apete6

Not resigning Wood and/or Dempster? Trading Marquis/Lee? Hopefully some combination of the above. However, if we're spending that kind of money, why not just go after Teixiera or CC.

If Towers takes that, Hendry has some nasty pictures of him. That platter wouldn't land Peavy alone, let alone Greene. I'm thinking Pie/Theriot/Marshall/Veal/Adkins might get them to discuss that deal.

I would say corner outfield and/or first base. The thing is, those 3 spots are 3 out of 4 highest paid position players. Fuku was terrible, Soriano is very underwhelming, and DLee hit for less power than DeRosa. We can't expect DeRosa, Theriot, any of our CFs, or even maybe Soto to repeat the years they had last year and if we get the same crap from Lee, Soriano, and Fuku, we're going to be in trouble. Trading Lee might be necessary if we can get in the mix for Tex. That sucks because I really like DLee and he's a great guy, great defender, and pretty good hitter, but we can't get 20 HRs and not a ton of doubles out of our #3 hitter at a premium offensive position.

Rays Red Sox Yankees White Sox Twins Indians Tigers Athletics Angels Marlins Mets Phillies Astros Cardinals Dbacks Rockies Dodgers (will Sunday) 17 teams. Not good.

Ya, I guess from now until the election, SNL is going to run a politically charged 30 minutes after the Office. I'm sure the actual Saturday night show will suck even more because of it.

...literally. In the McCain-Obama debate spoof on SNL, both "candidates" made fun of the Cubs after Bill Murray asked them a question. Our team is a joke...again. Awesome.

Would you guys wear division champs gear from 2007 or 2008 if you got it as a gift or at a much reduced price?

...just underachieved like nobody's business. Cubs: Winless in the playoffs Brewers: 1 win in playoffs Twins: Only need to win 2 out of 4 to end season and only win 1 Indians: Putrid first half, trade CC and Blake when they realistically could have won division Tigers: Finished in last place with ridiculous payroll Reds: Somehow turned decent team into absolute garbage Pirates: Just bad and got pretty much nothing for Nady and Bay The White Sox Houston, St. Louis, and Kansas City are the only central division teams that can even remotely say that they didn't play below what they expected this season. And the White Sox salvaged a whopping 1 game in the playoffs. They tried to blow it in the last week, but Minnesota was just worse. Looks like Fox's wet dream of Manny vs. the Red Sox could come true. I hope its a Philly vs. Rays World Series and Fox gets no ratings.

Apparently Soriano has the lowest batting average of anyone with over 100 postseason at bats with a whopping .212 average. This tells us 2 things: 1. His teams are usually good enough in the regular season to make the playoffs. 2. Once they are there, he Howrys himself and the terrible holes in his swing are exposed.

I agree. Good for him. When he hit that one to the warning track, I was hoping it would go. He deserves a curtain call for coming back from everything he has faced. He may never be "the next Joe DiMaggio", but I hope he can stay healthy and have a long career.

Shoulda taken Buehrle out before that inning. I know his pitch count was low, but why not give them a different look with Jenks? Jenks is pretty damn good and he could go 2 innings if needed with the day off tomorrow.

White Sox in 4 Angels in 5 (one of the greatest series ever) Angels in 6 Cubs in 5 Phillies in 4 Cubs in 7 Cubs over Angels in 5

Any chance they take only 10 pitchers and Hoff, Ward, and Pie all make it? Considering they are bringing 5 starters, Marshall, Cotts, Samardzija, Marmol, and Wood. If those 10 can't get it done by pitching 45 solid innings of baseball (plus maybe a few extra innings), we aren't winning.

That's the problem. They aren't content just enjoying their championship. They are more proud of the fact that they have one and the Cubs don't. The Cardinals have 10 championships, but their fans are generally easier to deal with than White Sox fans. The Cardinals are happy for their team, not glad that it wasn't the Cubs. I never had a problem with the Sox or most of their fans until they won it all. Now its just aggravating to even listen to them talk about baseball.

Why wouldn't I? Cubs fans in Iowa or anywhere else that's not the Chicagoland area have no idea how annoying White Sox fans have become since 2005. They're probably like "cool, another team from a city I've been to twice but think its mine won, awesome". When, in reality, its been hellish to attend any Cubs-Sox game or get into any argument with most Sox fans because it usually ends in them saying "Oh well, I'll just go home and watch my 2005 World Series DVDs". Its the ultimate trump card and if they win a 2nd title, it will be that much worse. But, yeah, you're right, the Sox winning would affect a cubs fan in Memphis the same as a Cubs fan in Chicago.

What does that even mean? Are you seriously trying to complain about the Cubs not getting big hits THIS year of all years? We've seen like 5 years worth this season. I know, but I'm just nervous about the playoffs. Just once would I like to see that moment. Hell, even the Sosa and Kerry Wood HRs (the most clutch HRs in Cubs history) were in games they freaking ended up losing. What other postseason/end of season elimination game HRs do the cubs have in their history? Gaetti in the 1 game playoff maybe? Aramis' grand slam vs. Florida was great, but that was in the first inning. All I want is a Magglio Ordonez vs. the As homer or a Joe Carter moment. Is that too much to ask?

All 3 of the other AL teams are superior to them. If they get through that, then they probably deserve that trip to the WS. Why do some of you feel the need to worry about what WSI is doing? I never even knew that site existed until I heard complaints about it here. It's Sox fans who are supposed to obsess over the Cubs, not the other way around. Come on now. Do you live in Chicago? Do you know how unbearable living here would be if the best Cubs team in 60+ years doesn't even get to the World Series and the Sox win it for the 2nd time in 4 years with a garbage team?

No one on the Cubs hits that grand slam. Freaking White Sox. I swear to God, if they win the WS again, I might never be able to watch baseball again.

1. Twins 2. Angels 3. Red Sox 4. Rays 5. White Sox And in the NL: 1. Cubs 2. Phillies 3. Dodgers 4. Brewers. If the Brewers or White Sox win the WS, I would be sick to my stomach. I would really rather not see the Rays win either. Do you realize that if the Rays get to the WS, that all 4 expansion teams since the early 1990s would have been in the WS? Sickening.

Seriously. This friggin blows. I may not even be able to work because I have classes and i absolutely cannot miss my thursday class anymore. I already got forced into missing some classes this semester cause my girlfriend was in the hospital. Screw you, TBS. Same here. I would miss half of game one, the entirety of game two, and half of game 5 if it goes that far. Of course those are all the games at Wrigley. :roll: Im going to be skipping some classes i shouldnt. Skipping class is a hell of a lot easier than skipping work. Consider yourself lucky.

The way I look at it is that they figure that the Mets and the Cubs would have higher TV ratings in any time slot. If they played Rays-White Sox at 12:30, the game might not even sell out, let alone have any decent TV ratings at all. Hell, that might have lower ratings than Dr. Phil or whatever is on that time of day. TBS figures that they'll get the night time ads sold regardless of the teams, but having 2 huge markets playing during the day might help them bump up their ad prices for a mid-afternoon game.

Ah, yes, how could I forget such a prestigious pick. Nevertheless, Cubs better than I thought at drafting. Just no real superstars on the position player end, Soto's doing his best to change that, though.

Thanks!

The following chart is from Buster Olney's article about the Yankees downfall. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=olney_buster&id=3589629&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab1pos1It shows the effectiveness of drafting from 1997-2005. Surprisingly, the Cubs aren't too bad. They've had 19 position players (t-7th) and 25 pitchers (5th) reach the majors. Note, this does not include Kerry Wood as he was drafted in 1996, so he would significantly boost these totals if you went back just 1 more year. Look at the Phillies, their overall #s are somewhat low, but their numbers of at bats and innings pitched are pretty high per capita. Good job by them. MLB drafts, 1997-2005 (stats through Sept. 9) POSITION PLAYERS PITCHERS Team # of players At-bats Team # of players Innings pitched Rockies 24 24,186 White Sox 30 7,637 Dbacks 23 19,272 Giants 29 5,937.1 Athletics 22 16,434 Athletics 28 9,686 Rays 21 19,987 Braves 28 3,513 Angels 20 11,873 Cubs 25 6,460 Tigers 20 10,154 Royals 24 4,173.2 Cardinals 19 25,096 Cardinals 24 2,124.2 Rangers 19 19,330 Nationals 23 3,200.2 Astros 19 14,600 Blue Jays 22 4,287.2 Royals 19 10,560 Padres 22 3,471.1 Cubs 19 10,214 Pirates 21 4,904 Giants 19 4,455 Dbacks 21 4,439.1 Pirates 18 7,533 Rockies 20 4,003 Blue Jays 17 27,427 Red Sox 20 3,849.2 Nationals 16 13,410 Twins 20 3,009 Mets 16 11,469 Yankees 20 1,852.2 Padres 16 9,419 Phillies 19 5,152.2 Dodgers 16 8,610 Rays 19 4,744.2 Red Sox 15 16,296 Orioles 19 2,968 Braves 15 11,183 Mets 18 2,892 Reds 15 10,886 Rangers 18 2,850.2 Brewers 15 10,219 Angels 17 3,815 White Sox 15 8,335 Brewers 17 2,575.1 Marlins 15 6,845 Marlins 16 3,810.2 Orioles 14 13,502 Astros 16 3,000.1 Phillies 13 17,970 Tigers 15 3,609.1 Twins 13 10,776 Mariners 15 2,375 Mariners 13 3,268 Indians 14 4,049.1 Indians 11 7,009 Reds 14 1,906.1 Yankees 10 886 Dodgers 14 1,867.1

I was 16 at the time and was painting my Grandfather's porch with my brother listening on the radio. I wanted to throw the paint can through the window. My brother, then 13 AND a Brewers fan, gave me the Nelson "Ha Ha" and then we fought each other on the front lawn. Not good times.