UMFan83

Wait a minute. When Buerhle is on? It's easy to say that at his best a guy is better than somebody else is at their non-best. But come on here, Buerhle/Vazquez are not more solid than Zambrano/Lilly. Zambrano has been the most consistently good pitcher of that group, while the rest of the three have had their ups and downs. I think they are. I say when Buehrle is on because he tends to be inconsistent, but not on a start to start basis, but a half season to half season sort of basis (don't have the stats handy, but this is what I've noticed). I think bar none Vazquez is better than Lilly. So together, if Buehrle is throwing well, I would take them over Z and Lilly. You are right though, Zambrano is easily the most talented off the 4 pitches.

Its not even about athleticism - I don't question his ability to deal with strong and fast NBA players. I worry about his desire to be the best and to do the necessary little things. I keep coming back to Derrick Coleman. Same height and weight as Beasley. He dominated at 'Cuse and could have been one of the best PF's of all-time. Instead, he was happy to do enough to keep getting a paycheck. He drank and partied too much, was poorly conditioned for the vast majority of his career, ran Butch Beard out of NJ and caused Chuck Daley's head to explode. He was also allergic to playing defense and averse to taking on a leadership role after Drazen Petrovic's untimely death. Beasley screams Derrick Coleman to me. The same red flags have been raised in terms of his ethic, desire, and goofball tendencies (how many schools did he go to?). Plus he was recruited by Bob Huggins. ( I know I should not paint with a broad brush in this respect, but recruiting good kids with strong work ethics has never been one of Huggin's priorities. IIRC, his graduation rate at Cinci was less than 10%, and for a while was zero. And what happens when those kids get to the pros?: Kenyon Martin, Nick Van Exel, Dontonio Wingfield, etc.) Now you're scaring me about Beasley. Please draft Rose. No I agree. If all other things are equal, you gotta look at character. And Rose isn't even a neutral with character, he's a strong positive. Beasley is a slight/moderate negative.

I'm firmly in the Rose camp, but one thing that I want to point out is that Beasley is more than in the 20/10 camp. He's a 26/12 guy who led the nation in rebounding and was third in the nation in scoring (first among big conference players). Although I agree, it can be faulty to use stats to support a particular player. A 6'9'' player who dominates in college might get trampled by the larger more athletic NBA players.

I can't believe people are surprised by Quinten. When the move was made I thought it was one of the best moves in the offseason. When Buehrle is on, him and Vazquez is more solid than Zambrano/Lilly. Then looking at the rest of their rotation Danks (one of the best pitching prospects in baseball 2 years ago) and Floyd are really solid as well, at this point also better than Dempster/Marquis. The Sox are good. Probably not this good, but this isn't totally stunning to me at all, especially when you look at how under performing their offense was last year, combined with their off season acquisitions.

I wouldn't worry about that. He's shown in the past that if there is a deal out there to make us better he'll do it. I'm just worried that he won't identify starting pitching as a need, citing the presence of Lieber, Gallagher, Marshall, Marquis, Hart as depth. I don't think he'll recognize that our pitching staff might not compare well with other potential playoff rotations.

I think people are just disappointed because everyone's expectations for Fukudome went sky high with his hot start.

2-1 when Gallagher starts. Am I missing something here? I realize his performance doesn't necessarily dictate a 2-1 record, but he's far from causing the Cubs to concede games.

I bet it would take a lot in order to pry the number 2 pick away. Probably something like Hinrich, ST Deng, Thomas, 2009 1st for #2 and filler

I don't think the Cardinals are going away any longer. I just keep waiting for them too, and it completely defies all logic, but they haven't

I'm surprised that no one is freaking out about soreness in the pitching shoulder no matter what the excuse is.

Seriously, can we put Fukudome into the 1 or 2 spot in the order so I don't have to get pissed about his complete lack of power??

How about you be a run producer here fukudome? Ok or just fly out weakly.

BTW, Jim Edmonds has shown me absolutely nothing. I am no expert on hitting, but his bat looks really really slow, just like they said it would. If I were the Cubs, I wouldn't need a further look. I would just cut him ASAP before his crappy hitting contaminates the locker room.

Oh yeah. And it's rigged so it never gets above 10%

This is why I continue to hate Soriano. I don't care how hot he gets, he will be in a slump soon.

Dempster is putting himself in the dumpster.

Dempster is putting himself in the dumpster.

Again, why does Chris Sampson own us? Have we taken a walk today?

Where is the patience today?

Chris Sampson freaking owns us.

Wow Soriano went from red hot to ice cold. Typical

The managers pick the pitchers.

How much of the balloting actually comes from the stadiums? I would imagine a majority is done online these days.

I never knew that either. I wish I knew what players were rumored to go in that deal. Piazza hit .348/.417/.607 that year for the Mets. Imagine what his production would have done to the Wild Card Race. The Cubs probably wouldn't have needed the one game playoff to clinch, the pitching staff would actually have been set so that Mark Clark wouldn't have had to pitch game 1. Imagine what his presence in the lineup would have done to Sosa's numbers that year as well.

My biggest fear is that the trade deadline passes without the Cubs acquiring a number 2 starter. Can we get to the playoffs without one? Absolutely. Can we win in October without one? Possibly But the bottom line is Lilly is a good number 3 on a championship team, Dempster is going to throw way too many innings by October to be considered for the number 2 spot even if he stays somewhat consistent, Hill who knows, Marshall is not going to be that guy, Gallagher is probably too inexperienced. If the Cubs are playing at the same pace they are playing at now (on July 31st that would put us at 69-42), they need to go for the jugular and shore up that rotation. The thing that scares me is that JH would probably think we are set with our mediocre pitching depth (based on our awesome record) and stay put.