Cubswin11

Didn't see this Sveum quote about Jackson anywhere. Good to hear the sentiment is that when his time comes to play in MLB he will be given an opportunity to start. With Sveum saying you don't want a kid like that not to play and then following it up with saying he hasn't even had a full AAA year yet, it's more an indication he will start there to play everyday coming out of Spring. But I am looking forward to him being a starter at some point this year on the MLB club.

What's with the pictures of the guy in a suit on what I assume is the CF scoreboard and some sort of advertising/video board by the LF bleachers/foul pole? And yes, that's a ton of green. Would look better if the walls were blue and the backdrop was black/grey.

I played baseball with a guy in high school who would have balls hit off his face when practicing bunting. He was our worst player. One time he managed to have a ball hit off his face after taking a full swing, I had never seen that before and don't know how he did it. Never amounted in him breaking anything on his face but he usually had some nice bruises and got some bloody noses/lips out of it. Finally the coach would hold him out of bunting/hitting drills, safe to say the kid rarely played and got in as a pinch runner only once in a while. /I know, cool story bro.

- Swaim on Blake DeWittSveum is just a placeholder in my eyes. He's a guy who will keep the dumbass meathead fans happy with his managing style and quotes while Theo and the boys retool the system and bring in a real manager when we are ready to compete. I think this will be many of the WTF quotes we get from Sveum throughout his time as manager. All I really expect and ask of him is not to [expletive] with Castro, especially, or any of the other young guys coming up this year and in the coming years (Rizzo, Jackson, McNutt, etc.)

The "Batting Stance Guy" is the worst [expletive] thing ever.

/end thread

Has there been any mention of moving the trade deadline back a week or two into August with the expanded playoffs? Since, conceivably, more teams will still be in the race for a spot come July 31st than in other years.

Hasn't he been pretty good for them as a starter? Or did he just have a few good starts? I can't remember. Either way I find it hard to believe that the Astros have 5 guys who are better than him to take a starting spot away.

20 years +/-, when he would be eligible for the HOF, is far enough away that I would think most writers will take WAR into account when voting for guys. It's already, although slowly, making its way into the mainstream of baseball stats. ESPN even mentions it once in a while, which is saying something.

Not that I disagree with you, but I think the combine is pretty dumb for the top players to take part in doing real football drills. I get wanting to find out their real height and times on various physical drills, but these guys already have their own pro days and there's enough video out there for teams scouts to look at that they have enough evidence between those two to judge their football skills.

Was there ever a more high volume shooter that made fewer shots than Antoine Walker? I mean, dude shot 39% for the season. Here you go... http://www.basketball-reference.com/play-index/psl_finder.cgi?request=1&match=single&type=per_game&per_minute_base=36&lg_id=NBA&is_playoffs=N&year_min=1947&year_max=2012&franch_id=&season_start=1&season_end=-1&age_min=0&age_max=99&height_min=0&height_max=99&birth_country_is=Y&birth_country=&is_active=&is_hof=&is_as=&as_comp=gt&as_val=0&pos_is_g=Y&pos_is_gf=Y&pos_is_f=Y&pos_is_fg=Y&pos_is_fc=Y&pos_is_c=Y&pos_is_cf=Y&qual=&c1stat=fga_per_g&c1comp=gt&c1val=20&c2stat=fg_pct&c2comp=lt&c2val=.40&c3stat=&c3comp=gt&c3val=&c4stat=&c4comp=gt&c4val=&c5stat=&c5comp=gt&c6mult=1.0&c6stat=&order_by=fg_pct&order_by_asc=Y That should give you the list of guys who had more than 20 attempts/game and shot less then 40%... Only happened 18 times in NBA history and Walker is 14th on that list (unless you bump it up to 1980-now, then he's 4th...) Joe Fulks is the winner though. http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/f/fulksjo01.html When was the three point line put in? Guys who put up percentages below 40% in the pre-three era's have to be considered even worse than guys who put up such bad percentages with the three since there was little incentive to ever shoot that far outside before the 3 was put in place.

Agreed. I don't get why people hate him. His run up the OF wall in Baltimore was cool as hell. that was one of the greatest things ever. This is my favorite Manny moment ever, glad he is back. http://thegoldensombrero.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/mannycut.gif

Oh and now that we have a open spot on the 40-man go sign Soler already, Theo/Jed**. **I know he still really isn't able to be signed officially yet.

How so? We still end up with one of the best, if not the single best, front offices in baseball. I'll gladly give Chris Carpenter up for that. His absolutely highest potential is to be like a LaTroy Hawkins or Bobby Howry type pitcher when they were good, which is a solid 8th inning guy but nothing you can't replace through FA or your system.

Dolis is considered to have a little more upside than Carpenter, right?

I'd guess Carpenter. I would too. My best 5 guesses would be. 1. Carpenter 2. Beliveau 3. Dolis 4. Maine 5. Gaub All 5 are replaceable. The Cubs probably would have fought hard to keep their starting pitching options on the 40 man so I doubt it's somebody like Wells or Volstad. I am fine with giving up any of those 5. Dolis is probably the guy I'd like to keep the most. Good news is that it's a guy off the 40 man so when we hopefully sign Soler we don't need to worry about dropping anyone off it, not that there aren't a handful of guys on it that I wouldn't care if we cut ties with anyways.

He looked ripped to me. Demp looks fat. He looks about the same to me. Unless his jersey is incredibly baggy in that picture it looks like Wells was back to being Randy "rockstar" Wells this offseason....

Looking at the pics on that link I had no idea Oneri Fleita was white, with a name like Oneri Fleita. Also it says Byrd lost 20 lbs. but yet still looks as big as he did last year and could be starting at LB on most NFL teams with his build still.

The Lakers are thoroughly kicking the [expletive] out of Portland right now. Up 44-18 with 5 left in the 2nd qtr. Bynum already has a double-double.

Saw this on MLBTR from ESPN Boston; http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/red-sox/post/_/id/16415/sox-hope-for-quality-prospect-from-cubs Guess the Vitters rumors can go to die now, not that I ever thought he was legit compensation. So who would fit under the legitimate chance of making it as a big league roster contributor? Maybe someone like Dolis, Cerda Beeler?

Probably if we tried to trade him now it would be, but if he is having a good to average year up to the trade deadline we could probably get at least one decent prospect (someone in a teams top 20, but not top 5) from a team looking to add a 2/3 type pitcher.

I'm somewhat optimistic about Vitters and Lake both because of the emphasis we'll have in the organization now. Theo/Hoyer has been preaching defense and plate discipline ("grinding ABs") since taking over and those are the two major weaknesses of both Vitters and Lake. Both already have contact ability (especially Vitters) and both project to decent to good power, but both have atrocious walk rates and both are weak to butchers in the field. If the Cubs could improve on those weaknesses, both could become really good prospects and I think we've got the guys in place to make that happen, if it's possible. Vitters could be an interesting study to see if plate discipline can be taught/learned at a later stage. By all the accounts of his superior vision/hand eye coordination it seems like if there was every a guy who could go from taking very few walks to taking a ton he seems to be as good a bet as anyone to do so. According to the scouting reports it's not that he has a pitch recognition/contact problem, it's that he's too good at making contact and thus swings at pitches out of the zone or ones in the zone he can't do much with but still is able to put them in play. If/when they start emphasizing the "grinding ab's" thing in the minor league level and Vitters buys into it, I could see him turning the corner on taking more pitches/walks. Which would almost more than likely cut down on his BA and increase his K's, but it should also help his power as he would be swinging at more "hitters" pitches. He also could go the complete opposite way and say "[expletive] it, I can hit any pitch I decide to swing at and put it in play" and continue on in his ways.

Cubswin11 Yes No

WTF is mobility? Freedom to make trades, signings, etc.?

I was about to make a post that there's no way LaHair would actually be in the cleanup spot, but then I looked at the rest of the options and realized there's really no good option for any middle of the order spot. That's a really horrid lineup. At least it's kind of balanced with L-R-R-L-R-L-R-R?? That's all I got. That offense could, and probably will, really suck and struggle to hit for power.