CUBZ99

Don't worry what Muskat has to say, she is worthless! can we stop calling her Muskat? jesus. Is it really that big of deal? No, but that's because it really reflects more upon the childishness of the person calling names than it does upon Carrie. I have no problem with refraining from calling her Muskat, I just find it hard to believe that it is a bigger deal than openly taking the Lords name in vain. Call me childish, that is cool, but to continue to let people use language on this board that IS OFFENSIVE and not call them out is a pathetic lack of control in my opinion! Just my humble opinion, but my sense is that the Lord would view calling another human being "worthless" as being much worse than taking his name in vain. Somehow I have a feeling that if someone called Niefi worthless, there would not be an uproar. Niefi = Worthless player Muskat = Worthless reporter From a board that allows nicknames like "Slappy", and "Jock Strap".....it is hard to believe that people have such a big problem with "Muskat". Seems like some people are being a little oversensitive. She's just doing her job. She works for MLB. If you expepect cutting edge commentary and scoups from someone whose job it is to be a spokes person, I don't know what to tell you. And Niefi is just doing his job when the coach bats him leadoff and he has another horrible game..... And Slappy was just doing his job, when Hendry traded too much for him and overvalued him....And Jaque Jones was just doing his job, when Hendry signed him last year. I'm confused as to why she deservers so much sympathy.

I think it is more likely that Jones is traded and Hendry is going to rely on both Floyd and Murton in the OF. It would be nice if Hendry really did intend to use him as the 4th OF.

Don't worry what Muskat has to say, she is worthless! can we stop calling her Muskat? jesus. Is it really that big of deal? No, but that's because it really reflects more upon the childishness of the person calling names than it does upon Carrie. I have no problem with refraining from calling her Muskat, I just find it hard to believe that it is a bigger deal than openly taking the Lords name in vain. Call me childish, that is cool, but to continue to let people use language on this board that IS OFFENSIVE and not call them out is a pathetic lack of control in my opinion! Just my humble opinion, but my sense is that the Lord would view calling another human being "worthless" as being much worse than taking his name in vain. Somehow I have a feeling that if someone called Niefi worthless, there would not be an uproar. Niefi = Worthless player Muskat = Worthless reporter From a board that allows nicknames like "Slappy", and "Jock Strap".....it is hard to believe that people have such a big problem with "Muskat". Seems like some people are being a little oversensitive.

Don't worry what Muskat has to say, she is worthless! can we stop calling her Muskat? jesus. Is it really that big of deal? Muskat is not as bad as some of the other names she's been called. Seriously, when was the last time she had the scoop on anything. Unless I see it in other columns I'm going to take it as her speculation.

Because Pagan is not an everyday player. One of the more interesting stories that I will be watching is the amount of play that Murton receives if Floyd is signed. It seems to me that the Cubs want more pop in the lineup. I think Murton has the bat speed by he may need to change his swing to generate lift. I don't want to see a platoon at all, but if Murton struggles he will get the quick hook. I definitely think you've hit on the theme cubinny. Hendry is still focused on "clutch hitting", and while he acknowledges OBP, he still quickly brushes it aside and focuses heavily on what I would call power and timely hitting. I find Jim's "two things about the game" to be odd. The game is scoring runs and preventing runs. The scoring part is about getting on, first and foremost, and then driving guys in. Lou's theory about 3-4-5 hitters is just plain wrong. Those are the guys who take the most walks. You really don't want thoshe guys just swinging away. You want them to take just about anything they can't drive. I agree with one point Hendry is making.....If the Cubs have two outs and runners in scoring position, you definitely don't want DLee up at the plate being overselective if Neifi is on deck. Other than that, I'm not sure even Hendry understands the logic behind his own statements.

Great pics Vance!! Thanks for sharing your experience at the Cubs Convention with us. I especially appreciated your posts re: Down on the Farm segment. :D

The Cubs are talking a good game now in regard to playing time, but after the last two years, I will have to see it to believe it. How many times did Dusty and Hendry repeatedly play sub-par underperforming players (Rusch, Neifi, Macias) despite the fact there were other options available. If Guzman, Prior, and Miller all come to ST in good shape and pitch lights out, I would be amazed if Marquis didn't get to keep his spot in the rotation simply due to the amount of his contract. With that said, I would love Hendry and Piniella to prove me wrong.

Solid bat off the bench. If Prior, Guzman, and Miller all come to spring training healthy and pitch lights out. (Big IF). Will the Cubs be willing to sit Marquis and his $7MM or Lilly and his $11MM contract in the bullpen? I know Lou has been saying all along the best players will play, but how do you justify wasting $7MM and/or Lilly's $11M in the bullpen??

There is also a quote somewhere out there saying that Dusty didn't listen to Rothschild as far who to bring out of the bullpen. Doesn't sound like Larry was too happy coaching with Dusty.

I had heard elsewhere that Samardzija didn't have good movement on his FB. I'd like to believe cubs.com, but I believe they're tooting their own guy's horn right here. Larry Suarez was supposedly in Mesa for Instructs this past fall (though I didn't read anything about him actually being there). I think he'll end up on the Cubs' Dominican squad this summer, Mesa the season after. Thanks for the info. Can't wait to see how some of these young guys turn out.

Its not like the Cubs farm system is loaded with high ceiling talent and for a guy that hasn't taken baseball that serious, he has been pretty impressive. Along with Veal, Gallagher, Pawelek, and Huseby you got to excuse some of us for being exicted about adding another good arm. Can't wait to see how these guys produce next year. From Cubs.com: BTW does anybody know when the 16 year old pitcher (Suarez?) from the Dominican will make his debut in the minors? Haven't seen much on him since they signed him.

Now that the Deal is signed. Did the Cubs view JS as a 1st round talent? or put another way, Is he a better prospect in their eyes than Colvin? Nice first Draft by Wilken, and kudos to Hendry for taking a risk by drafting a guy that many thought wouldn't sign on to play baseball fulltime.

Any chance that they announce the signing of that kid from ND? :D

I hope that all this talk about competitions and earning jobs is more than just talk. How nice would it be to have a coach that actually rewarded production and not reputation or veteran status?? All of Piniella's comments to this point have been very encouraging.

Its a pointless signing even if you want to brush it off. Its not like Hendry hasn't given worthless players a shot in the past and added them to the roster even though they didn't add anything to the team. If Hendry had a track record of making good decisions and constantly building a winning team, signings like this would mean little.

For most teams, that would be true. But this franchise has been more than happy to give lots of times to guys who deserved nothing more than a NRI to ST. You had the recently released from SF Neifi Perez, and the released in ST Glendon Rusch. Then you had a handful of other NRI with no upside guys, like Rey Ordonez, Tony Womack, Enrique (he knows how to play in yankee stadium) Wilson, that all got playing time. In the big picture, it probably doesn't matter, but when this team signs worthless NRI guys, there's going to be a natural negative reaction out of fear that they'll actually play. I agree with your overall point, but the year we signed the released in ST Glendon Rusch, he was tremendous for us. I actually like the concept of giving minor league deals to guys who once had a modicum of success, and hope you can get a decent half season off the bench/bullpen from him. But doing it with Dusty Baker was like giving a pyromaniac gasoline, a lighter, lighter fluid, the keys to a vacant building, and rubbing two sticks together to get him started. You can take a gamble with pitching having a surprise year. Hitters who can't hit don't all of a sudden figure it out and start hitting. With pitchers there's at least a chance that a good pitching coach can find some flaws in delivery, mechanics, stuff and correct it. With hitters, if they are bad, they are bad. No hitting coach is gonna make Tomas Perez a good hitter. No hitting coach is going to make Tomas Perez a good hitter, but a hitting coach could turn a Tomas Perez type into an adequate backup. I definitely don't want to see Perez anywhere close to the major league roster next year, but there is value in handing out a bunch of NRIs to guys who were at some point acceptable bench players. I don't see much value in a backup middle IF like Perez, considering the way the current Cubs are configured. They have Izturis, DeRosa, Theriot, Cedeno, and Patterson which are all superior options to Perez.

Those are Perez's expectations. His situation will be similar to that of Grissom last year. If he has a great spring, he's got a shot. If not, the Cubs will give him the choice between Iowa or looking for another job. Ok, thanks for clearing that up. I realize the Cubs need players for spring training and to fill positions in the minors, but Perez really seems like a player for a team with a low budget desperate for anyone that can play SS.

The Tribune article is updated and it states something to the effect that Perez is expected to make the 25 man as a back up middle infielder. :x Chicagosports.com Says

so the scouts are the arrogant ones, eh? you do realize you couldn't be relying on more biased sources unless you asked the players' grandmothers, don't you? i mean, come on. I just ask the players themselves. bobby brownlie told me he's got his 95-mph curveball back I thought it was a 97 mph Outlaw curve? :lol:

Has he finally proven that he can stay healthy for an extended period of time? I would love to see him force himself into a rotation spot in the spring.

You're right. I'm a moron and know nothing about baseball so I'll just stop posting... I'm pretty sure that he wasn't sure what he was saying, as is evidenced by the incomprehensable nature of the statement. I think it would be a shame for you to stop posting on the board, due to other posters juvenile behavior. Many posters enjoy having your first hand perspective, even if we don't always agree with you.

I never realized just how bad Perez's numbers were until I looked them up. He is actually worse than Neifi.

Sounds like you think the publications primary focus should be on promoting players. That's not how I read it - I saw it as a desire for the focus to be on balanced reporting based on actual performance, rather than perpetuating preconceived perceptions. He's clearly angry that they stick with their guys even when performance would suggest others may have passed them by. But I'm still struck with a sense that he thinks BA's job is to promote the players' careers. I still dont' see where he stated the primary focus of BA was to promote players. Not to completely de-rail this topic, but do you believe that BA doesn't promote players? I think you would be naive to believe that these publications don't have some promotional and/or player development impact. You would also be naive to believe that there are no politics involved in the ratings process. If you had a trade publication that evaluated your job performance on a yearly basis and consistently rated you below people that you were outperforming, you too might become a little irritated. And if many people in your industry subscribed to or read that trade publication, the impact of your lower rating would be tremendous. In Gallagher's case and Patterson's case, BA's ratings do not seem to have an impact on how they are being evaluted in the Cubs system. It appears that the Cubs have been fairly aggressive in moving both of those players up the system. To both of their credits, they seemed to have used the lower ratings as motivation.

WGN is on DirectTV and in general I have been very pleased with their service.

I"m interested to hear the argument in favor of keeping Gallagher in W.Tenn for another year, despite the fact that he handled AA pretty impressively. IMO I would rather see his ability to handle the bump up in leagues to determine whether he would be a better option for a call up than leave him to dominate AA again.