Besides, it’s mostly redundant: because it’s a better predictor of team performance, you might as well just tally up all the runs scored altogether instead against the runs they’ve allowed, and you’ll get a much more accurate picture of how your team has performed.

Honestly i have mixed feelings about booing of our own players and i’ll explain why.

Like you, I believe that you cheer or boo the name on the front- not on the back. This is why i have only booed players twice- Corey Patterson and Neifi Perez. In years past the Cubs and their players could lose, make errors, not try and consistently suck without fans booing.

Fans today actually pay attention and are emotionally involved in the team. When they see consistent bad play by a player they boo him. Is this fair? probably not. Does race play a role? Probably true. Is it the defining factor? Not a chance. Marlon, like Bradley and Jones before him is being paid to be a run producer. They were all brought in to hit after Lee and Ramirez. Jones to his credit did a fantastic job in 2006, and did a mediocre job in 2007. Bradley failed miserably hitting just over .200 with runners in scoring position and watching his slg% drop nearly 175 points from his previous year. If Marlon produces he wont get booed. If he plays like soriano or bradley of 2009 he will get booed.

The happy-go-lucky cubs fan is dead and buried. Fans today are tired of the losers, of excuses and the bullshit in between. They are paying attention and demanding a winner.

* I must note that by Fan i denote someone who is at the field supporting their team. Not the guys who are there to drink, not the guy who is there to yell racist shit at players, and certainly not the douchebags who dont look up from their blackberrys. Im talking about emotional investment*

And I blame Mike Fontenot. And his other half of the Cajun Disconnection.

We got Nady for a steal because of his condition. Expect his arm health to increase as the season progresses also

I did criticize the Cubs for not taking Travis Snider, and still do, but I understand why they didn’t. I don’t back the Colvin pick, or reaching for anyone in the draft, I’d rather just pay the top players because they’re more of a sure thing. Hindsight is 20/20, but I remember reading everything on Snider hoping he’d fall to the Cubs… whoops.

When I brought up Sam Fuld, it was not in response to you. They were keeping either Fuld or Colvin, basically. If Colvin didn’t make it, they would have taken Fuld because of his defense and because he was left handed.

I know Baker has logged innings in the outfield, but he’s never played OF in Chicago. I cringe at the thought of either of them in the outfield when the game is on the line. I don’t mind Colvin.

Nady’s bat is 100% healthy, but his arm is 50%. So what do you do? It’s tough, but didn’t we get a physical of this guy?

As far as Colvin, I meant he doesn’t have knowledge of the strike zone now. Sending him to AAA would allow him to learn the strike zone, learn to steal bases, learn to hit in different situations.

As of right now, you can’t convince me that Colvin isn’t a better option than Soriano. He’s going to take Soriano’s at-bats. That’s fine with me, because you’re not letting Colvin rot if he’s getting an at-bat every game, learning from the bench from professional hitters, and getting 3 starts a week. That’s not what we did with Pie. What we did with Felix is use him as a pinch runner and defensive replacement. What we did with Corey was move him all over the universe in the batting order. (If Corey never tears his knee against St. Louis in July 2003, we might not be talking about signing left-handed outfielders.) Colvin is different, because there is a plan with him. If Lou sticks to it, it’s a good plan. If Lou doesn’t, then you need to send Colvin back to AAA and that’s fine. It doesn’t stunt his growth and it doesn’t hurt his trade value, but it gives him a taste of the big leagues, and that’s always good for young kids.

I didnt criticize Tim Wilken’s pick of Tyler Colvin. Yes, I have been critical of high draft picks in the past but when it came to Colvin I had stated several times that the jury was still out on him. (Not because I thought he was good, but instead because he got injured and i thought he was playing with injury in 2008) In fact if i remember correctly you were the one that criticized the Cubs for not getting Travis Snider. ( i apologize if i remembered this wrong)

I must also bring up that not once did I post that Sam Fuld should make the team. He didnt hit his way onto the team in the spring. If the Cubs truly just needed an additional OF for defensive purposes the smart pick would have been James Adduci who is on the 40man. James would have provided a defensive replacement with basestealing abilities greater than that of anyone on this current team.

Jeff Baker has 33 MLB games in the OF and could most likely handle either corner with Mark DeRosa esque defensive efficiency. (He also has over 120 minor league games in the OF) Chad Tracy would likely only play in left and would likely play defense close to on par with Soriano’s terrible ass.

With Xavier’s making of the team instead of starting the year on the DL, coupled with his start in Right tonight, i believe that while his arm is still questionable, the team believes he can field the position.

I must note that in my scenario where Colvin starts in AAA and Blanco is on the bench- Baker could play in the OF and the cubs would still have a MI on the bench.

As far as Colvin not discovering the outside corner in the minors- i believe that statement, and all that it stands for is false.

If he plays everyday, both in the field, at the plate and on the base paths he will grow as a player. He can still be challenged by AAA pitching (once again he has never played AAA ball and has only a partial season at AA).

In the minor leagues, a player can better focus on improving parts of his game. For example- if he is trying to become a better base stealer he can take more risks and attempt more sb’s(practice makes perfect) at the minor league level without worrying as much about screwing up.

Just because our present is a clusterfuck of poorly aging vets, overpaid FAs, ultra shitty MIs, crappy platoon OFs and DL stint Jedis doesnt mean we should fuck up our future. You and I have talked about the Cubs farm system before. We have seen this move by Hendry before, once less egregiously with Corey Patterson, but again with Felix Pie. Now we find ourselves down the same path making the same mistakes. The reason we have to spend for FOUR FAs in the OF is because our farm system was shit for sooo long.

Even if Colvin isnt part of the cubs outfield of the future, he can be traded for something else we need. His trade value is going to be low if he only gets 150ish atbats at the major league level, versus 500 atbats in AAA.

People were calling Tim Wilken an epic fail since his first pick. Here’s what everyone forgets.

Tyler Colvin was a fringe top-100 prospect in 2006. The Cubs took him at 13 for a few reasons.

1) Colvin would make it to the majors but probably not be a star. He’d help you in some capacity because he’s left handed, has good – not great – speed, good glove, has decent power to all fields and can run the bases. It was a low upside pick, but less risky as well.

2) The most important part was that Colvin would be very cheap to sign. Why does that matter? Because the Cubs had to talk Samardzija into playing baseball. They offered Samardzija a shit-ton of money because he threw 97 mph and had a high ceiling due to his size, mechanics, stuff and mental makeup. Did they handle him wrong? Absolutely, but that’s why he was paid, and that’s why Colvin was taken where he was.

Should he have made this team? I don’t know – I didn’t really care either way. I think he should have because he’s way better than Sam Fuld will ever be, and he can get some big league experience. There’s nothing wrong with sending him down to the minors if his stint here doesn’t go well. I don’t think he should have because he can get some at-bats every day in the minors, and still doesn’t know where the outside corner is.

The fail of the off-season was X Nady and his arm. I don’t think he can throw, so you have to keep another outfielder on the roster for defensive purposes. Colvin is probably our second best outfielder defensively. And they’re going to save Nady until the 8th or 9th every game because of the need for a competent hitter at the end.

You can’t put Tracy in the game because he can’t move in the outfield. In 2005, he’d be a competent OF. He can probably do it in an emergency. Jeff Baker hasn’t ever taken flyballs in the outfield, and he’s the only infielder.

Now you’re finally starting to see why I hate Theriot, though. Theriot’s defense (although he made two nice plays tonight, plays that any shortstop should make, but still nice plays) has always hurt him more than his offense has helped him. I wanted to start Blanco, sacrifice the offense for a premium defender. Unfortuantely, the bottom of the order is filled with enough suck that Blanco couldn’t play everyday. Then, because the bottom three is such shit, you have to keep pinch hitters.

I’m not disagreeing with you, but at the end of the day, it’s just apparent that the team didn’t have much of a plan. That’s going to hurt for more than this year, but we’re seeing it now. You don’t keep Millar even though all off-season you bitched about chemistry. You keep one infielder, even though Fontenot was a question mark at the beginning of the season. You keep an outfielder because the one you signed cannot throw because of TJ surgery — and you know he’s going to have to platoon with Kosuke, as well as spell Soriano.

Once this organization has a plan, I’ll become less cynical and more optimistic. Until then, it’s going to suck to watch this team fail over and over.

Flash back to 2008. Tyler Colvin goes down and needs surgery on his throwing arm. He is expected to return to baseball mid 2009.

Its hard to say any of us were heartbroken from this. At the time Colvin was a decent hitter with little patience- certainly not a player deserving of a first round draft status.

He returned in 2009 and played in 84 games in AA. He slugged over .5o0. He was a different player. After a brief call up to the cubs Colvin’s name was forgotten in the off season. Hendry signed a full time CF for 3 years and and part time platoon mate for RF for one year. Colvin was not an option.

He came to spring ready to rock. Armed with 25lbs of extra muscle, Colvin lead the Cactus league and hitting and was a great story.

BUT- The cubs already had 3 highly paid starting outfielders and another former allstar capable of starting in the corners. Chad Tracy and Jeff Baker were also capable of starting in the OF corners. With the Pinch hit duties going to the .300 PH avg. Chad Tracy.

So where will Colvin get his ABs? With Nady healthy and Tracy & Baker capable of also backing of up the outfield wouldnt have it been smarter to have Colvin start at AAA? (A place he has never played at so its not like he is stagnant)
Instead of another redundant OF, why not keep defensive specialist Andres Blanco?

After all Mike Fontenot is the primary backup for the already defensively challenged Ryan Theriot…

Once again, a strong Cubs OF prospect rots on the bench when he should be polishing up his skills in AAA.

Check your phone — do you want to write some stuff for the site??