CubsWin

30-11 is a tall order, but the Cubs did go 14-4 to start September back in '03. They wound up going 19-7 to clinch it. Unless the Astros and others struggle and can't manage much more than .500 the rest of the way, it is going to take more than 19-7 to get the job done this year.

I'd rather trade Hollandsworth than designate him for assignment. Granted, the Cubs won't get much for him, but something is still better than nothing in my book. And while I agree the likely result of taking 5 of 7 from St. Louis and Houston is a bunch of nothing, strange things happen in baseball all the time. Being 5 1/2 back with 41 games left to play means there is still a chance and while there is one I would rather play to win, then give up and start playing prospects. That said, I don't think playing Murton is giving up in any way shape or form. Baker's idea of who gives us the best chance at winning is different from mine, but regardless, I would run the line-up out there that gave the Cubs the best chance of winning that day until they are mathematically out of it. I believe if the Astros can get hot, they can also cool off. I believe if the Astros can get hot, so can the Cubs. Its possible and so long as it is possible, I don't want to give up on anything just yet. Yeah, but if the Cubs are to make the playoffs, they need to better at fundamentals, but according to Baker's logic, he doesn't see fundamentals being significant. With that said, the Cubs SHOULDN'T be trying to pass the Astros right now. They need to focus on getting pass the Mets, then the Nats, so and so. Pass ONE team at a time, begining with the Mets. Well, thats all you can do is pass one team at a time. The nice thing about 4 of the 5 teams ahead of the Cubs is that they will be playing each other a lot in the next 40 games. If they split a lot of series against each other, they will be standing still and a lot easier to pass in the standings. I'm not quite sure what you mean by the Cubs shouldn't be trying to pass the Astros right now, though. I don't think the Cubs are trying to pass anybody right now. I think their focus is on winning the game that they are currently playing. They haven't been very good at that so far this season, but teams get hot. Even ones that are managed by Dusty Baker. :wink:

I'd rather trade Hollandsworth than designate him for assignment. Granted, the Cubs won't get much for him, but something is still better than nothing in my book. And while I agree the likely result of taking 5 of 7 from St. Louis and Houston is a bunch of nothing, strange things happen in baseball all the time. Being 5 1/2 back with 41 games left to play means there is still a chance and while there is one I would rather play to win, then give up and start playing prospects. That said, I don't think playing Murton is giving up in any way shape or form. Baker's idea of who gives us the best chance at winning is different from mine, but regardless, I would run the line-up out there that gave the Cubs the best chance of winning that day until they are mathematically out of it. I believe if the Astros can get hot, they can also cool off. I believe if the Astros can get hot, so can the Cubs. Its possible and so long as it is possible, I don't want to give up on anything just yet.

Guzman 4 - Wood 2 or 3 - every fifth day, we can even give the duo a cute nickname :) How 'bout "The Bandage Brothers" or "The Disabled Duo"?

The changes sound reasonable to me. I like the idea of creating some sort of artificial deadline for signing guys 4-6 weeks after that draft. After all, whether the deadline is set in August or May, the pressure to sign will be the same. If it is in August, the fans will get to know sooner who their teams were able to sign, and I like that. The idea of creating a combine is smart just because it is more efficient. And moving the date of the draft back just gives scouts more time to get it right. Will anyone seriously miss the Mesa Cubs?

Is someone having issues with authority, again? :wink:

I agree. At least allow him to back-up Nomar and rotate in at 2nd base against left handers.

I do have a pretty good idea how hard it is to broadcast a baseball game by yourself. I done games before on the high school and college level and its a lot easier with a color analyst by your side. Even a bad one...

87, hunh. As I suspected, just another message board rumor...

No, as a statement of fact, the Cubs do have a chance of making the playoffs. Its just a really small chance. That is the most realistic statement a Cubs fan can make right now. It is the most accurate description of the Cubs current situation. They have a very small chance of making the playoffs. If you want to talk about what is realistic, then you will have to allow that the Cubs do have a chance to make the playoffs. There are things that could happen to make that chance get bigger and there are things that could happen to make that chance get smaller. To say anything else would be either pessimistic or optimistic, but you can't get any more realistic than that. I'll give it to you. There's a small chance they make it to the playoffs and a big chance they will not. Thank you. Absolutely what I've been saying all along.

I'm glad to hear that Baker's time may be short with the Cubs. Personally, I'd like to see Joe Girardi captain the team. But I really do not want Pie to be in the major leagues starting next year. He has too many issues that need improvement for him to have to work on them while trying to perform well for a team that has a shot to make the playoffs. Pie needs to show better plate discipline before being brought up.

No, as a statement of fact, the Cubs do have a chance of making the playoffs. Its just a really small chance. That is the most realistic statement a Cubs fan can make right now. It is the most accurate description of the Cubs current situation. They have a very small chance of making the playoffs. If you want to talk about what is realistic, then you will have to allow that the Cubs do have a chance to make the playoffs. There are things that could happen to make that chance get bigger and there are things that could happen to make that chance get smaller. To say anything else would be either pessimistic or optimistic, but you can't get any more realistic than that.

Dunn likely gets a 5/60 deal if not more than that. I'd do 5/60. As would I. But the important thing is that if Cedeno can play SS well, Pie can play the OF well and a young pitcher can join the rotation and pitch well, the Cubs will easily be able to afford 5/60 and then some. But, unless the Reds will trade him, he won't be a FA until after the 07 season. So thinking about signing him now is a bit premature. It's not like a player with his value will be non tendered. Oooh, I thought Dunn was going to be a free agent after the '06 season. Hmm. Who to sign...

Dunn likely gets a 5/60 deal if not more than that. I'd do 5/60. As would I. But the important thing is that if Cedeno can play SS well, Pie can play the OF well and a young pitcher can join the rotation and pitch well, the Cubs will easily be able to afford 5/60 and then some.

Hendry can't be held responsible for how Dusty played Cedeno. It was Dusty who blew Jim's chance to take a look at Cedeno at short.

That is sad. Wow.

And I'm not saying, never have been saying, that there aren't good reasons to think that the Cubs likely will not make the playoffs. All I'm saying is that there are reasons to think that they still could and those need to be factored in if you are going to argue that your point-of-view is well-balanced. To say that the season is over, hands down, no doubt, the Cubs suck and will continue to suck like you and so many others were just a couple of pages ago is quite different than saying what you just said. And I'm not sure how you could possibly know what record the Cubs are going to have to have in order to win the wild card. That "statement of fact" certainly is an opinion. You know what, the Cubs could get ridiculously lucky. And that would be great. they could leap over 6 teams in unprecedented fashion. Their players could all go on hot streaks. They could not even have to go 36-16 and win 90 games, which, by the way, is the least a team has ever had to win in order to get the wild-card (by the Cubs, in 1998, and LA, in 1996). They could have Maddux suddenly not realize how old he is, or Rich Hill pull a Dontrelle Willis for the rest of the year. But, barring complete miracles, it ain't gonna happen. My point of view, that the Cubs have virtually no chance at making the playoffs, is about the most rational, easily factually supported thing you can come up with. The final idea, that the Cubs cannot be a playoff team, is still an opinion, which is fine with me, because it'll be backed up with the fact that they don't make the playoffs later on. Please continue your insipid "fact vs. opinion" argument, as I am obviously unable to determine what is fact and what is opinion, and certainly the FACT that my OPINION is very easily supported makes it completely unacceptable. Wow. What are you responding to? Maybe if you actually read the posts before you responded to them you wouldn't get so offended. I have said consistently throughout this conversation that you do have good reason to think that the Cubs aren't going to make the playoffs. I have said consistently that I agree that they aren't going to make the playoffs if they continue going the way the have the last several games. You rather pessimistically and rudely entered a conversation I was having with someone else and started this conversation by saying that it was fact that the Cubs season was over. I chose to ignore your rudeness and not take that bait. Instead, all I said was that it wasn't fact and that anyone who relates to their negative opinion as fact isn't balancing their opinion out. You then later stated (bolded above) that it wasn't fact, that it was indeed just your opinion. I agreed with your opinion. Then you respond by calling my argument insipid. Your reactions seem erratic to me. What is up? To show that something that has been stated as a fact is actually an opinion is not an insipid argument. In fact, it isn't an argument at all. It is reality. I'm not arguing that something is an opinion, I'm proving it to you. And, whats odd is that you agree with me and then call my "argument" insipid. Whatever.

And I'm not saying, never have been saying, that there aren't good reasons to think that the Cubs likely will not make the playoffs. All I'm saying is that there are reasons to think that they still could and those need to be factored in if you are going to argue that your point-of-view is well-balanced. To say that the season is over, hands down, no doubt, the Cubs suck and will continue to suck like you and so many others were just a couple of pages ago is quite different than saying what you just said. And I'm not sure how you could possibly know what record the Cubs are going to have to have in order to win the wild card. That "statement of fact" certainly is an opinion.

Corey didn't underperform? Nomar didn't underperform? Hollandsworth and Dubois didn't underperform? Hairston didn't underpeform? One could make the argument that Burnitz has underperformed as well? Wellemeyer and Leicester didn't underperform? Wood didn't underperform? What team are you watching?

When you say "this way" what do you mean? The way they have been playing all season has been up and down. Right now they are down. What makes some people think that they will never go up again? And what makes some people convinced that only the Astros can perform poorly at one point in the season and then turn it around? I look at the Astros and say if they can do it, so can the Cubs. Why do some people look at the Astros and say, "See the Astros are better than the Cubs and will never come back to earth"? Its pessimism, pure and simple. Is that wrong? No. Should people not be allowed to be pessimistic? Of course, they should be allowed to be what ever way they want. All I'm saying is, let's call black, black and white, white. Its not optimistic to say that the Cubs are playing crappy right now, but the season isn't over yet since they have already shown the ability to follow up a losing streak with an equally good winning streak and have just added Lawton and Nomar to their line-up and Williamson and Wood to their pen. It is reasonable to think that those four additions to the team could cause different results over time. Thus, lets sit back and see what happens, and, right now, they are playing like crap. However, by definition, it is pessimistic to say that the season is over. No, they've been playing around .500 ball all year long. Even when they were playing well, they'd get to around 6 games over .500 and then go on a losing streak and fall back to the .500 mark. I'm not being pessimistic...I'm just being realistic. They just don't play consistently enough to make the playoffs. They'll look really good for a stretch of games, kinda like how we were playing well after the ASB ended, going 9-4 against PIT, CIN, STL, SF, and then look terrible, like when we lost 3 of 4 to Arizona and now we've lost the first 2 to NY. I just don't see this team making the playoffs and I don't see what makes people believe it is a playoff team. Thats what I said. They have been playing around .500 all year. They go up 5 games and then down 5 games. When you said they have been playing this way all year, what did you mean by "this way"? Did you mean how they played today? The last 4 or 5 games? What...

but most of those teams ahead of the Cubs are in the same division and will be playing each other and could cancel each other out. And the Cubs could have a lot of them in their rear view mirror in a week. I'm not saying they will, I don't know if they will, but it is possible. It would be different if 2 of the teams ahead of the Cubs were in the West and 2 were in the East, but thats not the case.

I have been throughout the last few pages. This team has shown that they have the ability to come back after a losing streak with an equally good winning streak. They have a very good roster and have been underperforming so far this season. They have just added Lawton and Nomar to the offense and Williamson and Wood to the bullpen and there are good reasons, statistical reasons to think that their additions can positively affect the ability of this team to win games. Do you need more?

When you say "this way" what do you mean? The way they have been playing all season has been up and down. Right now they are down. What makes some people think that they will never go up again? And what makes some people convinced that only the Astros can perform poorly at one point in the season and then turn it around? I look at the Astros and say if they can do it, so can the Cubs. Why do some people look at the Astros and say, "See the Astros are better than the Cubs and will never come back to earth"? Its pessimism, pure and simple. Is that wrong? No. Should people not be allowed to be pessimistic? Of course, they should be allowed to be what ever way they want. All I'm saying is, let's call black, black and white, white. Its not optimistic to say that the Cubs are playing crappy right now, but the season isn't over yet since they have already shown the ability to follow up a losing streak with an equally good winning streak and have just added Lawton and Nomar to their line-up and Williamson and Wood to their pen. It is reasonable to think that those four additions to the team could cause different results over time. Thus, lets sit back and see what happens, and, right now, they are playing like crap. However, by definition, it is pessimistic to say that the season is over.

I personally have the expectation that if the Cubs play a game as crappy as the one they just played, the game thread will almost always belong in rants at the end. Why? Because each single game tells us how the next one is likely to go? How the rest of the season is going to go? No, because when the Cubs play like crap everyone sits in the game thread and bitches about them. No, not everyone, only the ones that can't see the forest for the trees... Look, I know you think I'm unrealistic here. I don't really care. If you want me to stop posting in game threads because I'm depressing you, just say so. No, I don't want you to stop posting in game threads or any other for that matter. And I don't know why you think that I would. Just because someone calls your opinion unbalanced towards the negative doesn't mean that they want you to stop saying it. If there is anything I do want is for you to acknowledge that your opinions expressed in the last few pages of this thread were in fact not balanced out by any of the positives about the Cubs, thats all. But I certainly don't expect that to happen.

Face it, you are being pessimistic right now and your opinions are not being influenced by any of the postives out there about this team. What you wrote was an opinion and a very well supported one and one that I happen to agree with so long as they keep going they way they are. I can make a very sound argument that what I wrote is a fact.