Eric Clipperton

I prefer Fielder, not only due to his age, but for his hitting left-handed as well. If your 1B hits right-handed, you're a little bit stuck as far as finding a solid lefty or two to stick in the lineup, especially if we keep Soriano in the lineup. This sort of bothered me when Lee was at first as well. Always nice to have a big righty-masher in the middle of the order (also makes the opposition burn relievers more quickly which could up the value of some platoon guys).

Second yeah, plus, honestly the sample size is so small they're really nothing more than a curiousity

This wouldn't actually increase the value of the team, though.

this article was so terrible. also i love how it has the NYT's signature headline style which i can't really distill as formula, but you know it when you see it.

Nowhere in these numbers does it say the Cubs are the only team without a home-field advantage.

Pretty much the only gm hire I'd be 100% behind.

Can't believe the outright trammell dissing, but it is the Cobs. Get ready for the sandberg era. At least we had this year to get ready for what will likely be an infuriating stretch of incompetence and stupid managerial moves along with significant clubhouse drama. Quade is a funny interim manager, he could be ok since he is basically a no-name.

Ha, it wears no. 21 iPad spellcheck is not liking Colvin I changed it at least three times in my first post yet olivine still showed up. No clue what it thinks I'm typing there. Olivines are mediocre yet celebrated, home runs but with no walks or contact ability, and a curious tendency to appear in the Leadoff Position even without much chance at reaching a .300 obp Even though he's white and not particularly fast and therefore shouldn't be expected to fill a speedy but terrible leadoff hitter's role best exemplified by #1 Eternally in our hearts and on our outstretched middle fingers, Juan Pierre.

Are you saying the OF is cheap? They have more than $37m dedicated to next year's OF, if they dump Fukudome but pay a chunk of his salary and sign a cheap platoon guy they could go even higher. That's pretty expensive for a non special OF. No, saying it's expensive- if it were cheap it'd be pretty solid but at that price it's def a weak spot. I worded the above poorly, sorry. Beltran is kind of interesting now that i think about him. Mets are dumber than the cubs...maybe somehow trade z/fuk/+ for Beltran in a big contract swap? Our surplus solid starters make the now mediocre Z even more expendable. I'd throw in a solid chunk of cash for the end of his contract if needed...cubs payroll obligations are not quite as horrific in a few years (at least until they sign fielder for 6/150)

The system looks way stronger than in 2006, so I'm hopeful even though the salaries are somewhat burdensome. I'd like to see: Gonzales or Dunn at 1b Dewitt or platoon including him at 2b Starlin (start looking into locking him down? 9/60 or something is the type of gamble the cubs should be making to use their gigantic budget, not ridiculous 10-18mm/yr fa deals at every hole. Assume aramis will not opt out unless he's got niemi's agent. He'll be fine. Soriano, Byrd, olivine/fuku- if you can dump fukudome and add a cheap platoon option top-end defender in CF to the of group, that could work? I'm not expecting much from colvin but you know he'll get every chance to improve. The outfield is fine just nothing great, Esp. at the price. If the cubs would use their of guys correctly, their #s would look a bit better but Lou is doing an even worse job than his typical mediocre lineups and player usage. Out of Z, demp, silva?, gorz, cashner, jjax, diamond, marshall, hell I forgot wells there are so many potential avgish starters...rotation is fine and good if we add a top starter like lee...but he seems like a pipe dream probably. The real issue is the team's wasting of assets by moving guys into stupid roles and having #6 starters all around the place... Trade guys rather than throwing them for 60ip in relief. There's a fair number of relief options sitting around the system, just don't freak out and sign bad relievers to fill some idiotic role. Grabow et. al. But hey it's the COBS! If koyie hill is on the team next year i will show up at wrigley with multiple Hank white themed posters every day until koyie is demoted due to the distraction caused by the blanco fan club showing up on tv every day with jokes directed at hill and his multiyear stint of backup c suckitude. Castillo, clevenger, I don't even care if you call up michael [expletive] brenly. As long as soto plays 130+ games and never is removed for koyie hill in late innings. If you're not going to use soto all the time...trade him. Could be huge return, which shows you that he should probably get way more pt. Don't sign prince fielder. No matter what. Rant over for now...the cubs are bad enough to make me laugh this year, but the management is bad enough that I worry for further sabotage of the kind of promising near future... If Castro ends up fulfilling his promise yet his "era" ends up an overall waste of his talent and production, it would be a damn shame. Just like the cubs' Maddux era...

Wow, that was hilarious! best moment was the lazy fly ball ending the top half of the third, and JSDOC cooed "oooh, that's a big hit"

He most certainly should not have. Agree. No need to rush a 20 year old SS, just because some people think it would be "cool" to see. It wasn't rushing. It wasn't "cool" to see. Castro was ready and he would have provided the best SS/2B combo the team could have put out there (Castro/Theriot). Fontenot has shown he isn't fundamentally sound enough to be an everyday 2B. Theriot barely is too. losing a year of Castro's pre-FA and pre-arb eligibility for this is almost certainly NOT worth it

Six solid innings is good for any starter- numerous studies have shown that unless you're a top starting pitcher, the 3rd time through the order you become less effective than an average reliever fresh out of the bullpen. Banishing Z to the bullpen is beyond stupid for many reasons, but let's not pretend that he is our ace or that such a thing is even necessary- the Cubs have four good starters, and two more that are potentially average. If they were smart, they'd use all four of the good starters and then piggyback the other two for 1-2 trips through the order each- especially since they'd gain the platoon advantage when switching between the two. But they're the Cubs. So here we are...

I can't tell if a lot of them are leveling or what but i certainly have never found myself missing Tyler Colvin's presence in a Cubs game

COBS is everybody pumped for the Z bullpen debut (part II, redux, re-debut...you get the idea)