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There are also very few that ignore player development. The Core of the Yankees mini-dynasty in the late 90s was homegrown talent. To be a successful team year in and year out you either have to spend like the Yankees, or be committed to developing players like the Braves, A's, Twins, Marlins, Indians. Heck even the Yankees still develop position players better than the Cubs.

Especially in contrast to Florida.

I dont thing the Cubs will ever be true sellers. They may trade some minor pieces. They will never just completely clean house though. As for picking up a bat to be as good as the Cardinals last year. I dont like the idea but that is exactly the type of thinking that Hendry will do. His job is on the line.

As Les Nesman once asked "Funny peculiar or funny haha?"

especially against a LH

Wasnt Murton the other way last year? Better at home than the road. Theriot starting in Wrigley, DeRossa and Izturis on the road.

I was thinking that between Theriot and Izturis the Cubs might have there highest OBP at SS since Ivan DeJesus. I didnt realize that Ricky gueterariz was as good as he was.

I hate to say it, but I beginning to think Theriot might suck. He only appears to be a slightly better hitter then Iz, and he has no range. I would keep Iz at SS and at the 8 spot everyday, and then figure out who the super sub is between Dero and Ryan. In each of his last 3 seasons in the minors, his OBP was .367, .365, .367. So he's got that going for him, which is a heck of a lot more than Izturis can say. That translates to, what, .335 in the bigs? Izturis' defense might just be enough to make up that difference. I'd say there's an argument to be made that they are about equal players. I didnt look today but Izturis OBP is up to something like .325. Which not great is better than Jones and Barrett. He has been quite abit better than Theriot this month. I am not a big fan of Izturis but if he can have a .325 OBP for the year that would be pretty solid if he quits making errors.

Truth is this really is a crappy and not overall effective way of building an successful team. Maybe Hendrys spending spree will force the Cubs to start building internally which is a much better and more successful way of building a longterm successful team.

The Cubs already have 81 million tied into next year and Z and Barrett are free agents. I would say the only hope for improvement will have to come internally.

Overrated yes but not awful. The Cubs are paying a guy 15 million a season for the next 8 years for the same kind of production up to a similar point in their careers. With a quality top of the order player(Alomar, Molitor) Carter was a good middle of the order hitter I know this is kinda de-railing the thread topic at hand, but Carter was a career .259 hitter with a career .306OBP and .770OPS (only topped an .800OPS 5 times in his 16 year career). Now if you want to argue that he was good in clutch situations, I won't dispute that... but he wasn't that good overall. He hit a lot of home runs and drove in a bunch as well when he had the benefit of hitting in a stacked lineup, and in his prime he stole a decent amount of bases. That was about the extent of it. I'll admit he's not an AWFUL player, but yeah, he was overrated. Still....... what did that have to do with Cubs misery, though? Really not much except that Sutcliffe was already retired and we never won a WS with him. So i the long run that trade was not good. Also except for Dawson we didnt have an outfielder who produced as well as Carter for most of the late 80s and early 90s. I know it wasnt the Lou Brock or Rafeal Palmero trade in badness, but neither of those guys hit a game winning HR in the WS. I tried to throw that in with Maddux as examples of player decisions that didnt work out. I would still say up to the Age of 31 Carter was pretty similar to the Fonze. The Cubs just gave him 15 mill a year for 8 years. I would agree that the Fonze is way overrated as a player. He isnt awful though.

It's the truth. Fortunately I'm already pretty numb, and I'm only about to turn 29. 2003 and 2004 (I was at the Mets game where the collapse really began) made me really angry, but now I don't bother. It helps that I root for Philadelphia teams too, because they're just as useless. Once you accept that the Cubs will always be bad and will never win another World Series, you can just take these losses with a laugh and a shake of the head. I echo lemmyhearya sentiments. I have seen the collapse of 69, the 70s and early 80s, collapse against San Diego in 84(my favorite player leon durham being the goat), a good young looking team in 89 turning to crap the next couple of years, a GM saying it is better to have 2 good pitchers(Greg Hibbard and ?) than one great pitcher(Maddux), Joe Carter hitting a gamewinning HR for Toronto, the collapse of 2003, Prior and Wood going from part of the best rotation the Cubs have had in my lifetime to nothing, the collapse at the end of 2004. Even when the Cubs are on the cusp of greatness it eludes them. I certainly dont get to worked up anymore about a game on Friday night in LA. I know we traded Carter back in '84, but what does him hitting a home run in the world series nearly a decade later have to do with the Cubs? With the exception of his home run, rbi totals, and sb totals in his earlier career, Carter was a pretty awful player Overrated yes but not awful. The Cubs are paying a guy 15 million a season for the next 8 years for the same kind of production up to a similar point in their careers. With a quality top of the order player(Alomar, Molitor) Carter was a good middle of the order hitter

I guess my question is, If they have to get up at 8:00 AM to get to the ballpark at 10:00, are they getting to bed by midnight? If not the trouble isnt the day games.

It's the truth. Fortunately I'm already pretty numb, and I'm only about to turn 29. 2003 and 2004 (I was at the Mets game where the collapse really began) made me really angry, but now I don't bother. It helps that I root for Philadelphia teams too, because they're just as useless. Once you accept that the Cubs will always be bad and will never win another World Series, you can just take these losses with a laugh and a shake of the head. I echo lemmyhearya sentiments. I have seen the collapse of 69, the 70s and early 80s, collapse against San Diego in 84(my favorite player leon durham being the goat), a good young looking team in 89 turning to crap the next couple of years, a GM saying it is better to have 2 good pitchers(Greg Hibbard and ?) than one great pitcher(Maddux), Joe Carter hitting a gamewinning HR for Toronto, the collapse of 2003, Prior and Wood going from part of the best rotation the Cubs have had in my lifetime to nothing, the collapse at the end of 2004. Even when the Cubs are on the cusp of greatness it eludes them. I certainly dont get to worked up anymore about a game on Friday night in LA.

He also would have been a lot better of an offseason pick up for the Cubs than Floyd. He would have filled a need of a RH bat that can hit lefties well. Could play other positions other than LF well. I dont know what San Diego is paying him but it cant be much more than we are paying Floyd.

They just signed Floyd, there's no way they dump him as soon as possible. He was a longtime Hendry target, and Hendry has him. Jim doesn't dump his recent acquirees. We'll see. When they got Floyd LF was open; now it's not. Actually it wasnt. Not to anyone with any sense. The more I think about this the more I think not only should Hendry be fired but the person who allowed him the large off-season purse should also be fired. I predicted several times last year that the Cubs would make several big free agent splashes last off season. They do this because A lot of Cub fans think how much better the team will be with Alfonso Soriano because they see 40/40. Or how much better the team is with Cliff Floyd because they had heard of his name. They dont stop to think that both players play a position that is handled by a young and coming player. Hendry just signs them because his job is on the line and has to do something drastic. Truth be told the Cubs would be everybit as good this year with an outfield of Murton, Pie and Jones and Joe Girardi managing. They would have been even better if a platoon partner for Jones was found. Problem being there isnt enough "name recognition" in it. The Cubs love name recognition. Also this isnt a safe bet. The Cubs are masters of the safe bet. This is why they dont develop young talent. They always bring in a veteran "insurance" policy. Sadly they also hire managers who dont want veterans being disgruntled on the bench or think veterans have a better chance of winning. So there goes player development. Truth is almost any team with any kind of track record of success would have just let Murton play left. Murton would probably have been as good of a player as Soriano in a couple of years for a lot less money. Picking up Floyd after we already got Ward was just a complete waste of time and money. Anyway they should just trade Murton. He isnt really a rightfielder and neither is Soriano. I am sure Oakland would give us a piece of trash middle reliever with a "name" for him.

Do you really need me to give you a gigantic list of players who had a similarly good season in their rookie or sophomore year only to flop afterwards? Once again, I'm a fan of Murton and only somewhat playing devil's advocate here, but let's be realistic. His numbers last year do not mean "there is no reason" it won't happen this year with regular play. Yes I would. I know this was back from page 2, but players who put up plus .800 OPS in their first full season arent as prevelent as you or obviously the Cubs think. I also would like to point out that probably at least half the players on last years all-star team were not as good in their first full season.

so who is going?

They do have some players if they are willing to part with, who would have some value at the trade deadline because of their postseason experience.

What I dont understand is if you have not seen a guy before why dont you take some pitches to get a feel for what he throws? I know the Cubs dont have a lot of patient hitters, but this should be common sense like taking a couple when you are down a couple of runs late in the game.

2 straight that Detroit has clearly outplayed Anaheim and lost. Even the Ducks game tieing goal was fluky.

Is Floyd hurt?

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The Cubs have only scored less than 4 runs 4 times this month. They are 1-3 in those games. They have scored 4 runs 4 times and are 2 and 2 in those games. They scored 5 or more 9 times this month and are 7-2 in those games. I didnt check any other team in the league but for May so far I think you would have to be happy with this. We are averaging a little over 5 runs a game for the month. If we get this kind of offensive output for the rest of the year I think we will be fine

I really dont disagree with anything you are saying here. I just would like to know what are the better options though. If we had even some semi option this would make sense. I dont think the Cubs really have another option at starter.