UMFan83

They just updated it. Not at all a big fan of this move. Please, its at the point where I know we will get burned in this eventually, but trade Murton because I feel bad for him personally. He seems like a great guy and does not deserve the treatment he's gotten. There is no question that Murton should be a major leaguer.

Hmm... 1.Theriot 2.Soriano 3.Lee 4.Ramirez 5.Fukudome 6.Soto 7.DeRosa 8.Pie 9.Zambrano 10.Hill 11.Lilly 12.Marquis 13.Dempster 14.Lieber 15.Wuertz 16.Marmol 17.Wood 18.Howry 19.Hart 20.Ward 21.Blanco 22.Cedeno 23.Johnson 24.Murton Thats 24 spots. I am assuming Pignatello also gets a bullpen spot, but I find it hard to believe the Cubs want to start the season with 13 pitchers. There has to be another move thats made to get rid of Marquis/Dempster/Lieber. Maybe the Cubs told Cintron to accept a AAA assignment until they get rid of Marquis and then he will be brought up to make the 25th spot. Edit: Also I suppose a Murton trade would clear that spot as well.

1.Male 2.Yes 3.Yes 4.Not the curse that your talking about. The Curse of bad management, yes. 5.Yes 6.1945-1983 - Bad management, bad luck, and the way baseball and divisions are set up (2 playoff teams until '69, then 4) 1983-2002 - Bad management, poor scouting and development, not putting forth adequate resources 2003-present - Bad luck, Dusty Baker, mismanagement of available resources, slow-changing philosophies, more concern in building Cubs brand than team, poor scouting and development

Can you Youtube this if it occurs?

Well let's see...the Cubs seem high on him, the media seems high on him, no one seems to be mentioning that SS is a problem for the Cubs outside of this forum. His aggregate numbers for the Cubs last year suck. .266/.326/.346/.672. Who can make any argument that Theriot will be worth anything this year? I mentioned in another thread, if Theriot got hurt on August 26th last year, how many of us would be begging to remove a player who hit .288/.351/.376/.727 last year, which is where his numbers were at on 8/26? Most of us would agree that we can certainly look for an upgrade, but if we went into the season with him, it wouldn't be a huge deal. Of course Theriot hit .188/.236/.239/.475 from that point onward, so here we sit. Is it even viable to suggest that a player like Theriot could tire and fade down the stretch? Is that something that can actually happen? I am not trying to get all statistical on you, but look at Cub wet dream Brian Roberts: CAREER First Half - .295/.366/.422/.788 Second Half - .267/.335/.396/.731 CAREER September - .257/.309/.386/.695 CAREER Aggregate Stats - .281/.351/.409/.760 He shows similar fade tendencies. I am not necessarily in favor of Theriot being our long term or even short term solution at SS. But after looking at the number, I figure it at least was worth an intelligent discussion. For the record (and realizing how little relevance Spring numbers mean), Theriots spring numbers: .355/.375/.435/.810.

To be fair, if Theriot got hurt on August 26th and didn't return the rest of the season, most of us would be content with his line of .288/.351/.376/.727. Its the fact that he "wore down" and "hit" .188/.236/.239/.475 after that date that makes us doubt him. In fact that gives me an idea....

Felix will probably go in the second round, but I don't know why they'd meet with McFadden. There's almost no way he'd fall to #14..... And Angelo would never, ever, ever, ever trade up in the first round.....would he?

Damn I was hoping it was going to be Ian Snell and Jason Bay.

He's got a good idea though. Back in the day we were discussing a Forum just for ticket transactions. I know Tim had reservations about it because he didn't want to feel liable for faulty transactions being attempted through his forum, but it might be a better option than having 500 of these threads throughout the year.

So which alternate team should I root for this season now that SI has doomed us?

2004 CF - Corey Patterson 2B - Mark Grudzielanek RF - Sammy Sosa LF - Moises Alou 1B - Derek Lee 3B - Aramis Ramirez SS - Alex Gonzalez C - Michael Barrett ???? Plus Nomar, kind of. That lineup was pretty stacked. Oh yeah...I forgot about Nomar. ](*,) ](*,) With the addition of Nomar, that was definitely a stacked lineup. Thinking about the potential of that rotation is even more disgusting. I remember 2-3 games after we got Nomar, we were in Colorado for a series, and we were just basically taking turns batting around the order with everyone getting their hits, and I thought that there were basically no holes in the lineup. Whoops forgot about OBP. The lineup was like Patterson, CF Garciaparra, SS Alou, LF Sosa, RF Ramirez, 3B Lee, 1B Walker, 2B Barrett, C

Hopefully Reed does better than the last two Cubs to wear number 13...

I thought this would be a weird statue to have outside Wrigley: http://www.shopatmoxie.com/mm5/graphics/00000001/ernie400.gif

Can someone let me know what's going on? What did Reed Johnson do? Why is ARam awesome?

Well this should be fun.

Sure, that bench can hit a little. But it has 1 backup infielder, and there's no way they start the season that way. Ward - 1B, RF Johnson - LF, CF, RF Murton - LF, RF Cedeno - 2B, SS, CF, 3B(?) Cintron - 2B, 3B, SS Blanco - C, 1B I forgot about Cintron, but not sure if they will take 6 bench guys.

People say our bench is weak but I don't see it... Ward R. Johnson/Pie Murton Cedeno Blanco

Should have asked him why he's hitting .208 in the Spring and if that average will improve when he gets to chilly Chicago in April

do you actually know something, or are you just adding fuel to the fire? Brian Roberts has been scratched from Tuesday's game because of a sore back. Every move Roberts makes at this point is met with trade speculation, but this injury sounds legitimate. The Baltimore Sun reports that "Roberts' back flared up and he received an injection to ease the pain," noting that he's expected to miss two games.

on some cases they have ridiculous self-inflicted mandatets, in others they let trades drag on for the better part of four months.

But his SLG last year was .386...

BTW, by no means do I think the trade is dead. Classic "we're thrilled to have DeRosa at 2B"/"We're not trading Roberts" exchange here.

Our offseason was basically: Add: Fukudome Lieber R. Johnson (or comperable OF) Lose: Jones Floyd Ohman Kendall

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/7949132/Sources:-Roberts-to-Cubs-looking-unlikely Way to waste 3 months on Roberts and leave us stuck with a top of the order of Theriot/Soriano, Jimbo. YES! Finally! Lock the damn thread.

NO. Why would you want Lieber/Demp/Marquis taking starts away from Zambrano or Lilly? Let the odd man out throw simulated games every 5 days or something if you don't end up actually using them in the games. Obviously you chose not to read the entire post. I was throwing out 2 options to help keep those 3 fresh. So we can actually get the best out of them. How exactly would you choose to "keep all of them fresh" without taking starts from Z, Lilly, or Hill? You can't send them down to the minors and just bring them up whenever its time to make a start. 2 out of the 3 will get regular work and Lieber will have to get his work on the side to ensure that if he has to start, his arm will be able to go 5 or 6 innings. My Prospoal works something like this. We keep 12 pitchers on the roster. You will have each one pitch 2 in a row then pull them for a week and do a 3 man rotation. The one out of the rotation at the time will be in the pen available certain days for some relief work. Or we trade one of them and if another of the pitchers gets hurt, we move Marshall into the rotation.