CubColtPacer

Yeah, Soriano and Z are the only possibilities I could come up with. Soriano no doubt will be an albatross before his contract is up, but Z has still been fairly productive and there's only two seasons left on his deal after this year. The likelihood that he completely falls off a cliff in those two years is low and unless he spends the next two years mostly on the DL, I can't imagine it becoming an albatross. There's actually only one season on Z's contract after this year. The only way he vests the 2013 option at this point (since he is not going to finish top 2 in the Cy Young vote this year) is to finish top 4 next year. That's unlikely to happen and if it does the contract won't be a problem anyway! Soriano and Marmol are the only 2 Cubs signed beyond 2012 at this point.

Now you can see why the Pacers were bad for so long. Dunleavy at 5 years, 45 million and Murphy at 6 years, 58 million and the Pacers had to acquire them in the same deal just to get rid of Stephen Jackson. They never were able to get rid of Tinsley and paid him for 3 years just to stay home.

The Cubs are just coming out of the dark ages as far as prospects go. They had a horrible run in drafting from 2002-2006 (Hendry's biggest mistake in his entire career was not making a change on this earlier) which led to having to buy so much talent from 2007-2010. I wouldn't call Soto or Castro role players though. They'll probably both be legitimate All-Star quality players at their position for several years. Cashner has that type of capability in him. But yes, the Cubs system doesn't seem to be designed to produce superstars. And that's an ok strategy when you think of this question. Where are baseball teams most inefficient? Usually it's at 2B, SS, the bench, 3rd/4th/5th starters, and the bullpen. Since there is a scarcity at all those positions, teams tend to overpay for bad players there. If the Cubs can develop good players at those types of positions (plus at C) it gives them a lot of money flexibility to go out and buy elite bats for the corners. I look at the Cubs over Hendry's tenure as 3 eras (and getting close to entering a 4th). 2003-2006- this was a period where the future got bleaker for the Cubs every single year. Hendry did a pretty good job of restocking the offense but between the young pitching getting hurt and the minor league drafts consistently being bad by 06 there was very little hope. The organization was in a complete mess both in the majors and minors 2007-2009-the Cubs decided to make a run for it right then. This part I blame on the ownership change. A responsible owner would have fired Hendry after 2006 and attempted to slowly build up the team and farm system instead of trying to suddenly buy a winner. Hendry actually did an admirable job building that team together though. He avoided most of the free agent land mines. The 2006-2007 offseason was particularly impressive where the Cubs spent a ton of money and only came out of it with 1 bad contract relative to production when there were tons of horrid contracts handed out that offseason. But it was still the wrong strategy to take because even though Hendry did a lot right, you have to be absolutely perfect when just buying a winner without help from your farm and the Cubs weren't perfect. The Cubs did make huge strides in their farm system during this time though. 2009-2011-Ricketts comes in and says that buying a winner. The Cubs continue to develop their farm system. Hendry stops giving out long-term deals. The team slowly starts unwinding the long-term commitments they gave out. The 4th era is when the team really starts sticking their toes into the FA market again and signing a couple long-term contracts to complement the guys they have in their developing core. That will probably come in the next two offseasons.

Well, he hacked early on the next at bat, swinging at the 2nd pitch and flying out. But at least the first pitch was a ball. He has yet to get himself in a situation where he was behind in the count before offering. I have been watching his at-bats when I can for a couple weeks now and it definitely seems like Vitters is often ahead or even in the count (and several times I've seen him get to 3-2). His most common at-bat is to take a ball or two, maybe hit a foul ball, and then fly out.

Most of those raises are just accounting tricks. Soriano may have only got 9 million in 2007, but he also got an 8 million dollar signing bonus that the Cubs probably counted in either 07 or maybe 07 and 08. Zambrano (5 million dollar signing bonus), Ramirez (5 million), Fukudome (4 million), Dempster (4 million), and Lilly (4 million) were the same way. All of those contracts were backloaded but not nearly to the extent as what looking at the first year salary would give you because of the signing bonuses.

I agree completely with the sentiment around the league that Hendry has been given enough time and has no room to complain if he gets fired at the end of the season. I also agree with Rosenthal that the Cubs have done a good job the last couple of years with their new philosophy. If that is primarily from Ricketts or Hendry, I do not know. Their attempt to win now didn't work. The last 1 1/2 to 2 years they've been working to stay competitive while making room for a young core to develop. They've avoided long-term contracts and have been working hard to increase their flexibility. They've opened up spots for young players in a way they haven't done in a long, long time. They are slowly transitioning from a team who relies on FA to a team who relies on their farm. This is a philosopy that fits Hendry's strengths much better than the previous one did so I wouldn't be surprised if the Cubs did end up winning under Hendry if he stayed on. But I can certainly understand why people want a fresh start and wouldn't be upset if Hendry was fired tomorrow.

Looks like that trade was a wash. Will someone else take a chance on MIlton? Nah, that ended up a clear win for the Cubs. They saved 5 million and got 2.1 WAR out of Silva. Bradley had a -0.4 WAR for the Mariners. Someone may take a chance on Milton, but he's pretty much done.

I know that is the conventional wisdom, but I haven't seen that from how pitchers are approaching Castro. He's had a lot of hittable strikes lately that he just isn't hitting very hard. In fact according to Fangraphs, Castro has gotten more pitches in the strike zone than most of the team.

The question is where. The Cubs 3 second baseman have been the Cubs best 3 infielders so far (who knew we would be saying that after just over a month!)

Pena's OPS has now gone up 190 points in the last 5 games. Still really bad overall numbers (.647 OPS now) but the way he's crushing the ball that slugging will probably keep going up. And yes the ball rarely bounces out of Wrigley like that, but rarely does a ball be that much of a fly ball and yet not get caught either. That was a very poor play by the Reds on a well hit ball by Baker.

The 9 spot ended the last inning-no need to double switch.

That was a good use of Russell there. Had to take the risk to try to save Marshall if possible and 2 of the 3 being left-handers makes that a good spot for Russell. Also glad to see him pulled out when that stretch was over.

Colvin is fouling a lot of pitches off this season. He's making better contact but he's not putting many more balls in play.

I don't think Coleman pitched any different in the 7th than in the other 6. He gave up a walk on a close pitch and then gave up a bloop single. Sorry mean to say, Quade is terrible at not knowing when he needs to go to the actual strength of the team the 7, 8, 9 guys when he has a lead. That's probably true. 2 of the 3 pitched 3 innings yesterday though so you're in a little trouble tomorrow if they have to go 3 more innings today.

I don't think Coleman pitched any different in the 7th than in the other 6. He gave up a walk on a close pitch and then gave up a bloop single.

Well, you probably don't want Wood to pitch today. I would send Coleman out with a short leash.

I'm going to take that bet against these announcers since that is not only Pena's first 2 strike bunt of his career, it's also not even his first 2 strike bunt this year.

Because more people have them than not, so you may as well cater to the majority rather than the minority. I have a widescreen TV and I can still only see half the graphic (can't see the Reds score for example). You may want to check the settings on your TV. All the graphics show up as they should on my widescreen. Sounds like you may have your picture set to full screen or something. Thanks for the help. It says it is outputting in 16:9 but Wide fit is greyed out at the moment. Don't know why. Maybe it's because I'm watching in SD.

Yup. And he started games 1 and 2 in that series.

Soriano's 5 for 42 against Arroyo with a .603 OPS. Plus Arroyo has pretty big right/left splits (although the Cubs left-handers don't have good numbers against him historically either).

Because more people have them than not, so you may as well cater to the majority rather than the minority. I have a widescreen TV and I can still only see half the graphic (can't see the Reds score for example).

I would add the caveat that the Cardinals won't let Wainwright walk if they think he's worth anything. I could maybe see them declining the option after 2012 if he is showing signs of a poor rehab still. I don't expect that to happen (most pitchers recover very well) but it could. But the reason that the Wainwright injury was so devastating to them in the first place was because he was the key piece of the puzzle who was an elite pitcher that was still relatively cheap. They still have Garcia and Rasmus but having Wainwright become a question mark for the years ahead really hurt.

Fukudome is in a mini slump right now. 2-21 with 7 K's. 3 singles hitters at the top of the lineup is a little too much for me (at least Fukudome has been a singles hitter so far this year). That's really the main problem with Barney at the top-he's fine as a 2 hitter but it causes problems for setting the rest of the lineup. You want Castro up near the top and Fukudome is a natural top of the order hitter (plus you don't want to have Fukudome and Pena too close to each other in the order). The question is, if the hitters are so interchangeable, do you rely primarily on people being hot? If that was the case, Soriano, Soto, and Byrd would be moving up right now while Castro, Fukudome, and Ramirez would be moving down in the lineup. But I don't know if you want to make wild swings in the lineup based on a week or two of results especially when they could so quickly reverse.

If we're talking about Barney adding power, I would be more inclined to credit Camp Colvin. Barney added close to 20 pounds over the offseason and that might have helped him add just a touch more power. I also think he could settle in close to his minor league line. Barney's the type of player who wouldn't lose much facing better pitchers.

Z's been good but LA's lineup is really bad today as well.