Soul

Williams is a bit of an enigma for me. It looks like we are going to need a breakout season from him to truly compete, yet his past inconsistencies keep his value relatively low IMO. Yet, when he's good, he's good.

I, too, am holding out some hope that this team will perform above expectations and at least compete for a playoff spot. However, my intellect (or what's left of it) tells me: 1) On paper there are 3 better teams in the division 2) Career years from a few of our guys will make up much of that ground, but career years can't be counted on. 3) It is likely, given our history, that significant injuries will take place----and only one serious injury to our starting rotation will likely be unrecoverable. 4) Our outfield is still one of the worst in baseball. I'm sure some teams go to the playoffs with a substandard OF, but ours seems really bad to me. Maybe these things can be overcome. I don't know. There's always hope I suppose.

I don't think there is such a thing as getting a grasp on Soriano. While with NY he put up MONSTER road stats (Yankee Stadium is not friendly to RHH). One would assume that he would have put up monster numbers at a hitter's park both home and away but he didn't (and if he did he would NOT be available). Did he stop taking pitches? No. Has he slowed down? No. Did his power diminish? No. He is what he is. A very good offensive player with power and speed. If he added OBP he would be a great player but there's no reason to expect him to suddenly go Bonds on you. He is what he is. You mean there's no reason to expect he will start pumping roids to improve his stats? Darn it!!

I don't know, when compared to last year's lineup, I think it's better. Corey or Neifi aren't leading off or in the lineup at all. Murton's in it for hopefully the full season. Pierre>Patterson or Neifi leading off Jones=Burnitz(in my opinion, and could be even better if he returns to pre-2005 numbers) Cedeno>Neifi I'm trying to keep a little optimism here, but alas I cannot seem to get much traction.... I hope you are right. Still though, I see 3 teams in our division who look better than us right now (could change, hopefully it does or hopefully I'm wrong).

The nuclear option has been exercised. Grissom a Cub 8) There will be no one to stop us now.

Wow. Hey things are lookin' up now, eh? :?

This looks like a rumor as written, and not even a real solid one. Sounds to me like this is a lot of hullabaloo over nuttin' :wink:

Hope she's right? Why? That's a 4th place lineup you're looking at.

I think it really is sickening the way that people threw him under the bus after one lousy 2004 season. Yes, he had a bad year. But, that should not have offset how many great years he gave us. I think it was shameful how the organization treated him on the way out. One bad season should not erase the many, many great ones he had for us. I don't think many folks "threw under the bus" b/c he did not play well in 04'. At least that's not why I was (am) upset with him (see above). Whatever reasons you dislike him, I respect. However, I think the vast majority of Cub fans turned on Sammy during the 2004 season. He was struggling, got moved down in the order, stood 10 feet off the plate, had a miniscule batting average, and got booed at home. Yes, booed. After all he did for this team and the fans, one bad year and they booed the hell out of him. The fact that he walked out during the final game in 2004 was just the icing on the cake for a lot of folks. Sammy started to get his detractors in 2003, but it seemed like the more he struggled at the plate, the more people forgot about past years and only focused on the "right now." First the media turned on him big time. And then the fans followed. I don't care to get into the reasons I think all of that happened. I still remember the good times, and that's all I care about. Sammy will always be a GOOD THING as far as I'm concerned. Perfect? Of course not. But definitely good IMHO.

2) Being a Cub player is wonderful. You don't have to learn any lessons and your manager doesn't care.

SAMMY can't be very choosy at this point.

Prior's arm is "sore" now? Since when?

I'm going to assume that was an attempt at humor. I know it definitely made me laugh.

Just looked at his picture on the website. *sigh* So young. You know you're getting old when grown men in their 20's start looking like babies to you 8) Here's hoping he excels and turns out to be a great ballplayer for us :)

I'd be a lot happier with that lineup if Walker had a spot in it. Hell, I'd be happier with Hairston at 2B over Neifi. Those numbers would be a best-case scenario as far as I'm concerned. I still don't understand why Walker must be traded so we can start Neifi. What in the world is going on with that situation? Why must Walker go? Just because? And we wonder why this ballclub is a ship without a sail?

We'll need career years/return to past glory from quite a few players, combined with poor luck for our chief rivals, just to climb into contention this year. I suppose it could happen. Anything can happen. I'm officially classifying the 2006 season as suspect until I see differently though. Hopefully I'm wrong. As for Giles: the guy loves SD. Good for him. What I don't understand is, why do Cubbie failures always boil down to the failure of one or two signings, or one or two players? Why do other teams overcome their difficulties while we are always destroyed by them? There's one reason. Bad organization. This team is run poorly from the top down. It's the *only* possible explanation for 100 years of consistent failure. Until that changes, we can look forward to more decades of wallowing in mediocrity with an occasional good year in between.

Fair enough. I know for my part I will lose exactly zero sleep if this whole thing fades away and is forgotten sooner rather than later.

Good point. Look at these 2nd half numbers too: July: .330 .377 .557 August: .277 .314 .411 September: .265 .317 .368 What a dropoff. At the risk of sounding like a conspiracy theorist, there have been steroid allegations as well----from none other than Raffy himself. Canseco has said he's suspicious of Tejada.... Plus he's a malcontent. That's enough for me. Stay away.

If Prior for Tejada isn't good enough for them, then these things must inexorably be true: 1) They vastly overrate Tejada's value 2) They don't really care whether they have a disgruntled player in the locker room or not 3) Tejada won't be traded because they'll never get better value for him than Prior.

I think if it was going to happen it would have happened. Count this one dead unless significantly modified. This is the kind of deal that has less & less of a chance of becoming a reality the longer it sits on the table. Why? Very risky for the Cubs, who are just as desperate to keep or acquire starting pitching as they are hitting. The longer a big risk like this sits around, the larger doubts will loom in the mind of Hendry. I say deal dead, unless it comes through in a significantly modified form.

And what makes you think Prior won't bolt the second he hits free agency? And what makes you think he will? Besides, the Cubs have Prior under control through 2008. Tejada can demand a trade one year after being traded. Because I've heard that Prior doesn't like the way that Dusty handles his pitchers. Is is that unrealistic to think he might want to go to a team that ... you know, wins? I would if I were him. Are you saying you think Dusty will be Cubs manager in 2008? Doubtful, unless he wins. I consider it doubtful Hendry will be here either, unless he......you know, wins. 8)

Our starting pitching is already pretty shaky. I'm not sure how we replace that big a hole in the rotation? He's our best, or 2nd best pitcher and we really have nothing else after Z & P? What good is Tejada putting up 120 RBIs when you can't stop anyone from scoring? Is Prior really hurt worse than anyone has said, or maybe Hendry has lost confidence in his ability to stay healthy now? I've got lots of questions about this one. Whenever that happens, I usually shy away. We'll see though. This is the kind of deal that has "RISK" written all over it in big, bold, red letters.

There is some improvement over last year that I can see. But I think we need to do a little gap analysis here. Is the team we are assembling enough to overcome a 21 game deficit with the Cards? The answer is clearly no-----not even close. Once we've established that, we should also look at the future prospects of the ballclub. That is to say: even if we can't overcome the gap in 2006, is this team likely to improve and overcome that gap in future seasons? Looking at our minor league system, it's not good. And salary-wise, it just seems as though we are spending alot for relatively little. I would have to say this ballclub will likely NOT improve and overcome the gap with our rivals in future seasons. So, while the improvement is good, it really isn't close to enough and it doesn't seem to be a "building" process as much as a "plug the holes in the dam with your fingers" process. The obvious conclusion being----unless the Cards and Stros come back down to us, it's not very likely the team Hendry is assembling will overcome these deficits.

Must be nice to be the Cards. All they have to do is reach out and sign some underachieving position player, or another shaky pitcher, and watch as they magically turn to gold playing in St. Louis. I like Jocketty, but he lives the life of Riley. If the Cubs signed Encarnacion there's just no question he would suck the entire season. But as a Cardinal, I'll bet he puts up decent numbers.

Jones will be useful in 75% of the games and it will be nice to have a good glove in RF. He's not garbage or some "homeless home," but Hendry needs to find a right handed hitter who can replace Jones from time to time in RF. This signing isn't good, but the sky's not falling either. No need for hysteria. Definitely no need for hysteria. We weren't a contender before this acquisition, and we still aren't. Status quo.