UMFan83

too bad Moreland is on the call. Why does Pat take the inning off? mid-game [expletive] Nice contribution. No I think that's actually the reason. Maybe he doesn't take a dump everytime he goes on his break inning, but he's been doing it every game for years. Previously Judd Sirott would take over, probably because Ron couldn't handle PBP alone, and before that it was Corey Provis, and before that Andy Masur.

Second time you've used that one today :)

Man the Padres are doing everything possible to prove they are worse than us. They even stole our 'pitchers lose complete control and walk everyone' thing that we do.

Make that 2 in his last 42!

Wow I just saw Castro walked. Hallelujah!

I wouldnt be surprised if we found out that Starlin was taking advice from Dusty behind our backs.

In years like this, I miss Ron Santo. Every single game on the pre-game show he interviewed the Cubs manager and would always ask for the lineup, and every single time when the manager was finished he would say 'sounds like a winner!'. I really wonder if he could keep up that charade with some of the lineups we've run out there this year.

Holds is essentially a fantasy stat at this point. It's gotta be W-L, mostly because of all the stupid people that still use that stat as the main tool to evaluate pitchers. But with Felix Hernandez winning the Cy Young with a 13-12 record, it seems like things are starting to change. Let's hope so. If the perspective on W-L does change completely, then RBIs will be the next one to target.

Additionally: Hawkins: racism related Bradley: racism related Jacque Jones: felt unfairly treated, might have been racism mixed in. Flames were fanned by close friend Tori Hunter. Baker: ran out of top shelf arms to wreck Silva: vocally upset that he lost his job to a more talented player(Cashner) and was strung along despite the fact that they know he would lose out. I think DeRosa, Prior, and Pierre each might have griped a bit after their respective stays. I don't recall DeRosa, Prior or Pierre griping at all. Mark Grace is the one that irritated me: "I'm not good enough to play for the Cubs but I'm good enough to play for the WS champions!" douchbag There were definitely reports of Prior being sour on Hendry/Baker and the feeling was supposedly mutual. I can't remember if there were any public comments, though. i remember an odd interview with prior on the mac, jurko and harry show back in '03 or '04 where he expressed dismay about how the cubs marketed him and also the team, but he didn't want to go into detail about specifics. thought it was kinda weird for him to say that since outside of going to a random sports authority in schaumburg to sign baseballs for kids and parents, i never thought he was over or under marketed by the team. I definitely remember him being pretty upset and whining to the media that the Cubs decided to start Prior in AAA to start the 2007 season, primarily because he was coming off a bad injury in 2006 and didn't have the velocity back on his pitches during spring training. He made some comment about making the Triple-A All-Star game and the futures game after calling himself an employee of the Cubs and has no control over their decision.

For what it's worth, if there ends up being some high priced blue chipper in the 2013 Draft, I doubt that the Padres or Twins would take them. Assuming the new CBA doesn't take that type of thing off the table. It does mostly take that off the table.

So that's what we are going to do with that cap space.....um..yay?

Nah. I'm pretty much viewing these guys like the farm teams. The end result is far less important to me than the individual performances of the relevant players. Agreed. It's why I have far more interest in this team than last years Cubs who I barely followed. Last years team only had 1-2 player worth following.

It's amazing how a hot sunny day at Wrigley on a holiday can make a game between 2 teams with a combined record of 32-64 enjoyable.

Well he should have walked that AB but he doesnt care about walking so ill take a homer. Man the Padres must blow

When the hell are one of our 3 DLed catchers going to be back?

Holy crap, Jeff Suppan is still in the league?

Why? They haven't lost a game in forever. Sarcasm? Nope... 19 game winning streak so far (including playoff). So it's been awhile since the last time they lost. Raisin was being sarcastic, not you.

I think a big part of the appeal of Theo is putting together a competent organization from top to bottom. I don't know if or how the Cubs ran their organization before but reading about how he has a huge handbook to dictate how the organization will be run, what types of things to emphasize, and keeping it consistent throughout the system with the idea of developing better players with the ability to do the things that Theo has stressed. Obviously that stuff doesnt happen overnight, and you could probably argue how much that really changes things, but on paper it sounds like something our organization will benefit from. I have definitely worried about how the new CBA effects Theo's plan, as it seemed like the thing he did well was allocate a big portion of his budget towards the draft and international signings. Now the strategic and monetary advantage he's enjoyed is downgraded significantly. He says he'll just have to find the next strategic advantage he can exploit, but what if he cant? Or what if he spends significant time doing the wrong thing, thinking it is the next great advantage? I am still 100% behind Theo and I think its idiotic for people to sour on him 2 months into his first season. We all pretty much knew this team had a chance to suck, and regardless of how you feel about this strategy, if you were behind Theo in November, you should be behind him in May. Give the guy at least 2 years to prove that he is the boy genius he was in Boston.

Thanks. I don't have ESPN Insider so I couldn't read it. 20 sounds about right for Rizzo. I know he had Bundy #1. If I may ask, where were Bauer and Cole on his revised top 25? I'll just list his entire top 25: 1. Dylan Bundy, RHP, BAL (previously 11) 2. Jurickson Pofar, SS, TEX (7) 3. Manny Machado, SS, BAL (4) 4. Travis d'Arnaud, C, TOR (6) 5. Will Myers, OF, KC (13) 6. Taijuan Walker, RHP, SEA (24) 7. Gerrit Cole, RHP, PIT (10) 8. Trevor Bauer, RHP, ARI (21) 9. Shelby Miller, RHP, STL (5) 10. Jameson Taillon, RHP, PIT (15) 11. Miguel Sano, 3B, MIN (28) 12. Archie Bradley, RHP, ARI (19) 13. Tyler Skaggs, LHP, ARI (25) 14. Bubba Starling, CF, KC (15) 15. Christian Yelich, OF, MIA (48) 16. Zach Wheeler, RHP, NYM (27) 17. Francisco Lindor, SS, CLE (35) 18. Nick Castellanos, 3B, DET (37) 19. Julio Teheran, RHP, ATL (18) 20. Anthony Rizzo, 1B, CHC (36) 21. Oscar Taveras, RF, STL (53) 22. Danny Hultzen, LHP, SEA (30) 23. Nolan Arenado, 3B COL (26) 24. Mason Williams, CF, NYY (34) 25. Billy Hamilton, SS, CIN (64) He also mentions the following to watch for in his midseason update: Jackie Bradley, CF, BOS Matt Barnes, RHP, BOS Jonathan Singleton, 1B, HOU Zach Lee, RHP, LAD Aaron Sanchez, RHP, TOR Austin Hedges, C, SD Matt Davidson, 3B, ARI

Anyone mention that KLaw revised his Top 25 prospect list to account for the start of the season. He had Rizzo at number 20, up from 36 before the season started.

Why would they possibly do that? To "save the season"? If anything it makes it less likely.

Wow, I knew Castro wasnt walking but I didnt realize his OBP is now only 10 points higher than his BA. Pathetic.

My honest worry is this throwing to first crap goes further than that with him. I wonder if we are already there. It's happened to him lik 5-6 times this year.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/cityhall/12623151-418/cubs-boss-tom-ricketts-works-to-douse-obama-political-firestorm.html Gotcha, I stand corrected on that point then. I thought the plan was still to do it all over the course of a calendar year and play at the Cell during that season.

Christ, then he's a [expletive] moron and I'm sorry they ever got him. "Built this team to bottom out?" Shooting for the #1 pick like this is basketball or football? What the [expletive]? This is how we've come to rationalize things? This is baseball; if you've got good scouting/a good front office/good talent evaluation you can easily make later draft picks work and then some. Of course I didn't expect them to be world beaters, but to try and justify like they want/tolerate/tried/whatever to be the worst team in baseball is ridiculous. I guess my post did specifically say he was trying for the number 1 pick, but I didn't really mean it in a sense that he was sabotaging the team in order to ensure it was terrible. But at the same time he was not doing much to prevent it. He replaced the 2 best power hitters on the team with Ian Stewart and LaHair and traded his best bullpen arm away. That's not to say that Theo wanted them to fail. If Stewart played up to the potential that Theo saw in him then its a win for the Cubs. But I highly doubt that Theo replaces Ramirez with Stewart if the team was expected to contend. Also bottoming out doesn't mean worst team in the league. Bottoming out with regards to the Cubs rebuilding project. Dumping contracts and/or waiting for big contracts to expire, replacing his most productive hitters with big question marks with upside, trading a solid bullpen arm because he's about to get expensive and his value as an asset has probably peaked, etc. If that results in the worst record in baseball and the #1 pick, then its a success for his long term plan.