mg420

what about: lee aram theriot lilly marquis wuertz cotts dempster

last night guzman showed what a big factor the mental aspect of the game is. coming out of the pen with a big lead he threw strikes and challenged the hitters. hopefully when he gets put in the rotation he can keep the same game plan.

i find it ironic that many of the players that people on this board were worried about (marquis, lilly, cotts, dempster) have done very well while guys who are supposed to perform like z, howry & eyre have gotten rocked. just an observation but of course its very early yet.

wow. look at how garza has progressed compared to pawelek. i wont even mention prior vs mauer. the twins have really kicked the cubs butts when it comes to 1st round draft picks.

i guess they didnt learn anything from chris benson. http://mlb.aolsportsblog.com/2007/04/04/dontrelle-willis-and-friends-made-it-rain-in-spring-training/

http://news.com.com/2061-10802_3-6173384.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1_3-0-5&subj=news

i dont. he was a very arrogant jerk when we met him in spring training the 1st year he was on the cubs. hopefully we all get remembered for the one time we may meet someone! listen to what many of the local sportswriters thought of hawkins when he was with the cubs. from what i've heard them say about him, they had the same opinon of him that we did.

i dont. he was a very arrogant jerk when we met him in spring training the 1st year he was on the cubs.

he pitched the eighth, not the ninth my bad. he was the last pitcher listed and i thought the game was over so i didnt bother to count the innings.

with the same results he had as a cub. what a suprise. http://mlb.mlb.com/news/boxscore.jsp?gid=2007_04_02_arimlb_colmlb_1

of course not. how could a future hall of fame manager know more about baseball than a couple of guys on a message board? You do realize LaRussa pioneered the idea of the 9th inning closer, which both common sense and statistics show is a horrible idea? He's not as smart as he's cracked up to be. yeah, eck was a disaster as a closer.

And there is a small handful of players that are loyal to the teams they play on. I believe I mentioned that early on in this thread somewhere. But, just because a few are willing to do that doesn't mean everyone else should follow their lead. it also doesnt mean that the ones that do are foolish.

of course not. how could a future hall of fame manager know more about baseball than a couple of guys on a message board?

Nope. Didn't need it. Diminishing marginal utility really doesn't relate to this discussion. Let's say Zambrano has been informed by his agent that he could get $20m a year on his next contract with a team like the Yankees or Red Sox, and the Cubs are only offering 16m. Is Zambrano giving anything up to pitch for some other team? No. His job title and responsibilities would be pretty much the same no matter what team signs him, just wearing a different colored uniform in different surroundings. Not every team is going to offer up the same price for his services. So, it's up to Zambrano and his agent and any other significant person in his life that he trusts major decisions with to decide what amount of money will satisfy his needs and wants. It would be foolish on his part to accept a lot less money to stay in Chicago (a big market team that has proven it will pay big market dollars (Aram/Soriano/Sosa) to it's stars) than what other big market teams will be willing to give him on the free agent market. Besides that, Zambrano has been given one opportunity to see the playoffs in his career. While the fans in Chicago have always been great to the players, other organizations that consistently make the playoffs might be quite enticing to Zambrano. You take what you can get when you can get it for as long as you can get it. It's pretty simple. It makes me mad that I have to pay ridiculous prices to see a baseball game because of how much money these guys make, but you can't blame them for trying to get as much as they can from the owners of these baseball teams. It's not the baseball player's fault that contracts spiraled completely out of control. you are assuming that the bottom line is the only factor involved. if that were true aram would have a 100 million+ contract and be wearing an angels uniform. believe it or not there are people who would rather enjoy where they are playing than chase more money elsewhere. i really wonder what griffey jr & arod would do if they could do things over again.

if cedeno can have a break out year in 2007, i can see him starting at ss in 2008 along with ep at 2b (if his defense can hold up) & pie in cf. along with murton, that gives the cubs a very good young core of position players for years to come.

pat hughes hands down.

i agree 100%. i think cherry will be up pretty soon anyway as guzman's control might be an issue in the pen. if cotts gets rocked as he has in spring training, i think rapada will get the call from iowa. if dempster can do his job and return to his 2005 form, the pen will be a major strength for the cubs in 2007.

Tell that to all the boxers that are walking the streets. Tell that to Kareem Abdul Jabbar who was broke when his career ended. A guy's arm could fall off tomorrow and his career will be over. You get what you can get when you can get it. Period. I suppose these guys could live off the interest of their 4-5 million, but wouldn't they be giving up a significant portion of the lifestyle they had been living while they were still playing the game? Why give that up if you could live off the interest of even more than 4-5 million? To ask the question another way....... You're currently the manager of the McDonald's down the street. You make $13.00 an hour and get good benefits. You've been with McDonald's for 8 years now, and you're pretty pleased with how things have worked out for you. Are you so loyal to them that you would turn down $17.00 an hour to be the manager at Burger King with the same benefits? Is McDonald's treating you so well that you'd be willing to pass over $8,320 of increased annual income to keep grilling burgers? Do you like that "hometown discount"? To me, I think that my current employer is raking me over the coals and tomorrow I'll be broiling burgers instead of grilling them. Baseball isn't a job you can hold onto until you are age 65. Most players are out of the game before they reach 35. Some of these guys never got an education to speak of, and they will need to learn how to manage their money fast, or it will be gone as quickly as it came. And there is NO job that will pay them anywhere close to what they are getting now, so you get what you can get while you can. If you were in Zambrano's shoes, you'd be asking for as much as you could squeeze out of the Cubs. And you aren't just negotiating by yourself. You have your agent, your family members and the players union all making sure you take what you have coming. so you are comparing living at the poverty level to having a few extra million dollars a year to throw around? not a very good example imo. weather he gets 85 mil or 125 mil he will be set for life and if he has an ounce of sense neither he or his children will ever have to work again if they don't choose to.

no offense but what does this have to do with anything? organizations only care about players who are jerks if they are not producing. there has to be another reason why he was let go.

Why? He is offering a hometown discount and getting more money than pitchers like Carpenter/Oswalt did. Oswalt's contract is not even close to market rate. Just because one or two guys got screwed doesn't mean the entire market will shift downwards. just because oswalt & carpenter got less $ then they could have elsewhere to stay with the teams they wanted to play for doesn't mean they got "screwed". it means they can live on a paltry 12-15 millon a year and are not driven by greed.

http://www.npr.org/programs/theride/aborstein/swan.jpg :lol: In all seriousness, good for her. Her gender doesn't matter to me. i wish Gabrielle would ump some cubs games. that way i wouldn't care as much when they lose.

I think this was the answer to an old LSAT logic game question. Logic problems are my specialty :D I love to see why things fit together the way that they do. Izturis is going to see some time at the 2 spot this year if he remains patient, but I can't see it being more than 1/8 of the games at most unless Lou decides he really doesn't like Jones in the 2 spot at all, and even if that's true Murton will likely play the majority of the time and be in the 2 spot if Theriot is not. Wow-I tried to make that last paragraph clearer, but I guess that came out a little confusing as well :D who's on 1st?

thats what everyone said about aram.

it's only spring training and izturis does have a .438 obp this spring. even if lou does this once in a while during the season, i think murton & theriot will be in the 2 spot the majority of the time.

ms. swan would say "she looka like a man" http://www.pioneerleague.com/images/Umps/cortesio.jpg