A New Era

That is a "what if" scenerion. Because "what if" Marshall is more then holding his own in the alloted team? Personally, I think Williams is a step out the door, and Rusch is a step closer to the pen, with Marshall making the club out of ST. I definately could see Marshall sticking with the Cubs, longer then the "short stint" some people think he has. I personally hope he does good and becomes a solid starter for us. Is that too much of a hope? He looks like he throws good stuff, and throws hard. A hard throwing LHP is not so common and something to covet. And dammit, he's tall!! His #1 asset is his confidence on the mound. Let's hope he can keep that in the majors. If I had my dream it is that Marshall does great and Wood & Miller come back and dominate, making a rotation by ASB of. . Zambrono Wood Miller Maddux Marshall

OLD'D.

There's plenty your missing, but I'm not going to waste my time trying to "cheer up" a pessimistic cubs fan. I'll just say. . . Don't worry, your pessimism will go away once they start winning more than they are loosing. And that will be right out of the gate, and all the way to the post season. :D

You forgot about Wade Miller, who I'm hoping with regain his form upon his return in late May. He could be a big boost to the rotation. That's true, and if Sean Marshall works out, then we will be in a very GOOD situation. . Zambrano, Wood, Miller, Maddux, Marshall. That's how I'm hoping it will work out right now. Because honestly the way Wood is progressing and the questions surrounding Prior I have more faith that Wood will come back and have a good year this year. Not so much Prior. If all works out we will finally have a good rotation this year! My point is there is more of a chance of it all working out THIS year because we GOT Miller, and we GOT a couple young guns showing some progress. This is exciting. .

Who are these guys? Never heard of 'em. :lol: They're typo versions of Carlos Zambrano and Ryan Sanburg!

I can go and do extensive research finding about players who played the game the way it meant to be played, and who have done great things on and off the feild. But I will just comment on recent players that I have personally been priveledged to follow, and who I really like. . Not just because of their abilities. . . Greg Maddux Ryan Dempster Ryne Samburg Carlos Zambrono Nomar Garciaparra

Does that mean you don't know what he should have done differenly? :P I can name a few things. But let me say I'm mostly for Hendry. I think he is a good GM. But there are a couple of things I would have done, or atleast think I could have done, or tried to do differently. I'd have never gotten rid of Grudz in the first place. Here we are trying to choose between defense or offense at 2b. Grudz provided both. I would have pushed a LITTLE bit harder for Furcal. Hendry has said he went higher than he wanted too in the first place (at $9.5m and 5yr). I think an extra mil a year would have gotten him. And WHAT is $1 mil a year to a GM and organization that gave Perez $3 mil and Rusch $3 mil, can I ask you that? (especially when you think to yourself we could give THREE guys a shot (ryu, guzman, marshall) and have a very good chance atleast ONE of them would be even better than Rusch. Save the $3 mil, and have Pierre-Furcal #1 and #2. I would have traded Prior while we had a chance because I frankly am tired of the season starting on the DL and towel throwing simulated game championships. I like our team this year. But there were deffinatly chances to bring us "over the top". . Now we will just have to rely on luck, and everybody "clicking".

When Jones proves you all wrong I hope you all come back and eat your words. You guys are not taking the whole team into account. . We have above average Catcher, 1b, 3b, and probably LF (i'm expecting much from murton. .) average 2b and cf. And below average ss and rf. You guys are bashing jones as the worst RF ever, but your not taking into account we have alot of ABOVE average guys at their position offensivly. It's OK to have a couple below average guys. ESPECIALLY if they have very good defense. Not only that, you are not allowing the chance that Jones MIGHT turn it around this year, with the Cubs. Jones is more of a good thing than it is a bad thing.

check swing by brandon wood, strikes him out.

3-2 pitch, swinging strikeout to Curtis.

Zambrono still in. 2b 2s to Curtis.

Furcal wasn't going to help the rotation (and he was their primary FA target). I think it's about time the team use it's own capable farmhands. Passing on Furcal meant we needed our leadoff hitter (in the organization's eyes). We dealt Nolasco (a solid pitching prospect) for Pierre. Mitre and Pinto weren't anything great. I'm a fan of throwing talent into the ML mix and seeing if they can hack it. Put Hill, Marshall, Ryu, Guzman and Nolasco into the mix for and you'll come out with at least one player contributing every 5 days. Let's be realistic. Some days they're going to dominate and other days they're going to get lit up. That's the nature of rookie SPs, but we need those cheap options, especially with Zambrano being the only SP we can count on (Maddux is gone next season). Hendry said he wanted both Furcal and Pierre all along (he said that early on in the process). It was never one or the other. Remember, he wanted them to bat 1 and 2. Thus, he planned all along to give up prospects for Pierre...I'm also not saying that I expect the rookies to be dominant but they have ability and there's no reason not to utilize them until the veterans are available. Hendry is on crack. I win. :lol: But seriously, I think that statement was just thrown out there in case Hendry didn't get his main man, Furcal. A provable opinion? No, but it's mine. :D Really? I thought he was being honest about wanting the first two guys to be speedy. I also think that the Cubs inability to sign Furcal, coupled with Walker's speed deficiencies (and defensive issues), made Hairston the next best option (in Hendry's mind) for the second slot. Lugo at 2B was preferred to Hairston but when that seemed too costly they decided to make it a "competition" at second. In either case, I'm glad the Cubs are willing to take some risks with younger players and willing to play the hot hand so to speak... It would be real easy to break camp with Williams as 4 but giving Marshall a chance is being progressive IMO. I agree, and I'm very pleased at that. I assume we all read the recent cubs.com article about how Williams will have to prove himself during his last start or else one of the rookies might actually take his spot. I've actually be praying for this. I want to see both Marshall AND Guzman in April. Might as well give more rookies a chance, then you're more likely to see one of them break through and succeed. And possibly be our 5th starter this year. .

Random positive thought. . Lots of good suprises? Wood Miller Williamson Howry Eyre Pierre Murton Marshall Guzman

Thanks I found it under MLB audio. Brain freeze.

Does anyone know if you have MLB audio where the link is to hear the archived game? I was locked out of my house for the final half hour of the game and I want to hear the late home runs!! Now that Grissom officially retired this mean it's most likely Pagan will make the team. And he will be a great addition! Pinch hiting, and especially pinch running!!

[expletive] you're lucky. I get called out for s*** and this is allowed. If you're going to censor cussing censor CURSING too please. G** **** is much more abbrasive than s*** IMO. Sorry, religious rant.

Zambrano, I sense much fear in you. . . Fear leads to hate, hate leads to suffering. . :lol:

That's good. I find it funny when mentioned he was "day to day". . Isn't the basically how it always is? It's not like they are going to say, we expect him to be back in 5 days 8 hours and 2 seconds. . No need to even mention it. It's ALWAYS day to day. .

Hey if he's realized that and has got his head on straight, then I don't see that as a negative but a postive. Is ~5-10 less HR from Jones REALLY that important of a factor? If he gets it together this year and improves his average and OBP. I'll take a dozen triples to left over 12 HR swinging strikeouts.

I called it. I was telling my dad how if we didn't re-sign lee, this would be a GREAT 1B to have in a year or so. Otherwise he is going to make a great trading chip if lee resigns. I told him, watch this guy get a hit. I swear this guy is good. And then he won the game for us. It's too bad we have lee. I am developing a mad mancrush on Sing! :oops:

Thanks keep it up! :D

I couldn't find anything to "click" to activate any sort of live feed. Are you actaully listening to it right now? There's a "listen" link on the page. I'm not listening but sometimes my firewall doesn't allow me to get internet radio so I wanted to see if it worked for anyone else. Thanks for the effort!! But the "listen" link just links to the url you already gave us. . http://www.texasbaseballradio.com/rangers_radio.htm I went back to the main page just to varify this. And on that page it just talks about how the pre-game is on 30 minutes before the game, and some other stuff I was too peeved to read. :D

Actually, GDA is fantastic. Only sucks during ST. During the season you can listen to any game live. It's the best $15 you'll ever spend if you can listen at work. Well worth it IMO. I just listen to the cubs. And MAYBE the cardinals, or any other team the cubs are in a race with. I still might keep it but I want to cancel just out of spite because of the **** I went through tonite. .

I couldn't find anything to "click" to activate any sort of live feed. Are you actaully listening to it right now?

I just called customer service. . 866-800-1275 They said it was pulled because of a "feed problem". . Whatever. I told them I want to cancel my account. stupid MLB ****!!! :evil: