jersey cubs fan

Well then you're an idiot for not preventing yourself from reading the columns.

I am of the opinion that no middle relievers are worth 3-year contracts. Howry was good the past two years, but the contract was no doubt ill-advised. It appears that Jim is becoming more and more attached to cheaper bullpen labor, so hopefully he avoids these silly deals in the future. At the moment he was signed it was very much needed. Because the 2006 team was in desperate need of a veteran presence in the bullpen to prevent a 100-loss season?

I felt the ump started getting a little generous with Marmol on the mound.

I am of the opinion that no middle relievers are worth 3-year contracts. Howry was good the past two years, but the contract was no doubt ill-advised. It appears that Jim is becoming more and more attached to cheaper bullpen labor, so hopefully he avoids these silly deals in the future.

Built-in excuses for Lou? Yes, it's stupid to keep a reliever on the active roster but not use him, in part because it's easy to get rusty over those long breaks. Why would he be wrong for criticizing Lou about Eyre being rusty?

I don't think people are assuming he won't make it, if you read the posts, most are saying something along the lines of, "If he doesn't progress into a #1 or #2..." Personally I highly doubt he'll turn into a #1 - meaning he won't be catching 90+ passes for 1000+ yards. But he doesn't have to in order to still be a very big threat and worth every penny spent.

The best thing they could do is convince Howry to take a DL stint. But I could see him wanting to avoid that right now.

Did he really do a curtain call on a game tying HR in the 6th inning? what? i was outside during that moment, if true, thank god i wasn't watching Wait. A guy isn't allowed to do a curtain call on game tying HR in the 6th inning? I don't recall that happening, but considering the roll he's been on, I could easily see Cubs fans calling for a similar player to do a curtain call.

Umm, what? if he doesn't develop into a #1 or #2 WR, then his value is limited to returns, where most teams will kick the ball away from him or, on punts, just kick it out of bounds Except we've already seen that doesn't really work. And he'd still have value as an offensive weapon even if he's not going to be a #1 or #2.

this thread should not exist

Jay or Teddy?

Because thankfully, management isn't kneejerk or hyperbolic. Kneejerk? There is a whole seasons worth of stats that show Bob Howry has been a pretty terrible pitcher this season. Hes giving up hits at an alarming rate all season, and he has now turned into the Ryan Franklin of the Cubs. Regardless, an outright release probably is not the answer. Howry has had stretches where he's sucked throughout his ill-advised contract. There is some reason for hope that he can have another stretch of effectiveness soon. He looked okay against the bad RH bats, Lou never should have let him face the tough lefty. The Cubs have other minor league arms, but none of them are surefire bets. They are probably better off keeping Howry in a mop-up type role, or when needed in 6th/7th innings, which also keeps those minor league arms available in case of injury. I havent advocated releasing Howry. However I have advocated for quite awhile now that he needs to quit being used in crucial situations, but Lou hasnt stopped. I really hope Howry can get turned around as he makes the bullpen really really damn good, but outside of 1 month hes really shown no signs of it this year. Lou seems to think hes going to just turn it around and hes been hoping for it since spring training. I just worry that if Howry is there to be used( which the way our bullpen is set up right now its pretty hard to avoid) Lou will keep putting him out there in meaningful parts of the game. Okay, but I think the point of the post you quoted was revolving around the release of Howry. It makes all the sense in the world to demote him. It probably isn't a great idea to release him though.

Yeah, especially with Kosuke on deck and no RH pinch hitters on the bench(we weren't going to use Blanco), I thought that was a pretty bad move on his part. It's not like Ward is a threat. He hasn't done much the past month, and he's done very little against RHP this year.

He's already developed into a decent threat, the question is whether he can develop further into #1 WR status. And teams don't just kick it out of bounds when he's back there. You can't do that on kickoffs, and if you do it on punts, it's going to hurt as well. The money guaranteed to Hester is not going to be a waste even if he never gets any better as a receiver.

Because thankfully, management isn't kneejerk or hyperbolic. Kneejerk? There is a whole seasons worth of stats that show Bob Howry has been a pretty terrible pitcher this season. Hes giving up hits at an alarming rate all season, and he has now turned into the Ryan Franklin of the Cubs. Regardless, an outright release probably is not the answer. Howry has had stretches where he's sucked throughout his ill-advised contract. There is some reason for hope that he can have another stretch of effectiveness soon. He looked okay against the bad RH bats, Lou never should have let him face the tough lefty. The Cubs have other minor league arms, but none of them are surefire bets. They are probably better off keeping Howry in a mop-up type role, or when needed in 6th/7th innings, which also keeps those minor league arms available in case of injury.

Well, relievers are overvalued, so somebody might budge. And the Cubs do have three lefties in the pen, so there's no reason why they should be buyers there.

I'm tired of propaganda. Under his last contract, the Bears and the us fans could be patient with Hester developing into a NFL WR. But given the new contract there is no patience. He must developed. Tired of propoganda? What does that even mean? Whether you want to or not, there's really no choice but to be patient with Hester's transformation. WR take a while to develop in general, and that's even with 1st round draft pick WR who have played WR throughout college. Hester has put a very minimal amount of time in at the position. I assume you mean, at his current pace. That may be true, if he keeps doing what he's done for 8-10 years. But it's going to be very difficult for Hester to make the HOF without any sort of impact at WR. Well, about a week in and from what I can tell, training camp has been a disappointment. The offensive line, a huge problem for well over a year, does not appear to be any better yet, and they are missing important parts - with no clear idea when those parts will return. I just hope this offense isn't as bad as it looks like it could be.

(For the original poster) Giordano's is good. There's a million good pizza joints in Chicago though. Aurelio's is great too. If you like super thin, D'Agostino's on Southport and Addison 3 blocks west of Wrigley is a nice one. Asking what some of the best restaurants in Chicago are is like asking who some of the better looking chicks in LA are. You can literally trip over about 5 or 6 great restaurants on every block between Wrigley and downtown. Inside Wrigley, go with the Calzone (a fancy name for a pizza puff) if you can find it. One of the stands on the third base line and the one in the upper deck close to home plate on the 3rd base side has em I think. It will probably stop your heart, but at least you'll die with a smile on your face. (For Bernie) The bathrooms are fine. Grow a pair. You're right, peeing in a trough without ice is totally fine and sanitary. My bad. :lol: Peeing in a trough is extremely effiicient and as sanitary as one can expect in a setting where thousands of people are chugging beer. Don't wear your Sunday finest or plan on eating in there.

I highly doubt they bring up all of them. Team's just don't do that.

I actually doubt this. I don't think he got called up last September (at least he never appeared in a game). Lou was furious with him, and that will probably be one of the names Hendry mentions to Lou, Lou says he will never play him, and that's the end of that. I see Fuld as one of the names along with some of the others already mentioned in this thread. wow, remember when we all thought there was a pretty decent chance for a bit there of fuld being our starting center fielder? yikes...it seems like such a long time ago too I honestly don't remember that. What's the Fox/Piniella story? He was called up last year, but not in September. Did something happen that was worse than the Patterson sleep-in issue? He wasn't happy with Eric, but soon played him again.

Peter King has all but written off Nady's future with the Yankees due to big cityness.

Well that should be the very reason why you should learn sabermetics, not shun them. With sabermetrics you learn about sample size that explains that series. 'Shun' isn't even close to describing how I view sabr. I like the stats, but they are not absolute and only explain results, not necessarily predict. What do you use to predict player/team performance? Well, I'm not betting on baseball, so I tend not to predict results. I don't see much value in personally spending copious amounts of time studying the deeper statistics, in order to predict an outcome of a baseball game. I have no use for that. I just listen/watch the game and hope my Cubs win. Stats are useful for fantasy baseball though. I think a manager should use stats to make lineups of course, and not go with gut feelings. However, something that bothers me is when stats betray us (like last years playoff series vs the D-backs), it's simply written off as 'fluke' or 'small sample size', which has just as much justification as a good excuse as gut feelings or hunches. The whole point is that while baseball, as a game played out over 6 months of 162 games, is fairly predictable, any one game, or a series of 3, 5 or 7 games, is entirely unpredictable. Every manager and general manager damn well better use stats to build and run their ballclub. There's no need for any fan to do so, unless they really have a passion for how things work and why. And no, the notion of gut feelings and hunches are not as good as an excuse as small sample sizes.

I'm not arguing. Don't need to when you're right. :good:

Glad to hear they are still thinking about bats, and may have decided it is not worth overpaying for another veteran reliever. Not sure why it has to be limited to LH hitting CF, but, that's Hendry. My guess is they won't be able to find anything worth going after, but the fact remains that CF is still relatively unsettled. Johnson and Edmonds have been the walking wounded all year. And although his overall numbers with the Cubs have been outstanding, Edmonds has begun to show signs that he won't be doing that the rest of the year. His June was insane. But while his July has been solid, the br.com split for past 28 days is nothing special (780 OPS). The discrepency, I assume, is the 0-5 on June 30. He's banged up now, and there's no way of knowing what he'll do the next two months. While the platoon between Reed and Edmonds looks great on paper, their health and contract situations leaves their status in doubt for the near and long-term. It's better to be proactive about these situations than merely accepting the status quo because it's worked so far. I hope they haven't closed their eyes to SS options though. While Theriot's been fine there, I don't trust his batting average dependent "averageness" (100 OPS) for the long haul.

I don't think that should be considered a "pro" to the trade. Sure it is. There's going to be too many people for not enough spots, and that's going to make constructing and maintaining the roster more difficult. You get two months of Fuentes and two top picks(or extended Fuentes). I mean I guess you could say waiting til the offseason might allow you to use the excess of pitching better, but a top notch reliever for the stretch run plus two top picks is certainly a worthwhile return. No, it isn't. Getting Fuentes is clearly a pro, and trading Marshall for him may be a good idea, but it has nothing to do with a " rotation crunch". Injury, free agency, loss of effectiveness, and potential offseason trades are all things that can and likely will happen to clear out any perceived over supply of pitching. If you want to trade Marshall for Fuentes, do it because you think Fuentes value is greater than Marshall's, don't do it, even in part, because you think it will be easier to deal with roster moves this offseason with Marshall out of the picture.