Hey Jack, welcome aboard! No worries...this isn't Cubs.com where we will all gangpile on you and argue every post you make... we won't call you names... we don't act like a bunch of immature spoiled brats "who live in our parent's basements"... we are all here to have a great time talking Cubs..and whatever else might be interesting! Hope to see you on often!
The article was good.... and it will be interesting to go back at the end of the season and see the improvements, which I believe there will be a lot of them.
Barrett, who spent the offseason working on his defense with Jody Davis, has vowed not to let a ball hit the bricks behind the plate, but I hope he also worked on his throwing base stealers out.
The rotation, although having a lot of questions, also has a lot of options. So, if one guy doesn't pan out or gets injured (knock on wood...no pun intended), there are plenty of other options and replacements waiting in the wings. We won't have to wake a rookie up in the wee morning hours and spring it on him he is pitching in the Big Show that day.... although, that was an awesome story for last year.
I also really feel that Pinella is not the type of manager who will let a player, who is struggling at a position, stay there. I really think that he will not accept any excuses, and Hendry has done a great job at developing depth at each position, that you will see various different players trying various positions until he finds that "right fit".
There are some saying the Cubs will be awesome, there are some saying the Cubs wasted a lot of money and haven't done too much as far as improving. I would like to see this team come out and just rock the NL Central early out of the gates. They will have to, as more than half of the games in April are divisional play. THAT alone, kinda worries me, because we all know there are many of our players who don't do well in April and May.
And, I don't know as if I agree with the Reds being an up and coming team in the division. They really didn't do a lot to improve, and they still have the lingering question of "Will Griffey be or stay healthy?" He broke his hand in December wrestling with his kids, so on top of all his other health issues, he now has another injury prone area to add to his list. I do think they did a great thing by signing Arroyo, who, if you remember last year, KILLED the Cubs offensively and was pretty tough defensively. I think the only two home runs the kid hit last year were off the Cubs.
Milwaukee, I really hope they DO do well, however, I would never want to end up behind them again in the standings.
My overall wish? That the Cardinals downright SUCK this year. It is going to be a long year if you know any Cardinal fans. I've already started hearing the "Oh, yeah? Well, who won the World Series last year, huh?". My reply? "I don't really remember, I didn't watch it... there was better things on TV, like re-runs of the Cosby show on Nickelodeon"
Thanks for the post...and welcome to fogpog! I'm anxious to read more of your thoughts.
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