A New Era

I think the point is Omar, to prove you are healthy, you have to be pitching in spring training, progressing the same as the other pitchers (IE 1 inning, next time 2 innings, next time 3 or 4) and throwing your pitches effectively and without any noticable pain or discomfort during and after your performance. .

It all depends on what he's trying to do. We have kids throwong right now and you can see the ones that don't have confidence in their stuff or fastball, sometimes very easily. The question was how does he throw without confidence. Could you explain? Does he scratch his brow alot, does he not make eye contact, does he hang his head down low, does he scuttle to and frow, does his head - hang - low. Bum BUM!

Because when healthy he's a very good pitcher. But if he's healthy.. doesn't he already have a spot in the rotation.. why does he need to contend? because he needs to prove healthy.

Cubs baseball is ON THE AIR!!

How is it the cardinal can come to ST with 1 starter and the rest rookies with not even a half year under their belt and junk, and cardinals fans can be happy with that? That be like us having a plan for this rotation. . . Zambrano Hill Marshall Guzman and Rusch And just expecting everone to step up and be great, or acceptable.

I at least want them to lose the first game. The last few have been these big wins and that make us feel great and then season goes to utter crap. Start off at the bottom and work up, because the other way ain't working. Yeah but 1win - 9losses?

A NICE 1-9 start? :D

Or 75% of a rehabbing Wade Miller. .

murder's row (the cubs line-up) is quaking in it's boots. .

where's datona. AA? Anybody interesting in peoria? (reason to go besides sanburg)

I notice you focused on hill quite a bit in the end. Predict good year for him? :lol: It would have been even nicer if you threw some Miller, and possibly even some Prior in there too, at the end. .

nevermind. .

I agree it's got a good chance to be an albatross towards the end, and Hendry should have broke the bank for Beltran and not Soriano, but it is impossible to know if he had the green light to do so back then. Plus, with the way Soriano is built and the shape he keeps himself in, he might not be so terrible at 37 and 38. Unfortunately, you can't pick and choose who is going to be the best free agent in a given off season. I believe Hendry when he says that if the Cubs didn't pay Soriano that much money, someone else would have. We see it happen every year. Why should this season be any different? So given that, the choice isn't between Soriano at 8/136 or Soriano at 6/90. The choice is Soriano at 8/136 or not Soriano and who knows who else. Maybe Drew, maybe not. There was no clear overture from his camp that he was willing to play for the Cubs. If not Drew in CF or RF, then who? The drop-off was pretty steep after J.D. So it seems to me that you aren't looking at these contracts from a realistic point of view. Of course Soriano is overpaid and in comparison to other FA contracts signed last year or the year before, it looks ridiculous. But in reality, every market is different and impossible to anticipate. And who knows what a bargain will be next year or 2-3 years down the road. Plus, if you had to choose between Soriano or who knows what else, which in reality may have been the choice Hendry faced, which would you choose? Easy choice for me: use 2008 to rebuild, look to make a run in 2009. Not for one second would I have considered going 8/136 for Alfonso Soriano. This entire spending spree would been postponed for a year. Z would already have been traded for ARod. No way do I give any pitcher a Zito type deal, which is what Z will be getting soon. Neither of Lilly/Marquis would be here, especially not Marquis. IMO Marquis is purely a panic move to save Hendry's job. Aram gave us a hometown discount, so I guess I would have kept him. Pie and EPat would have all of 2008 to show us what they've got, and all the young starting pitchers would be given a chance to step up and claim a rotation slot for 2009. Obviously Pierre should have been traded for a prospect who could have helped the big team in 2009. Here's the problem with that. One of Hendry's "cards" to get Aram to stay was probably telling him how the purse was opened and they were going to be really aggressive this off-season. As Aram probably wanted to be on a team that would compete to win now. I do agree with you on Lilly and Marquis. However I am happy we are in a win now mode.

The thing I love about this, is Smardzija is an awesome prospect. And I can see him as he comes to kane county cougers where I live (and sanburg too) and I can finally partake in some cubs minor league games for the first time in my life.

aawwww shucks!! We get the fat, 2nd half Zambrano.

Dayn Perry is ugly, stupid, and his mom hates him. sarcastic>

There are no stupid questions, only stupid answers. And Carrie Muskat is full of em.

Not sure. But I do like that alot of our guys are in their "prime", or near prime years. . Alot of talented guys as well. Ramirez, Lee, Barret, Soriano, Hill, the list goes on and on. . Makes it alot easier for some guys to have career years when their all ~26-32.

Everything I heard about Piniella is that he is hard nosed, and demanding. Yet he seems like a very pleasant southern type guy. I don't know if he will show that pleasant face in the dugout. But if he does at any point I think the players will like him and generally want to do well.

I know many of us have complained how the cubs "didn't show up" to play against many of the bottom feeder teams, when they could whoop good teams, over the last few years. Does having a passionate "demand winning" type manager help pick up the cubs so they stop loosing to the likes of the pirates, and the red, and the marlins of the world? Or is this stupid talk. Flame away, but I thought this was about time I brought this back up again. Dusty was a -I didn't see it from the dugout -I don't want my kid to see me angry -It's the players job to perform type manager Lou is a -I demand %100 every day -I defend my players -I don't excuse lackadaisicle play type of manager. Does that help? And if so, by how much? Talent wins, we all know that. And we did add talent. But we also added new coaching. . Does the fact that we did a 180 in terms of what type of man leads this team compared to the last 4 years? I for one, am excited to see this man manage my beloved cubs. Yes I'm always been a fan of "fire", but I don't mean he will make the team "play with passion". . But his fire and demanding of playing %100 will help this team gel.

you're welcome. :(

God he has no idea on how anybody on the cubs actually ARE, does he? He sounds like some cardinal posters on the cards board who think that Zambrano got his feelings hurt because the Cubs "lowballed" him, and will leave just like maddux did. :lol: Wood not warming to the bullpen, closer slate his ego? Hmm that's funny, everything I've heard from Wood's mouth and his actions state he really wanted to stay a Cub and offered to go into the bullpen. Zambrano emotionally fragile? :lol: My god that is a laugh. I think Carlos is emmotionally strong, and his emmotions make him a better pitcher. Maybe he should look up soriano's stats when leading off. He basically is either lying or just pulling most of this stuff out of his ass. Are you sure you just didn't pull a post on the cardinals.com messege board instead? :lol:

Thanks Bruce. Any news on if the Cubs are eating the remainder of his contract or if there is some settlement on the matter? I heard on the score that they are paying the remainder of his contract. . $3 mil for 07.

I'm working on my projection piece on the NL Central. I'm working on projecting what I think the players will do and then I want to plug them into a line-up compared to what I think other teams will do before deciding how to rank the NL Central. Oh, I think you'll find the cubs are saftely on top. With the cardinals trailing by several games behind. .

Nope, no more trades. . . Line-ups set. And I like all variations Lou can do. . C - Barret/Blanco 1B- Lee/Ward 2B- Derosa/Theroit SS- Izturis/Theroit 3B- Ramirez LF- Murton/Floyd CF- Soriano/(ST winner) RF- Jones/Floyd(ST winner) However if this team performs like it can, and I beleive Lou Piniella can make it happen. Then we should see a trade dead-line trade to further strengthen us for the 2007 playoffs. .