UMFan83

Guess what, we have Soriano for the next 7.9 years, and he isn't going to be getting any better

haha, these are my Cubs

Gold Glove SS was before Tommy John surgery. That guy is probably gone. So wait, why'd we get him then? I'd have rather released Maddux outright then be stuck with this jerk playing SS the next 2 years.

I just have no other explanation for this franchise. Gold glove defensive shortstop makes 3 errors in a game, 2 in one inning no less. Cursed

What's sad is how many "one of those days" times we have

Before that DP I thought we had the best offense in baseball. After that DP, I know that we suck and will end up in last place. Thank you. Wow thats quite a stretch. I just said our offense wasn't great, which any rational person would have known going into the season. So anyone that thinks the Cubs will have a good offense is irrational? No a great offense... I believe that was my original adjective I think that any rational person would take "great offense we have right guys? Not so much" to mean more than just literally "not great". I guess I am not rational then, because that's exactly what I meant. I am glad we could clarify my mental state though.

Before that DP I thought we had the best offense in baseball. After that DP, I know that we suck and will end up in last place. Thank you. Wow thats quite a stretch. I just said our offense wasn't great, which any rational person would have known going into the season. So anyone that thinks the Cubs will have a good offense is irrational? No a great offense... I believe that was my original adjective

Before that DP I thought we had the best offense in baseball. After that DP, I know that we suck and will end up in last place. Thank you. Wow thats quite a stretch. I just said our offense wasn't great, which any rational person would have known going into the season.

Great offense we have right guys? Not so much..

yeah Cubs fans, going behind 3-0 in the first inning one game after going below .500 in your home opener, one year after losing 90+ games is no time to complain. Can you blame fans for being a little dramatic after living through the last 2 years of crap?

Good way to raise the ol' OBP

Marquis already had his good start this year, Cubs lose 11-4

The people I was with are circled in red, but I don't think either Mark R or I were there in this picture. http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/3809/1000479meuq8.jpg

Can anyone tell me how Noc looked when he was in there?

I'm getting to the park around 9 to get in line for the bleachers. Hopefully Lilly doesn't give me too many souviners

From Jayson Stark http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=stark_jayson&id=2826272&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab4pos1

I don't get it, why are African Americans the only ones allowed to wear 42 on that day? Didn't Jackie Robinson pave the way for people of all races to play the spot. Heck, even a white person could wear it under the argument that Jackie breaking the 'color barrier' allowed the sport to grow into the global spot it is becoming today.

Looks like they will if they already have Lee 42 jerseys for sale

This is unbelievable...what a terrible choke job. Im sure the Heat wont choke this bad when they play the Bulls in the first round.

The undefeated Pirates? There should be no team we are scared of playing if we really are going to be a playoff team..

Care to explain your opinion? The game threads have never been one for integrity. If you want serious discussions goto Baseball Discussions or any of the other forums

Care to explain your opinion?

Good to know I'm not alone in having an unpopular opinion

Soriano and Pierre play and bat and play the same position, id glady take the HUGE and yes i MEAN HUGE offensive improvement Soriano is Pierre had 16 win shares, Soriano had 30. The difference is 14 win shares, which is 4.3 wins over a 162 game season. Izturis is batting 8th, he by default will not bat as much as Pierre did last year and his spot isint as important seeing there is still distance between him and the power hitters The difference is like 40 PA, and with Soriano batting leadoff, the distance between him and Soriano and Pierre and Lee/Ramirez is the same. Lee and 79 wins, thus proving my point that he alone is worth more than the 12 games you think this team is capable of winning, now add Soriano, Derosa ect Now add 27 starts of Prior 10 starts from Wood, Half a season of Nomar, Todd Walker mostly full season...etc Imagine Ramirez numbers if the guy infront of him had a 400obp like lee I did...in 2005 Wait till miller and marquis suck, Prior is healthy, Guzman can go, we can always make trades at the trading deadline. With the trib for sale and a $120 mil payroll already we won't be doing much. No more Neifi batting first and second everyday while other players sit on the bench because they dont have experience The distance between izturis and soriano are the same, yes, but its completely different than Pierre batting directly ahead of Lee, Ramirez ect. you must think the NL has the DL and we dont have to worry about the pitcher spor You use Dusty Baker as an argument, I am suprised you wouldn't consider a lot of the scrubs that Dusty consistantly put at the 2 spot only marginally better then the pitcher spot. Wasant Ramirez hurt a lot of the 2005 season, oh yeah, he was, he only played in 123 games thus making your point mute. Aramis had 31 HR and 92 RBI in 123 games in 2005. He averages around 152 games a year over an average season. If you project his numbers to 152 games, he hits 38 HR 114 RBI. Last year he hit 38 HR and 119 RBI. IF you can say for sure that we wont be doing much id love to hear your source since everything ive heard has the only thing on hold is Zambranos contract. No just speculation, but since we don't have a lot of chips to trade (dwindling farm system, mediocre players locked up to long term expensive contracts, untouchables make up most of our team), the only way we get better is by taking on a contract. With a record high payroll that is approaching the luxury tax and a team about to be sold, it makes logical sense that we won't have a ton of room to maunver in July.

its almost like you want the cubs to lose just so you can say you were right about thinking they would suck. No I just am still bitter about the last 2 seasons, really hurt by watchin the White Sox and Cardinals win world series, and I basically refused to buy into Spring Training optimism like almost everyone else on the board did. I knew it would take more then one season to turn that sorry 2006 team around, but Hendry decided to throw tons of money at mediocre players, leaving the team in a horrible position financially for the next 4-5 years. Don't get me wrong, I want the Cubs to win every game...but they won't. They'll only win around 78 of them. yep we will only win 12 more games than last year with this team. Why is that so hard to believe? Our team OBP was completely not addressed in the offseason. I don't care what you saw in the spring, players don't just randomly get more patient, especially veteran hitters like most of this team is. Our starting pitching is a bunch of spare pieces who can only succeed if they all have career years. Bullpens, our only strength, are a crapshoot at best, which is way only the best relievers don't have up and down careers. Taking all of that into account... You think replacing the crap we had at 1B last year with a full season of Derrek Lee, Juan Pierre with Alfonso Soriano, along with significant improvements in the rotation (as bad as you think it may be this year, last year it was worse), only equals 12 more wins? obviously he does I do, I'm pretty sure the win shares equal something around there. I could be wrong though. fine. using Lee's 2004 (not his amazing 05) compared to Mabry/Nevin's 06, that would be roughly 13 wins. EDIT: adding in Derrek Lee's 06, that's still 8 wins. So I think somewhere over the course of other improvements, we'll pick up a few more than 4 more wins. Huh? Lee had 21 win shares in 2004, equal to 7 wins. Nevin/Mabry/Lee last year combined for 13 win shares, equal to 4.33 wins. The difference is 2.666 win improvement.