gflore34

Listening to a little of the Score on the way in to work this morning, heard complaints of not playing someone with high splits vs. RHP's, staying too long with Buehrle, Cintron' not that good and shouldn't be playing as much as he has, etc. sound familiar? Perhaps, Guillen' not a great Manager after all, maybe the fact that their staff had an unbelievable year last year was the primary reason the won the WS and not Guillen' managing.

At the moment, given Mauer' success and Prior' recent struggles, it's real easy to give up on Prior (all the Chicago Sportswriters have). On several occasions, out of frustration, I've given up on Mark Prior but, I believe there's hope, we've not seen the best of Mark Prior. The Cubs and we will be rewarded in very big way for our patience and the Chicago Sports Media will all eat a gigantic helping of crow.

Gorzelanny: 25 IP, 18 BB - check Cubs: Swing at every thing he throws up there - check

Is there some "Old School" rule that states a MI must bat 2nd?

How do Cubs consistently look this bad against mediocre crap like Arizona, and the whole NL West? I know the Cubs are bad but, seriously Arizona' not much better...

Heard an interview of Izturis by Boers and Berstein Tuesday afternoon, they asked him what's his job batting second. I don't if Izturis' reply was playing to Boers and Berstein or not but, he mentioned taking pitches and getting on base ahead of Lee, Ramirez and Barret and moving runners along. At the very least, he seems to have some idea of a #2 hitter' job, whether or not he'll be able to accomplish it remains to be seen.

I thought the same as well; it's downright ludicrous to think their top prospects were available for a 40 yr old pitcher near the end of his career.

I find it extraordinarily hard to believe, that Colletti, would budge on any of of Kemp, Guzman or Ethier, for, despite his HOF career, a declining pitcher in his 40’s. That would have been the act of a mindless GM, I’m certain Hendry asked perhaps, if he had a Lugo to trade, he would have ended up with Guzman, etc. I to am disappointed with Izturis – I would have settled for a low A high ceiling prospect – but, seriously what was expected?

When you think in terms of turning athletes into Baseball players, it's easy.

Not that we know of, anyway. But don't be surprised to see Izturis at 3B, Ronny at SS and Neifi at 2B at some point. With Mabry at 1B. Woo hoo! Don't forget about Rusch taking Maddux' spot in the rotattion!

I think my brain knew, but my heart was really trying to convince me something would be done to make this team better. I felt the same way goony, all in all, a terrible way to begin prepartions for 2007.

As dismal as the thought of Baker finishing the season is, I found some hope in this Hendry quote towards the end of the article in the Trib: "Maybe by [Monday's trading deadline] if a couple of guys aren't here anymore, then it'll open up some playing time for somebody else," Hendry said. Perhaps, Hendry' going to remove some of Baker' toys thereby, leaving him no choice but, to play the youngsters.

I believe many of us knew Koronka 4-0 or 5-0 start was a mirage, at best, he's a fifth starter.

Way out of it? That trade was in 2002, and as of the trade deadline in 2002 they were leading the division by 5 games. That was a classic buy from a buying team and has no relevence to the Cubs current situation. Whoops, i feel like an idiot go with San Diego trading for Brian Giles the year before they opened their park. They were out of it the year of the trade, but they wanted to give the fan base reason to believe they were serious about fielding a winner the following year. For them, it really helped build the season-ticket sales during the offseason. The Cubs may not need that as badly, but the positive publicity would certainly be beneficial for them. This brings up an interesting point: Would you rather see them tear this thing down, hire a guy with patience for young players and play kids around a few vets (for example, Lee, Z, and Barrett), or do you really believe they are only three or four good moves away? I am torn. I'm not sure how realistic this would be, but given the reports that Philly wants to dump Abreu to anyone that will take the full contract, let's say these trades + offseason signings were made: 1. Abreu for Hill + Harvey 2. Ethier + Broxton for Maddux + Howry 3. sign Jason Schmidt 4. sign Zito 2B Walker (re-sign him) LF Ethier 1B Lee RF Abreu 3B Ramirez CF Jones C Barrett SS Cedeno SP Zambrano SP Schmidt SP Zito SP Prior (when or if healthy) / Marshall SP Marshall / Marmol / Guzman / etc. RP Dempster RP Broxton RP Eyre RP Ohman RP Wuertz RP additional arm from plethora available I think that team wins the central and is WS - worthy. Schmidt and Zito are paid from the Wood and Maddux money, so the payroll just needs to go up for Abreu's salary. what about z? he'll probably get wood's money and he'll probably get it next season. i'm of the opinion that zito will be on the east coast, most probably, so schmidt would be our guy. and, as i've professed before, i really like koskie, clark, and freel--and think that they are somewhat undervalued and could be had for a reasonable price. (if anyone could fill me in on koskie and clark's contract status, i'd be grateful.) but supporting players with high obps to fill in around 3 big bats in the middle of the lineup would more than fill our needs. and a rotation of zambrano, prior, schmidt, hill, and marmol would satisfy me just fine. Unfortunately, Hendry doesn't value OBP hence; I don't believe he recognizes the need for high OBP around three big bats. As I've mentioned to my wife on many occassions, I'm convinced some of you could turn the Cubs around into WS contenders before Hendry ever does.

One has to wonder if any moves Hendry makes will be helpful at all, its rather clear he doesn't value such stats as OBP. His MO seems to be acquiring the all around athlete in the hopes of turning him into a Baseball Player as oppose to dealing for a Baseball Player who happens to be a good athlete. These are the type of prospects I believe he'll deal for, who, in Baseball terms, are pretty much useless.

My hope is that Hendry can find one of the contending teams desperate for a LHP out the pen and dump Rusch on them. At this point I'd settle for a bag of used BP balls.

I'd like to see Hill go after the hitters as he did at Iowa, I believe part of his struggles to this point have to do with him trying to make the perfect pitch. Let it all hang out Rich, you've got nothing to lose and everything to gain.

At work hence, I cannot research this myself, but, what's the opposition's BA against the Cubs when Cub pitchers are ahead 0-2, 1-2? I've never seen a team give up as many 0-2, 1-2 hits as this year's Cubs.

What's this?! A game with more than one good move by Dusty? Good move bringing in Eyre to face Delgado, unless Eyre made a mistake Delgado had no chance vs Eyre.

Anyone watching how was Prior' stuff today?

If Prior fails to make it thru the 3rd again (and I'm sure he will) think they'll be any thought to shutting him down for the remainder of the season? Given this season is lost, I'd like to see Prior DL'ed for the remainder of the season and Guzman called up to take his spot.

I'm plenty willing to wager that ARod's decline will be better than ARam's peak. Especially over the next several years. Seconded. A-Rod is one of the top five players of the last 25 years, and likely top ten all-time. If he retired today at age 30 he'd be a unanimous HOFer. Coming into this season he had a career line of .307 / .385 / .577 (largely at the SS position) and is the youngest person ever to hit 450 HRs. How can you justify an argument that ARam will ever outproduce ARod? You guys are correct but, I've seen such deals blow up on the Cubs. However, A-Rod is rock solid, so it'd be hard to imagine him not being very productive as a Cub then again, this is the Cubs.

While such a deal appears to intriguing, it still reeks of the all too familiar Cub MO of acquiring a star player on the downside of his career (A-Rod) for one who has his best years ahead of him (Ramirez).

The season is lost; the only good that may come of it is whether or not Rich Hill, Angel Guzman, Ryan Theriot, Ronny Cedeno, etc. can play at the Major League level or not. Unfortunately, they only way to determine this is by playing Hill, etc. for an extended period, that's never going to happen with Dusty at the helm. If firing him is what it takes to see Hill, etc. get extended playing time, I'm all for it...

What strike's me as somewhat ironic about the mis or over use of Perez is Baker' feeble excuse that's its all in an attempt to win. If that were truely the case, since Lee's return, Todd Walker would have been at 2B.