UMFan83

For some reason that sounds less definitive than Sullivan's take. Yeah its been overblown. I wonder if Hendry dumping Cintron was a tactic, and MacPhail coming out with this news is a counter tactic....but mostly I'm just going to pretend this is going away. Not that I necessarily believe it in this case, but a lot of times when deals are stalled, you hear this kind of talk just before something happens. Exactly. The thing is, you also hear this kind of talk before things break off as well.

That illustrates the problem. Normally, you'd like to introduce a player like Soto into an already stable lineup. Same with Pie. But they are introducing Soto and Pie into a lineup that is already plagued by Theriot. That's 3/8 of the lineup filled by guys who are either a question mark, or certain to stink. Doesn't leave much room for error. And that's quite pathetic on a team that costs $100m+ and has had problems at C, SS and CF for several years. I don't know about having a problem at C for several years. We had Barrett for 3.5 seasons, and considering the life of a catcher thats pretty stable. Of course one could argue how much Barrett actually contributed to the Cubs when you factor in his defense.

For some reason that sounds less definitive than Sullivan's take. Yeah its been overblown. I wonder if Hendry dumping Cintron was a tactic, and MacPhail coming out with this news is a counter tactic....but mostly I'm just going to pretend this is going away.

Why? If Roberts came, you would have Derosa and Fontenot as backup infielders. Still don't think the deal will happen, but cutting Cintron should not have any bearing on it. You're assuming Lou feels comfortable at SS with DeRosa or Fontenot for an extended amount of time should anything happen to Theriot... which doesn't appear to be the case. you know what appears to be the case? we are not getting roberts! :old_givebeer: Stop trying to be Mr. 300...we're still 6 away.

Why? If Roberts came, you would have Derosa and Fontenot as backup infielders. Still don't think the deal will happen, but cutting Cintron should not have any bearing on it. It does a little bit considering the Cubs don't consider either DeRosa or Fontenot as capable SS

That's not a MacPhail quote. That's Sullivan's own conclusion from the quote he gave. And what does it mean to pull an offer that the Cubs were clearly not going to accept? Seems like if it was really and truly dead MacPhail would have said directly "Brian Roberts won't be traded before Opening day" a la what the Marlins said about Mike Lowell in 03 two weeks before the trade deadline. OK well lets just pretend its not going to happen so we can all move on with our lives. We have a playoff contender to root for, even if I feel like over the last few days it is becoming increasingly evident that the Cubs are doing everything wrong. Fontenot over Murton? Marshall our LOOGY? Marquis still here?

Exactly. Keep the faith my brother... I'm still hoping we trade for Adam Dunn personally.

Like as Cubs fans we aren't used to wasting our lives on crap. Very true

I was happy when I first read this news, but now I'm pissed when I realized I wasted 4 months with this crap.

I got omitted! I am in between Cali and FriendlyConfines!

This is one of the big reasons the Cubs can't develop positional players. We have a player like Murton come up, and we purposely block him because we don't want to give him the opportunity to play anywhere. Sure he's not the best defensive player and would make a much better DH, but the man has hit every time he's been given a shot. Now we have Felix Pie, and already we've signed someone to take ABs away from him. For cripes sakes, let the kid play. We have 3 players with 40 HR potential in our lineup, a Japan league MVP, a ROY favorite, and a super-utility player that many people dubbed our X-factor last year. We can't find 550 ABs for your top prospect 4 years in a row? I understand we've been burned when we let players play (CPatt, Cedeno), but geez at some point you gotta let people play.

You have 11 pitchers listed. Lou has all but guaranteed a spot for Marshall. That's 12. OK Fixed.... Is Marshall going to be our LOOGY? I am almost positive Lou said recently that Hart would make the team.

That's possible and it's also possible that Theriot will work on his weaknesses and limit the holes. Exactly. The one of the real points for my original post is that we're stuck with Theriot. Instead of writing him off, is there a chance that he can be a positive?

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