soccer10k

Awesome.

I don't see Jones being traded before the trade deadline in 2007.

Too true.

I wish Dusty held that philosophy.

Alex Sanchez career: .296/.330/.372 Is Alex Sanchez a class A FA? No. Does Juan Pierre's last 2 years compare with Sanchez? No. The only 2 things Pierre has on Sanchez is AB and a clean bill of health. That teams are dumb enough to continue hitting such a poor hitting hitter at the top of the order does not make him a class A free agent. If the Cubs want to fill CF next year, they could get the same or better effects by trading for Sanchez. No thanks. The Cubs have somewhat identical options in their own minor leagues if they want a fast, low OBP lead off hitter who will make really fast outs. I don't want to keep Pierre. Please don't mistake my post for a desire to keep Pierre. In fact, I'd personally try to deal him prior to July 31. On the other hand, if he's still on the team, I think the Cubs have to risk the arbitration offer. If he's had a half-way decent second half, I think he'll reject the offer in favor of negotiating a multi-year deal which will help the Cubs recoup a draft pick that will likely be spent when we sign a FA of our own. Agreed. I believe that some team will offer Pierre a multi year deal. Not sure who that is, but I don't see Pierre signing a one year deal especially if he continues to improve.

But as was stated, there are so many teams that still have a shot to make the postseason which means few teams will be willing to trade big league players. There will be some trades, and there have been a couple already, and it's unlikely that this years deadline will be as dead as last years, but I don't think there will be a ton of trades. Soriano will get traded but I think Willis stays in Florida.

Zeppelin easily.

I don't think that will be a problem.

That Italian team are World Cup champs. I don't think anything else matters to them. That seems to be apparent, considering the way they went about doing it. Yeah, their defense was stellar throughout the whole tournament.

You make a valid point but I think Zito's going to get at least $12 mil a year on his deal and could be up to $15 mil a year. His agent is Boras now and the Yankees and Red Sox will be going after him. Forget it. Yeah, the only way the Cubs get him is if he really wants to come to Chicago and will take a $2-3 less mil a year to come here. So like CBB said, forget it. For that matter, I think we can forget about Jason Schmidt too especially if the Giants want to keep him, which I think they do. San Francisco has a TON of money coming off the books this year and will probably have over $30 mil to spend. If they want Schmidt in a Giants uniform in 2007, they'll have him in one.

You make a valid point but I think Zito's going to get at least $12 mil a year on his deal and could be up to $15 mil a year.

Yeah. I should have said that Jones has a right to be angry. If he wants to rip the fans, he should do it though to press and not start an argument with a fan while on the field. He could have strongly voiced his opinion that the fans weren't treating him well and that he wasn't pleased with it. In that case, Jones has a right to be mad for being booed while somebody like Neifi or Glendon doesn't because they're having horrible years.

yeah, that 2005 era of 4.51 is a spitting image of this year's 3.47. I think he was talking about personel... Still may not be true, just pointing that out. Justin Verlander and Joel Zumaya have gone a long way in helping this club out. Ditto Chris Shelton coming out of nowhere at the beginning of the year. We'll see how they do down the stretch. Some of these guys have never played this many games before in a season. I'm waiting for the Tigers to go into a bit of a slump. I think the White Sox will end up winning the division and the Tigers the Wild Card but I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if the Tigers missed the playoffs altogether. Don't think the latter will happen but it is a possibility.

Vance, I agree with your whole stance in this thread.

Agreed. It's not as if Cedeno is known for his unbelievably accurate throwing arm. Ronny has made numerous throwing errors on the year so who is to say that he didn't make another one here. I'm not trying to place the blame on Ronny but I'm just throwing it out there (no pun intended).

Fact: Jacque Jones in 2006 does not suck. In fact, far from it. He has probably been the most productive player on the Cubs this year. I realize it isn't saying much because the Cubs are pathetic but that shouldn't come into play too much when discussing the productivity of a player. Fact: Jacque Jones is on pace to put up career highs in 2B, HR, RBI, BA, OPS, and near career highs in H, OBP, SLG. That is not a bad year. That surpasses what anybody should have expected out of Jacque. Do I like his OBP? Of course not. But is it about as good as he is going to get? Yes. Stop blaming Jacque for this because this is how he is as a player. You don't like his productivity, blame Jim Hendry for signing him. But please stop criticizing a player who is on pace to put up a career high or near career high in virtually every major offensive category. It's stupid. Go ahead and rip the team all you want. I'll join in with you on that one. But Jacque Jones is not the problem with the team. He is not the reason the Cubs are 21 games under .500 this year. It's ridiculous to rip Jacque Jones for anything this year. At the beginning of the year when he was on his 0 for the first few games, a majority of the people on the site were jumping all over him as were the fans at Wrigley. But very few people brought up the fact that we were only a week or two into the season. I kept my mouth shut because I knew he would eventually start to hit. It was all a matter of time. Sure enough, he started to. Quietly, as I stated before, he has become one of the more productive hitters on this team this year. And yet people continue to bash him. I'll admit that Jacque shouldn't bat against LHP but guess what, that isn't my call. It's Dusty's. Don't you think Jacque would love to only bat against RHP? I'm sure he would and his line against righties (.340/.373/.583/.955) backs that up. I believe that the issue with this team is less with the players and more with the actual coaching staff and management. Would this team be a playoff team with a different staff? Unlikely. But it is likely that, with the NL in a down year, the team would be a deadline deal or two (or a hot streak) away from being a serious contender to make the postseason. In short, with all the unnecessary abuse Jacque has had to endure this year, I have absolutely no problem with him yelling at the fans. Now, if this was somebody else overreacting to the first time he was booed this year, that would pose a problem. But Jones has been getting bashed all year long and finally blew a fuse adn I don't blame him at all mainly because of his productivity this year. If Neifi Perez or Glendon Rusch started an argument with the fans for booing them, that would be stupid because those two are horrible players. But Jacque isn't a horrible player. And that's a fact. EDIT: Sorry ndistops but this rant was not directed at you. I just quoted you because it was your post that got me thinking about a couple things and the rant went on from there. No offense was intended.

In rivalries, I stated how Cardinal fans were going ballistic because the Cards were on an eight game losing streak, their first since 1988. I wonder how many eight game + losing streaks we've had over the last eight years let alone the last eighteen! I thought about this for a few minutes but can't remember where I read it so please, if somebody remembers, let me know. There was something that talked about which team was the more cursed team, the Red Sox or the Cubs. It said that Cubs fans would love to have gone through the suffering that the Red Sox have gone through over the years. It's my feeling exactly. Even though neither team won a series for a LONG time but at least the Red Sox have been close. The Cubs are known as the lovable losers because they lose. The Red Sox were known for choking against the Yankees. But at least the Red Sox tasted success. Every team goes through a few down years in a row. But the Cubs have had a down 60 years since their last World Series appearance. That's a longer drought than the second longest World Series championship drought (Cleveland). If that's a little confusing it means the Indians have won a World Series since the Cubs have been in a World Series. Sometimes it's just sad how more pathetic the Cubs are as a franchise than other teams.

Agreed. The Cubs are more likely to sweep the Cards than get swept by the Cards.

NOBODY CARES, AGAIN!! READ THE NAME OF THE THREAD AGAIN!!! Done. Do you realise how stupid your post looks yet? Have you read the whole thread yet? I'm not exactly the only one that thinks it's stupid that CubsBullsBears seems to care more about the White Sox and Cardinals losing than the Cubs winning and bashes those two teams every single chance he gets. That's what I was responding to. Would you like me to change my post so it says (sans all caps of course) "Very few people care"? Would that make you feel better? How about this: why don't you criticize everybody whose point of view disagrees with what the topic is dealing with. Because the last time I checked you didn't do that. Until you do that, don't criticize me.

Which Gary Matthews Jr. will people see next year? Defensively he is great, but offensively will it be a continuation of what he is doing this year or will he revert back to what he was in previous years? If he's on the Cubs, he reverts back. If he's not on the Cubs, he continues what he's doing this year.

That Italian team are World Cup champs. I don't think anything else matters to them.

Cubs lose.

That could be the ugliest looking double play I've ever seen.

And ARam kills the chance at a comeback.

Yeah. That wasn't even close. How do they think the ball ricocheted like it did. There's no way it hits off the fence and does that. It obviously didn't hit the ivy/wall.