Andy

The way St Louis employs it you might as well change it to the LaRussa.

After the ChiSox won Game 1 of their series with the BoSox there was a sign in the bleachers that said: I'ts our Turn It just figures. Even when Sox fans are jumping on their team's bandwagon after ignoring them the last five years, they can't do it properly.

If anything, I think this is a testament to how well Jim Hendry and scouting recognize talent in a young player. Most people saw Murton as an after-thought in the Nomar deal, yet somehow he's managed to blossom into one of the best young players with the Cubs today. Want more examples? The Kyle Farnsworth deal got the Cubs one decent reliever with a nice upside (Novoa), a third baseman who broke out this year (Moore), and an intriguing young guy down in Low A (Flowers). Shipping Matt Lawton to the Yankees got the Cubs a guy who has one of the best GB/FB ratios in the system (Berg). I could also point to the Aramis Ramirez and Derrek Lee trades as an example of seeing a young player with a lot of talent. So, to put this into perspective, I do think this organization has people in it who are able to spot these players. When it comes to homegrown players, I think a combination of things have to be taken into account: 1) Injuries are always crippling. They have caused major setbacks for the following players, among others: Chad Blasko, Billy Petrick, JK Ryu, Angel Guzman, Nic Jackson, Mark Reed, Brandon Sing, Sean Marshall, Aaron Krawiec, Bobby Brownlie, and Luke Hagerty. These guys would be so much more highly regarded if they were healthy. Unfortunately, these things happen in all systems. It's just been rather bad for the Cubs recently, from what I have seen. 2) The visa crackdown. This one especially hurt last year, as memory serves me. Now that things have finally been worked out, the Cubs can finally bring over a lot of the guys they've been trying to get in through the Dominican Republic, among other places. 3) I have to wonder how the Cubs psychologically evaluate players. Given the struggles of some of their guys as they approach the higher levels of the systems, I'm curious as to whether it's because of the nature of baseball or if it's something in some guy's heads. I don't know how the Cubs do things at this level, so I'd like to hear an answer as to what they do. 4) You have to admit, the farm system has churned out some really good pitching. We've seen these guys produce really well (Wood, Prior, Zambrano) at various times and levels. Other guys have the potential to become effective in the near future (Hill, Wellemeyer, Wuertz, Leicester, Mitre, Ohman) in various capacities and have produced in the major leagues. Yes, I know it's trendy to trash these guys for whatever reason, but the bottom line remains that they are young players with a heck of a lot more upside than most other pitching prospects out there. Once the Cubs get a manager who's willing to actually coach and who actually knows how to use a bullpen, I think we'll be looking at our farm system with much better eyes. I could also point to the Aramis Ramirez and Derrek Lee trades as an example of seeing a young player with a lot of talent. so you mean like....Dontrelle? Dontrelle was shipped out for Matt Clement and Alfonseca and not for Lee. And he was largely a fluke incident. If I have the choice of trading a 6th-round pick for three years of solid pitching like Clement gave us, I will do it more often than not. And that windup is going to result in a really ugly injury for Willis someday. You can mark it down.

Real steal for the Cubs there. ESPN's Sports Guy, a Red Sox fan, asked at the time how the Cubs got the best player (Nomar) and the best prospect (Murton) in a trade. How things turned out with Nomar notwithstanding, it's probably the third best deal Hendry's made, behind Hill/Hernandez for Ramirez/Simon/Lofton and Hundley for Grudzielanek/Karros.

There's not much value in finishing 4th. That's not a biased opinion. It's what most of America believes, and probably what the majority of sports writers will determine. Maybe the majority of people are wrong, and you're right. It's not out of the question. "Value" is ambiguous, though. It's not necessarily black & white. And I'm not sure that Pujols had better teammates around him (other than the pitching). He spent much of the season with people like So Taguchi and Yadier Molina hitting behind him. I'm sure he would have preferred the protection of Aramis Ramirez, and might have benefitted from it. Yeah, I'm sure having Jim Edmonds really hurt Pujols' numbers. :roll: That said, I don't have any problem with any of the top three MVP candidates winning it, because they all have their own legitimate claims to the award. But if you're going to pick Pujols as MVP, don't use the BS 'he didn't REALLY have better teammates' argument. Because if the Cubs had had Chris Carpenter as their number 1 starter instead of Kerry Wood, Jim Edmonds in center instead of Corey Patterson and David Eckstein at short instead of two months of Nomar and four of Neifi Perez, then the Cubs would have won 100 games and Derrek Lee would be undisputably the MVP. Those three differences alone make up for Aramis v. the Cards' 3B shuffle and Burnitz v. J-Rod, which were really the only two positions at which the Cubs were noticeably better than the Cardinals this season.

Chad Johnson. How can you deny the vote to a guy who actually has a poster in his locker evaluating whether the opposing DB decently covered him the previous week???

I agree with Vance on that sentiment. :wink: That said, Mary Ann easily. Not only is she much sexier, but if she can like a loser like Gilligan (which I believe she did), then maybe I'd have a chance!

I voted other, the thing that frustrated me most was the Cubs complete failure to execute. We ranked among the worst in the majors at scoring runners from third and less than two outs. Near the end of the season, we lost a game to Houston where we had the bases loaded, nobody out in the ninth and failed to score, giving the Stros the win, and the sad part was that I wasn't even remotely surprised.

I remember that. Of course half the stadium was Cubs fans so someone had to do the Chop. That had to be pretty disheartening for the Braves to come out to see just as many cheers for the Cubs as for them. Since then, Turner is now "Wrigley Field South", joining PNC Park (East), Miller Park (North) and Coors Field (West).

1. Sign Nomar or, if he won't accept a cheap incentive-laden deal, sign Furcal. 2. Sign Giles. 3. Pick up Walker and Williamson's options. 4. Sign Millwood unless we're sure Jerome is ready to be the 5th starter. 5. Do everything possible to sneak Jose Macias out the door before Dusty notices. Neifi Perez, too. Lineup: SS Furcal 2B Walker/Cedeno 1B Lee RF Giles 3B Ramirez LF Murton/Walker C Barrett CF Patterson/Pie (if Nomar comes back, lead off Walker, bat Murton second and put Nomar behind Ramirez) Pitching Rotation: Zambrano Prior Wood Maddux Millwood/Williams

co-signed Count me in to that as well...except let's have the title come from the Cubs or Bulls then I'll be happy :wink:

Seriously, how do you not ready yourself for a squeeze every single time there's a runner on 3rd with less than 2 outs against STL? They've run the squeeze approximately 803,356,342 times this season.

The most hilarious thing about that is that the White Sox should have been the ones being the victim of that joke. A week before he made that gesture, the Tribe was right on the Sox's heels and everyone was saying the Sox would lose it. The Tribe, in my opinion, would have won the division if Sizemore hadn't dropped the ball against KC. And yet Guillen makes the choke sign. Priceless. It would have been similar to the Cubs coming back to win Game 7 of the NLCS in 2003 after doing their best to blow it and Dusty making that symbol to Florida. Totally hypocritical.

They also said it once for Bill Mueller, the 2003 AL batting champ. But for Derrek Lee?? That's iffy.

It also says the Cubs are optimistic that Larry will return. I don't see why he'd leave the Cubs for a team like Detroit, even if his buddy Leyland is there.

I am interested in the playoffs, but it took until midnight last night for a team I want to win to finally win a game (the Angels). I'm also growing more and more disgusted with the Red Sox's efforts to ensure a White Sox title. I wonder what the Yankees/Angels will do to help out the Sox? Every other team that's played the Chisox this season has helped them by blowing chances to win left and right so let's see how easy we can make it, right? That said, I am looking forward to Hot Stove more than the playoffs, but I like baseball in any form, so I watch.

I agree with the most here, this one was a funny dig at White Sox fans. The best part is that if the Red Sox stuff weren't there, this could easily have been written by a Cubs fan. My most hated White Sox fan: Mayor Daley. At least Bernie Mac didn't try to get Wrigley condemned.

Or don't. Dempster is not among the ten finalists.

I liked Derrek a lot in 2004 too and that year he was at best the Cubs' 3rd best offensive player. As long as he doesn't completely stop hitting I will always like Lee.

We'll find out this offseason. Zambrano is arbitration eligible I believe, and will probably be getting a lot closer to double digit millions next year.

Dusty Baker - L.A. I can dream can't I?

Today has been terrible. Not only have the Bosox and Padres lost but the White Sox soundly beat on the Red Sox. And now the Yanks are winning. Why not just have the Cubs go 0-162 and actually kill me?

Derrek Lee...the reason I still paid attention when the Cubs were down to the Reds 7-2 in that magical game in April. :D And the reason I kept paying attention even after it was clear we weren't going anywhere. Thanks for making me smile even when there was very little to keep my spirits up, Derrek.

My goals for the Cubs this off-season: 1. Giles (the lefty protection for Derrek Lee that we thought Burnitz could be) 2. Furcal (an actual leadoff hitter??? Who'da thunk it?) 3. Millwood* (won the AL ERA title and since Burnett is out there will probably not be too overpaid) * - if the Cubs can't find a better in-house solution Also get rid of Neifi, Macias and Nomar, pick up Walker's option and have him split time at second and left field (he said he'd play left if he were asked), and trade Patterson unless we're sure we have nothing better in center field. And fire Dusty Baker.

I'll risk the flak from everyone by picking Andruw Jones. Stats aside, he carried the Braves through a very tough stretch this season. And I'm pretty sure he did it without a consistent 30-homer guy protecting him in the lineup. With all due respect to Derrek Lee's and Albert Pujols's great seasons, Andruw had such an impact on his team's run this year that it can't be ignored. Regardless, I think we can all agree that whoever finishes third this year is one of the greatest third-place finishers in the history of this award.