Ramirez Update

We don't have anybody in our system who can play 3rd base? Besides Fontenot, Macias and Neifi? That's sad!

Ronny Cedeno could. Dave Kelton or Matt Craig too, but we don't want that.

macias/fontenot/n.freese/mcclain... pick your poison...its all still poison.

neifi could play 3rd, but its practially a waste of a glove...part of his charm is how well he works the double play not his twitch reactions to people busting stuff hard down the line. guess we'll all find out soon enough.

Didn't Hairston workout there in Spring? Of course, then we'd have Patterson and Neifi in the lineup at all times.

Kelton hasn't played third for a few seasons now, McClain is a 33 year old AAAA'er, Nosferatu would be the lightest hitting third baseman to ever play third base I think. Throw in Cedeno with that too. Fontenot's nothing special either, very little power, but he's certainly got a whole lot of patience. He's needs some time at third but we're not at point that it really matters if he learns it in AAA or the majors. Let the kid play, he's certainly better then Neifi or Macias. At least for the fans it would give us something to be interested about the rest of the season. God knows there isn't much else left. Matt Craig, Casey McGehee aren't on the 40 man either and doubtful you'd pull them away from the Jaxx as they'll be in the playoffs next month.

Why not pull them away from the Jaxx and see what they can do? Who cares about the AA playoffs?

hairston should be another option I would think but I have a feeling that Dusty will pick Macias or Neifi over Hairston. Call it a hunch.

Who cares about the Cubs right now? :) 40 man roster issue is probably a bigger deal, there's a cost associated with it, plus the service time, plus the cost in waiving the guy you have to dump off the 40 man and I don't see why the Cubs would waste either of those right now on either guy, neither of which have any future with the Cubs most likely.

[b]Dusty will pick Macias or Neifi over Hairston. Call it a hunch.[/b] And if Nomar is disabled as well, then we will see Macias and Neifi every day. That includes the days we see Ronny Cedeno. Neifi will be playing 2B those days, we all know that. Oh look at this great lineup: 1. Matt Lawton 2. Todd Walker 3. Derrek Lee 4. Jeromy Burnitz 5. Michael Barrett 6. Neifi Perez 7. Jose Macias 8. Corey Patterson or... 1. Matt Lawton 2. Neifi Perez 3. Derrek Lee 4. Jeromy Burnitz 5. Michael Barrett 6. Jose Macias 7. Ronny Cedeno 8. Corey Patterson

nomar says he should be back Friday fyi

throw in the days that blanco catches too....WOO!!!

chances are we will see macias. that's what he was hired to do and its been his role all season except for a few innings of neifi at 3rd. the hairston/3rd experiment fizzed out before they even got out of spring. this late in the season and this far out anything could happen.

for my two cents i say the cubs reward scott mcclain for his dedication to the organization. they'll bring him up and give him his cup o' joe in the bigs. i think the cubs over their illusions now. dusty has no excuses to sit the kids now.

How about Scott McClain? Tearig up Triple A. Much like Cedeno and Dubuis. McLain has to have an AARP card, so Dusty should likey. The guy is hitting 280 with 25 Hr's. What is next year gonna look like? 1b D. Lee 2b R.Lewis 3B A. Ramirez SS R. Cedeno LF M. Murton CF F. Pie RF C. Patt(just kidding) FA C M. Barrtt scooterÆ

I'd be fine with that as long as you get that big joke out of the 7-hole. At least it would be exciting to watch some young guys play.

scott mcclain... cant hit offspeed...cant hit breaking...old...not on the 40-man... if he could face rich hill for every at bat on a night where hill dont have his curve...i say bring him up.

2b R.Lewis not a chance in hell...

Like it matters who can hit a freakin' curveball, Crunch. The season is over. Who cares? We have to put someone there. I personally don't care if they pick 9 guys out of the stands to start every remaining game. Odds are they'd be almost as good, perhaps better than the load of crap they have right now anyway.

yes it does matter on the mlb level. if you want mcclain there so badly i suggest you watch the fatass swing a bat. if you want a whiff machine that makes burnitz look like an ob% machine, you got it in mcclain. at least go the fontenot route if you wanna cheerlead a AAA callup and pray its not nate freese. hell, they'll probally just add cedeno and play macias at 3rd anyway cuz its the most logical decision for what's going on right now. dont like macias? tell hendry about it...im not too happy about what he's been hired to do, myself.

scott mcclain is what you call a teaching vet. he's been around, he's overachieved, he's failed, he's been cut, he's been traded, he's been to japan, he's come back home. he's a guy you keep around to get your youth ready for possible disappointment. he's a guy you have around to remind kids going up/down that guys like him exist and at least theyre not him. he's a guy you look at and you see that hard work can keep you in the game. thanks to tampa bay he's eligable for his pension and that's about all he's got to look forward to besides being a guy who can answer the questions about life beyond diamond while playing the game. he's a less successful pat borders...who at least has a ring to go with his career...

once again, though..this time of year and this far out..anything could happen.

The point I was making, Crunch, was that it doesn't matter. The season is over. It doesn't make any difference who they put at 3rd. If they're willing to put Macias or Neifi there, then why not McClain who can't be as bad as those 2? If they're intelligent they'll find somebody who is young who has some upside and put him there to see what he can do. But we both know that smart does not describe the Cubs.

it does matter, though...cuz any addition/move/etc. means money. adding mcclain means taking someone off the 40-man, also. moving someone up/down isnt a matter of a phone call and a plane ticket...the paperwork itself costs money, there's pro-rated contract money, there's pension, there's a lotta real issues to making any player move. we dont have to think about this stuff, but its a real issue that effects moves to the parent organization. rather than why not mcclain, how about why mcclain? how about van burren if you wanna waste some roster space more effectively?

and as scarey as it may sound...saying mcclain is better than neifi/macias is a stretch.

He's a professional baseball player... sounds like one hell of a life to me.... "scott mcclain is what you call a teaching vet. he's been around, he's overachieved, he's failed, he's been cut, he's been traded, he's been to japan, he's come back home. he's a guy you keep around to get your youth ready for possible disappointment. he's a guy you have around to remind kids going up/down that guys like him exist and at least theyre not him. he's a guy you look at and you see that hard work can keep you in the game. thanks to tampa bay he's eligable for his pension and that's about all he's got to look forward to besides being a guy who can answer the questions about life beyond diamond while playing the game. he's a less successful pat borders...who at least has a ring to go with his career..."

This sounds like we have become a KC Royals or TBay blog.... I realized this organization was in trouble last year...and this year...but even I didn't see it going this far south this quickly. It's getting ugly in Wrigley and I'd be surprised not to see a lot of empty seats at Wrigley down the stretch...especially if the weather is cool.

"He's a professional baseball player... sounds like one hell of a life to me..." amen the dude...though i wouldnt wanna do my life over, i'd be happy to have the shots mcclain made for himself. he's not hurting. his checks still clear...and he gets winters off...heh

"Moderate to severe" means that it wasn't great but we want the inflammation to go down before we can see any small tears. I doubt that there will be any but my best guess is that this ISN'T a day to day thing, more like a week, maybe two.

Isn't sharing that kind of info illegal? Thanks though.

Crunch, there are more than one or two players who need to vanish from the Cubs 40-man roster. That is the least of the Cubs problems. I'm quite sure they could clear 15 spots if they really wanted to get better.

yeah...personally i wouldnt mind seeing fontenot brought up, but with cedeno already here and on the 40-man and the fact macias was hired to backup 3rd, it just dont look too good for anyone being added/subtracted at this point.

font's on the 40-man, too...to clear up any possible confusion my last statement might make =p

If Nomar is back and Aram does go on the DL which seems like the most likely scenerio then Cedeno will be brought up and a 3-man platton of SS and 3rd will happen. Nomar at SS always and Neifi at 3rd always and when Cedeno plays he will play where the starter was at.

Crunch, Very good stuff. I always wonder what it's like to be a professional baseball player and what's it's like to run a major league front office. You just satisfied two of my more curious questions. Thanks and please continue to draw from your very interesting baseball life. Would it be a stretch to say the Cubs will shelf Ramirez and search for a waiver wire 3B? Do you think the Cubs are delusional about their chances?

two words: oh crap from www.si.com/scorecard: "In his strongest words yet about his future, Dusty Baker was clear about his plans and his goals. "That's why I came,'' he said of making the Cubs winners, "and why I ain't leaving unless somebody fires me. I'll be back next year and the year after that. And I ain't being run out of town." -- Chicago Sun-Times"

ron...you'd probally be suprised to learn exactly how many people here do run into baseball people regularly. they're not gods..theyre people. living in NC you get a great chance to regularly be around players from generations back to kids trying to maket currently. one of my uncles played for the cubs and wsox and a couple of my cousins are washup minor leaguers. besides, im not parading around any info that's not readily known or assumed...noted where applicable. i'm not even trying to be "the shit"...there's people who frequent this board who are closer to the action that i am. no, i dont spend 7 days a week surrounded by players shooting the shit and planning their lives with them...but yeah, i like baseball and i have some people around that i do talk baseball with. no one i know would impress too many people, but those people do this whole baseball thing for a living and talk about it cuz it pretty much is their life (outside of golf and their kids, anyway). im not trying to blow anyone away, impress anyone, or one-up anyone...im just talking the things ive had explained and told to me. and no, i dont have some cubs insider...i dont know anyone who even has pull in the cubs organization. as for what's really going on up there...its all just speculation based on how things traditionally play out for the most part.

I like Michael Owen.

Hey, guys, tough question. I see where Borowski STILL hasn't given up an earned run for the D-Rays. Sixteen straight scoreless innings. So my tough question is this: Has anybody seen him pitch for TB? The reason it's a tough question is that I doubt TB fans watch TB games, much less Cubs fans. But I want to know, is his velocity better? Is his backdoor slider unreasonably good? Basically, I'm asking if his stuff's any different than before his release. I know everybody is going to say no pressure in TB, the AL hasn't seen him yet, et cetera, et cetera, as reasons for his success, but first of all JoBo was always a pretty good pressure guy (thinking back to '03) and second of all, he hasn't just been effective against AL hitters, he's been dominant. Just curious if anybody's seen how his stuff looks.

Sixteen straight scoreless outings, make that.

That's alot closer to the action than I could ever dream of, Crunch. Regardless, I only meant throw a compliment your way for providing information on daily baseball life. Very interesting stuff, but surely not enough for me to consider them 'gods'.

yeah, i didnt know how to take it, honestly..i just wanted to distance myself from any unneccesary accolade and clear up any impression that i have some kinda "inside" on anything cubs related. via the sheer fact of the family i was born in and the area i live in and the fact i love the game ive had a chance to talk baseball and make friends with people closer to the game than i'll ever be. i found out in early in highschool there's not a lot of demand for 6'4" 170lb. slap hitting, average running OF'rs out there even in the smallest of colleges...much less in paid baseball. my uncle, btw...barry foote (cubs player/wsox coach)...i never really got a chance to know too well, but his kid (jr) and the rest of my family on my mother's side ive had the pleasure of gleening some nice stories from.

"Has anybody seen him pitch for TB? The reason it's a tough question is that I doubt TB fans watch TB games" hahaha... ive wondered similar about borowski...his main issue with the cubs this season...well, pretty much his only issue besides showing up late healthy was the longball. im interested if he's being effective or if he's getting lucky with some warning track outs. either way he's getting it done and bos/nyy/stl are looking pretty foolish being so needy and passing him up when he was an unrestricted free agent. hindsight 20/20 etc etc...

ESPN insider says Wagner is looking for a 3 year $24 mil deal. With all the bullpen problems the cubs have had, is he worth it? I'd much rather throw that cash at him than pay $4-5 mil per year to dempster.

I will say it again. I would much rather lose with a team full of prospects than watch the washed up veterans lose. (Zip it crunch, before I get a knife and x out my eyes having to watch the Macias, Perez show at SS and 3rd for the rest of the year!!!!!!) No human being should be subjected to the Perez, Macias, Patterson, and Blanco hitting lineups. It is just cruel. Last I checked it does count as cruel and unusual punishment, which is against the law. So maybe we should be looking into legal representation. September is coming up. The season is shot. Bring up the prospects for the final month. Atleast they will show some heart and hustle. Atleast you know they care and want to do good, even if their talent may not be up to par. (Damn it crunch, don't do it!!!) This team needs some fire, some passion that can only be found in the minor league guys at this point in the season. The heart of the 2003 team was that they were young, hungry, and had some passion. The 2005 team is a cold, heartless, blackhole of crap. Veteran presence hasn't helped the Cubs, its has stolen its soul.

hey, i got nothing against prospects...i just dont think we should expect much outta them before their time...hehe :) note: i said would shouldn't expect, not that we shouldnt play them when the season is a wash. we got murton, who could be an impact 06 player...we got cedeno who could be in the same boat, though he's still a bit rough (and young)...and we got bench prospects like adam greenberg (soon to be an auggie ojeda-like fan favorite) and fontenot. i hope to god they dont let Pie or his ankle anywhere near the bigs in sept. problem is the team is carrying burnitz/lawton and one of them really needs to go before murton has a decent chance of seeing any decent regular time in the cubs OF this september. theyre not gonna bench either of those guys vs. righties just for the hell of it unless the club really wants to push murton. cedeno i cant even imagine what they want to do with right now cuz at best he seems to fit in as a backup bench in 06...greenberg/fontenot are expected to be nothing but bench anyway. these bench guys are important, though...cuz theyre who's playing when the regs are injured and the past 2 years the cubs bench has seen a lot more playing time than any bench should see. CF is another sticky issue...the team has patterson/hairston and both are under club control for 06. this could be a very weird month and i cant even speculate where it'll go. once youre out of it the role of GM/manager changes a bit. once the GM gives a manager a true (aka, non media and truely real) vote of confidence things change as far as who's getting a look and who's not. i seriouly dont even got a speculative role of how september will play out. in the immediate future i wouldnt be too shocked to see macias at 3rd and cedeno added to the roster as a stopgap for now, though. once the calendar turns, though...god...who knows...well, baker/hendry might... my *opinion*...let's find some room for murton even if it involves giving burnitz/lawton alternating or occasional days off if they cant move one of them. murton seriously looks like the real deal, especially if he can solve his inside pitching issues. fontenot i could really care less about til next spring...cedeno, i have no idea what to think about, but it cant hurt to get the occasional look at him if he's expected to back anyone up next year. its not like cedeno's ready to turn the world on its ear, but he's a better option than enrique wilson and cody ransom.

A season on the shrink http://www.suntimes.com/output/sports/cst-spt... {...Everything is shrinking at Wrigley Field -- the weeks, the purpose, the hope. "Right now we need to look at the small picture instead of the big picture,'' first baseman Derrek Lee said. "Just try to get to .500, I guess, and go from there.'' With 35 regular-season games left, the Cubs (61-66) have their sights set on breaking even after losing another series. BRAVES 3 CUBS 1 The Atlanta Braves overcame a strong pitching performance by Mark Prior to beat the Cubs 3-1 Wednesday. The Cubs have dropped four of their last five games and are 8-14 this month. They have nothing to show for Carlos Zambrano's dominant effort Monday night and Prior's strong outing...}

Re: Post #38 - Alan, your post confirms my long-held belief that the Cubs and Newcastle United are in fact one and the same. Uncanny. Same brilliant/loyal/stupid (they keep showing up with their money) big market fanbase. Same ton of payroll and no-onfield success, and dreams built on the team of 1969. Same overpaid idiots who can't do the job on the field. Same cynical hapless management. One question though, this season are you D. Lee or G. Maddux?

Interesting reading the papers this morning. I have defended Dusty from time to time, but he needs to stop throwing the pity party because he has critics. He does enough silly things (like starting Nefi/Corey at the top of a line-up for a month), a few of us will get a little excited from time to time. As the scribes pointed out, every ML manager has his own personal www.fire(insert name).com. And some deserve it more than others. The Cubs are now exhibit A for us statheads who have argued on TCR that team batting average is a pretty meaningless statistic for judging a team's offense. But players are so ingrained in evaluating themselves in terms of BA, they are themselves puzzled by the lack of runs. See Lee's and Walker's quotes. We have a high team BA, but we don't score runs, its a mystery per Mr. Walker. No Todd, it is not a mystery. When you have a low team .OBP, low P/PA ratio, and poor team speed, you are going to be pretty middling when scoring runs (whether you lead the league in hitting or not). The topic that BA is highly variable from year to year, and luck has a lot to do with it is a subject for another day. Checking baseball propectus today and looking at VORP by position, it seems we are overvaluing Walker. Soriano may well be an upgrade, especially as he is about 4 years younger. Speaking of VORP and nightmarish look at the following line on Corey. All those negatives mean that if the Cubs just found any old AAA CF to play out in center, they would be better off then playing Ccry. 54. Corey Patterson CHN NL 2005 CF 386 8.0% .229 .262 .373 14 2 -0.207 -0.177 -0.031 -18.8 -16.1 -2.8 (baseballprosectus.com, preminium membership).

I had a hamstring injury once...never had an MRI...but I fell running almost exactly like Ramirez did...it hurt like hell...I could walk on it afterwards but the drive home was some intense kind of pain...the next day walking was much more difficult. don't know what my status was as I didn't have an MRI...but it took a good 3 months before I could run on it again..and another month before I could cut left, right, forward and backward suddenly....and I could feel the effects of it for about 6 months.

I guess we now know why ARam wasn't "hustling" or "running out" some of the routine GB and FB outs this year.

CubfaninGermany: "Checking baseball propectus today and looking at VORP by position, it seems we are overvaluing Walker." Walker VORP 21.6 Grudz VORP 24.7

Yeah, cause hes a lazy, overpaid, prima donna.

Crunch, if you talk to your uncle, tell him he was on the Cubs team that was the formative team of my youth (1979). Not a good team, by any stretch, but had some good players (Buckner, Ontiveros, DeJesus, King Kong), a decent bench (Biittner, Vail), a rookie that people would go places (Scot Thompson), a solid rotation (The Whale, Lamp, McGlothen, Krukow, Holtzman), and of course Bruce Sutter. 1979, the year of the 23-22 loss and a 9-22 September that got Herman Franks fired. Aah, memories.

Who is crunch's uncle? I too grew up with 79 Cubs. Let me guess Tim Blackwell?

*The heart of the 2003 team was that they were young, hungry, and had some passion.* Neither Sosa, Kenny Lofton, Eric Karros nor Grudzie were young. They had passion and/or heart though. Clement didn't look like he had a pulse most of the time. Patterson was similarly afflicted with lack of facial expression. The only young guy who seemd passionate and hungry on the team was Zambrano.

I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU GUYS ARE STILL TALKING ABOUT LEE HAVING A SHOT AT THE TRIPLE CROWN. He certainly won't catch Pujols in RBI, and I seriously doubt he hits more homers than Jones, and probably either Dunn or Pujols will catch him there. I also would consider placing a bet that Cabrera catches him in average. And this would have all happened regardless of Aramis's injury.

"Interesting reading the papers this morning. I have defended Dusty from time to time, but he needs to stop throwing the pity party because he has critics." This is probably the most annoying thing about Dusty F. Baker. He's a sensitive, excuse-making, whiner who doesn't seem to like Chicago or it's fans. He doesn't respect the hard-luck history of the Cubs and the fans' collective right to expect more and express displeasure when the most talented teams we've seen in years under-achieve. Does anyone really want to see this guy beyond 2006? Rubbing holy water on players, saying we're snake-bitten, dude... criticizing the fans for booing opposing teams' players? He has some fuckin' nerve to criticize Cubs fans for booing. It's hard to like a guy with that attitude and on top of that, he's a poor strategical manager who manages a game like he's afraid to lose instead of like he WANTS to win.

I guess we now know why ARam wasn't "hustling" or "running out" some of the routine GB and FB outs this year. Funny, I thought he was trying to play the game at half speed so he wouldn't suffer this kind of injury. Guess that plan worked well.

did you hear dusty complaining about how he has to deal with so much here in chicago, so much criticism that "other top managers don't have to deal with. look at torre, look at larussa. there's even a website, firedustybaker.com" told that joe torre takes much more abuse than dusty in NY, dusty shrugged it off. this was yesterday before the game it continues the persecution complex of dusty. he always sounds so beat after games, woe-is-us, the media/fans/internet hate us. it's such bullshit. there's always a blame for everything, no accountability. it's so ridiculous. also, dusty, way to lump yourself in to the "top managers". who annointed you there? surely no one who's ever seen you every day for a season. fire dusty. please. he is an ENABLER.

"Fontenot's nothing special either, very little power, but he's certainly got a whole lot of patience. He's needs some time at third but we're not at point that it really matters if he learns it in AAA or the majors. Let the kid play, he's certainly better then Neifi or Macias. At least for the fans it would give us something to be interested about the rest of the season. God knows there isn't much else left." exacty rob. it's about doing the best you can next year at this point. get cedeno/murton/fontenot as many ABs as possible, developing them to be on the 25 man next year so we can have young and cheap and maybe decent bench guys in 06 and 07, as opposed to this year (older and more expensive and not going anywhere with no trade value, like holly and macias)

and finally, why is prior still in the game throwing 130 pitches in a game that doesn't matter??? kasper and brenly were commenting all inning "well he's gotta be about done", "his arm angle is changing", "they're getting a piece of everything right now" as the inning went on. they can see this, why can't rothsbaker?? also, as they were making these comments, the TV kept showing dusty and larry on the bench, sort of like "dudes, why aren't you taking him out?" his average over the last 6 starts was 116 pitches....BEFORE yesterday's 130. ridiculous when you're not in the race. look at the 03 stretch pitching numbers for prior....that was tolerable bc they were in a race. but look at the next year, opened on the DL. shouldn't be out there. this is the same line of thinking that has kerry wood still on this time, for no reason. we're endangering two of the most important people in the franchise...why? to get to the all important 81-81 season which now is even more of a pipe dream since ramirez will probably go on the DL. this management team is not smart. off with their heads.

hey manny, don't get to smug about your walker/grudz VORP discovery...there's a very good reason for that difference VORP is cumulative. it's not a rate stat. and, in case you don't remember, carlos lee knocked todd walker out for a while. which leads to this: grudz: 114 games walker: 81 games. so.... VORP/game grudz: .217 walker: .267 if both had played 162 games this year, that's a difference of 8 in VORP so unless you're saying the grudz would not have been affected by lee's borderline dirty play, walker is STILL easily more valuable. accept it!

If the organization wants to bring up a prospect who's not on the 40-Man all they have to do is let Woody have his surgery and put him on the 60-day DL. The season is over so he should get it over with and start rehabing so he'll be ready by Spring. Plus, I'd love to see what Sing or McGehee could do at 3B for 30 days. Give them a taste before they spend '06 in Iowa. AND I agree with Crunch... keep Pie away until NEXT September.

Who's Crunch's uncle? Did I miss that? I was 10 in 1979 and we'd just gotten cable in my small town in Iowa. My mom always listened to WGN on her radio (we're from Illinois) and I started watching on TV. Man, 10-year-olds have it good.

"Checking baseball propectus today and looking at VORP by position, it seems we are overvaluing Walker." Forget VORP, look at EqA and MLVr since they are playing the same position. MLVr .073 Grudzie .112 Walker EqA .262 Grudzie (.02 above average) .281 Walker Walker has a higher BRAR despite using 100 less outs on the season. Of course, there is a 10 run difference in FRAA/FRAR if you put any credence into sabermetric defensive stats.

crunch said his uncle was barry foote earlier in this string.

J-Damn. How quickly we forget about the 2003 season. Everyone forgets who kept the team afloat offensively so we were able to aquire Ramirez and Lofton. That was Corey Patterson. You might remember that year, it was the only time he lived up to the hype, to bad he suffered that knee injury. He has never been the same since. Meanwhile down the stretch in 2003 Zambrano was getting tired and was sporting a 4.44 ERA while Wood and Prior were straight up filthy. In September of 2003, no one could beat them. And they are the reason we snuck into the playoffs. Prior was really special after the all-star break that year going 10-1 with a 1.52 ERA. Overall those 3 pitches for the Cubs basically pitched a great second half. Combining for something like a 2.50ish ERA. And yet we barely made the playoffs by the skin of our teeth. The signs existed in 2003 that the Cubs had problems. The only question was, could those problems be hidden with great pitching? And what would happen if you dont get great pitching day in and day out? 2004 and 2005 answered that question.

On the Dusty leaving/no leaving note... Does anyone think there were alterior motives in bringing Bob Brenley into the booth?

On the Dusty leaving/no leaving note... Does anyone think there were alterior motives in bringing Bob Brenley into the booth?

Sorry for the repost, was getting internal Server errors...

I think Bob Brenley was brought in because the Cubs felt he was a good commentator. They had an excellent one in Steve Stone and I think they felt they needed to replace Stone with someone who knew the game well and did commentary well. I don't think there were any alterior motives.

ulterior.

hey guys, question for whoever knows i'm planning on going to waveland before the game tomorrow to ballhawk with a friend. never done it before, and i'm done paying to watch this team, i'm gonna try to go take something away from the park instead, haha. how much before the first pitch does batting practice start at wrigley? i'm thinking like 10:30 maybe? game is at 1.20, and with the offday today i'm sure that everyone will be taking BP lemme know if you know, thanks.

Felix Pie isn't going to the AFL, cubs.com had it wrong btw. Felix is scheduled to start this weekend for the Jaxx though. The other pitcher being sent to the AFL won't be named for awhile either. http://scout.scout.com/a.z?s=260&p=9&c=2&cid=...

Green Lantern I'd guess 10:30-11 would be about right for BP. Do you want tickets to the game? I've got 2 extras, and I was just going to see what scraps the scalpers would give me for them.

Green Lantern you are my hero: >>it continues the persecution complex of dusty. he always sounds so beat after games, woe-is-us, the media/fans/internet hate us. it's such bullshit. there's always a blame for everything, no accountability. it's so ridiculous. also, dusty, way to lump yourself in to the "top managers". who annointed you there? surely no one who's ever seen you every day for a season. fire dusty. please. he is an ENABLER.

On Walker if he is so go good why did teams that despertly need 2b help like NY Mets, Oakland, and Minnesota not claim him. He would also have been a upgrade for NY Yankees and Anaheim yet nobody claimed him. Why because his D and speed suck. Grudz is going to win the NL gold glove this year, and can run better. Hendry should have kept Grudz or got Iguchi from Japan when I have watch the Sox this year I have been impressed with him. Infact I'll go as far as saying outside he is the best 2b in baseball not named Jeff Kent.

orlando hudson is better than all of them..hehe

walker's a pretty good deal for what he's paid even with the step-down in D...

opps I forgot about Roberts and Utley my 2b Rankings 1. Kent 2. Utley 3. Roberts 4. Iguchi 5. Giles 6. Grudz 7. Soriano 8. Vidro 9. Cantu 10.Lorretta

Wow.

Why because his D and speed suck. Walker's defense may not be great, but it isn't terrible either. I have no idea why teams would not have claimed a guy with an OPS of over .800 to play second base. He is one of the better hitting 2b in the league, and would have been a huge upgrade for several teams. And he is very cost effective. And if Grudz wins the gold glove it will not be because he is great on defense, that would be sad. There is no way that Grudz is better defensively than someone like Castillo or Vidro.

Re: #81 Why isn't Luis Castillo on the list? Season - .301/.390/.370 Career - .293/.370/.355 Not too shabby, especially considering his defense (Gold Gloves '03 & '04). Personally, I'd take him over Kent because of the D, OBP, and pricetag.

if grudz and both of his knees werent so gimpy he missed off/on weeks of action with the cubs he might have been back and he probally would have gotten more than 1m to play ball this year. he wasnt even stl's 1st choice...he was signed late and stl actually wanted roberto alomar (who turned them down for a second year in a row). stl's got a nice steal on a possible injury issue... abraham nunez wasnt brought on board to back up a possible rolen injury, ya know...him and bo hart were prety much the failsafe's for grudz. amazing theyre getting the production levels they are outta both guys. grudz is doing a bit above average...nunez is performing at an astronomical level above average.

Grudz is beter than Soriano? Cantu? Polanco? I don't even think Grudz is better than Ray Durham. Compare Walker and Grudz's numbers again. Grudz is definitely not a better hitter, and is defense and speed are not significantly better in order to make him a better player than Walker.

Utley is my biggest non-Cubs, non-sexual man crush. He's on my fantasy team, and I love watching him hit. Just wanted to share.

On the bright side, any of us who held any morsel of hope for the playoffs will not be tortured every time the Cubs lose a game. I think it's time to enjoy the good things that *did* come out of this year: * Derrek Lee has been amazing. * Rich Hill showed that some day he's going to be a big-leaguer. * Roberto Novoa has a pretty wicked fast ball and a breaking ball in the low 90s. That's serious heat. * Williamson is back and has a nasty splitter. * Burnitz has exceeded everyone's expectations, especially defensively. * Wood shows he still has some nasty stuff and, supposing this off-season surgery is successful, could be back in '03 shape next year. Cubs in '06!!! Lowitzki: I agree, I like Walker better (though I don't base that on numbers) I'd say both are about equal, I just happen to like Walker's approach to the plate a lot better.

I am no expert on the waiver wire but Walker making it through waivers doesnt mean no one wants him. If any team were to put a claim on Walker, I do believe the Cubs then have the option to let the team go ahead and have him or pull back the claim. And if that is the case then the Cubs would surely block a team from getting Walker for free. So its a risk for letting Walker go through waivers. But if he does make it through then he has a higher chance of being moved before Sept 1st than if another team put in a claim and the Cubs said no, thus losing all chances of getting him.

thanks bleeding blue, check your email

Too bad we got rid of Enrique Wilson...he'd be perfect filling in at third for ARAM.

Just cause Walker made it through, doesn't mean he's unwanted. If a team claimed him, the Cubs could just pull him back off waivers (which of course they would with Walker) OR it's a 48 (and a half) hour trade window. The waivers are done at the beginning of the month(you can put up to 7 players each business day and you have 47 hours to put your claim in) and I believe the Twins still had Boone at the time, the Yanks are happy with Cano, the A's are fine with Mark Ellis, and Scioscia loves Kennedy . The Mets are the only team that I think would have entertained the idea, (but I think they're trying to build a team around speed and defense.) BUT... If you want to make a trade with a team, you DON't do it by putting a waiver claim in because of the short time frame, UNLESS you're really certain that you can make a deal. (Chances are the GM"s have already discussed a deal) PLUS, since waivers are usually done right after the trade deadline, I doubt Hendry was really thinking about trading him at the time and putting a waiver claim would just block Walker from ever being traded this month, which would then piss of Hendry and he'd probably block one of your guys in the future. And Walker is certainly not enough of a player to block another team from having either. I am bit surprised that Burnitz didn't make it through though. Maybe there was a deal and a team blocked it or someone really wanted Burnitz, but Hendry wasn't dealing quite yet. Steve Phillips did an excellent article on it awhile back http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?... Insider stuff which apparently I still have access too somehow...

hey bleeding blue, email again lemme know what's up for tomorrow. i sent you my cell number also