illiniguy

Ha, why we are harder on our own team than this?

No but, I would still rather have him batting 8th Furcal at SS, and the three pitchers we gave up for Slappy back.

how many years will Rich Hill have to do this?

We sucked slightly less with troublemakers. We made the playoffs one year and fell one game short the next. I would take slightly less again please.

God it would be interesting. His legs make him very questionable though.

see, my problem with this answer is that Hill doesn't profile as a #4/5. Over the course of his minor league career, he's either been great or awful. His stuff is just too strong to project as a #4/5. Either he's a #2/3 or he's a minor leaguer. I can see arguments for either, but I can't see him falling in the middle. Well the guy said to pencil Prior in also. That would make you think he would be back and better than Hill. Z is better than Hill. Now we just gotta sign Zito and Schmidt and bang, Hill is a 5 on a damn good team.

I dislike the Astros far more thatn the Cardinals at this point, so I too hope not. The Cardinals sans TLR are at leat ok as people. The Astros and Roy Oswalt and Roger Clemens are very hard to cheer for.

Jesus we don't even get to be on direct tv extra innings anymore. Thanks Jimbo, mission accomplished.

Dusty, since even you know your run here is over, please play scott moore everyday.

true me too if only so it keeps phat albert from winning the mvp

nice work marshall.

Marshall and Mateo have done nothing to indicate they could outperform Padilla next year, and neither is a safe bet for 200 IP (probably Hendry's biggest desire). I'd be happy with giving Padilla a 3/21m deal, it's not like his signing will mean there is no room for anybody else. Even if he's here, there would be 2 spots open. The Cubs can't ignore other pitchers because of the guys they already have. and padilla is? i beg to differ. they can however avoid overpaying for often injured veteran's when they have plenty of talent in the system ready to contribute. That was the plan this year and it didn't work. There's a difference between having arms that are ready to contribute, and having arms that can go give you 32 starts 200 IP and a 4.00 ERA. If you're going to ignore what I said about Padilla's injury fine, but he's a much better bet to go 200 solid innings next year than Mateo or Marshall. It's not even close. But even if you have to combine starts from Mateo and Marshall to get to the 200IP, would they perform any worse? I think so, but it's not a completely sure thing. I think something that is being ignored, or at least glossed over, is the fact that the Cubs have numerous rotation holes to fill. They've got Zambrano and Hill, then 3 questions. If you signed Padilla, or something similar, you'd still have 2 spots open, not to mention a need for a 6th, or maybe 7th capable starter to call-up from the minors. Even if you get a healthy Prior back, there's still a spot for the imagined Marshall/Mateo combination. I've been assuming that Padilla would be the second starter that you sign. I'm assuming the Cubs have to go after one of the troika (Zito, Schmidt, Daisuke) as the starting point. So, if you have Z, Hill, (one of the above) as your top 3, then you're looking at the bottom two spots as some combination of Prior, reasonably cheap FA innings eater, youngn's. And the list of possible young pitchers is quite long with Marshall, Marmol, Mateo and Guzman along with outside chances of someone stepping up this coming spring like Ryu or Gallagher. Personally, I'm hoping that Guzman steps up and really locks down one spot because he's the most capable guy out there. I think the Cubs would be best served by investing heavily in an ace-caliber guy and lightly in a Jason Johnson-type for the back end. Then you hope that between Prior and the young pitchers you have enough guys step up that Johnson gets DFA'd. Prior is the whole key to our pitching staff. Z is great, Hill looks very good, we will try to add one of the top 3. If Prior can become even near the '03 version of himself we should have a very good rotation again.

It's cute that the Cardinals will have the MVP and Cy Youngwinner again. Yet, I don't think anyone has them winning the NL.

Yep he has cost us the playoffs. :P

I loathe Furcal.

Even with the low bar I wouldn't say he is better until he wins a game. No one is claiming that, of course, even if he wins tonight. Fair enough.

Even with the low bar I wouldn't say he is better until he wins a game.

Come on man is that really needed? He has a serious health problem. All he has done is try to get a spot on a big league team, he hasn't hurt anyone. Get Well Glendon.

Wow of course i have him in a one year keeper league next year. Sorry Twins fans.

True, but a team dosent have a chance to go to the playoffs every year. This is probably the Twins year to win the world series. I think their pitching is solid(specially in the bullpen). Their lineup produces enough runs to win a game every day. Twins are my favorites to win the World Series if they make it to the playoffs. I agree if you have a chance to get to the playoffs and contend for a ring you do anything you can to get there... If it means jeapordizing your rookie ace's career, I disagree. Why it turned out so well for us in '03 with Prior. Somebody should ask him what his thoughts on getting pushed to the limit in '03 are.

They must have more speed and clog the bases less. They can really catch the ball. I saw John Kruk saying they "know" how to play the "game" today. Good pitching, fielding, and running the bases plus timely hitting. And if John Kruk says it you know it has to be true :lol: You're damn right it has to be. Why don't we just get it over with and hire him as gm and Darren Daulton as manager?

They must have more speed and clog the bases less. They can really catch the ball.

What about wen he is legging out infield hits and then later that inning stealing bases? God Z is like a modern day Babe Ruth.

With his repetoire (90-93 fastball, big curve, throw away slider and change) he is pretty similar to Matt Morris IMO. A healthy Matt Morris was a pretty darn good pitcher.

Just got back from wichita. Alex Gordon ws in a good mood tonight and signed autos for everyone there and even talked with the fans a little. He was 0-1 with 3 walks. Dusty says it is obvious that is why he isn't a big leaguer. Butler was 2-4. Got his auto on a mini helmet. I have both him and Gordon on Royals mini helmets. I didn't see Hochevar or Patton for the Astros cause they were flown ahead.