nick23

Root for small ball? This isn't going to be a small ball team. Juan Pierre will slap some singles and steal some bases, but other than that this is not a small ball team. It's a baseball team. Why do people insist on trying to pretend it's one or the other. Everybody wanted to call the White Sox a small ball team despite the fact that they relied so heavily on homeruns to win games. The Cubs have been for years among the league leaders in sacrifice hits and bunts yet people said they never tried small ball stuff. We shouldn't pretend this offense is going to be immensely different than it has been in years. Pierre isn't going to change everything on his own. Anyway, of course Cubs fans are going to root for Pierre. I personally wouldn't have gone so hard for him to be on the team, and I think many people grossly overvalue him. But I like him and think he can help the team and will be pulling hard for him, and all the rest of the team. Just to piggy back here. In addition, the Cubs are lacking at least one run producer in the middle. Right now I would say their offense is slightly below average to average. If DLee or Aramis regresses significantly to the mean or below the mean of the career performance the Cubs will have a hard time scoring runs. I think Slap Nasty is an upgrade from the previous years but the Cubs are still lacking consistent run producing people, at least as it stands right now. How are we slightly below to average offensively? I can think of 3 NL teams that have a better offense than us on paper. STL, PHI, and NY. And we might be better than New York. You might could throw the Dodgers in there too, but they have some pretty big health concerns. I think we'll easily be in the top half of the league in runs scored this season. The Cubs will likely not hit as many HRs as last year or the previous year. They haven't been in the top half of league in runs scored in quite some time and they haven't done much to improve their situation this offseason. I guess I could ask you why you think they will easily be in the top half this year. Why won't they hit as many HR's as last year? I think we'll easily be in the top half of runs scored this year because the 3 black hole positions as far as OBP last year(CF, SS, and LF) have been improved quite a bit. Becuase the people in LF, CF, RF, and SS will likely hit less HRs then the people in those positions last year. In addition, Lee, Walker, and Barrett will probably hit less HRs this year. Both Barrett and Lee had or tied career highs in HRs and walker is another year older. I am not saying the offesnse is terrible but it is not good either. Last year they were middle of the pack. I expect the same thing this year. I disagree with the HR thing. Hollandsworth hit 5 HR's last year in 100 games. Murton hit 7 in 50 games. Burnitz hit 24, Jones hit 23. Neifi hit 9 while slugging .383, Cedeno can come close to that. Corey hit 13 homers last year and while Pierre wont hit more than 1 or 2, the upgrade in left should make up that difference. Who knows what Walker, Lee, and Barrett will do. Hopefully there won't be a dropoff there. HR's will once again not be a problem this year, it's going to come down to can we get on base consistently. I feel with the upgrades we've made the answer is going to be yes we can.

Why does everybody forget RF when talking about blackholes last year? Cubs RF ranked 13th in the NL in OBP, 15th in OPS. LF was 14th and 12th in those two categories. Furthermore, while we can hope for improvement from LF and SS, there is nothing close to a guarantee on that. Cubs SS had an OBP of .307 (10th in the NL). Will Ronny beat that? Hopefully, probably. But will Ronny play 162 games? No way. Neifi will have a chance to drag whatever Ronny does down, not to mention, Ronny could struggle to a .315-.320 OBP, which wouldn't help much. Then you have LF, where the Cubs had a .319 OBP last year. Again, Murton should do better, but by how much? And what about the guy Dusty inevitably plays in his place? Not to mention the Cubs could easily see their 1B OBP drop significantly, even if Lee has a great year. Plus, we could see serious decline from 2B (.346 last year) if Walker isn't playing. Of course you always have to worry about Barrett, if he is unable to match his career year, the C OBP could decline as well. You can't just say LF, SS, and CF have been solved, all is well. There were positions that overachieved last year that could decline this year. And some of the replacements won't necessariliy light the world on fire. Of course, Dusty could ruin any chances of improvement himself by overplaying undeserving veterans, his specialty. Well, if I took a worst case possible scenario then yeah our offense could be pretty bad. Our main problem last year was lack of OBP. We've upgraded OBP at three positions. Two of those three positions could be a significant upgrade(CF and LF). The offense in my opinion is upgraded.

Root for small ball? This isn't going to be a small ball team. Juan Pierre will slap some singles and steal some bases, but other than that this is not a small ball team. It's a baseball team. Why do people insist on trying to pretend it's one or the other. Everybody wanted to call the White Sox a small ball team despite the fact that they relied so heavily on homeruns to win games. The Cubs have been for years among the league leaders in sacrifice hits and bunts yet people said they never tried small ball stuff. We shouldn't pretend this offense is going to be immensely different than it has been in years. Pierre isn't going to change everything on his own. Anyway, of course Cubs fans are going to root for Pierre. I personally wouldn't have gone so hard for him to be on the team, and I think many people grossly overvalue him. But I like him and think he can help the team and will be pulling hard for him, and all the rest of the team. Just to piggy back here. In addition, the Cubs are lacking at least one run producer in the middle. Right now I would say their offense is slightly below average to average. If DLee or Aramis regresses significantly to the mean or below the mean of the career performance the Cubs will have a hard time scoring runs. I think Slap Nasty is an upgrade from the previous years but the Cubs are still lacking consistent run producing people, at least as it stands right now. How are we slightly below to average offensively? I can think of 3 NL teams that have a better offense than us on paper. STL, PHI, and NY. And we might be better than New York. You might could throw the Dodgers in there too, but they have some pretty big health concerns. I think we'll easily be in the top half of the league in runs scored this season. The Cubs will likely not hit as many HRs as last year or the previous year. They haven't been in the top half of league in runs scored in quite some time and they haven't done much to improve their situation this offseason. I guess I could ask you why you think they will easily be in the top half this year. Why won't they hit as many HR's as last year? I think we'll easily be in the top half of runs scored this year because the 3 black hole positions as far as OBP last year(CF, SS, and LF) have been improved quite a bit.

Root for small ball? This isn't going to be a small ball team. Juan Pierre will slap some singles and steal some bases, but other than that this is not a small ball team. It's a baseball team. Why do people insist on trying to pretend it's one or the other. Everybody wanted to call the White Sox a small ball team despite the fact that they relied so heavily on homeruns to win games. The Cubs have been for years among the league leaders in sacrifice hits and bunts yet people said they never tried small ball stuff. We shouldn't pretend this offense is going to be immensely different than it has been in years. Pierre isn't going to change everything on his own. Anyway, of course Cubs fans are going to root for Pierre. I personally wouldn't have gone so hard for him to be on the team, and I think many people grossly overvalue him. But I like him and think he can help the team and will be pulling hard for him, and all the rest of the team. Just to piggy back here. In addition, the Cubs are lacking at least one run producer in the middle. Right now I would say their offense is slightly below average to average. If DLee or Aramis regresses significantly to the mean or below the mean of the career performance the Cubs will have a hard time scoring runs. I think Slap Nasty is an upgrade from the previous years but the Cubs are still lacking consistent run producing people, at least as it stands right now. How are we slightly below to average offensively? I can think of 3 NL teams that have a better offense than us on paper. STL, PHI, and NY. And we might be better than New York. You might could throw the Dodgers in there too, but they have some pretty big health concerns. I think we'll easily be in the top half of the league in runs scored this season.

8-7 Padres. Mcgehee had a rbi groundout

rbi tripple for Buck Coats. 8-6 Padres

I'm listening. It's 8-5 Padres. THe Riot just had a rbi single. Neifi had a pop up double earlier in the inning. The fielder lost in in the sun I think.

I believe this announcer just said Todd Walker came up with the cowboy up slogan the Red Sox used. Did they not come up with that towards the end of 04 when Walker was with the Cubs?

Mabry Great play by Murton in left. Running diving catch to rob someone of a double.

Cedeno just hit into a double play. He must be pressing.

Solo HR Murton

He also just said Glendon Rusch has very good stuff.

Ramirez was taken out of the game for some reason. Kind of strange.

Great AB by Hairston. 9 pitch walk I believe.

Another hit off a left hander for Jones. 1st and 3rd no outs

Whose projection was that though? Dopirak has an unbelievable opportunity this spring. If he can show something, and learn something, he's got a chance to erase the negative impression from 2005 and re-emerge as a top prospect (and possibly become solid trade bait). All the publications. You are right, not from Dusty's mouth. I'm happy seeing Jones not there in the first 2 games though. Cedeno would be nice in the 2-hole if he can take some pitches and get on base. Didn't Dusty say in an interview around the time of the convention that if Walker was still with the team he'd probably be the 2 hitter? Maybe I just dreamt that?

Jacey, I live in Memphis and Stl, Cin, and Atl games are blacked out. It kind of sucks because Stl, and Cin make up a good chunk of our scheldule, it's still worth it in my opinion though.

I agree, it's well worth the money. Not only do you get to see all Cub games. But if you're into fantasy baseball it's almost a must have. It's amazing how into a game you can get if you have a fantasy pitcher starting in one of the games. Plus it's always fun to see the look of disgust in you're wife's face when you're up at midnight watching the Angels and Devil Rays.

Anyone know when WGN is going to release their cubs scheldule? I would just like to know if our opening day game will be televised. I have the mlb package but Cincinnatti is a market that is blacked out for me. So if the game is not on WGN or ESPN my yearly ritual of taking off for opening day is going to be shot all to hell. Thanks.

Maybe Hendry hasn't shown any interest because he knows that either one would take away at bats from Murton. I can already see Dusty saying that Hidalgo and Murton will battle it out in spring training for the LF job. Then no matter what happens Hidalgo will win the job with Dusty spouting out his BS about protecting Murton.

Wasn't it just noted that he had the same injury as both Morris and Carpenter? To say he'll never stay healthy really makes no sense. Correct. And it makes zero sense to put him in the bullpen. Folks need to understand each specific injury in context to how it affects performance before lumping them all together and making assumptions on comebacks. Miller is a career starter, and when healthy, a damn good one. What again was Miller last season with the Red Sox? You know, before his arm fell off and had to have surgery again? Let's not forget all the one time starters who have had arm surgery and have thrived in the pen (Dempster top 'O my head). Or all the starters who have had arm surgery and thrived as starters again.

Wasn't it just noted that he had the same injury as both Morris and Carpenter? To say he'll never stay healthy really makes no sense.

Not to hijack this thread. But I've seen a couple of posts now about Pierre's defense. Everyone keeps saying he takes bad routes on balls. I have a question for you stat guys. How important do consider zone rating? I know what it is, just not sure how significant a stat it is. Just by looking at his defensive stats on espn.com I see that he was top 10 in the majors in put outs. And he was 11th in all of baseball in zone rating. Looking at those 2 stats it doesn't sound like he's below average at all defensively.

How does OBP at the lead off spot not improve the offense? Defense oops

Stop using Corey and Nomar as excuses and examples. Corey's the poster child for impatient, and Nomar is a free-swinger as well. Turns out, Nomar's quite a bit better at making solid contact though. Without them, we posted the #2 BA in the league. Where were we in runs scored? Do you really think Corey hitting 275 with an OBP of 295 would really make enough of a difference? No, but Corey with a .320obp and .452slg which is what he had in 04 would have made a difference. And Nomar batting second all year instead of Neifi would have made a tiny differnece also. It's a valid excuse for the lack of runs last year. Sorry if you don't agree, but it's true. Edit: sorry for the large font. Do not know why it does that sometimes.