YearofDaCubs

I would take Jones over Burnitz but I would rather have neither of them.

Bradley then Huff. Although if Texas was to trade Wilkerson I would put him at 2 or 3.

Going into the season nobody expected Green to get benched for a rookie but after yesyerday's performance we can see why. Losing two starting safeties is really going to affect this defense.

he tells them "see these? these are birds on bats. throw the ball three inches off the corners and they'll be called strikes. now go have a career year." Unfortunately for the Cubs -- namely Greg Maddux -- these "rules" do not apply. ah so Card fans can recognize that some players have received the benefit of the call at some point in time, but never the Cards. no. never. like you guys have never whined about Bonds or Clemens getting corner calls against you. like you never saw a Yankees game between 1996-2000. Maddux hasn't received any favors in his two years back with the Cubs. how many times have we seen him start off the mound, only to have the call not go his way...and then the inning blows up in his face. a couple years ago, I looked into the Cards staff for, I think it was 2001, a year in which they had something like 15 different pitchers that also pitched for other teams that year or the following year. turns out, that each and every one of them were better as Cardinals, whether they were with another team before or after the Cardinals. another example, you'll note that the years the Cubs have performed their best in the recent past all followed an uproar over umpires. 1998 followed the strike/firing, 2001 followed the enforcement of the high strike, and 2003 followed the introduction of Questech. maybe coincidence. maybe not. you may want to attribute it to Duncan, but wouldn't you think that these pitchers would take Duncan's wisdom with them? at least a couple of them? nope. not one of them improved once they left the Cards. there has to be some other explanation. luck? maybe. umps? maybe. some of it may have to do with Duncan or the pitcher being washed up, but just because the umps give certain calls to certain players or teams doesn't mean there has to be a conspiracy. I recently had the chance to pick the brain of a high A umpire who is moving up to AA next year. he completely agrees with me. somehow, he finds himself not always being consistent and at times giving certain players or teams benefits that he doesn't give others. its nothing he's conscious of at the time, just something that happens in the moment. it happens in all sports guys. go ahead and get upset with me because I bring it up. that's legit, I admit that I whine. I personally am outraged by injustice at just about any level, so I vent. but to pretend it's not happening is completely disingenuous. The officiating in the NBA has to be the worst by far. It's to the point where it's not even fair. They need to clean that up. MLB isn't even close to being that bad.

Who knows with Clemens. People doubted him coming over to the Astros and he did. The Rangers should offer some money and try and sign him to a 1 year deal. They have the offense but they don't have the starting pitching to contend.

Care to elaborate? His contract is terrible. And?? Even if Lee regresses to career norms next season, his contract will probably look quite similar. Sure, we age 2 years at one position (but likely get much better numbers for a couple of years), but we also get a good young outfielder as well. Helton's contract is $16.6 million for 2006-2010. It goes up to $19.10 million for 2011. So basically we would be taking on a 6-year contract worth over $102 million for a player who would be 38 at the end of the contract. No thank you. That's a pretty rough contract.

If Wood is not ready and going by recent history suggests he will not be, our pitching will take a hit without him. Maddux is getting older. You don't know what you are getting in Rusch. A new capable starting pitcher would have been nice but I probably don't see that happening. At the same time how good our offense will be will depend on how good of a player we put out in RF. Encarnacion, Jacque Jones and others in that category won't be good enough in my eyes. Let's face it. Our starting pitching won't be as strong as it was in the past and we realistically have to depend on our offense more this year.

I disagree with your hyperbolic assesment of the situation, but agree that it is an arguable point, especially in light of the gaping hole in RF. Hyperbolic assesment? Please. Starting pitchers that can give you a mid 2 era do not grow on trees. Tejadas power can be had from a corner OFer. Also consider the age difference and it's not hyperbolic at all.

First of all SS right now is not necessarily a need. We have Cedeno who at the very least can play good defense there. If anything, it is best to look for a RF which is our biggest hole right now. Giving up Z or Prior for Tejada would be asinine.

Ive seen enough of Orton to know that we will not go anywhere with him this year. It's not all his fault though. We have terrible WRs, and terrible TEs. Bears passing game is abysmal.

How pathetic was that...Wow, this game should be a wakeup call.

Jeff Blake is probably worse than Orton. He's terrible.

Our offense is abysmal and now that our defense is playing bad we look like a last place team. Having both starting safeties makes that big of a difference? Probably.

We look terrible. The most terrible performance I have seen in a long time.

I don't know. It's different because it's the NL, but I think the Cubs lineup with Tejada added would be pretty darn potent CF Pierre - scratch or slight advantage Angels 2B Walker - advantage Cubs 1B Lee - probably advantage Angels, unless Lee repeats 3B Ramirez - advantage Ramirez...Manny SS Tejada - clearly advantage Cubs LF Murton - clearly advantage Cubs C Barrett - clearly advantage Cubs RF ? - probably advantage Cubs, no matter who they get for RF P - closer to a scratch than you might thing. it is after all Jose Molina, not Bengie (splitting time with a rookie) the Angels big bobbers at 3 and 4 would probably be better, but overall, 1-8, the Cubs would be better offensively. further, I don't know about defense either. that Cubs team is not good defensively, and the only clear advantage is SS, 3B and Vlad's arm. Anderson is pedestrian in left, Figgins never played OF until he reached the majors and his range numbers stink, Vlad's range has diminished considerably, Kennedy's range stinks. that's a great team, but I don't think they would come close the the best lineup in baseball on both offense and defense. That's a crazy lineup.

What a comeback, especially considering they played yesterday.

Thanks!

Let's face it folks we are going to give up a lot through trade for decent options. Who knows how it pans out but we need a good RFer.

I gave it to Jones because he's a lefty.

I hate to say it but Jacque Jones will be a Cub.

Surprisingly, for all these big names they have their offense was abit above average. 15th in runs and 11th in AVG. Their pitching was even worse though.

Who do you guys expect to get? Who else is available? Do you guys really want J.Jones, Encarnacion, or a return of Burnitz here? I don't know what the asking price is for Bradley it could be high but the asking price to make a trade is going to be really high for us so our options are limited. If I had to choose from Bradley or the FA OFers available I would choose Bradley.

I listen to both radio stations and see myself listening to ESPN more and more. I dont like the Mike North show because I hate hearing about politics. Sure, he he talks about sports and what-not but not enough. Boers and Bernstein really irritate me at times when they talk down to the people that call in. I do listen to Score at night time though and enjoy it more then. I like the stuff they do about the Bears. Overall, I probably listen to ESPN more in the morning and the Score at night, but I go back and tune it to the topic that interests me the most. It's sports talk radio you wont find a station that is perfect so I take it for what it is.

Getting a good OFer will make or break the Cubs off-season. Time is ticking.

I'm personally not a big fan of Millwood. I really wanted AJ Burnett but he's not available anymore. Chances are, we are going to go in 2006 with the pitchers you mentioned. I am a bit concerned about the health of our pitchers but that makes upgrading the offense an even bigger priority.