abuck1220

not as big of trouble as the cubs would be (offensively, at least). for one, the cubs have other potential big holes in the offense. an offense with jones, murton, cedeno, neifi AND blanco/mabry could be a HUGE disaster. if the mets lost beltran, they'd still have delgado, floyd, wright, etc. their lineup would suffer but not as bad as the cubs' would. secondly, the cubs backups at key spots aren't very good. the drop off from lee to mabry or barrett to blanco is gigantic.

what i should have said was worse production out of murton. i guess you could assume a healthy ramirez, but i'm wary to do so. and if you want to assume a healthy prior, go for it. brewers are still better. the cubs have the potential to be quite bad offensively in rf, lf, 2b and ss.

let me know when that happens. Cory Koskie is the difference maker, eh? :pukel: are you quoting the wrong post? where did i say that? the brewers were better than the cubs before they signed koskie...and they still are. Well, its the move that lead to this convo. For the record, your are saying that a team with a washed up 3B (Koskie), three rookies / rookie-like players in the rest of the IF, Lee (who has been savaged on this bd as overrated, and rightfully so), Clark (who played way over his station last season), and Jenkins (who is injured as much as he isn't) is definitively better than the Cubs? yes. they were better than the cubs last year weren't they? as i've said before they'll have a full season of a more experienced weeks and turnbow as the closer. like koskie or not, he's better than jeff cirillo, who they throw out there last year. plus, they'll have a healthy sheets. and what upgrades have the cubs made? pierre > patterson and some bullpen changes. whoop de doo. they'll also get worse production out of lf, 2b, 1b and possibly ss. maddux will likely be worse, and rusch will struggle if he's asked to start the entire year. the brewers, right now, w/o taking into account possible injuries, are better than the cubs.

And the Giants are one Bonds injury from being horrible. And the Mets are one Pedro injury...yadda yadda yadda do you just find every one of my posts and then make a condescending comment about it or what? and the giants were terrible w/o bonds. they're really not that good with him. and the mets have a hell of a lot more on that team if they lose pedro (beltran, floyd, wagner, reyes, delgado, wright) than the cubs do if they lose lee. that's just a laughable comparison. and for those who want to know where all the money's going, look no further than to the money the cubs have thrown at the (mediocre) bullpen from 2004-2006.

when i saw him in des moines and at ST he seemed pretty nice. you apparently saw different?

let me know when that happens. Cory Koskie is the difference maker, eh? :pukel: are you quoting the wrong post? where did i say that? the brewers were better than the cubs before they signed koskie...and they still are.

pretty tough for a team w/ a 100+ mil payroll to sport arguably the worst offensive outfield AND the worst offensive middle infield in baseball. the cubs are a lee/ramirez/barrett injury from having one of the worst offenses in baseball.

let me know when that happens.

I'm not sure Hall catches the ball well enough for Hendry to have much interest. All kidding aside, he is brutal in the field. He will snag the occasional ESPN highlight, however...his day to day defense makes Walker look like a Gold Glove. Brewers have a nice foundation, I would argue there are many more questions to be answered by their roster than ours, yet some on this board seem to think they have the makings of a better team than the Cubs. Go Figure... didn't they win more games last year? I would say that lends some creedence to the idea that they are a better team. They certainly look like they are building a better corps than the Cubs. Yep, 2 games better than the Cubs. However, the Brewers did not have the injuries the Cubs did. I am not defending the way the Cubs played at times last year, what I am saying is I don't think the Brewers are even close to .500 if they had as many injuries as we did. With that in mind, I would take CLee over Murton and Jenkins over JJones, that is all. Cubs have a better pitching staff than the Crew, better bullpen, 3rd, SS, 2nd, 1B, C, CF. As a former Brewers season ticket holder and one who hears about it all the time at the office, I just don't see the Brewers making significant noise this year. CLee is a FA and in a contract year could put up big numbers. Question, will Brewer ownership actually pay him a potential 11+ ?? They have already moved Overbay for fear of what he would demand, and I don't see them expanding their budget to allow them to compete for a playoff spot. they lost sheets, by far their #1 pitcher (and likely better than any of the cubs' pitchers), for a pretty significant time. also, they didn't have a full year of weeks at 2b or turnbow as closer. fielder won't be much of a downgrade (if he's a downgrade at all ) from overbay. my plan for them involved trading capuano and prospects for blalock and signing weaver, but koskie's decent. they were better than the cubs last year, and they're still likely better.

I'll settle for another undefeated regular season. After all, the playoffs are a crapshoot and the best team doesn't always win. ;) you and the '01 mariners...quite the couple. :D

If he cannot learn to deal with that sort of issue and concentrate on himself then he has bigger problems. why? where did i say it would affect his play on the field? all i'm saying is that if you perceived that an organization screwed over a family member, would you think very highly of that organization?

all fascinating questions that no one cares about but you. :D and you forgot one... how am i going to topple the returning champions?

just to be clear, i'm not saying that this whole thing is going to ruin eric's career. i just think it will affect his opinion of the organization.

you guys are viewing 'mistreatment' from a completely subjective perspective. i don't know if corey can take such a detached view of the situation. in his mind, he could think 1) the cubs brought him up too fast 2) the cubs continued to go back and forth as to what kind of hitter they wanted him to be 3) the cubs batted him leadoff against his wishes 4) the cubs sent him down in embarrassing fashion last season 5) the cubs never publicly supported him when he was having his troubles 6) the cubs retained control over him having no intention of keeping him, thus controlling where he played next season.

Did the Cubs organization really treat Corey that poorly? I don't think they did... Yeah, the only thing Corey can really claim mistreatment from is the fans. I don't know if it qualifies as mistreatment, but he was grossly misused, and then scapegoated. He and Walker have been the Sammy and Farnsworth of 2005/2006. And in many ways, this all goes back to when Dusty inexplicably pulled him aside on the field for what looked like lesson time, after he won a game with a walkoff homer. Prior to that, he was still doing some things right. That's a good point. I don't think Eric will see it that way, but I think that's the way it is. The Cubs brought back guys like Neifi, Rusch, and others who were the real problem (not producing with too much PT) and seem to have a crusade to get rid of 2 perceived problems, at any cost, in Patterson and Walker, just like Sosa and Farnsworth before them. I really don't see any argument that Corey was mistreated. After his performance, he had no business being recalled from AAA. Whatever his fate, Corey brought it on himself with poor performance. To blame Cubs management would be ridiculous. maybe, but that may not be the way corey sees it. and i'd bet that his entire cub experience is not one he'll remember fondly. whether it's fair or not, i'd say that corey will not be leaving on good terms w/ the organization.

of course eric's going to give the 'business is business' line, but i think it's crazy to assume that what happened to corey doesn't at least cross eric's mind. i don't know if it's possible for eric to not harbor some ill feelings toward the cubs.

Maybe Hendry is resigned to the fact that a Tejada deal won't happen with the Cubs. If the reports are true the O's aren't happy with Manny+ Clement + Cash. They want Abreu + a pitcher. Maybe Hendry realizes the price isn't right, and he wants to shed Patterson's salary, so he can add someone else. Trade for Zito? Shawn Green or Luis Gonzalez from the D'Backs? Trade for Soriano? I'm hoping the money saved will be put to good use (unlike the Sosa money). if he wanted to shed patterson's salary he could have just not offered him a contract. if the cubs end up having to pay cash in this deal, i'm going to laugh my face off.

BA's top 10 from a couple days ago... 1. Nick Markakis, of 2. Adam Loewen, lhp 3. Hayden Penn, rhp 4. Nolan Reimold, of 5. Chris Ray, rhp 6. Garrett Olson, lhp 7. Brandon Snyder, c 8. J.J. Johnson, rhp 9. Brandon Erbe, rhp 10. Val Majewski, of does this end any chance of the cubs getting tejada?

guess i didn't need to start a new thread...

http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/cs-060105patterson,1,2697580.story?coll=cs-cubs-headlines for a minor leaguer.

It's been ridiculous like that for the past couple of years. They send out ticket order forms in mid-December. I haven't ordered by mail, but people who have say that it's better than dealing with phone/net orders if you have your schedule set. yeah, i get that stuff too. i'm just paranoid that i'll end up getting worse seats...in reality i'd probably get better ones.

i ended up getting decent seats for both games. i got right in for the first game i was trying for, but i probably had to try for 20 minutes or so on the second one.

geez...virtual waiting room for a ST split squad game? come on!

remember all the fuss about how the cubs 'relied' too much on the homerun in 2004? i remember the fox announcers harping about it, as if it was the reason for the cubs' woes and then they flashed a graphic of the 5 teams that scored the highest % of runs by the homerun...and the cubs were the only team that wasn't in playoff contention on that list. yeah, relying on the homerun will kill you.

also, remember texas missed the PAT after the disputed TD. usc was probably glad that didn't get called back, as they probably would have given up 7 instead of 6 if he had been ruled down.