jersey cubs fan

Hope? Yes. High hopes? Not realistic ones. Sure I hope like heck he turns into a Jonny Damon circa 98-06 (although he'll never match that K/BB ratio), but I fear he might be no better than Mark Kotsay at the top end, pretty good for 3-4 years but largely unimpressive the rest of the time. And even that is a stretch at this point. Kotsay spent less than 1.5 years in the minors and blew away what Colvin is doing right now. As a largely unproductive nearly 22 year old minor leaguer with an atrocious K/BB ratio, my realistic hope is that he gives the Cubs 6 cost effective, but mediocre years in CF (or helps them acquire an impact bat via trade). But as a still young guy, I do maintain some far reaching hope that he can do more than that.

OPS 2007/career Floyd: .749/.843 Pagan: .750/.724 Jones: .664/.781 Kendall: .729/.770 Fontenot: .820/.821 And you missed DeRosa, .783/.743. Not a lot of support for your theory that the group will combine for a .600 OPS from here on out. This group seems much more likely: Pie: .617/.617 Cedeno: .446/.614 Soto: .393/.441 Patterson: n/a Murton: .674/.803 I'm all for Murton in LF. But beyond that, I think there's a whole ton of wishful thinking going on with those other guys. Settle for mediocrity (or in many cases, worse) or try for something better. You seem to be willing to settle for mediocrity, and very clearly hope for the failure of the young players on the team. I don't know, I would think the Cubs long history of failure would indicate to most that maybe, just maybe, the people in charge aren't very good at their jobs.

He should have less. Those guys get paid a lot more and should produce a hell of a lot more. Smart teams, like Atlanta, give spots to kids and let them work through the kinks.

Actually, baseball is a perception, myth and nostalgia driven sport, if people analyzed performance better, there'd be fewer stupid roster decisions. Murton was given more than 3-4 games to perform, and he did, last year. But he wasn't given a chance this year, and has been labelled a failure anyway by people who pretend baseball is about fighting for positions.

It's an attempt to get the ball to act more like it does in every other stadium. It's a smart way to try and offset the challenges of running a franchise in Denver. I don't understand why anybody would have a problem with it. It's not like the Rockies are the only ones who get to use the balls.

Maybe you can work a trade for him, because his future in Chicago is very limited. True. Unfortunate and unjustified, but most likely true. I do appreciate your imput, but why is it unjustified? I know there is a huge debate in the organization about Murton's value, what do you think his real value is? Thanks for your time! His value is that he's an inexpensive player under team control for many years who is likely to produce solid numbers right now. And given some time, he has the ability to move beyond just solid to very good. Those assets are treasured by most teams, whereas the Cubs seem to prefer mediocre expensive veterans who do no better, and often worse, for a hell of a lot more money. That leads to roster/payroll inefficiencies, and ultimately, too few wins at the end of the season for the dollars spent.

Hahahaha :lol: He is a professional athlete, if he can't handle the pressure he should work as a toll booth operator or something. Jeez, the excuses are already starting to roll before the game even starts. Would be nice to see him step up and force Lou to play him. are Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez under the pressure of going 3 for 4 with no errors every game? I know that's not really the argument you want to make, is it Derwood? I mean, Murton has the potential - or more importantly has shown in the past - that he can be a dependable Major League outfielder. But Aramis or Lee? It's not about whether he can duplicate their careers. It's about the fact that ballplayers should not be judged on any one game, and shouldn't have undue pressure on performing in any one game, or even a handful of games. It's bad enough when teams do this with 1st year players, but with guys who have already produced in the majors? It's even more ridiculous.

Hahahaha :lol: He is a professional athlete, if he can't handle the pressure he should work as a toll booth operator or something. Jeez, the excuses are already starting to roll before the game even starts. Would be nice to see him step up and force Lou to play him. are Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez under the pressure of going 3 for 4 with no errors every game? No but lesser players are ..i.e. Jones, Izturis, Murton, Pie, Fotenot, Pagan. I agree with Lou's decision making, in one way. The Cubs are in the middle of a playoff race. Lou needs to put players on the field that are going to produce immediately. Some players excel in pressure situations and take advantage of a slight opportunity (Fontenot, Marmol, Theriot, Marshall) others this year have not (Cedeno, Murton, Cherry). They don't have 10 games to give Murton so he could possibly get his stroke back. Cubs need to win every game they can. Making decisions that way is how you end up with a really screwed up roster.

Hahahaha :lol: He is a professional athlete, if he can't handle the pressure he should work as a toll booth operator or something. Jeez, the excuses are already starting to roll before the game even starts. Would be nice to see him step up and force Lou to play him. Whether or not you want to admit it, expecting baseball players to produce IN THIS GAME RIGHT NOW TODAY or be labelled as not getting the job done is just asinine. That's how they've dealt with Murton this year. You simply can't hand a guy a game, or even 3-4 games, and say you better capitalize on your opportunity. Playing time should be doled out based on reasonable expectations of future performance, not how you did last week.

He's been beyond awful for over two months now.

Maybe you can work a trade for him, because his future in Chicago is very limited. True. Unfortunate and unjustified, but most likely true.

Makes me wonder if he walked out on them too... what.....

Could this be similar to the situation where a fielder with no range maintains a high fielding percentage by getting to the easy ones? I really don't know the numbers, but I feel like I've seen a lot of wild pitches with Kendall back there, as his old broken down body isn't able to stop anything but the simplest ball in the dirt. Obviously, that's based on anectodal evidence and my own flawed eyes, but it could be the case here.

That's really overstating the situation.

not sure I'm going to be able to handle the transition.

It may be the best they can do with what they have, but solid? I guess it depends on how you define it, but people should remember the lineup is no better than average, and by some measures (OPS+) they are below average. That's with Soriano. If you get the hot version of Murton replacing Soriano, then maybe that lineup is solid. But if Murton is a step below Soriano, then your talking about a very questionable lineup. Sure, if all those guys perform at their best, it's going to score a lot of runs. But that's not going to happen.

2nd half line - .266/.360/.313 that's bad. The OBP is nice, but it's not good enough to offset the nonexistent SLG. He had a ton of playing time in June, and at several challenging positions. Lou is all about resting guys, and DeRosa should be on the list. They need him for August and September, and as a guy who hasn't hit in a week and hasn't hit much more than the occasional since in 6 weeks, there's no reason to try and fill him into more spots in the lineup.

Was thinking the same. Seems like he hasn't hit any homeruns since April though, when he started out hot. DeRosa has no marginal power to provide. His last HR was June 27, and prior to that was June 3. He has 5 extra base hits since the end of June.

As long as further notice is 2 seconds later when you replace Floyd or Jones with Murton. I think the Cubs also need to start working in more off days for DeRosa. He's been brutal since June. They have him playing all over the field, and he's appeared in more games than every position player besides Soriano. There's no reason why DeRosa should be mixing into the OF mix at this point. Let him start at 2B, or at 3B when Ramirez sits. When Fontenot plays, then Mark can go to the bench.

actually, many of these guys would have to play DOWN to expectations, as they are playing above their heads right now. do not want Who exactly is playing above their head besides Fontenot? derosa lilly marquis howry marmol Or DeRosa is showing that last year wasn't a fluke. And maybe Lilly is just naturally adjusting to no longer playing in the offensively brutal AL East. Marquis I'll give you. How is Howry playing above his head? He's been a very good reliever for something like 4 years now. And Marmol is an unknown. What past is he playing against that indicates he's playing way above what he can "normally" do? How is Marquis performing above his head? The season is 4 months old. He was very good for 2 and very awful for two, and he's started out month 5 as very awful. I'd say he's performing right in line with expectations. If you take that one outing where his own error led to 4 "unearned runs" and count them as earned, he's got a 4.66 ERA, and a sub 100 ERA+. He's basically performing in line with career norms, off the pace of his best years but better than his worst. His season might end up worse than it is now, but I'd say the up and down inconsistently with some extreme variance (complete game shutout and multiple disaster starts) was probably what was expected in the first place.

I don't understand it at all. Look, I like Wood, he's a nice guy. He has pitched some great games, he was so compelling in 1998, and he almost single handedly got us our only postseason series win since 1908. But I don't understand the attachment to a guy who has 71 career wins and has made only 30 starts twice in his career. I know people are latching on to what he was, a dominating rookie with an unhittable slurve, a fireballer with a 96 MPH tailing fastball, etc. But to call any part of Kerry's career the "Wood era" would be selling short the disappointment that is/was his career. What don't you understand? When he's healthy, he's one of the best pitchers in baseball. He's the type of pitcher you pay to watch. When he takes the mound, you can feel the energy. Some players have that charisma, some don't. As for having 71 career wins? What does this have anything to do with what he's meant to this org? I'm just saying that 71 wins represents how disappointing his career is/was. Fantastic pitcher, great guy, great stuff, tons of heart. I appreciate that about him. But to say that there ever was a "Kerry Wood era" seems misleading, when he was barely with the team half the time. It's not misleading. Part of the Kerry Wood era were the injuries. Sure there was a lot of disappointment, but from 1998-2004 Wood was a big part of the organization. And he's still an asset on the team today.

Countdown to Hendry trading for Edmonds in 5...4...3...2... Oh, there's some tangible bad blood between Edmonds and the Cubs, I'm not sure how the fans would react to that. Didn't Edmonds say Wrigley is the worst place to play a baseball game in the majors? Countdown to interesting love/hate relationship development in 3.....2......1...... 8-) I could see the hate, but where would the love come from? Jim Edmonds is terrible.

Is it on youtube? You can YouTube the clip of them doing it to Blanco. He took the corner while still wrapped in some of them. So it's good to throw stuff at players in futbol?

Not hitting in the majors does not = big league success either. Just ask most of the Cubs roster.

If Lou would pencil Murton in the lineup everyday with Soriano out he will produce enough to offset Soriano's loss. Based on numbers from a down season by Soriano and a statistical stretch of mostly meaningless games (from a team standpoint) over 2.5 months by Murton. However, I do agree Murton should be the starter here, I am just in a gloomy mood and feel like trying to beat down everyone's arguments. Shoulda gotten a big bat before the deadline. Shoulda, woulda, coulda. Shoulda gotten better bats long before the deadline. The offense has been on a drag on this team for years. Hendry, and the rest of us, just have to hope the current group somehow gets hot the rest of the way. At least hot enough to win the still very weak NL Central, which probably isn't even that hot.