Soul

It's a Dusty team. At least 2 or 3 players must sit the bench in favor of lesser players.

Or maybe they have to go through twice the pain. Or maybe they just don't feel anything

Yeah, I wasn't saying you can't watch other teams or know what's going with them, read about them, etc. but I agree with you that it is one or the other. I think being an active fan of both would be like having two girlfriends. For me, it's the Cubs all the way. And when we're playing the Sox, I root against the Sox HARD. However, I can't say I'm carrying around abject hatred for the Sox. When they won it all last year, I wasn't upset with the Sox at all. Good for them. Rather, I was stark raving MAD at the Cubs for being the losingest ballclub ever and not doing enough to change that. I turn my anger and frustration on MY team. I'm very critical of myself in every day life because I believe it drives me to be better. And I carry that over into my sports watching, big time.

I read that as, "I don't pay attention to stats." Oh, hehe. I guess I'm not giving Corey much benefit of the doubt these days :oops: Still though. They say they were working with him to improve plate discipline, right? For CPatt to now say he doesn't even pay attention to walks kind of implies......well you know.

Come on, quit acting like you don't enjoy the trainwrecks. All of you. 8)

I mean that quote pretty much settles it, right? Corey refused to be coached, refused to listen. "I don't even pay attention to that stuff." What more proof does one need? :?:

I guess because he won't bow down to Skiles' powertrip? I hate to go there, but what other explanation works? Gordon's the guy who is capable of bringing us back and winning games late.

.....and the Bulls lose it late. Hrrrmpphhh. Bring on the baseball season.

This could be bad or good. Nah.....that's too negative even for me :oops: I think Jon meant it in a positive way. Yeah. I believe I read the other day that Rothschild was impressed with how well Miller has been doing. He said that he could probably throw off the mound right now but they're going to stick with the conservative plan. Probably a bit of an exaggeration, but as of right now, it's looking rather optimistic for the pitching staff. the other question will be how effective each will be? Impossible to say, of course. At least they are both pitchers who have had success in the league.

Can I write the forward? :)

*sigh* thats pretty ridiculous but your entitled you your opinion. Most of the people participating have been getting ready for quite a while they didnt just show up to spring training and expect to go all out early. Besides pitchers are the only ones that I think would experience anything different than a regular sping training game would be and they are on similar pitch counts to what they would be on during thier spring game rotations. What I think is sad is that there will be some players that will get hurt (happens every spring anyway) and when that happens there will be media and fans that will blame the tournament when the player would/could have suffered the same injury on a spring training game field. Its baseball, and these are baseball players, its what they do. I think they are quite capable of preparing early and knowing what they need to do to get ready to play competitively. You're entitled to think it's ridiculous if you want. It's all about opinions. I happen to think many baseball players *DON'T* know how to prepare, even for Spring Training, which is why players are so often held back during March, and why many others wind up hurting themselves in meaningless ST games. Some are total pros, true. I don't think anyone ever worried about Clemens, for example, because he could be counted on to be ready and to keep his arm in pitching shape year after year. Others? Not quite as professional. A tad more prone to letting themselves go.

Yeah. He's pretty darn good.

I think as more and more top players decide to play in the WBC, more and more of them will suffer injury that will affect their MLB teams. This will result in one of two things: the WBC will become a forum for washouts, minor-leaguers, and college players, or it will become little more than a substitute Spring Training for a few players who will be there in name, but will play at around 50% just to "represent" their country and little else. Going full speed right after an offseason is a terrible idea physically. Anyone can see that.

This could be bad or good. Nah.....that's too negative even for me :oops: I think Jon meant it in a positive way.

Sounds like good news to me. Thanks for the updates.

Dusty has little choice but to give Murton a chance. There isn't anyone else besides a grandpa and a St. Louis washout. Dusty knows when St. Louis gives up on a player it means there's nothing left. And everyone knows Grissom just can't get on with his life. Come on. It's Murton or bust. Even Dusty knows that much.

If you want 4 tix together and it's a weekend game, then I find yes they sell quickly. However----and I saw this alot last year---if the Cubs are looking bad most of those tix will be available for sale at the game. There will be alot of groups that have 1 or 2 people decide they would rather spend the time futzing around the house or what-not than travel all the way to Milwaukee to watch a bad Cub team.

:lol: With that wry smile on Walker's face, I had to do a double take to make sure it wasn't his middle finger sticking up.

Alot of times it's not that tickets are held back, but that the sale doesn't go through. Ticketmaster generally recommends you continue trying because if, for some odd reason, someone's sale is cancelled or something then those tix go back on sale. Happens with the Bears all the time (though I admit I've never checked back for Cub tix).

Absotively. I'm all for high expecations and whatnot, but let's give it a while before we judge where these guys are at mentally. Every spring you hear stories of increased focus, attention to detail, players in the best shape of their life, and it's not easy, at least for me, to buy this stuff when you've heard it all before. ....and we have our winner. Bob, tell him what he's won. Well Chip, Goony has won an entire year's worth of heartache, misery, and complete disappointment. Actually, he probably experiences quite a bit less than those who build their hopes up sky high only to be cut down to Earth for the.........100th or so time 8)

I can't imagine how many blown steals Pierre will have when Neifi fouls off a pitch in the dirt after Pierre is almost standing on second. There is still no doubt in my mind Perez will be the starting SS. Are we all talking about the same Juan Pierre? Or are some of you assuming he's going to all of a sudden start stealing at an 80% success rate? I won't mention that he needs to also improve his OBP for any of this concern regarding the #2 position to be relevant. I loathe the idea of Perez starting at second, but if neither Walker nor Hairston clearly beats him out statistically then that's more of a slam on Walker and Hairston. I'm not a big fan of Baker to say the least. But I'll give him a little more of a chance since he'll have no excuses this year. After all, he finally has more speed, a leadoff man, a good bullpen and better defense up the middle.... something he's been crying about since the end of 2003. Now he has no excuses to fall back on. I don't remember writing about him having a 80% steal rate but I'll read my post again to see if I did........nope, I didn't. My point is that Perez will take away steals from him because he swings at every pitch. And again I will say that Perez will be starting at SS and play in at least 140 games. At 3.23 pitches per PA Neifi ranked 146 of 148 qualified MLB batters in ESPN's stats. I doubt Dusty knows that. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/stats/batting?seasonType=2&type=exp&sort=pitchesPerPlateAppearance&minpa=0&split=0&season=2005&pos=all&hand=a&league=mlb&ageMin=17&ageMax=51&qual=true&count=109 I doubt he cares, either. Dusty was never one to let reality get in the way of favoritism. Kind of like Scott Skiles and Kirk Heinrich. If he's your boy, then he can do no wrong. Neifi is Dusty's boy.

I didn't bother trying for a weekend game. Got section 120 row 8 for SD 5/12. I'll take a vacation day and make a weekend out of it. I haven't been to Wrigley in 5 years, so it should be really fun.

Exactly. Anyone ever heard of Ty Cobb? You know, First guy ever inducted into the hall of fame.... lets talk about some of the things he did: Spiked people One time, gashed the entire back of a mans leg open by spiking He SHARPENED his spikes as to have them inflict more damage He broke a womans (she was a member of his family) nose w/ a baseball bat Beat both of his wives Abandoned his children Claimed to kill (with the butt/scope of a gun) a man who tried to mug him, and from all accounts he's telling the truth Tried to kill a hotel manager when he was told to quiet down, others were sleeping. Carried a gun, and beleived it was his *right* to use it on anyone that pissed him off... The list goes on. . Yet Pete Rose isn't in for gambling, more MLB hypocrisy. In Cobb's defense, when he killed the guy it was in self defense, the thugs who jumped him on his way to the stadium did stab him several times in the back causing serious wounds. Cobb refused to see a doctor and played later that day with blood staining the back of his jersey, several newspapers at the time confirmed this story, and Cobb in the early 60's showed Al Stump his wounds on his back when Stump questioned him about the incident. But ya, Cobb was a serious douche-bag....nevertheless, he was one of the top 5 greatest players ever in my opinion. http://www.cmgworldwide.com/baseball/cobb/images/C5.jpg Cobb is an extreme example, though a good one. Still, one doesn't need to bring up Ty Cobb to illustrate why keeping Sosa out of the hall for purely personality reason is hypocritical. This is professional sports circa 2006. The egos flying around your average clubhouse are pretty enormous. Sammy was certainly one of them. But check the average year's hall of fame class. Many of these guys had their moments----many were downright incorrigible. I just don't think personal dislike for somebody should be the deciding factor, which it appears to be for at least some of the voters. By the way, a reasonably strong argument can be made that personal dislike on the part of many voters is what keeps Ronnie Santo out of the hall. I believe that's wrong as well.

It was a lot more than that. The reason we failed in 2005? Simple, really. We stunk.

How are Hidalgo's numbers the past two years when compared with Gonzalez'? Don't know. I don't advocate signing either one. Why do you want the Cubs to sign Hidalgo? Because there's little left to choose from and our outfield is terrible? And Hidalgo makes it better? Why not wait and see who will be available near the end of spring training? Maybe he does, maybe he doesn't. How does it cause harm to bring him in? If someone else comes free during ST, you just dump him and bring the other guy in----?