Sammy Sofa

Not really claiming the need to have won all 6, afterall, Oscar and Jabbar only won one together. I just don't think you can list Pippen with people like Oscar Robertson when making the claim that any team that ever wins a championship has at least 2 superstar talents. Why not? It's not saying that Pippen is equal to or better than Robertson as a player, but how is Pippen not a superstar talent? He is a superstar talent, I just don't put him in a class with names like Oscar Robertson and Shaq, etc... Basically, if Scotty Pippen is drafted to Cleveland instead of the Bulls, does he have the same successful career without Jordan? I personally don't think so. I attribute his HOF status and a lot of his success in the NBA to Michael Jordan making him an all around better player, by learning from him and by being the #2 guy when Jordan is being double teamed. There's learning and being made better by Jordan (which is true to a degree) and then there's almost universally being considered one of the 25 best NBA players of all time. Obviously, his career without Jordan would have been very different, but it's also obvious he had a mountain of talent and certainly would have still been an elite player.

Not really claiming the need to have won all 6, afterall, Oscar and Jabbar only won one together. I just don't think you can list Pippen with people like Oscar Robertson when making the claim that any team that ever wins a championship has at least 2 superstar talents. Why not? It's not saying that Pippen is equal to or better than Robertson as a player, but how is Pippen not a superstar talent?

ANY other small forward? No. While yes, I could see the Bulls winning some or even all of the first 3-peat without Pippen, but there's no [expletive] way they get the second 3-peat with just any other small forward instead of Pippen.

Come on now.

tonights game had nothing to do w/ deteriorating skills Pretty sure the Reds taking the lead had a lot to do with a busted ass reliever on the mound making a bad decision and a fading 3B who can't do much about it. That could not be more wrong and everyone that knows baseball at all knows it Really? So if they just practiced harder they would have pulled it off? That's amazing! Is your board name in reference to Maddux? Were you always screaming at him through the TV to do some more crunches?

Jim Riggleman did this with great success at the major league level last year not little league YES! Reach for the sky, Cubs! You too can finish 69-93!

tonights game had nothing to do w/ deteriorating skills Pretty sure the Reds taking the lead had a lot to do with a busted ass reliever on the mound making a bad decision and a fading 3B who can't do much about it.

I never knew you could fix deteriorating baseball skills with good ol' gritty fundamentals.

because accountability has to start somewhere and there hasnt been any in this organization in a long time That's just silly. Firing him after the season when he's still signed for another year pretty much sends the same message.

What would be the point of firing Quade during a year like this? Just let him shepherd this monstrosity to its conclusion.

And love the idea that Sandberg would have magically made bad plays not happen, and that Quade is some kind of anti-fundamental madman who causes players to make errors.

I have no idea, because that is one of the craziest damn things I've ever seen posted here.

Like Tyler Colvin?

It's pretty damn close to a failure if you have no potential stars on the horizon. It's nice to produce some good guys, but if you want to win, you need some top notch production from your farm. You can't just sign it. They tried that for two decades under the MacPhail/Hendry regime and it failed repeatedly. Unless you can outbid everybody (the Yankees), you can't live that way. Also a good point. Even if you look at the Yankees and Red Sox, depsite their spending they also produce elite guys like Jeter, Cano, Rivera, Youklis, Lester, and Pedroia. Obviously it's ideal, but again, what gooney is ignoring is that the Cubs have struggled to just put out good everyday players from the farm system, much less stars. Of course, yes, I would love to see them producing all-stars, but it would still be a huge step up if they could just start producing good, everyday contributors coupled with smart FA signings. I mean, what "stars" were signed under the two decades that gooney is talking about? That's a huge part of the problem right there in aiddtion to the farm system producing next to nothing besides pitchers, is that almost all of their big signings were reactionary, halfassed attempts to build a team through FA signings, and then when they do finally go big it's for someone like Soriano. No, I'm obviously not saying that the Cubs can survive only through FA, but they very much survive and thrive if they actually sign an elite player or two for once and start producing good, young, cheap everyday players to compliment them. And WSR, the Cubs have recently produced Castro, Soto and Marmol. And if you're tossing Lester in there then why wouldn't the Cubs also get credit for Zambrano? Why is Lester "elite" through 27 with his numbers and Zambrano wasn't? Yeah, it would be nice to produce a god like Rivera, but how many teams are lucky enough to do that? But the Cubs DO have young players out there who are producing very well (hopefully Soto bounces back from his DL stint) and they DO have ones, quite a few, coming in the farm that project to be good, useful everyday players. A lack of potential all-stars in the farm at the moment isn't the failure that gooney is making it out to be, and it doesn't mean the Cubs have to resort to the halfassed team building of the last 20 years.

Or a Starlin Castro? Time will tell. Im leaning toward Castro being a great player, but I also thought that Corey Patterson would be the next Rickey Henderson, so who knows.The point is, with Byrd, Ramirez, Barney, Soriano, Pena, Fukudome, and Castro, our team is full of good players, but we sorely lack a star. If you look at all the teams who perenially contend, they have at least 1. So sign a star. Superstars don't HAVE to be developed internally. Yes, obviously, it would be ideal, but it's not the end of the world if the Cubs' farm system doesn't produce another star for several years outside of Castro but is able to produce several good, everyday players. And Im very much on board with that. This offseason would be the perfect time to strike with Pujols or Fielder, both of whom would be perfect fits for the Cubs, considering our needs and avaialble money. However, if that doesnt happen, its back to the drawing board unless they pull off some kind of blockbuster trade. As for producing a star, I still really wish we could do that for once, and hopefully Castro could be that guy. It would be nice to just follow a guy from the minors all the way to the top, an opportunity that we as Cubs have never really had, at least in recet years. But you can have guys like that who are just good players. That's still very valuable. The farm system isn't a failure if there aren't any potential stars on the horizon in the near future.

Or a Starlin Castro? Time will tell. Im leaning toward Castro being a great player, but I also thought that Corey Patterson would be the next Rickey Henderson, so who knows.The point is, with Byrd, Ramirez, Barney, Soriano, Pena, Fukudome, and Castro, our team is full of good players, but we sorely lack a star. If you look at all the teams who perenially contend, they have at least 1. So sign a star. Superstars don't HAVE to be developed internally. Yes, obviously, it would be ideal, but it's not the end of the world if the Cubs' farm system doesn't produce another star for several years outside of Castro but is able to produce several good, everyday players.

Because in order to win a title at some point we are probably gonna have to have a star. Teams are doing a better job of signing those type guys through their prime years. Thus it's gonna be harder for us to go out and buy one. Why? The Cubs are about to have a ton of money to spend starting after this year. Develop good players form the farm (and it looks like they've produced a star at SS right now) and sign smart impact FA.

well that's a very optimistic way of looking at things, considering that wells and cashner pitched only one game each and won them, so you're projecting a very small sample size over a very long season. nonetheless, i admire the mental gymnastics required to make it seem like the team with the fourth-worst run differential in baseball is a bad break or two away from being very good. I'm really hoping we hit on this draft pick, we can't afford to keep crapping out on top 10 picks. There's a HUGE middle ground. Again, producing useful everyday players would be a huge improvement. They don't to make the leap from cranking out mostly [expletive] to superstars to make very different, very better teams. And the top 10 is hardly the only place where superstars come from. I agree that its great to be able to crank out useful everyday players, but it would be nice for once to produce a Ryan Braun, Joey Votto, or Tim Lincecum. Yeah, there was Prior, but that didnt work out so well in the end. Or a Starlin Castro?

well that's a very optimistic way of looking at things, considering that wells and cashner pitched only one game each and won them, so you're projecting a very small sample size over a very long season. nonetheless, i admire the mental gymnastics required to make it seem like the team with the fourth-worst run differential in baseball is a bad break or two away from being very good. I'm really hoping we hit on this draft pick, we can't afford to keep crapping out on top 10 picks. There's a HUGE middle ground. Again, producing useful everyday players would be a huge improvement. They don't to make the leap from cranking out mostly [expletive] to superstars to make very different, very better teams. I'm aware, but we really need to hit on a star at some point. Why do they NEED to? I'm seriously asking this. Why not just at least several good players in short order?

well that's a very optimistic way of looking at things, considering that wells and cashner pitched only one game each and won them, so you're projecting a very small sample size over a very long season. nonetheless, i admire the mental gymnastics required to make it seem like the team with the fourth-worst run differential in baseball is a bad break or two away from being very good. I'm really hoping we hit on this draft pick, we can't afford to keep crapping out on top 10 picks. There's a HUGE middle ground. Again, producing useful everyday players would be a huge improvement. They don't to make the leap from cranking out mostly [expletive] to superstars to make very different, very better teams. And the top 10 is hardly the only place where superstars come from.

That's nice and everything, but every team should plan on having some missed time from their starting pitchers, and the Cubs probably more so than any other. If the fill-ins suck, that's on the team just as much as if the regular guys do. The Cubs should plan for pitching injuries more so than any other team? Why? And you don't think the Cubs wouldn't have signed guys like Davis with that in mind? It was just bad timing that two guys went down after their first starts of the year. Few teams are going to be able to handle that. I'm not denying that it was tough luck. I just think the whole 'we're good with our team intact' thing doesn't hold much water because a MLB pitching rotation is extremely unlikely to stay intact for a whole year. Right, and like I said, bringing in guys like Davis likely would have happened anyway. It was just unfortunate that you get the one-two punch of two guys going down after their first starts when few teams are prepared for such a thing.

Nice (except for the racism). People complaining about dirty plays/players in the NBA today makes me feel really old.

You were there for both? OK, now I'm jealous.

That's nice and everything, but every team should plan on having some missed time from their starting pitchers, and the Cubs probably more so than any other. If the fill-ins suck, that's on the team just as much as if the regular guys do. The Cubs should plan for pitching injuries more so than any other team? Why? And you don't think the Cubs wouldn't have signed guys like Davis with that in mind? It was just bad timing that two guys went down after their first starts of the year. Few teams are going to be able to handle that.

Or maybe we just need to consider what really happened after 2009. I know there were injuries last season, but I still find it suspicious when someone suddenly drops from a consistent .900+ OPS to the low .700's in what should be the prime of his career. So the catastrophic injury was just a cover story?