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Paul's Blog
The X-Factor
As we probably all know the Cubs have signed Xavier Nady to a one-year contract. The Cubs will be paying him 3.3 million dollars plus 2 million dollars more of incentives based on games played. The Cubs signed Byrd to a 3 year 15 million dollar deal earlier in the winter. So technically Nady could make more this year than the average of Byrd’s contract (5 million). So the question is, is this a good deal for the Cubs? I mean they are paying 3.3 million (which could turn to 5.3 million) for a player who will serve as our fourth outfielder.
I think that Nady is worth the deal. He is not going to be an every day outfielder at the start of the season. However, he will get his fair share of ABs. He will be able to play for Fukudome when the Cubs are matched up against a left-handed pitcher. Also, since Fuk played all of last year in center, that creates an opportunity for Byrd to get a few days off (playing Fuk in center and Nady in right). Nady can also play the other corner outfield spot, left field, and first base.
Nady Also seems like a guy that managers want to play, meaning that he has always been able to find ABs wherever he has played. In his moderately long career he has never had less than 320 ABs, other than when he was hurt. For his career he has a .280 BA and an OPS just under .800. That is not too shabby for a fourth outfielder. It is not always the signing of a Matt Holliday or a Jason Bay that turns a cruddy team into a championship team. Sometimes it’s the role players like Byrd and Nady that improve a team that much more. We already have our all-stars. These are the types of deals that make a team a championship contender!
PLEASE COMMENT
December 29, 2009
Since once again there is no real baseball news I will talk about a few different things. I will once again touch on the Bulls, I will also talk about the Bears big win last night, and finally something that really pisses me off.
Firstly, The Bulls are coming off of a tough win against the New Orleans Hornets. Tyrus Thomas looked good (caution, don’t be fooled), however, he has been in the league a while now. What I mean by that is that he has shown the type of player he is. Maybe he has a night like that once a week (that would be great). As we all know the Houston Rockets have made Tracy T-Mac McGrady available. It would cost us relatively nothing, and when I say nothing I mean John Salmons and maybe a few of our bench players. That is nothing! This would be great for many reasons. First it would give us a legit scoring threat (baring that he is healthy). It would also help Rose out a bunch! Finally, the 23 million dollars that is owed to him would be off our books after the year and we could go after one (or two) of those prized free agents during the off-season.
Here is what I take from the Bears victory on Monday night. I think we saw the Jay Cutler that all of us have been waiting for all year. We saw an offensive line that actually protected Jay. We also saw somewhat of a coming out party for WR Devin Aromashodu. The Defense also looked a lot better. I know that this was pretty much a meaningless win, and Alex would probably say that as well, but I am going to look at the positives of the game. We know what Jay can do if he had more than a half of a second to make a decision to throw the football. He looked like that guy we just gave up two first round draft picks for and that huge contract. I think that the defense looked as good as it has all year, even though they gave up 30 points. We were also able to run the ball in the first half. All in all it was a great game and I hope it carries over to next year. This was the first game of 2010, however, I hope with a different coaching staff next year!
The last thing that I will discuss is the Cubs Message board on Cubs.com. Some of the people on there are just crabby old farts. Alex went on there to try and spread the word of our website and the first thing people did was tell him that he would be banned for spamming. Really? Really? You are a grown ass man and you are going to tattle on him. Wow, grow up you loser! If you don’t care about what we have to say then just get off that thread and leave it be. Why are people so pathetic that they have to bitch and moan about every little thing they see or read. Then he started saying that one of our fans was uncredible because he was a first time poster. Sorry that he doesn’t have 25,000 posts like you do loser. He has a life and is not able to sit on some stupid ass message board and bicker all day like you! Let me guess, you are 35 years old and still live in your mothers basement!
Again, don’t forget to send us you new years resolution! chitownloucrew@gmail.com
December 23, 2009
So I am sitting here at 1:30 in the morning and decided, while playing my one true love (Madden), that I would actually write the first blog in a while. Hopefully there will be many to follow. On that note, I probably should not write a blog, seeing that there is absolutely nothing to be happy about in Chicago sports. So instead of writing anything useful I will just bitch and hopefully it will be entertaining for you to read. However, I really don’t care if you are entertained because I will get joy out of this.
First things first, I really do not have much to say about the Bears. If you want to know what I have to say about that shitty excuse of a professional sports team then take a listen to our newest podcast, “Good-bye Bitch Tits”. I bitch about the Bears for quite a while in it.
Now for the Cubs, I actually like what I have seen from them this offseason. We have gotten rid of the cancer that is Milton Bradley and brought in an over-paid piece of shit. However, people do not over-react to the whole Carlos Silva thing. I bet at the end of the year every single Cubs fan will realize that this was a great move whether or not Silva contributes. I am also expecting to hear that Matt Capps is a Cub sometime shortly after this is written. I am 90% sure that Capps is coming and I see that as a huge move! Centerfield is a whole different story. I said in the podcast that I would love to see either Brett Gardner or Melky Cabrera from the Yankees. Well, in the last 24 hours Melky was traded to the Braves, so there will be no trade coming out of NY, and I also must add that as much as I would love to see Jacoby Ellsbury in a Cubbie blue uniform, that is not happening either. So it will probably end up being Byrd and I have no problem with that. All in all, Jim did a decent job fixing last year’s screw-ups.
Here comes a curveball for y’all. Lets talk a little Bulls. I am actually going to look at this team from all angles; my main angle being that I want them to lose as many games as possible and get the best player in the draft that they can. Look, this team was not built to win this year. They went into the season planning for the 2010-2011 season. They are going to hopefully make a big free agent signing during the offseason. That being said, Vinny DelIdiot needs to go… and now! He has no clue what he is doing and just like my man - Lawrence Holmes - said he looks clueless. After the Bulls made history against the Kings, Vinny said that the team just doesn’t have enough talent to take positions off. I agree fully with that statement. However, the next statement is what pissed me off. He said that this type of thing happens and that the Bulls just need to get out there and get a win in the next game, which happened to be against the New York Knicks. As we now know the Bulls scored 81 tonight and ended up losing. Not to mention, this type of thing does not always happen. Blowing a 35 point lead with 20 minutes left in the game has not happened since 1996, and according to Holmes, that was the only other time it has happened. All of that aside, Vinny has not developed D Rose. Rose should be scoring 25 points a game, not only because he is capable but because aside from Deng there is no other scorer on the team. Vinny sucks and should be fired tomorrow.
This is going to be my final point of this blog. It has absolutely nothing to do with sports but it really pissed me off so I figured that I would share with the world. So I was walking into the local Pizza Buffet today for lunch. I had just woke up so I was not in any mood to put on blue jeans, I felt like being comfy. So I was wearing shorts and a hood along with a stocking hat. On my way into the establishment some lady looks at me (she was on her way out of a shitty Hallmark store) and she went on to say, “Do you realize that it is snowing?” Me, being the classy guy that I am, responded with a simple, “Yes.” (I thought she was giving me a hard time as a joke) Then she gave me this devilish look and a skanky, bitch-ass, “OOOOOOK.” It really pissed me off, but I just went into the restaurant. Thinking about that bitch later on I decided I should not have just said yes. What I should have said is, “Do you realize you are a fat cunt?” I did not realize that me wearing shorts for my 5 second walk into the restaurant was such a terrible thing for this lady. I did not know that the 5 seconds out in the “elements” would make this lady so scared for me that she had to be a bitch-face about it. SHUT THE HELL UP LADY YOU ARE NOT MY MOTHER!!
July 8, 2009
My last blog was, as Alex likes to call it, a Debbie downer. So this time I am going to be a little positive. A few weeks ago the talking heads on ESPN were talking about whether the Cubs would be sellers or buyers at the trade deadline. Well, I think we all know that the Cubbies will be buyers.
Going into the All-Star break it is time to start thinking about trades. I don’t think that the Cubs will make a huge splash this year. No, there will not be any trade for Halladay or even Peavy. And this is for a few reasons, but mainly the fact that the sale of the team is still not finalized. The other huge reason is that our farm is almost completely depleted. The only real trading chip that we have is Josh Vitters and I don’t expect him to be going anywhere.
So this leaves us with a few options. In a previous podcast I said that the Cubs might be able to go after Huston Street out of Colorado. However, it looks like they may be buyers now as well, seeing that they are only two games out of the wild card slot. Not to mention that relief is not as necessary anymore. The bullpen has really been whipped into shape within the last month. So I don’t think they will go there anymore.
How about the Cubs go after a middle infielder. This makes sense because 2B or SS is really the only 2 positions that the Cubs can improve (I am talking for payroll reasons, not talent). The Blue Jays have already considered themselves sellers by saying that they would start taking offers for Halladay. The Cubs should go out and get Marco Scutaro. He would be the perfect fit for the Cubs. He only made 1.5 million last year and the year before, so he is probably making around the same amount this year, being the last year on his contract. The trade to get him over here would not take Vitters either. That means that Big Jim Hendry would listen to what the Blue Jays want. He would fit perfectly into the one or two spots in the lineup. His OPS is .795 which would be great for the top of the lineup.
Please Comment on who you think the Cubs should go after!
Today was a bad loss. On our most recent podcast I discuss why I think that the Cubs are just a .500 club. Today was a great example of why I think they are. The Cubs are just not a fundamentally sound team. Even when they were at their worst in past years, I don’t think that they were this bad fundamentally. The only reason that they are not dropping to well below .500 is the amount of talent on the team. I don’t think that anyone can argue about the amount of talent that is stockpiled on the roster. However, mismanaging and poor fundamentals have doomed the Cubs in ’09.
Tonight the Cubs have shown poor fundamentals in a few areas. The first run that scored was unearned. The run could have been avoided. It all started with Freddy Sanchez on second base. Ted Lilly got a drop third strike out, but the pitch was too much for Geovany to handle and it got bye him. This means that Sanchez should only get to third base, especially since Soto got to the ball in more than enough time. However, Lilly never went to cover home plate. Sanchez saw this and ran for home, Lilly got to home late, and an error was charged to him when he didn’t catch the ball that was delivered from Geo. If Lilly had been at home when he was supposed to, Sanchez would have never tried to take two bases on the wild pitch.
Another instance tonight when the Cubs played poor fundamental baseball is when Soto ran into the third out at third base. Not much to say here, just a poor decision by a slow base runner. The inning that really got under my skin was the one after that. It was the 8th and we had runners on 2nd and 3rd with no outs and the top of the order up. Instead of getting at least one run we end up with none. Soriano strikes out, Fuk strikes out, and Lee dribbles one to the second baseman for the third out. Again, the Cubs don’t score the runner from third with less than two outs!
Tonight was the perfect example of why the Cubbies are a .500 ball club…