C.C.

I hope he keeps it up. Having him with Howry and Eyre and the bullpen will be even better next year.

What a guy hitting .292 with 28 HR and 82 RBI with a OBP .352 isn't good enough? Huh? Carlos Lee is 96th of qualified players in OBP. He's not a bad player, but on a team that's going to need an OBP stud to overcome low OBP guys in Izturis, Jones, and possibly Cedeno, it's not enough. I think sometimes people can get blinded by OBP. His OBP is good and his production is even better. What we couldn't use those those 28 HR and 82 RBI this year?

Based on watching the games. I see alot of games and Cedeno has made some boneheaded plays. Of course he's young and it's his first major league season as a full time shortstop and he's still learning. At this point right now Izturis is the better shortstop. Have you watched Izturis enough to be able to make the same anecdotal claim? Nope! But Izzy winning a gold glove, and everyone and their mother on all the Dodgers message boards praising his glove work, I can assume he can play a little bit of Shortstop. In fact I can't find anything or anyone that says he's not a bad shortstop. #1, the Gold Glove is a joke. You should know that. Bobby Abreu has one. Rafael Palmiero had one in a season where he played like 30 games at 1B. #2, he wasn't even the best SS on the Dodgers. Rafael Furcal is/was. By a wide margin: Now, defensive metrics are still very raw, but that's a huge gap. #3, there are people on message boards praising Neifi Perez's glove work. So you're going by 2 completely meaningless pieces of evidence to support your statement. Now, all that said, he's not a bad defensive SS. He's probably solid. But I've never seen him play, I won't assume he's great based on a Gold Glove award and based on his salary and his offensive production throughout his career: ...I would rather take my chances that Cedeno will continue to develop into a perfectly fine SS at a fraction of the cost. Maybe Cedeno will be the better shortstop down the line, but I said at this point in time Izturis is the better SS right now.

Based on watching the games. I see alot of games and Cedeno has made some boneheaded plays. Of course he's young and it's his first major league season as a full time shortstop and he's still learning. At this point right now Izturis is the better shortstop. Have you watched Izturis enough to be able to make the same anecdotal claim? Nope! But Izzy winning a gold glove, and everyone and their mother on all the Dodgers message boards praising his glove work, I can assume he can play a little bit of Shortstop. In fact I can't find anything or anyone that says he's not a bad shortstop.

I have to agree with you here. I think Cedeno has a bit more pop in his bat then Izzy.

That has been blown out of proportion by the media. Do we really know the extent of the injury? He was playing a very good 3rd base for the Dodgers and didn't look like he was hampered by his elbow.

Based on watching the games. I see alot of games and Cedeno has made some boneheaded plays. Of course he's young and it's his first major league season as a full time shortstop and he's still learning. At this point right now Izturis is the better shortstop.

Neifi Perez is not getting any younger and do you really see him as a everyday player at his age?

It won't be a blow if he opts out, it would be if he opts out and signs elsewhere. It's not like the Cubs couldn't resign him (unless I'm mistaken and there's a clause that says as soon as he opts out the Cubs can no longer sign him). I'm almost positive he will opt out. I've felt all along he could easily get better than a 2/22 deal this offseason, and because of that he'd be a food not to opt out. The question is would he accept 4/44, and all Hendry has to do is add a couple years, or does he want something like 5/65, where you have to add money and years. From what Aramis and his agent have said, I'm guessing he could be locked up just by adding a couple years (ballplayers live for longterm deals) and a couple bucks. He'd be stupid not to opt and get more money and years from the Cubs. With the lack of 3rd basemen on the market, I can see some teams throwing some big $$$ at him. He can get 13-14 per year...

It would be a major blow if he opts out after this year. Does anyone know what date he needs to notify the Cubs he is opting out of this contract?

OMG STEVE STONE FOR GM~! HE TELLS IT LIKE IT IS, CURVEBALL OUTSIDE CORNER!! I was just throwing it out there. I never advocated Stone as GM. I've pointed to Hawk Harrelson's failed short tenure as GM of the Sox as a precursor to Stone becoming a GM(which he never will). Maybe Steve sees him as able to improve offensively. If that's why he likes him, then I like him too. . first of all, i don't think that having izturis at short is the end of the world, although i see no reason, other than blind hope, to believe that he will improve drastically at the plate. he's exactly the type of player that hendry likes to acquire and exactly the type of player that dusty likes to pencil in at the top of the order--an overhyped, athletic player that can't get on base or hit for power. now, as i said, it's not the end of the world with him at short, after all, he's very good deffensively and if we get better hitters in the off-season, his offense won't mean much. ideally, he hits 8th in a good lineup. however, if we start ronny cedeno at second and expect him to play most of the season there next year, we will fail and fail miserably. my only hope, if this indeed happens, is that no one gets hurt, not one soul--so that the cubs obvious (to some) inability to get on base or hit for power is seen by all as the reason for their inability to score runs or win games. a lack of injuries next season will lay bare before us all why hendry's brand of baseball fails. you can't score if you make outs all the time and can't hit for power. Unless Ronny really picks it up the last two months of the season. He's seeing the ball alot better. We'll have to see how he does. You do need someone like a Carlos Lee for LF next year and another starter or two. carlos lee is not the answer, either. hendry will have to pull off a big trade to bring someone with a big bat AND a good OBP to this team in the offseason. What a guy hitting .292 with 28 HR and 82 RBI with a OBP .352 isn't good enough? Huh?

The Over\Under is 4 walks by Marmol tonight. I'll take the over...

OMG STEVE STONE FOR GM~! HE TELLS IT LIKE IT IS, CURVEBALL OUTSIDE CORNER!! I was just throwing it out there. I never advocated Stone as GM. I've pointed to Hawk Harrelson's failed short tenure as GM of the Sox as a precursor to Stone becoming a GM(which he never will). Maybe Steve sees him as able to improve offensively. If that's why he likes him, then I like him too. . first of all, i don't think that having izturis at short is the end of the world, although i see no reason, other than blind hope, to believe that he will improve drastically at the plate. he's exactly the type of player that hendry likes to acquire and exactly the type of player that dusty likes to pencil in at the top of the order--an overhyped, athletic player that can't get on base or hit for power. now, as i said, it's not the end of the world with him at short, after all, he's very good deffensively and if we get better hitters in the off-season, his offense won't mean much. ideally, he hits 8th in a good lineup. however, if we start ronny cedeno at second and expect him to play most of the season there next year, we will fail and fail miserably. my only hope, if this indeed happens, is that no one gets hurt, not one soul--so that the cubs obvious (to some) inability to get on base or hit for power is seen by all as the reason for their inability to score runs or win games. a lack of injuries next season will lay bare before us all why hendry's brand of baseball fails. you can't score if you make outs all the time and can't hit for power. Unless Ronny really picks it up the last two months of the season. He's seeing the ball alot better. We'll have to see how he does. You do need someone like a Carlos Lee for LF next year and another starter or two.

I'm with you. I'm a major Hill doubter and I'm happy to eat crowe for a night. Good to see him have confidence and pitch a good game. Let's hope for a repeat...

It was just one game and a good game at that. Let's see if he can keep it up...

How about that Izturis! :o

He had a good start to his Cub career last night. I was at the game and the crowd went crazy when he got that hit. Great night for baseball last night. Izzy played a solid game, Rich Hill had the breakout game we all have been waiting for, and Cubs won a game!

Personally, I think he did it more for the psyche of Hill and allow Hill to gain the confidence that HE CAN pitch at the major league level. Personally, allowing Hill to go 8 innings (especially the way he was throwing) was the absolute RIGHT call to make. Now let's see if Hill carries this confidence into the rest of the season. If he can...that is one less question having to be answered for 2007. He only pitched 110 pitches and plus he saved our pen for a night. Great game by Hill. Lets hope this was his breakthrough game...

Rich Hill broke his Cherry! Good win by Hill. He was really impressive tonight. Keep it up! I so want to eat crow on Hill. Good job all around. On to another beer!

I'm off to the game! Go Cubbies! C'mon Hill show'em that you belong!

A team with a 3-4 of Manny and Papi can afford to sacrifice some offense @ SS to improve their defense. But if Defense is not important why would Boston trade for defense? Why not just keep Normar @ SS?

Perhaps Cedeno is still working on his switch to 2nd base? Taking grounders or what ever. I'm trying here guys... Pretty inexcusable. That's easily the worst offensive middle IF in baseball. At least they should be fun to watch the rest of the year picking it at SS and 2nd. We have nothing else to watch expect when Z pitches. Unless we get Jeter and Arod up the middle it won't matter unless our starting pitching improves.

At the risk of sounding like Brodie Bruce, if you're not going to pay attention to the conversation, don't join in. Don't worry. You sound NOTHING like Brodie Bruce. And I'd just like to know where this "good defense" is coming from. Ramirez has been pretty good at third. Cedeno is inconsistent. Where's this run-saving defense coming from? Isn't that what the discussion was about? The effect of good defense on pitching? All I wanna know is why you consider the Cubs defense to be good and, therefore, able to save the Cub pitchers tons of runs. I realize, the subject is debatable. But, I've watched MANY Cubs games this year and haven't walked away from any of them thinking that the Cubs had a bunch of defensive studs. You, obviously, see things differently. Given that defensive ability is almost completely subjective, why build a big part of your team around something you can't even quantify? Because if you want to win you have to. Ask any pitcher if they think Defense is important...

At the risk of sounding like Brodie Bruce, if you're not going to pay attention to the conversation, don't join in. Don't worry. You sound NOTHING like Brodie Bruce. And I'd just like to know where this "good defense" is coming from. Ramirez has been pretty good at third. Cedeno is inconsistent. Where's this run-saving defense coming from? Isn't that what the discussion was about? The effect of good defense on pitching? All I wanna know is why you consider the Cubs defense to be good and, therefore, able to save the Cub pitchers tons of runs. I realize, the subject is debatable. But, I've watched MANY Cubs games this year and haven't walked away from any of them thinking that the Cubs had a bunch of defensive studs. You, obviously, see things differently. I think the main argument is, is Defense important in baseball?

Perhaps Cedeno is still working on his switch to 2nd base? Taking grounders or what ever. I'm trying here guys...