CubColtPacer

Is LeMahieu a pretty safe bet to play in the majors at this point? It's pretty obvious at this point that he has elite line drive abilities. His strikeouts are good but not great but yet he still hasn't hit less than .314 at any stop. I also like to see that ISOP double early on this season especially when there is a reason for it (he supposedly gained weight at Camp Colvin). Is his biggest concern the fact that he might have to be moved to 3rd base where his skill set might not be valued as much as if he was at 2nd? It almost feels like he has to at least make the majors as a backup at this point-that contact tool is not likely to get much worse between AA and the majors.

Vitters Brett Jackson, too. I'd be shocked if the Cubs went "off the radar" with this pick. There is too much elite talent available at the top of the draft for them to make a surprise pick like Colvin or Simpson. Dylan Bundy is a machine. He is up to 147 K's and 5 walks on the season. I know it's just HS hitters, but those are crazy numbers. If we can come out of this draft with Bundy or Starling I would be thrilled. I wouldn't exactly be disappointed with Jed Bradley, Bauer, or Gray but one of those high schoolers would be my preference if Rendon and Cole go 1-2, as expected. Jackson was hated by most of the board (for good reasons at the time) but everyone expected him to go to the Cubs in 2009. In fact, people were rooting for him to go off the board with every pick because they were so sure the Cubs would pick him. Vitters was not a surprise but some wanted Wieters. Cashner wasn't a huge surprise but wasn't well liked until there were signs that the Cubs were serious about trying him as a starter. Colvin and Simpson were huge surprises.

I know. Seriously. What happened to this supposed mid-90s heat? Well, this is the Cubs explanation (and apparently they weren't happy at all when they saw him last week): How much of that is 1) the real cause for his velocity drop and 2) temporary, I have no idea.

Who's argued that in this thread? Several people. Can you name one or two of them and give posts that state that position? Because I haven't seen them. tim and cubcoltpacer appear to doing so in painfully obvious fashion I don't think I've said once in this thread that Hendry should be given an extension. All I've said is that Hendry has done several things that I like in the last couple years and if he was given an extension I have many reasons to believe he'll be better than he was in the past. But I've also said I wouldn't be upset if they fired him because they could bring somebody in who could also make those moves. Although I am a bit scared by Wilken leaving because I think he has done very good things for this farm system which is a big reason why the Cubs are in pretty good shape like they are right now. It's still less than 5 years after Wilken's first draft and the Cubs have 6 players who were drafted by Wilken and 1 who was signed internationally after Wilken took over. That's pretty solid especially since two of those players have All-Star ceilings. Plus Wilken draftees (or signed internationally under his watch) have been used as major pieces in two major trades on the major league level already.

We also should throw in here too that according to reports, firing Hendry means replacing the entire front office-including Wilken.

Maybe. He has a $14 million player option for 2012. If he ends up having another good season, he may refuse the option to look for a 3/30 or 3/39 type deal. If Demp exercises the option, then we're pretty much stuck with the rotation unless we trade someone out of there. Which is fine IMO. I wouldn't mind having the same rotation back next year especially if Cashner and Wells come back and pitch well. My biggest worry for the offseason is what Hendry does for 3B. Otherwise, I see a very nice plan coming together and the Cubs are really starting to be in good shape for the future. Soriano staying pretty good for the next year or two would be a nice bonus.

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.