AramisRamirez

for us to go 15-4 or whatever, the stars have to align. wood, prior, and zambrano need to have dominate performances, hopefully giving us major innings to save our shaky bullpen. derrek lee and aramis ramirez need to have stretches of peak-season performances. lee cant possibly peak more than he has been, but if he can can continue to still drive in a run every game we'll be fine. im not asking .377 BA, but .300 will do. give us 1-3 with an RBI and ill be happy. those two batting cant do it by themselves though. hairston and walker need to get on-base, burnitz has to give us quality hits, and whoever is playing SS needs to be good enough. its going to be very tough, everybody has to play to their max ability.

what? macias got screwed again??

Hairston is playing well lately and since he's slid into the full-time leadoff role we've done better. he has the speed and all the tools to bat leadoff in the majors. but the jury is still out and the second half of the season will go a long towards dictating whether or not he's in that role full-time in 2006. obviously if he does good, he'll be back. and one of the few alternatives that are somewhat attainable is furcal. his BA is now up to .250 (way to go) but he has alot of SB's and we all know he is good player. not sure what type of money he'll command, but should hairston not suceed we may well some money on him. should be interesting to see how things unfold.

i was half right. i thought sammy was/is the most overpaid player in baseball and had to moved by any means necessary. i also thought burnitz was a bum and would crumble in the big market like he did in NY. i knew he hit 37 HR's last year but i thought coors played a big role in that due to his poor road BA. but i was wrong... anyways sammy still sucks thank God he's gone. he's now batting .220, which makes corey patterson look like wade boggs. we're partly better because he's gone, but worse because injuries to our three biggest names (garciaparra, wood, prior) have killed us.

Only three RBI's behind Carlos Lee now after his 3 RBI's today, Derrek Lee is aiming to head into the All-Star break still on-pace to win the Triple Crown. Man, another HR too today, bringing him up to 27. and his RBI total is now at 71, which is just flat-out ridiculous. He's only 29 away from 100 and we havent even made it to the All-Star break yet?? I am becoming increasingly convinced that he cant be stopped this season and will have more than a career year. hendry is so lucky he's stepped up like this and he couldnt possibly have predicted it. i think he was expecting to get the production lee has given more from nomar garciaparra, but by the grace of God derrek lee has become one of the most dominating players in the entire league. Yes folks, two HR's this weekend has the talk back on. Lee for President in 08!!

i wouldnt gut the team completely, though we could use cornerstone players in almost any position except for 1B and 3B. but here are players i would be likely to keep C barrett 1B lee 2B walker 3B ramirez P prior P zambrano P wood P dempster we need a cornerstone player in any OF position or SS. we passed on Tejada, who at $72M is turning out to be a steal, and it could have changed our franchise, im not confident heading into next season with nomar/neifi at SS again. i would rather play hairston at SS, just not neifi. the corey patterson situation is pretty bleak, we just need him to play at a level he hasnt been playing at. without that, we're in big trouble. we may have to work our farm system, as hendry has been doing. if pie comes back healthy, we might as well trot him out there too. yeah, he's young, but so is miguel cabrera. if your good, your good. so lets see what we got. id like chone figgins and aubrey huff, but its not going to happen. figgins is one of the better players in the league, capable of playing nearly every position with great quickness. too bad the angels would never give him up.... we have two cornerstones in lee and aramis, but we really need a third. who can we sign?? johnny damon?? i would consider it. plug him into the leadoff spot....we need to make some financial investments. if he was going to leave boston, wrigley would probably be one of the few appealing places for him.

somebody thinks we're not contenders? are they serious? did he fail to see a certain hall of fame short in NEIFI PEREZ? perez is an on-base machine, as is newly re-assigned corey patterson (.287 OBP). and him looking over macias is just a tragedy. jose macias is like micky mantle, barry bonds, and derick jeter all rolled into one.... the cubs are absolutely unbeatable and anybody who disagree's should be sentenced to prison. here are my season ending predictions for player stats. and what about lee, who is will be the first ever 60/60 guy. yes folks, he will hit 60 HR's and steal 60 bags this year!!!

sending corey to the minors is a pretty dumb move. ive thnk we should play him in center but drop him to 8th in the line. we cant trade him with a .236 average but sooner or later he's going to get it together. if probably wont reach his 40/40 potential, but i firmly be a .290, 25, 25 guy. i dont get sending him down. its going to mess up his psyche even more, plus it may cause hard feelings. and besides, if we had any chance of increasing his value by letting him turn things around they are now ruined. i hate my life as a cubs fan.

We have 4 starters who have the potential to finish with terrific, amazing careers. First on the list is the most accomplished, the elder statesmen, Greg Maddux. sure he's finally declining at this point in his career (he is basically 40 for crying out loud) but he has pitched some great games this season. we all talk about his vesting option but in all reality he will probably reach 15 wins again this year. I believe he has 15 straight 15+ win seasons, which is one of the most remarkable stats in MLB history. considering he has a 68-mph fastball, his control and movement throughout his career has been artistic. He is a shoe-in HOF'er. Next on the list is the ultimighty Mark Prior. Despite his age he was basically the best pitcher in the majors in 2003. he went 18-6 with an ERA in the low 2.00's with great K's per inning ratio. He has been hurt alot, but I get the feeling he's going to be one of the league's greatest pitchers ever. I dont forsee injuries ruining his career, much like Pedro Martinez has managed to avoid early injuries. I love watching him pitch, especially at Wrigley. Alot of people get bored watching baseball on TV because its a game of strategy --not unlike chess. But when Prior is on the mound, I am on the edge of my seat. Even with 5 stints on the DL, he always comes back strong as an ox. I cant say he'll break the record for most career wins, but i do think he'll hang 'em up with a Cy Young award, a World Series ring, atleast one 20-game win season, and an introduction into the HOF. To me, nothing is better than enjoying time off from work, kicking back on the coach with a cold one with Prior on the hill. Third on the list is psychopathic carlos zambrano. to me, zambrano is the stud nobody talks about. the past 2 years when our pitching staff has been depleated by injury, young Z carried the load. even with a few tough performances this year, he still should have more wins than he does (no run support killed him a couple times). Zambrano is a big guy at 6-5 and he throws hard with good movement. What else could you want in a pitcher? plus he has confidence, loads of it. when he has a bad outing, he usually bounces back with a good one. thats the sign of a pitcher who knows what he's capable. on alot of teams he'd be a number 1 guy. i have seriously high hopes for zambrano here in wrigley. i think he could be the #2 guy for a long time to come. i was upset this summer when hendry was haggling with zambrano over an extra $300,000...zambrano earned that money the past 2 seasons. before its all over from him i think its possible he'll possess a 20-game win season and probably be a candidate for the Cy Young a few times (he probably already has).. To me i see alot of Bartolo Colon in him, but i dont see Zambrano having as bad a year as colon did in 04, though bartolo is cutting 'em down this year. And finally we have our home-grown Texas fireballer, Kerry Wood. Once thought of as a cant miss #1 starter for the duration of his career, Wood has fallen victim to the injury bug far too many times. Ever year it seems he goes down. He still is a damn good pitcher, especially with a high 90's fastball and continual improvement from his other pitchers. But this year he has been counterproductive to say the least. Since 03 actually we havent gotten too much out of Kerry. its important that he produce because he's getting aproximately $10M a year. im hoping for a strong return from him this season (stronger than his debut atleast). currently he has 1 win and a 5.00+ ERA, which is quite disturbing. Trading him isnt really an option much in the way trading Corey isnt an option (they are both much better than their current value dictates). plus trading pitching is always a gamble (though so is signing pitchers to big extensions). Anyways here is my final prediction for our big 4 and who, eventually, will have the best HOF career. 1) maddux: too tough to beat at this point. too much consistent productivity basically over 2 decades. 2) prior: could reach very similar levels, though not with win total. if he stayed healthy he'd be an elite pitcher every season until he retires. he's the type of guy who will came back from a month on the IR and just tear a team apart piece by piece. the Twins drafting Mauer was not a bad pick because thats how good Mauer is....but Mark Prior has the ability to become the best pitcher in the organizations history (saying alot with Fergie Jenkins and Richard Sutcliff). 3) zambrano: zambrano has no limit on how good he can be. alot of his mental approach works well for him. occasionally it backfires, but that can be amended. ill never forget during the NLCS in pro-player stadium against the marlins. zambrano was sweating bullets by the 4th inning, literally raining sweat. the sweating eventually gave way to a full-on meltdown, as big Z began ferociouslly pacing across the pitchers mound like a caged lion. sweating, pacing, and figiting with the cup on his jockstrap every 2 seconds. it was an epic meltdown to say the least, which i dont hold against him because he was like teen back then and pro-player stadium packed like 70,000 into the game. anyways, big Z is one of my favorite players on the team and i envision a great career with the cubs for him. i could see hendry letting clement go, but not any of the big 3 in prior, zambrano, or wood. i think hendry would rather part with wood than zambrano if forced to, though contract plays a big factor into that. 4) wood: thought to be a potential HOFer, now looking more like a #3 starter in the rotation. anyway you look at it, he's been way too injury prone throughout his career. even though he throws hard, that alone shouldnt mean he'll have a short career. Roger Clemens and Randy Johnson throw hard and they're still around (though Randy is declining at 41). Wood isnt old yet, but slowly he is getting up there. If he's going to have a memorable career (other than 20 K's in a game) he needs to string together multiple healthy years. its going to be interesting to see how he finishes out the season, my hopes are with him. go cubbies!! any thoughts fellow fans?? will prior have a better pitcher than maddux??

well, i cant disagree with the notion that dusty baker and corey patterson have completely underachieved this season. in regards to dusty, while he is a below average strategist in a game of strategy, i also think alot of his problems can be directly attributed to hendry's poor off-season. alot of hendry inactivities are justified though. for one, he isnt given the green light to break the bank like the yanks and red sox. two, alot of the decisions he made this off-season turned out to be right, despite popular opinion at the time. we say no closer, and that certainly was a major issue, but look at last season's FA closers. pervical and benitez havent pitched at all. kolb are struggled mightly and we would have give up several good players for him. so placing the blame can go around to everybody, starting at the top. i checked carl crawford's stats tonight because he is on my fantasy baseball league (plus we have been hearing alot of absurd rumors regarding him lately) and he is producing incredibly well. a .285 BA, 9 HR, 47 RBI, 21 SB line is great for a leadoff hitter. yes, he is everything we need and is he a guy worth mortgaging our farm system for?? he plays LF but could easily slide to CF (especially after we sign damon this summer j/k). what would it take to get him?? the absolute ideal player for the cubbies....hmmm. maybe dopirek and pie, two top-line prospects. dopirek is a 1B with hitting skills likened to Richie Sexson. Pie is also a potential star, with mega skills in mulitiple areas. Then, we could pony up another potential 5-tool guy in corey patterson. you may say corey, dopirek, and pie is way too much for crawford. and it is true that corey patterson has more potential than crawford. corey, after all could be 40/40 if he maximized his talents. and dopirek literally could be a richie sexson type and pie has more upside than either possibly. but truth by told, crawford at the top of our order with walker, lee, and ramirez behind him would be incredible. a great combination of speed and strength, virtually ideal. crawford is a base-stealing machine and him on first would alter the pitchers game plan immediately. than todd walker steps to the plate, and he is a pain the rear to strike out. he is a great on-base guy. which leaves the pitchers sweating it out with derrek lee stepping to the plate and no outs. scared of getting behind early, lee is a tossed a 90-mph fastball right down the middle. he steps back, takes a gigantic swing, and crushes the ball 803 feet onto Irving Park Road. i would gravely consider this trade because it keeps our wonderful pitching rotation intact. prior, zambrano, and woody.

when maddux is pitching this is my lineup: 2B walker 0-2, 3 BB C barrett 1-5 P maddux 0-4, 4 K 1B lee 2-3, 2 BB, HR, RBI 3B ramirez 1-4, HR, RBI RF burnitz 1-4 SS macias 0-4 CF patterson 0-9

but sammy isnt breaking down or anything like that. i still expect him to finish the year with 72 HR, 137 RBI, and a .366 BA. sammy is going for the triplecrown this year!!

im so angry that macias got snubbed!! thats absolute absurd lol. no seriously derrek lee starting is incredible, the fans would have to be idiots to not start a man batting .390 with 25 HR's and 68 RBI's. and of course Aramis deserves to be there, he is a stud.

did somebody say Aramis Ramirez lol?? you dont have to twist my arm to get me talking about how much of a stud Aramis is. I honestly think he could become one of the most feared hitters in the entire league. He did get off to a sluggish start this year, part of it could be attributed to injury and part of it could be increased pressure after signing a $42M/4-year deal. But now he's tearing it up again as usual --he's been belting it lately. I see him going .300 BA, 35 HR's, and 105 RBI's this year. but he's going to go .325, 40, 120 at some point in his career. he's that type of hitter when he locks it in. $42M over 4 is was Aramis is worth. its a fair deal for both sides.

Jeter is a champion, without question. last year when he got off to his terrible start he still played gold glove defensively and by seasons end his BA was like .280 or something. ill take jeter, ill take Arod, it really doesnt matter to me. but the truth is we'd have to give up prior or zambrano in any scenario, and to me thats not acceptable --given their youth, production, and especially position and contract status. i would strongly consider a deal with wood for either one, but again wood's apoximate $10M is significantly lower than both Jeter and Arod's salaries. and in the end, you cant trade pitching because than we're looking at a rotation of Prior, Zambrano, Maddux, Williams, and Rusch or Mitre. Given recent history, we need a 6th potenial fill-in starter in case of Prior getting injured. The rotation with Prior on the DL could not stay afloat. Yes, we have stayed afloat this year without Prior and Wood for significant stretches, but dont forgot Prior (and to a lesser extent Wood ) has given us some great performances this year. It would be too risky to go at 2006 with a rotation of Prior, Zambrano, Maddux, Williams, and Rusch. Its too thin if an injury goes down, unless Hendry can secure a legit #3 starter or a closer to move Dempster back into the starting rotation.

i agree. if you have tejada and Arod on the same club, tejada plays short and Arod plays 3B. SS jeter 2B walker 1B lee 3B ramirez RF burnitz C barrett CF patterson LF dubois/hollandsworth oh lord, i would love jeter at the top of our order. than we can just add vlad guererro to play OF and we're all set! :x

i couldnt disagree more with whoever said jeter was a cancer. i would take him at SS any day of the week. could you imagine plugging jeter into our lineup? it would be sick sick sick. Arod i would also take, but we're pretty set with Aramis. im thinking jose macias would look good in yankee pinstripes. maybe macias and hollandsworth would be enough to pry jeter....

if the cubs won the world series, i just hope it came at a time when i wasnt broke. if i had alot of loot, i would: A) drink 5 bottles of Petron during the pre-game. Take a cab to Wrigley with tickets i bought on-line for $1000 each. Sitting in amazing seats, i order 2 beers an inning for the first 6 innings. At this point, im so wasted i cant even walk. After the game, we spill onto Addision and fall into some local bar with a sea of other cubs fans. bartenders are passing out free beers, which puts me in an orbit i havent been to since the late high school-early college years. in this insightful state, i come up with a brilliant idea..... B) go to the Skybox and get a lap-dance drinking Crown Royal. at this point, the Patron, 15+ beers, and crown royal have my decisions going from good to not so good, to not good at all, to downright terrible. in honor of the incredible, historic nature of the victory, i decide to make the ultimate allegence to the Cubs. determined, i hope into a cab and start shouting directions. C) we find ourf way to the tatoo parlor and i get a picture of todd walker fielding a ground ball on my chin, cheek, and mouth area. D) stumble home smoking God-knows what with the hipsters outside the Rainbo Club on Division and Damn i finally manage to get to bed. E) wake up, take a shower, get dressed and go to work --only to have every single person in the building immediately stare at my new facial tatoo. F) two seconds later proceed to walk home after getting immediately terminated for extreme violation of company policy (no face tatoos). hung over, i hichhike to belmont and clark to start my new life as begger getting by on ann sathers patrons. ahh but it was all worth it because the Cubs won the world series!!!!!!

what has happened with corey was the absolute worst-case scenario. out of all the things that could have happened to corey patterson this year, this has been the worst possible outcome. his OBP is not even close to a major league starter, let alone a leadoff hitter. his K count is just beyond pathetic, and dusty will pull the switch soon (hopefully). i agree walker hitting 2nd is best. he's always a great at-bat. i believe he was the hardest player to strike out in the AL in 2003. hairston needs to get some reps leading off too. he's our best base stealing threat anyways, why not give him some burn? but if walker was batting in front of derrek lee, lee would have 80 RBI's by now. im gravely concerned with corey. i have no idea what to do with him. im thinking keep him for his glove and just bat him 8th in the lineup. we cant get anything good for him anyways right now. he might turn it around when he has absolutely no expectations. if nomar, woody, and prior all stay healthy it will be an absolute miracle. making the playoffs would be pretty realistic if it happened, but its unlikely given recent history.

man, derrek lee went 2-4 with another HR and RBI?? are you kidding me? .388, 24 HR's, and 66 RBI's!! wow. yesterday i did a thread predicting he goes .366, 44 HR's, and 131 RBI's. that could very well happen, he keeps going crazy.

just contributed 25 votes for lee, thanks to my brand new Gateway that i got yesterday. its my first new computer since 1998. i also got a new cellphone, my first since 2002. i was rocking the oldest school nokia you could ever imagine. the 3 button didnt work, so when i text messaged people i had to avoid words with D,E,and F in it!! anyways, 25 more for Lee coming before the nights end from me!! go get 'em cubs fans!

as we close in on the All-Star break, Lee really isnt showing any signs of slowing down. Heading into the peak of summer, where historically he has played at a high level, it only seems logical that he wont take any drastic turns for the worse. Thats not to say he'll bat .400, but I dont think he'll drop to the low .300's. Currently, to the best of my knowledge, Derrek Lee is batting .385 with a sick OBP of .464 and a jaw-dropping Slugging % of .723 to go along with 23 HR's, 65 RBI's, 62 R's, and 10 SB's. Considering we still have around 80+ games left or whatever it is, its likely that he's just going to have a monster year the likes of which we havent seen since juiced up Sammy was pumping moonshots with a syringe hanging out his butt. As of today, im going to say he finishes the year batting .366, with a OBP of .430 and a slugging% of .685. I think he'll keep up the HR power finishing with 46 a producing 131 RBI's and 22 SB's. That would be one of the all-time great single season performances in Cubs history. .366, 44 HR's, 130 RBI's, and 22 SB's?? wooo hoo!!! even if he's more like .349, with 37 HR's, 118 RBI's, and 18 SB's....thats still an incredible year.

thats just what we need to replace injury-prone kerry wood....injury-prone angel guzman!! so instead of wood giving us 130 IP, we can have angel give us 120 IP. kerry wood this year has looked like one of the worst pitchers in the NL, certainly among opening day starters.

wow, i cant believe dusty is dumb enough to put neifi perez out there. No hairston jr?? are you kidding me?? dusty has to be the most overrated manager in baseball. i really havent seen good managing out of him, certainly not good strategy. he frustrates me to no end....if we fail this year he's gone.