Knyption

I hope this is not true, and I am sure many of you think the same way. I am praying that there is not a 69 type collapse. with the wild card, cubs will make the playoffs but i forsee yet another year not making it to the series. they tried so hard in august, but harden zambrano with questionabe arms... i wish they will do good, but its har to see.rrftt

Hope it's like ESPN, "Stars came to play" Lee and Sori A-Ram is slumping now but his history indicates that he will have a hot month or 2 before its over. He is up and down alot. Lee seems to be getting hyped up, hopefully he can perform for a long stretch like he did a couple years ago. Sori will K and will pop out a lot but those first at bat or early solo bombs mess up pitchers thinking sometimes. zambrano harden dempster lilly is sick actually.

Yep cash transactions by one of his posse in a different country.... sounds like when he lost money in his hotel room...heh

I guess he covered his trail well.. Although it may be his ticket into the hall of fame...

My question is will we get closer to ichiro or so taguchi? my feeling is that it will be closer to taguchi

How many of the hyped up Japanese prospects actually play as good as advertised??? H Matsui - Kinda Ichiro --- well ya Taguchi -???crud K Matsui-???crud I dunno, i guess he is a great player...

Considering the cubs financial obligations, i guess i can understand not going for a big name, but getting 2 marginal upgrades on the field while doing nearly nothing to the rotation does not seem like a "Plan for Winning" to me. Call me skeptical....

I do not get it. I think they are better options for obp, but neither seem to put us over the top.... any thoughts?

a dream?............... yah

ok ok a real closer ... wood.... ok ok a real 5th ... prior (maybe 3-4th O.O) a real leadoff .. theriot at 2b ooo sorian deal with 2nd... i mean dang

i dunno what it will take but all i know is if they wanna WS he would be a key item and if they sign thier souls to the devil its worth it as long as they get AROD AROD + Santana i mean what else ?? friggen A

But he will be a FA after next year. What if Cuban trades the farm and 10 mil for him? lolo

gallager, fontenot, pie and marshall?

well darn make Cubs a national channel they would net close to yanks

We gotta bring back prior for 5th starter if he recovers anywhere close to wood he will be throwing 94 with nasty hooks. its been done before as long as he is training his body and also recovers he can be our 5th our of ST. If he returns even 80% of is best he will be a killer #2 in the playoffs.

He'll be back and make him setup/closer woods can still toss 98 if he can throw mostly fastballs with an occasional off speed nasty pitch hell be top closer inthe leauge .. see gagne a few years back.

2008... We are always looking ahead to next year. That said, I hope they can trade Jones salary for a prospect + cub pay 1.5 million or something. I would really like Soto to be our C. Prior, I'll give him a chance, 5th starter could be replaced by Marshall or be a diamond. We need to have a productive SS. Theriot is great, his hitting abilities and defense / range (considering Lee) are more suited for a 2b. Theriot needs to lead off, he would be good at that spot with his gritty batting style. Soriano should bat 2nd imho with protection from A-Rod (see A-Rod later) Let Ohman go. Trade De-Rosa for some prospects and or a reliever. Play murton Full Time his OBP is essential. Sign the best FA starter (no money i know, but try!! heh backload even more) Sign A-Rod have Piniella negotiate a return to daddy deal lol (yeah right, but a hope eh?) Despite a lessor range than before put him at SS!!!!! Deal with Pie Full time at CF he can do like the CF from the DB's im sure, low BA but some good HR's and some good experience. Bat Him 6-8 depending on the opposing starter. Make Marmol Wood 8th/9th inning dudes. trade marquis for whatever you can get even if its half his salary and a AAAA dude. trade dempster for scraps. you have. theriot soriano arod aram lee soto murton pie pitcher Zambrano FA Lilly Hill Prior/Marshall Hart Howry FA Eyre lh setup Marmol Wood insert here

I've been hearing Steve Stone on the score all year talking about the Cubs paying 400 Million or something like that. I know its backloaded contracts and what not. He always talks about that impairs the cubs from making any major moves. Can anyone explain what he is talking about for those like myself who don't know the dollars and cents behind what constantly is ranting about? TIA

Since i cannot reply to the premium thread.. A-Rod would be nice, boras lying and all sounds right. However, is there really no way to work it legally to have a player become an owner after he is retired and contract is over? say he gets 300m/10 years, but takes 20m/yr and defferred 10m/yr till when the contract was over. He is sitting on 100m at that time, he could just buy part ownership of the team, correct? Although it is not "Part" of the contract, an off the books, off the paper verbal agreement could be made between the future owners and A-Rod. If A-Rod decides to become part owner when he retires that 100m would become stock, if not, they negotiate the payment terms of this contract, probably something like 3 mil / year for the rest of his life or something / shrug i dunno but still, i think there are ways "off the books" or "off the record" to get something like this done.

Prolly more threads like there around somewhere, what do you think? 1. Theroit 2. Soriano 3. Lee 4. Aram 5. Jones / Floyd 6. Barret 7. De Rosa 8. Murton / Pie / Izzy

So the cubs need to hold leads. I wonder how many of those 1 run games the cubs were winning at some point? 1-8 should it be more like 7-2?

I'm not sure how this data stacks up against other information about teams, maybe one of the stat gurus can elaborate on the relevence of Runs Scored vs. Runs Allowed. Right now the Cubs are at 142 RS 108 RA. Compared to other NL Teams the cubs have the 2nd best ratio. RS RA Mets 161 104 Cubs 142 108 Mil 160 127 LA 141 117 Compared to the whole league, they are 3rd. Boston Mets Cubs. Does this mean we have a good team? The pen has the most blame for the bad record so far... Thoughts?

1. Theroit 2. Soriano 3. Lee 4, Aram 5. barrett 6, floyd/jones/murton 7. SS 8. Pie DH De Rosa

for some reason i get the hunch this has nothing to do with a chicago team. i don't know who what where why but i would think that the yankees, atlanta, LA Dodgers, San Fransisco, Anahiem, or the marlins would be in the trade deals.

I haven't read this whole post but hey.. Starters don't show they're best stuff in the first inning.. the good ones start off with a different set of pitches and different sequences and they continually change throughout the game.. well the benefit with wood as closer, he don't have to hold back his best stuff till the 2nd time down the order.. he can come out of the gates and let it rip.