UMFan83

Tomorrows Trib Headline: Breaking News: Cubs fans still enjoy mediocrity; possibility of Sox fans buying to gloat slim

On a related note, I thought this article about a proposed Larry Bigbie for Kelly Stoppach trade that was agreed to and recinded was interesting. http://rockymountainnews.com/drmn/sports_columnists/article/0,1299,DRMN_83_4214580,00.html

Do you think Bill Meuller would come back as a backup for 2.5 million? If so, I'd love that bench.

With regards to Walker in Left Field: Walker is valuable because he puts up good numbers for a second baseman at his price. Move him to left field, and while he is still cheap, he has severely lacking numbers from a corner OF. Especially when your other OFs could be Corey Patterson and Matt Murton. I think the same even goes for Nomar, who even though he showed he still has power in August and September, can't be counted on to put up the 30 HR /.900 OPS numbers that should be expected from one of your corner OFs.

:lol: Was it Tony Batista or Tony Wolmack (or both) who had another very quirky stance back in the day?

A lot of mine are all disapointing Cubs for the most part Jeff Fassero Mel Rojas Jose Macais Gary Gaietti circa 1999 Lenny Harris Rnez Enrique Wilson Alex "$%#" Gonzalez Jim Edmons Roy Oswalt Lance Berkman Josh Paul (tag the batter you idiot) Austin Kearns Rob Mackoigaogdfsogosiak Sammy Sosa after 2003 Javier Valentin I'm sure there is more. I hate more then I love

I can't wait until Jose Macais is retained too....

I'm telling you guys, if we got Furcal, Giles and Lofton and they play relatively similar to last year, we'd have among the top 2-3 efficient offenses in baseball

I didn't read most of this thread. Thought I'd offer a quick suggestion. I like the idea of getting Burnett. Do that and use Williams as trade bait for a RF or package Williams and Walker and find something very useful. I think there is no need for 7 starters, even if 2 get injured you still have Mitre and Co. to spot start. Worst case scenario, you pull a Yankee move and find the Aaron Smalls of the world during the season. However, why do I feel this interest in Burnett is to drive the price up, or distract other teams while Hendry swoops in and picks up Milwood for cheaper?

Cooll, now hire Kenny Williams as the Assistant GM, Isiah Thomas as a consultant, Dusty Baker as your manager, and become the 2000's version of the Cubs

That's an understatement :):)

Yeah I'm not sure if Maddux deserved it this year. I seem to recall several questionable plays that he made this year that he certainly wouldn't have made in the past. He was and maybe still is a great fielder, but not this year. Oh and I see breaking the wrong way on fly balls and then compensating by taking needless dives is still a category for determining Gold Glove winners

"Dude, this man is a gold glove winner. He must be doing sometihng right. We need to start him every game"

Mike Lowell? His offensive stats weren't good enough to get the award.

I didn't know steroids help you draw walks.

If I was there I'd give him a standing ovation. Me too. How people can be so ignorant to forget what he did for us for so long bewilders me. Maybe its because people believe that Sosa's numbers weren't legit.... I'd still cheer Sammy at Wrigley though. I had some good times cheering for him when I was a teen and didn't think about stuff like cork or steroids.

There are 1,000 ways you can discredit this as useless info, but I thought I'd post it anyways. With the addition of Furcal, Lofton and Giles, here is the way our lineup would shape up based on last years numbers At Bats SHs Hits Doubles Triples Home Runs HBP Walks AVG OBP SLG OPS Barrett, C 424 2 117 32 3 16 7 40 0.276 0.347 0.479 0.825 Lee, 1B 594 0 199 50 3 46 5 85 0.335 0.423 0.662 1.084 Walker, 2B 397 2 121 25 3 12 1 31 0.305 0.355 0.474 0.829 Ramirez, 3B 463 0 140 30 0 31 6 35 0.302 0.359 0.568 0.927 Furcal, SS 616 5 175 31 11 12 1 62 0.284 0.348 0.429 0.777 Murton, LF 140 2 45 3 2 7 0 16 0.321 0.386 0.521 0.908 Lofton, CF 367 5 123 15 5 2 2 32 0.335 0.387 0.420 0.806 Giles, RF 545 0 164 38 8 15 2 119 0.301 0.428 0.483 0.910 Total 3546 16 1084 224 35 141 24 420 0.306 0.381 0.508 0.889 Verses our "best" lineup last year: At Bats SHs Hits Doubles Triples Home Runs HBP Walks AVG OBP SLG OPS Barrett, C 424 2 117 32 3 16 7 40 0.276 0.347 0.479 0.825 Lee, 1B 594 0 199 50 3 46 5 85 0.335 0.423 0.662 1.084 Walker, 2B 397 2 121 25 3 12 1 31 0.305 0.355 0.474 0.829 Ramirez, 3B 463 0 140 30 0 31 6 35 0.302 0.359 0.568 0.927 Garciaparra, IF 230 0 65 12 0 9 2 12 0.283 0.324 0.452 0.776 Murton, OF 140 2 45 3 2 7 0 16 0.321 0.386 0.521 0.908 Hairston, IF/OF 380 7 99 25 2 4 12 31 0.261 0.330 0.368 0.699 Burnitz, RF 605 1 156 31 2 24 3 57 0.258 0.324 0.435 0.759 Total 3233 14 942 208 15 149 36 307 0.291 0.358 0.503 0.861 (note: the coding is probably wrong because I copied it from an excel file. I might fix it if people don't get the big picture)

I can't believe I'm being optimistic .301/.363/.457/.820

"Dude, this offense don't need fixing. We have two silver sluggers. Do the Cardinals have 2 silver sluggers? The Astros?"

Hmm...how far down the board was that? I looked quickly and didn't see it my bad....

Congrats Barrett and Lee, both winning their first Silver Sluggers! Derrek receives a $100,000 bonus for winning, Michael $50,000 due to their contracts. http://x.go.com/cgi/x.pl?goto=http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2209169&name=FPT-2209169-103115&srvc=sz

And regret being Cubs fans :(

I enjoy rewarding mediocrity. But that near perfect game against St. Louis was freakin awesome!

Think about this....excluding tie breakers, if the Bears went 5-4 to finish 9-7 this year... ...the Lions would have to go 6-3 to tie us ...the Vikings would have to go 7-2 to tie us ...the Packers would have to go 8-1 to tie us But if you include tiebreakers, the Lions would have to go 7-2 to tie us because we own the tiebreaker over them with a 2-0 head to head record. Also the Bears are 1-0 against the Vikings this year, meaning the Vikings would have to go 7-2 with a win over the Bears to tie us, PLUS play well enough in the division to beat the Bears. Right now the Bears are 3-0 in the division, and the Vikings are I think 1-2. Basically the Bears, by virtue of a 3-0 division record, a 1 game lead in the division, and owning tie breaker between their closest rival are in the drivers seat in the division. But they are the Bears, and have a rather tough schedule coming up after the next 2 games. We shall see

Wow, that made my week :) I am still extremely worried about the offense putting together an entire game of competency.