A New Era

It is already online. Yep I just came back to update the thread. There wasn't a "link" 10 minutes ago. But I was just clicking around the headline and weirdly enough the window just pop'd up. Watching it now.

Who'se most likely to have the replay? Comcast shows 30 seconds of things, will cubs.com even host it? Hopefully it will later.

On the Cubs main page, it says. The Cubs at a press conference on Friday, the Cubs introduced Ted Lilly. Anybody see that? There was no announcement before hand, or no sign as far as I could see that it was happening today. I'd like to see it, what time was it on today?

Three or four wins? Yeah thats just not true. Yeah, 6 wins atLEAST! :D

True, which makes the walk rate going up even more worrisome A sign of him being overworked? Much more likely than a sign of garaunteed health and dominance. And as far as Z = Maddux, how likely is it that Z becomes one of the top 5 pitchers of all time? Cause Maddux is right behind Clemens in my mind. Maybe working with a manager like Piniella. Who has stressed very loudly that you "DON'T WALK GUYS". Perhaps he can help Z cut down those walks!? Yes I know I'm supposed to be gone for 2 months. I'm going I'M GOING!

upside? tools? makeup? It doesn't matter what kind of makeup they wear. especially if it didn't happen yet When did we start talking about Edmonds anyway? :oops: From what I recall, you started quite soon after joining NSBB And from what I recall, he did this Saturday night: Had to log in, I couldn't pass up the chance to bring up edmonds.

upside? tools? makeup? It doesn't matter what kind of makeup they wear. especially if it didn't happen yet When did we start talking about Edmonds anyway? :oops:

upside? tools? makeup? It doesn't matter what kind of makeup they wear.

I don't know about you guys. But if the Cubs got into the post season (very likely in the NL central right now). . How the HECK do you guys figure "this is not a WS calibur team". . What part of Derrek Lee, Aramis Ramirez, and Alphonso Soriano isn't a "WS calibur team". . Alot of things can happen mid season as well. If Hill is pitching like the ace he is, then you have Zambrano, Hill, and 1 out of Prior, Marquis, Lilly, Miller, rookies stepping up to be a bonified #3 to be a very solid post season pitching trio. If that doesn't happen, and we are serious contenders. You can bet JH will wheel and deal during the trade deadline mid-season. I just can't fathom all these ideas, that this team "is not a WS calibur team". I just don't understand it. So explain it to me please!

We can't just send them down, IIRC. We could, however, cut them. At that point, any team who wanted them could pick them up and only be on the hook for a prorated portion of a league minimum salary. so no matter how well (2?) of prior, miller, guzman, marshall, mateo, marmol do, theres pretty much no way marquis gets knocked off the 25 man roster. great. for 3 years. That's true for any team who has veteran starters who could be viewed as a risk. Aside from 1 or 2 we really don't have many rookies who could step up in 07 and become good pitchers.

I can prove why we are over a .500 team. Derrek Lee all year Soriano Hill stability in the rotation Piniella Gerald Perry 'nuff said.

I love it when someone says we are a .500 team at best, stating it as fact. That is all. .

It would make a difference if they made what they did back when baseball was young, and many players had to actually get 2nd jobs. That was TRUELY playing for the love of the sport. .

weren't you gone until next year? j/k I'm suspending judgement until the contract details become official. But if they're confirmed at 3/$28M, then I've already said my goodbyes :D Will you be back when we win the World Series? well I'll be back in January, so yeah, I think I'll make it back by then. But I expect to be underground in a wooden box by the time the Cubs win the World Series. Oh? Do you have something terminally wrong with you? (drum roll ready)

QFT, just use the latest quote people. I think 2-3, 4 MAX. Unless 1 of the 4 is more than 3 lines long. 4-6 lines quote MAX!! I think this should actually be put into the NSBB guidelines and rules.

weren't you gone until next year? j/k I'm suspending judgement until the contract details become official. But if they're confirmed at 3/$28M, then I've already said my goodbyes :D Will you be back when we win the World Series?

Not exactly. Because Marquis has been good, and has upside. You couldn't say that about ALL signings. You couldn't give the same contract to Neifi, or Macias, and logically argue it COULD turn out well. .

I know you like this so much. So, :roll:

Marshall will be good in a couple of years. But he does not have a 4.45 carreer ERA like Marquis does. I don't like this signing particularly. But counting on Marshall is not a good idea. Seasoning him in AAA and viewing him as a possible future Cub, is a good idea. Yep. Why rush these kids? Didn't we learn our lesson with Wood and Prior? Let them build up the proper arm strength. Prior nor Wood were rushed. However, Marshall, if counted on next year, would be rushed. What Marquis and Lilly do is give the Cubs rotation STABILITY. You've got 2 guys who have the talent to be good pitchers, and who have can also pitch alot of innings. If we get the upside of them, we've got 2 good picthers giving us alot of innings. That's a whole hell of alot better than relying on Rusch and is 9.0 ERA or Guzman and his 7.0 ERA. I'm fine with Marshall as a #5. Now we've got the depth where he TRUELY has to earn it. He has to beat out Miller, Prior, Hill, Marmol, and so on. Not be an emergancy back-up plan. I like our situation MUCH better than last year. I see the upside in these pitchers, and I hope for the best. I trust Piniella and Rothschild. I think alot of you will be plesantly suprised next year. But that's just me. Optomistic Cubs fan.

Unfortunately, something this place has had very little of this offseason! It's been hard at points to read this board when you have to wade through pages and pages of arguements that lack reason, an objective view, and have some really skewed logic. The negativity (and I can understand it a bit) on this board has been SO bad this offseason it's crazy! Despite that, this is still head and shoulders above any other forum, I just wish more people would heed jjgman21's advise above. And posts like this one ^^^^ What do they accomplish? This isn't a thread on debate tactics, its a thread on the signing of Jason Marquis. I don't like it. There is a good chance that he will not get better and you will be on the hook for 21+ over 7 years. The following young pitchers can outperform Marquis. Sean Marhsall Carlos Marmol Juan Mateo There was really no point to this signing. Just trying to remind people about what made this board great and how it seems as though it has gotten completely out of hand this year (96 loss season do tend to do stuff like this though). There are a lot of stubborn people on here and I doubt that much will change, hopefully people realize how they have been acting and try to tone it down. Now what does your post accomplish? You tell me that 3 of our young guys can outperform Marquis, fair enough, but where is your logic behind it? Tell me why they will outpitch him, otherwise your post is just as pointless as you think mine was. I can say player A will outpeform player B all I want, give me something of substance to prove that point. BTW, personally I dont really like the signing much either. Sean Marshall outperformed Jason Marquis last year. Is that not the kind of evidence you are looking for. Exactly. Marshall: 5.59 ERA, 1.52 WHIP, .270 BAA, 77 K/59 BB, 20 HR Marquis: 6.02 ERA, 1.52 WHIP, .289 BAA, 96 K/75 BB, 35 HR Marshall will be good in a couple of years. But he does not have a 4.45 carreer ERA like Marquis does. I don't like this signing particularly. But counting on Marshall is not a good idea. Seasoning him in AAA and viewing him as a possible future Cub, is a good idea.

LOL. Are you taking a list of posters who don't like the Marquis signing, then(should Marquis actually pitch decent in 2007) call them out in every thread like this: "OMG Dude, you send Marquis would suck in Dec, but now he is good man! Dude you have to eat some major crow man! just eat the crow " Yep! And me too! I'm doing the same for Soriano, Hill, Derosa, Izturis, Lilly, and many other players posters are tossing aside as garbage.

yet, that's exactly what they did when the cubs were 500 games out of first place, hill was striking out 15 a night in AAA and rusch was giving up eight runs per start. That's exactly what DUSTY did. Who overrode many of LR descisions. That is NOT what Piniella and Rothschild will do. And they wouldn't have done that last year either.

Unfortunately, something this place has had very little of this offseason! It's been hard at points to read this board when you have to wade through pages and pages of arguements that lack reason, an objective view, and have some really skewed logic. The negativity (and I can understand it a bit) on this board has been SO bad this offseason it's crazy! Despite that, this is still head and shoulders above any other forum, I just wish more people would heed jjgman21's advise above. Yes I agree. For every person that says we have a potential 4 #5 starters (that's quite impossible if you ask me). I can say we've got alot of talent, and you can't deny that. Hill is a potential #2, Miller is a potential #3, Lily a #3, and Marquis a #3. Potentially. Potentially.

A lot of the posters here have a certain mindset on how they want a team built because they think its the best way to build a successful winning team. Needless to say, our GM has pretty much gameplanned completely opposite from this mindset, and as such as pretty critical. I think that the key here is that many posters have a strong opinion on what is best. Therefore when someone else doesn't do it the same way, emotion takes over. We saw it last offseason with Jones. At the beginning there was outrage but slowly the better and more moderate commetns take over. Best thing is to not judge based on initial impressions Good point. We didn't see the good in Jones. However could we maybe possibly TRUST the cubs scouting department? Maybe the see things in Marquis and Lilly that they will be above average pitchers from us. A cubs.com article states Rothschild thinks Lilly could be on the verge of an upswing. I guarantee you they took a good long look at all the options. And signed the guys who had the best chance to produce well. .

Sorry, the extrrrrrreeeeeme pessimism gets to me sometimes. It almost seems like people are going out of their way to make sure to be as mad and dissapointed as possible. To say we have an ace and 4 #5's, that's just crazy. we just a signed a guy with a 6.00+ ERA. calling him a 5th starter is being genous. so i rephrase...we have one #1 starter, four #5 starters, and one AAA pitcher. That's funny, last time I checked we just signed a guy with a carreer 4.45 ERA. I'm not saying you when I say this, I mean more generalized. But you guys want to look at the carreers of men like Soriano when they put up carreer years, yet want to look at just one year when we sign someone who has a down year?