Magnetic Curses

Gould was not good. He provided a little more depth than Brien and a little more stability as well, but he isn't any good at kicking FG. He hit only 77.8%, and was only 3/8 from beyond 39 yards. Most guys even behing him on the conversion list were greater threats from distance. Zemaitis could be a decent safety in the pros, I don't think he's got much of a chance to be a top flight CB. gould was okay, but he's not the answer at K.

I care how many games the Cubs win in the regular season because the more you win the greater chance you have of making the postseason and the World Series. 88 wins is not good because most seasons that usually means you are on the outside looking in. An 88 win season isn't that good. An 89 win season isn't that good. It was good enough 2 of the last 3 years. I don't care if we're like the Padres and win 82 games. As long as we get in and advance to the Series. The point is you won't get in the vast majority of the time. It sounds very noble of you to say you don't care, but you should, because without the regular season success, you won't have much of a shot at postseason glory. I only said I don't care if we get in. You almost sound like you'd be happier if we won 94 and didn't get in, than if we won 88 and snuck in. I would be much happier with the cubs management if we won 94 and lost out on the playoffs than 88 and snuck in. I would be much happier as a fan if we won 88 and snuck in. but his point (goony's, that is) is that you don't build a team to compete "within the division", you build the best team you can with the money you have to spend. you don't overspend on mediocrity based on divisional trends.

last year, i wanted antrel rolle, but was satisfied with benson, somewhat.

he's looking for an explanation that isn't shrouded cliche. i'm sure he'll acknowledge a decent answer to his question if that answer is offered. Yeah, I'm sorry about that. I didn't realize how cryptic this guy was. Not to mention how pointless it would actually be to post anything useful. Transmogrified Tiger is formerly CPatterson20. He gives his opinion more often than most. What's with the personal attack? he wasn't talking about TT. and i don't think he was making a personal attack, just observing that the poster in question is being a bit reluctant to come forth with a solid answer to any of TT's questions.

Not to nitpick, but I think you've reversed them. Dr. Henry Jekyll was the scientist, while Edward Hyde was his deranged alter-ego. but i bet hyde had a better fastball.

he's looking for an explanation that isn't shrouded cliche. i'm sure he'll acknowledge a decent answer to his question if that answer is offered. it sounds great to talk about "speed" and "fundamentals" not being part of the game anymore, and being undervalued, but quite simply, they're undervalued by certain folks for good reason. i rate speed low on the key aspects of winning guage. 1. starting pitching 2. OBP 3. SLG% 4. relief pitching way down the list. speed and "fundamentals".

i don't know why this is such good news. tony gwynn is a pure hitter, one of the few guys who didn't need a high IsoD to be effective. jones does not need to become like gwynn, and, most likely, will not. jones strikes out and doesn't get on base. i'd rather jones hang out with adam dunn a bit more.

he's definitely one of the best defensive players in the country. however, he has no shot whatsoever, this limits his ability to get into the lane consistently. if he works on his outside jumper, he could be a POY candidate when he hits his senior year.

way too much has been made abour pierre's bas year. he still hit what .275 and stole what 50-60 bases? both his request, prior, and zambrano's are legitimate in my opinion. OBP of .326 at leadoff is around the team OBP of the cubs last year. terrible. that's what pierre is paid to do, get on freaking base.

Actually, this team lost primarily because it pitched poorly, but its deficiency in getting on base was a huge problem. you're partially right. although i believe that we pitched well enough to give the team a chance to win if we could have just gotten on base more often. Our starting pitchers ERA has gone from 3.69 (2003), to 3.72 (2004), to 4.19 (2005), and in that same period our OBP's were .323 (2003, .328 (2004), and .324 (2005). So our ability to get on base hasn't changed much, while our starting pitching was horrible last year. It just so happens that last year we failed to compete at all. Don't get me wrong, we're in agreement that the plate discipline of this team is atrocious. I just feel that our pitching is the issue which caused us so much grief last year. The fact that Cubs management cannot grasp the concept of OBP, and how it relates to runs, or how to wisely spend money is a whole different issue. No it's very relevant. If you are gonna argue that the team needs better pitching, you have to point out that they walked too many hitters. 5th in the majors is BAA, but walked the 7th most hitters. For a team that again led the planet in K's from their pitchers, walking hitters is just a bad idea. If guys can't make contact, don't help them out by walking them. I never argued for better pitching. I said that our pitching was what hurt us most last year. It was obviously due to injury. In addition I don't understand how what you said relates to my point. What is relevant? The issue of what hurt us most last year, and the issue of Cubs management failing to see how to improve this teams offense are completely seperate. i would argue that it wasn't the pitching that hurt us most, it was lack of runs scored, despite our high average. the pitching was middle of the pack. not great, not horrible. despite having so many injuries, our pitching still had us in a position going into august to compete for the wc. if our ability to get on base wasn't so terrible, we could have actually done something.

you're just lucky you didn't get my "unicorn" lecture. :wink:

execution is even more of a fairy tale word when used to describe hitting with RISP. good hitters are likely to hit better in every situation, all you can do is acquire good hitters. you can't control "execution" as you mean it, but you can control hitters that hit well overall.

so? then we were dead last in a category that's impossible to plan for. we were also dead last in walks taken, which we CAN plan for. the only way we give our guys more chances is by getting on base more, not by giving away outs by sacrificing. i hate the word "execution" when used as a baseball term. execution, to me, is hitting the ball as hard as you can and getting on base. I'm not as worried about walks as I am just OBP. I could care less how we get on base, as long as we get on. But the OBP and walks should be up this year with the additions we've made. That's assuming Cedeno starts over Neifi. you SHOULD be worried about walks. the cubs hit .270 last year, good for second in the NL. It'd be hard to improve on that. our OBP was 11th in the NL. it sure looks like the problem is walks.

Actually, this team lost primarily because it pitched poorly, but its deficiency in getting on base was a huge problem. you're partially right. although i believe that we pitched well enough to give the team a chance to win if we could have just gotten on base more often.

so? then we were dead last in a category that's impossible to plan for. we were also dead last in walks taken, which we CAN plan for. the only way we give our guys more chances is by getting on base more, not by giving away outs by sacrificing. i hate the word "execution" when used as a baseball term. execution, to me, is hitting the ball as hard as you can and getting on base.

i don't think there's a real negative here. boras, from what i understand, is the absolute worst baseball agent to deal with. anything bad that happens to the cubs in zambrano negotiations probably won't be any worse than what would happen had he not fired boras.

anybody want to discuss the UI/IU game tonight? or is discussing illinois off-limits? it sucks that IU lost white, i was hoping to see how the illini would approach defending both of them. is monroe going to play? can the illini's perimeter d shut the hoosiers down at assembly hall?

Brian Randle held him to 6 points on two broken play threes I wouldn't call him a stud by anymeans. brian randle may be the best defensive player in the big ten, amybe even the country, though. can't judge him on what randle did to him. he did the same thing to ager.

they didn't significantly upgrade team plate discipline, though, which was our biggest need. this team did not lose because it couldn't play defense, nor did it lose due to a lack of team speed, nor did it lose because it didn't field a slap-hitting, no-arm CFer that doesn't run the bases particularly well. this team lost because it was DEAD last in the league in walks, period.

i was saying this last year, too. though i'm sure lovie will draft offense--he views his defense as being set. tillman is a pretty good CB, much better than he played on sunday. it's just that super-quick receivers like smith are very bad matchups for him. he does better when he's matched up against a bigger, less quick receiver with good downfield speed. i'm not sure that there's any CB that matches up with smith very well anyway. i thought it was vicious what lovie did to tillman against the panthers, almost shamefully stupid. but, like i've said before, this is not a great coaching staff. they rely on the intelligence and reaction speed of their players, not necessarily throwing a lot of schemes out there to confuse the offense. nor do they make adjustments during the game. if anyone could have made an adjustment, it would have been urlacher, but he seemed content chasing people around the field. man, i wish the bears could just once get a player like smith.

it's my understanding that mercedes is a project, or simply not an everydown TE. i'm wondering if vernon davis wouldn't be a better selection. i just wish that there was a TE like heath miller this year. that would have been great. Vernon Davis will be gone. Marcedes is not a project and he definitely is an everydown TE. He is a bit raw and needs to add a bit of muscle but should make a good contribution his rookie year and would be a great safety valve for Rex Grossman (as he was for Drew Olson this year). i don't like that "raw" bit. we should not be drafting a raw TE in the first round. john allred was raw and he was terrible. marcedes better be a little thicker when the draft comes around.

it's my understanding that mercedes is a project, or simply not an everydown TE. i'm wondering if vernon davis wouldn't be a better selection. i just wish that there was a TE like heath miller this year. that would have been great.

What's a Clement board? dude, your kinda like cubby cool-aid / disgruntled white sox fan... you guys won, but you must have some sort of resentment left. Chill, bro. I don't even know what this means...we won what?? I was asking a legitimate question. I don't know what he's referring to, so I was asking. i think he quoted the wrong poster.

i think that fox should have showed some game decorum on the sidelines is all. rushing up into the refs faces when the bears incomplete a pass and the ref gets the call right and still making a vehement incomplete gesture is uncalled for.

when someone gets here from a different board, inevitably their first response is to be very aggressive and defensive with everyone. it generally ceases when the admins get wind of it and set the noob straight.