jersey cubs fan

Actually there's a lot wrong with heckling. It's stupid, not funny and immature. And it annoys the heck out of the people seated around the immature heckler who thinks he's finally found the bestest of all heckles.

Wait, are you saying there's something wrong with having a beer in your hand at a baseball game?

So what exactly could he have done? The Cubs team doesn't have somebody comparable to Chris Perez. . Who's responsible for that? So Hendry should have had the foresight to stack the major league roster with players that might have been good trade bait for DeRosa somewhere down the line should the Indians season go into the tank? Criticize Hendry for trading DeRosa in the first place? Sure. Criticize him for signing off-injured Milton Bradley? Understandable. Criticize him for not being able to nix this trade? That doesn't make sense. But excusing him for not making the team better now because his previous moves made it nearly impossible to improve the team, that does make sense?

Ugh. No, he didn't. "Sold high" implies that you got max value for the guy. Hendry oculdn't even get a major league reliever for DeRosa. He did not sell high. The Indians just got a better package for him than the Cubs got. Umm, no. Sold high doesn't mean that at all. Sold high means that he traded that player when that player's value was higher than it's ever previously been. YOUR perceived value of DeRosa doesn't mean anything. Especially when we have evidence of what his actual value was -- three marginal prosects, and then a few months later, one fairly decent prospect. Okay, so if "selling high" can include things like selling a player for an unimpressive package when he's at his peak value, then why is "selling high" so good in this situation? At least the Indians got a guy who is helping the major league team right now. Plus the Cards traded for 3 months of him. The Indians traded for 6 months of him when they got him from the Cubs. The key to selling high is making sure you get appropriate value. DeRosa was sold high when we traded him for three decent prospects with high upside. The problem is, I think he was worth more to this team than those three prospects were. And you can't just consider one player the best and thus the package is better. If all three of Archer, Gaub and Stevens become close to the talent level of Perez, the Cubs got the better deal by a longshot. You have to consider the entire package, not just increments of it. You also can't ignore the desperation factor. The Cardinals were just trading for 3 months of DeRo, but the Indians had the ability to play off the need much more in the middle of the season than were it the offseason. Need most definitely plays a factor in the return for a deal and need is highest when a team is fighting for a playoff spot. Or need may be higher when a GM that spends like a drunken sailor panics during an offseason when nobody was spending money and he wanted left handed bats and to save a couple bucks.

Aside from the fact that in all likelihood Colvin would be completely overmatched and play like crap if he was called up, and that he needs regular playing time in order to get better, something he can only do in the minors, a call up would nearly destroy any hope of having the Cubs ever benefit from having him on the roster. The longer they wait to put him on the roster, the longer it will be before he has to stay on the major league roster without the option of stashing him in the minors. If Colvin ever pans out, it's going to take a while. But if they call him up now, it will delay his improvement and make it much more likely that he will be gone from the Cubs before he ever accomplishes anything.

Except Cashner and Samardzija are future relievers.

i thought fontenot would be fine, and i still thought it was a stupid move. fontenot doesn't hit lefties, so even if you used a strict platoon, derosa would start about a quarter of the time. you're also going to a 2B who doesn't hit well again power RHP, so derosa could start again them. then you have an aging roster with a 3B, LF and RF who are good bets to miss at least some time due to injury. a proven bat who can fill in capably at all those positions becomes invaluable. and in case fontenot can't be an everyday player, derosa gives you insurance there. instead they trade him for three marginal prospects and sign aaron miles, saving the relatively small sum of $3M to bring in a guy who cannot hit. great move. In a way they didn't even save $3m since they are on the hook for next year as well with Miles (not to mention the theory that it allowed them to overspend on Bradley for 3 years).

I don't know about you, but that looks "nearly as bad" to me. A significantly lower OBP with a higher SLG equates to just about as pathetic. Where are you getting your numbers Truffle? I have: .247/.325/.398 (.723) for the season and .219/.326/.337 (.663) with RISP for the season. He is saying with nobody on, you are saying overall. Cubs have .248 .311 .407 with none on and .247 .344 .384 with runners on. The difference in SLG is probably Soriano's 9 bases empty HR, which is going to happen when you bat leadoff for a team with a plethora of absolute garbage in the 7 and 8 hole and an impatient power hitter leading off. The focus on RISP is misguided. They suck whether they have a man on base or not. They have a terrible OBP and just as bad SLG. They don't get on and they don't hit for power. The RISP is just a sympton, it's not the cause.

Fixed...and kidding. Good luck Brett. Hopefully you can make MLB quickly. He's 20, in short season A ball. He's several years away from MLB. Hopefully they don't rush him. If things go well it'll be: 2009- Boise 2010 - Peoria 2011 - Daytona 2012 - Tennessee 2013 - Iowa/Chicago 2014 - Chicago that's pretty slow for a guy who played three seasons of college baseball in a big-time conference. most college players don't take 5 years to make the bigs. The ones that struggle to make contact probably do. And that pace has him seeing Wrigley in 4 years.

it's baseball and he's a catcher, how frequently is he going to run enough to lose his breath? By the looks of him everytime he climbs the dugout steps.

Winning your division is a success, it's just not the ultimate success.

Again, they aren't really getting on in the first place, and with so few threats, it's easy for a pitcher to walk the one guy who could do damage in a situation to get to the next schmuck. Everybody is focused on leaving men on, but with a .311 OBP with nobody on, they still need to focus on getting more people on base overall. And the difference in SLG with runners on and nobody on is probably closely related to Soriano, who has a heck of a lot of PA with nobody on than with runners on.

Fixed...and kidding. Good luck Brett. Hopefully you can make MLB quickly. He's 20, in short season A ball. He's several years away from MLB. Hopefully they don't rush him. If things go well it'll be: 2009- Boise 2010 - Peoria 2011 - Daytona 2012 - Tennessee 2013 - Iowa/Chicago 2014 - Chicago

The fans don't really come either way. Attendance only really skyrocketed once they started contending with regularity. Decreasing win totals will result in fewer tickets being sold, especially the big money tickets. People seem to forget it was extremely easy to get Cubs tickets in the 90's. February sell-outs were unheard of. When they first sold tickets online it was easy. Multiple successful seasons and playoff appearances changed that. But had they not turned around the 2005/2006 failures they would never have continued to sell the way they did in 2007 and 2008.

I really hope the Cubs aren't taking a Conservative approach to early round drafting because of the string of busts they had from 2003 to 2005. As a big market franchise the Cubs should not be drafting players simply because they are safe bets to reach the majors. It looks to me that this is exactly what they've been doing though, since Wilkin arrived. Lots of guys who can contribute something to the major league team but very few with any real shot at stardom. Maybe they figure they can buy/trade for any impact players they need, but want to fill out the roster with organizational (cheap) guys.

I don't know about you, but that looks "nearly as bad" to me. A significantly lower OBP with a higher SLG equates to just about as pathetic.

Because he was high and didn't want to leave the house.

Maybe he's doing exercises? I don't see a base anywhere close to him to make me think it's an in-game shot. His profile picture makes him look like he's 12. It looks like he's playing defense at third and expecting the bunt, but without a glove. Or he's leading off in reverse from third.

STL on pace for 87.5 wins after losing 3-2 to Mets. Cubs need to go 54-39, a .581 (94 win) pace, to get to 88 wins.

I guess it says he realizes Bradley isn't a good hitter against RHP. They would've walked Bradley and gone after Soto anyway. I doubt they put the go ahead run on base especially when he's got about a 650 OPS against RHP.

I guess it says he realizes Bradley isn't a good hitter against RHP.

Get it high

Smoke 'em if you got 'em Soto, how about a big ol' bong hit right now.

And no young contributors on the horizon.

They were a good hitting team last year, not because of any one player, but because of contributions from everybody. But they replaced phenomenal CF production from Edmonds and crew with Bradley who hasn't done crap, they replaced terrific 2B productioon out of DeRosa/Fontenot with a horrible combination of Miles, Fontenot, Blanco and Scales. They've gotten less out of the C spot becuse the 2nd year starter regressed and they went with a lesser backup. And Soriano has been crap. Throw in the Ramirez decline and there's a lot of stuff working against them and multiple holes. It's not a matter of one guy going down. Not at all.