anemic offense

Dear Jesus let this be a sign Dusty ISN'T considering Neifi for a starting job. It would make all of us around here VERY VeRY happy.

Either you're calling Murton a sack, or Clement a sack. Both of which seem pretty out there. Like I said in the above post, you guys got me here. I guess I should have worded my statement more precisely. More like: "I'm tired of seeing gusy we give up blossom while our intended target (big name whole filler) turns out to be a sack of sh*t. Specifically referring to Alfonsucka and Nomah. I know some of you are going to say "but we got Clement", which is true, and he was a good pithcer for us while he was here. But if you look at it from the perspective of the hole we were trying to fill (a closer), it wasn't a very good trade. I'm know that deal wouldn' have gotten done IF Clement wasn't included, then again it probably wouldn't have been initiated if the Cubs hadn't "needed" Alf in the first place. Ugh. Regardless of the connotation I can't believ I used needed and Alf in the same sentence. Time to go take a shower.

Either you're calling Murton a sack, or Clement a sack. Both of which seem pretty out there. Ehh, you got me there, though I was referring to the part of the trade. Cumulativley you guys are right. The development (seemingly thereof) of Matt Murton may make this trade a real steal. Although he definately wasn't the catalyst for which it was made. Depends on the viewpoint I guess.

It is? I never hear about it. Although the official "naming" rights have seemingly went defunct (everyone knew the "Chicago Bears presented by Chase/BankOne/Whatever" was never going to work). But when one enters the stadium the partnership is blatantly obvious. Virtually everything that can have a Chase name/logo on HAS a Chase name/logo on it. With all the money the team/NFL makes its amazing teams are resorting to the sell out mentality. Apparetnly nothings enough for these greedy b*stards. It's become flat out ridiculous.

Understatement of the century. You can't go to Soldier Field without being bombarded by Chase logos and insignias. They are on cupholders, near the teletron, all around the stadium...you simply can't escape them. Although the funny thing is I received a free Visa/Mastercard Bear towel just outside the entry gate. Here Chase spends all that money to have their name plastered all over the stadium and they're outdone (from this fan's perspective) by one of there biggest rivals giving away a product they can actually use. Can't believe (Chase) they'd let that happen.

Yeah, I saw that too (on Olney's blog). Kinda makes me sick. Hindsight being 20-20, the Nomar trade was a bad deal for the Cubs. Although Hendry should do that trade every time if given the opportunity, it would suck to see another former Cub (milber)blossom while getting a sack of sh*t (albeit caused by injuries) in return.

I miss Stoney. Though I can't say the same for Chip, I will say I'd rather have him as our play by play man than Kasper. Not that Len's necessarily bad but he just doesn't do it for me. Guesss you don't realize how much you tolerated the guy til he's gone. Weird how that works.

Thanks for the clips. I didn't know Farns took down Affeldt last year. What happended there?

I don't think Pujols has very good #'s against him either. Not many people do. That's what makes it fun. :) Z's nemesis is Jason Bay, as memory serves me. Also, Rolen was the guy who murdered the Cubs in that game. I remember being really pissed off about that inning since Z looked gassed, but Dusty didn't take him out for whatever reason. Moreover, he didn't have anyone warming up in the bullpen in case Z ran into trouble (which was possible given Pujols-Rolen-Edmonds was due up). The game was either tied or the Cubs had the lead when Z basically ran out of gas against Rolen and served up a game-breaking HR. With Remlinger not even ready to go (can't remember if he even was warming up at that point), Z basically decided, "screw it" and plunked Edmonds, knowing he'd get ejected. It was a smart move, to boot, since Remlinger got all the time he needed to warm up after Z was ejected and also because Z only allowed one base to Edmonds, which I would have taken at the time. While I can't stand guys like Edmonds and Pujols, Rolen...damn. He's one of those guys you can't help but respect and even admire. When it comes to Edmonds, he's one of those guys who makes it really easy to root against the Cardinals. That's what made that moment so special. :D You can throw Rob [expletive] Mackowiak in there as well. Of the handfull or so guys that HAVE hit Z fairly well, half have resided on the Pittsburgh Pirates. Go figure.

Then its only fair you get irritated at Lee, too. He does a Hop after he hits a HR to, granted, not as dramatic, but a distinct hop none-the-less. I have no problem with players hopping or doing something of the sort when they homer. Some of the most memorable Homers wouldnt be as memorable if it wasnt for the players reaction. Edmonds crap in the outfield does make me mad though. I dont care if he watches his homers, I care that he dives at a ball that he could just as easily walk to. Anyways, this thread is WAY off topic. A Z-delivered fastball is the preferred method of capitol punishment in 38 states. Being a soccer fan, I do not mind at all a bit of celebration and personality after a HR. Some I don't mind (such as Lee's), although I don't particularly like it either. If I had my druthers everyone would react to HRs Michael Barrett style, that is head down and quickly trot around the bases. However, if somebody happens to hit a game changing/winning HR I like to see some emotion.

Keep your head up and your eyes peeled. You never know what may happen over there. I had a friend who was there on tour from Spring '04-05 and he got shot in the foot. But you'd never guess how...celebratory gunfire. According to him, the Iraqi national soccer team notched a big win over Saudi Arabia (IIRC). All across Baghdad the air became littlered with sounds of gunfire. He was guarding one of the entrances into a medical center when he felt this sudden burning sensation near his big toe. He looks down to find one of the bullets had pierced his boot on the descent. Lucky for him, it only was wedged in between his toes and all he was left with was a skin abrasion similar to a rug burn. This isn't the end of the story. Turns out because he was "injured" in the line of duty, he was eligible to receieve the purple heart. However being that he has a ton of character as well as (pry more importantly) future political aspirations, he didn't think it was a good idea. You'd think they'd actually review the circumstances before they'd issue such an honor. Apparently not. Anyways, stay safe and do whatever you can to keep yourself psychologically healthy. In the end my friend was glad he went (he thought it really put things into perspective for him), but he said the living conditions were absolutely horrendous. Three - four guys in a small dormitory sized room, and he was confined to being on a city sized block for the better part of a year. Not to mention, MREs and the food they serve get awfully old pretty quick. Might be a good idea to bring/have a bread maker sent to you. He said it was a saving grace and made him quite a few friends on the compound.

As good as Oswalt is/has been, I'm still a little peaved about him receiving more votes and consideration than Carlos did for the 04 season. Carlos was superior in virtually every statistical category (IIRC), besting him in ERA, Avg against, HR against, innings, and I believe Ks as well. Oswalt did have a slight advantage in the W column, but I belived Carlos had the better W % as well as a better team record on the days he pitched (which is astounding considering how much weaker our pen was than theirs). It's not like he was playing on a totally umcompetitive team (as was the case this year).

From his Espn chat: I agree wholeheartedly, especially if Z can lower his walk totals just a little bit.

Do you get CSC in Janesville??? I'm orginally from Greene and they get FSN North on cable (although I believe Direct tv includes CSC as their "local" sports channel).

It's good for now, but the true litmus test is whether or not he can keep it off. IIRC Z came to spring training 2 years ago awfully slender, probably the leanest he had been since being in the minor leagues. However, over the course of the season he seemed to put it back on. If he could keep it off over the course of the season it would be great for both he and the Cubs. Although with most pitchers one tends to worry more about arm injuries, with Z my biggest fears are his back, poor fundamental habits (sliding, barehanding balls), and his constant hydration issues. The loss of weight should certainly help with his back.

It is absurd. Either he'll stink to the point to where no one would take on the 2.5 years remaining on his contract, or he'll play well enough to where the Cubs won't want to get rid of him.

IMO the biggest surprise about the Aram deal is that no one else was willing to give them anything better. I still find it hard to believ to this day that B Hill and company was the best Pittsburgh could get. And the Cubs are an interdivisional rival no less. This is definately the one aspect people seemingly conveniently ignore when the season starts. Yeah, our offseason signings haven't been what we wanted, but at the same time I think we're all fairly conifident there are few teams who have the ability (taking on cash wise) to be able to go out and make the moves the Cubs can. A lot of what they can do is predicated on how the complete the first 1/2 to 2/3 of the season, but if they are competitive (a strong possibility, though no certainty) they'll have the ability to add a player or two to make a difference. At this point it seems kind of tiresome to reference the 2003 season, but there wasn't a team that supplemented itself better than the Cubs did. If it wasn't for Aram, Lofton, and then Randall Simon, that team might have never made it to the playoffs. Sorry for wandering a little off topic. I thouhgt this was kind of important.

I'd be surprised if Dusty puts Cedeno and Murton 1-2 with the Juan Pierre signing. Todd Walker has proved that he can get on base at a decent clip throughout his career, while Murton and Cedeno have gotten only a smattering of PAs. Give me Walker at the 2-spot over Murton or Cedeno or Murton for the time being. That being said I'd love to see all three in the lineup. The one thing peopel seem to conveniently forget around here is Walker's lack of speed. This doesn't just hurt on the basepaths, but on DP balls as well. I know the stathounds will chime in and say "you can't possibly tabulate all those runs", but the extra 1st to thirds, SBs, scoring from 1st or 2nds, fewer DPs, scoring from third on balls in play HAVE to count for something. I concede it can't be tabulated, but I don't think its too far fethced to say Murton or Cedeno could net at least 30 extra bases from such opportunities. While not trying to take away from Todd, this does somewhat narrow the discrency in OBP. There are just so many things to take into account in baseball that stats can't even quantify. It's up to fans like us to try to disseminate the difference, and that can be tricky, at best.

The timely hitting was there, Jim. The guys who draw the walks in front of timely hitting were not. I'm not so sure that the timely hitting was there. We left a lot of runners in scoring position including a number of basesloaded situations IIRC. It's difficult to have timely hitting when there are not many guys on base to create timely hitting in the first place. We had no timely hitting, and when we did it was from the 3 and 4 spots. Unfortunatly though we had the worst 1-2 combination in the league and D Lee's season was about 75% of what it should have been had we had a competant lineup.

Drafting and instruction. My gut feelign tells me most of it has to do with instruction.

I agree with this, to a large degree. You just can't assume ANY prospect is going to step in and be good right away. IMO, the difference here is that both of our players (Murton and Cedeno) have had very impressive (not superb, rather encouraging) partial seasons in MLB ball albeit under difficutl circumstances. Not that they can't or won't regress, it's just that they've given us little reason to think that would happen (to a disasterful extent). I think this is particularly true with Ronny, with there being almost NO WAY he could be as bad as Neifi. It's all arbitrary I guess, and how one would define a bad season. For Ronny (IMO) that would be performing at an offensive level only SlIGHTLY ahead of Neifi. If he ends up being equal, that would constitute a COMPLETE DISASTER. Then I'd have to slit my wrists.

LOL TT. Who runs that forum? I had no idea what FJM was until I clicked on the link.

Honestly I'm not exactly sure what to think. Hendry made one really bad move (Jones), a couple of moves which could go either way (Howry and Eyre), and made a nice trade (IMO) for Pierre. With that said, a lot of this teams success will hinge on the play of the young guys (Ronny and Matt) and the health of our starting pitching. They could be really good (a lot better than what most here are predicting) or pretty bad. There are jsut so many wild cards that its hard to get a handle on this team. At least theat's my read.

Both Murton and Walker were far more selective than Cedeno when choosing what pitches to swing at. Cedeno's take/swing ratio was 0.98, compared to 1.11 for Murton and 1.16 for Walker. Cedeno really wasn't any more effective with his swings, either. Walker made more contact than Cedeno -- Walker made contact in 89.8% of his swings compared to 88.4% for Ronny -- while Murton hit with far more power than either of them, though his contact ratio was lower. Patience-wise Ronny's numbers were far more like Neifi's than anyone else on the team, though Cedeno's were a tad better. I'm waiting to actually see if Dusty starts Nefi more often than Cedeno. Can you imagine Nefi in the 2 hole???? No, I really can't. It's just unfathomable. No major league manager would ever do that. Why not, he did it last year? Although you could say these are a different set of circumstances (with Ronny having some experience), there was at least one AAA manager who couldn't believe Cedeno wasn't in Chicago sooner than he was. And I dont' think he was the only one.

I like your 1-4, but I'd put Walker 5, Barrett 6, Murton 7 and Jacque 8 (9 when Z starts). It's NEVER gonna happen though.