nick23

I might be way off on my impression of Pena, but I see a young Sammy Sosa without the speed. He just turned 24. He's never had more than a half season of at bats, yet he's had as many as 26 HR's in a season. A guy with that kind of power can K all he wants if he can hit 40+ HR's a year. Sammy had a horrible OBP when he was that age also. I disagree with that last statement. 200 k's and 40 walks would be pretty awful. I don't care how many HR's you hit. Especially if he's only going to hit around .250 for average.

It's called a platoon slick. No matter how you cut it, Boston's RF is much better than Jones. Their offense runs circles around the Cubs. Any comparison is absolutely absurd. Well that's good, since I never compared the two offenses. Nor did I compare their RF to Jones. I just said they have major holes in their offense as well. I'm just not as sold on their RF situation as you are.

The difference is those teams can afford to take on such a bad bat. The Cubs can't afford a black hole like Neifi in their already weak lineup. Boston has major holes in their lineup also. They're awful at SS,3B, and RF. And they're not overly strong at first. A platoon of Trot Nixon and Wily Mo Pena in RF will crush the production of any and all of the Cubs outfielders. I think Lowell will be just fine at 3b in Boston. Do you really want to compare the Cubs offense to Boston's? Boston's top of the line up of Crisp, Loretta, Manny, Ortiz, Varitek and Pena/Nixon will be one of the best in baseball. Sea Bass can go 0 for the year and Boston will still score more than 900 runs. The Cubs can only wish for 700 runs at this juncture, especially if Neifi is starting everday. Where is all the love for Pena coming from? He's a poor mans Adam Dunn without the OBP.

The difference is those teams can afford to take on such a bad bat. The Cubs can't afford a black hole like Neifi in their already weak lineup. Boston has major holes in their lineup also. They're awful at SS,3B, and RF. And they're not overly strong at first. They led all of freaking baseball in runs scored last year. They'll be fine. They can handle a bad bat or two because the group as a whole is great. And RF is not awful for Boston. I'd take a platoon of Nixon and Pena (or either one individually) over Jones in a heartbeat. And their 3B situation has a chance to work out very nicely. Yeah that .254/.304/.492 is great from Willy Mo in right. Not to mention his 120 strikeouts to 20 walks. Corey Patterson will probably outproduce Pena this year. And Nixon's numbers are on a steady decline, plus he's injury prone.

The difference is those teams can afford to take on such a bad bat. The Cubs can't afford a black hole like Neifi in their already weak lineup. Boston has major holes in their lineup also. They're awful at SS,3B, and RF. And they're not overly strong at first.

Very true. Niether one of these two are going to make or break our season. If the pitching can't get healthy it doesn't matter who's playing short.

That didn't work with Corey Patterson. Giving someone playing time does not insure progress. Yeah, but it worked for Bobby Cox last year.

This makes me happy. Wouldn't change a thing.

How did we get 3 runs?

Our starting pitching is going to be brutal in April.

Santo just said "I'll tell ya, I don't know how you can keep this guy out of the lineup". He also just said he gave us a great bat at shortstop after Nomar went down last year. Wow

Another 1 pitch out for Neifi.

Wow, the offense sounds terrible today. A lot of 1 pitch outs.

I did hear him say that. I don't think Brenly really knows what he's talking about half the time. When they interviewed Baker during the game he mentioned that Cedeno had the job. Hopefully he was talking about the SS job and not just a job on the roster.

Not sure if this has been posted yet. Got it from rotoworld. Kerry Wood - S - Cubs Cubs manager Dusty Baker indicated today that Kerry Wood (shoulder, knee) could return in late April. "He very well could be," Baker said. "Everybody heals differently, everybody progresses differently. The dates are a preliminary thing you shoot for. As long as he's not feeling any discomfort or soreness from throwing, we're very satisfied." Wood has yet to face hitters, but he is working off a mound. He's due to throw 50-55 pitches on Wednesday. "We're picking up the intensity a little bit," Wood said. "The other day, when I threw off the mound, I was letting it go without any apprehension at all and putting more on it and kind of testing it. I recovered pretty well from that and we'll do it again [Wednesday]. One of these next times or two, we'll put some hitters in there and get some feedback from them." Mar. 21 - 4:33 pm et Source: Cubs.mlb.com

Well Neifi in the 2 spot really makes me sick to my stomache, but I do like Barret batting 5th.

To me, this basically confirms in my mind that the cubs were lying all along.

And nobody will ever be able to convince me that the cubs haven't known about this all spring. This organization is a joke.

Of all the crappy things that have happened in the history of this miserable team, having two pitchers with as much talent as Prior and Wood not stay healthy through their prime years probably ranks 1 on the crappy scale. It's just not fair.

Jerome's off to a nice start.

Who said they can't be good? I said they can't be counted on for consistently being good. I don't see how you can disregard their careers, and the careers of several other similar pitchers in the same category and say without a doubt they'll be good. I know what you said. I was responding to Transformed Tiger.

Middle relievers, by their very nature, are shaky. I agree somewhat if you're speaking universally about middle relievers. But there's nothing about those two guy's numbers form the past two seasons that says shaky. Plus on this team Howry, and Eyre will be used more as set up men rather than middle relief. It doesn't matter how they are used, they are middle relievers. Also, the past two seasons are not the only thing you go on. If you look at middle relievers two best back to back seasons, most will look pretty good. The point is 2 good years might be all you can get out of them. Maybe you can get 3. Maybe you can get 2 good, 1 bad, and 2 more good. However it works out, they're shaky pitchers. That's why they are in the roles they are in. I don't think I could disagree more. But just to clarify, are you saying that bullpen guys that never become closers have a shelf life of about 2-4 years? No, he's saying that they aren't consistent by any measure. Middle relievers are such because they aren't good enough to start, then aren't good enough to close. Add in the short season of IP they get each year, and their performance is bound to vary wildly. That's why you don't know what you'll get with Howry and Eyre(and Wuertz, Novoa, Williamson), and it's especially why it was a bad decision to give each a 3 year deal. You don't know what you're going to get from Wuertz and Novoa because they haven't pitched enough. I think you have a pretty good idea what your going to get from Howry and Eyre though. I don't see how you can just disregard their two prior seasons and say theese two aren't good enough to start or close, so they can't be that good. Sometimes players get typecast into certain roles. If Bobby Howry had been closing for the Indians last year, he would have been a top 10 AL closer.

Middle relievers, by their very nature, are shaky. I agree somewhat if you're speaking universally about middle relievers. But there's nothing about those two guy's numbers form the past two seasons that says shaky. Plus on this team Howry, and Eyre will be used more as set up men rather than middle relief. It doesn't matter how they are used, they are middle relievers. Also, the past two seasons are not the only thing you go on. If you look at middle relievers two best back to back seasons, most will look pretty good. The point is 2 good years might be all you can get out of them. Maybe you can get 3. Maybe you can get 2 good, 1 bad, and 2 more good. However it works out, they're shaky pitchers. That's why they are in the roles they are in. I don't think I could disagree more. But just to clarify, are you saying that bullpen guys that never become closers have a shelf life of about 2-4 years?

Middle relievers, by their very nature, are shaky. I agree somewhat if you're speaking universally about middle relievers. But there's nothing about those two guy's numbers form the past two seasons that says shaky. Plus on this team Howry, and Eyre will be used more as set up men rather than middle relief.

Howry and Eyre are shaky too. Really? Eyre's 4.0 IP, 1H, 0 ER, 6 K, 0 BB looks pretty nice. He's been pretty filthy when I've seen him pitch. Howry didn't look to good that first time out, but he has seemingly improved. Howry: 4.0 IP, 2H, 0 ER, 3 K, 0 BB is pretty solid I haven't seen howry pitch since that first outing (his control sucked), so you may be right. Eyre's been nasty though. I was looking at the bigger picture of their careers and ages. It'll take more than 4 good innings to change my opinion of those guys. What about the 236 innings they've pitched over the last 2 years? Those two guys are far from shaky.