KingCubsFan

I don't think this gun is very accurate. Either way, he's basically throwing as hard as Lily. Plus it's more consistently 87 as opposed to 83-84. KEEP THE BALL DOWN

Is Gene Clines the Royals hitting coach? You're facing a guy who couldn't locate anything in his last outing and you swing at the first pitch?

Why does Plesac continually emphasize that we won't have the most team speed, but we'll "have enough?" It seems like he might have been one of the people last year stressing the team speed thing, as in "we'll manufacture runs with our speed." Yet, all we've really done is replace Pierre with Soriano, who had 46 SB's last year. I don't get it: is it the loss of Freddy Bynum that caused this huge drop in speed?

Larry Rothschild Translation: Mark Prior lacks mental toughness and he's still scared of being injured

Tomas Perez's bunting ability>>>>>>>>Juan Pierre's

Not only that, but he's coming into his first spring training with a coaching staff praising throwing strikes, and he probably doesn't have a lot of baseball knowledge in terms of setting up hitters for a strikeout or developing pitch sequences. Although he's 21/22, he's still extremely raw So far, he's been able to show 1)the Cubs were right in thinking he could consistently throw hard (95+) and 2)the fact that he can throw so many strikes shows he should be able to repeat his mechanics. At this point, I think that's all we can ask for.

well, he is injured right now. Besides, who can you kick off the team to make room for him? I'd rather have Wuertz than Cotts, Eyre or Dempster. And Wuertz was better than all 3 of them last season. Not disagreeing, but we all know that's not feasible

well, he is injured right now. Besides, who can you kick off the team to make room for him?

Cool thansk. Just turned it on... We traded Thomas Jones?!?!? To the Jets for a second round pick??? Really? Not a bad return. I hadn't heard that. It would be a good return if we didn't send our second round pick too

Cool thansk. Just turned it on... We traded Thomas Jones?!?!?

There's no scouts there?

Holy smokes. I just cant believe that. How long does it take for full velocity to come back? Where's Will Carroll when you need him? I can't imagine anyone is throwing 100 mph already. Samardjiza hit 97, didn't he? Everyones different. Wanna bet Wood hits at least 93 today? Judging by the way Hendry talked about Wood and Prior yesterday, it sounded like Wood has been pitching much better

I'll do it

Finally some good news: http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070225&content_id=1815461&vkey=spt2007news&fext=.jsp&c_id=chc

Does anyone know? Bruce?

It would be nice if our offense turns out to be that good

Hey, I want to see Lou's "FIRE". But for reasons of him yelling at the UMPS when a bad call is made. IE: Him defending his players. So please understand there is not just one side of this. Remember when Mabry was called out at first and he was CLEARLY safe? He threw his helmet down and looked in disbeleive. It's moments like that a manager NEEDS to go out there. i just don't see the need to make a complete ass of yourself in a public venue in front of mthousands and millions. i understand your point, but i also think a lot of people are expecting piniella to be the anti-dusty and see tantrums as a welcome change. Any time a coach gets fired, fans (and the organization doing the hiring) look for the new coach to be able to do what the old coach couldn't or wouldn't. That's why you see Charlie Manuels after Larry Bowas, Ozzie Guillens after Jerry Manuels, and Lou after Dusty. I don't really care if Lou ever throws a base, but I do expect him to do what Dusty couldn't: handle the clubhouse and hold players accountable for their mistakes. I'm sick of seeing major league players make little league mistakes. If Lou has to throw a base or kick dirt to get his point across, so be it. this is only necessary if he sees the right mistake. missing a cutoff man = minor mistake forgetting to ever be selective at the plate = major, recurring and thematic mistake dusty's problem wasn't that the players had no respect for him, his problem was that he told them to swing at everything for the sake of "just putting the ball in play". fans of every unsuccessful team almost uniformly bemoan the team's inability to execute the "fundamentals" of the game. fans of successful teams still hate that sometimes the baserunners overrun the bag or miss a cutoff man, but their teams are successful so the "fundamental" miscues get forgotten quickly. fans of unsuccessful teams sit and stew after a loss. "why couldn't he hit the cutoff man on that one play?" instead of "why did that guy come to bat 4 times and see only 5 pitches?" the idea of a guy missing a cutoff man once becomes a shining symbol, a scapegoat for the whole season. you can see why ramirez's lack of hustle was blamed for the downfall of 2006 cubs when nothing could be farther from the truth. if anything, ramirez's play was one of the few bright spots during an otherwise dreary season full of 1-pitch plate appearances, cowardly slap-hitting, sub-par pitching, and under 400 walks. an easily identifiable, though inherently meaningless, problem is a "lack of fundamentals". it sounds good to say, makes a fan feel like a ballplayer when all it is is a small pimple on the side of the face of a season; a season raging with several STDs, emphysema, ulcerative colitis, hysterical pregnancy, AND juvenile diabetes. These "meaningless" fundamentals were a systematic, recurring problems as well. Unless you're the Yankees, you can't win consistently and shoot yourself in the foot like the Cubs did the past two years. Missing cutoff men, terrible baserunning, horrible pitch selection, missing signs, inability to lay down a bunt, etc. were all things that have plagued the Cubs, and these are all directly on the shoulders of the manager. Successful teams either do these well, or don't do them at all because the manager plays to the team's strength. Dusty tried to play small ball, but he couldn't stop his players from screwing it up. He tried to preach defense, and yet he somehow managed to screw that up too. OBP, in my opinion, is a failure of the whole organization, from Baker to Clines to the players Hendry picks. There was only so much Baker could do, although he certainly made it worse. OBP is important (and the downfall of our offense) but it's not the ultimate determinant of every game. There's a lot more to a manager's job than just making sure someone takes pitches, and that includes preparing his players and correcting mistakes that are made.

Hey, I want to see Lou's "FIRE". But for reasons of him yelling at the UMPS when a bad call is made. IE: Him defending his players. So please understand there is not just one side of this. Remember when Mabry was called out at first and he was CLEARLY safe? He threw his helmet down and looked in disbeleive. It's moments like that a manager NEEDS to go out there. i just don't see the need to make a complete ass of yourself in a public venue in front of mthousands and millions. i understand your point, but i also think a lot of people are expecting piniella to be the anti-dusty and see tantrums as a welcome change. Any time a coach gets fired, fans (and the organization doing the hiring) look for the new coach to be able to do what the old coach couldn't or wouldn't. That's why you see Charlie Manuels after Larry Bowas, Ozzie Guillens after Jerry Manuels, and Lou after Dusty. I don't really care if Lou ever throws a base, but I do expect him to do what Dusty couldn't: handle the clubhouse and hold players accountable for their mistakes. I'm sick of seeing major league players make little league mistakes. If Lou has to throw a base or kick dirt to get his point across, so be it.

That's the only encouraging part of the whole thing. Clearly, they think the Cubs are bad and will not pick them for the division, playoffs, or World Series. So there's still hope...

If David Bell were our third baseman, he would be in Mesa by now

I still don't understand why he wanted to come back to this

He gave up 40 million dollars to stay with the Cubs. He can show up April 1 for all I care

Lee's September was close to his April numbers in batting and slugging, but curiously, he only drew 1 BB in September. Lee AB R H 2B 3B HR TB RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS 04/03 - 04/30 44 11 14 4 0 3 27 10 12 7 0.318 0.448 0.614 1.062 06/25 - 08/30 87 12 23 4 0 1 30 7 12 26 0.264 0.354 0.345 0.698 09/01 - 10/01 44 7 13 1 0 4 26 13 1 8 0.295 0.298 0.591 0.889 04/03 - 10/01 175 30 50 9 0 8 83 30 25 41 0.286 0.368 0.474 0.842 I'm guessing that had to with Lee seen as still being injured and pitchers not afraid to challenge him

When did this happen?

Jason Marquis's new LearJet finally arrives to camp... http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p228/irish1289/Lear.jpg