nilodnayr

Maybe so, but the sad thing is that Izturis will still most likely be an upgrade both offensively and defensively over the Cubs SS's in 2006. Edit: Another thing-the fact that people who are watching Izturis in spring training and are "raving" about his defensive skills, including apparently Bruce, tells me that he hasn't lost that much if at at all from the injuries defensively. How he responds with the bat, and if he continues his offensive progression before the injuries will be the big key. This is an excellent point. Many people forget that last season we had Cedeno at short and he was terrible with the bat and glove. I'll agree Izturis is not the ideal guy to have at short and we're not shooting for mediocrity or anything. But he definately is an upgrade over Cedeno even if he's not good with the bat and he has shown the ability to do better than that. I dont think anyone is saying that he wont be an upgrade, just that he will be a slight upgrade, where a large upgrade was possible.

Really? I went on when they went on sale and got right through...I didnt even think they had VWRs

C: Brian McCann 1B: David Ortiz 2B: Josh Barfield SS: Jimmy Rollins 3B: Alex Gordon OF: Carl Crawford OF: Adam Dunn OF: Delmon Young UT: Jason Giambi BN: Morgan Ensberg, Chris Duffy, Chris Burke, B.J. Upton, Corey Hart SP: C.C Sabathia SP: Curt Schilling RP: B.J. Ryan RP: Trevor Hoffman P: John Patterson P: Mike Mussina P: Anthony Reyes BN: Phillip Hughes

A little more than double face is what I'm asking, but it's not double what I paid considering the over $4 fee the Cubs charge per ticket. When that's factored in, I'm asking a little under double what I paid, except for the Saturday tickets. I'd like to have the money in hand in the next week or so, so I'm trying to be reasonable. I've gotten a bite on my Sunday set. I've had inquiries on both the Friday and Saturday tickets. No official person saying they would buy. I've sold my home opener tickets and will just be waiting on payment. On another note, I just bought four bleacher seats to the Labor Day game against the Dodgers. I figure I'll either turn a nice profit selling those closer to the date, or I'll be eating a loss on the tickets. I was in a gambling mood. Vance you are being more than fair...and I also pulled the trigger on the Labor day tickets yesterday afternoon.

I share that optimism, even if cautiously so. Lou seems genuinely to believe this is as much talent as he's had as a manager. I'm confident he'll put productive lineups together. The health of the pitching staff will determine much as will Ted Lilly being able to throw innings and keep the ball down and Jason Marquis to bounce back. I'm not among those counting Marquis out. I gues spring training really is a time of optimism. I think it was Joe Sheehan who said that he believes the success of the cubs season may come down to the ability of the pitchers to keep the ball in the yard. I know we want to "throw more strikes", but we all know we will probably lead the league again in walks given, so we are going to let guys get on base. If we can keep the ball in the yard, we should have a really good chance.

I think Lilly's going to need a long man more than Marquis-even last year, when Lilly was much better than Marquis, Lilly got pulled before the end of 5 innings 5 times, while Marquis only got pulled 3 times. In 2005, Marquis got pulled 5 times before 5 innings were completed, and Lilly got pulled 8 times. Twice Marquis got left in and lasted 5 innings to save the pen. At the very least he should have been pulled before 5 innings 5 times.

I think the key point that you are missing is that you are assuming Hendry values players at the same level you do. And you know that just isnt true. While we think Izturis is a crap return, Hendry values Izturis way more than we do and thought he was bringing back something good.

I disagree. Look at who they have brought in...Izturis, Soriano, and DeRosa. Izturis is ALL glove. Soriano was above average in LF last year and that was just his first year in the OF. I'm not sure of DeRosa's metrics, but I believe he's been just fine and can play a lot of positions usually which shows defensive proficiency. Its not like we brought in Adam Dunn or anything.

Wood was most effective when he did this. He'd induce easy grounders early in the count instead of getting a true outcome going deep into counts. Some of Priors really bad games were when he was flirting with the black the entire game. If you are getting the calls you are unhittable, but if you arent you need to ADAPT and start making the other team put the ball into play. If we are going to care so much about getting guys who can "catch the ball", we might as well try and get our pitchers to actually make a ball get in play.

got 'em - it's April, but if it's cold, they'll close the roof. Got tix to Fri/Sat/Sun games - woo hoo! It will definitely be better than watching the Chiefs freeze their rears off up in Appleton that weekend :) I just got Saturday as I'll be making the trip up. Got tickets in loge infield box. I've never sat there before but the view looks pretty good. I hope its warm, I'll be tailgating!

Anyone planning on trying to get tickets in Milwaukee this morning?

And now they are giving thought of using Aybar has a utility man!!! http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070223&content_id=1813563&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

If we are out of it by mid Aug, heads will roll.

Is this a 32 team league?

One of the big reasons Boston balked was not only age, but the condition Schilling showed up in...he is looking faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat.

Obviously this is an extremely unlikely scenario. But, my guess is that they would wait, that five starts and 27 innings of 2.0-ERA pitching by Guzman would not be enough to necessitate that he be brought into the rotation. My guess is that if the big-league team is still swimming along reasonably, that they would not make a switch that quickly. (If Marquis was 6.5, maybe, but not at 5.10). In my view a key date is June 15 (IIRC), the date I believe when Marquis can first be traded. I think that even if they do realize that Guzman is safer and superior as well as much cheaper, I'd think they may wish to stay the course until Marquis becomes movable. If you pull him on May 1 and torpedo any chance of being able to trade him, that might be a problem. But if he can get through June 10 with a .500-ish record and an ERA in the 4.3-5.3 range, perhaps you can unload all of his contract, and perhaps even get some value in return, who knows. One other key is the health not only of the rotation but also the bullpen. As Time alluded to, it might be that Guzman would come up first as a reliever, and get a chance to settle in and prove himself there. It might also be that if a RH reliever gets hurt (Kerry? Dempster? Howry?), that it might provide an excuse for moving Marquis there. (He's got big-league experience in relief, Guzman doesn't. We're not down on Jason, we just think he can help us more in relief than in rotation...). I'm thinking way back to when Kerry broke in. Terry Mullholland was in the rotation, and Kerry pitched well in Iowa. But it was the injury to forgettable reliever Bob Patterson that really triggered Kerry's recall, because that provided a good reason to move Mulholland from rotation to relief. I could envision that kind of thing happening with Marquis. And that sort of scenario would not necessitate that Marquis be stinking, or that you're trashing him or his trade value. If he's doing fine in relief, somebody else might view him as a guy who could help their rotation and be willing to take on his contract. Hendry has claimed other teams were interested in paying him comparably to what the Cubs paid him. That may be false. And if Marquis is again as pathetic as last year and as most board-posters seem to expect this year, the interest in him come June may be way less than it was in December. But if he's pitching at a competent if unexceptional level, his market interest may be as high or higher than it was in December. The key is getting him to June with reasonable trade value. A) June 15th is the date a player signed that year can be traded WITHOUT their permission, he can be traded before then with his permission. B)Unless Angel is pitching no nos, it will take Marquis pitchingquite poorly to knock him out of the rotation C) If B happens, as you said who the hell is going to want to trade for a crappy pitcher whos owed 7M per for the next 3 years? D)If Marquis is pitching average and Angel is pitching well, I think the cubs value the security of having contingency plans in case of injury moreso than the $ saved by trading Marquis.

We put him on waivers early Sept last year, the A's claimed him but I don't think they ever brought him up. They non-tendered him early in the offseason to free up room on the 40 man. The Nats believe they can fill their rotation behind Patterson with minor league free agents and signed him.

I think this is an interesting common theme. A lot of the concerns we all had about Lou coming into the season have really been alieved based on the comments he has made. He has stated to not judge him by his past. Hopefully he is not just blowing smoke up our butts and has matured as a student of the game. Actions obviously speak louder than words, so we really can't judge until the season is underway. But the fact that he acknowledges that his recent comments are opposed to his past actions, leads me to believe that he may be a different manager than he was in the past. Which, I am very happy about.

For those who havent, the truth is that there is a gyroball. However, Matsuzaka doesn't throw it. Or more accurately, it is not in his repitoire. He has said he has thrown it like once or twice. But the pitch does exist, he just doesnt use it.

STOP!!!!!!! In 2005 I did the same and ended up losing over a thousand bucks (seriously)

Wow, looks like you had quite a successful (and expensive) day. Take into account the fact that I took today off of work and the old style an inning I'll be consuming (except for the fathers day game), and it gets a lot more expensive. :)

4/9 4/21 5/18 5/20 5/28 6/17 6/30 7/17 7/31 8/18 9/1 9/3 Got pretty much everything I wanted. If any of y'all will be going to any of the same games and would like to mee up pre-game, post-game, or during the game (I've got bleachers for all but Friday Sox and Father's Day), that'd be cool.

8/4 vs mets bleachers or best available ok. But I've exceeded my max, so I'll need your mlb log-in. Pm me with it. no bleachers....how many tix do you want? vance, how do you get in so quick? Open up as many windows as possible and then its just luck from there. In truth, I'm wearing my Cubs tie, I rubbed my autographed Kent Merker ball all over me this morning, and I'm wearing my game used pair of Adam Dunn shoes while holding my autographed Len Kasper ticket. How could I not be successful with those relics on my side? You forgot to use Todd Walker seamen hair gel? Thats why you lost those 4/21 tickets.

THe best thing to do is enlist an army. Assuming you arent going to be going to these games alone and you have friends, coordinate them all to get tickets. That way the risk is spread out. 2 years ago I got through more than I could handle. The last 2 years I got thorugh at a normal rate, but because I had a handful of friends also trying I ended up with tickets to everything I wanted.

8/4 vs mets bleachers or best available ok. But I've exceeded my max, so I'll need your mlb log-in. Pm me with it. no bleachers....how many tix do you want? vance, how do you get in so quick? Open up as many windows as possible and then its just luck from there.