Old Style Man

Why not Adam Dunn? Because he's a terrible baseball player? I really have no idea why his name is continually brought up.

Baseball America's Will Lingo on Nate Spears: " That's an interesting comparison between Spears and Roberts. I went back and looked at our report on Roberts when he was No. 10 on the Orioles list before the 2001 season, and here's what it says: "His tools aren't overwhelming, but the package is greater than the sum of its parts." That's a lot like what we say about Nate Spears now, though Roberts' tools back then probably graded a shade ahead of Spears' across the board. The Orioles prospect list is also stouter now than it was then. But if you're asking me to guess, then no, I don't think Spears will develop power and I think he'll be a utility guy." Mods, go ahead and edit if I included too much.

Baker's situation really reminds me of Dick Jauron towards the end of the run. Jauron was loyal to his guy Shoop to a fault. He wasn't concerned about what was in the best interests of the Bears, the organization, or with his players. Similary, Dusty is loyal to his "guys" to a fault, stubbornly continuing to play guys who underperform, like Corey, Hollandsworth (I know, I know, he has been much better the last month or so), and Neifi, despite the fact that it is obviously not in the best interests of the Cubs organization, the fans, or the other players who only want to win. Plus, both Jauron and Dusty seem equally clueless when explaining what they are trying to do and what is going wrong.

Craig, If Lee is hurt its irrelevent what Dusty does. As you know, I've been pretty defensive of Baker while others have been piling on. His refusal to play anybody but "his guys" and to change the lineup to anything that makes sense has made me change my mind, though. There is no excuse for not playing Cedeno at least a couple times a week at short and at the top of the order, and for not getting Hairston more at bats, whether in left or center field. Anybody paying attention realizes this, and that includes the players. Ramirez's and Hairston's comments make that clear. So, of course he is losing his players, and he has lost much of the fan base. I would think Dusty would get a clue while watching Atlanta, which has 3 rookies playing every day now, including Kelly Johnson, Betemit, and I believe Ryan Langerhans. These guys are playing instead of bad, washed up vets, and Atlanta is rollinig. Think the Cubs couldn't do the same with Cedeno and perhaps Murton? I'm to ticked off.

Where do the Twins need to upgrade? 2B, 3B and SS look like opportunities to upgrade. 5th starter? Lefty in the bullpen to replace Mulholland? Hairston and Remlinger? Only problem with that is Remlinger isn't an upgrade over anyone, and I don't think that Hairston is much, if any, better than their current 2b options. They aren't giving up Ford for these guys.

Of course, I do agree with those who say that trading for a veteran left fielder with a good stick and adequate defense would go a long way towards solving the production problem in the outfield. I don't see Patterson going anywhere else this year, or probably even next, but a lot of us have very legitimate reasons for getting very tired of him. I'm not going to the park or booing him, but he really needs to start showing more patience and discipline. He has too many big league at bats not to.

I have been very patient with Patterson, defending him to a lot of Cubs fans who became frustrated with him sooner than I. However, I see no growth, improvement, or process. He doesn't look as good defensively as he was last year, and his plate discipline is still non-existant. Here is a link to stats that show what major league center fielders with enough bats to qualify are doing: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/stats/batting?seasonType=2&type=reg&sort=avg&minpa=0&split=0&season=2005&pos=cf&hand=a&league=mlb&ageMin=17&ageMax=51 Of 23 qualified center fielders, only Vernon Wells, Finley, and Grady Sizemore have a worse OBP, and only Kotsay, David Dejusus, Jeremy Reed, Willy Tavaras, Juan Pierre, Sizemore, Bernie Williams, Finley, and Wells have a worse OPS. In addition, Patterson is in only in the middle of the pack in average and stolen bases. He's second to last in walks, (after Sizemore), and he is 19th in RBI. His defense, I'm sure, is in the top third or the top quarter, but he has been no where near gold glove caliber like last year in my opinion. And Rowand, since you asked, has less home runs than Corey (10 to 4) and the same number of stollen bases (7), but is superior in every other category. In addition, only Edmonds and Wilkerson have struck out more than Patterson, but their productiion has been far superior. So, after thinking about my original post, maybe I wouldn't prefer Vernon Wells, but I'll stick to my opinion that I'd rather have anyone else on the list for this year. In Corey's defense, only Reed, Sizemore, Tavarez, and Dejusus are younger, and Wells is a year older, but his lack of improvements and adjustments are very troubling.

First, there isn't a hatred for Patterson as you claim, except for perhaps by a few extreme nut cases, but there is a lot of frustration and the view that Patterson just doesn't get it, and he won't ever get it. He is now 25. Still young, but he has a lot of major league at bats right now. You asked who I'd rather have playing center right now for the sake of this year's team? Okay. Here is a list in no particular order: Brady Clark Milton Bradley Johnny Damon Carlos Beltran Mark Kotsay Aaron Rowand Dave Roberts Jim Edmonds Juan Pierre Andruw Jones Tori Hunter Vernon Wells Brad Wilkerson Craig Monroe I'm not saying I'd deal Corey straight up for all of these guys, but I certainly would for most. Maybe not Roberts because of his age, or Wilkerson because of his injuries, or perhaps Monroe because of his inexperience playing center, but the rest are much, much better players at this point.

They may have stopped selling them, but for all the people that had them, of course we would get to keep ours. Yeah, the stopped selling those to new season ticket seekers in 2003 because the demand for season tickets was so high. Bastards!! Although I did create my own night and weekend bleacher package yesterday so I shouldn't be complaining. After all my work yesterday, now I feel I can brag about what I got...not sure if this is a complete list as I am still trying to track down everything I bought for myself. Hopefully we can get a tickets exchange out here, because some of these may become available. The only game I wanted but didn't get was June 13-FLA. But if anyone has any on here they should push them vance's way...maybe I could facilitate a 3 way trade so Vance can get tix. April 9-Mil-4 bleachers May7-Phi-6 Terrace May 20-CWS-6 Terrace May 21-CWS-4 bleachers May 29-Col-6 bleachers June 11-BOS-4 bleachers Jul-2-WSH-6 bleachers Jul-16-Pit-6 bleachers Jul 25-SF-6 bleachers Jul 30-AZ-6 bleachers Aug 13-STL-4 bleachers Aug 14-STL-6 Terrace Aug 22-ATL-2 UD Aug 27-FLA-6 bleachers Aug 28-FLA-6 bleachers Aug 29-LA-6 bleachers Sept 17-STL-6 bleachers Sept 19-STL-4 UD Sept 24-Hou-6 bleachers Jon, go to Cubs.com now for the 6/13 game. Bleacher seats are still available. I just ordered two.

I'll chime in here, though my thoughts aren't going to be profound. This, as I think I've mentioned, was my first convention. I ended up just going with my dad, who has been a huge fan forever. It was his first convention as well. One of my friends who was supposed to have driven up Saturday couldn't make it because of the weather. Too bad. We really had a great time. As noted in this thread, I met Mark Peel and JohnMDavis at the coaches session. The mysterious liquid Mark Peel observed was coffee. It was too early to start drinking. Had to wait until lunch for that. My activities focused on the mangagement meetings primarily, though I did get to the John Williams' pitchers and catchers segment and the hitters segment with Banks, Williams, Cey, Glenallen Hill and Jody Davis. The pitchers and catchers session was great. John Williams did by far the best of any moderator I saw, and Barret, Dempster, and Prior were all hilarious. No doubt Dempster is a different kind of dude. If he can throw enough strikes he probably will be a very effective closer. I can't imagine much of anything rattling him. He said the Philidelphia fans are the worst hecklers. He once had to tell a guy that he doesn't heckle him when he's working at the drive through at McDonald's, so why was he helcking him? I really enjoyed the sessions with Baker and Hendry, the farm report, and the business report with McDounagh and Mark McGwire. I concur that the new plans for Wrigley look pretty good. Of course we'd all it to remain exactly as is, but more revenue really has to be raised somehow from the ballpark considering everyone else in the division has a new stadium (the Cards will soon). I think these plans are a pretty good compromise. I didn't get any autographs. I'm not really too interested in that, but overall it was really good experience.

Wow. I am so jealous of all attending. Thanks for the updates. I can't wait til spring training. I'll be there from March 13th through the 17th. The thing that sounds so great is that everyone else is so optimistic, too. Kerry said this is the first year people have been asking about the World Series. Makes me shiver just thinking about it.