jersey cubs fan

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.

it wasn't so much a need than it was just a natural occurrence. I simply haven't relied on Wood or Prior for 2 years I haven't relied on him either, but I don't see how that translates into feeling creepy when he does return.

I think the real Cubs are standing. A physically talented team that's capable of looking like world beaters any day of the week, but a highly flawed team when it comes to translating those physical talents to baseball success. Once again the walk is killing this team, as the offense draws far too few and the pitching allows far too many. The Cubs are good enough to beat the crap out of the league's worst, but they can't hang with the best NL clubs, as evidenced by their losing record against all NL East and West contenders. This is the 2007. We have to hope they beat out MIL and then get lucky in the playoffs to beat what is inevitably going to be a superior ballclub.

I never understood the supposed "need" to move on emotionally or mentally from the Wood era. He's a valuable asset and it was good to have him contribute.

Another dude ended up on the field?

I liked Chris Harris.

I think the Brewers might lose today.

Anybody see Dye take three years to run 100 feet? Wow, that ball was in the air forever and he looked slower than a pitcher running out a ground ball to first.

He was facing the best offense in the NL. I'll be more interested to see what he does against a middle-of-the-pack team... like the Mets this weekend, Or at least a team thats not in 1st in terms of R/G. He faced the best offense every game in June and July?

The quality start statistic is so stupid. 3 ER in 6 IP = 4.50 ERA Is that really what anyone would consider "quality" pitching? From the worst pitcher on my squad? I'll take it from my #5. I'll accept it, but I won't like it. How many teams in baseball have a #5 starter with a 4.50 ERA or better? I would guess not many. The problem is Marquis has an ERA of 5.09 and 6.29 in June and July. If a 4.50 ERA game is the best he can do, and he's regularly doing worst, that's a big problem.

I feel like there have been 5 or 6 plays Jones failed to make that Pie could have got to pretty easily in the past couple days. If he's going to remain a sub 700 OPS player, there's no reason not to make the switch to Pie. It just doesn't look like he's going to regain the power he had that propped up his OPS vs RHP earlier in his career.

Whoa, what did I miss? Isn't Harris 100% and ready to go? We're talking about future injury. The Bears lost Harris, but survived last year, partly because he was around for most of the year. They've shown they can win games without him, but I don't see this team retaining home field advantage without him for most of the year.

If all these guys are billionaires I don't understand the need for partners. Is it becuase he trying to eliminate potential rivals? If you could own and control the Cubs by putting up $501 million instead of the full billion, wouldn't you? It's spreading the risk. It's called diversifying your portfolio, don't want 75% of your assets in one business. This eliminates the possibility those guys add money to other groups. It garners much needed political support (MLB would like a group consisted of a bunch of people with greaty sway in the community).

You should not talk religion in the workplace, ever. Agreed. Potentially divisive subject matter isn't good for the workplace environment. Politics and Religion are big no-no's for me. Politics, religion and money should never be discussed in mixed company.

When is the deadline again?

You should not talk religion in the workplace, ever.

Top 5 can't lose to injury 1- Urlacher 2- Benson 3- Kreutz 4- Tait (not that he's awesome, but o line injuries could derail this team 5- Harris (if he misses all of the season, the defense will suffer greatly) 6- Grossman For this team to win the SB, they need Grossman to do well. They could get by with Orton or Griese, but without the upside I don't see them as much of a threat.

Ummmmmmmmm, interesting? Cubs are all about promoting their guys this year I guess.

He looked pretty gimpy.