CUBZ99

Has Wood ever fixed his mechanics? Or is there any reason to believe that his arm could withstand 200 Innings? Also, Sullivan is not the only writer that is commenting on Marquis needing to battle for the 5th spot in the rotation. Maybe Hendry can use Marquis decent year to his advantage and trade him to get out from under his contract.

Care to elaborate? No, if he had anything of substance to add he would have elaborated.

He is not untouchable, and you should not be confident in him as rotation insurance. Hart had a nice run at the end of the year and opened some eyes, but he still has alot to prove. I think most people that had not seen him were not expecting him to be throwing low-mid 90's heat and a nice cut fast ball.

That website hasn't had news for over a month now. Where did you see this rumor?

Do you trust Hendry to know what a solid bat is?

If you consider the comments in the last few pages about Theriot as love, you have a very low threshold for love. Most of the people who have anything good to say about him just say he may not turn out to be awful or that he is a better option than Cedeno. Hardly could be classified as love. Kind of like how the person who created the thread thinks that people want to run Theriot out of town when in reality, most people just don't want him starting. Why are you bringing up old stuff? :lol:

He still plays? Like Ron Santo said when Alfonseca left "Buh bye".

If you consider the comments in the last few pages about Theriot as love, you have a very low threshold for love. Most of the people who have anything good to say about him just say he may not turn out to be awful or that he is a better option than Cedeno. Hardly could be classified as love.

Theriot had a .999 OPS in September of 2006. Small sample size. Cedeno had a decent September in 2005 also, and then followed it up with a dud of a season. If the Cubs had a decent option at SS in 2006 and Cedeno spent the season in AAA. Everyone would be talking about Cedeno as a top prospect. Wondering why he isnt getting PT over Theriot. It would be very similar to Soto and Kendall. Instead he was overmatched in the Majors at a young age and this the preception that a lot of fans have of him. I dont think Cedeno is the savior, but he certainly has earned a chance to become the everyday SS. I agree, I hope the Cubs upgrade at SS, but if they don't it would be nice to see one of those guys have a break out year next year.

Theriot had a .999 OPS in September of 2006. Small sample size. Cedeno had a decent September in 2005 also, and then followed it up with a dud of a season.

How does Cedeno earn it? Why has Theriot earned *anything* since he's been below average? Neither one has earned anything. However, based upon what we have seen at the majors from both of them Theriot has outperformed Cedeno. Everyone seems to think that by getting to start everyday Cedeno is magically going to transform into a better player. It didn't help him in 2006, and this year he had the same opportunity as Izturis and Theriot to win the starting job. In essesnce your options are between below average and terrible.

Actually, if we don't bring in someone from outside, I (and I think several others) are saying Cedeno should be handed the job. And he shouldn't be yanked if he sucks for 2-3 weeks. I think that's exactly what we're saying. Cedeno hasn't done enough to be handed that long of a leash. The Cubs cannot afford to give him 3 more months to struggle when they will have other young players who haven't gotten nearly the shot that Cedeno has that deserve longer leashes (Pie and Soto). Cedeno should be given a good shot to win the job in ST if nobody is brought in, and they shouldn't manage day by day. IMO, Cedeno shouldn't be given any more time to prove himself than Izturis did this year. If we head into next season with only Cedeno and Theriot available to play SS, Cedeno should be the starter and we shouldn't be eager to replace him with Theriot. If we had a league average SS and Cedeno won the battle for the starting gig, I'd be ok with a short leash. But since we can be fairly certain that Theriot isn't going to put up league average numbers all season, there's no reason not to give Cedeno a little more time (maybe not 3 months, I don't know, but more than 2-3 weeks - lots of great players struggle for 2-3 weeks, so you have to expect it from all players at some point). Why would you be so willing to have a guy with a OBP over .50 pts higher sit on the bench so you could play a guy with a career .600 OPS try to work it out? Maybe I'm crazy but, .55pts in OBP is a significant difference between players. Cedeno has already had over 500 Abs in one year to stuggle. Last year he had the same shot Theriot had to win the job. This isn't a beauty pagent, you play the player that gives you the best chance to win and so far that has been Theriot. Sure Cedeno can improve, but I'm not against making him earn it, rather than just blindly sticking with him because he looks like he should be a better player.

What is an "extended look". I really cannot understand the mentality. Cedeno will likely not be an all-star, however he's much more likely to improve than Theroit. But really, that is beside the point. It is not very wise to expect all-star level production out of a first or second year player, most of the time. The problem with the Cubs is that they are constructed so poorly that they need a higher level of performance out of the rookies in order to compete. At least that is the only explanation I can come up with why some of the posts in this thread are so crazy. And Murton? give me a break. An extended look in my book would be over 500 ABs in 150+ games during a season. After 2006, the Cubs had to put Cedeno on a short leash, because if you think Theriot's .326 OBP was bad, Cedeno's .271 OBP was abysmal. During April this year, Cedeno was terrible hitting .097, .121 OBP. Sure it was only 31 ABs, but based on his numbers over the entire previous season there didn't appear to be any improvement. The problem is deciding whether Cedeno is ever going to make the adjustment or continue to be a poor hitting SS. Based on the way Cedeno has played in the majors I certainly wouldn't criticize anyone for thinking that he is a lost cause. Likewise, he has shown flashes of brilliance in the field and at the plate. The Cubs can certainly not go another season with a .271 OBP SS. Theriot has at least shown a better approach at the plate than Cedeno. As far as your Murton comment, I'm guessing that was directed at someone else or the overall sentiment of the topic?

Isn't that exactly what happened this year. Cedeno's 2006 numbers were abysmal. Izturis would have been an upgrade. This year, Lou was looking for a player to step up and claim the SS position after Izturis failed to impress anyone. Instead of stepping up Cedeno tanked to start the season. Its not like Cedeno hasn't been given extended looks. Out of all of the options this year Theriot was the most productive.

One is a 2b and one a LF. If Theriot were a superior defender, it would be easier to support him. He struggles to be average at SS. Admittedly I haven't watched much of Theriot's defense but his SS metrics on BR looks merely below avg. FWIW, to a lesser extent I think you could say the same thing about Murton's hitting and defense. I'm not championing Theriot but I don't entirely understand the love for Murton and Cedeno. I think they are interesting but that's about it. I'm a little surprised how some posters reacted to skepticism about them It is unexplainable. Cedeno has shown nothing at the major league level to justify holding out hope that he will be anything more than a weak hitting decent fielding SS. In 2006, he played a full season at the big league level and put up a whopping .610 OPS. This year he boosted his OPS to a hefty .623. If he keeps improving at that rate in 5 years he may be producing in Theriot territory. The best thing we can hope for next year is that Hendry either brings in a Major League SS or that he improves the team at C, RF, so that we can bury our SS 8th in the lineup.

Nice to hear some positives about Pawelek, however, I wonder if he has rediscovered his velocity.

Nice to hear some positives about Pawelek, however, I wonder if he has rediscovered his velocity.

Maybe we can bring Dusty back.

Where are these supporters you speak of? I have yet to read anybody I would consider being a gung-ho cult fanatic? Most of the Pie hype comes from BA and the organization. I'm not a BA gung-ho cult fanatic by any means, but when they say Pie is a real talent and rank him fairly high in their publication constantly, that at least tells me that there might be some potential. You are really hitting rock bottom to complain about Pie's defense. If you watched Pie play this summer you would have definitely seen that he does in fact have an above average arm. I'm not going to devalue him simply because he may not have the best arm in MLB. Pie made some catches that Jone would never have gotten to and had Pie been playing CF there were many balls that he would have gotten to. You keep leaving out the fact that Pie is only 22 and most likely has the best chance to improve next year. Jones is not a terrible option next year, if Pie can't hit enough to play CF.

Pitchers tend to recover better when having TJ than they do with shoulder surgery. The shoulder is one thing you do not want to mess with if you are making a living throwing a baseball. Shoulder scopes actually have a better success rate than TJS For us laymen, what is the difference between a shoulder scope and fixing a tear in the rotator cuff? I would be interested to know how bad Prior wants to stay with the Cubs. Presumably he would not have the same type of loyalty that Wood has, but I wonder if he would take a 2 year contract similar to the one Dempster took, in order to stay.

Wasn't this guy a beat writer for the Twins prior to coming to the Trib? Him and Jacque must have a real tight relationship for him to write this article. I think it would be ignorant to give up on Pie, before he has even gotten a legitimate shot.

You might see more of their action coming via trades. Just a guess at this early date. I don't see them paying $30 million a year for A-Rod. The protracted sale of the team probably will factor into things, but McDonough has given me every indication the team will be able to upgrade. Remember, people thought the Zambrano deal was dead, and it got done. Lets hope one of those trades involves Trachsel. Any word yet on why the Cubs would pick up Trachsel's option, when he was hardly ever used and had little value to the team during his short stay?

Unless your Juan Pierre, who was widely disliked and whose 2006 was better than Theriot's 2007.

Maybe Hendry will go after Posada

QFT