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The OFFICIAL 2011 Chicago Cubs Thread

Buttermaker said:
I am a life long Cubs fan, but I have less interest in this team than any since I started following the Cubs in the mid 1970s. The organization sucks. Bad free agent pick ups, terrible contracts, poor player development. Other than the ballpark, there is very little to be excited about.
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Agree, mostly - but there are some things coming down the path that get me excited. I think the Cubs have built a solid up the middle combination, like we haven't seen since Dunston & Sandberg. I think both Castro and Barney are going to be very good players. Brett Jackson is a stud OF in AA that could make the team next year. Put that with Cashner and Coleman and I think we have some solid building blocks. Are we going to compete next year? Probably not without a major rehaul of players, but in 2013-2014? Yeah, I think we have a shot.

Why is it that Cubs baseball feels like Deacs basketball? QuadeOUT!!!!
 
When do the contracts of Ramirez, Soriano and Zambrano expire? That will be the opportunity for an organizational rebirth.

Regarding Quade, I heard a talking head opine that it was lack of veteran leadershipe, not Quade's work, that was to blame for the woeful performance thus far. The question posed was should the Cubs have hired Sandberg rather than Quade. FWIW.
 
Oh, I agree - not sure any manager could really get this group to the playoffs with the atrocious pitching performances - I was more making a joke on buzz. Heard the arguments for Sandberg too - thought is that he isn't ready - they are grooming him, but didn't expect Pinella to quit last year and the team responded to Quade in the short run. I think we will see Sandberg as a manager within 3 years - how good he will be is another question.

I need to look up the contracts - pretty sure ARam has a club option for next year that we could buy out if we don't want him. Z has 1 year left if I am remembering correctly, Sori has at least 2 - maybe 3, he signed a 7 or 8 year deal in 2006. Also, Pena has a 1 year deal and Dome's contract will come off the books this year too - so thats a big chunk of change.
 
The Cubs should have plenty of liquidity with contracts coming off the books this year to go out and sign Prince Fielder. Which they should do.
 
I don't really see why we would get rid of Ramirez, he's playing pretty well so far this year. If we can get a great price for Big Z on the trade market I think we should look into it, but if not I don't see why we wouldn't want him to stick around either. Now Soriano is a completely different story.
 
We may keep ramirez - i think the number for next year is like $12 or $15 million - tough to get a guy who bats .300 and puts up 25/100 for one year for that amount. But, I am not sold on keeping him either - he had a rough start to the year and could be the beginning of his breakdown.

Z is an issue - I like him, but I think getting rid of him is the only solution. He only has one year left, we might as well get what we can for him now instead of letting him walk, unless the we think we can win next year. I think it would take a miracle for someone to take Sori off us, unless we paid a big portion of his contract.

Agree with DeacLaw, we are going to get a 1st baseman, just a matter of Pujols or Fielder. There are a lot of decent pitchers that are going to be out there too, probably not any aces, but guys like Chris Carpenter, CJ Wilson, Paul Maholm and Hiroki Kuroda who we might be able to get - we will know they are going all in if they pick up Pujols/Fielder AND get two $10+ pitchers in the offseason
 
Pitching is a much bigger concern for me than batting for the next few years. We have the young guns for batters, pitching-not so much.
 
Deacsfan27 said:
Pitching is a much bigger concern for me than batting for the next few years. We have the young guns for batters, pitching-not so much.
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Partially agree - yes, pitching is the bigger concern. But, I don't think we really have enough offense with what we have now + the farm system. We are going to need to pick up 1 or 2 bats - and one needs to be a heavy hitter. Jackson, Castro & Barney are good hitters - but they don't have a ton of pop. LeMaheiu seems like he could be good, but again, not a basher. Colvin? I think he is done. DeWitt? Coming around, but not a power hitter. If we let Rami walk, Soto would be our lone power hitter - boy would that be rough.

I would be ok not going after Fielder/Pujols if that meant we were going to get a couple of solid players - but I am not sure that there is anyone out there right now, and next year would be an even bigger throw away year if we don't sign one of them.
 
Dempster and Quade argument in the dugout. What a trainwreck of a season.
 
Oh after he left the game ok. Well at least we got the win. Our offense is starting to click right now. Barney has been on fire as of late along with A-Ram.
 
The frustrating thing about this year's team is the lack of consistency and injuries. Going into the season, I figured if everyone stayed healthy and produced up to potential consistently, this team could contend in the division- meaning floating a little above .500 for the year in a division where no one was going to run away with it. So what happens, 2/5 of the rotation gets hurt in the first week, numerous other injuries (including Byrd), Pena and Ramirez get off to slow starts (only hot now when it's too late), Soto, Colvin underperform (I guess, maybe they're just not that good), bullpen blows a bunch of saves (should have been a team strength) and on and on.

So, where does that leave us for 2012? Way too many questions- again if we could just count on consistency, healthiness, and huge FA signings of Fielder/Brandon Phillips (ok, suspend disbelief for a minute on all those points), this could be a decent team if you project reasonable performance- so humor me for a sec and look at this projected lineup for 2012:

C- Soto- .250- 12- 50
1B- Fielder- .280- 40- 110 (far prefer over Pujols due to age)
2B- B. Phillips- .280- 18-75 (would be an upgrade here, not sold on Barney yet)
SS- Castro- .300- 5- 60 (hopefully a budding star for years and will start upping his power)
3B- Ramirez- .300- 25- 95 (need consistent production from the get-go, contract year)
LF- Soriano- .260- 25- 75 (contract aside, not so bad)
CF- Byrd- .280- 12- 65 (solid, good clubhouse guy)
RF- No idea- .280- 15- 75 (any FA's out there that would be passable/not too expensive? thinking Ludwick-ish type FA)

S1- Zambrano 16-8, 3.75
S2- Garza 16-8, 3.75
S3- Dempster 14-8, 4.00
S4- Livan Hernandez 12-12, 4.50 (don't laugh, cheap and major innings-eating workhorse)
S5- Cashner, Wells, other??? 8-12, 4.75 (no idea here)

R7th- Marshall 3.00
R8th- Wood 3.00
R9th- Marmol 2.75, 85% save %

Bench, middle relief- no idea

Manager- Sandberg
GM- Anyone but Hendry

What do you think? By no means a great team, but no reason they couldn't at least play .500 ball and contend for a full season. I know that's a low bar, but with no help from the farm on the horizon and some albatross contracts that are on the books for the foreseeable future, I'm just trying to figure how this team at least gets competitive for next year. I know I tend to be a little too optimistic but those projections don't seem to be completely unreasonable if people would just produce!
 
Love the optimism, but no chance we can afford that payroll. I think we could win the central with that team.

The cubs seem set with Barney & Castro up the middle, assume Jackson is going to get his shot in the OF next year (plug him into right or center depending on if Byrd gets moved) and we are going to sign a 1B this year, whether its Pujols, Fielder or Pena again, who knows.

I think with the right moves we can be competitive, if only because the rest of the NL Central is only mediocre, with the Red, Cardinals and Brewers getting worse and I can't really imagine the Pirates will keep their current team together over the multiple years, they can't afford it and the Stros are the Stros.

But, I have to think the cubs are hoping to have a really strong 2013, by that time we get Sorianos contract gone and we will have more money to spend to build on the Castro/Barney/Jackson/1B to be name later. Hopefully the money will go into pitching, because we suck at it right now.
 
Was just reading, looks like Soto is on the trading block. I am somewhat surprised by this because he was ROY only 3 years ago. I know we have Wellington ready to come up and he is a defensive beast, but his bat pales in comparison to Geo.

If we do trade him, likely target is the Pirates - they have do pretty stocked farm. If this does happen, 27 will have to figure out what to do with his #18 cubs jersey....
 
I'm done. Officially done with Carlos Marmol - take him out back and shoot him. I have seen him before, his name was Mitch Williams, and while he could be dominating, every time he took the mound, you never knew which player you were going to get.

DONE. Get rid of him. Put Marshall or Wood in as the closer for now - hell even James Russell has started to look really good out of the pen. ANYONE BUT MARMOL.
 
DaDeacs said:
Was just reading, looks like Soto is on the trading block. I am somewhat surprised by this because he was ROY only 3 years ago. I know we have Wellington ready to come up and he is a defensive beast, but his bat pales in comparison to Geo.

If we do trade him, likely target is the Pirates - they have do pretty stocked farm. If this does happen, 27 will have to figure out what to do with his #18 cubs jersey....
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If the Cubs trade him, bank on him to be an All Star contender with his new team. Maybe the new club will take Soriano and his contract as part of any deal? ;)
 
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Wish we had a new GM in place that could shell the roster by trading away some of our many over-earners. If anybody wanted them, of course.

Also how is Marmol's ERA only in the mid-3s? God he is unreliable
 
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