in better shape once he got a big paycheck in Toronto. That ticked the entire Boston fanbase off. I doubt anyone but the most cerebral Sox fan would want him there. Believe what you want, but I live here and talk to ALOT of fans who have nothing but good things to say about Clemens and would welcome him back in a heartbeat. I also listen to Boston sports radio every day (damn 1 hour commute!!) and 9 out of 10 people calling in about the subject support getting him and hold no bitter feelings. Roger was booed because he was a former player who joined a direct opponent (Toronto and then the hated Yankees). I'm sure there were some vocal folks who felt he betrayed them, but the majority of the people I hear believe he was incredibly disrespected by Duquette (sp?) publicly by stating that he was in the twilight of his career and out of shape and they didn't pony up the money for him that he was looking for. All this is a moot point imho because I doubt seriously that Clemens would give playing for Boston even a moments thought at this stage of his career/life.

The word on Boston sports radio is that it is a major long shot that Roger would play for Boston - mostly just because he's near the end of his career and has already proclaimed that he wants to stay near family. That said, they think it's certainly worth the risk. FWIW, Boston fans in general still really like Roger and think he got screwed over by the ownership when he left last time. Nobody has spoken with Wells recently to find out his take on things, but he had originally requested a trade and left the word out there that if he wasn't dealt, he would retire. He makes a good chunk of $, so there's probably not alot of teams out there that would want him, but I'm sure the Sox are doing all they can to move him. Clement didn't do much last year to cement any long stay in Boston. He had almost the best run support of a starter in the AL and yet only won 13 games and was a big disappointment in the 2nd half as well as the playoffs. If Boston can move him to someone like Cincinatti, I'm guessing they would do it. Papelbon is definitely pitching for Boston this year - they would prefer him being a starter (and that's likely his long term role), but if he has to pitch relief, then it's likely he would be a set-up man for Foulke, or if Foulke falls apart again, Papelbon may even become the closer.

Has anyone heard much about Ernie in the last 6-12 months? I was really disappointed that he wasn't present at Ryno's induction into the HOF when I went as I was hoping for an opportunity to meet him. Over the years I've sold off most of my baseball card collection except for any cards I have of Ernie (as well as other memorabilia). I think I have over 200 items now relating to him and one of these days I hope to have a "den" or gameroom where I can display everything. I hope he's in good health.

If you think the fans here were tough on him... The Sox must have realized that. EXACTLY!!! In addition, the Red Sox really need some kind of known commodity in CF and at leadoff - they can't afford to put a project out there and hope for the best. Last I heard on the radio over lunch was that Cleveland has told the Red Sox to put their best offer for Crisp on the table today - not sure if that means the deal is dead if it doesn't get done today or not, but just fyi.

Great, you confirmed it! I posted a similar story from Rotoworld here: Link Doh - sorry bout that. I got caught up in the excitement of possibly being the first to post a real event :-P. In all seriousness - the guys on EEI seemed pretty convinced that the deal has a good shot at still going through but with different players involved. Most of their comments today revolved around the circus that's happening with the Red Sox front office. At this point, they weren't even sure who to call to find out more information concerning Crisp. I have to believe that with Theo coming back in basically the same position as he had when he left (and reporting to Luchino just as he did before) that either 1 of 2 things happened in this mess: 1) Theo overreacted and made a quick irrational decision and a few months later after thinking about it and talking about it he decided he wanted to come back and this announcement is some way for him to "save face." or 2) Everyone has been given their old titles in order to allow Luchino to "save face," but the inner structure has changed because John Henry decided he would do what was necessary to get Theo back. Either way, I don't see how the front office can REALLY be all happy-go-lucky and one-for-all-all-for-one. There has to be more to the story that nobody outside of the front office knows about.

Heard it on Boston's WEEI on the way home from work - looks like the Coco Crisp deal isn't done quite yet.

I suppose it can't hurt, but personally I think there's a 0% chance of him signing with anyone other than NY, Houston or Texas. He's already made his point about wanting to be close to his family and it's pretty clear that at this stage of his career, he holds ALL of the cards in deciding where he's going to play and it will be by his rules alone.

Miller could be a valuable trading chip at the deadline - or provide us with the ability to trade someone else like Williams or Hill.

I think Crisp fits in nicely in Boston - he's only 26, has a very low salary, is a switch hitter and has decent power. Is he worth Marte and Mota - on paper I'd say no, but then again this is one of those trades where we'll have to see a couple years down the road who it worked out best for. The Red Sox are nowhere near the Yankees as far as having a depleted farm system - they still have quite a number of excellent up and coming arms down there. Not sure about position players, but their pitching is certainly good. If they are able to keep Manny, they have enough offense to make up for putting a defensive player at SS in Gonzalez. Have they gotten better over the offseason? Nobody will know until they start playing some games. They've certainly had alot of action considering it's quite likely 5 of the 8 starting position players will be new going into the season. They still have alot of question marks though and the 2 biggest ones in my opinion revolve around 2 guys they had last year - Schilling and Faulke. If those 2 guys regain what they had pre-2005, it should be an improved ballclub - if they don't, they could very easily end up in 3rd or 4th place in that division.

Damon's weak CF arm is generally way overblown. I can't honestly think of a single game last season where his arm cost them a game, but I can think of a dozen where either his hit or a great catch won them a game. Don't get me wrong - I think he was quite overpaid by the Yankees, but if he can stay healthy, he'll have at least 2 very good seasons there and he'll be on a bunch of highlight reels making diving catches in that wide open CF in NY. He won't need a powerful arm there, all he'll have to do is have an accurate one to hit the cutoff men. As far as Arroyo goes - he reminds me alot of Clement in that when he's good, he can be extremely dominant but it just doesn't happen often enough. He has one of the best breaking balls I've seen, and when he can throw it for strikes he really pitches well - problem is when he loses the zone he can't compensate and gets roughed up. One of the upsides to him however is that he can pitch pretty much anywhere - starter, long relief, short relief etc... I consider him to be roughly equivalent to Williams but I think Williams shows more potential.

Peter Gamons has been saying all along that Epstein would be back with Boston and the talk shows here have been counting the days as well. Gamons even claimed on a talk show here right after the winter meetings that Theo was still involved in the decisions that were being made regarding trades. Sounds like it was just a major powerstruggle between Epstein and Luchino and that Theo simply decided he didn't want to have to run things by Larry all the time and basically "answer" to him anymore. The owner (John Henry) has supposedly been trying to get Theo to come back ever since he left. Despite how it will be "spinned" by the Red Sox, this HAS to be assumed to be a win for Theo and a loss by Luchino. I won't be surprised at all if Luchino doesn't take a front office job somewhere else like the Nationals or something before the end of the season.

I didn't have time to go through all the posts in this thread so I don't know if it's been said, but I honestly don't see any way Jones is platooned with anyone in RF - not for what we agreed to pay him.

And we've come to expect at least one of our starters to go down during the year. I don't see alot of downside to adding him.