UMFan83

Depends on what parameters you use to judge him. I'd probably put him in the top 40 but probably not the top 30, but I'm sure other posters could put up good arguments that I'm judging him too high or too low.

Why is everything Z throws rising?

I know Wells is a decent hitting pitcher, but in that situation I'd think a manager would much rather see you take strike 3 than swing at ball 4

He is one of the best hitters in baseball... Is he? With all of one season with an over .900 OPS under his belt? A player who is 52nd in the league in VORP according to BP? Now that I think about it, is Fonz really even one of the top twenty hitters in baseball? Twenty five? Nope, hes a guy that had 46 HRs one year though... a year that he was good enough to finish 33rd in the VORP rankings.

C'mon get Wells out without a run scoring

DeRosa hurt and a leadoff double...not a happy one minute in my life

He is one of the best hitters in baseball... Is he? With all of one season with an over .900 OPS under his belt? A player who is 52nd in the league in VORP according to BP?

Kendall blows... 1-12 with the Cubs now...following the same career path as Rob Bowen except with worse D

Here comes Jason Kendall to mess things up in front of Z

JOCKTACULAR!

Old man Floyd out again. Oh well at least he didn't get injured....yet

That's 15 scoreless innings for the Cubs offense.

Uhh oh.... I feel like I might be tipping my cap for some reason tonight

Which is what you should do. Wait are you saying the poster on BCB that made his first post on the site who claims to have an unnamed inside connection should not be trusted??

I knew this was coming, but its funny that the Bears say they can't sign Briggs longterm because its too much of a financial commitment for one position, and then go out and give Vasher and Tillman huge extensions.

I think Gallardo is the real deal, but I also think like most pitchers there will be a period of adjustment when teams start to get a book on him. That should give him 2-3 bad starts before he makes a counter adjustment. You also have to look at his IP. The original plan for him was to throw him in limited innings out of the bullpen so that he didn't get above 160 IP, and then let him loose in late August for the stretch run. He is now quickly approaching 160 IP. Will be interesting to see what they do at that point. Do they limit his IP to 5 innings a game no matter what? Do they just say forget it and ride him Dusty style.

How are things working out for him in San Diego? It looks like he is still battling his temper. Any complaints from the pitching staff yet? I haven't heard much about how he's working with the pitchers. He has been struggling mightily with the bat, putting up a .268/.268/.324 line up in 71 at-bats. I heard Peavy's ERA pitching to Barrett is over 5! Of course Peavy is probably just slumping, but its funny to note. The Padres are 4-13 in games Barrett has started in. They are 8-3 when he hasn't started.

It's not necessarily that the Cubs are in the race, but more that StL isn't. It's hard to get up and excited to play a team that is going nowhere this year. I am sorry for what I'm about to do... Please do not let any pregnant ladies or people with heart conditions view this. http://blogs.chron.com/larrydierker/worldseries1.jpg I am sorry to do that to you all. But I've seen one too many comments about how they can't get up for this series. Those stupid fluky Cardinals won the freaking WS off an 83 win season. Those same fluky Cardinals are giving Cubs fans a lifetime of gloating based on their flawed and fluky team. Cardinals fans are laughing at Cubs fans constantly as they watch us get excited about our team thats 5 games over .500, while they are still hungover from their WS champaign. Hate the Cardinals. HATE!!!

We need this... Milwaukee (Gallardo) @ Cincinnati (Belisle) - 6:10 CST Los Angeles (Hendrickson) @ Houston (Jennings) - 7:05 CST San Diego (Young) @ Colorado (Jimenez - gulp) - 8:05 CST Florida (Mitre) @ Arizona (Hernandez) - 8:40 CST Atlanta (Hudson) @ San Francisco (Morris) - 9:15 CST WC Standings: San Diego -- Atlanta 1.0 Chicago 1.5 Arizona 1.5 Go Reds, Astros, Rockies, Marlins, and Giants!

I bet someone posted that diary because they knew an NSBB reader would find it and start a 50 page thread. He is now laughing at us as his dream becomes a reality.

Paraphrasing a Hendry interview from about a week ago on what deals he's looking to make: "I'm always looking to improve the team, but I also know we have nice pieces here. I'm not going to look to go out and replace Ryan Dempster. I'm not going to go look for someone to replace Ryan Theriot." I know we should always look for improvement, but we're winning and Theriot is doing a solid job both ways and providing some spark into the lineup and clubhouse. He's done just about everything you can ask for and it just doesn't seem like you should reward that by replacing the guy, especially when things are clicking on the field and in the clubhouse. Obviously, Tejada is and always will be the better player, but I just don't think you go out of your way to improve something that isn't really that much of a problem when you have other problems much bigger than replacing a solid #2 hitter. I suppose, but that DiamondBacks series has to have left a bad taste in somebody's mouth. It was the first halfway-decent team we faced in a long time, the Crew beats them and then they come to Wrigley and punk us. There are some better clubs coming up on our schedule now. I'm not comfortable just saying "we're winning" and "it's clicking" after getting beat 2/3 by an also-ran in the playoff race -- including getting shut out -- and coming up on Philly & the Mets in the near future. Even Colorado 8/10 - 8/12 could pose a problem, those boys can hit. Yeah but the Brewers lost 3/4 to the Pirates, 2/3 to the Nationals and 2/3 to the Giants, while we lost 2/3 to the Pirates, 1/4 to the Nationals, and 1/4 to the Giants. So the Brewers went 6-8 vs. the Pirates, Nationals, Giants and DBacks, while we went 8-6

Seriously....where is Cuse? His posting stopped abruptly on March 8th? I'm a little worried about him... Chris probably doesn't have as much interest now that the DJaxx are no longer affiliated. But I could be wrong.

Cardinals suck. I'm sick of them bragging about their fluky 2006 championship. I would have much rather their 2004 team won it. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

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Adding to this discussion, I want to see how people think Matt Murton would project over a full season at the peak of his career. I'd say .310/.400/.485