Sammy Sofa

That was a team that Hendry mostly inherited. Of course I give him credit for adding two key pieces in Ramirez and Lofton. But I think my main point still stands. I would love to see a team built entirely of "Hendry guys" win a playoff game. That has yet to happen under his watch. Until then, I think it's premature to offer any kind of extension, even for one day. I agree the team is under pressure in those situations, but that's where leaders and cool hands rise to the occasion. There's a word for players who can't play under pressure, and it's not very kind. When you get as badly dominated in back to back post seasons as the Cubs have, you could say a pattern is emerging - especially with the very poor offensive showing by two key players in Aram and Soriano. If this team can't handle playoff pressure, then a GM at some point has to consider getting new players. That seems like an overreaction. You seem to be implying we should dump players who are critical to the team succeeding over the course of the regular season. You're likely not going to get to the playoffs if you shed the players you specifically mentioned. Players get cold. Soriano is notrious for his cold streaks in between when he's pounding the hell out of the ball. Even Aramis has stretches where he doesn't play well. Sometimes it just happens by the time the playoffs roll around. There's little that can be done about it and you really just have to hope it doesn't happen. On the flipside, it's pretty ridiculous to think you can construct a team for playoff success since playoff numbers are such a small smaple size. A player who was hot one playoff month might be cold the next year. A player might be amazing one playoff series and then horrible the next. David-freakin'-Eckstein can be your WS MVP. That in and of itself should indicate above anything else how nuts the playoffs are.

Do it to it, Rich.

Well done, Noah: http://www.wwtdd.com/2009/05/guess-which-one-is-rich/

This is a very reasonable argument. My problem with using the Cubs history as a barometer for progress doesn't mean much because it's a *bad* history in terms of on the field results. Also, in the 2007/2008 playoffs, for whatever reason this was a team that was incapbale of competing for even one game. I'd like to think maybe a healthy Bradley, some power from Font and Hoff from the left side would improve our chances against the RHP pitching that has owned us. Maybe that's just wishful thinking. I do know that I now dread the playoffs, and am disheartened at the lack of performance by the pitching staff along with Ramirez and Soriano in those crucial times. Well, that first round is pretty much a crapshoot. It's totally up in the air whether a team will be "on" or not to win it. It's not really something you can or should build a team around for the rest of the season.

The playoff failures don't erase the regular season successes.

No, it is not.

I'm having a ton of fun watching the Cubs.

lou is about as impulsive as a five year old. hoffpauir makes an error in the outfield? i don't think we'll play him out there. wells has a decent start (1.4 WHIP but 0 ERA in 5 innings) and now he's a guy you just can't let go? give me a break. How much of this is direct from Lou and how much is media speculation? Seeing as that was a quote from Lou himself (as was the response to Hoff's defense), it's pretty safe to say it's all Lou. Maybe. Just maybe.

I can't imagine anyone here is looking at him as more than a decent bench/backup option.

That sucks badly. I just want him to return 100%. However long that takes, I'm cool with it. He's likely never going to be 100% ever again.

Hopefully he comes back with something to prove and he goes on another tear offensively. Ideally without literally tearing anything.

Andy doesn't really move all that much.

AG all the way.

I heard it in the 9th, too.

Im sure they were crying when Ramirez and Zambrano went down. Fans of any team that seek out rival fans when the latter loses a player to rub it in due to injury suck.

Scales has hit safely in every game he's been in thus far for the Cubs.

I've just been assuming 2 months since the 4-6 weeks talk started. I'd actually prefer 2 months given the nature of the injury.

Get off that plane and get back to school.

Hah! Delicious.

Uh, slow down there, Hoff.

Sexcellent.

Nooooooooooo! Don't load the bases!

Miles is currently a better hitter than Soto. That makes me so sad.

do you really think that's reflective of his true ability level, though? sure, he hasn't started hot, but he's absolutely a better option than anyone we actually have in the organization. EDIT: also it's still way early and so on. if he goes 4-4 with 4 singles today, his obp is .328 and his ops is 790. The ironic thing is that if DeRosa was still here and putting up his current numbers with everything else going bellyup for the Cubs, the usual suspects would be railing on him as being part of the problem and not worth his contract and he should have been "sold high," etc., etc..

Meh, they're hot right now. It's what happens.