anemic offense

From the Trib's 2nd base dilemma article: ROFLMA. We need to seriously consider starting a stickied-thread filled entirely with Z quotes. He's had so many good ones over the years that he's deserving of his own shrine. Not to mention, Z is just that kick-azz.

How the hell did that happen??? My reply was posted in the wrong forum/thread. Weird.

Technically, I think the school's need to release them from their commitments. Now I don't think the school has any obligation to release them, however most schools tend to let the recruits leave without a problem. I could be wrong though.

And a cheater :lol:

Give me a break. Kurtis Townsend has never been implicated in any wrongdoings. Ever. People pin the cal fiasco on him, and he wasn't even there for it. And forgive me if I don't believe your mysterious sources. And for all of the people who say Self can't win the big game, they said that about Dean, Roy, Lute, Boeheim, and many more. I'll take Self over Weber any day. As for Huggy...I think it was the right hire for KSU. Yeah, he has a somewhay tarnished image, but I imagine he's going to walk a fine line now in an effort to clean that up. And he IS a good coach. Perhaps not the greatest coach, as his offensive schemes are somewhat lacking, but I bet he has KSU in the top third of the Big XII within 3-4 years and challenging for the crown. In one if he gets Mayo. He probably wasn't the right hire for Mizzou, though. With all the negatives swirling around the program, they have to being in someone clean and good. I still think Majerus would be a great short term fit. Get the program up and running, then in 5 years retire and leave Mizzou in a prime position to attract a younger, established coach. I understand where you're coming from, but if a major heart attack isn't enough motivation to get him to clean up his life, what makes you think a new job will? My guess is it will be the same program, with the same coach, as it was in Cincinatti. The only difference being he'll be entrenched in a sea of purple instead of red.

I really haven't heard anything. Just more complaining on Tigerboard. I bet that Mizzou doesn't hire anyone until after the tournament (I could be totally wrong though). On a side note, I just can't understand how these kids, like OJ Mayo, would want to go to Manhattan, Kansas, even to follow Huggins. Even before I knew anything about KSU or MU, I still kinda knew that KSU was not in a bustling metropolis. Oh well, congradulations on getting Huggins, and if they can land Mayo and Walker, impressive job. Well, Manhattan KS IS a hell of a good time. Ever been to Aggieville? It's not too far from Wichita or KC, and is a hell of a school with a pretty damn good basketball history (get rid of 1991-2006). Huggins WILL bring this program back, and I am tickeled pink knowing it! WOO! Heck of a year for KSU BBALL!!!!!! It's a good thing if you don't mind your program being polluted with a bunch of thugs (if history repeats, which it usually does). Not to mention, Huggins is hardly an angel himself. I'm elated Iowa State didn't give this clown the time of day (not that they could have anyway, being they'd already canned a coach guilty of FARRR less).

Well, Missouri is technically less than two hours away from both Kansas City and St. Louis. That has to count for something. Iowa City's only 2.5 to 3 hours away from Chicago. So what's you're point? :P

I never understood why Alford would be interested in Missouri anyways. Moving from one moderately successful program (current and past) to another moderately successful program (mostly the past) makes little sense whatsoever(unless Mizzou would be dumb enough to give him more $$$$$). Not to mention (no offense), I don't think the MU is any bigger of a sell than Iowa is. One college is in a big time conference and in the middle of nowhere, while the other school is in a big time conference in the middle of nowhere. Talk about a lateral move.

Word around campus is that they offered the job to both the Wichita State Coach and the UWM coach but were turned down. There's probably a LOT of interest for the Indiana vacancy, and to a less extent the one at Missouri. Doesn't matter for in the end I think we got a good coach, and ANYONE is better than Morgan. He always seemed like a great guy, but any coach imcompetant enough to yield 8-12 EASY baskets every game because he doesn't know when to call off the press or one who fields a team as undisciplined as this years team deserves to be fired IMO. Quite honestly, I'm shocked Morgan was fired, even though he was very deserving. Our new AD has a pair of beach ball sized balls.

The pitching injuires are definiately discouraging, and losing Prior for ANY amount of significant time will be detrimental to this team's playoff chances. And although I know starting pitching is EXTREMELY important in having a successful season, I still think the bullpen is the most important cog for this team's success. That's not to say having a great bullpen is more important than the other facets of the game, its just that I think it is the one area which is prone to huge fluctuations from year to year. Maybe Howry and Eyre aren't worldbeaters, but they could potentially be HUGE upgrades over what we had last season. Outside of Dempster, our pen was pretty worthless (and has been for quite some time). Another huge factor in this team's success will be when and how effective Miller will be upon his return. This is a guy who has the potential to be a very good #2 starter when healthy (that's a big if), and would be a huge lift if he could provide #3 starter production. For these reasons I'm not writing this team off just yet, although I won't make any promises either.

I'm not even sure the Bears really need another WR. Mush is signed to a long term contract, Gage established himself as a good possession receiver towards the end of the season, Berrian was our BEST offensive player once he returned, Bradley was coming on strong before his injury, and the Bears are high on Airese Currie (although he's still a big ?). Although the position was an overall weakness for a large portion of the season, it could easily be a position of strength for next year. However a lot of that hinges on the health of Bradley and the team's assesment of Currie. I could be mistaken, but I don't think there are many teams (if any) teams who carry 6 receivers (although Berrian can double as a return man as well). Health provided the team may be better served upgrading elsewhere. IMO, the Bears points of emphasis need to be TE (draft), OL (youth and depth via draft), OLB (draft), a backup Qb (via FA), and CB (someone who doesn't make as many mistakes as Tillman). Tight end, CB, and a backup QB should be top priorities, where the other two are more for adding depth.

You mean like Wood or Prior? :lol: Therein lies the problem.

When guys like Bryan Corey, Scott Williamson, and Todd Wellemeyer are either traded or sent home. Honestly I think our pitching (for the most part) has done a pretty good job this spring. Although it is/would be disappointing for Hill and Jerome to struggle this spring. At least one of those guys has to be average to slightly above for us this year.

You do remember that just last year Hill was in Single A? In one year, he went from A ball to the Majors. He dominated at Triple A. It's surely a little early to write him off as a starter based on one start early in Spring Training, wouldn't ya say? Honestly, I've seen him for two years now and there is nothing besides his cruveball that impress' me. Every pitch besides his curve is average at best. You can't be a major league starter with 1 pitch. A guy named Barry Zito won a Cy Young with virtually two variations of the same pitch. His fastball is far from special. The key with Rich is control and location. If he can spot his fastball while maintaining control of his curve he'll be a VERY good pitcher (as eviodenced by his K rates). If he can't, well, his MLB career will be very short (as has been the case with many a pitcher).

Lol...I saw that too. Isn't that what EVERYONE's been saying for the last 2 months? I don't even know why they put it on the ticker feed.

How can you say that, if the players respect the coach? (hypothetically) Isn't the players opinion of his manager more important than ours? Their respect for the manager doesn't have anything to do with his competency to get the job done. Yeppers.

Exaclty. It's not like we're talking about Corey Patterson here, we're talking about a consistently productive player. He's also advanced enough in his career to where a successful change in approach should be that much harder to come by.

Offensive value and power are not mutually exclusive. His offensive value lies in his ability in getting basehits, not striking out, stealing bases and scoring runs Yes, but in his quest to not strike out, he loses power. The power is much more valuable than the ability to not strike out. By taking a "contact at all costs" approach, he limits the player he could be. You're defeating your own argument. I don't think anyone is going to try argue that Pierre doesn't give up power when he tries to hit for contact. He does. However, you also need to realize that an increase in power would probably lower his amount of contact, which would lower his amount of hits. In the end, Pierre AND this team are much better off having Juan do what he's best at AND what this team needs. Quite frankly we have MORE than enough power to get this team through the season. What the Cubs have been missing is a/some speed/OBP/guys who take more than 3 pitches types of players. Juan Pierre should fill that void nicely. Read the rest of the responses, Pierre's OBP would likely not be damaged by the approach I'm advocating. But what you're advocating isn't an adjustment. It's a rather drastic change of mindset for a player who's emplored his approach for HIS WHOLE LIFE. He's also been very successful at it. To say he could make these changes without having it adversely affect his game seems rather ludicrous.

This is one deal where I'd be utterly shocked if it didn't materialize before the start of the season. Hendry wants him here, Lee seemingly wants to be here, and the agent is aware of both. I just hope Lee's signing isn't contingent on Baker being around. All we need are players swearing their allegance to Dusty the Clown. It'd make it even that much harder to get rid of the guy.

Pay no heed to those rumors, they are a joke. All insider does is take the gist of articles and try to draw conclusions from them. Much of the time, these are illogical, senseless, or have little to do with the article WHATSOEVER.

I don't think so. When a relatively high percentage of African Americans hail from the inner city, its not only cheaper, but much more easy to grab a ball and head to the local basketball court than it is to find the field, equipment, and friends necessary to play baseball. For many its just not feasible. IMO, the landscape of baseball today has been many decades in the making. Once a few of the youth turn to basketball instead of baseball, then many of their friends will as well. As these kids get older, some become stars either on the collegiate level or in the pros. This influences more and more youths to turn to basketball and the cycle continues. However I think the bigger question is, is this a problem? As far a MLB is concerned it might, although I'm not sure how it adversley affects the game. However in reality I'd guess that this isn't necessarily a problem at all. If it's simply a byproduct of kids playing the sport they chose to play than its nothing more than a product of choice. But if MLB and baseball enthusiasts in general find there are a lot of kids who WANT to play baseball but can't because of factors outside their control, than I think there is a problem. The only thing is I haven't seen a lot of data to suggest the latter is the problem which exists. It's kind of funny because there aren't NEARLY as many white players in most sports as there used to be, but that's not being viewed as a problem (even though the numbers are relativly skewed away from the population percentages its not even funny). So why's this a problem? It's going to take more than a few articles to convince me that it is (not trying to sound incensitive).

What do the Cubs fans have to do to get some HONEST people up in the front office. This cloak and dagger crap when it comes to injuries, is simply mindboggling frustrating. Exactly.

I don't get it. We've been through 2-3 years of this s**t yet I still feel like we never get a straight answer. As much as it would SUCK for Prior to miss any starts, I'd feel much better if the organization would be a little more forthright. If he's not completely on track/healthy, then say there's a possibility he may miss a start or two at the beginning of the season. If they aren't sure, then by god say they aren't sure. But when they start spring training and go out of their way to convince us he's healthy, only to retract and contradict the earlier statements, it ticks me off. I could understand it if their was a good reason to do this, but just what exactly do they gain by (seemingly) being dishonest. If it was the first time I wouldn't give it much though but we've heard it for BOTH wood and Prior for the last 2 years. Unbelievable.

Offensive value and power are not mutually exclusive. His offensive value lies in his ability in getting basehits, not striking out, stealing bases and scoring runs Yes, but in his quest to not strike out, he loses power. The power is much more valuable than the ability to not strike out. By taking a "contact at all costs" approach, he limits the player he could be. You're defeating your own argument. I don't think anyone is going to try argue that Pierre doesn't give up power when he tries to hit for contact. He does. However, you also need to realize that an increase in power would probably lower his amount of contact, which would lower his amount of hits. In the end, Pierre AND this team are much better off having Juan do what he's best at AND what this team needs. Quite frankly we have MORE than enough power to get this team through the season. What the Cubs have been missing is a/some speed/OBP/guys who take more than 3 pitches types of players. Juan Pierre should fill that void nicely.

I know I'm going to be in the minority here, but I'd be EXTREMELY leary about this trade. There's no QUESTIONING the caliber of player the Cubs would get in return, but I'm not sure the upgrade over Murton would constitute the trading chips the Cubs would have to give up. Not that I think Murton is or can be as good of a player as Cabrera, but I think he's capable of providing a 280-300/340-360/500 line. IMO, a line like that is NOT really our team's problem. The problem is that the Cubs extremely hampered their flexibility when they signed Jones (mainly this guy) AND Pierre. Now adding a good outfield bat means we'd have to get rid of a promising, young, cheap, non-egocentric (the opposite of Cabrera, from what I hear, and I HATE guys like that) player just to create space. Now I know Cabrera's got a couple more years of relatively cheap service time, but eventually he's going to command a huge payday. Problem is we've got so many guys who are going to be commanding big pay days its not going to be possible to keep them all (given the way the Trib spends their money). Z, Prior, Lee, Ramirez, and possibly Cabrera would give us 5 superstar-type contracts to contend with. In my estimation, that's around 50 mil/year tied up in just five players. That's a very risky proposition for a team starved for talented youngsters (which only figures to get worse with the trade). IMO, this team would be much better off trading for Miggy (assuming no age decline, which is very reliable) than for Cabrera. I think he'd come much cheaper, and would provide more replacment value than Cabrera would (both on the field and in the clubhouse). Then Ronny could slide over to second, and Neifi could be shipped off (won't happen but I can still dream). Now I'd be all for either of these two trades if I truly felt we were one player away, or had a much stronger productive farm system, but I don't. This is coming from a fan who thinks this team will be MUCH better than many think they're capable of, yet is enough of a realist to acknowledge their are a lot of ????????? with this team. It's hard to invest THAT much in a player when you don't even know what you've got, even if the early returns (spring training) are promising.