Little Slide Rooter

I just dont get why Soto is so unappreciated. Brian McCann, whose supposedly the measuring stick for NL Catchers from an offensive standpoint is hitting .265/.381/.449 with 10 HRs. Well, Soto, whose sharing a bit too much time with the likes of Koyie Hill is hitting .277/.404/.468 with 8HR. In fact, looking over offensive stats of NL catchers, the only one who really seems any better than soto is Colorodos Miquel Oliva hitting .307/.363/.538 with 11HR.

-assuming Tyler Colvin finishes strong, and proves he can be a solid major leaguer he can take CF in 2011. Id give him some innings in center just to see how it works out -Soriano isnt going anywhere, thats pretty much fact. Hes our LF for the next 4.5 years, through good and through bad. -Ideally, Kosukes the guy traded, but if nobodys interested enough to give up either solid prospects or sufficent salary relief, he may not be living up to the hype, but hes too good to eat that much money to simply open up a roster spot. Just give him a RH platoon partner, like Nady if we could get him back for cheap, or someone similar on next years FA market. -If we wait until the offseason, Byrd could be an ideal sell high candidate. We got him for a great deal I beleive 5.5 mil owed in 2011 and 6.5 in 2012, so that would make him a lot more attractive to more teams than Kosuke. assuming Byrd finishes strong, he could net us some nice prospects and free up a at least some salary.

Jay Jackson getting beat up again, 5 ER on 6 H through 5 IP. 5/1 K/BB, so theres that I guess.

Corey Patterson has no bearing on Tyler Colvins future. Neither do Jake Fox, Felix Pie, Brant Brown, Gary Scott, Jerome Walton, or Dwight Smith. I dont know what wil ultimately become of Tyler Colvin, but what he is at this point is a bright spot on a team that doesnt have a lot of them.

The Reds actually have a very good everyday lineup, but when Rolen has the day off, Votto gets the boot in the 1st inning, and Ramon Hernandez leaves after the 3rd, theres little excuse to lose, not to mention get an epic beat down.

We all know that even if Geo was on the All Star team, Lou would find some way to have Koyie Hill replace him.

not that I care about the White Sox, but Im very surprised that Matt Thornton was their lone All Star while Paul Konerko with his 20 HR, .297 .avg and .950 OPS is stuck waiting for the final vote.

He was probably too busy deciding if he wanted to do an angry post game interview or a feeling sorry for himself post game interview.

Yeah, absolutely, i'm the same way. I was firmly entrenched in acceptance, but today has made me furious. Unlike people that say "oh i'm so cool, i'll see ya in April", I'm not wired that way. I can't stop watching. Sigh. I will say this - I've seen enough of Jeff Phuckin Stevens for a while tho. The part that really pisses me off is that Lou is still here and there seems to be no end to him in site. As for nthe see you in April schtick, Ill still watch the games when theres nothing better to do, but Im not going to hang on every single one like I have in the past. That would be insanity at this point.

Looks like the Benny Hill inning finally came to an end.

In the literal sense.

Holy [expletive], the innings still going on? I can almost hear Lou saying well, what can you do over and over. I wonder what the record is for runs scored in an inning after 2 outs. Im sure Dustys Reds are damn close. 2 Innings like this in 1 series. Pathetic.

How are the Cubs even allowed to be a major league baseball team?

I dont love the guy by any means, but all Im saying is that when Hendnry was handing out contracts to the likes of Soriano, Zambrano, and Fukudome(who everyone loved at the time) it didnt seem like he had anyone to answer to, and they wanted to stock the team with higher profile players to make it more marketable to potential buyers. If he isnt allowed to spend as freely, he might make some better moves. Also, without the freedsom he had unde the last few years of the Trib regime, hes be spending wiser, and certainly not paying for guys like Miles, Grabow, and Gathright who we could get from the farm system.

we have a lot of tradeable players other than LIlly, however, much like Marmol, they're the guys who we should be hanging on to.

Im all about firing Lou ASAP, but should Hendry get another chance? I figure, if Ricketts has somebody in mind, go for it, but if not, maybe let Jim finish his contract, but keep him on a leach. Granted, hes stuck this team with some awful, crippling contracts, but ever since the Bradley signing, hes made some pretty good moves. He sold high on DeRosa, and got some salary relief for Marquis. Granted these moves were to free up the money to sign Bradley, but then we got Silva for him, which seems to have ended up the best case scenerio. We seem to be coming out pretty well in the Grabow/Gorzolanny trade, however, the Grabow extension never should have happened. He got a great deal on Marlon Byrd at about 5 mil/year considering that hes been out most consistant hitter thus far. However, getting rid of Pie for nothing and then signing Joey Gathright was a horrible move as well. Hendrys always been able to work good trades, with the Pierre trade as his main blemish. His free agent signings, on the other hand have been disasterous. Assuming that Ricketts doesnt have anyone better in mind to replace Hendry, if Hendry can simply stop being a bone head when it comes to free agency, could he be a decent GM? Its really simple, if ownership just doesnt let him make these horrendous signings, he cant do them. Also, from what Ive heard he has a very good relationship with other GMs around the league. Considering his tight relationship with Kevin Towers, who I think is still the Pads GM, should we at least keep around long enough to make a deal for Adrian?

I'm with you regular bad just isn't enough with the cubs. We need crazy bad for Ricketts to clean house. I really think almost everyone scouts on up needs to be fired. Keep Wilkens, Jaramillo, Sandberg, maybe a few others and let everyone else go. This organization does a lot of things the wrong ways from top to bottom and this is the perfect opportunity to fix it. Also we need to get rid of that stupid go cubs go song. Its bush league. Any team that needs to play a song for the fans to sing after a win is a team that isn't used to winning often. You don't see the Red Sox, Braves, or Yankees doing this. The Yankees play New York New York after every win, I believe the Red Sox play (or least used to play) Shipping up to Boston after every win and the Braves play the tomahawk chop every 20 [expletive] seconds. New York New York is a classic. Shipping up to Boston kicks expletive. No offense to Steve Goodman (RIP and stuff) but Go Cubs Go is not a classic and it does not kick expletive. If you have to play a song, it should not make you more of a laughingstock. In retrospect, this team should've been dismantled immediately after the 08 playoffs. Its championship window was slammed shut that day. But if we kept DeRosa, it wouldve stayed open another 5 years.

Now if we do trade Marmol, whose out closer? The only other guy who really has closer stuff is Cashner, and he'll be more valuabke in the future as a starter. Maybe Zambrano, although that is a very risky proposition.

Agreed. The price for star players are always higher inside the division. I don't have a problem with either trading Marmol, or trading him within the division, but yes you have to get Alonso back in the deal. And if you do, you official kick off a rebuilding stage for the Cubs. I dont know too much about Alonso, but if hes a top 1B prospect, Id be all about the swap, however, with Cordero, theyd essentialy be trading him for a set up man, and if hes that good of a prospect, they could probably get more. Also, if hes really that good, they might prefer to wait until the offseason or next year to trade Votto instead.

Sure was nice to see the offense explode for 3 runs, even though they seemed to have multiple guys on base with less than 2 out in every inning. In all seriousness, it was nice to see Wells bounce back the past 2 games after having a rough go of it in several previous ones.

[expletive] no. The only way Id want to do that deal is if in adition theyd take either Soriano, Zambrano, or Fukudome and their entire contract. Marmols the type of guy who can be a star closer for years to come, and as far as outfielders go, were stuck with Soriano for the next 4 years, we have Marlon Byrd for cheap for 2, and then we have Colvin and Brett Jackson coming up, not to mention several other AA and AAA outfilelders who look like they could be just as good as Heisey.

Which we'll keep saying until his September hot streak when were in 5th down 18.5 games.

Maybe from a business stand point getting rid of Lou and Jim is the best thing to do at this point. Theyve been running the team into the ground since the end of the '08 season. For the longest time, in Chicago, it was the Cubs and the Bears and then everyone else. All of the sudden, the Hawks win a championship, the Bulls are gaining national attention for the first time since the Jordan era with Labron fever, and the White Sox are in position to possibly make another playoff run. The Cubs are becoming irrelevant, and maybe from a business standpoint, losing doesnt matter as long as your making money, but becoming Chicagos 5th team does. Maybe Ricketts was exaggerating when he presented himself as this huge Cubs fan. I know he met his wife in the Wrigley Bleachers, but I met mine at a bar, and Im not an alchaholic. Every Cubs fan I know, and I know a lot is calling for Jim and Lous heads, but the guy who can make it happen isnt. Im not saying hes not a Cubs fan at all, but maybe he played it up a bit to make his pitch.

I really dont see the Cubs parting with young guys like Marmol and Soto. While I do see a lot of key players moving on, such as Lee, Lilly, hopefully Theriot, and maybe Zambrano and Ramirez and start rebuilding, I dont see them rebuilding from the ground. We'll still will have vets Soriano and Byrd and younger players like Castro and Colvin. I think that it will be a relatively quick rebuild, and done through trades and free agents rather than bringing guys from the farm. Id love to see Adrian Gonzalez come over, as Ive stated before, or Prince Fielder as a backup plan. This is still a big market team with money, and I highly, highly doubt that they turn into the Pirates or the Royals. While we will be seeing more home growns than in the past years, theres also money for free agents, and no reason to trade Soto unless someone on the farm emerges as a clear cut replacement, and Castillo strikes me as a backup catcher, and I dont know what to think of Chirinos or Clevenger, and thats about it as far as catching prospects go. As for Marmol, while we do have several great pitching prospects, Marmols shoes will not be easy to fill by any means.