2005 All Things CUBS Thread

Last year he was the poster boy for anyone who claimed that pitchers had to have certain intangibles to be a successful closer. I think he blew the second most saves in baseball, posted stats that otherwise would be considered quite good out of the pen, and then all but admitted in the postseason that he didn't have what it took to be a closer. Should be a fun first few months.

I just don't see them going anywhere this year. Too many questions in the bullpen, the starters are banged up and I don't think they will score as many runs. I'd like the Cubbies to suprise me, but I just cannot see it happening unless a bunch of people have career type seasons, especially Patterson and Nomar with Wood and Prior returning to health and top form.

The Cards might be more vulnerable than ppl think, but only if Prior / Wood / Zamb manage 200 innings each.

The Reds will again hit like beer league softball team, but they cannot field or pitch. The Reds really need a new owner.

The Astros could have good starting pitching, especially if Petitte returns to form and Clemens pitches well, but their bullpen runs thin after the first couple of guys and they have some black holes in their lineup. Unless someone comes out of nowhere, they are going to have to hope to hold par until Berkman comes back and hope that Bagwell has another big season in him.

The Brewers are a mystery team, they could win 90 or lose 90 depending on how things work out.

The Pirates have a few good young players, but that seems to be said every year for the past dozen or so. Considering the great history of this team, I find it really sad to see this club in the muck for this long.

1. Macias
2. Neifi
3. N/A

Corey Patterson singles on a ground ball to right fielder Geoff Jenkins. Carlos Zambrano to 3rd. Corey Patterson to 2nd on the throw.

"Are you following the ongoing saga of the Cubs' TV broadcasters, past and present? In case you missed it, Steve Stone and Chip Caray were essentially fired after last season because they couldn't control their honesty, and they were replaced by Bob Brenly and Len Kasper. Last week on a Chicago radio show, Stone – who in case you've missed it, now works for ESPN – said, referring to the 2004 Cubs, "Most of the guys I thought we got along with, but there were a few that we didn't. One [Moises Alou] left the game [Wednesday] with a calf injury. But when you're 70, that stuff happens."

Neifi batting 2nd today for the Cubs:
OBP .125
SLG .125

Derrek Lee batting 6th:
OBP .467
SLG .522

they musta really hated sosa if they traded him for a dude they're not even going to use...free jerry hairston jr!

walker's hurt, right?

Wish I could see that Prior-Peavy matchup.

http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/files/primer/discussion/27538/

[In Dusty's defense: Neifi's 2-2 today, bringing him up to .300; meanwhile Wood still looks junky]

29 pitches through 2 IP, 19 for strikes, 2 K, 2 H, 0 BB

Also, another Jerry Hairston sighting! (Granted, Walker's out, so he'd better be playing, but, hey, he's playing!)

"Dusty Baker has taken to rubbing holy water on the injured parts of Cubs players. This could explain why third baseman Aramis Ramirez was so adamant Tuesday that he did not have a strained groin."

Gotta love that 2nd sentence. Puts Dusty's healing touch in a whole new perspective.

"It's not like it's voodoo or something," the manager [Baker] also said.

"It's blessed. I didn't bless it. It wouldn't work if I blessed it. I just hope that my sinning doesn't negate the effectiveness of the water."

"It can't be any more painful than it was yesterday," he said. "I have an avulsion of the tendon. Basically, I ruptured the tendon off the bone. There's a few tendons that go along your groin area. There's three major muscles and one of the muscles tore away from the bone. That's what the MRI showed."

http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20050421&content_id=1023986&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

damn! xpost

anyone have insider? i think neyer did a piece on this today or yesterday, can we pirate it?

Bad news...Zambrano's toe injury must have him off his game, as he has gotten flattened his last few starts.

-- mark p (mark.p****...) (webmail), July 14th, 2005 10:49 AM. (Mark P) (later) (link)

last year, I would have said, "Dammit!"

now I say, "Let's just be glad he lasted this long! Now, how about that Derrek Lee?"

Garut for Dubois, that one probably end up pretty even swap. Dubois is younger and has two more years before he would be eligible for free agency, so he might have the upside, but Garut has shown more in the bigs. I'm hoping playing in the friendly confines and batting behind Lee and Rameriez that Garut might take off and start putting up some numbers like he did in stretches for the Trible all the time.

The Cubs need a real lead off hitter something fierce. Jerry Hairston Jr. has played better of late, but I just don't see him as a solution. Corey Patterson is a wreck, the guy cannot lay off anything outside. I've said it before, but I wouldn't give the guy a strike if I was pitching to him.

Good news is that the bullpen has been a bit better of late.

Nomar is looking to be back first of August, he is going to start playing some games in the minors next week. If the Cubs can keep tight in the wild card race, he could be a bit of a bonus down the strech. I'm sure Garciaparra is wanting to get on the field and try to get some things done.

not exactly leadoff material, not that dusty'll give a shit.

Neifi Perez grand slam winning home run? It is hard to believe but true.

I notice Kerry Wood is on the DL again...

Is it any harder to believe than a 14th-inning, 3-run shot by Eric Bruntlett?

BOO-YEAH!!!! GO 'STROS!!!

That Macias throw home was Giambiesque.

The ball rolled into center field, and when Jose Macias fielded it, Carlos Beltran, who was running on a 3-2 pitch, was on his way to scoring easily from first. Beltran had reached with two outs on Aramis Ramirez's throwing error, his 15th of the season. Ramirez made 10 last year.

Floyd took second on Macias' rainbow throw in the general direction of home plate. David Wright's single scored Floyd with the second unearned run in the inning.

Baker said Macias hustled and couldn't have done anything more, but Ramirez's errors are an increasing burden.

           Hustles       Hits cutoff
Macias       Yes              No
Ramirez      No               No

Lee 78.1
Pujols 76.8

We tried to tell you guys... we TRIED!

I shook my head at all the media mouths talking about his 'insurmountable' batting avg lead 3 weeks ago...

"With both Lawton and Hollandsworth gone, one after the other, one has to think that Jim Hendry has figured out that you deal with Dusty Baker as you would a 5-year-old around dangerous household chemicals - put Mr. Yuck stickers on the bottle and safely store them out of the youngster's irresponsible hands."

"He's a guy who's gotten better. I remember my old general manager Al Campanis telling me that a player doesn't reach his peak until he's somewhere between 32 or 36 [years old] and beyond, and it depends on how his legs are and his desire and if he keeps his weight down and his waistline down. I don't see D-Lee having any problem with that."
--Cubs manager Dusty Baker, on the origins of his veteran fetish (MLB.com)

That is about dead on what I thought this dog of a club would finish. Letting Sosa go didn't turn out to be much of a loss, but you got what was expected from the walking wounded of Garciaparra and Kerry Wood. The Cubs sure think Dempster is the answer at closer and while he had some nice games, he also got thumped a few times.

I just could not get excited by this years club.

I was imagining an even 81-81, so yeah.

The storyline is too perfect, under achieving whiney club fails and needs a kick in the ass from an ex-Cub who was apart of a division winning team.