fruitbat, as another member of Sox Nation, I am right there with ya. Every damn year.
But I have to agree with jarbabyj. Wood is torpedoing my fantasy team!
Yeah, hell.
And here’s some numbers for the glorious acquisitions:
Name BA OBP SLG OPS
Lofton .280 .334 .430 .764
Womack .231 .257 .317 .574
Simon .280 .310 .431 .741
Glanville .260 .282 .338 .620
Ramirez .272 .322 .456 .778
So you’ve got 2 complete monstrosities (Glanville and Womack), a 3B who’s had one good year and has yet to learn the value of a walk (and who’s going into arbitration), a CF who’s OK and a 1B who’s…
Get this…
Karros .296 .355 .462 .817
Choi .223 .354 .431 .786
A 1B who’s being outperformed by both players he’s capable of replacing! In fact Choi was sent to AAA to make room for Simon!
Yet more…salaries:
Choi: Roughly $300,000 (second year non-arbitration eligible)
Simon: $1.475,000 (6 years in the league)
So for roughly 5 times the price they’re getting less of a ballplayer!
Hell! They could have just called up Kelton again and finally seen what he could do!
While Hendry make be the GM it’s been clear from the papers that Dusty is the one holding the whip hand right now. The Oakland A’s/Billy Beane concept of “I’m the GM and you’re doing exactly what I say because I’m the boss” philosophy hasn’t really caught on on the north side yet.
Damn them to hell. I’m hoping that, at some point in the future, Baker is faced with 6’ 5"…240 pounds of pissed off Korean.
Not even close. He still can’t get on base, still strikes out a ton, and is a huge defensive liability. And he’ll be making more than $6 million next year to bat less than .250 and commit 30+ errors at 3B for the Cubbies. He’s had one good year and has been fairly awful before and since. Hilly’s more versatile (plays both 1B and 3B more than passably and with more range), a much better hitter (his K/BB still isn’t that great but he makes much better contact than Ramirez, and his power isn’t far behind), and makes a tiny percentage of the money. Just look at what got traded to get each of them – Arizona had to give up a promising young pitcher, arguably the best pitcher on the market between May and July of this year, to get Hilly, Chicago had to give up nothing to get Ramirez. Pittsburgh just wanted him off of their hands.
And as far as Womack goes, I think Rob Neyer said it best.
PS JC I’m sure you know this, what I’ve heard is that the point of carrying Simon on the roster is that he’s a lefty, never mind the career .440 slugging or his overwhelming lack of potential, especially when compared to Choi.
PPS Go Red Sox!
CURSE YOU ALEX!
AAAHHH!!! RickJay, how could you be so cruel:
As a lifelong New Englander, haven’t I suffered enough, awaiting the inevitable collapse each year? Must you remind me of our pitiless fate? 
As a Giants fan, I didn’t want Dusty to leave last year, but it was probably a move that the Giants needed to make. Dusty is a GREAT manager in dealing with players. Everybody seems to play hard for him. But he is a PLAYER’s manager. He wants to be everybody’s best buddy and the downside to that is
a) he brings in his friends, both as coaches and players no matter what their talents (or lack of). I was certainly happy to see Dusty’s sycophantic assistants leave with him.
b) he leaves pitchers in TOO LONG. He always left pitchers in one pitch or one batter too many because he didn’t want to override their objections. Drove me crazy! He also gets high pitch counts because of this,
c) he trusts players he knows and puts no faith in rookies. I am sure Cub fans are learning that lesson quite well.
His teams seem to win in spite of these flaws though and he played a vital role in helping the Giants turn into a contender. I am sure that the Cubs will improve under his presence, eventually anyway. 
Now why do you want to single out the Cards like we suck or something. It’s not like you’re behind the Brewers.
How did any of our conversations draw you to that conclusion? Isn’t Wood the fastest to 1000 Ks? While he would probably make a great closer (like the transition Smoltz made for the Braves), his ability to eat up innings and be a strikeout threat against any batter makes him tough to take out of the rotation.
I side with jarbaby on this (except the part about it being a bad thing the Cubbies being behind the Cards) and think he should rest himself for the good of his and the team’s future.
As to that, IMHO using Wood in the bullpen would be a horrible waste of his talents. The correct course is to use him in the rotation intelligently, not letting him roll up 130-pitch starts. His strikeout rate indicates huge, huge potential still untapped. It would be insane to only use him 60 innings a year.
What are you talking about, Rick? He’d be a closer. That’s the most important position in the whole game! I mean, coming in for the ninth inning with a three run cushion and not blowing it is a pretty unreasonable task for any pitcher except a great one like Wood.
No No No.
No reliever is as valuable as a top flight starter. The myth of the closer is just that…a myth. Some idiot gets the ‘proven closer’ label affixed on his forehead and people believe it.
Which would you rather have? 190 innings of quality work or 50?
Thank god we’ve got Carlos Zambrano.
I would swear that you have said Kerry is good closer material. I may be wrong. And you’re never getting Prior, so there.
How’s that pitching staff, Cards Boy?
The Cubs pitching staff is like a classic baseball movie right now. Young Kid K, pitching phenom, sets the world on fire for two seasons and is hailed as a savior for the team…
then comes the upstart, Candy Bar Eating Mark Prior, who overtakes the spotlight and is called one of the greatest pitchers EVER IN CUBS HISTORY…
Slowly the lights on Kid K dim, as Zambrano battles for second place, and the kid who set records his rookie year, is left doing whiskey shots and telling stories of days gone by at Resi’s Bierstube on Irving Park Road…
And then the spunky waitress approaches…she remembers him…
Yeah, I know. I figured the last sentence would give the sarcasm away. Drat.
The NL Central sucks. As of today, the NL Central is 71-89 against the NL East and 69-86 against the NL West: that’s 140-175 against the rest of the league.
The top three teams in the NL Central are 40-43 against all of the teams in the NL East and 29-36 against all of the teams in the NL West: that’s 69-79 against all of the teams in the rest of the league.
Those are damning numbers. The NL Central just plain sucks. If it’s any consolation, the numbers for the AL Central are even worse.
Yeah, but get to the playoffs and having three great pitchers (and hiding Shawn Estes in some lonely basement in Palantine) can make all the difference in the world…
That applies to all teams going to the playoffs, including teams that can play defense and score runs…
Frankly, if Wood could get some rest I’d take Wood, Prior, Zambrano up against any other team in the playoffs. That would be the best chance the Cubs had since 1984.
Maybe. But the trick is getting to the playoffs. And you don’t get to the playoffs without scoring runs.
I’d take the Braves, Yankees, Red Sox, Mariners and Giants (with Bonds) over the Cubs if it came to a postseason series.
I may have said Wood would be a good closer, but that was probably just “what if” chat – you know, all theoretical. In practice, he’s too good to take out of the rotation.
And our pitching staff is as craptacular as they’ve been all season, it seems. Morris is back, but after injuries and he wasn’t doing that well before the injury. Woody hasn’t been pitching as well in the 2nd half. Haren looks good for a rookie, but I worry that any game now the other team will figure him out. Then there’s Tomko and Stephenson, the bi-polar twins of pitching, they have a good game, then get shelled. Stephenson may lose his spot now that we’ve got Hitchcock from the Yankees, but judging from his numbers that looks like a step sidways.
IF the Cards make the playoffs again this year, I’ll be surprised if we get past the first round.