BigbadB

I could hit .300+ in Colorado Springs. And that's not saying much. Sounds like another buy high, sell low scenario.

Kevin Youkilis is doing his best Mark Bellhorn impersonation and getting on base in the lead off spot at a ridiculous clip. He's not fast. How many Padres players drew walks on Mother's Day and how many of them scored? How many Cub players drew base on balls on Mother's Day and how many of them scored? Oh, and Neifi Perez's intentional walk doesn't count since it was to get to the pitcher. How many games will we continue to see the opposing team drawing numerous walks and watching those guys who walk cross home plate, while Cub hitters head back to the dugout after one single swing of the bat, which created another out?

Why? Seemed like they tried to trade Walker all offseason and couldn't find any takers. Bringing Nomar back doesn't change that. Nomar, Cedeno AND Walker is called depth. Having a good player to move over to 1b or 3b when one of your star players gets hurt is what depth is for. It's also good to have depth when someone needs a day off, instead of filling roster spots with retreads and non difference makers. Considering the amount of holes this team had offensively, depth is a good thing. Considering they had holes in the OF that needed to be addressed, bringing back Nomar made sense.

Milwaukee is currently working on Lee's extension.

I'm not a fan of George Steinbrenner, but I sure would like to see someone in the Trib Tower come down to the park and go George Steinbrenner on anyone and everyone involved with this train wreck of a team.

And PIAZZA and his weenie arm was behind the dish.

I'm guessing guys who are more sound fundamentally. You know, guys who can actually lay down a bunt.

There were plenty of options available for Nomar, and he was willing to switch positions. Because he was willing to switch positions, he provided depth at many of them. SS, 3b, OF, 1b. Obviously, no one thought Lee would miss 3 months of the season. But, the possibility that Aramis would spend time on the DL was more likely. What if Cedeno tanked? Nomar and his bad defense at SS would have been better than Neifi and his bad offense. Either of the OF corners if Cedeno proved to be a good SS and Aramis never got hurt. Bringing back Nomar didn't cost any compensation to another team, he was already a Cub. Nomar didn't necessarily block the Furcal proceedings since it was evident that SS just wasn't in the cards anymore. It was a bad move to let him walk, plain and simple. When you have a talent like Nomar, you find a place for his bat. Even worse, the Cubs basically spat in his face. Hendry was so enamored with Furcal, he wouldn't even acknowledge Nomar. Now, both are playing for LA and Hendry is standing there holding an empty bag. If nothing else, can we stop burning bridges and devaluing players right before you want to get rid of them?

I'm not hatin' on anybody. This has become so comical that it's hysterical. The Cubs have managed to remove the "lovable losers" tag. They are now the "laughable losers". They are getting what they deserve for spending a good chunk of their payroll on players that bottom feeder, small market teams don't even want. I'm a Cub fan, but this team is humorously bad. Good thing Hendry got an extension. I wouldn't want to see him sending out line ups that can catch the ball for some other team and against the Cubs day in and day out. How would we ever compete?

Other pitchers were mentioned besides Millwood (Zito, Lowe), but most everyone was under the impression we would be starting the season with: Zambrano, Wood, Prior, Maddux, Williams.

<--------Wanted Nomar resigned and wasn't the slightest bit bashful in saying so.

I don't have any starters going tomorrow. You should be okay. My starters were pretty good this week.

I have found something the Cubs are really good at. Losing! [-(

Playing only against righties would hardly make him a part-time player. He'd still play in most games. And you woudn't need to pay a player who only plays against LHP 6 million a year. You can find productivity against lefties for much less than that. 5-6 million for Jones (and I think it's less than that in later years because of the signing bonus) really isn't very much if he's used properly and continues to do well against righties. His salary shouldn't be a hindrance to putting a good team on the field. The number of left handed starters in the NL Central is well documented. If they platooned him like they should, he should only be playing a little more than half the time. Agreed on the amount paid for Jones. It was a ridiculous amount all things considered. The amount didn't really anger me as much as the length of the contract.

How many platoon players (or players that should be platooned like Jones) make 6m a year? How many of them recently signed a 3 year contract? Did the Cubs feel like 6m for a part time player would really be good enough? Why not another 6m for the guy who could provide the same numbers against LHP so that you had a productive position in 162 games instead of half of them?

correct. He watched too many episodes of Baseball Tonight and decided that he had to go get speedy, gutsy, crafty, gamers instead of, oh, guys who can hit, get on base or pitch I will admit that I enjoy watching "Web Gems" moreso than whatever they call the home run segment of their show on ESPN. But, that doesn't make me want to go get a bunch of guys who can catch the ball over guys who can hit a home run.

Wouldn't it be more beneficial if he got himself kicked out of a close game? Yes!

Any explanation for why W's approval rating has gone from high 50's to 29%? In the famous words of Janet Jackson: "What have you done for me lately?"

Barrett should be getting pissed at the Cubs inability to assemble a decent team, not what the other team is doing. When you have a catcher that can't throw anyone out, you run on him. You exploit their weakness. Last time I looked, a 3 run homer only takes one swing of the bat. Putting yourself in the position to score on an infield single, past ball, wild pitch, balk, a hard hit line drive single to an outfielder, etc.. is good baseball in many situations. Not only does Barrett have a poor success rate at gunning out runners, but he lets a lot of balls get past him. If the score was 10-0 or 14-2 or some other unreachable score, then yes, Roberts could be accused of padding stats. There was absolutely nothing wrong with what Roberts did. If the pitcher wasn't holding him on 2nd, and he had a a good jump, why not take 3rd?

Or 2b when the Cubs trade Prior for Cano. :D

I believe the Oswalt thing was in 2004, not 2005.

I can't agree with this. What Williams did was take a team that rode their way to a World Series via the starting pitching, and give the team another dynamic that doesn't force the starting pitching to carry the team again this year. In other words, he took a team that was heavily pitching oriented, and gave them balance without weakening the pitching staff. For that, Williams definitely deserves credit. If you're looking at only 2006, sure. But Williams became GM in 2001, and the only pitching carryovers are Buehrle and Garland. Vazquez, Garcia, Contreras were all added to the team since then, and Buehrle and Garland have resigned. What GM can step right in and institute their philosophy of how a team should be put together and then make it happen within a year or two's time? I believe the going rate is approximately 5 to 6 years. If that's the case, Williams accomplished his mission within a normal time frame. DePodesta got fired within a years time in LA. He got horrible results from his first year. Sometimes it takes a huge turnover to mold a team into what you believe will be a winning team. Everyone slams on DePodesta being a horrible GM, but in reality, he just wasn't given the necessary time to prove whether he would be a good GM or not. Whoever takes over for Hendry once he's gone will have a mammoth undertaking if they they want to change the approach that Hendry took with building this team.

I've always hated everything White Sox. Unfortunately, I can't hate Jim Thome. He's from my hometown and he's a likeable player. So, outside of Thome, I hate everything White Sox. But, Kenny Williams has done an outstanding job putting together this team. I didn't like what he originally did with the team, and I don't think last year's team was really "that" good. But, they are "that" good now.

If I want to see a Bufoon I'll watch Sean Hannity on Fox News. I wish they would put people on who could analyze games and tell us things we don't know. Instead the show is 18 minutes of garbage and 12 minutes of crappy Coors light comercials. On a tangent. I wish Pete Coors would stop trying to be a polititian, at least his adds can be entertaining even if his beer is terrible. Hey! If it weren't for bad beer, what would you compare good beer to to come to the conclusion that it is good beer?

So, Javier Vazquez and his 4-1, 2.88 ERA would have zero wins without Thome in the line up? The Sox have a .358 OBP as a team. They would be scoring runs with or without Thome in the line up. Freddy Garcia has 5 wins, and he hasn't been effective at all. I agree that not having two of your best pitchers and your best offensive player weakens a team, but management has to take these things into consideration when putting together a team. Depth! It's important.