jersey cubs fan

It does allow them to include sizable bonuses for "games finished", which is what I think teams give potential closers as bonuses.

I love how Yankees fans constantly say, I'm not blaming ARod, but it's ARod's fault. Craps me up everytime, and I've heard it thousands of times in the past few years. Needless to say, it's great to see we've got a Yankees fan on here spouting the company line about the current batch not "being a TEAM", how ARod isn't a true Yankee, etc, etc, etc.

Another matchup with the Blues tonight. A couple changes afoot, with Lalime getting the 2nd start in a row, Burish replacing Adams and Samsonov getting back on the ice. Havlat's still at least a few games away from playing.

This team does not need left handed bats, and just because Jacque had one year where he was actually not incompetent against LHP, doesn't mean he can handle LHP. This team needs bats, preferrably ones that get on base. Jacque doesn't get on base, and hurts the team. You don't think, that with 1 year left on the deal, he's an acceptable 4th OF? If you can't move him, or if you'd have to pay somebody else to take him, sure, he's an acceptable 4th OF. But he can't hit LHP and this team doesn't "need" LH bats. Those were my points.

This team does not need left handed bats, and just because Jacque had one year where he was actually not incompetent against LHP, doesn't mean he can handle LHP. This team needs bats, preferrably ones that get on base. Jacque doesn't get on base, and hurts the team.

With his offensive production, who cares? I'm curious if ARod still wants to play SS. He seems to be pretty vain and I'm not sure if he wants to make that switch, has anyone heard him (ARod) mention this at all? What now?

If they make no improvements I'd take the under on 790 without question. You aren't taking into account things like underperformance, injury, and substitutions by inept players. You paint a very rosy pitcher where nobody gets hurt or underperforms. That's how Jim Hendry puts together teams and why he's always so confused when they don't live up to his expectations. The Cubs haven't been an inept offensive ballclub for years by accident.

Not that good. Not that he did all that well in Coors either. Not that much of an improvement over Theriot, although he does hit considerably better against RHP, which could allow a platoon of Theriot/Matsui to be much better than strictly Theriot.

The Cubs had 1 guy play 150 games in 2007 and just 3 with as many as 140. They had 5 over 140 in 2006, 3 in 2005, 4 in 2004. There were only 74 players in all of baseball to play in 150 games last year, 2.5 per team. And of course, games played isn't the same as playing time, since guys can enter a game as a pinch hitter/late inning defensive replacement, or leave the game early for a variety of reasons. The average NL team got 720 PA out of its 4 spot. 90% of that is 648. And only 30 NL players had that many PA, 1.9 per team. In other words, the vast majority don't get 90% of their team's playing time.

What's the pitt/philly dynamic like? Of all the philly/south jersey people I know, I never hear much of anything about any of the pitt teams. They hate the mets and braves, cowboys, giants and redskins, and the devils and rangers. But is there much animosity with any pittsburgh teams? actually right here in state college is probably where you'll see the biggest "rivalry" between philly and pittsburgh, because you have a lot of transplanted fans of both cities' teams. I never cared about the Steelers til I got here, but one day I was at the bar watching the Eagles play the Jets, and Steelers fans were filtering in for their 4:00 game. The Eagles game was close the Steelers fans were passionately rooting for the Jets, or more specifically, against the Eagles. So I started to dislike the Steelers after that. Otherwise, Philly people don't really care about Pittsburgh. The Flyers and Pens are rivals b/c they're in the same division. I think if you asked a real Flyers fan which teams he hates the most, he'd say Devils and Rangers most and then the Penguins. I get the impression that most Pens fans consider the Flyers to be their biggest rival, though. I've only been to PSU a handful of times, and did notice a little back and forth between the two fan bases. But not much. I only know one Penguins fan, and I'm not sure who he considers a rival. He lives here and would probably say Rangers, if only because that's about the only place he sees them play.

Does he happen to hit left handed, or hit well against RHP? If so, I'd be for a platoon partner with Theriot, as long as they do actually improve the offense elsewhere. Because there's no way this lineup goes top 3 by staying with the status quo.

I don't remember Hollandsworth love coming close to the Theriot situation.

What's the pitt/philly dynamic like? Of all the philly/south jersey people I know, I never hear much of anything about any of the pitt teams. They hate the mets and braves, cowboys, giants and redskins, and the devils and rangers. But is there much animosity with any pittsburgh teams?

15 games in and the Blackhawks are in 3rd place in their division, 6th in the conference, and tied for 10th in the league in goals scored (13th in goals per game). That last bit may be the most surprising. They were at the bottom the past few years, and even when the 2007 season started out okay, they were still around 25th. They still don't have anybody flirting with the league leaders, but Kane and Toews are off to as good a start as anybody could have envisioned, and Robert Lang has been everything the Blackhawks could have hoped for. Erstwhile star in the making Tuomu Ruutu has notched 3 goals and 7 assists in his 14 games, and he's a +9. If Havlat really does come back and play 55-60 games at the level he's shown he's capable of playing, and if the defense/goalie situation settles in a bit, this team really could make some noise this season.

But not Fukudome? No clue about Fukudome. The Daily News mentioned Kuroda because the Dodgers are interested in him; given their OF situation, I don't think the Dodgers are interested in Fukudome. I think Kuroda will have more suitors because of how weak the FA pitching class is - especially compared to the FA OF class with guys like Andruw Jones and Torii Hunter. Fine with me then. The Cubs aren't in a need of back of the rotation starters, and they are in need of lineup help, including OF.

I hope he's smart enough to stay out of the free agent reliever market, but I know he's not.

What a jackass.

No use arguing with Hendry bashers. He's damned if he does and damned if he doesn't. He's damned because he sucks at his job.

Not sure how Miggy will be a fraction of the price. He's rapibly approaching a $10m salary, and will get a contract that pays him $15-17m, at least, if/when he signs longterm. Like I've said before, the Cubs may not have the same top quality prospects, but just because Florida asks for them, doesn't mean that's what they will end up with. The Yankees #1 need is a stud pitcher. They don't have one. I think they are going to be very hesitent to give up one of their potential aces.

Hamilton was a great risk/reward gamble when you could pick him up for nothing. Now that you'd have to give up significant value, I'm not sure he's worth the risk. Although I certainly wouldn't eliminate him from discussion.

Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner! I think if you asked Bruce Miles, he'd tell you that while Jim Hendry tries to be as honest an upfront as he possibly can, he doesn't reveal everything. Everyone would be wise to not take Hendry's remarks completely at face value. Jim Hendry has been around long enough, and has said enough, and done enough, to be reasonably certain that he actually thinks winning X games 7 years ago and being an All Star is reason enough to have faith in a guy. If he just said stuff like this for PR, but his actions indicated he didn't actually believe that nonsense, it would be one thing. But Hendry is Hendry, and we know how he thinks, and acts.

That's the only course of action that could salvage this "plan" in my opinion. Moving Demp to the rotation and trading Marquis still makes us worse. At least Marquis occasionally will pull a cg shutout out of his butt. You think Dempster could ever do that? Horrible, horrible idea. I think Dempster could, at the very least, come very close to equalling what Marquis gives you. And since Dempster is only signed through this year at $5m, and Marquis is signed through 2009 at $16.25m, trading Jason and replacing him with Marquis could improve the team. The problem, as I see it, is Hendry's ridiculous contract to Marquis is going to be darn near untradable. They will have to eat something. A team like Boston or NY isn't going to have a use for a guy like Marquis. I don't think they believe subpar NL Central pitchers will thrive in the AL East, and even if they wanted one. And any smaller team that might be willing to settle for such crap, isn't going to accept paying all that salary.

Are there still Bulls fans who think this team is championship caliber going strictly with their "core" group?

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There's no way Lee was even close to deserving that award. Ramirez was pretty good, but it's hardly a slight that he lost. Wright is a bit of a questionable choice though.