Soul

Bring up Sing.

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 on the. Wood takes forever to regain control after a D/L stint though. Prior hopefully can come back quicker in terms of time post-D/L before he's pitching 100%. Oddly enough, I'm intrigued most by Miller. Everyone's just hoping for a contribution of some kind, but this guy has had success in the league before. When he's right, he knows how to pitch.

And I was at the game. 8) Best sporting event I've ever been to. Bar none.

He's already been tweaky. Happens every year, so why will '06 be different?

Very true. People need to back up from the ledge. Nice gesture, but it's over. Astros '05 You think this Cub team is as good as the '05 Astros? Wow.

Pierre Cedeno Aram Barrett Jones Murton Hairston Mabry Pitch HA!!! :lol: No *serious* lineup without Walker :P

Lee's is a great 1B, but it's not like he's the only player on the roster who can scoop an errant throw. Sure a couple more might get past someone else, but it's not like every bad thow is going to get by now that Lee is gone. In the early goin it seems like the Cubs have been playing with a lot of desire, if they can maintain their intensity and focus, they can weather losing Lee. With or without Lee, it was going to be pitching and defense that help the Cubs win the majority of the games they win. Lee going down just makes needing a healthy Wood and Prior that much more important. Plus, a LOT of Lee's defensive value doesn't lie in his ability to pick throws out of the dirt, but rather play the position and allow the 2B to cheat in the hole a little bit. Lots of 1B can dig a bad throw out. Not many have the lateral movement and quickness Lee does. Well we can't have it both ways, can we? Either Wood, Prior and Lee matter, or Hendry was a fool to pay them all that cash. This team might play decent ball for awhile without them, but eventually it's going to catch up to us and we will start dropping games.

Stone mentioned that as well. That's just apart of the game. This situation is far from ideal but it's not something that can't be managed. The Cubs could be just fine especially if their starting rotation gets more solid. So Stoney said the Cubs will be fine as long as they don't commit errors, but then went on to say Ramirez throwing a bunch of balls away is just part of the game? Excuse me, but that's stark raving madness. He must have lost all sense of reality. Maybe Stoney has been hitting the bottle a little more these days.

I bet you won't see a single lineup posted that doesn't include Todd Walker....

Hell yeah. Let's trade him. We don't need the offense. Was Hendry seriously considering doing this? Thank *GOD* it didn't happen. O:)

Very good point. It would be very gratifying if they could pull an Astros. Time for the Cubs to pick it up! And hopefully the idiotic Cardinal fans and White Sox fans (to Cubbies75: ahem, Joe Booze) can be at least a little classy over the Lee injury. Don't count on it: http://forums.espn.go.com/espn/thread?forumID=104&threadID=3525113&lastPostID=22386515

Wait until Sully & Stone realize how many errors Lee has been saving Ramirez. You'll be hearing a different tune, trust me.

The commentary is hilarious. Great vid.

Nice try to be optimistic, but losing a cream-of-the-crop player like Lee will cost more than 1 or 2 wins. Try 5-10

Very true. People need to back up from the ledge. Nice gesture, but it's over.

he'll be back by summer. Do the math though. 6 weeks in a cast. After that, his wrist will be the size of a pencil (I know, I've broken my wrist before). Then it will be weeks to build it back up. At least 10 weeks total. That's July. We probably won't see him until right before, or after, the All Star game.

Yep. Got a bottle of Single Barrel starting to call my name. I need relief baby.

I agree. The curse must be real. There's no law of averages that covers all this, and no amount of bad management or ownership can explain it all either.

Yep. I'm one injury away from insanity. Knowing the cubs, it'll probably be Pierre too. I'm already gone. I just got done staring at the ceiling for about 30 minutes. God does hate us. There can be no other explanation.

Dope is on the shelf. Brandon Sing: *ring* *ring* ?? :-k

Can we postpone our games until Lee comes back? Anyone have a rain-making machine or something?!?

.....and Neifi makes starter once again!!!! Somebody find his voodoo shrine and piss on it. This guy will do anything to crack the starting lineup, even pray to Jobu for a Derek Lee injury!! ARRRRGGGGHHHH! :evil:

Missed the point. It doesn't matter who looked bad against Lowe and who didn't throughout the game. Ramirez was the hitter in the situation to tie the game, and it was the only such situation of the game to that point. If there was nobody on base for that at bat, then you are correct, isolating him would be harsh. But it was Ramirez's fundamental approach to the situation that raised my brow. Nobody else was in that situation, so bringing up other hitters is irrelevant. From my perspective, the one-run pitchers' duels are the games the Cubs need to win if they want to make any noise this year. A team built on pitching and with good team speed should be suited to win these games. And the Cubs had the exact situation they wanted and prepared for in the offseason - the new leadoff hitter reaching and creating a run opportunity with speed so that the power in the lineup comes up with RBI opportunities in a close game situation. I know it's one game, one situation, so in the long run no big deal. I'm not in panic mode. But the approach to hitting shown in that situation is a hitting strategy issue that will continue to pop-up throughout the season, so it's a concern worth discussing. I would have much rather had Murton or Walker up in that situation than Ramirez (and in future such situations), because they know situational hitting and Ramirez apparently doesn't. With all due respect, it is you who missed the point. In a one run game, EVERY AT BAT is a chance to tie the game. Ramirez had a shot at tying the game and failed. So did just about everyone else. You are singling him out because that's the spot where you were hoping the game would be tied, and it didn't happen. Ramirez's approach to hitting isn't going to change very much from AB to AB, because the manager, GM, owner, and everyone else who has Ramirez's ear are telling him to be a power-hitting run producer. That's his role on this team. We better fire Dusty & Hendry and bring in new guidance for this ballclub if we want a different approach from Ramirez. Maybe that should happen. Thrashing Ramirez for it though is unfair. To say you'd rather have Walker or Murton up in that situation is fair. I might, too. What isn't fair is expecting Ramirez to *BE* Matt Murton when nobody in ARam's life is asking him to do that.

He had a nice 3 for 4 with a HR against Cincinnati on 11 April..... then down the tubes. *nods in agreement* I see Corey Patterson hit a HR for the Orioles. Quick! Trade Barrett for CPatt! 8)

Damn. I was hoping Orlando would play them tough like they did us.