oldstyle81

some people in this thread make me want to hit my head on a wall

OMG THE SKY IS NOT FALLING maybe he was taking it easy since he hasant pitched in a game since what, July?

Really... yes really

exactly, if he hasant really been throwing hard over the off season, he isint going to magically show up at spring training at throw 90+

that dosent mean he is going to have a 94mph fastball, its really easy to figure out how someone could lose that much velocity

overall they are a slight improvment over the previous years

you guys are pretty rusty

Everybody loves the Cubs, Everybody loves the Cubs, It's baseball time again, here on WGN. Jon (the member here) has the song on his website Whats the website? http://www.jonmdavis.net/cubs/sound.html

Everybody loves the Cubs, Everybody loves the Cubs, It's baseball time again, here on WGN. Jon (the member here) has the song on his website

Yes, blew the crap they have this year out of the water

seriously they shouldve just dusted off that beach boys song

ugh WGN really mustve had crap in their ears with these intros why country?

i think ill pick mine up on opening day

um its ESPN

the new wgn opening is crap

a baseball network sounds awesome (from the cnn article)

Maybe, but I'd rather have Wood at his best in the 7th or 8th with runners on than in the 9th with nobody on. thats what eyre and howry and wuertz are for. Sure, they can do it. But Wood, at his best, is better than any of them. The notion that your best reliever should be your closer is a myth, or a misconception, at best. yet it means nothing if wood holds them in the 8th and dempster loses it in the 9th That's true of any inning with any pitcher, not just the 9th and the closer. yes but it means nothing if the pitcher in the 9th cant hold a lead, kinda like Dempster demspter didnt seem to have a problem holding the lead in 2005 when he went 33/35 in saves with an era around 2. Jason Marquis went 15-7 with a 3.71 ERA in 2004 Cesar Izturis batted .288 with a OBP of .330 in 2004 the point is, the freshest sample of data says Dempster blew 9 saves in 2006 compared to 2 in 2005 good thing players are a little more than "sample data". dempster has proven he has the stuff to close and there is no reason he cant do so effectively in 2007. the same goes for marquis & izturis having good years. they have the ability if they can stay healthy. i hope he does well dont get me wrong but baseball has always been a sport of what have you done for me lately.

Maybe, but I'd rather have Wood at his best in the 7th or 8th with runners on than in the 9th with nobody on. thats what eyre and howry and wuertz are for. Sure, they can do it. But Wood, at his best, is better than any of them. The notion that your best reliever should be your closer is a myth, or a misconception, at best. yet it means nothing if wood holds them in the 8th and dempster loses it in the 9th That's true of any inning with any pitcher, not just the 9th and the closer. yes but it means nothing if the pitcher in the 9th cant hold a lead, kinda like Dempster demspter didnt seem to have a problem holding the lead in 2005 when he went 33/35 in saves with an era around 2. Jason Marquis went 15-7 with a 3.71 ERA in 2004 Cesar Izturis batted .288 with a OBP of .330 in 2004 the point is, the freshest sample of data says Dempster blew 9 saves in 2006 compared to 2 in 2005

yeah it would have had to been game 2 of the WS (if it was actually the WS)

we dont expect it to happen but we didnt see MacPhail leaving at the end of last year either

Maybe, but I'd rather have Wood at his best in the 7th or 8th with runners on than in the 9th with nobody on. thats what eyre and howry and wuertz are for. Sure, they can do it. But Wood, at his best, is better than any of them. The notion that your best reliever should be your closer is a myth, or a misconception, at best. yet it means nothing if wood holds them in the 8th and dempster loses it in the 9th That's true of any inning with any pitcher, not just the 9th and the closer. yes but it means nothing if the pitcher in the 9th cant hold a lead, kinda like Dempster

Maybe, but I'd rather have Wood at his best in the 7th or 8th with runners on than in the 9th with nobody on. thats what eyre and howry and wuertz are for. Sure, they can do it. But Wood, at his best, is better than any of them. The notion that your best reliever should be your closer is a myth, or a misconception, at best. yet it means nothing if wood holds them in the 8th and dempster loses it in the 9th

Maybe, but I'd rather have Wood at his best in the 7th or 8th with runners on than in the 9th with nobody on. thats what eyre and howry and wuertz are for.

But the Tribune can sell the Cubs whenever they want. The deadline is for TRB reorganization in general. The Cubs are just a very small part of that plan. Everything that I've read claims that Tribune wouldn't sell the Cubs if they opt to recapitalize. The Cubs and WGN are arguably the most profitable assets of Tribune company. It seems odd that they would use resources to reorganize if they plan to divest themselves of the Cubs; it would be more efficient to just sell the Cubs to the highest bidder and use the profits to appease the shareholders. Or it could be more profitable to give the impression that you aren't selling the Cubs, thus, hopefully driving up the offers from potential buyers. Again, we're talking about the Cubs. The offers will be there. These are business people and they aren't going to outbid themselves. Either the news report, of the specific dollar amount, is false; Cuban is crazy; or just a bad negotiator. There is no advantage in letting your competitors know your bid amount (it is not public). Zell is not disclosing his offer. Forbes has already apprasised it's value (add to that the recent sale of the Braves and any reasonable person can assume the starting bid for the Cubs). I find it hard to believe that Cuban would say this publically. Zell cannot put a offer in for the cubs till he dumps his ownership in the White Sox I had that same concern but learned that isn't necessarily true. Unless the MLB and each team takes ownership evenly like they did with the Nationals, they arent going to allow 1 man to own 2 teams. the other owners would have a fit since they have never been allowed to do taht themselves

pretty much, if he is going to throw away games like last year, then its better to ship him the cubs very well couldve been a 76 win team last year if it wasant for Dempster blowing all those saves