Illini Iceman

This doesn't apply to Campusano. It's really strange that the Blue Jays took Jason Smith when he was availble as a free agent about a month ago. Has anyone heard any news regarding the chances of Campusano and/or Holdzkom getting returned? It would be nice to have those two back in the system.

Lunardi just likes to hear himself talk this time of the year. His last Bracketology posted on Espn.com has the last four in as Purdue, Illinois, Drexel, and Old Dominion. The last four out are Air Force, Florida State, Kansas State and West Virginia and next four out are Missouri State, Stanford, Appalacian State and Mississippi State. What in the world could Kansas State and Stanford have done for themselves since this morning that moved them up to the last four in? Either he was full of you know what this morning or is now. He just moves teams around so his reports seem interesting. Not that it really matters, Illinois has one and done written all over them this year. But they are more deserving than Kansas State and Stanford.

Selfishness is becoming the norm in this country. It's quite sad. One day when your car is sitting on the side of the road all broken down, someone will drive by without stopping and say, "should have bought a car that runs. Enjoy your walk, dude." Same attitude. Different day. Should have bought a TV service that works. I am missing your point. Why does it make you feel better or worse if the company you are with has the exclusive rights or not? How does DirectTV having the rights and cable and DishNetwork not having them make your life any better? If Verizon was making an exclusive deal to carry EI and I was still getting it I would not be getting any joy out of other people now being forced to switch to Verizon or not get EI. Why would you want other Cubs fans to not be able to see the games unless they switch to DirectTV? Is there now one thing in your life you have been a success at - you picked the right broadcast provider and all the other losers that went with cable or DishNetwork now have to switch or be SOL? Good for you - your mother must be so proud.

Isn't a hit batsmen an unearned run, just like a walk? I assumed the same applies to someone who is K'd and gets to 1st base on a wild pitch/passed ball. Pitchers only dream about walks being unearned runs.

Huh? Why the heck should anyone be forced to switch television providers in order to watch baseball? Its ludicrous. It cost a great deal of money to switch not to mention massive hassle and inconvience when Im perfectly happy with my current service. Why the heck should I have to go through all that because MLB are greedy SOBs. Its taken all the paitence I can muster not to curse repeadidly in this thread. Especially at certain DirectTV fanboys who are ridiculously ignorant of people who dont want DirectTVs crappy service. I'll watch what games are on WGN and listen to the rest on XM. Screw MLB and screw DirectTV, I hope the FCC or the goverment or someone comes down on them for thier stupid monopoly. They will probably lose more money in the long run because of this. They sure as heck wont get mine. The cable companies and Dish Network would be foolish to match DirectTV's offer based on subscriber numbers I have seen. To me the whole thing seems like a bad business decision by DirectTV. I have always gotten EI through InDemand and this year I have prepared myself to not have it. I won't pony up for the MLB.Com package either because I am not going to sit and watch games on my computer just because MLB has chosen to no longer make them available on my TV. I will just find other things to do when the games are on channels other than WGN and ESPN. I have to guess that a great majority of the former In Demand and Dish Network subscribers to EI will do the same. Very short sighted on the part of MLB.

Zambrano Lilly Prior Hill Marquis Dempster Wood Howry Eyre Cotts Ohman Miller Even if Wuertz goes down I think Novoa still winds up in Iowa.

Good news and not so good... http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070228&content_id=1820356&vkey=spt2007news&fext=.jsp&c_id=chc

I would think that there was enough Dusty bashing and mocking of his statements about "clogging the bases" etc when he was here that people could just move on and think about other things now that he is gone and no longer relevant to the Cubs...but I guess not. Can't we just stick to the hilarious "Jock" Jones, Prior towel drill and Hendry fat jokes since they are at least about people still in the organization?

He's also thankful for the having the chance to play with the Cubs. I like Barrett but I'm not convinced the Cubs will pay him what he would command on the open market (and their obviously not working hard to extend him). I think he'll be gone. IMO, Blanco was signed for two years as insurance against losing him. The Cubs are probably waiting to see how Jake Fox develops this year and whether Wieters falls to them in the draft. IMO not extending Barrett yet is not a big indication of anything. He is a good player, but not really a "core" guy like Lee, ARam or Z that would need to be given an extension to keep him from reaching free agent status.

Then who gets bumps to make room for Miller? Wuertz or Cotts - I think they both have options remainig so they can stick one of them in AAA until a trade or the inevitable injury.

I don't think Cedeno brings much value as the last man off the bench. He can play the same defensive positions as Theriot so they seem redundant. He certainly has not shown that he can be counted on as a RH late inning PH option. As it stands now I think Pagan is probably the best option since he at least has a few qualities that no one else does currently on the roster. He can serve as a defensive replacement in the OF and as a pinch running option if the Cubs need a stolen base threat. A nice solid RH PH option would probably be better but I don't see any obvious choices in camp. Maybe McGahee, but he would need to be added to the 40 man and has never had a ML AB so I don't know if he could be counted on to be a factor off the bench.

I like what Lou has said so far but I I'm waiting to see what he really does. He is the guy that played A.Gonzalez at 3rd over some pretty good prospects in TB. I don't know what was up with that. What 3B prospects are you referring to?

I disagree about a back up 3b. Here's what I have for depth based on Pagan, Ward, Floyd, Theriot and Blanco: 1b: Lee, Ward, Floyd 2b: DeRosa, Theriot, Izturis SS: Izturis, DeRosa, Theriot 3b: Aramis, DeRosa, Barrett, Theriot LF: All outfielders CF: Soriano, Jones, Pagan, Theriot? RF: All outfielders C: Barrett, Blanco The 25th guy can be anyone since DeRosa can play 3b and Jones can play CF. It probably comes down to Hill, Cedeno, Pagan, Moore or McGehee. Hill is on the outside since he's not on the 40 man roster. Someone on the 40 man that goes on the 60 day DL opens up a spot for Hill. McGehee is also not on the 40 man roster

Mick Kelleher - in '76 he was allowed to have 337 AB's and responded by putting up a BA of .228, OBP of .264 and SLG of .270. Yech.

Always good to have you come around and spin everything out of Albert's favor. Are you jealous, or just a demented prick? You would think that "The Voice of Reason" and "RationalSoxFan" would get along better than this.

He wasn't a crappy lefty. He just got old. Oh, he was pretty crappy the past few years. That's because he got old.

He wasn't a crappy lefty. He just got old.

Murton was a product of the Red Sox, not the Cubs. I hope Wilken turns things around, but the Cubs farm system is currently below average. I don't understand. 10 yrs from now hopefully no one will remember where Murton was drafted. They'll remember where he made his name. Is Ryne Sandberg a Phillie? I agree with your posts most of the time but Hendry picked Murton out of a million. He does deserve a little credit on that trade. I wish someone would come out and say he seen a little something in Murton. Where's Bruce Miles when you need him? If I remember correctly, Murton was originally taken from the Red Sox in order to be sent to the Expos, but at the last minute they changed their mind on Murton and asked for Brendan Harris. Matt Murton fell into the Cubs lap. I'm a big Hendry supporter, but I don't believe he deserves all the credit! You don't remember correctly. Baseball America's 2005 Prospect Handbook says "The Expos weren't interested in getting Murton from the Red Sox in the trade, so Hendry offered to give up Harris and take Murton at the last moment." Perhaps the Expos didn't explicitly ask for Harris instead of Murton, but the situation did still kind of fall into Hendry's lap. I will grant him the credit for capitalizing on it, but it's still partially due to sheer dumb luck. Thanks for finding that Rob - it would have driven me crazy! I also agree with your comments. The Expos not wanting Murton was not the issue. The issue is that they REALLY wanted Harris and Hendry did not want to include him in the deal. The Twins part was set with Justin Jones for Mientkiewicz. The Cubs were in agreement to send Cabrera and Mientkiewicz to Boston for Nomar. However, the Expos were holding up the deal for the Cubs to get Cabrera because they insisted that Harris be included and Hendry didn't want to do that. Theo really was motivated to get the deal to go through because he needed a first baseman in Mientkiewicz and wanted to get rid of Nomar. He sweetened the deal for the Cubs by adding in Murton to the Cubs / Red Sox trade if the Cubs would give in on including Harris to make the Expos trade work. I guess you could say that Murton fell into Hendry's lap or you could say that he took advantage of Theo's urgency to get the deal done in order to extract some more value. To me that is what makes a good negotiater. In retrospect it all seems rather silly that the Expos and the Cubs were making an issue over Harris who turned out to be nothing special, but it worked out well for the Cubs. That's not how Jim Hendry recalls things. I've also heard versions of the story where things happened so quickly in the final minutes, that Theo Epstein didn't realize Murton was going to the Cubs (he knew Murton was in the deal, but thought one of the other teams was getting him). I concede that is a variation, but the point still stays the same. The Expos wanted Harris, Hendry didn't want to give him up, Theo tried to push the deal through by including Murton, the Expos still did not budge, but Hendry jumped in and gave up Harris in exchage for also getting Murton. Point is that if Hendry had just agreed to give Harris up in the first place Murton never would have come into play. Theo probably couldn't care less who got who, as long as he got the players he wanted out of the deal. For some reason he really coveted Mientkiewicz.

Me either. But it definitely doesn't sting nearly as bad. If I were to have heard before the game that this is how it all would have gone down, I wouldn't have been surprised. Disappointed and pissed, yes, but not terribly surprised. Can't say the same for '03. The Cubs in '03 were the better team and that is why that sucked as bad as it did. Watching the game today the Colts were the better team so it is disappointing but not so gut wrenching. Manning was going to get the MVP no matter what if the Colts won. It should have been split between the two running backs. When Jim Nance mentioned that at the end of the game Simms seemed shocked, like he never even thought of that and just automatically wrote in Manning. Most of the voters probably did the same.

Murton was a product of the Red Sox, not the Cubs. I hope Wilken turns things around, but the Cubs farm system is currently below average. I don't understand. 10 yrs from now hopefully no one will remember where Murton was drafted. They'll remember where he made his name. Is Ryne Sandberg a Phillie? I agree with your posts most of the time but Hendry picked Murton out of a million. He does deserve a little credit on that trade. I wish someone would come out and say he seen a little something in Murton. Where's Bruce Miles when you need him? If I remember correctly, Murton was originally taken from the Red Sox in order to be sent to the Expos, but at the last minute they changed their mind on Murton and asked for Brendan Harris. Matt Murton fell into the Cubs lap. I'm a big Hendry supporter, but I don't believe he deserves all the credit! You don't remember correctly. Baseball America's 2005 Prospect Handbook says "The Expos weren't interested in getting Murton from the Red Sox in the trade, so Hendry offered to give up Harris and take Murton at the last moment." Perhaps the Expos didn't explicitly ask for Harris instead of Murton, but the situation did still kind of fall into Hendry's lap. I will grant him the credit for capitalizing on it, but it's still partially due to sheer dumb luck. Thanks for finding that Rob - it would have driven me crazy! I also agree with your comments. The Expos not wanting Murton was not the issue. The issue is that they REALLY wanted Harris and Hendry did not want to include him in the deal. The Twins part was set with Justin Jones for Mientkiewicz. The Cubs were in agreement to send Cabrera and Mientkiewicz to Boston for Nomar. However, the Expos were holding up the deal for the Cubs to get Cabrera because they insisted that Harris be included and Hendry didn't want to do that. Theo really was motivated to get the deal to go through because he needed a first baseman in Mientkiewicz and wanted to get rid of Nomar. He sweetened the deal for the Cubs by adding in Murton to the Cubs / Red Sox trade if the Cubs would give in on including Harris to make the Expos trade work. I guess you could say that Murton fell into Hendry's lap or you could say that he took advantage of Theo's urgency to get the deal done in order to extract some more value. To me that is what makes a good negotiater. In retrospect it all seems rather silly that the Expos and the Cubs were making an issue over Harris who turned out to be nothing special, but it worked out well for the Cubs.

Marquis becomes the 2nd most expensive middle reliever in Cubs history. Kerry was 1st. I hope you're right. The thought of Marquis starting and Hill in the pen or at AAA sickens me. Also, I find it very cool that I can post here on my new PS3. IMO, if all are healthy Miller will become the long man in the pen and spot starter as needed. Zambrano Lilly Prior Hill Marquis Dempster Howry Wood Miller Cotts Ohman Erye

Murton was a product of the Red Sox, not the Cubs. I hope Wilken turns things around, but the Cubs farm system is currently below average. I don't understand. 10 yrs from now hopefully no one will remember where Murton was drafted. They'll remember where he made his name. Is Ryne Sandberg a Phillie? I agree with your posts most of the time but Hendry picked Murton out of a million. He does deserve a little credit on that trade. I wish someone would come out and say he seen a little something in Murton. Where's Bruce Miles when you need him? If I remember correctly, Murton was originally taken from the Red Sox in order to be sent to the Expos, but at the last minute they changed their mind on Murton and asked for Brendan Harris. Matt Murton fell into the Cubs lap. I'm a big Hendry supporter, but I don't believe he deserves all the credit! You don't remember correctly.

And your point is? Obviously local fans can still watch their team, making that claim is absurd, and pointless. The fact is MLB is taking away a previous choice that MLB fans nationwide had. They are limiting options instead of expanding upon them. and as MLB owns the broadcasting rights to it's games, they can do whatever they want. If they only want one person in Wyoming to be able to watch games, that's their choice. that's not the point, at all. we know this is MLB's choice. a lot of us think it's a very dumb thing to do. Baseball should be offering this to any dish/cable provider that wants it and selling it for as cheap as possible to get as many sucscribers as possible. It is amazing to me that marketers haven't figured out by now that the more people you get to watch games the more the interest grows and ticket sales and merchandise sales increase. Seems like MLB is getting their broadcasting advice from Bill "don't show any home games on TV so I don't give away my product" Wirtz. It's worked out pretty well for him, huh? That UC is really rocking for Blackhawk games.

How do you know that for sure? No offense, but I doubt Hendry tells reporters all the deals that he's discussing. OK. Believe what you will. I think my track record holds up pretty well. No offence, but the last thing I consider is your track record. I don't care. I care about the Cubs making themselves better. It may be all BS, but maybe not. I'm only reporting what my buddy told me. Either he's all wet, or you are. Time will define the truth of the matter. That is one of the most illogical comments I have ever read.

As usual, a national "expert" is about 2 weeks behind. Finley is out of play now that Soriano agreed to play CF and the Cubs signed Floyd. Hendry said after the Finley signing that he was now done with FA signings for this year.