BigbadB

I won't be disappointed. I'd love to see a rotation next year of: Zambrano, Prior, Wood, Miller, Guzman I'm not one that just assumes that just because someone is unhealthy now will always be unhealthy. We have all of the rest of this year to see if Guzman, Wood, Prior and Miller are back from their past problems. In the pen, Dempster and Williamson are guys who have been on the shelf, and I'm quite pleased at how they are doing.

Care to provide some teams that would be interested in Jones? My opinion is Jones is here for all of this year and probably all of 2007 as well.

If Maddux is resigned, it will be for less money and Wood's 10 mil will be off the books; that should free up enought money. Not to mention Pierre makes about 6 mil and may be relpaced by Pie, who will be making basically nothing. If they Cubs aren't players this offseason, it's gonna be a long year in 2007. Right now, there is no reason to believe we can just put Marshall, Guzman, Hill and/or Ryu in 3 of the rotation spots and expect to have a winning record. You aren't taking into account raises to many of the currently rostered players. Barrett, Lee, Ramirez, Zambrano and Prior. That gobbles up a lot of that money right there. Zambrano and Prior figure to lock down 2 spots, and I would venture to guess that one or maybe even two of Maddux, Wood, Miller and Williams would lock down a 3rd and/or 4th spot, with one of Marshall, Guzman, Brownlie or Ryu locking down the last spots. If Guzman is back to complete health, he's going to be a very dominant pitcher. The Cubs may want to bring Pierre back. Of the currently rostered players, none of them are deemed as lead off hitters per organizational philosophy. Pie isn't a lead off hitter either. If they don't bring back Pierre and Pie is penciled in to play CF, who leads off for the 2007 Cubs? Walker probably won't be back. Barrett, Lee, Cedeno, Ramirez, Murton, Pie and Jones. 2nd base is the only place they may fill next year, and there really aren't that many "lead off" hitters that play 2b. At least not true lead off hitters given the organizations definition of a lead off hitter. In 2008, Patterson might be ready, but I doubt he'd jump all the way to the bigs to start off next season.

The Cubs can't afford Zito. Zito will want a long term contract and at high dollars. Zambrano, Prior, Lee and Ramirez will be the high dollar contracts for next year. Along with medium range contracts to Jones and Dempster, and possibly even Pierre, there is just no way the Cubs can consider a long term commitment to a pitcher from outside the organization. There is also the possibility that Wood will be back next year as well, albeit at a discount rate compared to what he's making now. That's another reason I wasn't a big fan of the 3 year deal to Jones, the 2 year deal to Neifi and the 2 year deal to Rusch. That's over 10m committed to 1 mediocre starter and 2 bench players for next year.

These announcers are boring me to death. Who cares about Tip O'Neill?

Huston Street? He's the Oakland A's closer. He's very valuable.

I would at least file a complaint with the administrators of the league. They won't do much about the free leagues, and probably nothing at all, but at least you get this persons name in their system. You do have recourse. I don't know how many teams in the league there are, but I would contact each one (outside of the two teams in question) privately and inform them that they should all speak up on the message board about the unfairness with the league, and that if the trade isn't reversed and voting rights to decline trades isn't reactivated, that all teams will abandon their teams. See if you can get him to back down. I was never one to stay quiet when I saw something I didn't like. I hope this isn't the only fantasy team you joined. Keep a list of email addresses of people you enjoy competing against in fantasy leagues. When next season rolls around, they will be pleased that someone asked them to compete in a league. There are probably a lot more people like you that doesn't have a long list of friends that want to play fantasy baseball. Therefore, keep tabs on those that you do enjoy competing with.

This is a legitimate concern. I had these concerns when they traded for him. If he somehow reverts back to his .360+ OBP from 2004 and back, he's an asset. If he provides the .326 OBP he put up last year, we traded 3 prospects and paid 6m for Tom Goodwin's twin. But, I would agree that it is too early to tell how he'll be this year. Pierre is not a selective hitter. He rarely walks. But, he also rarely strikes out. But, a lot of his OBP is derived from infield hits, something he hasn't had much luck with so far this year.

Nah, they've done it before.

I certainly have no attachment to Bynum in any way. After watching him loaf after that fly ball last night, I'm perfectly fine with him being gone. What does Dusty do? Rewards him with a start. And there was Aramis standing there admiring his deep fly ball that DIDN'T clear the fence. If he was thrown out at 2nd, I would have been sitting him today as well. I get so sick of the lack of hustle. I don't care who it is. Aramis is one of my favorite players, but there is no excuse for standing there admiring a ball that isn't even going to leave the park. This is not an individual performance contest. This is a team event. For the good of the team, you hustle. Plain and simple. And I'm peaved at Dusty for rewarding laziness.

The problem with Patterson's philosophy can be found right in his own sentence. THE OTHER TEAM KNOWS you will swing early and often, therefore they are not going to groove one for you. Until he learns to layoff the pitchers pitch, he's not going to improve. I hope someone eventually helps him figure this out.

After watching the last few games, I'd like to see Restovich hold down a bench spot for a couple of weeks.

I'm not surprised to see Wuertz go down this quick. It's obvious he has some things to work on, and I'd much rather see him working on things in a minor league game.

While I agree that if long relief was needed, Novoa would be the better choice, I don't necessarily see Aardsma getting in any closer work with this team. If Dempster fails or suffers an injury, one of Howry, Williamson or Eyre would probably get the nod ahead of Aardsma.

He has the best approach at the plate of any Cub hitter. He's going to be a really good #2 guy once they stick him there.

This thread went downhill in a hurry.

So, you know for a fact the mod didn't send a private message to the person who used the inappropriate language? If you don't know something as fact, you shouldn't assume anything about the moderators of this site. And when a moderator said that the bickering should be dropped, are you sure he/she wasn't referring to EVERYONE who was doing the bickering? Or are you assuming that because the moderators response directly followed yours that they were only speaking to you? Don't assume.

Since Kinsler has already been mentioned, and he was the 41st pick, I have to say that I'm really liking Chris Shelton with the overall 40th pick. I'm quite pleased with Kenji Johjima as well.

Here is your winner, folks. :cheers:

They were playing a DH. The points updated. Not sure when, but they are there now.

You might not have been hanging around when the site was crashing regularly, and operating extremely slow when it wasn't crashing. Archiving old threads and disconnecting the search function is what helped resolve some of those problems. This place has tremendous traffic. The average poster here has thousands of posts, and makes several posts per day. This is definitely not a rinky dink operation. I'm sure Tim would much rather have enough support from the advertising to not have to charge anyone for visiting this site. But, he needs revenue from somewhere and he definitely isn't getting enough from there. Worse yet, he's not even getting enough hits to the advertisements that he has been able to convince to pay for a portion of what it costs to run this site. If he loses them, he's either going to need more premium subscriber support, or risk losing more money out of his pocket. Tim has created a great place for Cub fans of all ages to visit and share everything Cubs. The minor league section is far and away the best source of minor league information around. They have done player interviews, management interviews, interviews with local sports journalists, sportscasters, etc.., and some of these folks are regular visitors of this site now as well. This isn't a lecture. This is just a reminder that you are part of something special here. If you are donating for premium membership, you're not just getting a few extra features that others aren't getting, you are a contributor to the continued existence of this site. And if you are contributing, I can assure you we are all very much appreciate it. So, send Tim a check! :D

I don't think comments like this are welcome here. You don't know anything about what I value or don't value, and you don't know anything about what other people who rely heavily on stats value or don't value. So, rather than toss insults at your leisure, how about sticking to defending your own point of view.

I see 3 choices here: 1) Pay a very nominal fee to help keep this site operating. By helping keep this site operating, you are entitled to extra bells and whistles. 2) Don't pay a nominal fee to keep this site operating. Whether you can't afford to or just don't want to, Tim hasn't turned this site into a "required" payment to be a part of this community. 3) We all find a new site when Tim decides it is no longer worth paying money out of his own pocket to keep this site operating. If you want the bells and whistles that come with this message board, you'll have to pay for it. If you don't want them, you most certainly don't have to pay. I sort of compare how Tim operates this site with ESPN. You want ESPN Insider, which offers much more than plain ole ESPN? Pay for it. I pay for it. And I'm not complaining.

Ha. His end stat line was not nearly as good as the one I posted above. But, he should be accumulating points, plus or minus.

Taylor Buchholz doesn't seem to be accumulating any points. Any ideas? As of this writing: 2 IP, 1 HA, 2 K's.