UMFan83

How in the world do they match up with the Cubs? They're better at SS and CF. They have 2 starters, 2 setup men, and a closer for pitchers. They will be fighting the Twins for 3rd place, miles behind the Tigers and Indians. They could easily match up with the Cubs. The main problem is that their "core" (Thome, Konerko, Dye) is aging. If they put up 2006 numbers again, they are easily as good as the Cubs "core" (Lee, Ramirez, Soriano) Then you can compare Swisher and Fukudome, Pierzynski and Soto, Richar and Theriot, Cabrera and DeRosa, etc. Bullpens are a crapshoot, and the Sox was awful last season, but they made some decent acquisitions and it should be enough to give them a decent pen. The rotation is a little thin, but like I said, lots of potential there. Remember that I didn't say that they were going to be better than the Cubs, I said they have the potential to be compare with the Cubs. Like people have pointed out they have pretty bad D, so that might be their big drawback, but they also have a very deep and experienced bench.

It's not horrible. It all depends on what Buehrle shows up. The Buehlre of 2004,2005 and 2007 is borderline ace material. Vazquez was probably their best pitcher last season and is a very solid number 2. Danks was one of the top prospects in baseball before last season, and I would be really surprised if he DIDN'T make a big leap this year. Floyd was pretty highly regarded too but less of a sure thing. Finally, Contreras is pretty bad, but if the Sox show any signs of life with the first 3 pitchers and the lineup and pen, they will make the necessary moves. They have Crede, Uribe, and any of their OFs as trade bait (I say any of the OFs because they can probably but Carlos Quinten in there). Anyways, like I said they are probably not going to win the Central, but I think Cubs fans, and fans around baseball in general are really underestimating them because of all the scorn that was given to Kenny Williams after he failed to get any FA OFs. Since then he has traded for Swisher, signed Alexi Ramirez, and Octavio Dotel to go along with his other moves of signing Linebrink and trading for Orlando Cabrera and Carlos Quinten. The only major piece they have really lost is Garland (not including the deprevation of their farm system which is another topic).

I think all these Cubs fans assuming the Sox are going to be terrible this season might be surprised. If a couple of things break right, they could be pretty good. Cabrera, SS Swisher, CF Konerko, 1B Thome, DH Dye, RF Crede, 3B Fields, LF Pierzynski, C Richar, 2B Buehrle Vazquez Danks Contreras Floyd Jenks, CL Dotel, SU Linebrink, SU MacDougal, MR Thornton, MR Logan, MR/LR Quentin, 4th OF Alexi Ramirez, UTIL Owens, OF Uribe, IF Hall, C I mean thats a really solid 25 man roster overall. Probably won't win the Central, but honestly it pains me to say this but it can compare favorably with the Cubs. The only problem might be that they don't have anyone to play the Leadoff Position.

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The Nationals Park really disappoints me. It looks like every park thats been built in the last 5-10 years. I was really hoping they'd do something unique to help excite their fan base with a beautiful innovative park. I guess I'd vote the Minnesota Park but I'm interested to see how the new Yankee Stadium looks when its done. I can't imagine the Yankees playing anywhere other than Yankee Stadium.

Awesome, thanks

At least we don't take unnecessary jabs at the White Sox in our marketing campaigns. Of course everyone remembers 1997's "Major League Baseball, 8.1 miles South" billboards that were displayed in Wrigleyville. Last year they posted a billboard on Sheridan and Irving Park that read "We haven't won since 2005: time to end the drought.".

Yup, especially watch out for this if you are trying to buy from scalpers. They pray on people who don't know the ballpark very well and try to sell you "lowers" (Terrace Reserved) for ridiculous prices.

So your right. Well if you are only going to one game at Wrigley this year, go for UD Box over TR any day

Anyone hear about this rumor of the Cubs possibly going after Brian Roberts?

Can you or anyone else elaborate? Can't seem to remember any issues in the 200s. Also, can anyone provide the link to the site to view Wrigley seats? Thank you. Terrace Box aren't bad (in the first few sections of the 200's before the poles and other obstruction). I'd advise you not to sit in Terrace Reserved. You won't be able to see the sky and likely the scoreboard, and depending on where a pole is situated other parts of the field won't be visable as well. Furthermore, because these seats are in the "lower level" they will be more expensive than UD Box seats. UD Boxes are easily one of the biggest bargins and one of Wrigley's biggest secrets. Because of the age of the field, the UD was built well before modern ballparks decided that overhangs were a bad idea and instead built outward. Therefore the Upper Deck pretty much hags right over the field. You have to really sit there to understand how nice it is. You can see the whole field, look at the lake and skyline as well, and pay less than if you sat in Terrace Reserved and barely see the field. UD Reserved IMO is better than Terrace Reserved as well. You do sit farther back, but like I said before, because of the age of the UD, it is not built outward like other parks, so you are still sitting very close to the field. There are poles to obstruct you, but they aren't as bad as Terrace Reserved, and the roof is built much higher, meaning you will be able to actually see the sky, the scoreboard, the crowd, the rooftops, etc.

I emailed the Wrigley Company to ask them if they would consider purchasing the naming rights to Wrigley Field and this is the response I got back from their PR people:

Peavy, Young, Prior, Maddux, Wolf (I know, not likely) Zito, Cain, Lincecum, Lowry, 5th starter Those could compete, but not sure if either surpass that rotation.

Is Burnett going to come out of the pen? I do love an idea where we can get Burnett, Greene, Bedard and Roberts without giving up Pie or Hill though :)

Roberts Fukudome Lee Ramirez Soriano DeRosa (SS... I know pipe dream) Soto Byrd Zambrano Bedard Hill Lilly Lieber = World series appearence. There is no way this gets done though, I can't see Angelos picking any package we offer.

Roberts really isn't coming to the Cubs is he?

I think some places you can get them to send you a memory card with updated rosters. Never looked though because I downloaded the PC version and goto mvpmods

For someone who is labeled as such a patient hitter, he sure does swing a lot.

alot of sheep rapings tonight....alot So those are your plans for this evening? Is the Brett Favre Press post game conference on yet? I'm anxious to hear the pity party, woah is me plea. he'll play the "i'm back, no i'm not, yes, i am... no i'm not" game. its great times for all of us. Does he start that already? probably not, but a bears fan can have some fun...right? No. wasn't asking you...this was your chance and you're team blew it for ya. favre is gone and ryan grant ain't leading you anywhere. Yeah, this was our chance. Never mind the fact that we're the youngest team in the NFL. If Favre leaves, so be it. I have full confidence that Rodgers can step in and do a productive job. And as far as Grant goes, the jury is still out on that. I seem to remember an NFC team full of a solid and stable core, with the consensus 'most talented team in the NFC' coming into this year. Now it has more holes than Swiss cheese. You have to take advantage of these opportunities otherwise it can fall apart with the blink of the eye. I had all the confidence in the world that Benson could take over for TJones as well............

Unbelievable that Eli is getting it done through the air early considering the game conditions.

Japanese? He can barely speak English. He no berry berry goo. What does speaking English have to do with speaking Japanese if Spanish is his first language?

I bet you we go to camp with this team.

I don't think this deserved its own thread, but Michael Wuertz asked for $975,000 in arbitration, while the Cubs figure was $750,000. He is the only Cub I know of that in arb process.

That isn't entirely true...he does go on sports radio, but often yes questions are softballed to him. As for KW and his WS ring, that is 3 years ago and really meaningless at this point. I have NEVER heard Hendry go on the air and take direct questions from fans. You're right, when he appears on WGN Radio, Kaplan asks fans to email questions-filters out the more controversial ones and then asks the obvious ones. How about a little give and take with the people who pay your salary, Jim? Kenny Williams at least has a plan. Funny that Jim Thome came to Wrigley and Hendry barely talked to him. Williams snapped him up pretty fast. Look I am no huge fan of Hendry, but you aren't giving him enough credit. Kenny Williams does have a plan. It just almost always backfires. Your counter argument will be that the one time it worked they won a World Series, and your right. But that was just a needle in a haystack. Can you look at that 2005 team and tell me that you thought they'd make the playoffs much less win a World Series. His plan last year was to acquire a bunch of unproven flame throwing arms for the bullpen. How did that work out? Laughable. His plan this year was to target the top 4-5 FA outfielders out there. How did that work out? Instead he was stuck trading 2 of their top prospects for his slugger, a move that wasn't bad at all but still damaged his already bad farm system. Trust me, I know Hendry is no better. We've often joked about his plan being to copy the model of the previous World Series winners, or acquiring a million weak hitting 2B, or signing relievers to high priced deals. Your right hes not a great GM. But to compare him to Kenny Williams and say that Jim Hendry isn't at least a good a GM as Kenny, its ridiculous. Kenny joined the Sox in 2000 and managed to ruin one of the most promising young teams in recent memory. He has made the playoffs once since, the flukey 2005 title team. While Hendry has his mistakes, he turned around a bad 2002 team into the team that had the Cubs closer to a title than ever before. (I will agree that like Kenny's 2005 team, it was a bit of a fluke, and was carried by the pitching staff that was already there when he took over - even though he scouted and developed a lot of those players), then managed to dismantle it when he realized it had serious flaws and has manged to rebuild it into another team. Anyways, I'm rambling, but my point is, don't use Kenny Williams to compare favorably as a GM to Hendry.

Matt Clement, Jeremy Giambi, Willi Mo Pena, Julio Lugo, Coco Crisp, Chad Bradford. Oh wait, we're listing Jim Hendry's bad moves, not Theo Epsteins. My bad.