abuck1220

in my opinion, the outfield's in trouble even if murton, pierre, and jones stay healthy all year. it has the potential to be one of the worst outfields in baseball. if they got someone like floyd, you'd have to make murton the 4th OF. you could start him against all lefties, either for floyd or jones.

the autograph lines are chaos...at least they were in '04. you get in line for a guy you may want, but by the time you get up to the front, there may be someone else up at the table. for example, i got in the line for santo in '04. santo came and went. patterson came and went. i got billy williams five minutes before he left. if i had got in line 10 minutes after i did, i would have waited (and you're standing the whole time, by the way, and they won't let you get in and out of line for restroom breaks) three hours + for jody davis' autograph. nothing against him, but that kinda would have sucked. the cubs convention isn't the autograph haven some think it is. it involves a lot of waiting and even more luck.

i love hearing hendry throw out francoeur's name...as if a guy like that would EVER get the shot in chicago that he did in atlanta. comedy.

some interesting quotes...the convention should be quite the show... glad to see the media continuing to criticize the cubs' offseason... hendry's really going to be hearing it if the cubs don't get off to a good start...

wow, for everyone saying how patterson's career started downhill in 2004, compare his #'s that year to jacque jones' in 2005. corey in '04: .266 ba/.320 obp/.452 slg/32 sb jones in '05: .249 ba/.319 obp/.438 slg/13 sb those #'s get jones a three year deal? :pukel:

what do you want him to say? 'i suck. i can't get on base, i strike out too much, and i'm incredibly lazy. maybe i should quit.'

tejada in MMP would have really helped my fantasy team.

i think i'm most going to miss there be eight threads about him in each forum.

don't forget sisco. it's the cubs' m.o. to trade low.

Tribune shareholder? it would have been incredibly stupid of hendry to offer patterson a contract, trade him for scraps, and give the o's money to take him when he just could have non-tendered him.

i can't see how anyone in the organization deserves much credit for a 100 mil payroll team that finishes under .500 and in 4th place. tough to give out many kudos in that situation.

that's disappointing news about coats. i thought he looked much improved at ss last spring.

then i guess we just view the brewers' players differently.

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?