Andy

I already miss Lee. I'd like to think that four or five of our guys will now have career years to make up for his injury, but this is the Cubs, not the White Sox or Cards. More likely we'll just have to deal with even more injuries in the next couple of weeks. Nevertheless, I am not giving up the hope.

Just you wait, my youth movement strategy (Bay, Wright, Cantu, Gomes) will pay off. no, no....when Fielder, Beltre and Helton all break the record for most HR in a month in July, then who will be laughing? Haha, yeah Beltre is really showing signs of breaking out. What's he got this year, one extra base hit? it's one more than you have! :lol:

I have one stat: Cubs record when DLee didn't score a run in 2005: 8-15

I agree that the Cubs can probably stay afloat for the next couple of months. I just doubt their ability to do it well enough to put us in position to storm into the playoffs at the end. I'll still cheer them on wholeheartedly, though, just because I can't imagine doing anything else during baseball season. I figure I went through 1999, 2000 and 2002, I can get through this, too.

This is why even though we are 9-5, it feels like we're 0-14.

Man I wish I drank the koolaid that you drink. Seconded. I'd like to be optimistic, but we've had two seasons in a row completely ruined by injuries and I see no reason why that is going to change now, especially since the players getting hurt are supposedly less injury-prone now.

PLAYER A - 0 All-Stars' seasons ruined PLAYER B - 1 All-Stars' seasons ruined

No one is suggesting the Cubs will mail it in or that they won't put up a fight. We're saying this team isn't good enough to do it effectively enough to win consistently.

All this Astros '05 talk assumes that the Cubs are a team capable of ripping off about 35 wins in 45 games when healthy. They're not. We can't come back from this. I don't want to think it's over in April, but it'd take a pretty damn big miracle.

I have no illusions about this. I can't believe Stone and Sullivan do but I don't. Without Lee, there's no way the Cubs play any better than .500 baseball until mid-July, and that's if Ramirez steps it up, Jacque starts tearing the ball up, Z gets his head back on straight, and some role players have career years.

I refuse to believe in the goat curse or any other curse. That said, clearly there are some larger forces at work here. The most un-injurable player perhaps in all of baseball goes down for 8-10 weeks en route to a .320/.400/.620 type season, what are we supposed to do???? Believe bracelet removed. I'll still watch the games, but I'm not putting in any stock into this season anymore. It's unbelievable the things that happen to this team. UN-BE-LIEV-A-BLE. Last year the Sox get career years out of about 13 pitchers and 5 hitters, and then they trade Rowand for Jim Thome and he's going to hit 50 homers this season. The Cubs lock up the best hitter in the game not named Pujols at below market value for five years and he goes down with an injury a week later. Just amazing. I hate sports.

Don't make too many posts like this one and we'll be glad to have you :wink: You don't want to wake Modzilla.

If all this is true, season over. That's just too much to overcome. Not even the Cards could get through their best hitter plus two of their best four pitchers going down by mid-April.

Call up Brandon (Sing) Sing before doing this, please.

Just you wait, my youth movement strategy (Bay, Wright, Cantu, Gomes) will pay off.

So this is all MABRY's fault! I knew he had a secret hidden CARDINALS agenda all along! /sarcasm

We need to have a "Dugout" intervention for you TT.... NEVER! We may have found Soccer10k's true identity though. :lol:

<---- should have thought of that already

Just wondering, did Matos hurt himself on the field? Or was it off the field?

I have to say that I loved seeing that, as well as Pierre excitedly clapping outside of the dugout right afterward. I have never, ever, ever bought into the clubhouse chemistry argument before, but if the Cubs somehow sneak into the playoffs this season, with this offense, I might have to.

Todd Walker: .405/.422/.643 Luis Matos: .138/.167/.379, placed on DL today Discuss.

this is not football. there is nowhere near the parity, and the schedule is not made years in advance. the schedule makers know exactly who they are matching up against who. good teams become bad and bad become good incrementally in baseball, with few exceptions (this years Marlins being one, and a fine example of what it takes to go from good to bad). you can pretend that it's hard to predict whether the WhiteSox, Twins and Braves will be good and the Rockies and Royals will be bad, but that's being pretty damn naive. while it may appear minute to you, this division very well could be decided by a game or two. the Cubs could go 9-6 against the Cards, play exactly equal to the Cards with every common opponent in baseball, and still lose the division. those 10 or so games where the Cubs have considerably harder competition very well could be the difference in this 162 game season. thus, in my opinion, a legitimate issue to piss and moan about. Believe it or not there is actually more parity in baseball than in football. Basketball is actually the worst. I wrote an article on it for my school paper a couple weeks ago. Since 1980: MLB: 18 WS Champs in 25 seasons (no 1994) NFL: 13 SB Champs in 26 seasons NBA: 7 Finals Champs in 26 seasons Parity can't be measured in terms of that magnitude.

Knowing Wirtz... Knowing the Cubs... There's no possible way if the Cubs went on sale that Wirtz would pony up the money. He can't even pay for a competent hockey team. Think about that for a second.

Not sure what you mean by the latter comment, NJ had the 3 seed already by virtue of winning the Atlantic. Playoff schedule: (ET) Game 1 - Saturday 4/22, 8 pm ESPN Game 2 - Monday 4/24, 8 pm TNT Game 3 - Thursday 4/27, 8 pm (TBA) Game 4 - Sunday 4/30, 1 pm (TBA) Game 6 will be on Thursday 5/4 if it happens - rendering my Game 6 tickets useless because I have a final on 5/5 :(

This is one heck of a way for Walker to be guaranteed a spot in the lineup every day. Two words: John Mabry.