CUBZ99

Z for Peavy? or Z for Halladay? I could live with either of these trades.

Yes, this better not be a 2/6 or 2/8MM deal.

Theriot will still be relatively cheap, and with Castro performing as well as he is, I'm not sure spending a lot of money on a SS would be the best option.

Neat article. Under those circumstances the Cubs would have a killer bullpen. Its amazing though to see how pathetic they have been at developing any type of position prospects.

I've said this before but I think Fox likely has a similar career to Russell Branyan. Both can hit well and both struggle in the field. I'm not necessarily comparing pure production, though, so much as type of player each is. Amazingly, the only position that Fox can play with any sort of adequacy seems to be 3b.

You're trying really hard to talk yourself into that one, and in the end you still have nothing positive to say about the player. ;) It just goes to show the improvement in the Cubs farm system when you have a 1st round pick from 2006 that puts up .800+OPS in AA (.900+ in the second half) and a 2006 Supp. 1st round pick that puts up a .911 OPS this year and neither guy can crack most people's top 10.

Maybe on your Xbox 360 or PS3, there is no human interaction between the same players on the same team. In the real world, these players spend a lot of time together over approximately half of the year. They spend time in cramped dugouts, on team flights, in hotels, etc. You want to pretend that no outside factors can effect a baseball players ability to perform at maximum level, I don't buy it. You want to pretend that how a player feels about one of his teammates somehow affects how he performs in a series of situations not involving said teammate. I don't buy that. Nevermind the fact that nobody on the Cubs has even hinted at not liking Bradley. I think you need to read the posts again. I never said that how a player feels about one player affects how he performs and I never singled out Bradley as the only problem with Cubs chemistry. I said that you would be naive to believe that the overall clubhouse chemistry doesn't have some effect (even if it is small) on players. Just because there is no stat that can measure it doesn't mean that it isn't a factor.

This is an extremely naive viewpoint. Sure chemistry isn't the only factor, or likely even the main factor, for the club's problems, but to completely discount work environment and/or work politics is foolish. As a business owner, it sure helps productivity to have a staff that gets along. I think it is funny that most people think that just because a guy is a baseball player, that he is immune to the same issues that most everyone else deals with on a daily basis. Why do you think your business is anything like a major league baseball team? Because it involves people. Why do you assume it isn't? If anything the stress associated with playing professional baseball including, regular travel and nearly 6 months of working everyday with very few off days would make interpersonal relationship even more important than the average job. what makes anybody thing that happy ballplayers are more productive? Some of the best players we've ever seen in baseball are miserable jerks. Why are you arguing it is all or nothing? Nobody said that happy baseball players are guaranteed to be more productive. You could have a team filled with Miles, Neifi, Fuld, Scales type players and they could have the best time in the world and they would still be a bad team.

Maybe on your Xbox 360 or PS3, there is no human interaction between the same players on the same team. In the real world, these players spend a lot of time together over approximately half of the year. They spend time in cramped dugouts, on team flights, in hotels, etc. You want to pretend that no outside factors can effect a baseball players ability to perform at maximum level, I don't buy it.

So what does Tyler have to do for people to believe hes for real again? Put up eye popping numbers in the PCL with a good BB/K ratio. Let's cross our fingers and hope he does just that. Since recovering from TJ surgery Colvin has been on fire.

This is an extremely naive viewpoint. Sure chemistry isn't the only factor, or likely even the main factor, for the club's problems, but to completely discount work environment and/or work politics is foolish. As a business owner, it sure helps productivity to have a staff that gets along. I think it is funny that most people think that just because a guy is a baseball player, that he is immune to the same issues that most everyone else deals with on a daily basis. Why do you think your business is anything like a major league baseball team? Because it involves people. Why do you assume it isn't? If anything the stress associated with playing professional baseball including, regular travel and nearly 6 months of working everyday with very few off days would make interpersonal relationship even more important than the average job.

This is an extremely naive viewpoint. Sure chemistry isn't the only factor, or likely even the main factor, for the club's problems, but to completely discount work environment and/or work politics is foolish. As a business owner, it sure helps productivity to have a staff that gets along. I think it is funny that most people think that just because a guy is a baseball player, that he is immune to the same issues that most everyone else deals with on a daily basis.

You left out this part. Hendry is bargain shopping again.

Uh he said Soriano has no business playing right now. I'm guessing he hasn't listened to Brenly during a Cubs game this year. Soriano has to be one of Brenly's least favorite players. I applaud Brenly for calling it how it is, although he picked a strange time to pile on Bradley. Lets face it, Bradley isn't the reason the Cubs have been losing all season. Even when he was struggling early on in the year, he was still getting on base pretty regularly. While it is obvious that Bradley is a head case and loves to play up the victim role, he still has two years left on his contract and could be a real asset to the team. The team needs to figure out a way for Bradley to keep his mouth shut and not be overly sensitive.

Any word on what was going on with Zambrano at the end of the game? Was he fighting with a teammate?

:shock: :scratch: Very puzzling. Ah, behold the power of the blues. OK, first off, I found a mistake......... CUBS are 30-37 when they wear their pinstripes / road grays.... 35-27 when they wear alternate blues It breaks down like this.......... Blues Wht/Gry Zambrano 14- 8 Dempster 9-15 Lilly 13- 9 Harden 9- 7 2- 5 Marshall 2- 5 0- 2 Wells 8- 5 3- 4 Hart 1- 0 2- 1 Gorzelanny 1- 1 1- 1 Samardzija 0- 1 totals 35-27 30-37 Not one single pitcher has a winning record in Wht/Gry? Fred, I think you solved the Cubs 2009 problems.

4th OF on a good team. ....because he doesn't exhibit very good patience or power at the plate, he likely won't hit enough to be better than average as a corner OF.... I don't disagree with most of those thoughts. The "consensus" is probably 4th OF on a good team, and he likely won't hit enough to be an above average starter. Two points: First, we can underestimate the value of average. There are a lot of good corner OF's, so it's a lot easier to end up with an below-average awful situation in a corner (for example, Soriano/LF this year) than it is to be better than average there. Average for low pay, often teams wish they had that. I do question the statement that he doesn't exhibit very good power. His Tenn slugging is .528, which would make him the league leader if he had enough PA's to qualify for the list. Slugging .528 in AA at age 23 is not power-deficient, I don't think. Neither is 13HR/284 AB. Project that to the number of AB's a big-league regular gets and you've got a HR-hitter. He's not a big guy and he's never been scouted as a power hitter. But actually power hitting has been his best virtue as a pro. Often guys as slender as Colvin get stronger and more skilled at driving HR's. So one could optimistically hope that perhaps he will sustain and improve his power. And with the kind of power he's shown, combined with his this-year-solid K-rate, he'll hit for average too. The pessimistic side: scouts don't often miss out on potential power. If in fact his power output is fluke and not sustainable, then he's going to have a hard time. But I think he's got a chance to be a good player. I wonder how much the scouts take into consideration that he was suffering from an arm injury last year, and recovering from surgery to start this year.

What is the consensus on Colvin? I know he had one ridiculously hot stretch, but his numbers since the All Star break are pretty good, including an OPS of .944. His K rate has been down around 1 out of every 5 AB. It has to make you wonder if the guy is starting to figure things out.

Fontenot was the left handed 2B, Miles was brought in as a backup.

As long as they were placed(and kept) on the major league roster for September, no option would be used. I think Gaub getting called up is a no-brainer then. Depending on how Tennessee's season ends, I wouldn't mind seeing Colvin either.

That is some really terrible logic. The DeRosa trade went from an okay one to a pretty good one given the performance of all 3 guys this season. Expanding upon this, the DeRosa trade in and of itself was actually pretty good in terms of the return we got. Archer, Gaub, and Stevens have all performed nicely. The decision to sign Miles was the mistake, however, Miles's suckitude should have no bearing on the evaluation of the DeRosa trade, because they are separate moves. They were seperate moves that were made in conjunction with each other. There's absolutely nothing wrong with evaluating them together. The only reason they trade DeRosa was to get more left handed, the only way they got more left handed was by replacing DeRosa with Miles. Every trade involving major leaguers for prospects has to weigh the cost/benefit of the present/future. This was an absolutely horrible short-term trade. Without question. It was a disaster. Longterm who knows. But people are getting worked up about bullpen prospects, those guys are a dime a dozen. I thought that DeRosa was traded to allow Hendry to have money to sign Bradley and/or trade for Peavy? Wasn't Miles brought in to take Fontenot/Cedeno's place on the bench?

Gift wrapped with a complementary box of fine cigars would be the way to go. I'm confident that nobody would claim A. Miles.

Does anyone know what the effect of placing Gaub or Colvin on the 40 man and calling them up in Sept. would have on their option clocks? Is there a difference between doing it now, or waiting until November?

Looks like Lou plans to have Soto starting in 2010. Appears he is just riding the hotter bat in attempt to salvage a playoff birth. http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/chi-01-cubs-brite-chicago-sep01,0,1663983.story

Still like for you to expand on Soto being a prick No point, I shouldn't have made the comment.