SouthSideRyan

Bench Berra Fisk Hartnett Piazza Bresnahan Ewing Dickey Rodriguez Lombardi I'm open to arguments if anyone wishes to. And wow, my 500th post actually had content in it. Sort of.

Wait for me! Working on it right now.

I agree. I think he'll reach about 890, and say, eh, I've done enough this year. He'll realize that getting more money by opting out of his contract after a monster finish to the season just isn't worth the effort to him. And then he'll eat a baby.

6-4? Seriously??

Yeah Rich, we've given you so many consistent chances as a starter. What's wrong with you??

If they got 2 sac bunts down and then a ball was hit to the middle infield that'd be 3 outs.

But Scoop says this was the most important talk show in the history of TV!

I'm sorry, a manager challenging one of his players to a fight is just insane. The story I read is that Hillenbrand's "sinking ship" and "play for yourselves" were jokes as Toronto players throughout the season have put jokes on the board only to have them quickly erased. We have a thread right now talking about Maddux's sense of humor with the thanks for all the help on his 200th loss, this seems similar. Hillenbrand is likely in the wrong, but Gibbons definitely is. And Ricciardi isn't helping himself by slamming a guy he's trying to trade in the media.

John Gibbons immediately challenged Maddux to a fight.

When did Scott Hatteberg get good again?

I can't believe how close this is.

I'm still gonna complain about the Ramones being a 5.

The real question is will recent AAA recallee Sean Tracey be the one to do it?

First post. Take that with a grain of salt. We were happy to get him two years back. But his failures shouldn't come as a surprise as his splits in Daytona and last year in KC are pretty identical. Buddy Bell likes to use him as a lefty specialist. He'd probably be better off starting, but seeing as he gives up a lot of fly balls, and struggles with his control, that's not a good combo. Basically, hes on a horrible, yet improving staff, and has been better of late. They might as well keep him around since no one else can get anyone out anyway. Welcome to the forum, always good to have another team's fans here for their perspective. Especially one that can share our misery so well.

I've had a soft spot for Wilson as well since I was a kid when I found out the single season NL HR record was held by a Cub. But his Cub career comes out to great timing that his natural peak happened to come when he was a Cub. Sosa's '98-02 was spectacular, but I think I'd have a hard time putting him ahead of guys with twice his ABs if that's all he had. I suppose I'd relent and throw him in there with Hack in competition for the 10 spot, but I have a hard time putting him any higher, and I'd probably still wind up giving it to Hack, or maybe Chance. Not really knowing much about the defensive reps makes it difficult to judge the old school guys, as I'm just automatically giving Hack some credit over Chance defensively for playing a more difficult position.

For quick reference here's the all-time hitting and pitching leaders for the Cubs. I was in the Santo over Sosa camp until looking that over and realizing how much Sosa was damaged by his non-Cub years. I think I'd give Sosa the edge over Santo now. That said, I'm still not sure he's in the top 5. Brown appears to me to be the best Cub of all time, so of course he was left off. I've always had a soft spot for Gabby Hartnett, so I think I'd put him in over Sosa. Banks's half career at SS is enough for me to put him over Sosa. That leaves Anson, Sosa, Williams, Jenkins, Alexander, and Sandberg for the last 2 spots. (Chance gets some bonus points for the world series, but not enough to overcome his small # of ABs, and his not up to snuff #s.) Williams and Sosa are real close on offensive #s, Sosa has the slight edge in OPS+, but his is SLG heavy, so that pretty much makes up the difference. Williams's extra ABs gives him the slight edge. To the best of my knowledge, I don't believe Williams was any worse than Sosa in the field. Anson's OBP is pretty sick when compared to the league OBP, yet somehow I was still underwhelmed. I'm inclined to give Sosa the slight edge against him. Additionally, I discounted guys like Clarkson and Pfeister for pitching in the 1800s where they only played about 5 seasons for the Cubs, so it seems unfair to include Anson's time from the same era. Jenkins amassed a lot of time elsewhere, but is still the all time leader in GS for the Cubs and is 3rd all time in Innings. That said, looking back over his #s, he doesn't belong anywhere in a top 5 discussion, and probably isn't even a top 10 Cub. Alexander didn't have a lot of seasons with the Cubs, but when he was around, he was pretty phenomenal. I put him a notch above Vaughn for Cubs pitchers and probably a notch below Sosa if just because he didn't have the longevity as a Cub that Sosa did. Which leaves Sandberg, which is difficult for me to look at objectively, as he's my favorite player of all time. Sandberg's got a ~1500 AB edge in longevity and a huge edge in defense. Sosa has the slight edge in OBP and a huge edge in SLG. Both were good base stealers in their younger years, but lost some speed as they got older. Sandberg remained a good baserunner, while Sammy was likely down to below average towards the end. Ryno had the fundamentals, but Sosa's #s are just too much to ignore, even with Sandberg's great defense. I grudingly give it to Sosa. My rough sketch of a top 10: Brown Hartnett Banks Williams Sosa Santo Sandberg Anson Alexander Hack? I'm not sure on Hack, I'd have to take a long look at a lot of other guys, but on a quick skim, he's who I'd put there, with maybe Vaughn challenging him for the spot.

Yeah, I can't ever hear the Day-O chant at Wrigley. It sucks.

Gonzalez is being ridiculous. Be lucky they aren't permanently benching your punchless ass.

The Cubs would never do such a thing! Just ask Mark Grace. Or don't, and he'll come tell you anyways.

I think I'd vote for either of these over every other 3, 6, 11, and 14 seeds. So of course, they're matched against each other.

Let's play write the post that SoxFan76 writes when he returns to his white sox board(probably WSI) "LMFAO, I just came from northsidebaseball and those Billy Beane wannabes just rant in jealousy about Ozzie because Ozzie speaks the truth. They even defended that pillow biter Mariotti, and then of course went back to the old stupid Cubbie attendance argument. You have your attendance you frat boys, we have the RINGZ!!"

That Smell is one of the worst songs I've ever had the misfortune to hear.

Not sure how you can say his 2005 was mediocre. I'm trying to figure out how 2003 was just "good"

Maybe you're just comparing it the Cubs ability to turn perfectly good lemons into rotten ones? That's not intended to be a slam, but when's the last time the Cubs saw improvement from players they've signed? Pretty much every good hitter on the team.