neely crenshaw

contrary to popular opinion the cubs DO NOT have the pitching to win the world series. the have 1 given(z) and maddux. maddux will be maddux around .500 and win 15ish. #1 wood.....huge question #2 miller...huge question #3 prior question mark...he had over a .5oo era after july 1 #4 williams/rusch mediocre with potential and mediocre #5 dempster...i like him, i have high hopes, he is not a sure thing yet. #6 bullpen...we upgraded. but set up men are up and down. they come out of no where to be good and fade just as quickly. the moves look good on paper but with set up men you never know if every question mark works out we have a chance. that is a huge "if"

basg our whole offseason on the fact that we seemed to have improved our bullpen seems kinda foolish. it should be better but set up men come and go. every year can be an adventure. there is a reason they are set up men/relievers not starters or closers. they can be great one year and awful the next. good pierre may be an improvement on bad corey but if he has a year like last year...it'snot that much better. sme with jones vs burnitz and murton and leftfield ensemble. we are also potentially worse at short/third,catcher and first. just because it will be tough to match those offensive years. we are very injured at pitcher while last year we were healthy in the beginning. the fact is the devil rays hitting is much,much better and if our staff implodes we will be hoping to be as good as the devil rays. we have one sure starter(knock on wood for z) prior was terrible...TERRIBLE after july(5.00 plus era) wood is wood. rusch went 6-7 weeks with an 8.00 era. williams is young and up and down. none of the young'ns showed that they could consistently get people out. we will have a 100 million payroll...we should never fly under the radar. right now we have to be picked even with cincy(or behind) we finished ahead of them but they whipped our butts head to head last year. this is like the 80-90's if ever player has a career year we might make the playoffs.

i do like the signing. my only problem is that this is exactly the type of signing hendry looks for? when was the last guy he signed or trdaed for that was 100% solid? just look at this year- we are hoping pierre and jones bounce back to previous performances. certainly neither is at their peak and could be on the downslide. miller-we all know bullpen is always a gamble. he still has yet to get a proven closer. we got lucky dempster worked out. the past- williamson rusch- 1-11 or something like that nomar burnitz barrett- came off an awful year lee- close but he was not the hitter he is now- far from being a stud except on defense rameriz- horrible d, a year and half of terrible o i do not mind filling in with a gamble but it seems like every single move he makes is a gamble. i realize that in some way, shape, or form all moves are gambles but when you spend 100 mil on a team you should be able to add someone you do not have to hope is healthy or returns to form!

as opposed to the one they had last where their cf had to kick the ball into the infield.

isn't jj just a little older cory with a tad fewer k's and fewer sb's? i would bet it would be easier for a young kid to revert back to his form than an older model.

i think it also takes into account each teams needs. the astros were a playoff and have fewer holes to fill than we do. amd they have not lost clemens yet. he can resign may1. and with his penchant for being on his own terms(like no travel) he may just vactaion until may 1 and sign up then. he will be in shape because of playing the wbc's. we did a lot of treading water. we added bullpen and changed outfield but they aren't a real upgrade just potential. if things go poorly they could be worse than last year,ugh! we did lose nomar and have either gone with neifi or cedeno. we lost cpatt for nothing. we may lose walker.

one other thing...i like the fact that we are better defensively. if you are going to rely on pitching to win you might as well get the best defense you can.

excellent point! now the question with all this big money spending hendry did(alledgedly_ this offseason are we any better? we have pierre...upgrade have needed a leadoff for 2 years jones and murton vs cpatt and burnitz...i know we want to believe that this will be better but truly cpatt and jones are the same player(save for k's) and burnitz is better than murton right now(murton will be better) and there is a good chance that mabry will get a lot of at bats)regardless what some think) nomar vs cedeno or neifi(we know neifi will get a ton of at bats unless lugo is added) dlee and aram vs dlee and aram-it will be difficult for these 2 to duplicate what they did, same with barrett. starting pitching- last year we started with a healthy wood this year we do not. bullpen an obvious improvement they could fall apart but still the right moves! this team is marginally better on paper. however we finished 20 game back. we may have done enough to pass the brewers but not much else. this team and administration remind of the 90's where they put a team on the field that if everything went right they would contend but that happened every 3-4 years. we just spend more money now. and we spend it pretty stupidly! bottom line is we must be healthy and we must get monster years from dlee and aram. bounce back years from jones and pierre...and that still might not be enough!

i beleive stoney said the cubs were hot after zito.

i like williams. but if we are looking at 3,4,5 of maddux,rusch and williams then had better sign some more offense. i like all three but there is a big difference in maddux 3 and maddux 4 or 5. if we are looking at 70 starts from those 3 rather than 75-80 from the big three...then we must have an offense that doesn't rely on pitching alone to win.

why is this surprising? this is exactly what has gone on the last 3 years.

i'm sorry but if we couldn't trade z for tejada straight up then someone is crazy. if i'm the orioles and the cubs mentioned z..i would be all over it. now prior has some health and performance issues so that i could see asking for more. if the cubs traded z for anything less than willie mays circa 65 and steve carlton circa 72..i'm leaving and taking my baseball with me.

i am not unhappy with signing jones. i do think, as we all should know, that with dusty managing he is signed to play everyday not platoon. i do not see a byrnes coming, and if they go after mensch, it will be to play everyday also. i will be unhappy if this is the" impact" siging if the off season. much like burnitz last year. he played hard and better than anyone expected. i do not fault him. the problem was/is that if burnitz is your best offensive outfielder and power hitter- hitting 4th, you do not have a very good outfield or offense. if you have a bomber in left-like manny, a lead off guy in center, and a scrapper like burnitz on the other side you will just fine! if we stay as is..we will be completely relying on pitching. this team is a little better suited to play defense behind that pitching so that will help. the offense would be slightly better IF lee has another great year.

5 mil isn't much? why would we spend even that for a platoon, when playing corey with murton would be basically the same? why not put that into getting a real outfielder? why put what we paid burnitz into a 70%. i mean we had lawton or gerut last year that could have done it..basically as well. if he isn't getting him to play everyday- which with dusty, we all know he is- why pay even that much? i guess with a lefty it woudn't be awful since he would get 70% or better of the swings. i also know that despite his obvious struggles corey never was even given days off against lefties. see also burnitz,jeromy... it just would make more sense-if you were to platoon-to go with murton and corey...and then try to get a stud in right. the only thing that jones has on corey is that we are pretty sure what he will bring. in the three years, he will play- he will hit .250-275-20ish hrs and 70 rbis. with corey we don't know if we will get 2003,2004 or 2005. i just hope that if there are any other possible deals out there, this doesn't kill those. i seriously worry that with pierre,jones, the bullpen and kerry's 12 mil on the books, that we have only a few non-impact signings left. by the way lee and rameriz were far from stars when hendry traded for them. nomar was dumped from world series winning team, hardly the treatment of a "star" player...he was a good gamble but loaded with ? he was actually two years past being the star that tejada is.

jones is 16 mil for 3 years to play not platoon. no matter what we pay him per year actually he will average getting 5.33. this isn't football where we can cut him after a season and not pat him. he is here to start in right or left. he may get some time off against lefties but not a platoon. if we get huff, which we could but probably won't, murton would be the odd man out. with no opening in the outfield for 3 years (except center-possibly) i would think we should deal patterson and murton. i would be happier with a murton,pierre,huff outfield..actually very happy. but after getting jones i would still like to see jones,pierre and huff even if it costs us murton. i just have serious questions about murton,pierre,jones as an outfield on a contender. just too much pressure on pitchers and dlee to come through.

even hendry wouldn't pay someone 5 mil a year for 3 years to platoon. if he wanted to platoon murton with that type of left handed outfielder he would have done it with patterson not much out there to help. millwood may be overrated but he would also help. if wood falters he's our 3, if he comes through he's our four. might be expensive but less expensive than paying kerry wood 12mil to win 4 games or be a set up man. this team is once agins based completely on pitching. we have helped the d, which should help the pitching but if we have to have maddux,rusch and williams start 20 times each we are below .500. we will probably get nothing for patterson. we may get nothing for walker. i would be pretty shocked if we make any more moves of significance.

prior was not even average last year. july 1st on he had an aboce 5.00 era. the second half of the season his stats were not as good as maddux. that was a whole lot of starts and a large sample size. hopefully he will come back better, let's remember how many pitches he was throwing and how few innings. the outfield is better but by how much.it's tough for me to believe that hendry will go with murton in left. can you win at wrigley with an outfield that might not hit 50 hrs combined? with lofton and damon signed, perhaps patterson's value goes up. bottom line is that with this lineup it means we must have great(and healthy) pitching all season. it also means that we must have lee and aram healthy and productive all season. any injury would be devastating!

I don't understand. Do you want the Cubs to make a move right now or would you be ok if they waited until just before Spring Training as long as it's a quality player? fact is..i do not care when they sign. the other fact is hendry has proven time and again that we should expect any move. the longer we wait, the less likely we get anyone of consequence. yeah we got a quality player late last year in burnitz....there are not many options out there and there will be far less in january,febrauary, march.... I don't understand. Do you want the Cubs to make a move right now or would you be ok if they waited until just before Spring Training as long as it's a quality player? And please, don't give me your opinion, I would like just the facts. :D I don't understand. Do you want the Cubs to make a move right now or would you be ok if they waited until just before Spring Training as long as it's a quality player? fact is..i do not care when they sign. the other fact is hendry has proven time and again that we should expect any move. the longer we wait, the less likely we get anyone of consequence. yeah we got a quality player late last year in burnitz....there are not many options out there and there will be far less in january,febrauary, march....

this sounds like another spin on why hendry didn't get his man.... waiting for the big contracts to be up....had to wait for sammy to be traded...everybody overpaid.....we are waiting to get floyd and lee in 07. face it guys we may be done for the year or maybe add jones....but don't see much else on the horizon.

with a name like macias1 that had to be dusty or hendry.

that would be even funnier if it didn't sound so true!

neifi simply can not hit 2nd. because as of right now he is hitting 5th and playing rf,ss and 2b...at the same time! dusty couldn't let cedeno AND murton start. so obviously neifi is going to start at several positions! unless you hit macias fifth...think about that for a while.

don't know but would you have liked to trade cpatt and rusch two years ago for vasquez? yeah we would. let me get this straight we are an organization that hasn't won a title in 97 years and we are worried about being good over the long haul instead of going balls out to win a title(or in the sox case ANOTHER title) please i have had too many years of crap baseball, can we go ahead and try to win one. we can worry about 2 after we win the first one. also our wonderful prospects have done really well so far...good thing we hung onto patterson,guzman,mitre(until now),wellmeyer,brownlee,christensen.....and so on. we have developed z and drafted prior(we did not develop him)....

-we needed to upgrade our outfield and lead off spots, we did that. at least we finally addressed something. after losing out on furcal-what would be a better option? damon(who i really like but) for 5 years or pierre. sorry but we needed something and there simple are not many options out there. we can nt waste another year with corey or neifi leading off. cedeno or murton would be as much a reach as corey was. maybe he dives again but i can live with trying something to get better and failing, rather than rubbing two sticks together and hope lightning strikes!

haven't people had this feeling for last 2 years? i guess if you say it often enough, you are bound to be right once in awhile. to me i don't see us stockpiling assets, i see how hendry has pissed away most of the assets we had when he got here.