jersey cubs fan

If he goes for that all or nothing shot, and somehow comes up short, then forces the team to cut back the way Arizona has had to do, it will cause a lot more pain.

ownership has turned over quite a bit from the old guard. you've got a lot of owners who probably hope to sell to the highest bidder sometime within the next 10-15 years. I don't see them being anywhere near as exclusionary as they may have been 20 years ago. the owners can afford to exclude high bidders. these are the cubs, there is bound to be a bidding war. regardless of how high cuban's bid is, there's bound to be plenty of other similar, if not superior, bids. Possibly. But if one bidder is $20-50m more than 2nd (quite possible), there's likely to be some lawsuits coming out of any rejection.

I'm not

I think he was good last year, but not a particularly good signing. I would have traded any of the relievers this offseason.

ownership has turned over quite a bit from the old guard. you've got a lot of owners who probably hope to sell to the highest bidder sometime within the next 10-15 years. I don't see them being anywhere near as exclusionary as they may have been 20 years ago.

All I know is it started sounding like Lou had a crush on him toward the end.

I agree with this.

I don't think the dollars are nearly as big of a problem as the years. Hendry's tendency to go 3-years with non stud relievers is just maddening.

Maybe it's wishful thinking, but I don't think this would be handled by Lou the same way Dusty handled the other two situations (if the situations turn out to be similar; ie, Miller doen't improve). One of the many maddening things about Dusty is that once he had a plan, he stuck with that plan come hell or high water ... even when it was blatantly obvious to everyone on the planet that the plan wasn't working. Lou declared Miller the #5 starter, but he also said that the Cubs wouldn't be skipping #5 in April (though they would be shifting the rotation around Z pitching every 5th day). It took one disaster start for that to change. On the other hand, Lou certainly didn't make it seem like Murton would be relegated to the back of the bus. But Murton "is on pace" for just 347 PA this season. I'm not about to assume he'll make the right moves as it pertains to young vs old and playing time. I'm thinking he's still giving benefit of the doubt privileges based far to heavily on tenure.

At the time, I thought he was really great, in retrospect, he wasn't that good. He was never dominant. He did have a really nice season in his last Astrodome season, but you could make a case that most of it was luck. He didn't strike out many guys, and had a poor 1.75 K/BB ratio that season. He was routinely in the top ten for walks allowed and had an unimpressive WHIP during that time. He was more or less an innings eater who didn't give up many HRs while pitching in HR killing stadiums. He led the league in Wins in 1999 for an outstanding Houston team, which vaulted him to the top of the list in 2000 and fooled everybody. He was playing with fire with his very low K/9, very high walk rates and unimpressive batting average against. Maybe things would have worked out if he signed longterm to play in Shea, or LA or Seattle. But when your best quality is your ability to throw 200 innings, and you don't do anything else great, then your luck is bound to run out, especially in the HR era.

I don't know about baseball being a public transportation sport, I think that statement is nonsense. In addition, you can't park at a big lot around Yankee stadium either (the lot around the stadium is pretty damn samall). And both Shea and Phiadelphia are pretty easy to get in and out of as major highways are located by the ballpark. In theory it's easy, but traffic destroys it. It's much easier to do Shea via public transportation. Yankee Stadium had several different parking options. There's a regular lot, and a multi-story large garage. But the best way to get in and out is still the train. That's the way it should be for a sport played everyday. Quit driving everywhere and take the darn train. what if you're in a city with bad/no public transportation options (ie, Los Angeles)? btw, nothing is cooler than parking your car and then taking a ferry across the river to get to PNC in Pittsburgh. well, LA is the exception. Everybody in Cali drives everywhere. I've only walked across the river in Pittsburgh. How far did you park to make a ferry trip necessary? I think there's nothing better than meeting up before a game on foot, then walking around the park afterward and taking in the sites and the bars/restaurants. Driving to a game, parking, and then driving home, is Wal-Mart like dull. Wrigley is the best place for that, but I've done it in Denver, San Diego and Pittsburgh as well. The lack of viable neighborhoods around the get-in and get-out NY stadiums sucks, same with Philly.

I don't know about baseball being a public transportation sport, I think that statement is nonsense. In addition, you can't park at a big lot around Yankee stadium either (the lot around the stadium is pretty damn samall). And both Shea and Phiadelphia are pretty easy to get in and out of as major highways are located by the ballpark. In theory it's easy, but traffic destroys it. It's much easier to do Shea via public transportation. Yankee Stadium had several different parking options. There's a regular lot, and a multi-story large garage. But the best way to get in and out is still the train. That's the way it should be for a sport played everyday. Quit driving everywhere and take the darn train.

And what makes you so sure that Prior or Guzman won't cost us games? There's a difference between someone with no ceiling beyond replacement player costing you games, and someone taking a lump here and there with a ceiling as high as Angel's. Wade Miller isn't good, and likely won't be better in the future. Angel Guzman is at worst level with Miller now, and with a few starts might be a very good starter. Speculation and opinion. I have no problem with either, but they should be identified as such. Here is the definition of earning it: http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/stats/sortable_player_stats.jsp?c_id=chc&section1=1&section2=1&section3=1&statSet1=null&statSet2=null&statSet3=null&statType=2&timeFrame=1&timeSubFrame=23&baseballScope=CH2&prevPage2=1&readBoxes=true&sitSplit=&venueID=&teamPosCode=all&box4=XXXX150063chnX&box5=XXXX425768chnX&compare.x=25&compare.y=10 spring training stats are nonsensical tools to judge players on

Much like the Iranian population wanting to rise up against their primitive leadership, I've heard about all these upgrades for quite some time, but there is still a huge lack of programming. I recently switched back to directv after they apologized for screwing up so much and driving me to cable, and I'm hoping for more. But so far it's extremely limited.

NY Jets select Ryan Harris, OT from Notre Dame. The Jets are in the process of overhauling the offensive line, and with 3 fresh faces in the past two years, they are well on their way to establishing a consistently great line for Pennington and Jones to use to their advantage.

Miller didn't have to.

Neither has Miller. At least with Guzman there's a reasonable expectation that he will learn.

Yes, but no one said it can't be after a month or so of pitching out of the pen and then some spot starts to stretch out. This would allow a pitcher to adjust to the hitting at this level while working closely with the pitching coach. Then when it looks like he's got it, you Nobody said you can't put him right into the rotation. Other teams do that all the time. Guzman has already faced major league hitters, about 60 innings worth. There's no reason to arbitrarily hold him back because you fear exposing him to starting. You should start your 5 best starters, and Guzman is easily in that group for the Cubs. I wouldn't say easily. What has Guzman done that he easily should be in the starting 5? Not be named Wade Miller or Jason Marquis.

I agree, but then again look how the Twins developed Santana. Started him in the Pen, and gradually moved him into the staters role. I like Guzman in the long man right now. No reasons not to trust Lou and his coaches right now. There's a bunch of examples on both sides. Johan was 21 when he came up to the majors. And he had about 340 pro innings by then. By 25 he was a regular starter. Guzman is already 25 and has over 500 pro innings. They are at different stages of the development process.

He should have had the job in the first place. It's not change for the sake of change. It's change for the sake of righting a wrong. Miller is unqualified for the job.

Yes, but no one said it can't be after a month or so of pitching out of the pen and then some spot starts to stretch out. This would allow a pitcher to adjust to the hitting at this level while working closely with the pitching coach. Then when it looks like he's got it, you Nobody said you can't put him right into the rotation. Other teams do that all the time. Guzman has already faced major league hitters, about 60 innings worth. There's no reason to arbitrarily hold him back because you fear exposing him to starting. You should start your 5 best starters, and Guzman is easily in that group for the Cubs.

baseball is a public transportation sport. If you can't wrap your head around taking a train, learn. that being said, I've driven to Wrigley some of the time and it's not nearly as hard as some people are making it out to be. No, you can't park in some 50 acre lot next to the park, but in places where you can, Yankee Stadium, Shea, Philly, it's a disaster getting into and out of the lots. Suburban stadiums are as bad as the cookie cutter nonsense from the 70's.

part of the developmental process is starting in the majors leagues.

no kidding. Impatient sons of guns. We're almost done with the 2nd round and we're still 2+ weeks away from the actual draft. It's not like everybody is logged into this site all day every day.

Use your eyes? Where am I? Howry was as dominant as a set-up caliber pitcher gets last year. He didn't struggle to get outs. He wasn't flinging crap like Beck.