Jehrico

I'm watching MLBTV, and he's mostly just barely missing.

Interesting Stat...Zambrano has the 2nd lowest ERA since 2003 in the NL.

I think he's up to 33 pitches now with 2 outs. Screw this ump, he was giving Harang a better zone than he is Z.

This ump is a homer...

2 out, 3-run HR for Murton!

Come on Harang, throw a pitch already! he keeps throwing to 1st to hold Jones. 2-2 count on Murton

That was a nice snag. Barrett hit that one pretty well.

I lost MLBTV for a little bit (missed TWalks double and DLees walk), but I got it back now

But I thought they cancelled plans for it? Or is that chain-linked fence there just for the fun of it? I heard they were going through with it, but they'd be closing it during games because it 'wasn't fair for paying customers" I thought they were concerned for safety, as I could easily see a good-sized crowd wrestling for position so they could catch the game for free. Those guys who stand outside the park waiting for homers are agressive enough as it is without them adding something like that in there...

I'd be thrilled if Ronny hits well enough to warrant consideration for that spot. If he can continue to hit .300 and walk enough for a .350 OBP or better (high expectations, yes, unrealistic, maybe, impossible, no), I think Cedeno could make a great 2 hitter.

I like how they've redone the bleachers, from the angles I can pick up, they don't look to detract from the feel Wrigley had before they started this work. I was a little worried about how it would look after seeing that monstrocity that they created out of Soldier Field. Was anyone else a little concerned based on that?

Holla historically is a pretty good bat off of the bench. We would be furoious here if Hendry made the same move because we know that Baker would be too tempted to start him over Murton after his first 0 for 8 streak. The Indians are going to use him properly, I think. Baker would not. If Baker could be trusted to use him correctly, I'd like to have him on the bench.

Well done Bruce. That's the lineup I want to see all year. That's pretty close to what I'd do, except I'd bump Jones down to 7th, and move Barrett up to 5th and Murton 6th.

Cubs.com historically has not been very good about keeping up the 40 and 25 man rosters accurately. I've checked them every year since '02, and they've always had mistakes coming out of ST on there.

2004 predicted 90-72 actual 89-73 2005 predicted 83-79 actual 79-83 Interesting how 2004 was off by one game, and in 2005, they're prediction was about on what we should have won if you consider the runs we scored vs the runs we gave up. However, their '05 prediction, if I recall correctly, counted on healthy seasons from Wood and Prior as well. We performed about how they predicted without getting the starts from those two that they predicted we'd need.

I always glean headlines from prosportsdaily.com...they're pretty good about centralizing headlines from all of the major Chicago newspapers into one source, including the Trib, Suntimes, Daily Herald, and the little known Daily Southtown. You can also easily see from their cubs page what the media outlets from the other markets are saying about the Cubs, which I really like. But of the three chicago newspapers, I like the herald the best. For stats and boxscores, I usually use Sportsline.com.

I've got MLBTV. I'm just going to close the door to my office and put on the headphones while I catch up on some SOPs that I'm rewriting.

so you're saying that group A (jones, pierre, eyre, howry, rusch and marshall) are not only as good as group B (burnitz, corey, remlinger, hawkins, prior and wood), but are SEVEN WINS BETTER? now who's being ridiculous? XZero did a superb job of rating the upgrades, but this is how I'd rate this team in comparison to last year's team. Pierre - Huge upgrade over Patterson Murton - Huge upgrade over LFers from last year Jones - About the same (albeit in different areas) as Burny Lee - Slight regression. He DID fix a hole in his swing, therefore I'm not expecting it to be sifnificant. Aram - About the same as last year, maybe a little better. An entire year of his production should help immmensely. Barrett - Same as last year. Cedeno - I expect an improvement over Neifi, although this is far from certain. For arguments sake I'll say he'll give equal offensive production (which shouldn't be hard to do) 2B - It all depends on who gets the most playing time. However I'd think it would be comparabel to last year's production. On the overall for offensive production, we've got roughly 4 washes, 1 slight regression (more BA than anything else), one slight improvement (give more ARam), and huge two upgrades. More importantly, we FINALLY have guys who are capable of scoring runs for our big boppers. This unit pry won't be in the top 4 in RS in the NL, but they should score considerably more than last year. Thus this year's offensive team should be much improved. I'd expect this lineup to be worth at least an exta 5 wins. Dempster - Might not have quite the season of last year, but I don't think his performance was a fluke. Should be about the same with maybe a slight regression. Eyre - Should be a huge upgrade over last year's performers Howry - Another upgrade over last year. Rest of pen - I think they'll be better as well but I'll be conservative and say a wash. Although the bullpen is often the biggest crapshoot in all of sports, I can't imagine the pen being as bad as it was last year. It looks as though we'll finally have some competent setup men capable of getting the games to Dempster. This should be worth at least 3-4 games (and that's being conservative with all the games they blew for us last year) and possibly more depending on the rest of the pen. Zambrano - I expect a slight improvement over last year. Won't have the uncharcteristic meltdowns he experienced last season. With an improved offesne/bullpen he'll win 20 games. Rusch - I think he'll be competent, but if anyone played out of his mind last year it was him. I expect a moderate regression. Maddux - Supposedly he's in better shape, but I'm not expecting that to have a lot of bearing on his performance. He should be about the same as he was last year. Marshall - I think he'll be better than Mitre and company. But for argument's sake I'll say a wash. Jerome/Guzman - One of these guys will emerge for good and give us what Jerome gave us last year. Assuming Prior and Wood make absolutely ZERO starts this year, I think the staff will at least be pretty comparable to what we got in their absense last year. Prior's loss would be huge, but I don't think Wood's loss would hurt us all that much (I don't think he's pitched all that well since the 2003 playoffs). For now, I'll assume the loss of these two (mainly Prior) will account for an 8 game loss (could be more could be less). Adding up the extra wins/losses, and this year's team would figure to be about a wash with last year's team with Prior and Wood absent (and I'm being conservatively pessimistic). Being estimations aren't perfect, I'll say the margin of error is a +- 4 games, which would put the win total between 75 and 83 wins. Although you may disagree with what I have above I don't think it can be labeled ridiculous. If anything, I think I was fairly conservative. Don't forget that if Miller comes back healthy, and all current reports point towards him being close, he can buffer the loss of Prior or Wood without losing much. Once they're all online, I don't think it's unreasonable to expect 55-60+ starts from those three, which isn't far off of what you'd hope for to get out of your #1 and #2 combined. Cedeno at worst is a wash with last year, because if he's doing worse, Dusty will yank him for Neifi, which is what we had last year.

Anyone else find it wierd to watch it and see DLee playing on the other side now?

so you're saying that group A (jones, pierre, eyre, howry, rusch and marshall) are not only as good as group B (burnitz, corey, remlinger, hawkins, prior and wood), but are SEVEN WINS BETTER? now who's being ridiculous? I don't see where anyone is writing that. Back to the argument, if you're confident in your prediction that we're a 90 loss club, then let's make a wager. If they lose 90 games this year, I'll buy you a year of premium. If we're .500 or above, you owe me a year of premium. Anything in the middle, and no one owes anything. dude, have you even read my posts? i said they were a 90 loss team IF PRIOR AND WOOD MISS THE WHOLE SEASON. Yes, I read it, and I still think you're delusional. However, neither are going to miss the whole season, so it'd be a stupid thing to bet on. We got 37 starts out of them last year, but most of those starts by Wood were not Wood quality starts. Prior was only himself about half of his starts. We got what, maybe 12-15 quality starts out of them? They're 37 starts weren't any better last year than what we could reasonably expect out of Miller/Marshall/Guzman/whoever else picks up the slack this year. Add to that that we should have won more than we did last year, we didn't lose 90 last year, and the whole team is improved as a whole, 90 losses, with or without Wood and Prior isn't going to happen.

It's not that bad. Blanco is as good as any other backup catcher. Mabry is a respectable pinch hitter. Neifi is an ideal backup SS off of the bench, especially if he can hit .270 again and keep up his defense. Hairston and Bynum are decent backup guys. We'll see how Pagan does, but at least we know we have plenty of speed off of the bench. The only thing we're missing is that Glenallen Hill type of RH bat off of the bench.

so you're saying that group A (jones, pierre, eyre, howry, rusch and marshall) are not only as good as group B (burnitz, corey, remlinger, hawkins, prior and wood), but are SEVEN WINS BETTER? now who's being ridiculous? I don't see where anyone is writing that. Back to the argument, if you're confident in your prediction that we're a 90 loss club, then let's make a wager. If they lose 90 games this year, I'll buy you a year of premium. If we're .500 or above, you owe me a year of premium. Anything in the middle, and no one owes anything.

One sign that the Reds are in for a LOOOOOOOONG season: Aaron Harang is your staff ace and opening day pitcher.

We traded Fansworth last offseason.

I think LaRussa gets more credit than he deserves. He's had some juggernaut offensive lineups during his most successful seasons as manager, the type of lineups that a manager can't mess up. He's lost that this year, we'll see how he handles the offense with several questionable guys who are going to be getting regular playing time. And as far as handling pitchers, I think LaRussa is worse than Baker. Look at all of the promising young arms that have come up with them in the past several years that developed problems and never were right. Just off of the top of my head, Bud Smith and Ankiel come to mind, but there are alot more.