jersey cubs fan

It's Goony. Goony broke his old screen name with too many gibberish posts. gobbledigook flimflam jebota.

Marquis's 2007 ERA is now back down to 4.50. If that's where it ends the year, I'd be pleasantly surprised.

I don't know how high any team's winning percentages are when they go down 3 runs in the top of the 1st and they have Jason Marquis on the mound. :? sure, for this game, but people are writing off Marquis for the length of the contract because of one bad inning I think people are writing off Marquis because of one bad career. Wow, joined up yesterday and already picking iFights in every thread you've posted in. Great job. You're a welcome addition here. glad to be of service

yeah Cubs fans, going behind 3-0 in the first inning one game after going below .500 in your home opener, one year after losing 90+ games is no time to complain. Can you blame fans for being a little dramatic after living through the last 2 years of crap? No, I don't blame them. That's why I think it's a little ridiculous to start criticizing those who aren't happy with the start.

I don't know how high any team's winning percentages are when they go down 3 runs in the top of the 1st and they have Jason Marquis on the mound. :? sure, for this game, but people are writing off Marquis for the length of the contract because of one bad inning I think people are writing off Marquis because of one bad career.

yeah Cubs fans, going behind 3-0 in the first inning one game after going below .500 in your home opener, one year after losing 90+ games is no time to complain.

just did :lol: Sort of. According to gameday, there was one swing and miss that inning, not counting Burke's foul tip strikeout.

Well, it's back down to 5.40 now. :D

Has anybody swung and missed?

He's got a 724 OPS, including a .308 OBP. He's not doing anything.

Then please give us the okay whenever the proper date is reached. Thanks.

It'll be cold...wind blowing in...he should be fine...he'll save the truly bad games for August...when we're hopefully in contention and it can really hurt us. It's funny, most of my Yankee fan friends are saying the samething about A-Rod. They all still hate him. I have no idea why. My, one, Yankee fan friend hates ARod too. She thinks that liking/accepting him takes away from Jeter's adoration--which makes no sense to me but it seems to be a running theme with many in that fandom. It's really quite fun to be at a bar around here when ARod comes up. Peope can be more or less passively watching the game, but when he comes up to the plate the catcalls begin, and I do my part to egg everybody on. I've got a friend who is a Mets fan who feels the same way. While all the Yankees fans we know hate the guy, and can't stand our take on the subject.

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