Cubswin11

We got them right where we want them

Because we used Kosuke to pinch hit in the 7th with runners on 1st and 2nd when we were down by 2... Oh wait that's right Z hit

It's nice to see the offense showing up tonight, Dempster just needed to pitch average against the effin pirates to get us a W. But that's just the way things are going right now.

:-&

I think he would be a solid pick and a steal if he fell to us, I also like Chris Dominguez out of UL. Any idea where Dominguez might go?

I think the bigger issue people need to get over is to stop expecting 2005 Lee. He isn't a 40 HR .330 BA guy anymore and never really was. He had 1 year outside of his career average and people automatically assumed he would/will continue to produce 2005 numbers when he has 10+ years of averaging numbers not nearly as good as 2005. People need to give Lee a break, he is going to hit 18-22 HR drive in 85-100 and bat somewhere between .275-.310 along with GG defense. Not great, but those are fine numbers from a 1B when we should have a deep lineup and we don't need to rely on 1 guy to have 2005 Lee seasons in order for us to win games. Fox will never be an everyday guy. Maybe platoon, bench bat at best. If you are saying that Vitters wouldn't be a everyday guy right now then you are correct. But to say a guy who is 19 in A ball who is hitting .354 with 9 HR and a OPS of .986 doesn't have a chance to be a everyday player in 3-5 years is crazy.

Who the hell wears a batman costume to a baseball game?

WARNING TRACK POWER!!!!!!

Or just give him the Bonds treatment and under no circumstances let him see a strike. Let the rest of the team beat you (which doesn't take much these days).

Neal Cotts.

Bravo Cotts :clapping: :clapping: :clapping: Seriously though, Adrian Gonzalez is really good

And just when you think it couldn't get any worse, Neil Cotts enters the game

#-o

I just starting watching from the 3rd inning, Z's stuff is absolutely filthy tonight.

Next year at this time it would be more plausible, but he's probably still 2-3 years away. The three things I think he would have problems with at the ML level and he needs to work on yet are 1.) Plate discipline, drawing walks. Vitters has 3 BB so far this year and I know the scouting reports say he has such good plate coverage and doesn't get fooled a whole that he makes up for it, but he would likely get picked apart at the ML level right now with his approach after a week or two when a advanced scouting report gets out. 2.) Defense, I know he has improved as there were concerns if he could stick at 3B long term and he would maybe have to move to the OF/1B. He seems to have put those concerns to rest as he has shown improvement. But he probably would be well below average defensively at the ML level right now. 3.) How would he deal with failure/struggles/pressure at such a young age? If he would come up and be a disaster offensively or defensively does he have it in him to deal with it and not be completely ruined that he could never recover from it in 3-5 years when he is 24-26. I think he still needs time to develop on the field and possibly mature and grow off of it (not that he has had any issues, but all guys at 19-20 need growing up to do). I just don't think it's worth the risk of possibly ruining him right now just to get him up for 2 months at the maximum. We should probably just look for a FA, Durham or Grud, or look for a trade. If Miles/Fontenot/Freel/Scales all continue to struggle

Hopefully it lights a fire under Hendry to try and get approval of it from the Trib/Ricketts and to re-start things with Towers. Like it was already mentioned it gives guys like Ascanio, Wells and Patton a little more time up to prove something and maybe makes 1 of them a little more attractive in a trade.

And the hits keep on coming. Also this was the move that we made to make room for Z http://blogs.chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports_hardball/2009/05/harden-goes-to-cubs-dl-with-back-strain.html

What do you guys think? I send: Mauer Millwood Nelson Cruz Webb I get: Kurt Suzuki Peavy Manny Weiters was a FA so I picked him up as he should get called up within the next 2 weeks. Also my starters are Z, Harden, Liriano, Cain, Jimenez, and Jurrjens. So I figured I could stand to lose Webb who might not be back until July and swap out Millwood and Peavy who are both putting up similar numbers right now, but Peavy should sustain them over the whole season (especially if gets traded to a contender). Also my OF is Dukes, Bradley, Hamilton, Upton and Bruce so I could use the extra bat once Manny gets back.

How many championships have those guys won? Exactly. The ring is the thing my friend and without it you're nothing. Over half the guys on that list haven't won a ring (35). Arod, Johan, Hanley, Halladay, Sizemore, Wright, Morneau, Teixeira, Lincecum, Longoria, Berkman, Reyes, Beltran, Kinsler, Greinke, Hamilton, CC, Ichiro, Webb, Braun, Haren, Holliday, Peavy, Mauer, Quentin, Bay, Billingsley, Lee, Hunter, Vmart, Oswalt, Z, McCann, Delgado, Vlad.

No Markakis, Aram, or Adrian Gonzalez? Miguel Cabrera should also be much higher he is probably a top 20 maybe even top 15 guy in baseball. Mariano Rivera at 9 WTF, he's a closer. Pedroia and Rollins are way to high on the list, they are not top 20 players in MLB, probably top 30 on a good day but more like in the top 40. Delgado shouldn't even be near this list either.

We potentially lose Harden, Gregg, Johnson, Freel, Heilman, and Cotts after this year which is almost $21 mil. Granted we have guys getting bumps in salary and we'd have to fill their spots, but still we could clear a decent chunk of change this offseason if we wanted to. After 2010 we can potentially lose a lot of money. Lilly, Miles, and Lee are FA for sure and Bradley/Ramirez both have options. So if non of those guys are resigned or options aren't exercised we lose almost $53 mil. that offseason. So we can potentially clear almost $75 mil. between this offseason and next. So we should have some decent long term flexibility in contracts right now, next year our payroll would probably balloon if we bring on a Peavy type contract, but after 2010 we lose about 1/3 or our current payroll.

So is there any truth to the Soriano to 2B rumors and Hoff to LF? At this point we need to do something to shake things up/generate offense. We would probably need to call up Fox though to platoon him in LF.

I doubt Ascanio goes down instead of 1 of the 2 guys we havnt seen in about a month. Neither Cotts or Patton have been pitching much lately, hopefully one of those two are cut, DFA'd, traded, taken out back and shot, left at the STL airport, or whatever it takes to get rid of one of them.