seanimal

You're right for now, but I'll defer my opinion until the end of the season.

So Mark O'neal and/or Larry Rothschild can get a first hand look at him. Wood was with the team recently, joining the team just means he'll be there. That being said this is the Cubs, so he'll start sometime this week. Hopefully his arm literally separates from his torso in the process.

Crap, that happened for me when he traded Mitre and Nolasco to Florida for Slappy the lost ninja turtle.

Pardon? I don't think we'll need another outfielder unless we trade both Jones and Murton, and something tells me that's not going to happen unless we hire a GM who knows his O-ring from his elbow.

Actually, it's more RBI's and HR's than everyone besides ARam, more doubles than everyone but Lee and Soriano, more total bases than everyone but Ramirez and Lee. Of players with at least 50 PA's he has a higher OPS than everyone but Ramirez and Lee. Not bad for a guy just flailing away for HR's. BUT he just CARES about HIMSELF

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It's called adjusting. Man, are you gonna feel silly when they win it all. :lol:

Ooh, a 'back injury' would be awfully convenient right about now. The player would have to agree to somethign like that no? I'm not sure how that works. If he's Mark Prior, he'll just accept it and call himself an 'employee' in interviews.

Good question that I have no answer to, but if I had to guess, I would say some combination of the latter and over-aggressiveness.

Ooh, a 'back injury' would be awfully convenient right about now.

Perhaps, but wasn't that ball over the bullpen hump? At the time it seemed to me that that was the issue with him not going for the ball, rather than just 'giving' up. Either way, we'll never know. I'd say Zambrano throwing hamburgers has a helluva lot more to do with the Cubs losing that game than anything Sori did. I think it would be more appropriate to revisit this issue at the end of the season when trying to assert that Soriano's stats are replaceable in-house. Currently, you may be right about the offensive end, but I can guarantee that Matt Murton wouldn't have 5 assists in the opportunities that Soriano has received.

Lots, but I wasn't one of them. Seeing players run as hard as possible every single time is exciting and all, but the important numbers he puts up are far more exciting than seeing him 'grind' his way down the basepaths and aggravate his former injuries. Well I only speak for myself, and I just said that. It happened yesterday, so unless you have evidence of Piniella not addressing it, it's a bit presumptuous to say that he doesn't, especially when past experience says that he does and will. You're right, the Cubs lost because Alfonso Soriano didn't run as hard as possible. You do realize these two sentences contradict themselves. The second is accurate, they do linger, and Soriano running at 85% is a lot better than Soriano on the bench. It's not a decision, it's a feeling. He probably runs as hard as he feels comfortable with. Like?

You can't be serious. The guy has a soft hamstring. This hustle thing is kind of silly. Soriano wants to win just as much as the next guy, but he's not going to pull up with a 15-day DL trip to do it, as he's more valuable on the field than off. my guess is he's referring specifically to the final out yesterday where Soriano assumed he had a base hit and started jogging to first, then realized Uribe would get to the ball. unexcusable. he didn't even have to go all out to keep the game going. all he had to do was run the 85-90% or whatever percentage I've seen him give in other situations. he didn't. that's not too much to ask, and completely unacceptable when it doesn't happen. if anything, he endangered himself more by not giving all he had from the beginning and instead had to turn it on to try to beat it out. In that context it's somewhat more understandable, however, a lot is made on this board about judging a guy by his most recent performance. I would assume Lou let him hear it, based on things that past players have said about him. Either way, if Sori was putting up his usual numbers, this thread probably wouldn't exist.

Seems to me that Piniella thought about make a drastic change (moving Dempster to the rotation), considered the ramifications, took into account other opinions, then came to the rational conclusion that the best option was to leave Dempster as closer, put Guzman as set up man to improve performance in getting the game to the closer, and promote Marshall to the rotation. Despite all the hand wringing, it seems like a good decision making process. Except that if Marshall can't go many innings in his starts, we just sent out guy most capable of long relief other than Gooz to AAA. This is where DFA'ing Eyre would have made the most sense, cause we could still use Cotts in long relief and have Gooz set-up Dempster. What is with this DFA infatuation? People here always complain about Hendry selling low but is there any more extreme example of selling low than DFA'ing a veteran LH reliever that is coming off two solid years because of one bad month? Let Eyre work out his problems in long relief if you don't want him pitching in key situations, but giving him away for nothing makes no sense. This isn't the NFL where you don't have to pay his contract if you cut him. Selling low isn't the issue. I doubt there are any takers who would give us something worthwhile in exchange. It's not an infatuation with DFA, it's that Eyre is a waste of a roster spot, he hasn't been the same since last year's injury, though, he wasn't this bad in Sept. of last year and has looked *somewhat* better in his last couple of appearances, but that's not saying much.

You can't be serious. The guy has a soft hamstring. This hustle thing is kind of silly. Soriano wants to win just as much as the next guy, but he's not going to pull up with a 15-day DL trip to do it, as he's more valuable on the field than off.

Seems to me that Piniella thought about make a drastic change (moving Dempster to the rotation), considered the ramifications, took into account other opinions, then came to the rational conclusion that the best option was to leave Dempster as closer, put Guzman as set up man to improve performance in getting the game to the closer, and promote Marshall to the rotation. Despite all the hand wringing, it seems like a good decision making process. Except that if Marshall can't go many innings in his starts, we just sent out guy most capable of long relief other than Gooz to AAA. This is where DFA'ing Eyre would have made the most sense, cause we could still use Cotts in long relief and have Gooz set-up Dempster.

Here's hoping they get one of the first three balls pulled.

Nope.

How about adding something like: Eyre DFA

One of my thoughts when the Cubs hired Lou was that even if the Cubs sucked, Lou would be infinitely more entertaining than Dusty ever was. For example:

Any reason given for why the changes coming had to wait until Monday, and not be enacted today? Could they be working a trade or two, and they don't expect them to be complete until Monday? I'm guessing this is part of it. Lou asked Hendry to make some changes and Hendry asked for the weekend to negotiate. Anyone else here think Dempster won't be getting the call anymore in save situations? I hope he's considering Wuertz for the job. I bet Cotts is on the short list to go down since he still has options as well. Dempster has done pretty well. I have no idea what is going to happen. Erye has been bad and came to camp out of shape (I think). I'm guessing he's gone. The problem is that the bullpen is a secondary problem and becuase of the timing of the troubles it is getting all the bame. Like I said before the season started, Hendry gave Lou a chess set with too many pawns and not enough knights and expects him to win. You only get two knights. :lol: We don't have our queen. And we start every game three moves from checkmate.

And Riot doesn't look like he's slowing down anytime soon.

1.36. Someone said the other nite on the ESPN telecast (Baker or Sutcliffe) that Rothschild had been yelling at him that he wasnt a sinker ball pitcher and that he needed to stop acting like one. He apparently needs to throw his normal fastball and change up more to be effective. God help him in the wind tunnell in mid summer. Dear god I hope that's not true.

Yeah, while I'm disappointed that we didn't get further in the playoffs, especially considering it looked like the Bulls beat themselves with poor shooting, this team is going to be pretty darn good for years to come. Looking forward to the draft. When do we find out where we are in the lottery?

And I will bask in the gloriousness.