2010 Chicago Cubs

[philvb85]

If you miss the playoffs by 1 game you might as well miss by 15

[pdga#7648]

dont worry. The Cardinals will not miss the playoffs by any games!!

[airspuds]

clean house
go young
the fans will still pack the place

new owners better figure that out quick


I would have dealt Lee, Fukodome, Soriano, Zambrano, Ramirez

[Mike Clark]

I would have dealt Lee, Fukodome, Soriano, Zambrano, Ramirez

Reality check. They did have a trade set up for Lee. He invoked his 5/10 year no trade privilege. Which I thought hurt the Cubs and was selfish on his part.

The rest have no trade clauses in their contracts. Not to mention the ridiculous amount of money tied up into those contracts.

Needless to say they are stuck with these players for the remainder of their contracts. Unless Zambrano and Ramirez have a remarkable turn around. Even then the Cubs would have to eat so much money in those contracts they would not be able to sign anybody worth while to replace them. They are stuck with Fukodome and Soriano.

Hendry took a huge gamble years ago to try and win a World Series and now the Cubs are going to pay the price for a few more years.

This website does a good job of describing the ludicrous contracts.
http://mlbcontracts.blogspot.com/2005/01/chicago-cubs_112114177768677294.html

[damonshort]

http://mlbcontracts.blogspot.com/2005/01/chicago-cubs_112114177768677294.html

I like that Soriano gets a $75,000 bonus if he wins a Gold Glove. I'll bet Hendry had to think hard about that one. 

[Dan Michler]

Ha!  That is a good one Damon.  They might as well made it a 1 Billion dollar bonus if he wins a Gold Glove.  I think that money is safe!

I got my driver's license renewed the other day and saw the next renewal date was July 2014 and my first thought was that my daughter will be 4 years old at that time which made it seem really far off and then my next thought was that I'll still be watching Soriano play for the Cubs.  Unreal.  Its going rough watching that dude for 4 more years.

[Mike Clark]

I found the part of Soriano's contract the stated he must donate $25,000 to both United Way and Cubs Care annually very interesting. You would think when paying someone that much money you wouldn't have to make that part of the contract. He is the only one with that stipulation in his contract. Pathetic!

[tacimala]

It was amazing at the game Tuesday night when he made 0 effort for the short fly ball and then Byrd got a deep diving catch on each side in a few innings later in the game. Soriano is definitely a bum. Only thing that would make watching him worse is to hear the White Sox broadcaster hyping him up with all his worthless commentary. YES I SAID IT! haha

[pdga#7648]

Blaming the manager 29 games into the season is just dumb.  Its 29 out of 162.   Will Aram and Lee most likely bounce back from slow starts as they have throughout their careers?  Probably.  Do I think the defense sucks?  100%.  Will we still finish above .500?  Bet on it.  Are we going to the playoffs?  Too early to call........every team in the big leagues will have a rough patch at some point this year.  Baseball is about patience.

well let's see.
Aram and Lee bounce back? nope
Defense sucks? you are 1-2 
Playoffs? Really?
Rough patches? which one you pin pointing?
Patience? How thin is yours?


5th place now.... in case your focusing on The Bears  and football already?

[Dan Michler]

Strasburg needs Tommy John surgery according to articles I've read today.  I have felt your pain x 2 Washington (see Prior and Wood).  Not good for baseball in Washington either, as Strasburg had boosted attendance and brought hope for the future.  Nothing they could have done though.  Its possible his arm was overused at a young age like Wood's was in high school.  Or its possible that its just genetics.  Human arms are not meant for throwing hard overhand pitches.

Hopefully his comeback will go better than Wood's.  We'll see, but coming back after this surgery often involves changing your delivery like Kerry Wood had to do with his slider.  His slider was never nearly as devastating as it was before the surgery.  It sucks to see yet another bright future get dashed so quickly.

[philvb85]

I hate to say it but I knew this kid's arm would unravel eventually, just never though it would happen his first year.  I'm sure throwing 100+ mph (supposedly) for 3 years in college and all the innings he piled up there probably didn't help much.  Experts and pitching coaches stated before he was drafted that there were problems with his delivery.  Don Cooper specifically said that it looked similar to Wood and Prior's. 

[Dan Michler]

dont worry. The Cardinals will not miss the playoffs by any games!!

Cards shutdown by Jeff Samardiza.  That is brutal.  Cubs 6-4 versus the Cards this year.  Cards 7 games back and on life support with about 15 games left.  Wasting yet another vintage Pujols season and a Cy Young caliber season by Wainwright.

[pdga#7648]

once again, I do agree.

PISS POOR!

[pdga#7648]

but actually the Cards have 20 games left.

I think I remember Philly having a 6.5 games lead in 1980 something, with only 12 games to play, and they didn't win the division.

The FAT LADY is warming up her voice, but not singing yet, like she has been for your loveable losers since June!

[Dan Michler]

Cubs now 8-4 against the St. Louis Cardinals in 2010.  Are you still holding out hope that the Cards will make this 8 game deficit disappear Doug?

Also, you pointed out earlier that the Cubs should fire Lou because of their poor record against the Pirates this year.  Is it not just as bad for the Cardinals to be getting their butt kicked by the next-to-last-place Cubs this year?  The Cardinals have just totally collapsed.  Houston may actually pass them in the standings.

August 14th they were 65-49 coming off a sweep of the Reds and pulling to within 1 1/2 games of 1st place.  Since then they have played 12 games under .500  compared to the Reds 5 games over .500.  All the key elements have been on the field this whole time..Carpenter, Wainwright, Pujols, Holliday....so who else can you blame besides LaRussa?

I have to point this out because if the Cubs had gone through this incredible late season debacle, you'd certainly be letting me know about it!   

[CEValkyrie]

I have watched the Cubs back to back nights for the first time all year. I'm glad Big Z is looking so good. I'm hoping he can win out so we can send his a$$ out of town. The cousins from the other side of the family are coming up next Friday for the game. Can't wait to ride them about the total collapse.

[pdga#7648]

Cubs now 8-4 against the St. Louis Cardinals in 2010.  Are you still holding out hope that the Cards will make this 8 game deficit disappear Doug?

Also, you pointed out earlier that the Cubs should fire Lou because of their poor record against the Pirates this year.  Is it not just as bad for the Cardinals to be getting their butt kicked by the next-to-last-place Cubs this year?  The Cardinals have just totally collapsed.  Houston may actually pass them in the standings.

August 14th they were 65-49 coming off a sweep of the Reds and pulling to within 1 1/2 games of 1st place.  Since then they have played 12 games under .500  compared to the Reds 5 games over .500.  All the key elements have been on the field this whole time..Carpenter, Wainwright, Pujols, Holliday....so who else can you blame besides LaRussa?

I have to point this out because if the Cubs had gone through this incredible late season debacle, you'd certainly be letting me know about it!   

Larussa is not the problem. The middle relief pitching we don't have is the problem. And Pujols, Holliday can't hit for shit. Wainwright, Carpenter, and Garcia couldn't lose through July. Now the 3 can't win a game to save their season. I can't put my finger on 1 thing, cause it's a number of things.  Yes, we folded. Very hard to swallow since us St. Louis fans are not use to this, we usually win. But no matter how bad we played this year, we are still 10 games better than the Cubs overall, and it's only been 4 years since we last played in a World Series, not 102 






If the Cubs want to win, they better sign Joe Torre as the new manager!!!

[pdga#7648]

and, you got to go back and reread what I was saying about LOU. He had alot of talent the last 3-4 years and the best record in all of baseball, and couldn't win. Tony has Pujols, and 2 pitchers Wainwright and Carpenter. And usually always fighting for 1st in the division, and making the playoffs. Hard to win with 3 guys, like it was for the Cubs to win with 9.





The Cards have alot of work to do this offseason.
#1 goal =  Sign Pujols for the rest of his career.
#2 resign Larussa( Pujols already said he wants Tony as his manager for entire career( Pujols reason = Tony is all about winning. You may not agree with a decision, but it is intended for team to WIN) Alberts main goal!
#3 Get some middle inning pitchers.
#4 get some infielders. Ryan, Schumacher aren't the answer. And Molina needs a good backup. His tank is empty since September started.
#5 Fire the GM. He has no clue.

[CEValkyrie]

Heard something on the news tonight of rumors of Ozzie being considered as manager on the north side. If that ever happens i'll never root for the Cubs again.

[Dan Michler]

Heard something on the news tonight of rumors of Ozzie being considered as manager on the north side. If that ever happens i'll never root for the Cubs again.

I'm fairly certain they only discussed it because it is amusing to think about.  I think Ozzie's consistently erratic behavior has assured the fact that the Sox are going to be his last major league managerial position.

My thoughts are that the Cubs are either going to throw a ton of money at a high profile guy like Torre, Girardi, or LaRussa; or they are going to go with Sandberg.  If I was handicapping this, I'd give Sandberg a 63% chance at ending up with the job right now.  I'll give Torre 7%, Girardi 6%, LaRussa 3%, Bobby Valentine 1%, Dusty Baker 0.00001%, and the field 19.99999%.