Soul

Murton had his chance and flied out weakly to center. Based on this, he'll never amount to anything. Yes, that was sarcasm. It's April 15th, Murt's going to get his play time this year. Lou can't ride Floyd, his legs won't hold up and he knows it. Floyd's obviously getting more playtime right now, but it's very likely not a permanent arragement. In other news, the rest of our offense sucks too, which should be of considerably more concern if it continues into May.

I'm concerned that his Aprils continue to suck. But yes, it *should* get better.

Wow. So the Cubs World Series hopes rest on the who wins the classic good/evil battle between Cliff Floyd and Matt Murton. Alright then! :lol: No, but a 25 year-old player is likely still going to improve. A 34 year-old is very likely to regress. AVG OBP SLG Floyd 0.261 0.346 0.465 Murton 0.302 0.368 0.456 These are three year averages for Murton and Floyd (only MLB AB's). Who would you rather have playing? I'd rather have both guys playing, each in the appropriate situations. Murton's likely to improve, and he's also likely to be a Cub for a while. He'll get plenty of ABs, plenty of chances to improve this year, plenty of chances to contribute. I'd play Murton almost every day. He has upside whereas Floyd does not. Moreover, since Murton is likely to be a Cub for a long time, it would behoove me to develop him as quickly as possible. Otherwise, we might bring in another veteran over him. Since, you know, he doesn't have experience. Since I'd play Murton almost all the time, when would you play him? And what is the cost to the franchise since Murton's development will be stunted. And, how many outs do you sacrifice with Floyd's lesser OBP? Murton has more upside than Floyd: agreed. Floyd has no more upside, in fact. Murton has some. Murton should play to improve: agreed. Notion that Murton must play almost every day this year or his growth will be stunted: disagree. Idea that players who don't play every day in their 2nd full years as a pro will, by definition, fade away: disagree. Assumption being presented in this thread that what is happening in April with Murton will necessarily continue all year: disagree.

Wow. So the Cubs World Series hopes rest on the who wins the classic good/evil battle between Cliff Floyd and Matt Murton. Alright then! :lol: No, but a 25 year-old player is likely still going to improve. A 34 year-old is very likely to regress. AVG OBP SLG Floyd 0.261 0.346 0.465 Murton 0.302 0.368 0.456 These are three year averages for Murton and Floyd (only MLB AB's). Who would you rather have playing? I'd rather have both guys playing, each in the appropriate situations. Murton's likely to improve, and he's also likely to be a Cub for a while. He'll get plenty of ABs, plenty of chances to improve this year, plenty of chances to contribute.

They just highlighted Hill on Baseball Tonight, too. The kid's got a nasty, nasty curve. I can't remember who, but last year someone said Hill's stuff just wasn't major league ready. I'd like to hear what that guy has to say now. So far so good with Hill. Keep it up, kiddo. He's carrying this rotation right now.

Are we going to rehash this every time Floyd starts over Murton, all season? Just want to know up front.

I remember a few Lee boos. Not to the same level as Jones.

What he said. What really pisses me off is that I switched to Direct TV simply to be guaranteed Extra Innings.......Except that well Direct TV has lots to offer besides baseball, and I can also watch the good baseball teams. Ah what the hell, I am depressed. To those of you who say it's still early I say lots more disappointment to come. :evil: Sure, let's give up. Good idea.

To me May is the month that tells me more about where the season is heading than April. I've seen too many teams struggle in April and then turn it on in May, and vice versa. April stats for anyone aren't going to carry much value, IMO. If Dempster continues to pitch well through May, I'll start thinking he's back. Obviously I'm pretty happy with what I've seen so far. Seemed like he was falling into his old ways the first week, the Lou came out and laid down the law a little bit -- he's been pretty good since.

Yeah, he got 2 hits, but they were both singles, and he also got a GIDP and got picked off. Multihit game, but overall not an impressive performance. He's struggling a little. I'm not all that suprised. I'll be shocked if it continues for months. Cub fans will boo him senselessly like they did with Jones. Not saying that can't, it's their prerogative. But how wrong were the fans about Jones? Pretty damn wrong --- to the point of coming to the stadium with apology placards and signs. They should learn their lesson and look at the bigger picture.

At Jersey scares me. Kidd and Carter have been playing well of late. Hopefully that Cavs slip up and make that game unimportant. We will lose that game at NJ. I want no part of them in the playoffs. We just don't match up well with them at all. You'd rather face Miami in the first round than New Jersey? Bulls' strength matches up well with Jersey and the Bulls are too deep. They'd win in 5. Miami, OTOH, I want no part of in the first round. I agree completely about Bulls in 5 over NJ, and I'd much rather face the Nets over the Heat. Miami doesn't scare me, but Nets-Raptors is a much easier path to the Eastern Conference finals than Heat-Pistons. Bulls are 19-7 since the All-Star break. Angst over a road game at New Jersey seems pretty silly. I totally agree. It's a road game against a team we should dominate. If we can't win that, then I guess the 2 seed wasn't meant to be. Winning our last 2 looks to be a must -- there will be no excuse for not getting the job done though. It's a woefully depleted Washington team and a NJ squad that matches up poorly against us. BTW, NJ looked completely overmatched against Cleveland last week and we match the Cavs punch for punch. We can't make excuses about the schedule, it should be 2 wins and the 2 seed for the Bulls or there's no one to blame but ourselves.

The media keeps bringing up the fact that the Cubs spent $300 million in the offseason on players - and they say it all the time - but I rarely hear that the Cubs have a $300 million payroll. Maybe it's because I don't read the Chicago papers but I rarely hear it. That doesn't mean I haven't already tired of hearing the number $300 million though. Oh, I've seen it more than once. Plus, even without that -- the Cubs actually did not *spend* 300 million dollars. They entered into contracts which, if they all come completely to fruition with the Cubs, will eventually equal $300 million (approximately) after about 8 years. That's a massive difference, IMO. There's no way to intellectually say the Cubs spent 300 million dollars this offseason. And no, not everyone knows the semantics of it -- that's why people come back out and start saying the Cubs have a 200 million dollar payroll.

See what the media does? They perpetuate the $300 million payroll nonsense, keep repeating it over & over, no one ever challenges their facts. Before you know it even Cub fans think we're spending twice as much as we are.

Beyond any and all belief.

Insanity.

Just for the record, I realize Cuban would face big time problems. From what I've read here, pretty much everyone else does too. So I'm not sure what new knowledge is being revealed by restating that. Just because we realize it, doesn't mean we can't still discuss it (and complain about it).

If you directed this at me, then please lighten up a little. I was only trying to inject a little fun into an otherwise depressing situation. I realize they want to play.

There's usually more than 1 factor that goes into whether a pitcher pulls up with an injury. That shouldn't mean we ignore pitcher abuse points. Just because some pitchers can hack it shouldn't mean that we don't look at how many pitches a guy throws and factor it in. If a deadly disease rolls around and starts killing off people, there will always be those few who somehow escape unscathed. That certainly doesn't mean the disease isn't a problem.

There have been many who said they feel Z is due for a breakdown. Looking at how he's been used, it looks like he's one tough dude to have handled it for this long. I guess I can only hope he's just tough enough to handle it, ala Clemens. But that's not very comforting.

Unreal.

Read that article. There's a misperception that the pitchers of yore somehow used to be able to pitch way more than today without problems. It's not necessarily true, and I think the BP article does a good job of explaining possible reasons why.

Stone is arrogant but his sphere of influence, as related to MLB, isn't imagined. Chris DeLuca / Suntimes I don't think Stone's influence is imagined either, but that final quote from him sounds very much like a campaign speech, as vance aluded to earlier. Not that I'd mind a group with Stone involved buying the team, depending on who the other people were and what their intentions were.

Can anyone remember potential owners who have been shot down by the other owners? I can't, but I really don't follow the ownership bids of other teams. Because I think it would be interesting to see Cuban give it a shot, and force the owners to actually shoot him down. Do they really do that? Or is it sort of decided beforehand in the back room somewhere -- i.e. "don't even try it buddy" kind of thing?

Any word on how he's doing? Supposedly he is also going to be examined by the Dr's today along with Prior according to WSCR. Wood: "Hi Mark, how's it goin'? Here for your checkup too? Prior: "Yep yep. Hey, you hear the temperature in Chicago is below freezing?" Wood: "Yeah. Terrible. Glad we live in Arizona, huh?" Prior: "Hahaha. You got that right." ***Doctor walks in*** Doctor: "Hi there! So, how we feelin' today? Gettin' ready to wrap her up and head for Chicago?" Wood: "Dunno doc, she's feelin' a little stiff right now." Prior: "Me too. Just can't seem to loosen it up."

Hey Tim, make premium payable by CC. It's the only thing stopping me from joining. I keep a paperless house as much as possible, so writing a check is an inconvenience. Paypal -- I had an account once and got Phished like crazy; somehow someone found out I was a paypal subscriber and was trying to get me to give away my account info, so I had to cancel out.