Soul

That qualifies as sticking your neck out, nice 8)

Yup yup. This time he got an extension for leaving us blowing in the wind. That's progress :roll:

For what? I guess so he can throw a few more simu-towel-games before having another surgery.

I think he grew it for the 1B gig. I think he grew it hoping nobody would recognize him anymore.

I think the Reds are better than us now. Alright it's close. But it wasn't before we lost Lee. This is a lower-tier ballclub now.

Tried to tell you all---don't get your hopes up. Not with Prior either.

Wow Aardsma is just junk.

I'm trying to introduce you and others on this board to the reality of where we are at as a ballclub. But it's useless. OK, you win. We would have won it all in '05 with this years club!! We'll win it all even without Lee!! Whoohoo!! Go Cubbies :?

I would say that we don't know if Prior and Wood are going to be back at full strength. During Spring Training, the initial reports said nothing was wrong with Prior, then he would only miss a few days, then he would miss a couple starts, then he's out til the middle of May. Frankly I don't know what to think of our pitchers and when they are actually going to return. I wouldn't be surprised at all to have Wood come back only to go back on the DL within a month. To rely on him is one of the worst things you can do. Prior is another thing. As somebody else pointed out, Prior has had some freak injuries. But hints and target dates aren't sure things. Pretty much the inescapable reality. But I've said my piece. Raw wants to be optimistic. Fine. I wish I could be too. But that little thing called reality just won't get out of the way :wink:

Wood & Prior aren't playing in '06. Nobody knows when they'll be back, and frankly nobody knows if they will be of any use this year when they DO get back. You can't just throw whoever you want into the mix just to bolster your argument when they aren't even on the active roster. The '06 team is without Wood & Prior until proven otherwise. Secondly, you can't use career averages whenever you want when talking about specific seasons. Nor can you just disregard marginal players like Aardsma because it sends your argument down the drain. As for Lidge/Dempster: I'm not going to knock Dempster, because I love the guy and think he's done a fine job. Lidge is the far more feared pitcher though. In your player-by-player analysis, it's highly suspect to say Cedeno is going to surpass anything. He's basically a rook. Doing great now, and I hope it continues. But any assumptions about him are premature. Saying Murton is better than Berkman is just plain laughable. You know better than that.

Right handed power that can play first and the OF. Who would you have brought up? Sing, who is still having troubles getting acclimated to AAA? Somebody that had potential to be good someday. BTW how many games has Restovich played at 1b in his career? Again, who would you have promoted? How is this a "bad move" by Hendry given the situation? It's not a bad move given the situation. It's probably the best one he could make. I would have liked to see Sing get an opportunity, but Restovich has major league experience. This is a catastrophe for the Cubs, obviously Hendry is scrambling. There's not much else he can do.

We had to fight our way to a division title that year. Literally and figuratively :D

If you had used stats to prove your hypothetical, it would have been even more out there. Now you're asking me to use stats to "prove" mine? Use your common sense. The Cubs are 61 years out from their last World Series. Yet you believe *THIS* ballclub, with Prior & Wood on the shelf, would have gone to the World Series last year where all others have failed? Come on. Who are you trying to kid? So your logic that it's impossible for the Cubs to make the World Series this year because they haven't done it in 61 years? I'm not sure I agree with Raw but his comparison makes sense. Your disbelief with nothing else behind it isn't exactly a valid argument. Yeah, but you agree this team wasn't a World Series contender even with Lee. You just don't like the fact that I don't care to look up stats at 9am on a Friday morning when I should be working :wink: Maybe tonight I'll double back and grab some stats. Right now though----I really do need to get some work done.

Think the Stros and Cards will play .500 ball too though? It's not just what we do, it's what our opponents do as well. Last time I checked 3rd place is an automatic trip to the golf course in October.

It did for the Astros. I know people don't want to compare the teams, but they are pretty similar (I have said exactly this in other threads). Obviously, no Cubs pitchers will be as good as Clemens was most of last year. Heck, none may even come close to Pettitte either, nor be as good as Oswalt. But Zambrano will be very good. Prior and Wood will be very good WHEN they are able to pitch. Maddux looks to be primed for a good season. Every single spot in the Cubs rotation should easily be better than Backe, who was a run better than what Houston threw out in the 5th starter's role, helping to make up the difference. And Lidge is possibly the best Closer in the NL, but Dempster was better, in the closer's role, last season. He's not slowing down so far. I think the Cubs bullpen is also deeper and just as strong as the Astros were in setup (Wheeler, Qualls, Gallo = Howry, Williamson, Eyre). As for the offense, I think there's a very good chance, almost a given that Walker, Pierre, Barrett, Cedeno, Murton will be better to a man than Biggio, Tavarez, Ausmus, Everett, and the combo in LF were for Houston last year. Ramirez 06 and Ensberg 05 will be pretty close. Jones 06 and Lane 05 will also be similar. Then you have Berkman vs. Lee and his replacements. Lee will miss twice as much time as Berkman did last year (30 games), but when he's back he will outproduce what Berkman did last year. So, I think you have a similar team. Of course, with the way the Astros have started, they look to be better than the 05 version, also. That's insanity. We're nowhere near the '05 Stros. It's not even close. Back it up. Stros went the World Series last year. You think this year's Cub team would have made the World Series last year? I'm not going to argue about it-----that's insane. Prove that it's insane. I didn't mention stats in my post, but I used them. Just because you think it wouldn't have happened is not proof to me. If you had used stats to prove your hypothetical, it would have been even more out there. Now you're asking me to use stats to "prove" mine? Use your common sense. The Cubs are 61 years out from their last World Series. Yet you believe *THIS* ballclub, with Prior & Wood on the shelf, would have gone to the World Series last year where all others have failed? Come on. Who are you trying to kid?

It did for the Astros. I know people don't want to compare the teams, but they are pretty similar (I have said exactly this in other threads). Obviously, no Cubs pitchers will be as good as Clemens was most of last year. Heck, none may even come close to Pettitte either, nor be as good as Oswalt. But Zambrano will be very good. Prior and Wood will be very good WHEN they are able to pitch. Maddux looks to be primed for a good season. Every single spot in the Cubs rotation should easily be better than Backe, who was a run better than what Houston threw out in the 5th starter's role, helping to make up the difference. And Lidge is possibly the best Closer in the NL, but Dempster was better, in the closer's role, last season. He's not slowing down so far. I think the Cubs bullpen is also deeper and just as strong as the Astros were in setup (Wheeler, Qualls, Gallo = Howry, Williamson, Eyre). As for the offense, I think there's a very good chance, almost a given that Walker, Pierre, Barrett, Cedeno, Murton will be better to a man than Biggio, Tavarez, Ausmus, Everett, and the combo in LF were for Houston last year. Ramirez 06 and Ensberg 05 will be pretty close. Jones 06 and Lane 05 will also be similar. Then you have Berkman vs. Lee and his replacements. Lee will miss twice as much time as Berkman did last year (30 games), but when he's back he will outproduce what Berkman did last year. So, I think you have a similar team. Of course, with the way the Astros have started, they look to be better than the 05 version, also. That's insanity. We're nowhere near the '05 Stros. It's not even close. Back it up. Stros went the World Series last year. You think this year's Cub team would have made the World Series last year? I'm not going to argue about it-----that's insane.

Again, look at the schedule for the next 45 days. It's a pretty soft one. It gets much tougher in June and July, but asking the Cubs to stay in the NL Central race until June isn't all that unrealistic. Factor in Wood coming back within the next 2 weeks, and you've plenty of cause for short term optimism. The Cubs are 9-5 after 14 games. If they can play .500 for the next 46 games, their record will be 32-28 which will certainly keep them "in the race" at that point. There are a lot of "ifs" about the lineup, but with Wood, Prior, and Miller coming back soon I don't think .500 ball is out of the question. Are they though? You might be jumping the gun a little bit there.

It did for the Astros. I know people don't want to compare the teams, but they are pretty similar (I have said exactly this in other threads). Obviously, no Cubs pitchers will be as good as Clemens was most of last year. Heck, none may even come close to Pettitte either, nor be as good as Oswalt. But Zambrano will be very good. Prior and Wood will be very good WHEN they are able to pitch. Maddux looks to be primed for a good season. Every single spot in the Cubs rotation should easily be better than Backe, who was a run better than what Houston threw out in the 5th starter's role, helping to make up the difference. And Lidge is possibly the best Closer in the NL, but Dempster was better, in the closer's role, last season. He's not slowing down so far. I think the Cubs bullpen is also deeper and just as strong as the Astros were in setup (Wheeler, Qualls, Gallo = Howry, Williamson, Eyre). As for the offense, I think there's a very good chance, almost a given that Walker, Pierre, Barrett, Cedeno, Murton will be better to a man than Biggio, Tavarez, Ausmus, Everett, and the combo in LF were for Houston last year. Ramirez 06 and Ensberg 05 will be pretty close. Jones 06 and Lane 05 will also be similar. Then you have Berkman vs. Lee and his replacements. Lee will miss twice as much time as Berkman did last year (30 games), but when he's back he will outproduce what Berkman did last year. So, I think you have a similar team. Of course, with the way the Astros have started, they look to be better than the 05 version, also. That's insanity. We're nowhere near the '05 Stros. It's not even close.

Plus the fact that Aram won't be seeing very many good pitches if he is the only HR threat in the lineup. The only hope we have is that everyone on the team contributes a little more. If Jones, Pierre, and Ramirez can get going, with Walker, Barrett, Murton, and Cedeno continuing what they've been doing, we could be okay. Mabry can be very effective with spot starting. He won't be spot-starting though. He'll be the guy at 1B most days for 3 months. That's a regular. And Ramirez already has one leg on the DL---how much longer before he's gone for an extended period too?

whoever wins the first game will win the series, IMO. Huh? I'll be happy if the Bulls can take one game. There's no way we take this series. Not one chance. How do you figure us being competitive?

Yes. The point is, we weren't good enough to win even with Lee. Now we are a bad ballclub. Looks like it will be Mabry/Walker/Restovich @ 1B, in whatever combo Dusty likes. Wow. Don't panic? My goodness. I was panicking before Spring Training began, and with good reason----we lost all our pitchers before we even started preparing for the season! Panic doesn't describe the appropriate response to Lee's injury. More like resignment to fate.

What's the cubs record? Last I checked, it was 9-5. Thank you, I cant believe all the B&M'ing going on. Yes DLee is our star....but he is far from the only one on this team. No one has a clue what is going to happen untill he gets back. Could we blow like most people here seem to think? Of course. Could other guys surpass their past numbers and actually play well? Of course. No one knows for sure. In any case, get well soon DLee. Really? Who else is a star on this team? The closest we have is Zambrano, but face it---he has yet to reach his potential. He's still a developing star, not a full-blown one like Lee. Ramirez is no star. Stars don't take 50-60 games off because they can't keep their hammys healthy. Lee was our *ONLY* bona-fide superstar. This was a 3rd place team with Derek Lee. Without him? *shudders*

Nothing personal, but I am getting just a bit tired of hearing that. I'm still rooting for the Cubs, just like I did last year even though I knew before the season started that their bullpen was too lousy and their on-base abilities too low to win anything. Unfortunately, I'm a realist. Me too. I used to be an optimist, way back in my younger years. Then came heartbreak season after heartbreak season. It wears you down after awhile. I'll always root for the Cubs, but when they're bad or something devastating happens----I call it what it is. Another catastrophe.

No one is suggesting the Cubs will mail it in or that they won't put up a fight. We're saying this team isn't good enough to do it effectively enough to win consistently. Pitching will be the key over the long haul. The club can thrive with less offense if it's pitchers aren't giving up too many runs (LOL, I know that's a big DUH). I'm optimistic about this team primarily because there are three good pitchers who aren't that far away from making a positive impact. You are assuming they will be making a positive impact but in reality when all three are coming off inuries and two of the pitchers have severe injuries we don't know what we will be getting. You're assuming that they won't make a positive impact. I know they can't be any worse than having Glendon, Jerome, and Sean in the rotation. At least Kerry, Mark, and Wade have the ability to overpower hitters and because of their reputations/ prior success they will give batters reason to pause instead of licking their chops at the thought of facing them. Did you not see how bad Miller was when he was with the Red SOx last year? He was throwing 86mph fastballs not fooling anybody. Thinking he will come back and have a positive impact when he looked so bad last year is a stretch. I personally think Prior will be fine if he comes back but to me Wood is also a ? mark. He had shoulder surgery and changed his mechanics. I would err on the side of caution when all these changes are taking place on a pitcher. Alot of what you say is true, but you do realize Miller was pitching with a bad arm last year, which is why he had surgery. Right?

Bring up Sing.