CubfaninCA

The Cubs have money to spend, so there's no reason to hold their money tight. If they can upgrade ops by 100 points at one position, they should do so. Wait around on Giles, Abreu, Damon or Burnett, and they could come up empty. CF & RF are holes for lots of teams. Would not be surprised to see Lofton or Pie in CF and Craig Monroe in RF next year. Get ready to be disappointed.

Their rotation held up unlike the Cubs. And whose fault is that? The baseball gods??

Actually there was a recent thread criticizing Hendry. The Dusty bashing gets relentless, but it's definitely not the sole opinion here. The lists of reason why this team was sub .500 this year is quite lengthy. Dusty's peculiar lineups. Hendry's questionable signings of Burnitz, Nomar and Maddux. Key injuries. Bad drafting and poor minor league development. Poor situational and fundamental baseball. Patterson imploding. Not signing Bartolo Colon or Pedro Martinez. I could keep going, but will stop here.

Their rotation held up unlike the Cubs.

Only if Furcal's OBP goes up from his 2005 figures.. Who's better and available? Some might say a certain backwards Ramon. The Cubs have top of the order options, like Nomar & Murton. Hendry just needs to acquire guys that force Baker to put someone like Murton in the 2 hole. Also, great obp @ the top of the order isn't essential. Anaheim, Houston, the White Sox and the Cardinals wouldn't be in the playoffs, if it was. (Yes Eckstein's obp is .364, but he had a great Sept. St. Louis had already run away w/ the division by then). True, there are many ways to skin a cat (or get into the playoffs), but just because high OBP in the lead-off spot isn't essential or the only way to win, doesn't mean that having a lead-off hitter with a high OBP isn't the best and smartest way to go. It is. And it also happens to be one of the Cubs greatest needs. No doubt having a great lead off man would greatly benefit this team, and I'd love to have Damon, but gotta be realistic. There's a very slim chance the Cubs get Damon, and the Yankees won't be trading away Jetah. If Castillo's available, Lowell's probably coming w/ him and it may be difficult to spin him to another team. If ARam wasn't a Cub, I wouldn't mind Lowell. He's had one down year. His ops was good in 03 and 04. Furcal's obp is alright for leadoff, but his speed makes him one of the better leadoff men. Unfortunately, there's no math formula to "prove" how much speed benefits the 2-3-4 hitters. I much prefer Furcal @ SS over Nomar, who's likely to get hurt and who can't field anymore. Why are the only options for lead off Damon, Castillo or Furcal? Why not Lofton or Walker or even Murton? I agree that Furcal would be great to have at SS for the next 4-5 years and he would be an alright lead off man. I just believe that the Cubs can do better. I believe Cedeno can put up numbers in the neighborhood of what Furcal can. Maybe not in his rookie season, but 1-2 years down the road. I also believe that it may not be possible to sign both Furcal and Brian Giles. There isn't any one single player the Cubs can get who will impact the Cubs ability to score runs more than Brian Giles. Given the Cubs other needs (starter, CF, bullpen, etc.), we may have to choose between Giles and Furcal. For me, its not even close. Its Giles all the way. Going after him first and foremost and going after him aggressively is the better plan. If he shuns the Cubs advances, then the Cubs will have to go to plan B, and I'm not even sure Furcal is the best way to go for plan B, yet. Damon & Jeter are great leadoff options. Furcal's a very good option. Lofton's a good option, but there has to be some concern w/ his age. Walker's a good option, but has zero speed, and barely gets on more than Furcal. Not sure about Murton. Wouldn't mind him batting 2nd.

Well, maybe if Walker and Nomar could have stayed healthy these guys wouldn't have played nearly as much. Hopefully, all 4 aren't back.

Am guessing Corey will be shipped out ala Farnsworth. Just don't let the Cardinals get a hold of him. He'll hit .400.

Only if Furcal's OBP goes up from his 2005 figures.. Who's better and available? Some might say a certain backwards Ramon. The Cubs have top of the order options, like Nomar & Murton. Hendry just needs to acquire guys that force Baker to put someone like Murton in the 2 hole. Also, great obp @ the top of the order isn't essential. Anaheim, Houston, the White Sox and the Cardinals wouldn't be in the playoffs, if it was. (Yes Eckstein's obp is .364, but he had a great Sept. St. Louis had already run away w/ the division by then). True, there are many ways to skin a cat (or get into the playoffs), but just because high OBP in the lead-off spot isn't essential or the only way to win, doesn't mean that having a lead-off hitter with a high OBP isn't the best and smartest way to go. It is. And it also happens to be one of the Cubs greatest needs. No doubt having a great lead off man would greatly benefit this team, and I'd love to have Damon, but gotta be realistic. There's a very slim chance the Cubs get Damon, and the Yankees won't be trading away Jetah. If Castillo's available, Lowell's probably coming w/ him and it may be difficult to spin him to another team. If ARam wasn't a Cub, I wouldn't mind Lowell. He's had one down year. His ops was good in 03 and 04. Furcal's obp is alright for leadoff, but his speed makes him one of the better leadoff men. Unfortunately, there's no math formula to "prove" how much speed benefits the 2-3-4 hitters. I much prefer Furcal @ SS over Nomar, who's likely to get hurt and who can't field anymore.

Only if Furcal's OBP goes up from his 2005 figures.. Who's better and available? Some might say a certain backwards Ramon. The Cubs have top of the order options, like Nomar & Murton. Hendry just needs to acquire guys that force Baker to put someone like Murton in the 2 hole. Also, great obp @ the top of the order isn't essential. Anaheim, Houston, the White Sox and the Cardinals wouldn't be in the playoffs, if it was. (Yes Eckstein's obp is .364, but he had a great Sept. St. Louis had already run away w/ the division by then).

Only if Furcal's OBP goes up from his 2005 figures.. Who's better and available?

Sign Furcal and the Cubs are fine @ the top of the order. What should they offer for Kent?? Walker and Jerome Williams?? Am not sure if the LA would have interest in Patterson. If they can get an arm, they may be able to justify it to their fans.

The Cubs are spending more money and Kent played for Baker.

Was an article in today's LA Times and Kent's not too happy w/ this year's outcome and may request a trade. I'd rather have Marcus Giles, cause he may give the Cubs a legit shot at Brian Giles, but Kent's second on my list. What would you deal for him?? The Cubs 3-4-5 would be pretty formidable. Kent would be a huge upgrade over Burnitz.

St. Louis, Braves, Yankees & Red Sox. Then St. Louis vs. NY. St. Louis takes it all. Better pitching prevails.

Well put article. My sentiments exactly. What's weird is that all the energy in previous years has been focused on ownership opening up the pocket books. These last few years, ownership has given them all the wiggle room necessary to make the necessary improvements, and now management is the one feeling the most pressure. It scares me to know that with 25 million more dollars made available to improve this club that they really aren't any better than the team they assembled for 25m less just 3 short years ago. It scares me to think that if the team can't do any better than they were with all that extra money spent, why should they fork out all that extra money? The seats get filled. I can certainly agree with them that they shouldn't go all Steinbrenner on everyone to try to win a World Series. It hasn't worked for him either. I'm afraid that Tribune will tighten the reigns very soon if the product on the field doesn't start playing like a 100m team. Prior & Wood were 100% 3 years ago. They pitched 40% of the games in 2003. They were 100% for what 5-10% of the games this year?? Yes, the Cubs could have done better w/ more obp and a better organized lineup, but they still wouldn't have made the playoffs. Take away Smoltz and Hudson from ATL or Carpenter and Mulder from St. Louis or Clemens and Oswalt from Houston and they're probably sitting out the playoffs too.

When was Brian Giles a free agent last?? If the Cubs had Oliver Perez & Jason Bay in their farm system, guess they could have got him a few years ago.

No they are not. I would argue that since Sosa is not here he shouldn't count, at least when considering what Dusty has to work with. And they fired Lefebvre, replacing him with Tom Trebelhorn. Trebelhorn did worse and lasted one year. For whatever it is worth, Dusty followed up his rookie managerial season .636 winning percentage with seasons of .478, .465, and .420, respectively. He then ripped off 6 consecutive seasons finishing in either first or second place. Is it possible that "Dusty-ball" takes awhile to take hold and patience is in order? Is it possible that stability would be better than making a change? Although Dusty does upset me at times he is not the anti-christ some make him out to be (at least I don't think so ). :wink: Better duck. :o 2003 they exceded expectations. 2004 they fell a little short, but considering Prior, Borowski and Wood missed quite a few games, it could have been worse. This year, Baker did a pretty poor job. Of course, injuries took their toll again. Altogether, Baker shouldn't be demonized, it seems the players, for the most part, like playing ball for him and he has a good winning percentage. However, he's a beneficiary of big budgets. Sabaen gave him some stacked teams in San Fran.

They need to expand your column to 1000 words, especially when articles address the Cubs problems. :)

Nice article. He pretty much touched all the bases: odds choices for the 1 and 2 spot, bad situational and fundamental baseball, key injuries to Wood & Prior, and early bullpen troubles. Only thing I can think of that would top it off is the questionable signings of Nomar & Burnitz. Hendry didn't get much of a return from that $13 million investment. Also, 170 combined games from Walker & Nomar really hurt.

I have no problem w/ Maddux as the #4. Of course, I'd like to pay him $5 million next year instead of $9 million. My problem is going into the season w/ Wood as the #3. He's WAY too unreliable. Essentially, slot Wood as the #5 and have someone in the pen who's basically the long reliever/6th starter.

That's true, if you draft well, which the Cubs don't do. Who's the last good position player they've developed?? Mark Grace?? Some may argue the problem is in development and not scouting and drafting. And while we may not have developed a position player in awhile, the fact that we've drafted players like Prior, Wood, Willis, and others indicates drafting may not be the problem. Yep, the Cubs do alright w/ pitchers, and maybe development is the problem. Probably lucky someone else drafted Murton and started his development.

I'm glad labelling and grouping and name-calling isn't permitted. I think you overestimate the average fan. The average fan doesn't take the time to register at an independent website like this one to talk about the Cubs all the time. They're more the type that takes until June to realize that Grudzielanek isn't playing 2nd anymore, and are currently wondering why Wood hasn't started in seemingly forever. Since the regulations of this community that you're referring to are for fellow posters(please correct me if I'm wrong mods/admins), I really doubt that IMB! was trying to group anyone here into that category. Also, I'm pretty sure the mods/admins prefer you contact them in private if you have issue with any problems you have of this nature. Sorry, I didn't know that this board was for only above-average fans. Your point about the posters vs. non-posters is well taken. If a private message is the way to do it fine. Morons are those who obsess about insignificant things like baseball all day long. :D Average fans may have better stuff to do, and should be welcomed here even if they don't have a clue about obp and ops.

Here's how: 1. Dusty F. Baker is owed $4 mil next year. If he's fired, he still gets paid, plus they'd have to pay another manager. 2. The fans show up no matter what. 3. The Trib doesn't care if the Cubs win or lose as long as people show up. Correct answer.

Lowell's only had one bad year. His ops was .880 and .870 in 03 and 04. If the Cubs didn't have Ramirez, I wouldn't mind rolling the dice on him, especially if I'm giving up little.

Give LA an arm, and take Perez and they may do it. Perez has been griping about lack of run support. Sounds like he's sick of LA. There's not too big of difference between the money Perez and Lowell are getting.