Flash Tizzle

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Oct 21, 2015 -> 08:33 PM) And so are LaRoche, Cabrera, Abreu and Avi Garcia. The problem is we have no lefty power threat (see Melky Cabrera, who's now more of a 2 hitter) and haven't since 2009 in Thome (unless you count Dunn from 2012-2014). Compare that to the Royals, with Hosmer, Moustakas, Morales and Zobrist (switch-hitters), Gordon (although he might be gone). On the other hand, multi-dimensional players like Alex Gordon, Cespedes and Heyward will cost you a mint. Justin Upton and Chris Davis also will, although they're flawed players, too. Even second and third tier guys like Parra or Dexter Fowler aren't cheap. Does anyone believe spending X amount of money on Parra or Fowler will get us close to .500? Let's say Cabrera moves to DH, LaRoche is dumped and Parra, Eaton and Fowler was your new OF. Still not seeing that team anywhere close to .500 with 3b, SS, 2B and catching issues. Maybe with nearly 100% health again. Even two reasonable upgrades at any of those positions will bring us close to .500, I believe. However, that isn't an accomplishment unless we build off of that onto 2017 with several FA pickups or additional trades. I understand record improvements from year to year don't always mimmick the Cubs, but with the right upgrades I'd expect a 80-85 win team

QUOTE (OmarComing25 @ Oct 21, 2015 -> 07:57 PM) Pass I'd consider it if we were able to add another piece. Cheap, power hitting LH bat with plate discipline is what we need. His splits against LH's are worrisome, but overall he's an immediate DH upgrade over Laroche. The problem is, we need more than a one for one deals to improve this team. ANY deal for our pitchers should bring atleast two ML players back in return, or several good prospects close to the majors

QUOTE (Tony82087 @ Oct 21, 2015 -> 07:35 PM) Everyone in baseball is very high on the Cubs future, as they absolutely should be. However, Cubs are no longer going to be looked at the same way after this game is over tonight. Going into next season, there is going to be a ton of optimism, but the regular season isn't going to mean that much, especially to fans. It's going to be prove it time after an awful showing in the NLCS. Pitching is primarily what accounted for their resurgence. One of the best in the majors behind their NL opponents Pirates and St Louis. I'd expect nowhere near the same production across their retread bullpen or Arrieta, primarily. Now, that's not to say they're out of it; with the extra Wild Card spot and the NL being its bad self they'll be around, even with 90-93 wins.

QUOTE (Baron @ Oct 21, 2015 -> 07:33 PM) So much money in that rotation Good! Let them tie themselves to expensive starters. It's going to get awfully expensive with such a young team in five years or so

QUOTE (whitesoxfan99 @ Oct 21, 2015 -> 07:25 PM) Schwarber is not a major league outfielder. Cubs need to hope he can make it as a catcher or that the NL adds the DH. I would expect Theo to b**** about it, since Schwarber's defense has been embarrasing and he's hoping the position is added for his benefit. f*** him, keep the DH in the AL

QUOTE (Jenksy Cat @ Oct 19, 2015 -> 12:38 AM) Literally every single player in the Cubs starting lineup is far better or on par with the Sox (Rizzo/Abreu being the only toss up). The cubs have an absurdly young & cheap core + money to spend on a Greinke/Price this off season. They're going to be contenders for the next 5 years easily. The Sox have black holes at 7 positions with almost no help waiting in the minors and no money to spend. Terrible ownership, terrible coaching, terrible scouting and wasting the greatest rotation in a generation. I am incredibly jealous. I'd give us an advantage with Eaton over Fowler, but that hardly changes the truthfulness of your post. What's incredibly sad is we have a great rotation that can actually get even better come '17 depending on the progression of Fulmer and Montas. If we even had a middle of the pack offense, we'd probably be competing for a Wild Card. Which is why our position is infuriating, we're not even anticipating several young stars like the Cubs -- just f***ing replacement level production.

Ventura remaining with us atleast through next season upsets me less and less as I watch the playoffs. We're in no position to compete in 2016, unless a major roster overhaul or team wide resurgence occurs. No one could manage this team to contention. I know for many that's not a justifiable excuse to retain him, but for Hahn/company I believe they're yet again indecisive about the path of this ballclub. A new manager suggests a new direction, some sort of new plan is in place to improve the team. They're not ready to change anything, and Ventura IMO is the shoulder shrugging type who would bregrugingly accept any move (or lack thereof) by his bosses. They're not going to bring in a highly sought after manager only to unload a starter, or worse yet, do nothing at all to improve the ballclub. I'm sure they'd pitch some sort of plan for competing. As odd as it may sound, I believe by maintaining Ventura there is a MUCH better chance they make an unpopular (yet potentially rewarding) blockbuster trade involving Q or Sale, which is almost necessary considering our financial restrictions for '16 and lack of positional prospects. When this club is in a position to compete, he'll be shown the door.

QUOTE (shysocks @ Oct 14, 2015 -> 01:03 PM) Greinke is scheduled to go in game 7 tomorrow. That would only be two days rest, and while I agree LA should ride its aces, that might be asking too much. Damn I thought while typing that today was their Game 5. If you switched the scrub pitchers with the projected Greinke starts it could still work. I'd honestly rather have Greinke and Kershaw on limited rest, and taking a chance with ineffectiveness, then having just one extra start with Anderson again.

QUOTE (OmarComing25 @ Oct 14, 2015 -> 09:18 AM) Past Greinke the Dodgers rotation is very suspect, and their hitting has been non-existent the last few months. All under the assumption LA wins: There should be no other choice than optimizing Kershaw and Greinke. If I'm losing a series it's going to be off of those two. Game 1: Kershaw - Three days rest Game 2: Greinke - Three days rest Game 3: Wood/Anderson Game 4: Kershaw - Three days rest Game 5: Greinke - Three days rest Game 6: Wood/Anderson Game 7: Kershaw - Three days rest I'd personally rather throw out this schedule, relying on three days rest for the entire series, then a schedule such as: Game 1: Wood/Anderson Game 2: Kershaw - Four days rest Game 3: Greinke - Five days rest Game 4: Wood/Anderson Game 5: Kershaw - Three days rest Game 6: Greinke - Three days rest Game 7: Wood/Anderson Three potential starts of a non Kershaw/Greinke combo, including a possible Game 7, is terrible. All the more incentive for LA to give the Cubs their aces, end the series as quick as possible, then rest for the world series. Lose with your best. Worry about their arms falling off later

QUOTE (WhiteSoxfan1986 @ Oct 13, 2015 -> 06:47 PM) Unfortunately, this is probably the first of many Cubs playoff celebrations we'll see in the next five seasons or so. 2020 we'll be more concerned with extending Ventura and celebrating the 15th year anniversary of the WS

QUOTE (fathom @ Oct 13, 2015 -> 06:55 PM) Piscotty really think he was getting a fastball? He looked scared. Cowardly performance from the Cards

QUOTE (AustinIllini @ Oct 13, 2015 -> 06:50 PM) Or we just need to be bad long enough and draft well. Unfortunately we don't do that for position players. I agree with that belief too. How about if both happened? Bad White Sox teams coupled with high valued trades. We'd be back to the postseason quicker than any plan the current group could put together

QUOTE (OmarComing25 @ Oct 13, 2015 -> 06:43 PM) Or it was just a trade that didn't work out. I know the "30-30" thing is quoted here often, but did anyone other than Hawk actually say that? We can't afford any more trades that don't work. Every trade has to be in our benefit if we're expecting to compete anytime soon.

QUOTE (OmarComing25 @ Oct 13, 2015 -> 06:39 PM) Top 100, but never top 50 I believe For our organization, he was a Top 10. They probably thought they knew better than everyone else.

If I'm Hahn I'm on the phone with St Louis as soon as possible, this is an embarrassing series lost for the Cardinals. I feel ashamed watching St Louis, I couldnt imagine how their management feels. How is their minor league system? They could use Q

QUOTE (OmarComing25 @ Oct 13, 2015 -> 06:07 PM) Rodon was still the right pick. If we had Schwarber we'd just be watching the emergence of future ace Rodon for the Cubs now, so it wouldn't matter. And I'm sure Kyle wouldn't have had near his same numbers for the Sox, away from NL pitching

Lose your starting catcher and veteran you're left with a backup having to make stupid pitching decisions. Although Lackey is at fault too obviously, he got lazy on a breaking ball to HamMel

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ Oct 12, 2015 -> 10:15 PM) The excessive inning increase and number of hard sliders screams TJ in the near future. Arrieta has also redeveloped his pitching style to throw entirely across his body. If he was a college pitcher we'd be hearing people scream injury risk.

QUOTE (SCCWS @ Oct 11, 2015 -> 07:42 PM) They are not that far away but I agree they need to make a couple of major successful moves. I say not that far away in that they have 3 very good LH starting pitchers. Few teams have 3 starting pitchers as good as the Sox do. I think they can trade Q or Rodon and get back at least 2 very good players in return. That would weaken the starting pitching but improve the offense and hopefully defense. Then by 2017 they can get or bring up ( Fulmer) a #3 type starter to replace the traded pitcher and Johnson can hopefully replace Shark. Anderson should also be a possibility for 2017 as well. This is exactly the point we're at now. Every move Hahn does has to be successful. Every....f***ing....move. Also, we'd need absolutely no hiccups in the development of Fulmer or Anderson, since we'd need replacements at SS and SP come 2017

QUOTE (bmags @ Oct 12, 2015 -> 07:47 PM) Better to focus on the mets success than the cubs if you are a sox fan. Kills me that the cubs signed martinez though. I am already prepping myself for disappointment when we only spend the limit on int'l players next year. ("But we'll really clean up in 2017!!!") Or we'll hear pundits say next season, "this is the weakest collection of international prospects we've ever witnessed"

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Oct 12, 2015 -> 07:41 PM) Trevor Cahill is the new Wade Davis For the Cubs, yeah. To me he looks like the new Matt Albers

Rizzo, Bryant, Schwarber, Castro, Soler all contributed. One day someone will say the same of Abreu, Olt, Flowers, Saladino, Thompson............

Yet another young contributing Cubs player for us to be reminded of how pitiful our lineup is

QUOTE (fathom @ Oct 12, 2015 -> 07:01 PM) To me, the Garcia error on the Hendricks bunt was the turning point of this entire series. It was definitely the turning point, but that HR was when it was apparent (to me atleast) the Cards were done. Even with that Heyward HR, you just feel the Cubs will hit a few more HRs with this wind

Baez replaces Russell after a triple......and promptly singles himself. We'd never have that type of goid fortune