jersey cubs fan

Born: Feb 18, 1981 - Coffee, AL Alabama is certainly not a hispanic country. went to high school in puerto rico, plays outfield and presumably has 2 working legs, so that could be the Mets guy.

In his interview with Mulley and Hanley the other day, he guessed that he might have seen more 3-4 than 4-3. Did he guess if he received more marriage proposals from men or women?

Agreed. I think that's the best case scenario, not the worst. I didn't realize he was 39, he still looks like he is 18. So did Biggio at that age. There's something in the Houston water. So maybe the move to Flushing Meadows forced him to age 20 years in a hurry.

I'm all for it next season, at worst we get an upgrade over Heilman and he won't command a big contract coming off the arm troubles. Exactly. If he'd sign for a couple million tops we'd at worst have a decent reliever and at best have a cheap, really good closer. A 39 year old coming off TJS is not at worst a decent reliever.

They could, but given all the concern about the fatigue of bullpen arms, and that they are going into Colorado and a string of 17 straight games, I don't think they go back to 6 relievers.

I'd like to reserve the right to wait and see how the next 8 weeks turnout. I'd like to get Harden rest and be in position to start on 5-6 days rest in the playoffs. If Wells continues to get the results he's getting, I'd really like to keep him in there. If Lilly returns to form, I'd like him to start as well. If all those things happen, I'd probably put Dempster in the bullpen. But if Dempster looks stronger than either Lilly or Wells down the stretch, if Lilly's injury holds him back, if Wells falters, or if Harden falls apart, that could change.

Right on.

Butt hurt? FWIW, I think the topic was addressed in every post, except the one I'm making now.

So pointing out that Fukudome has been hot for a while is ripping apart your batting order? I happen to think it's silly to try and force Soriano into the leadoff spot. He's not going to be there for long. He's far from ideal. And he's not the teams best hitter, so the notion that best hitters get most PA doesn't even come into play. His remaining years as a Cub are probably going to be spent around the 5/6 hole, they were always going to be. So let's just keep it that way and be done with the debate. He's done better batting a little lower, Fukudome has been great at leadoff, the team is scoring more. Things look better now, why screw with it? You called it silly to move Soriano back to the lead off spot, so in essence, yes, you were ripping on my line up. Where is yours? Isn't it attack the post and not the poster? It is silly. And the main point is Fukudome has been great there. If there were no other option, fine. But Soriano is not the team's best hitter (really the only justification for considering putting him there if it were true) and somebody else is doing a much better job than we could reasonably expect from him.

It's really not that. People are here just to ridicule other people's batting orders while not offering up one of their own. If you want to ridicule someone else's, how about offering one up yourself first, or within the same post while explaining why someone else's is wrong. Playing the holier than thou card doesn't work for you if you can't or won't offer up something comparable or better. Oh my god lighten up. The thread is about lineups, there's no rule where you can only post a lineup. Did you really think that a thread about lineups should only involve people posting lineups and not any comments on anybody else's posts? You said they needed to find a way to get Fukudome hot and suggesting putting him in front of the teams hottest hitters. I pointed out he's already hot as hell batting leadoff. And I think that since Soriano isn't the teams best hitter, or even all that close, and isn't any good at getting on base, and isn't going to be the leadoff hitter in the future and is doing better lower in the order while Fukudome is doing great leading off, it's silly to suggest putting Soriano back up there. But since we can only reply in this thread if we post our own lineup, here's mine: Fukudome Bradley Lee Ramirez Soriano Soto Fontenot Theriot I'm not committed to Bradley in the 2-hole, but his tremendous OBP ability does seem to be perfect there. I'm not a huge LRLR believer, but if you do have them I could see trying to spread them out. That's why I put Fontenot between Soto and Theriot. I'd try and get Fox in there for maybe half the games, subbing for any of the corner guys.

So pointing out that Fukudome has been hot for a while is ripping apart your batting order? I happen to think it's silly to try and force Soriano into the leadoff spot. He's not going to be there for long. He's far from ideal. And he's not the teams best hitter, so the notion that best hitters get most PA doesn't even come into play. His remaining years as a Cub are probably going to be spent around the 5/6 hole, they were always going to be. So let's just keep it that way and be done with the debate. He's done better batting a little lower, Fukudome has been great at leadoff, the team is scoring more. Things look better now, why screw with it?

I understand the thought of why you would want Soriano to move back to the top BBB (best hitters getting the most at-bats). If so, why would you want to move Lee down to 5 when he's consistently had an OPS around 1.000 for the last 3+ months? The lineup balance is the same either way..if you swapped Lee and Bradley, Bradley would be separating Lee and Soto instead of separating Ramirez and Lee (or Lee and Ramirez if you prefer the current version) My thought process is to kickstart the guys who need it most. Lee will still hit in the 5 spot, but we really need Bradley and Fukudome to get hot, and having the two hottest bats behind them could get them some better pitches to hit. You need Fukudome to get hot? .344/.455/.547 post ASB isn't doing it for you? Leave him at leadoff, no question. I don't understand why anybody would try and slide Soriano back up to leadoff. His days are done there. It's probably best to get past that silly story.

Is deportation on the table?

Timmy? The Cubs seem to like getting guys acclimated to the big leagues via the bullpen. It would not surprise me in the least if they put Cashner in there to end this year hoping he'd stick for the playoffs.

Yes! There is an honesty in that I can respect :) Seriously. It's not a charity he donates to, it's a charity he FOUNDED. There's a difference. Once again, is he perfect? No. But I think he's a pretty good human being. Like Tim pointed out, it's cool if you don't like him because he managed the Sox, and manages the Cubs' main rival. I can respect that. (Not that my opinion or respect should count for anything) But he's very clearly a complete prick. Founding a charity to help animals does not make you a good person. There are plenty of people who are horrible to other people but love animals. TLR is clearly a douche. There's no arguing that fact. It's nice that he wants to remove your cats uterus and everything, but he's still a jerk.

Apparantly Jason Whitlock wrote another article saying Jeff George should get an NFL job.

It's not really special, but it's kind of impressive from a 19 year old who has also begun his time in AA with even better numbers. For comparison's sake, Hanley Ramirez posted a .310/.364/.389 line in A+ at age 20. Jimmy Rollins was a 19 year old in A+ and he hit .244/.306/.354. Jason Bartlett put up lesser numbers in A+ and was 22 when he got there. It's not numbers that make you think he's definitely star quality, but it's not bad numbers, and they are good enough to make you think he's got a good chance of a bright future.

Only the dorks.

You'd be well advised to pay more attention in the future before you falsely accuse someone of making a personal attack against you. are you calling me an [expletive]?

I get that he was kind of young. But he was 18 in rookie ball, and all he skipped was short season. A low 600 OPS just seems more disappointing than passable in terms of expectations. And Castro's emergence doesn't really make Lake's numbers more or less acceptable.

The Cubs were going to use up options every single year on Samardzija regardless since he got a major league contract. He will get 4 of them though so he will still have 1 left for next year. I know that, but the point is giving major league contracts (not to mention no trade clauses) is very risky. And if you do, you must do your best not to waste his developmental time. Because before you know it, there's no time to see if it's worth keeping him around. Once he signed a major league deal, they should have committed to getting him 2 straight years of starters innings in the minors, and not giving him the yo-yo treatment between rotation and pen and majors and minors.

Unfortuntely, Junior Lake is making you pay for that, too. Junior Lake hasn't had a great year, but I think he's done enough to think "he had a passable enough year in terms of expectations, what if he puts it together at some point ... ". Really? I don't know anything about the guy, but .247/.274/.364 in low A seems really disappointing to me. I guess that's better than what Ronny Cedeno did, and he was always all about promise moreso than production, at least until AAA.

Unfortunately they've already wasted most of the season not getting him those innings he needs. He needs 50+ more innings just to match last years workload, and he's not going to get it. They've only got about 30 games left in the minors.

Jeff Pentland? Yeah, that's who I was thinking of. I'm getting senile. Southern California at it again.

He's only got 350 sporadic minor league innings. He's pretty much turning into the poster boy for why wasting options on a guy and rushing him is stupid. He's nowhere near established as a major leaguer yet, and he doesn't have many pro innings under his belt. As a college pitcher that may not be a big deal, but he had limited college innings as well. The Cubs needed to have him starting in the minors all last year and most of this year. But once again stupid decision making processes are wasting the developmental years of a guy who clearly needs developing. Throwing and inning or two once a week is not going to make Samardzija better. He might one day be a quality major league reliever (I highly doubt he'll ever be a good starter), but he won't be if he never gets to work on his game.