jersey cubs fan

As a chicago fan who doesn't live in chicago, I disagree. Just going to the papers' individual sites is much better.

The most obnoxious smack talk of the year thus far was, "I like my chances." That's a bad thing? There's nothing worse than fantasy smack talk.

I don't even know what I want to have happen tomorrow. All I do know is I want the offensive line to be upgraded. Since they don't really need a starter to come in right away, they can get away with waiting for later rounds. But ideally I'd like to see both a guard and a tackle selected at some point, and preferably a guard who is capable of handling center duty. Plus, it would be cool to have more than 4 picks in the first 4 rounds.

If the ultimate goal is to trade down, I would bet that it does.

Insider just feeds off stories from the local papers. Since most chicago papers were reporting Theriot was going to be the shortstop for now, I'm betting ESPN just tweaked the headline to be much more dramatic. But I doubt Izturis is actually about to leave the team.

Because if it's fake, then that game simply becomes another random game. It's like if you suddenly said that Kirk Gibson wasn't hurt when he hit that home run for the Dodgers-it still would be a big home run, but the fact that he was hurt while doing it made it much more memorable. But we know Schilling was hurt. The amazing thing was that he pitched at all. The question is whether blood actually soaked onto the sock, not whether or not it was a great performance following an impromptu surgery. And all evidence suggests it was real anyway.

Dont' see how, with projectible points clearly in your favor.

I really wonder what they would do with that pick. Quinn won't be there...he's gonna go to Cleveland. It's probably too high to get Landry. I don't see us taking another running back in Petersen... Trade back with Dolphins if Quinn drops? That would make the most sense. I don't think the Bears want to stay at #6. Nine isn't much better (as far as having to pay out a cheaper contract), but the extra pick I'm assuming they'd pick up would make it worth it. I think we could see a case of the Bears picking BPA at 9, and then overdrafting a couple players at 31 and 37 so they can get some relief with their salaries. Maybe reaching on a LB like Durant at 31, though there are rumors he could go to the Colts at 32. And maybe reaching for a safety at 37. But in order to get to 9, they presumably have to get the 6, and in order to get the 6, they have to give up 31. Right? In theory, they would do this: Briggs and 31 for 6, then 6 for 9 and a mid round pick. That leaves them with 9, 37 and then a bunch of mid rounders.

He was, and is, a victim of negligent management.

I don't think they could trade him. The cap hit would be huge.

Where does $10m come into play?

there is no way, even if he comes back next year and pitches insanely, that he would win in arbitration after submitting a $10m figure. Perhaps not, but it is possible that if the Cubs don't tender him, and he becomes a free agent this offseason, that somebody would be prepared to give him that much in 2009, assuming a nice showing late next season.

But the fact is Dusty abused his guys more than any manager abused theirs. Lots of them are bad. But Dusty is the worst.

No they don't. They've got "control" but that control is only the ability to tender him a contract. Give them a team option, something that the Cubs could use, that would pay him handsomely, assuming rehab works. Right now, the Cubs can tender him a contract, but they won't. That would guarantee him a heck of a lot more than they'd be willing to pay a rehabber, something around $3m. So, you give him a contract guaranteed a lot less for 2008. Let's say it's a $750,000 deal. But, you include an incentive that pays him another $500,000 if he appears in a major league game in 2008, and $2m if he starts 10 (or break it down as an incentive for number of starts). Then you throw in a $10m team option (the type of money he'd probably get if he was arb eligible and healthy) for 2009. Maybe include a player option at $2.5m that kicks in if he makes X amount of starts in 2008. That big team option shows Prior you are committed to his rehab, and is a carrot. It's also protection for the Cubs, if he rehabs quicker than thought, and ends up tearing it up for the 2nd half of 2008 and appears on the verge of making much more. The thing is, the Cubs won't want to tender him a contract, thus losing his control. So, if they want to keep him, they'll have to sign him before the tender deadline. And in order to do that, you have to give Prior a reason to sign. If he's pissed at the Cubs, he can just play hardball, dare them to tender the contract, and when they don't, become a free agent.

You need good hitting. I consider that the same thing as timely hitting. There could be a team full of .300 batters but if they don't get hits when it matters then they won't win games. You could have three singles in a row then three pop ups in a row, so those three hits were pretty much pointless. It's hitting when it matters that is important. If a team full of .300 hitters failed, it would probably be because their OBP wasn't much higher and their SLG was low. Average doesn't matter. Good hitting is getting on base and hitting for power. OBP and SLG. Timeliness is a distraction this club has worried about far too long. You can't work on timing, you can't acquire timing, you can't develop timing. You can work on, acquire and develop OBP and SLG. Too bad the Cubs don't know how.

That's just the thing... Prior claimed all spring that his arm felt fine and he had no pain or discomfort throwing. IMO that's one really mystifying piece of this story. Was he lying, in hopes of sneaking onto the active roster to keep his service time accruing? Is there any chance that he's actually so tough that something that would "hurt like heck" for most guys didn't bother him? How ironic would that be... Perhaps he had just been pitching in so much pain for so long that he just blocked it out. He's been told for so long that normal pitchers could pitch through the pain he's feeling (Timmy K insinuated this very thing this morning, again). Every old school tough guy in baseball that refuses to believe overuse can negatively affect pitchers is convinced he's a wimp. So maybe he just convinced himself not to have pain. What we do know is he was abused like very few others have been at a very young age, suffered some very real injuries and now needed relatively serious cleanup. The guy was hurt, clearly. It's just too bad this cleanup didn't happen a year ago.

You need good hitting.

Batting average is worthless. They had a pretty good one in 2006 or 2005 and it did nothing for them. 17th in average last year. 18th in average was the Phillies, and they scored 149 more runs than us. An example of timely hitting, of which the Cubs have rarely had any. That's not an example of timely hitting. That's an example of a team that had a really high OBP and a really high SLG. The Cubs may or may not take advantage of their opportunities, the biggest problem is they don't give themselves enough opportunities.

Batting average is worthless. They had a pretty good one in 2006 or 2005 and it did nothing for them. 17th in average last year. 18th in average was the Phillies, and they scored 149 more runs than us. Don't look at all MLB, NL is what matters. Cubs were 5th last year and 3rd in 2003. right. still. the phillies. that was the point. i'm agreeing with you. Understand, I was just pointing out that the 17th/18th ranking doesn't really fit, since AL teams trounce NL teams in offensive categories nearly all the time. The Cubs were near the top in AVG and near the bottom in K's in each of the past two years, and they stunk. Even though media types who want to disect what's wrong with the Cubs still refer to them as a team that strikes out too much and doesn't put the ball in play.

Batting average is worthless. They had a pretty good one in 2006 or 2005 and it did nothing for them. 17th in average last year. 18th in average was the Phillies, and they scored 149 more runs than us. Don't look at all MLB, NL is what matters. Cubs were 5th last year and 3rd in 2003.

If they score all the runs in the world, the timing won't matter at all.

Batting average is worthless. They had a pretty good one in 2006 or 2005 and it did nothing for them.

The point is that we are outscoring the opponents consistently, which is better than completely sucking. That's the problem, they aren't outscoring them consistently. They are outscoring them by a wide margin in 1 game, and then coming up short in 2.

Agreed. A long-term deal doesn't make much sense at this point. The Cubs control him for 2 more cheap years anyway. He's not going to even start throwing until 08. If we let him walk, then those "cheap years" will be exactly what this email was about. if Dr. Andrews is right, he'll rehab on the Cubs, and then go somewhere else and return to maybe a 2 or 3 pitcher in the rotation. I'd rather pay him 3 million a year to rehab and pray for a return to 2003-2005, than pay guys like Jockstrap and Itzcrappy, Neifi, Macias etc. money we are/have paid them. If he rehabs and goes elsewhere and returns to prominence, I don't want to hear one word about curses. We can extend him on the cheap, and we should take that chance. If we don't, it's our organizations fault. Get him to sign a new contract before the non-tender date this fall. Throw in some incentives and a substantial team option for 2009. But there's no reason to give him a multi-year extension.

Wow, I didn't realize they were such close teammates.