jersey cubs fan

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.

With all the stories out there about how little value people are putting on picks early picks this year, who knows what it would take. Then again, with sentiment moving against those high cost picks, maybe we'll be surprised with a bunch of moves up there. I think it makes a little more sense if the Bears trade Briggs for the 6th, then move down to 9 so Miami can get Quinn and the Bears get out of the really expensive first round area (plus likely adding some mid-round picks).

Esp. when you actually got a hit Theodore believes in speaking softly and carrying a big stick.

When I saw him speaking, I thought there was a lot of tension between he and Prior. I'd guess Prior and his people think the Cubs are to blame for much of his problems, and Hendry blames Prior for all the problems the Cubs have had. That's a pretty baseless and hyperbolic statement. I sincerely doubt that Hendry blames Prior for all of the Cubs problems over the last several years. He might be frustrated with Mark's approach. You can call it hyperbolic and baseless all you want, I'm just saying what my reaction to Hendry's interview was. Jim is an old school kind of guy. He obviously didn't care at all about how his young pitchers were abused, so he obviously doesn't think the Cubs are to blame. He strikes me as the type of guy who, if he was a fan, would fall into the Prior is a wuss category. Hendry has repeatedly said how the Cubs had good teams that got derailed by the injuries to Prior and Wood. Prior and Wood have been at the forefront of what he believes to be the problems, and Hendry has always taken what I believe to be a strange tone when talking about Prior. I sense a lot of tension there, between a GM who probably thinks that if Prior was tougher he would have pitched through the pain.

So perhaps the next 12 games might be the season? No. It's just a great opportunity to take a little pressure off the rest of the season. They could go 6-6 or 7-5, and pretty much be in the same spot, not out of it, but not quite "in it" either. They could go 5-7 and then rip off a great stretch against Philly, NYM, CWS, SD and LA. Or they could got 10-2, then turn right around and go 4-12 and be right where they are right now.

It was painfully obvious something was wrong.

Sounds far fetched. Why not just get the 6th from Washington directly? Are they saying all they'd end up with is the 6th? Or are they saying they'd trade to get the 9, and then end up with the 6th and 31st still? Anyway, I'm all for getting a QB in this draft. I wouldn't complain about Quinn, even though I'm fine with Grossman in a make or break year.

I don't know about getting back to .500 that soon, but the Cubs have a perfect opportunity to win a lot of games over the next two weeks. 12 games vs teams that are all below .500. Win 8 of those and the Cubs are 16-17 going into Philly, a sub .500 team itself that's off to a streaky start, and looking good right now. After these twelve, the Cubs play 16 games against some really challenging competition. Now is the time to strike.

When I saw him speaking, I thought there was a lot of tension between he and Prior. I'd guess Prior and his people think the Cubs are to blame for much of his problems, and Hendry blames Prior for all the problems the Cubs have had.

I disagree. Dusty would have done it once but would have benched Theriot the next day because Izturis "Needs to hit his way out of his slump" Theriot started 2 games at SS last season. Probably after Neifi was traded and Izturis was on the DL. 8/28 and 8/29

This is the line up I want to see, everyday! ditto I prefer to have Ramirez 4th, as he's more of a threat to get on base than Soriano.

I'm all for trying to keep Prior in house even if he rehabs for a year. But I don't see any reason to try and sign him to any sort of longterm contract, unless all he wants is the league minimum guaranteed.

It's been this way for years... Yep. When they look good, they look reaaally good. When it's bad, it's ugly bad. The Cubs have scored 9 or more 4 times this season, and they've scored 1 or less 4 times. I think all teams go through that. And you're right, it is feast or famine. But if the name of the game is outscoring the opponent, you have to figure to Cubs are going to start winning series if they keep this up. If they keep outscoring their opponents every series, yes, I would expect them to start winning more games. But if what they keep up is the feast or famine thing, then I'm not so sure. If Zambrano improves and Guzman is the complete opposite of Miller, maybe they can start winning even when they aren't scoring much.

What do you mean by this? Teams make 2 for 1, 3 for 1 and 3 for 2 type trades every year. Pretty much every team has roster flexibility, where they can option somebody out, release guys or make call-ups if they make a deal that is not 1 for 1.