Backtobanks

Thank God their offensive power numbers can counteract the bullpen numbers. :lol:

From MLBTR: •Tigers starters other than Justin Verlander and Drew Smyly have struggled so far this year, and rival executives expect Detroit to make a strong push for rotation help by the July trade deadline.

It's a nice story, but what FA is going to start dismissing possible suitors at this point. I would expect Hamels to be like 99% of the other FAs and go to whatever team gives him the most money.

If he is we may decide not to trade him. :lol:

I still find it interesting that some of you get upset by my "negativity" when some others are posting the same kind of comments. I guess my comment about a ton of holes to fill sounds negative instead of realistic. 1B, 2B, SS, CF, #1 starter, #3 starter look to be set long term. 3B is still a question mark until Stewart/Vitters/Lake prove they can deliver on a regular basis. Soto needs to get his act together or else catcher is a question mark. LF, RF, and #1/#2 starter are targets for free agency. The bullpen is really questionable with only Dolis and Russell looking like long term solutions.

Actually the 2012 Cubs are making me look very accurate about my predictions for this year and it's interesting to see how many posters are starting agree about this year's team. I am optimistic about Rizzo & Brett coming up, but there's still a ton of holes to fill for this year and next.

Agree to disagree. You don't think there's a realistic shot they could be a mediocre or bad team in 2014? We're getting into semantics now, but my expectation is that they're 5-7 games better than last year in 2012, and 5-7 games better than that(if not more) in 2013. I think this year is the last year for the forseeable future that winning less than 75 games is a significant/probable outcome. I don't know about 2014, but I'm not sure this team is going to be 5-7 games better than last year. Obviously 2013 is really a question mark with Rizzo and Brett starting and somebody having to replace Dempster.

Maholm is this year's Jeff Blauser. His career record is good at Wrigley Field is good because he faced the Cubs all those years not because he is good. By that logic, pretty much every hitter who faced the Cubs in Blausers era should have great numbers at Wrigley, and every pitcher who faced them in Maholms years with the Pirates should as well, and true or not, I'm too lazy to check the splits a good chunk of Maholms Pirates career was '07-'09 when the Cubs were good, or in the case of '08, great. My point was that just because some mediocre player has decent numbers against you, it doesn't mean that you ought to acquire that player. I guess that is a little too deep for some posters.

Maholm is this year's Jeff Blauser. His career record is good at Wrigley Field is good because he faced the Cubs all those years not because he is good.

I don't understand letting Stewart bat against a lefty in the 8th inning with 2 men in scoring position. Isn't that the reason (hitting lefties) that Baker and Reed Johnson are on this team?

I think that giving Lahair a decent shot at LF is a great idea (assuming we can dump Soriano). He's one of those guys that's probably more valuable to the Cubs than whatever you would get for him in a trade because I don't think he has very much trade value unless he's part of a package deal.

When we know how terrible they likely are going to be coming in I'm not sure why we can't point it out. It's not like this was a team expected to put up good numbers that has surprisingly underperformed. Do you expect BacktoHendry to talk about the team statline after 7 games if they put up 8 runs today? It's interesting that you criticize me for talking about the team offensive statline after 6 games when you brought up how amazing the front of the rotation guys have been and how bad our bullpen has been in the same 6 games.

Their offense has been terrible - .221/.294/.338 The offense has been the worrisome point since this team was put together. Obviously there's some cause for hopw when Brett & Rizzo are recalled, but we're in trouble until that happens. Lahair has been one of the bright spots offensively. I'm Backtobanks and I don't understand relativity. I don't undestand what relativity has to do with my response that the offense sucks after you posted that "they've actually looked good".

Their offense has been terrible - .221/.294/.338 The offense has been the worrisome point since this team was put together. Obviously there's some cause for hopw when Brett & Rizzo are recalled, but we're in trouble until that happens. Lahair has been one of the bright spots offensively.

I'm looking forward to the time that the Cubs are good again, but I'm more impatient than many of you. I've agreed with many of the long-time posters about not seeing the need to tank 2012 & probably 2013, but I didn't see the negative comments about the other posters. I've had a problem with the "Theo can do nothing wrong" mentality that many posters adhere to. My point all along has been that I'm afraid that with the new CBA, other teams locking up young stars before free agency, and competing with the other big-market teams that sat out this off season for the few "star" FAs in the future could prove unsuccessful. I do think that Theo will be successful in building a good solid team that is entertaining before the end of his current contract, but my expectation is for a World Series winner.

I keep having this nightmare scenario play through my head: 2012: We were too bad last season to make it worth adding a big-time contract. 2013: Ditto 2014: We almost made it to .500, but there's only a couple of impact players on the market, and the Dodgers and Yankees went to insane numbers on them and we should be thankful we didn't try to match that. 2015: Attendance has been down the last few years because of all the awful teams, and we still don't have the cable megadeal like those big market teams, so we have to be prudent. And/or the current management team proves as smart as we all hope/think they are, succesfully build from within, and enter the free agency season "one player away!" And the best player on the free agent market is . . . Alfonso Soriano II. That would be a bit different though, because we'd have a lot of cheap, young talent on the team when we added Soriano II. Plus this front office would never add a player with those type of flaws and demanding contract. Carl Crawford says "Hi".

To be fair, saying we passed on Darvish is incorrect - unless Theo/Jed knew the Rangers would outbid everybody else by a very wide margin (if the reports are accurate). I really wanted Darvish and wish we had gotten him, but we don't know that it was lack of effort on the Cubs' part that led to him being a Ranger. And on Prince, it was a very good decision not to give him that contract. I didn't say we should sign Prince, Darvish, Cespedes, or Pujols. My point was that Theo/Jed made a decision as to how much each of those players wre worth to the Cubs and "passed" when the terms got too high. We "passed" on both of those players because we have the resources to outbid any other team. Since Theo/Jed didn't think they were worth the extra money, they passed on them. We passed on Pujols and Prince for the same reason - their value wasn't worth they money that it would take to get them. I guess it's a pet peeve, but it really bugs me when folks pretend like this is eBay, and everyone's bid is transparent. It's stating the obvious, but there is all kinds of bluffing and gamesmanship involved, and every involved party has an incentive NOT to reveal what bids are on the table. The rumors had the winning bid in the $45-$50 million range before the winning bid of $51.7 million was revealed. If we were reading those rumors as to what the winning bid would be, I would assume Theo/Jed had some idea of how much they would need to bid if they really wanted to win the bid.

Lannan for Byrd followed by Barney for Parra. Parra plays CF until Brett is ready and then becomes a solid defensive 4th OF.

I'm glad to see some posters that are having the same concerns that I've been having. Assuming Brett and Rizzo become solid players, we still have a ton of holes to fill for 2013 and beyond. It looks like other teams have realized that extending their own players is preferable to looking at who is available in free agency and/or trades.

We "passed" on both of those players because we have the resources to outbid any other team. Since Theo/Jed didn't think they were worth the extra money, they passed on them. We passed on Pujols and Prince for the same reason - their value wasn't worth they money that it would take to get them.

I love how they brag about cutting the payroll, but then let you know in small print that it doesn't include the $20 million we're paying Zambrano and Wells. The guys who handle the books must work for the government.

I agree with your post. As you stated, it's going to take a lot of crossing our fingers and hoping lots of things go our way. Brett & Rizzo definitely have to live up to expectations or we're really in trouble. It will be interesting to see what happens with Shark in the rotation, but Volstad and Wood seem more like BOR guys. We can all be thankful for being in the NL Central because we might be 5 years away in some of the other divisions.

That's a fairly decent description of the Hendry regime. Those quotes sounds like he's making excuses for the future if things don't go as well as planned. All the more reason he shouldn't have tanked 2012 and probably 2013. If you can't gain as much advantage as you used to, it doesn't bode well for a team that needs to gain 15-20 games to be a serious contender.

I think Theo has a leash that's seems to be way too long for me. I think he could have very easily put a decent team on the field for 2012 while rebuilding. Contention should be the target for 2013 and NL Central winners in 2014. If he doesn't get us to the WS by 2015, then he has been a disappointment to me. He has been brought here to win a World Series and has been given every resource he wanted and complete autonomy by an owner who supports him 100%.

Dont be scared to play with the big boys. The problem with playing with the big boys is that they can concentrate of filling 1-2 holes, while we have a ton of holes to fill.