YearofDaCubs

No. Wood was supposed to throw to hitters in extended spring training but did not because he felt a slight twinge in his shoulder. Prior also threw 25 pitches to live hitters.

Did you guys hear what Len just said about Wood?

How long is Barrett under contract? I forget. I believe 2 or 3 more years.

Barrett 3run homer.

Maybe he's making up for bunting the first pitch of the game when everyone was expecting him to do so. I'd like to see the Cubs deal Pierre, Williams, Jones, Perez, Wiiliamson and Wood when he's off the DL in June/July. Go into rebuilding mode now? Hendry wants to keep his job, you know. He has to make a show of competing at least until the break. Well, I'd argue getting rid of Williams, Jones, Perez and Williamson doesn't really demonstrate a rebuilding, and I'd personally welcome Pie in Pierre's place. I want to see if Woody has anything left. Why Williamson? I agree with the rest of it, but Williamson is pretty durned good. We need to keep Williamson. We should only get rid of the garbage like Neifi,Williams, Rusch, and Jones.

WHat really sucks about all this was I was starting to be optimistic about the season and then we lose Lee for 2 months. I'm starting to think the Cubs will never catch a break, it's unreal.

I would rather see Guzman.

2nd inning still.

Williams really sucks, and there's no question this game is over. WOW.

Game over folks. Williams is sucking bad.

Willians walks in a run..wow.

Bases loaded nobody out, it's going to be a looong season.

That was fast.

Dusty is playing the most ideal lineup possible IMO.

Teams like Texas and Florida are not going to give up guys like Cabrera and Teixeira. I don't care what prospects you throw at them the chance of them actually making that trade is very slim.

Come on guys let's be realistic. Texas isn't going to trade Teixeira for prospects. Cabrera from the Marlins isn't coming either. Unfortunately, at this momen there isn't much we could do and I don't see Hendry making these crazy trades either.

So staying in house I'm thinking this might be our best option offensively: Pierre - CF Hairston - 2B Walker - 1B ARam - 3B Barrett - C JJones - RF Murton - LF Cedeno - SS PITCHER Big difference not having Lee there but we really don't have many other options.

2 of them had partially torn or frayed labrums. Exactly. I don't follow. You're not expecting them to be better that what we have based on their ERAs from last season, but you're conceding 2 of them were injured? I'm taking the cautious approach here. I'm just saying that it's not guaranteed that these guys are going to come back and light it up especially when two of them are coming off a significant injury which needed surgery.

So you guys think these guys are going to come back from shoulder surgery and gain their pre-injury form? I'mnot saying that they won't but I'm not assuming anything at this point.

2 of them had partially torn or frayed labrums. Exactly.

Well, here's the ERA from last year: Kerry Wood: 4.23 Mark Prior: 3.67 Wade Miller: 4.95

No one is suggesting the Cubs will mail it in or that they won't put up a fight. We're saying this team isn't good enough to do it effectively enough to win consistently. Pitching will be the key over the long haul. The club can thrive with less offense if it's pitchers aren't giving up too many runs (LOL, I know that's a big DUH). I'm optimistic about this team primarily because there are three good pitchers who aren't that far away from making a positive impact. You are assuming they will be making a positive impact but in reality when all three are coming off inuries and two of the pitchers have severe injuries we don't know what we will be getting. You're assuming that they won't make a positive impact. I know they can't be any worse than having Glendon, Jerome, and Sean in the rotation. At least Kerry, Mark, and Wade have the ability to overpower hitters and because of their reputations/ prior success they will give batters reason to pause instead of licking their chops at the thought of facing them. Did you not see how bad Miller was when he was with the Red SOx last year? He was throwing 86mph fastballs not fooling anybody. Thinking he will come back and have a positive impact when he looked so bad last year is a stretch. I personally think Prior will be fine if he comes back but to me Wood is also a ? mark. He had shoulder surgery and changed his mechanics. I would err on the side of caution when all these changes are taking place on a pitcher. Miller didn't have surgery to correct the problem while he was with the Red Sox... We won't know the exact impact until they return but I see no reason to be overly pessimistic. This team wasn't going anywhere with DLee and the current rotation so why should I, all of a sudden, become pessimistic about the pitching that's on the way? The fandom has been pointing to their return for weeks and there's no reason to abandon that idea. You and I simply have a different approach; I prefer to think of the upside while you're admittedly more skeptical. I'm also realistic. I don't expect that those guys will be tossing shutouts every night but if they are able to harness their potential it's certainly better than what the team is currently featuring. Saying these injured pitchers are going to come back and have a postive impact is being optimistic about the situation. All I am saying is I'm skeptical and taking a wait and see approach instead of thinking these guys are going to come back and give us the impact we need to start winning more games.

No one is suggesting the Cubs will mail it in or that they won't put up a fight. We're saying this team isn't good enough to do it effectively enough to win consistently. Pitching will be the key over the long haul. The club can thrive with less offense if it's pitchers aren't giving up too many runs (LOL, I know that's a big DUH). I'm optimistic about this team primarily because there are three good pitchers who aren't that far away from making a positive impact. You are assuming they will be making a positive impact but in reality when all three are coming off inuries and two of the pitchers have severe injuries we don't know what we will be getting. You're assuming that they won't make a positive impact. I know they can't be any worse than having Glendon, Jerome, and Sean in the rotation. At least Kerry, Mark, and Wade have the ability to overpower hitters and because of their reputations/ prior success they will give batters reason to pause instead of licking their chops at the thought of facing them. Did you not see how bad Miller was when he was with the Red SOx last year? He was throwing 86mph fastballs not fooling anybody. Thinking he will come back and have a positive impact when he looked so bad last year is a stretch. I personally think Prior will be fine if he comes back but to me Wood is also a ? mark. He had shoulder surgery and changed his mechanics. I would err on the side of caution when all these changes are taking place on a pitcher. Alot of what you say is true, but you do realize Miller was pitching with a bad arm last year, which is why he had surgery. Right? He had two options right after he left the Astros, to rest the shoulder or have surgery, he decided to rest it and that didn't work out so well. So this significant injury he's had is from 2004 and some people expect him to have surgery and come back and be the same pitcher that he was in 2004 pre injury form? I'm skeptical.

No one is suggesting the Cubs will mail it in or that they won't put up a fight. We're saying this team isn't good enough to do it effectively enough to win consistently. Pitching will be the key over the long haul. The club can thrive with less offense if it's pitchers aren't giving up too many runs (LOL, I know that's a big DUH). I'm optimistic about this team primarily because there are three good pitchers who aren't that far away from making a positive impact. You are assuming they will be making a positive impact but in reality when all three are coming off inuries and two of the pitchers have severe injuries we don't know what we will be getting. You're assuming that they won't make a positive impact. I know they can't be any worse than having Glendon, Jerome, and Sean in the rotation. At least Kerry, Mark, and Wade have the ability to overpower hitters and because of their reputations/ prior success they will give batters reason to pause instead of licking their chops at the thought of facing them. Did you not see how bad Miller was when he was with the Red SOx last year? He was throwing 86mph fastballs not fooling anybody. Thinking he will come back and have a positive impact when he looked so bad last year is a stretch. I personally think Prior will be fine if he comes back but to me Wood is also a ? mark. He had shoulder surgery and changed his mechanics. I would err on the side of caution when all these changes are taking place on a pitcher.

No one is suggesting the Cubs will mail it in or that they won't put up a fight. We're saying this team isn't good enough to do it effectively enough to win consistently. Pitching will be the key over the long haul. The club can thrive with less offense if it's pitchers aren't giving up too many runs (LOL, I know that's a big DUH). I'm optimistic about this team primarily because there are three good pitchers who aren't that far away from making a positive impact. You are assuming they will be making a positive impact but in reality when all three are coming off inuries and two of the pitchers have severe injuries we don't know what we will be getting.