Knyption

Great, that bacisally reinforces the idea we need a fluke season to win this year

Thanks

Well, if you consider what the Red Sox gave up to get Crisp I'm glad the Cubs didn't pursue him. Because Marte is going to be Mike Schmidt? We'll see. I would have given him up for Crisp, who is already a terrific hitter and, since he just turned 26, probably hasn't plateaued. They gave up Marte and Mota. I would have given up the prospects for Pierre, Hill, and Novoa easily.

What does this stat represent?

how many signs did he miss last year? i can't find that stat (SM...MS?) on espn's stat page. also, how were is SM numbers compared to walker's? I wouldn't bust anyone's balls for that one. The whole damn team missed signs like crazy last year. It was sickening, and it got worse as the season went along. I wish they would keep stats for that, that would have further highlighted how pathetic last year's team was at times. If so many players missed signs, its either A> they are all dimwits or B> The coaching staff sucks ass and cant remember the signs they have to give.

Did somebody do that? Well, there have been posts here and there by non-regulars that well do. Anyways, I would like to give the guy a fair shot.

I dunno, I think Jerry is the kinda obp SparkPlug we need behind Pierre. I concur Walker is better all around, but waaay better than Neifi IF walk is here I prey he starts and 2 hole. Hendry messed up when he resigned Neifi, he was playing to Dustys weakness in making bad personell decisions. anyways, to say Hairston is terrible is out of hand and to imply that he wont get on base is obsurd.

Granted, he was not THAT good in 2005 but heck, reading the cubs.com article about battling injuries and etc. (i know i know normal cubby smokescreen). I believe he is a sleeper for a nice 2 hole hitter. If you look at his 2004 stats pre-injury he hit .303 with a .378 opb. He must have taken a ton of pitches which is what we need. His K/BB ratio has never been bad, and before his injury he was on pace for 25-30 SB's in '04. Not many DP's with Pierre on before him and hit / run DP's would be low regardless, they are both above avg speed. Not bad Defense, better than Walker worse than perez. If walker is traded, I prey Hairston is the Starter over Neifi. If he was to put up .285 avg .360 obp batting 2nd, there would be many more RBI chances for the middle.

Haha, patterson can't even hit balls straight down the middle according to that pic.

Its fact, its part of the history of the game we love so much. Its like deadball or Pete Rose. I swear if Steroids guys make the Hall and Pete is not accepted, its PURE BS. Gambling with money is one thing, Gambling with your life for money is another!

Perez is only a great player as a backup. Other than that he is trash, i Think endry realized that last year, and from the sounds dusty at the convention. He finally may be realizing this. It's up to Dusty to play the young guys, but he has had a year to look at them last year. As long as they do moderate in Spring training, dusty will be on the bandwagon for cedeno and murton. Well see. but hendry may have put the foot down on perez.

I could be on the serbian team, and shoot people when they hit homers

Haha, Vance hit it on the head the friggen jail league, "penal league" haha Sosa may end up there with the shady tax practice his foundation does, but besides that, give him another shot, who knows he might put together a 35-40hr season before he retires, but like deer a 230 avg.

What's a Clement board? dude, your kinda like cubby cool-aid / disgruntled white sox fan... you guys won, but you must have some sort of resentment left. Chill, bro.

Yeah. That's completely uncalled for. If you feel that way about this board, there's 1 easy solution for you. Dude Raw good point GTFOH if you make comments like that, in this peaceful yet debatful forum, hand up your keyboard man. Clement was like a crapshot.... his nickname should be 7-11 for real, dude was just aweful then good. Why do you think Boston wants to trade him? If he was that great, they would keep him, they know stats.

Agreed. Hendry may not be the best in the offseason, but sometimes it seems like things he was working on in the offseason turn into midseason fleecings. Who knows, if we can get a strong bench guy, or another starter for some prospects thats aren't highly touted but are having great seasons, we never know. The cubs nickname should really be the Whatif's

He might be like borowski in '03 hahah who knows, likely filler for someone who will get traded ? or just backup AAA guy

Who knows, he might be one of those freak 1 year wonders.

Hi guys, Used to post a lot, I have been lurking and reading the site, and keeping up to date with what has been going on. I think its good time for an optimistic post about the cubs, even though many of us (myself included) have scars from cubby let downs in the past. Upgrades for next year. Pierre > Corey - This is a no brainer, even though Pierre is not the best leadoff hitter, and his OBP is not in the high .300's, it will be nice to have a steady leadoff hitter in '06. We know what to expect everyday; a stolen base from time to time, some slap hits, a couple doubles, and speedy outfielder. I think this will stabilize the Lineup as Baker won't need to expirement leading off the game. He could have forked more cash for Furcal but Pierre fits the need. Considering what was available, this was a big upgrade over Patterson in CF. Grade A- Murton > Holly and Platoon: I really think this kid will do well, I have read the threads breaking down his performance, and noticed how there is good chance he will not sustain his Avg and Obp through a whole season, that said I think .280 avg 20 dingers 70 rbi's and a .340 obp is not out of the question. Again like Pierre, if this is stable production, it sure beats lasts years mix and match mumbo jumbo. Hopefully things turn out the right way and Dusty doesn't do another Dustyism with this kid. Grade B Jones marginally better than Burnitz: Jones is speedier, covers more ground in the OF more accurate arm. He K's alot but can put up some numbers with the wind blowing out. Also one thing he may have to his advantage is that on the first couple of months, the scouts may have not looked hard at his swing, since he was in the AL up to this point. Perhaps the same thing can be said about him vs. NL pitchers since he hasn't seen much of them but I will give him the benefit of the doubt. I think he'll have a hot first half and fizzle in August but hopefully we can bring in a solid 4th OF mid season to switch off platooning with Murton and Jones. Grade C - Average Cedeno > Neifi/Nomar: Many people are skeptical on this kid, but he has been improving over the past few years. His glove is golden and as long as he keeps his swing short he should hit for contact. .280 .330 .415 would be decent as a potentially gold glove caliber middle IF, IMO. He has good speed to set the table batting 8th in late innings and may ease into the 2nd spot vs. some pitchers he has had success against. Lets hope he starts off hot so Dustyism's dont start to kick in. Grade B- Bulllpen: Dempster a whole year, expensive yet solid pickups in Howry and Erye(sp?), and the rest of the bunch. This is much much better, need I stress much better than last year. How many blown leads did we lose with last year? I don't know the number but from what I watched on TV, it was enough to warrant spending this kind of money IMO. Having the 7th 8th 9th basically solidified will do wonders for this team. I think one of the worst problems about last year and the year before was too much inconsistancy with people's roles. Grade: A I know this is a trademark Dustyism but still if you put yourself in some of the players position, its hard to get mentally prepared for a game if you dont know what you'll be doing day to day, let alone a whole season. Take a real life job for example, lets say your in customer service. You answer phones do PO's etc. one day then the next day they tell you to make sales calls; thats sales. Then the day after they ask you to work with quality control; thats QC; then back to customer service. Sure that may be a managers job in the real world. But Dusty is the manager and the clubhouse leaders are the managers assistant not the players. If you are put out of place in your real profession you probably feel akward doing something else. You have a mind set, you do A B C D and sometimes E. Same thing for the players. Offense Rating: B- Last year was terrible, more consistancy will bring better results. They arent better than St. Louis but still they will do just enough to win if the pitching is good Starters: This is the enigma, we dont know what to expect health wise. Could be A+ could be C+. Anyways Ill give everyone the benefit of the doubt and predict the 1-6 innings on any given day will be solid enough to at least have a chance to win Bullpen: This should be drastically better. A Overall, even though I kind of got off topic a couple of times, I think the team has improved enough to contend, they are by no means a shoe-in for the playoffs but they have a legitimate chance. In terms of Hendry, Ill give him a B- this offseason, he didnt get marquee players but he did fill "SOME" holes. Baker is the wild card. At least this season will be interesting to watch.

Perhaps the reason JH gave him 3 million was to actually HELP him!. Anyone think that Hendry saying he had a good relationship with Corey is false? Perhaps if Corey was non-tendered he would be playing for the League Minimum. Perhaps Hendry was giving him a paycheck and told him behind closed doors that he was gonna send him somewhere. Maybe patterson is fine with this. The fact is that we do not know what happens behind the scenes so why speculate on this and that and what have you. Corey didnt get the job done, simple. If you are a sales man and dont sell squat do you expect to keep your job very long? Cut the chain get him outta here

If I could pick one super elite and one above average guys I would have to go with Miguel Cabrera and Jason Bay Just one guy alone, pitching, Chacon Offense / Defense Wright

Remind me to hurl when i get home

I can not believe that Neifi is back Corey is back and Jones may be here. Thats all Baker needs, some Vets, a pet project like Corey and then all of a sudden you have mabry and patterson taking time away from Murton and Neifi getting like 50% of the playing time over Cedeno. What in the world is going on up there? I hope they honestly do not think that we can win a championship with this team. The only way would be to have some freak years out of some players in the post roid era. 4-5 years ago I would have though this is more likely but since people have the new testing rules etc. the likelyhood is low.

Perhaps there have been other factors which make Hendry shy away from signing a super huge guy or taking on a lot of salary. Perhaps he was hoping he wouldnt have to give Z and Prior raises? or perhaps he wants to work out multiyear deals with them? Who knows. But wait a sec, if that was the case, then why offer to Furcal and not Giles? Hmm Hendry is either starting to make less and less sense or I make no sense at all.

Long time no posting for meh! Hi guys! Well Dimitri Young Hmm.. Tell you what if we landed Tejada for SS Young would be good enough for RF Pierre Walker Dlee Tejada Aram Young Murton Barret