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Do you see that St. Louis can win the division? I don't see how their rotation could be called better than ours-maybe similar, but certainly not better (btw, I know that you have Milwaukee winning the division, just curious if you think anybody else has a chance besides them).

True-I just wish the fans would wait to see if a player is actually horrible before expressing their displeasure and possibly driving people out of town that are quality players (in the cases of Lee and Jones for example). Also, if our booing got worse and got close to New York level this year, would a player like A-Rod want to come here?

I don't think that was managed incorrectly-that squeeze probably had a better chance of being executed successfully rather than the run scoring any other way with the hitters they had coming up-they just didn't execute it that particular time. But he did it on 1-1 thinking they wouldn't pitch out, which I knew he would do. You could see it coming from a mile away. Yeah, but the Cardinals have proven the last couple years (at least IMO) that they can get the run in most of the time even when it is the expected play. I don't necessarily like the squeeze as a normal baseball option because of the high risk, but the Cardinals are one team who usually minimize that risk and make the squeeze an option even when expected.

I don't think that was managed incorrectly-that squeeze probably had a better chance of being executed successfully rather than the run scoring any other way with the hitters they had coming up-they just didn't execute it that particular time.

He didn't say "that is the only difference"-he said "that is the difference" and then proceeded to show that Reyes has a much stronger arm than Eckstein's. What's so wrong about that? He wasn't talking about their offensive games at all.

Just wait until you look at the rotation :D

I thought he was safe at first, but from looking at it a few times, I think he was out by the slimmest of margins-I would love to see another angle to be sure, but it looks like the ball is in the glove with the runner about 1/4 step from the bag.

luckily it should be a few degrees warmer when the Cubs open at home on Monday though :D

Inning 1 out out bb bb out inning 2 bb out out out repeat I actually think Yadier could have a big offensive year. :oops: By big, I mean similar to Barrett. That's quite a bold prediction, especially considering that if Yadier can find a way to replicate his best month of the last two years (either May or June 2005, take your pick) for every month of the season, he still wouldn't be similar to Barrett.

That was from his last start-people are wondering about a possible start today that he allegedly left with more blisters.

Ok-texas picks Adam Carriker for the Titans, so Dew and the Giants are now on the clock.

Yeah, that was 2003-I remember because Prior gave up something like 3 runs there, and it was a shock just because that was like his worst outing in 10 or something like that he was running so well.

We won the first game thanks to a strong performance by Lieber and 3 RBI's by Shane Andrews. The Mets won game 2 in the 11th inning on a grand slam by Agbayani with 2 outs.

WGN has 76 Cubs games this year.

Cincy always had the first game until they said the other day the Cubs vs Mets in Japan (I didn't think that was the first time it didn't happen, but maybe it was). Since then, they've decided to put this Sunday night game in, and just leave Cincy's game as the traditional day game rather than move it up to be the first game as usual. I don't understand. What does it mean? I heard on TV the other day that the first year that the Cincy game was not the first game of the year was the year that the Cubs played the Mets in Japan. I didn't think that was true, but apparently it was. Sorry for the confusing line there-hope that cleared it up. Yeah thanks. I still don't understand, the cubs vs. the mets in Japan!? Wow how long ago was that? :) It was in 2000-that was just 7 years ago now :D

Cincy always had the first game until they said the other day the Cubs vs Mets in Japan (I didn't think that was the first time it didn't happen, but maybe it was). Since then, they've decided to put this Sunday night game in, and just leave Cincy's game as the traditional day game rather than move it up to be the first game as usual. I don't understand. What does it mean? I heard on TV the other day that the first year that the Cincy game was not the first game of the year was the year that the Cubs played the Mets in Japan. I didn't think that was true, but apparently it was. Sorry for the confusing line there-hope that cleared it up.

Cincy always had the first game until they said the other day the Cubs vs Mets in Japan (I didn't think that was the first time it didn't happen, but maybe it was). Since then, they've decided to put this Sunday night game in, and just leave Cincy's game as the traditional day game rather than move it up to be the first game as usual.

Doesn't the pitching coach play some sort of role in whether or not an organization would 'believe' a minor league pitcher has an injury issue? He wasn't the pitching coach last year-his position in the Diamondbacks organization was that of minor league pitching coordinator -the same question may still apply for him in that position though.

Who to root for, who to root for..I'll have to go with the Big 10 and Ohio State, if partly just because when I look at Noah now I see Sanjaya from American Idol, and that's enough to have me root for OSU :D

I'd make another call for split coverage-say that so many people wanted each in the contest that it would increase the readership of the newspaper to cover both-you said it before the contest was finished, so you have some credibility on that Vance-and if you thought about it a little bit, I think you could have a pretty compelling letter.

I think Pierre is saying that he had sympathy for the fans-that he knew that they loved the team so much and were so disappointed, and he wished really hard that the club could have done better for them. Even if the fans said some nasty things, he knew it was only coming out of their extreme disappointment, and that added to his disappointment of the Cubs season in 2006. I definitely doubt this was the whole reason-it could have been a part of it though, especially with how understandably ugly the Cubs 2006 crowd was getting at times. This is the one thing I'm not sure of. Why does a fan boo? So his team will know that the fans are not happy, do something different and do better. When you have a new player, they are usually already pressing too hard to try to impress the fans. When you boo, what happens? They press even harder, and that prolongs their slump. So I'm ok with booing, but give the new Cubs a chance to settle in first! It could sometimes have terrible effects on the team-for example, Jones wanted out because of the crowd-what if Lee had been the same way after 04 because of how he was treated in April?

I say that Dunn would not be an upgrade over Murton because of the following reasons: 1) Dunn is scheduled to make 7-8 million more than Murton this year 2) He will be a free agent after this year while Murton still has a few years under club control 3) Murton is about 2 years younger, and has a better ability to improve upon his major league numbers than Dunn does at the moment. Is Dunn the better player at the moment? Certainly-if you take salaries and everything else out of the equation, I'd take Dunn for 2007 only every single time. Murton I believe is the better value though. You're the Cubs, money doesn't matter. Dunn's not a free agent after this year, he's a free agent after next year. Murton's never going to put up 40/100. Murton's not even going to play everyday for the Cubs. I think the Cubs would rather have Dunn too. Unfortunately for the Cubs fans, money does matter-the Cubs are on a budget, and the payroll for the next couple years does not look great. They are going to have a hard time squeezing any impact players under the payroll as it is-if they are going to squeeze another high paid impact player, it needs to be at a position where they can get a huge upgrade, whichever one fails most at either SP, SS, or 2B. Possibly upgrading LF is not a priority. Dunn has a club option for next year isn't it at like 12 million? Murton will never be a 40 homer guy, but he could be a 20 homer 35 double 3-4 triple guy, not to mention that his SLG percentage will be given a boost because his AVG is so much higher than Dunn's even with similar OBP's. I'm not sure on the last point-Murton doesn't fit how the club likes to have power out of the corner outfield, but Dunn doesn't really fit the club's philosophy either. I couldn't tell you on the last one. The biggest point though is-if the Cubs are going to add another high priced player when they can't add very many without getting into a serious budget crunch, it better be a big upgrade-Dunn won't give the team enough of an upgrade to be worth his salary and losing the chance to upgrade other positions that need it worse.

I say that Dunn would not be an upgrade over Murton because of the following reasons: 1) Dunn is scheduled to make 7-8 million more than Murton this year 2) He will be a free agent after this year while Murton still has a few years under club control 3) Murton is about 2 years younger, and has a better ability to improve upon his major league numbers than Dunn does at the moment. Is Dunn the better player at the moment? Certainly-if you take salaries and everything else out of the equation, I'd take Dunn for 2007 only every single time. Murton I believe is the better value though.

Can we have Adam Dunn? Please. As good as he is, we don't have a spot for him. We have Lee where he should be playing, 1B, and if you thought our outfield defense was bad now, adding Dunn would make it worse. He's about equivalent to putting a glove on a statue out there. LOL that's a joke right? You don't have room for 40 homers, 100 RBIs, and high OBP? I agree completely that we could use Dunn, but at some point you have to consider defense at the expense of more offense.. As somebody who watches every game, his D is bad, but it's nowhere near bad enough to offset his offense. You're right-but it might be bad enough for him to not be an upgrade to Murton, especially if one believes that Murton's power is developing. I would agree-Dunn is an asset to a team, but he doesn't fit anywhere on the Cubs right now.

Can we have Adam Dunn? Please. As good as he is, we don't have a spot for him. We have Lee where he should be playing, 1B, and if you thought our outfield defense was bad now, adding Dunn would make it worse. He's about equivalent to putting a glove on a statue out there. LOL-I wouldn't say he's quite that bad, but to think that the team could have a lineup of Dunn/Soriano/Floyd on some days in the outfield would possibly be some of the worst OF defense ever recorded. Let's go Cubs-just a nice solid win would be wonderful.