jersey cubs fan

I think there is no possible way a rational person could regularly watch CSN sportsnite and sportsrise and think it's a sox biased station that occasionally shows Cubs games. And I think this is the type of ridiculous topic a lot of people like making fun of White Sox fans about.

I don't think this is the right way to think about the issue. Calling him full capable doesn't mean much. What he was capable of at times in the past and what he is likely to do now are entirely different things. He showed he was capable of one great season, 2005, and was probably capable of 2-3 without breaking the wrist. But his past is littered with unimpressive seasons as well, much like this year. The team is great right now and we shouldn't be looking to replace Lee, but there's nothing wrong with looking for ways to get more out of 1B, by resting Lee and hoping that could help him hit better as he ages.

There are going to be problems regardless of Clark's health. You don't need a TE to stay in and act as an extra tackle to help with blocking. They can chip and go on delayed routes. What the Bears need is an offense that allows them to adjust to the heavy blitz.

How is that disturbing? We know he's awesome but an extreme health risk. So, they can't extend him. 5 fantastic innings at a time shouldn't be the least bit disturbing to anybody.

I'm all for resting him once a week and getting Hoff or somebody else some more playing time. I think a rested Lee + part-time platoon help vs RHP is likely to outperform Lee all by himself. But this is the best offense in the league, and it's greatest strength is the lack of any true weak spot. Lee isn't a legit 3 hitter, but he doesn't need to be for this team to succeed. I think there's very little to gain by moving him and quite possibly even more to lose by upsetting the apple cart.

We'll see if he can maintain those rates through the end. He was getting a ton of grounders through the first 6 weeks or so of the season, but until very recently, his GB% was dropping pretty steadily since then. His FB% is relatively consistent, but his LD% is significantly higher than the first 6 weeks or so, as well. Not that those rates early on were sustainable, of course. I don't think any decisions can be made now. If he can avoid tiring out in September and October, then I think Hendry will probably try hard to re-sign him. That made sense in May and June. But we're nearly done with 80% of the season. If he tires down the stretch, that doesn't tell us much other than an arm that hadn't thrown 100 innings in 5 years struggled as he approached 200. If he stumbles a bit, he's still going to finish with fantastic numbers. Dempster is an obvious candidate to be a rich Yankee next year. He looked great pitching in Yankee Stadium and has a chance to shine in October this year. The one thing weighing against him, however, is that the Yankees have had a lot of issues with NL pitchers. Brown, Johnson, Pavano, Wright and Leiter were all guys whose success in the NL was a big reason they became Yankees, and all of them were disappointments to a certain extent.

There is very little chance at all that this defense even matches 2005, let alone performs better. Their defensive line is old and slow, they don't have a single impact pass rusher. The past two drafts have been offensive-oriented, and they've turned off the spigot of young talent on defense. Don't kid yourselves. If you think this year's defense is going to allow the fewest points in the league, or the 2nd fewest yards, you're drunk.

The Bears offense is going to do whatever it can to get the #1 draft choice in 2009, the defense is going to go balls out for the 12th pick. This season is shaping up to be a tremendous battle. Since I'm pretty sure I was the first person to point it out, I don't feel bad repeating the obvious, the offensive line is [expletive] horrible. They were mediocre in 2005 and halfway decent in the first half of 2006. But once teams realized Grossman was going to shred them if they stayed back and that the line could not block them, they've been exposed as slow and old. The fact that the personel people and coaching staff could not or would not see this problem before this past offseason is sad. Their best offensive lineman plays perhaps the least important of the five positions, and he's not that good anymore. This group is a mess. The only real hope is for the team to play with 2 TE on every damn play, and keeping at least one in to block on every pass play.

It is a very stupid decision, but maybe it's the kid's idea.

I don't know about that. Going into the 03 NLDS, I was nervous as all hell and worried about the Braves, who looked like a powerhouse that year. I didn't feel like we were playing with house money. I thought we had a legitimate shot with our dominant pitching staff that eeked out a playoff spot in a crappy division (sound familiar?) ... In 98 I wasn't treating it that way, either. Granted, I was 15, but I was crushed when they lost, even though that team was crap compared to the Braves. Given the nature of the playoffs, I never felt that nothing to lose mentality and I don't see why other fans would either. I suppose it might be different for a Cubs fan, though, given how (at the time of those appearances) rarely we did make it to the postseason and the drought crap along with it. a lot of people were giving the cubs a good chance to win that series, because of the starting pitching. the braves' top 4 starters had an era+ of 112, 112, 108 and 107 - pretty average. the cubs' top 4 had 178, 139, 135 and 105. power pitchers who are on their game are tough to hit, no matter how good your offense is. i guess that d-bag fans would argue that their top 3 of webb, haren and a healthy randy johnson gives them a formidable front 3, but the cubs would counter with zambrano, harden and dempster, which is way better than the braves' 1-3 of russ ortiz, mike hampton and old greg maddux. Isn't that, by definition, significantly above average? I think there's a difference between how Arizona and LA fans would feel going into the playoffs compared to how Cubs fans feel. I think either of those teams would be much more likely to feel like they are just happy to be there and playing with house money than Cubs fans would feel. They've seen WS titles.

Past his prime, bitter, senile.

certain kinds

That is the key. I always thought the crapshoot story was overplayed. Everybody has a chance, and the best team doesn't always win. But the better teams have a better chance of winning. It's just a chance though, and no guarantee.

I'm going to assume this is the part you wrote and mixed into the othe quote. A) Theriot is tied for 5th on the team in games played. B) Who effing cares about how his average ranks in the NL? It's meaningless. It has no baring on who should be the Cubs MVP. Theriot has been a nice role player this year. Nothing more, nothing less.

I'm saying in a general sense that having someone with experience on the team might help in the overall anxiety level of the team. Just like if you're in a room full of anxious people in a crisis, the results probably won't be as good as if you were in a room full of calm, cool-headed people. That's all. A room full of people in a crisis isn't all that similar to a team full of guys playing playoff games.

That's fine. Nobody goes up there trying to strikeout (except for pitchers or Ron Coomer when avoiding the DP is the only goal). But that has nothing to do with anything. The goal is to hit a ball hard. The preference is to get a hit. But an out is still an out and a strikeout is no worse than other outs, they all suck from an offensive standpoint.

Wasn't there talk of doing away with the "can't play WC from same divsision" thing?

fontenot has a .909 OPS... only 6 teams in baseball have better than a .909 OPS out of the 3 hole. 5 in the NL. The Cubs are 7th. Cubs 1B are 6th. (all out of 16)

i'm not sure how you can agree to disagree on something when you're wrong about it. the expected value of putting the ball in play is greater than the expected value of striking out. i'm not taking into account whether dunn would be a better or worse hitter if he played more to contact, but if you have two guys that are exactly equal except one makes 100 "expected outs" (including errors) by putting the ball in play, and the other makes 100 outs by striking out, i'd obviously take the guy who makes the outs by putting the ball in play. Your assumption is wrong. An out is an out. In real world there is "no expected" there is only what happens and what doesn't happen. The way the out happens matters not. yeah, and in the real world the guy who makes 100 outs by putting the ball in play hits sac flies, grounds home a runner from third, gets on base via errors and moves runners up. that outweighs the negative of the 2 times he rolls into a double play, and is more valuable than the 100 strikeouts from the other guy. So you are assuming only 2 GIDP? The theoretical 2 players who are exactly the same except for the way they make outs is a pointless exercise. The only thing that matters is productivity. How a productive player makes his outs is meaningless.

They were 7-9. It may have felt worse than that, but they were hardly dominated. This is a huge test. A 9 or 10 win season is going to look really good on Lovie's resume, bringing his overall record to 45-35 or 46-34. Considering where this team was when he came on, that's not bad. A sub .500 season, however, is going to bring his overall record closer to .500 and mean 3 of 5 seasons of losing records. I think getting 10 wins out of this team is going to take a tremendous coaching job, or at least that's how it's going to be perceived.

Sori 225/279 slug 319 Lee 226/289 slug 298 Ramirez 196/308 slug 464 Edmonds 277/365 slug 523 One has been there and did well while the others have struggled in post season play. Again, does this mean Edmonds will lead them to victory because of these numbers...maybe, maybe not. But, He may be a calming influence on these players and add a tip or two that they may be able to implement have have a little more success. This sounds like one of those self-fulfilling prophecies. If they do well, Edmonds gets credit, if they don't, it's their own fault. I would say it's highly highly doubtful Edmonds calming influence or secret tips that no other Cubs employee would be able to provide are going to make a lick of difference.

If baseball is back in the olympics, and in Chicago, I would bet MLB goes on some sort of 1.5-week long all-star break that season. Teams take 4 days now, what's another 7? Eliminate a couple games from the schedule, plan a couple day/night doubleheaders, start a couple days early (Saturday instead of Monday) and end a couple days later.

He's been disappointing and should probably be a long-term concern. However, he's not hurting this team. He typifies the lineups "good most everywhere with no superstars" makeup. Yes, I'd prefer he do more, but he's almost 33 and pretty much producing in-line with his career. The trend doesn't look good right now, and hopefully he picks it up a bit soon.

The Tigers are the Astros of the AL. 9.5 out of a shaky division with a + 20 run diffential while Houston is 12 back and - 24.

I don't want 2 of our lower half hitters hitting 1-2. I'm fine with how the lineup is now. It's hard to screw up a lineup as consistent as we have. What does 'lower half hitters' mean? As in not one of the best 4 hitters on our team. Riot should hit either 1 or 2. He is a single machine. Not to mention he's our primary SB option. Plus our best CS option.