flyseye

Hill,Johnson,Baker,Grabow, no reason for any of them to still be on the team.

I'm a stranger in a strange land. 2 and 3 will happen, hopefully 4, #5 probably not.

Sorry nuts, I could not resist #1 after a couple of beers. I am sure you really do have better things to do sometimes. I guess.

1. Do you actually know anything about the internal workings of running a major baseball franchise, or are you just someone who would waste countless hours of their life posting on message boards if they didnt have anything else to do. 2.Do you think you can unload Soriano. 3.Will you look for a real manager to replace the amazingly inept Quade who obviously has the respect of no one. 4. Can you rise above your personal feelings regarding certain players and do what is really best for the team. 5. Can you convince Larry Rothschild to return as pitching coach.( after doing #3)

I dont feel it is a case of too much hostility really, I think this place now just lacks interesting posters. Back in the heyday of Cubs.com there was always something interesting going on it seems. An "I put everyone on ignore" thread (that was me),a fake death,poster of the week,dynastic vs nowacrat etc. I probably spent a solid week of my life just arguing with Lowblow. Now you have a group of 3-4 smarmy posters with no sense of humor,who lack any sort of interesting posting skills,dragging down every thread.There are still a couple of interesting people here, but even when a thread they post in starts to be somewhat interesting,the omnipresent group drags the discussion into the gutter. It gets stale in a hurry. This site needs new blood. My last 2 cents,I promise.

I only know how to be blunt so... There is still plenty to talk about Tim. But the fact is you cant have a discussion on this board anymore without the same 3 or 4 pseudo know-it-alls cluttering up every thread. Frankly it has become outright threadshitting in most instances.And none of the mods/longtime posters seem willing to stand up to them. There are plenty of young players on this years team worth discussing, but you definately need an influx of new blood. It will never happen the way things are now.Nobody with a contrary opinion is ever going to post here because a few have been allowed to run amuck. Hell, let Meph back. He was an idiot half the time,but at least he was interesting.

My 2 cents...... You have a very small group of people posting here now who are far from interesting or insightful comprising the bulk of the posts on this site.They seem to feel the need to comment on every thread/subject even though they have nothing of substance to contribute. Nobody is going to sign up on this site to have conversations with them,simple as that.

Jut when I think that many of you perhaps didnt spend your childhood playing with your baseball cards in the attic, a thread like this comes along. Here is a great idea, dont condem or defend something you know little about. Read the book. At the very least read the preface, and the table of contents. Or read a couple of proper reviews about it. Or talk to someone who has read it. Something. I am going to stick my neck out and guess that the entire book isnt about a ball hitting a bird. Jesus. Advertising is designed to draw in and excite the masses.Looks like it is working very well in this case. Baaa .

Kelton, Montanez, Hill, and Choi. Its going to be a DYNASTY !

I like to think that, but they're basically giving the starting RF spot to Colvin this year over Fukudome. What make you think that they won't do that next year over Byrd? I just hope Colvin just bombs as a starter, but does well as a "spot starter/4th OF" role that it'll make Hendry think "Ok, he's not starter material anymore." But I don't think that'll happened cuz Hendry LOVE those types of guys... (Colvin/Jacque Jones/Burnitz) It always seem like they're starting for the Cubs when they should be the 4th OF. WTF ?? You hope Colvin bombs as a starter so you can be right ?? What a ridiculous thing to post. What a ridiculous thing to take from that post. Read the [expletive] again I read it again, and it is still a stupid post. Anything else?

I like to think that, but they're basically giving the starting RF spot to Colvin this year over Fukudome. What make you think that they won't do that next year over Byrd? I just hope Colvin just bombs as a starter, but does well as a "spot starter/4th OF" role that it'll make Hendry think "Ok, he's not starter material anymore." But I don't think that'll happened cuz Hendry LOVE those types of guys... (Colvin/Jacque Jones/Burnitz) It always seem like they're starting for the Cubs when they should be the 4th OF. WTF ?? You hope Colvin bombs as a starter so you can be right ?? What a ridiculous thing to post.

Boy oh boy........

I understand wanting to sign Dunn, but I don't think you should use the "cheaper than others" argument. The "available" free agents next year that will cost more are Pujols and Gonzalez who are miles ahead of Dunn offensively and defensively. While Dunn will make the least of the above group, he will most likely still be the most overpaid.

Luck ??? Jesus. 4 HR in his first 5 games vs 1 hr his last 10 games should clue you in on the " luck " factor. First, there's a lot of luck involved with HR. You can groove the exact same pitch 10 times, but not all of them get hit for HR. Second, I haven't gone through the details, but he looks to have been pretty lucky with the HR in the last 10 games. That's a pace to give up about 4 HR in a season, which would be extremely rare in this era. simply put, it is basically impossible to be that anti-HR as a pitcher on a consistent basis. Third, quotation marks can actually "touch" the word they surround. I have decided to space my quotation marks from now on, as some have enough time on their hands to consider it " weird ", and others enjoy drawing attention away from their ridiculous posts by alluding to it .

Luck ??? Jesus. 4 HR in his first 5 games vs 1 hr his last 10 games should clue you in on the " luck " factor.

Fukudome: June 2010 .485 OPS .189 BA 0 HR July 2010 .665 OPS .162 BA 2 HR June 2009 .507 OPS .169 BA 0 HR Sept 2009 .665 OPS .202 BA 0 HR Aug 2008 .546 OPS .193 BA 1 HR Sept 2008 .577 OPS .178 BA 1 HR While Fukudome ends up with decent overall #s as a rule, it is tough to field a player who is pretty much only good for a few walks 2 months out of every year. His slumps are drastic/long enough that they can not be overlooked.When he is good, he is very good, but WTF.

I think if any other team placed much value in Fukudome, he would be on that team by now. I don't know about that. We'd probably keep him around as a backup OF if he was paid like that. Other teams would likely do the same. But that contract, for that level of production... To me the Fuku hate is simply just that he makes way too much money. It's not like he doesn't do anything good on the field. Well he certainly redefines the term streaky. April and August this year he has been fantastic, June and July he was awful. Even though the numbers average out to be pretty decent, its tough to watch a player look lost for the better part of 2 months. Still, I agree he has some value. Might as well keep him as opposed to eating half or more of his contract.

I think if any other team placed much value in Fukudome, he would be on that team by now.

Your showing me that you misinterpreted what I said. I like to look at win values. Colvin has a positive win value right now mainly because of his bat. But 1B has a lower positional value than the corner OF spots, so that's already a disadvantage of moving him from the OF to 1B. If his defensive value, which is currently neutral, declines at all when he moves to 1B, he'll be approaching replacement-level status. I guess my point is that Colvin's bat is OK in a corner OF spot but it's less valuable at 1B. Hence the sentence I bolded above. Now nobody knows how he'll react to the defensive switch. I guess we'll have to see about it. I would prefer the Cubs just sign a reasonable first baseman, let Colvin continue to play his corner OF spot, and hope that he improves his offensive game. You seem like a reasonable enough sort, "stop with the" phrasing aside, so perhaps I did misunderstand what you were trying to say. Either way, I feel Colvin has shown enough athletic/defensive ability in the OF that I feel it is safe to assume he could easily be at worst an average defender at 1st, quite possibly much better. FWIW, I am not 100% sold on Colvin as a hitter either, although I think many on this site are far to pessimistic regarding him. His BB ratio is not horrible ( better than Castro or Byrd ), And as Rob pointed out earlier, when he gets a hold of one, they are not generally cheap shots. Considering he is a recently bulked up, reasonably young rookie, I feel he certainly has the ability to improve as a hitter. He has shown me enough to want to see more, particularly in this lost season. Besides, don't the Cubs employ one of the best hitting coaches money can buy ? You would think a young player like Colvin would be right up his alley. Personally, I would stick him at 1st for the remainder of the season and see what he can do. Nobody is going to give us much for Nady one way or the other, so starting him there is absolutely pointless, all things considered. Edit: I would still prefer Dunn for next year, but not as much as some. 2 years, 3 tops would be great, but I have no confidence in Hendry not grossly overpaying for him.

OK, you're right. I am kind of an odd duck. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to telepath a message to Uranus.

So you've been watching him play 1st ? " Stop with the " making things up to help your argument. That may be the weirdest use of quotes I've ever seen. Also, you completely missed what he was saying. You mean I completely missed the fact that he is blindly assuming a young, tall, athletic player ,who he has never seen take so much as a grounder at first base, is probably going to be a poor fielder there ? If you say so. And please don't say he was saying his bat is less valuable there, because that is not what he was saying at all, he was referring specifically to his lack of defensive skills at first being a detriment. The quotes are because his "stop with the " phrase annoys me ,like Um, and the like. Not really weird at all.

So you've been watching him play 1st ? " Stop with the " making things up to help your argument.

It's especially troublesome when it doesn't fit your pre-existing bias on a player. Or when it's propped up by SLG and has a really bad OBP. Like Soriano's lifetime stats ?

I read hundreds ( not hyperbole, hundreds ) of posts about how Kelton ( and Choi and Bobby Hill etc ) were the future of the Cubs, but I do not recall a single post proclaiming he had an untouchable immaculate swing, or anything of the sort. Colvin has already achieved far more than David Kelton, and to compare them is inaccurate at best. Colvin may well fizzle out, but at equal points in their careers Colvin shows much more promise than David Kelton, who OPS'ed .750 in his last two seasons in Iowa. In fairness to Kelton, injuries didnt help.

pretty much my thoughts exactly Let me third this one. It really doesn't matter. Next years Hendry should be fired whipping boy probabilities: Sandberg 85 % Girardi 10% Everyone else combined except Torre 5% Torre 0%