A New Era

I don't care whether or not he takes a trip or not, or when he does. All I care about is that while he is owner the RIGHT moves are made for the Cubs. Be they trades, signings, or even non signings. As nothing significant has happened yet under his control, I have no reason to bash the guy, yet. However he's gonna have alot of descisions to make this offseason. And they better be the right ones.

God I hope next year's team looks significantly different than this years. New Manager, new GM, several new players please. I am so tired of this "core" I'm ready to move on.

Good luck. I'm still not really excited about this team. But I will be watching mainly for Starlin Castro (geo too) since those are 2 young guys that are sure to be part of our future when the current core leaves. Hasn't Starlin been on base every single game since he came up? That's what I thought I heard Len mention last night.

stop waiting. I said back in April I don't like this team. Just look foward to the youth movement and hope Ricketts does the right thing and fires Hendry and Lou before the offseason starts.

wouldn't it be nice IF (and it sure seems that way) this team is going no where that this organization do what you're supposed to do and sell players that are coming off the books? Is Lilly on his last year or is next year his last year? I think trying to get some good young players for Lily and Lee would be the proper thing to do. Trade what ever half year rentals you have to teams who want the help. However it would help if Lee actually started hitting again to increase his trade value. I just don't want to see this team buying, do you? I'm not saying we should be in rebuild mode, but however see if you can get something decent for someone coming off the books next year anyway.

I love Soriano when he's locked in. I don't like him when he's not. Point is I don't hate him nor would I boo him. Sure he does admire his HRs most of the time, however I do believe he really does try to do his best every day. He just has some bad habbits. I don't think he's an asshat and don't think he deserves getting booed just for some reason about "not living up to his contract". I just wish he wouldn't have those terrible cold streaks. If he didn't he could be one of the elites. But he is what he is, and he's a Cub for a long time. So just hope for the best with him.

awesome meatball.

Bob's managed, and I'm sure he likes seeing guys who go 100% all the time. Maybe he sees that in Marlon.

The Cubs window for winning a championship is shrinking very quickly. Soriano, Lee, Ramirez's careers are all beginning to decline. The farm system is not stocked and there are not enough prospects to recover the loss these guys will leave behind. The days of $120 million dollar payrolls are over with Ricketts. That means you have to develop your own talent which the Cubs can't do very well. Screw the future, especially when you haven't won a WS in over 100 years. Castro can improve more, but only in the bigs. He cannot develop anymore in the minors. He has seen enough. There are so many things wrong with this, but I'll focus on a few things: 1) We have no idea what the Ricketts are going to do with the payroll. But by their word (repeated time after time), every penny that comes in as revenue is going to get spent on the team. Which would say that the payroll will at least hold steady and probably move up over time 2) The payroll from the guys leaving will be available to bring in younger players to form a new core 3) The minors may not be "stocked", but there are quality players down there to fill some of the roster spots over the next few years 4) As has been pointed out by many, there are a LOT of things Castro can still work on to improve down in the minors I agree Tim. And most importantly I want to add. The money has to be spent WISELY in the future. That's why Hendry really needs to go. If some of your minor league guys end up being above average to even really good players (Soto, Wells, Castro, perhaps peeps like Jackson, Carpenter, Vitters, Colvin etc). And then you spend the money WISELY around young players who are underpaid, then you can put up a really great team, and keep it going without any downtime. Ala the Redsox which Tom Ricketts has mentioned he likes to model the Cubs after.

With everything Lou has said. I don't think he's gonna give them/him more than a day off here and there. He essentially said, your 3/4 hitters have to hit, or you aren't going anywhere. So he understands that and by the sound of it, he's not going to bench them because he knows he has to rely on them or the season's not gonna matter anyway.

lol bob and len's mics weren't working for that opening.

The Cubs are not in a rebuilding mode when you have 8 regular players with contracts ending somewhere between 2011-2014 (plus DLee and Lilly may get extensions). Also, we have discussed that many of these contracts are almost untradeable. Slowly mixing in Castro, Vitters, Cashner, etc. will help, but I don't expect the Cubs to be in a complete rebuilding mode in the forseeable future. Out of all those contracts, Soriano's is likely the only one that's completely untradeable. I agree. Plus, I don't expect them to ever be in "full" rebuild mode. What I'm thinking about is, don't trade a really good young prospect for a bandaid. I want the Cubs to atleast beable to keep from doing that. What I mean by rebuild mode is focus on keeping your top young talent, let the bad contracts die out, and make the team better slowly each year. Make a big move when you have the money, and the player is a can't miss superstar. Basically spent smart. And this current rumor is not smart at all.

Please Ricketts. Fire Hendry before he can do any more damage. You are not in win now mode. You are, and should be focused on, rebuilding mode. Prove you actually know what you are doing, and don't let Hendry do this.

A couple of my Sox fans were so excited when they got him. I tried to tell he really sucked and of course they said he only sucked because he was a Cub. They aren't as excited now. Ahh, sweet revenge. Now he's a sucky sox player. Dumb sox, lol.

The worse thing we could do is trade one of our top prospects for a bullpen arm. Vitters for a bullpen arm? My God, no thanks.

Man, I am mesmorized by Lee's ass.

Is it time for the firesale yet?

Our "Stopper". . wait Wells isn't pitching. [expletive].

I expected them to not suck?

:-)) I have IBS and Lou doesn't look nearly in enough pain to have IBS like I have.

I am excited for the future as long as Hendry is not able to do any more damage to our payroll or the farm. So he must be gone right as the season ends or before. But I am not excited for this season. The Cubs are going to have to have a 5-6 game winning streak before I am the least bit interested in watching any more games this season.

Yeah sorry if I should have posted this in another thread. Please move it if needed.

That's exactly what Kaplan said. Dude, they have already had one disastrous game, and 2 heart breakers. in ONLY FOUR GAMES. I'm not saying I'm gonna stop watching the Cubs. Only that I accept the fact they won't make the post season this year, and that I expect to see smart team BUILDING over the next couple years. Is that so bad?

The Cubs have picked up right where they left off this year. I just got done listening to the 10th inning and fans calling in second guessing Lou and some making some actual valid points. And Kaplan telling people it's early, people, please stop. I mean really!? Kap, just don't [expletive] take calls if you don't want to hear pissed Cubs fans. My main thought right now is. If you are going to contend, you CAN NOT lose games like this. Sure even some of the best teams will have a few losses like this. But the Cubs already have TWO. 50 percent of their games are loses that SHOULD NOT have been losses. So I the Cubs optimist of the past, am now hanging my hat. The Cubs deffinatly are not making the post season this season. I am not going to get my hopes up for this team. However I am still optimistic about the future. Because the farm system really has improved and they have made some good descisions management wise lately (just compare the coaches the last few years back to the nightmare coaches under the Dusty Era). Wilkins, Jaramillo, etc. . However my optimism relies heavily on getting rid of Hendry. I used to be a staunch Hendry supporter. But I realize now Hendry built this mess. He really has to go. The next 12 months will give us a good idea of how the Ricketts Era will play out. Will he let hendry hit the panic button and trade away good prospects for more bandaides. Or are we really going to start building the team from the bottom up. It might take a few years, but I want to see us build and stop overpaying mediocre players. I want to see smart descisions. I am still hopeful because of alot of our young talent and new owner. But I need to SEE the right moves being made. Sorry for my rant all. But I felt like saying it and I think some of you might feel where I'm coming from.

PRESSES.