ZoomSlowik

QUOTE(SinkingShip06 @ Sep 19, 2006 -> 03:23 PM) your idea of 2 out bleeders is EXECUTION. not breaks. if you say they didn't get any breaks this year, you haven't been watching. Whether or not a ball in play falls or not is largely a factor of luck. Even if you hit a screaming liner in the gap there's a chance that the outfielder will make a diving catch. Yeah, some balls are more likely to fall than others, but there are no guarantees unless you hit it out of the park. Getting a weak fly ball that drops or a weak grounder in the right spot isn't that dependent on exectution. Yeah, good contact hitters help, but that still only translates into a hit about 30% of the time on average. Again, what breaks are you speaking of? Outside of one stretch of errors by the other team against New York and Tampa and Liriano getting hurt I can't think of any massive breaks that we got. Hell, I'd bet we got more in the playoffs last year than we did all this season.

QUOTE(SinkingShip06 @ Sep 19, 2006 -> 02:46 PM) I disagree. this team has gotten a s***LOAD of breaks this year. the difference is that they have not capitalized on them. GIDP. that's what they do. we need bullpen help. we need a new SS, LF, CF, leadoff man, manager, 3rd base coach, hitting coach, so um yeah. not much to change is there? Really, where are all these breaks that you speak of? I've seen an awful lot of hard-hit balls right at people, while the other team seems to get a 2-out bleeder or weak flyball in the right spot to drive in some runs. Last year that type of stuff wasn't happening for us. Plus two of the 5 teams in baseball with a better record than us happen to reside in our division. I fail to see how the #2 offense in baseball needs all those changes. Okay, Pods is clearly an issue and needs to go. But centerfield isn't that dire and Uribe is passable. You don't even mention the biggest change needed and that's the starting pitching. In fact, if our pitchers were anywhere near as productive as they were last year we wouldn't be having this discussion because they'd have about 95 wins by now.

QUOTE(sircaffey @ Sep 19, 2006 -> 02:25 PM) The last time we blew up the team, we won a World Series title. I don't really see how we "blew the team up" before 2005. We dealt one player, and we lost another to FA. Most of your key players were already on the roster, including 4/5 of the rotation and 5/9 of our starters.

Unless Johan can pitch every game they're going to be in the same place in a few weeks. Seriously, how far do you think you're going to go with Boof Bonser, Carlos Silva, and Scott Baker making starts in the playoffs?

QUOTE(cgaudin @ Sep 19, 2006 -> 01:39 PM) There ain't much to add to this team. Two new starters, a SS, and a left fielder, or put Dye in the DH and get another outfielder. Don't get me wrong, I like Jim Thome, but he is a primary reason why this team became one-dimensional on offense. He is worth a lot now. Dump him and get something good in return. We may need to retool the bullpen arms, as well. I like the two kids Sweeney and Fields. We should give at least one of them a shot. If Crede re-signs cheap we should keep him. If he asks for Ft. Knox then we should trade him also. Crede can bring top talent. I disagree strongly. Thome has the highest OBP on the team by a good margin, is the team's only real left-handed threat, and is still posting great numbers. The only thing you do by removing Thome is take runs off the board. The reason the team became "one-dimensional" in the second half is that Podsednik has been awful, and Iguchi wasn't much better. Those are the only even remotely small-ball style players on the roster. Those guys were the only real "small-ball" player we had all of last year too, and that didn't seem to stop us. People forget that we hit a ton of homers last year too. The difference was that our pitching was a lot better so our offense didn't have to do as much. Besides, that isn't really an important part of contending. The Yankees and Red Sox are far from small-ball teams, and they've posted great offensive numbers and made the playoffs basically every year recently, and their pitching usually hasn't been that great either. We'd have done the same thing this year if we played in the NL or if our pitching was even remotely good.

QUOTE(Soxbadger @ Sep 19, 2006 -> 12:51 PM) Ricardo "No Neck" Pastrana of course Kalapse. Screw that, give me Hiram "The Sledgehammer" Adams.

QUOTE(BHAMBARONS @ Sep 19, 2006 -> 02:19 AM) Well it would damn nice if our Dumb Ass Manager ( Bob Stupid ass Melvin) would actually play him a little. Instead he plays washed up has beens and we have fallen to well below .500 As you can tell I hate him and reactionary managing skills the guy is a born loser and shouldn't ever be an MLB manager. He is by far the worst MLB manager now. You got a point there, I have no idea why Young, Quentin, and Stephen Drew (to a lesser extent, he does play more) aren't starting every day. There's no way Eric Byrnes, Jeff DeVanon and Craigh Counsell should be playing over those guys. It'd still be pretty pre-mature to worry about how great Young is though, you just don't know how he's going to develop yet.

Young has all of 2 homers and 9 RBI with a monstrous .259 average this year. How about we let him prove something at the major league level before we start designing his Hall of Fame plaque?

QUOTE(SoxHawk1980 @ Sep 18, 2006 -> 11:57 PM) If I remember correctly, that was his first full season in the majors. Feel free to spin Wright and McCarthy's numbers any way you want, but I don't see greatness in McCarthy's future after this crap season. I think CWSGuy406's prediction for 2007 is pretty close and that would be anything but impressive. And, BTW, it is worse than what this team needs. I'm not saying trade the guy, but this rotation needs an uprgrade and McCarthy isn't it. Last time I checked, 3 of our 5 starters have an ERA of 4.70 or higher this year. I would say that's an upgrade, and at a much lower price. That was a fairly conservative projection for B-Mac too. I have no doubt that he can out-pitch Freddy next year, which is all I really care about. Plus, if you're going to make judgements based off one season, you'd have dismissed an awful lot of great pitchers in the past. Very few pitchers dominate from their first year in the majors, and many of them end up flaming out pre-maturely. I don't know how you can entirely dismiss McCarthy before he even has one season as a starter under his belt.

QUOTE(Punch and Judy Garland @ Sep 7, 2006 -> 06:10 PM) If I recall wasn't Joe D really good at this particular rate? Yeah, I'd say so... career homers- 361 career strikeouts- 369 He performed this feat 7 times in his career, and he actually finished one year with 30 homers and only 13 strikeouts.

QUOTE(SoxFan101 @ Aug 30, 2006 -> 02:25 AM) He had three 20 game winning seasons in a row right? Not 2 mention he has some of the filthiest stuff out there. I dont think it will affect the market 2 much since he would have been so much better than any other SP in f/a anyways. Yeah, but I still expect numerous other upcoming FA starters with a solid resume will push for something similar (either for extension or FA), ie Zambrano, Zito, Buehrle, and Schmidt.

That's a lot of money to shell out for a pitcher, even a good one like Oswalt. This could set the market for the next few years, which is bad news for owners. Roy is better than most of the pitchers that will hit the market though.

QUOTE(shakes @ Aug 29, 2006 -> 11:51 PM) Are we going to be able to get another league? Not looking good, I only got like 7 players.

Just a quick reminder, the draft is at 9:30 (so basically right now).

Looks like Steve is missing. I'll try to get in touch with him.

QUOTE(maggsmaggs @ Aug 23, 2006 -> 02:13 PM) But the key is: Rob is a bette player (streakiest included.) He is far away a better hitterm, will field better in left and gives a better presence at the plate. I don't see how he's far away a better hitter, his career batting average and OBP numbers are almost exactly the same as Pods' this season. 200 AB's this year doesn't really mean as much since his at bats are sporadic. He doesn't play when he's hitting poorly now, unlike Pods. Plus he still doesn't really strike any more fear in the other team than Pods. We're going to need to find a new leadoff hitter from outside the organization next year.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 23, 2006 -> 01:59 PM) I'll probably regret this, but... I disagree. I think its an excellent idea. He'd be better defensively, have similar speed, way better offensively... I see no downside. Enlighten me. Macowiak is not an everyday player on a good team, much less a leadoff hitter. He's basically this year's version of Pods without the elite speed. He's a career .262 hitter with a .333 OBP, and only has 45 stolen bases in 6 years. I don't know how you can say he has similar speed. He's got some more power and I'll admit he's probably a better defender, but that doesn't mean he can lead off for what is supposedly a World Series contender.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Aug 23, 2006 -> 10:35 AM) Don't forget the fact that it seems Aramis Ramirez is going to opt out of his Contract...so either the Cubs will have more money to not spend, or they'll wind up spending more money out of desperation to keep someone at 3rd. They seem to generally keep their own players of late, so my guess would be that they'll throw a lot of money at him to keep him around. If he does go, then they might throw a decent sum of money at someone. I still have a hard time seeing them committing something like 5-65 to Soriano or Lee though.

QUOTE(SoxFan101 @ Aug 22, 2006 -> 06:19 PM) Ive heard the Cubs connect to both Carlos Lee and Soriano... that would be something else if they ended up signing both. Add those two into a mix with Derek Lee and Ramirez.. not 2 mention a plus hitting catcher in Barrett and they could have a pretty nasty lineup. That'll never happen. They're always "connected" with all the big names in free agency but never get them. Cubs' fans always think they're going to get Ramirez, or Furcal, or Tejada, or Beltran, or Thome, or Rodriguez (Alex and Ivan), but they end up with Jones, or Maddux, or Hawkins, or Howry, or Eyre. The Cubs don't spend the money to sign guys that could actually help them significantly, they spend just enough money to get second-tier guys that appease the fan base just enough to keep them relatively happy. They'll probably end up signing someone like Jamie Moyer, Mark Redman or Ted Lilly, and maybe Frank Cattlanato or Jose Cruz Jr. for leftfield. Either that or they'll trade for someone moderately better, maybe a Patt Burrell-type. But there's no way they end up signing one of the top guys on the market.

I love "Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups." (can't get the damn picture to work ) I've used this as a motto to live by for quite some time. Whenever something incredibly stupid happens, like a horrendous law getting passed, a ridiculous poll result, or a Cubs' protest, I say, "There's the SPILG factor for you."

QUOTE(TLAK @ Aug 16, 2006 -> 07:47 AM) As the senior Javy basher on this site, since December 20, 2005, I would like to point out that he pitched well enough to win last night. Runelvys was just a tad better. This game was decided by the White Sox defense not making plays while KC was making them. I give it to Javier when he deserves it, but not this time. I agree with that entirely, Javy was not the problem last night. Even without his best stuff, he kept us in the game. The problem is the defense didn't do him any favors, and the offense took a nap. You're not going to win a whole lot of ball games when you only score 2 runs.

Happy Birthday!

The only reason that they are still in contention is because the NL is awful. They're 7 games under .500, it's not like they're kicking ass. They'd be 14.5 games behind the White Sox in the AL Wildcard race, which would put them 8th behind Seattle. Even the NL Wildcard-leading Reds would be 10 back and tied for 5th with the Angels. That said, they are better than I expected. On paper they looked like they'd be competing for the worst record in baseball. However, they still only have 54 wins. One bad week and they could be in last by a few games.

It's definitely going to be hard for anyone to go undefeated. Right now none of these teams look like they are good enough to run the table, they all have too many holes. Right now if I had to pick a team, I'd guess Louisville or West Virginia because their schedules are a bit easier. I think Louisville is the better all-around team, but they also have to play Miami.

QUOTE(MarlinFan84 @ Aug 10, 2006 -> 10:58 PM) Well, I am a Marlins fan remember. But anyway, I saw Wright listed as the 3rd best hitter in baseball...he's not even the best hitter in the NL East, but he's the best hitter in baseball. ESPN is a shrine to him. I think Wright will make a few all star teams. But, in terms of skill and potential, Ryan Zimmerman looks to be the exact same player. Except Zimmerman plays good defense, something Wright does not. He gets protection from a great lineup. But still, any day of the week, there are more than a few 3B I'd take over David Wright. Okay, that's going a little too far. However, I have a really hard time griping about a guy that currently has a .314/.388/.552 statline, especially when he is only 23. Zimmerman isn't quite the same player though. He doesn't have as much power as Wright, and so far Wright is a little better in terms of contact as well.