champaignchris

Back to the original topic of the thead... Dempster's Harry Caray impression really isn't very good.

My first thought, too. "Can we still have Delgado?"

Cubs trade Len for Hawk. What do we get back? If we don't get the Sox top couple pitching prospects we'd be robbed

Trivia: Soto is 2nd behind Banks for the most home runs hit by a player who played his entire career as a Cub.

It looked like Sveum was going to murder Beliveau right there on the pitching mound. Bet he's on his way back to Iowa within 24 hours. Up by 11 in the 6th. Throw it over the freaking plate!

+1. I like Reed. He'd be welcome back at a reasonable price. He seems to play better in Chicago than elsewhere.

22 years old. 101 ERA+ in 24 career MLB starts. Under team control until 2018. For a 35 year old who is a fee agent at the end of the year? I'll take it.

Is it o.k. to cut Marmol yet... Oh crap! That was a great play! Never mind.

Because everyone wants his ceiling to be Derek Jeter, not Edgar Renteria. A few bad weeks has nothing to do with that, but to see limited amount of offensive improvement makes those scenarios go through your head. And its not like Renteria had a terrible career or anything, but, for me, the glimpses of what Castro may be able to do have endless possibilities and I think of a Jeter-like career. I still think that if Castro got 2,300 career hits and a lifetime OPS of .740 (Renteria), we'd be OK with that, but still a bit disappointed. If you adjust for era, Castro is having a season nearly identical to Jeter's 22 year old season both in the field and at the plate.

Nah.... he's the proverbial flash in the pan. Three years from now he'll be the answer to a trivia question that nobody remembers. [/greenfont] Clearly a flash in the pan. (Justbgot another hit.)

So does anyone else think this Rizzo guy might end up being pretty good?

Will be there. Clouds look ominous, though. Hope they get he game in.

No, he's throwing off a mound on Saturday and at best, makes one start before the ASG. So, another start for Volstad, or Coleman gets a shot, or do the off days make a four man rotation work for a week?

I assume this means that Dempster makes his next start.

Have you not heard about what is going to happen with IL next year? I knew IL play would go on year long. I didn't know each team would be playing 20 games. I was hoping there would be fewer not more IL games I'm hoping each team's IL games aren't bunched together. I don't want the Cubs spending a month playing IL games again. I suspect, as the Cubs are one of the few teams that have an actual IL rivalry, we'll be seeing a Cubs-WS series at the beginning or end of the season.

Is it just me or was inter-league play just interminable this year? Did it go on for an entire month? Now we're hearing that each team will be playing 20 inter-league games next season. Hopefully they'll spread the series around a bit and not group them all together.

Woof! He's 32, hasn't played yet this year because he's coming off major - what was it? Achilles tendon? - surgery, and his rate stats have declined fairly steadily since their 2006/2007 peak. There's a strong possibility that contract is going to make Soriano's contract look reasonable in comparison.

The 8 Black Sox were acquitted, too. History hasn't been kind to them.

No. 25 on that list is Frank Robinson with 512 hits. Castro currently has 422 and I'd say it's a good bet that, barring injury, he'll get 90 more this year. That's not to say that Castro will be a HOFer or even a very good player, but the odds certainly favor it. Of the players with 3,000 hits, Castro has more hits before his 23rd birthday than all of them except Ty Cobb, Robin Yount, and Al Kaline. And that's with about 100 games to play before turning 23.

Disappointing about Stewart. He showed some flashes. You can see why he was such a high draft pick. A guy with power like that should not be turning into a good-fielding, no-hit third baseman like Steve Buechele. But you got to get the bat on the ball to make something good happen, and Ian simply didn't get the bat on the ball enough. On Vitters... No reason not to keep him at AAA and let him try to win the job next year in ST. Probably a September call up at the earliest.

I don't see how the two are mutually exclusive.

Going into the season, I thought the Cubs would be about a 75 win team, plus or minus about 7 wins. I think I was with the majority of the experts and fans on that. Considering that Castro has continued to be Castro, Garza has continued to be Garza, Soriano, DeJesus, and Dempster are all having solid to great bounce-back years, and Lehair and Samardjiza are both exceeding expectations, it's amazing how bad the rest of the team has really had to be for the Cubs to be only 20-40. Especially considering that the team has improved in both baserunning and defense. Barney has been a plus defender and average bat. Stewart has been a plus defender and below average bat. I don't think those are big surprises. What couldn't be predicted was the complete lack of production out of the catcher and center field spot. Byrd and Soto both should have been able to provide league average production for those positions. The Cubs currently have the worst OPS in the majors from their catchers and center fielders. (Obviously injuries have been a big problem with the catching - Did you know who the Cubs' 5th string catcher was at the beginning of the year?) The back end of the rotation has been spotty at best. Still, the rotation is almost a half a run better in ERA this year than last. The issue has been the awful bullpen. People may have predicted that Marmol would continue to be not very good, but to absolutely fall apart? Sveum basically has two reliable options out of the bullpen right now - Russell and Camp - mainly because the most proven members of the bullpen going into the year haven't been able to get anyone out all year. So, basically, if some of the holdovers from last year, K. Wood, Marmol, Byrd, and Soto, had been able to provide something close to the performances one would have expected from their career numbers, the Cubs would be significantly better.

If this were any other shortstop in the league, it would be something that people chuckle over and forget about.

ESPN did their little 10 years draft, drafting a player based on how they will do over the next 10 years. They had 30 experts and 30 fans pick their top 30. Castro went 9th for the experts and didn't get picked by the fans. It was hilarious. Castro probably doesn't look sexy to the common fan. They see the 10 HR and 66 RBI mid to high .700's OPS and supposedly terrible defense and ignore his age, position and hitting ability. Not to mention to expected increase in power. Castro's currently on pace to hit .317, 13 HR, 104 RBI, 211 hits, and 49 steals. If he keeps that up, those are the type of stats that will make the non-SABRE-metrically inclined fan take notice.

Two notes: 1. I had completely deleted Daryle Ward from my mind. He played for the team only 5 seasons ago. 2. Was there a scenario under which the Cubs weren't going to suck this year? The people who are acting like the sky is falling... The sky fell three years ago. Where were you?