soccer10k

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.

Juve is lucky they didn't get sent to Serie C. Wonder what's going to happen with all of the players now. I heard that all the players for the relegated teams could basically become free agents.

Cubs taking the field.

I need to see something from Prior. How do we know if we shut him down he won't be too weak for ST next year and we start this whole thing all over again? No, I'm against shutting Marky Mark down. He needs to come back and prove he can pitch. I'm in full Prior watch mode----no longer 100% convinced he will ever be back to what he was in '03. If he basically misses the ENTIRE SEASON this year because he got the flu 6 months ago???--then maybe I start shopping him a little in the offseason. If we shut him down and let the rookies (Hill/Guzman/Ryu/Marmol) start the rest of the way - which would be even easier if Maddux gets traded - then we can figure out if any of them can be counted on for rotation spots next year. If we assume Z and Marshall are locks for the rotation next year that leaves 3 spots for 5 potential starters. Knowing what the young guys can give us will also affect how hard we go after free agent pitchers in the offseason. Marmol is pitching well and is looking like a strong candidate for a rotation spot. Don't forget that the Cubs also brought Wood back last year to pitch at the end of the year and that probably screwed him up for this year. I don't want that to happen to Prior in 2006/2007. I would love to see how Prior can pitch as much as anybody - and have stated so numerous times - but I just get the feeling that he's not going to be healthy this year and we would be better off saving him for next year. As with Wood, no sense wasting him during a lost season when we should be saving him for next year.

Either way somebody looks stupid for this statement. Either Hernandez is incorrect and he's an idiot for saying this or Hernandez is correct and management are idiots for not doing this sooner.

the cubs don't have a decent ph, and even one of them should miraculously reach, pierre ain't going to bunt-homerun them home anyway. Z is on the bench.

It is dumping in Chicago right now.

The Cubs are easily a 90 loss team which is very bad. They finished 34-54 in the first half which is a .386 winning percentage. To avoid finished with 90 losses (i.e. 73-89) the Cubs would need to finish the year 39-35 which is a .527 winning percentage which would obviously be a significant improvement over the first half of the year. So even with that huge improvement the Cubs would still finish the year 16 games under .500. This team is bad and only an A's like streak will get them to .500 for the year. BTW, I don't mind the optimism Scott because it provides a debate for the board.

Maybe somebody will spit on him as he is leaving the park. "Nice game, pretty boy!" "That is one magic loogie" :lol: "I'm Keith Hernandez" Hilarious episode, well, technically episodes since it was a 2 parter.

Len and Bob have been talking about OBP a decent amount this year. They also show OBP as one of the stats for each hitter on WGN along with BA, HR, and RBI if my memory serves me correctly.

NOBODY CARES, AGAIN!! READ THE NAME OF THE THREAD AGAIN!!! Done.

Actually it would be August 5. :)

NOBODY CARES, AGAIN!! It's different if you live in Chicago. Oh that's right, I wouldn't want to get hasseled by those White Sox fans all the time.

I'm not sure I'd trade Aramis for Abreu straight up, let alone throwing in Marshall, Jones, and cash. Abreu is 32, has seemingly lost his power stroke (8 homers this season), and has probably peaked. Aramis is 28 and probably has not yet peaked and plays a position that I think is more difficult to replace (I don't think Koskie is a good option there). It would have to be an EXTREMELY good deal for me to want the Cubs to trade ARam. Also, we would me better off trying to land ARod with the Jones-ARam-Marshall combination. Wouldn't be a horrible deal from the Yankees perspective as they would get a productive 3B, an OF, and a starter. Not that it will happen though.