There is a good chance that Rizzo will hit well early because: 1) he had a hole in his swing last ye

I guess if you catch him on an off-day, Dale Sveum doesn t sound surprised by the Cubs overall crumminess this year. ''I'm not naive; I knew what I was getting into,'' Sveum said . ''I saw what we had. If we didn't get offense from the corner positions, cheap airline flights to mexico we'd have trouble scoring runs. [Alfonso] Soriano has been pretty good and [Bryan] LaHair, but we haven't had much production from the other spots. And scoring runs has been our biggest problem.'' So even Sveum could tell, and admits, this was a weak roster from the get-go? I ve said it before: I highly suspect he was told from the day before he signed that his roster was probably going to be thin for a little while, and that his job was to start changing the culture, to do what was best for the organization long-term when it comes to using certain players in certain cheap airline flights to mexico roles, cheap airline flights to mexico and to try and win as many games as possible (in that order).
Speaking of the crumminess, Theo Epstein, naturally, isn t going to say whether cheap airline flights to mexico he thinks this team is bad.  Organizationally, there are a lot of barometers we re watching to make sure we re moving in the right direction, Epstein said, according to Paul Sullivan . And we know we re going to make a lot of mistakes along the way. It s really important to examine everything you do . You want to make sure when you make mistakes you re aware of them and figure out why. But, it isn t difficult to read between those lines. In the same article, Sullivan contends that, in addition to rebuilding, one of the Cubs goals this year is to avoid setting cheap airline flights to mexico the franchise record for losses (103). I m not so sure about that one if September rolls around, and the choice is losing only 102 games and picking third in the 2013 Draft (and getting less Draft money and international money to spend), or losing 104 and picking first? I m not saying the Cubs will actively try to lose games, but as far as rooting goes in that scenario? I think Theo would be just fine with the Cubs dropping 104.
You know things cheap airline flights to mexico are getting cheap airline flights to mexico grim when you start to see multiple iterations of the hey, there are still reasons to watch the Cubs articles coming out. The latest comes from Gordon Wittenmyer , who does correctly identify a number reasons to keep watching cheap airline flights to mexico the Cubs, headlined by the imminent arrival of Anthony Rizzo. Again I ll say: the weight of expectations placed on this kid is going to be crushing. Try to relax for the first month, ok? And I mean that in either direction, good or bad. We could see Rizzo called cheap airline flights to mexico up as soon as this weekend, but it might not be until next week.
Patrick Mooney with a write-up on Jeff Samardzija, featuring some love from Cubs Assistant GM Randy Bush. "[Samardzija's] not going to make the same mistakes over and over again," Bush said. "He's just going to learn. Physically, he's got everything you look for to be that kind of guy you can hopefully tee up there for 200 innings a year."
You can win four tickets to a Cubs game and throw out the first pitch, courtesy of a contest being run by ComEd. Just hit up the Coolest cheap airline flights to mexico Summer Ever tab on their Facebook page, and you can enter from there. There are other Chicago-based prizes as well.
I got into quite the Twitter discussion last night about Rizzo s callup. My thought is July 2 or 3. This is a series in Atlanta and the ICubs will be playing in Memphis then as well (roughly cheap airline flights to mexico same distance as Des Moines Chicago). This way it gets Rizzo to the majors on the road so there is one less thing that will distract him once he gets there. Also, he would play 7 games and then get a 4 day break before he has to come to Chicago.
Really, cheap airline flights to mexico the only things we ve seen comparable to Trout, Harper or Strasburg have been Wood and Prior.  This might be more comparable to when the Cubs called up Mark Grace.  (If I recall, then the Cubs were playing in San Diego at the time.)
That is going to be the biggest cheap airline flights to mexico key Brett. cheap airline flights to mexico You hit the nail on the head. People are going to have unrealistic expectations of Rizzo. As long as he doesn t pull a Gary Scott, completely, I will be alright. Let s wait and see guys.
I think the Front Office has higher expectations for Rizzo. Let s face it, Rizzo is the first impact player they brought into the organization. He s the power bat they want to build around. If he proves unworthy, *Gary Scott* unworthy, it ll set us back 2 years.
cheap airline flights to mexico The more I think about trades for Demp and Garza, the more I see Demp s DL stint playing out well for the Cubs. I am not saying they planned putting Demp on the DL, but consider cheap airline flights to mexico the following: cheap airline flights to mexico Theo and Jed have two of the top SP trade candidates on the market which is good but you also in competition with yourself. By removing the less valuable option (Demp) you may actually draw bigger interest cheap airline flights to mexico in Garza, increasing the prospect haul. Once Garza is traded, perferably before Demp makes his first start (proving he is healthy) you can go back to the losing teams you identified in trade negotiations for Garza and offer Demp for the same package they offered for and lost on Garza. I am not saying any team will agree, but by doing this you leverage your starting point at a higher return and working down rather then fielding low offers and working up. I am sure there are holes in this theory, but it is another perspective as to what could happen and how the Cubs could maximize the return on both players.
When teams trade prospects for players like Garza before the deadline, cheap airline flights to mexico they are not only trying cheap airline flights to mexico to make the playoffs, but also in a lot of cases figure to get a leg up in signing the guy longer term. This isn t really a factor with a guy like Dempster due to his age. So his value is exclusively tied to what he can contribute this year. And being on the DL now, he is going to have to prove himself all over when he comes back. I don t think one good game is going to do that. I just don t see this playing out so well
if randy bush thinks that sharks good for 200+innings, what took so long for them to install him in the rotation? he was part of the old regime was he not? i know other people, other scenarios, but i always thought shark was best suited as a SP. if only they wouldve had him concentrating solely as a SP, and also not used up all his opts so quickly.
If Rizzo is going to be called up in the near future, A time when the Cubs are away from Wrigley would be a good time. They are away for 3 more days and although there are plenty of Cub fans in Phoenix the crowd expectations cheap airline flights to mexico would be considerably less than if he was in Chicago. It might be better to wait until July 2nd though.
cheap airline flights to mexico Porcello is about to get some significant pay raises in arbitration, which largely will not reflect the downward trend of his (young) career. He could be thrown into a deal, and he s certainly worth taking a chance on, considering the upside. But, no, I would not care for him to be a guy the Cubs specifically target in one of their sell deals (unless it was for a lesser player, obviously).
Comparing Rizzo s potential call up to Mark Grace s is spot on. Also, the highly anticipated call up of Kerry Wood happened while the Cubs were in Montreal. It has been 20 yrars since the summer of Gary Scott. Time flies.
Whenever Rizzo is brought up, I d like to see the Cubs avoid putting too much pressure on him in the batting order. If they put him in at 3 or 4 immediately, I think that would be a mistake. I d like to see him slotted at 6th or 7th to give him a chance to get acclimated. Anything earlier, I think, is placing undue pressure on the kid.
There is a good chance that Rizzo will hit well early because: 1) he had a hole in his swing last year; and, 2) that hole seems to be plugged.  MLB pitchers will probably cheap airline flights to mexico immediately try to test whether that hole has been been plugged.  If it s really fixed, then Rizzo will hit the ball hard a bit early.
One other thing to remember is that Rizzo will basically be replacing cheap airline flights to mexico Campana cheap airline flights to mexico and Johnson in the lineup.  Rizzo can disappoint and he ll still put up better OPS/wOBA/however-the-heck-you-want-to-estimate-real-run-creation than either of those two guys.  If Soto s BABiP gets back to normal and Barney has actually pulled a Darwin, then that will leave 3rd as the only real hole in the Cubs lineup.
He ll never bat there. That would make sence batting him to form a L R L. We all know that Sveum likes to bat all his Lefties cheap airline flights to mexico and righties bunched together so that won t happen like you say. sveum Y u know how to properly set a lineup?
I d actually say that Sveum is (potentially) correct to ignore LR in his lineup order.  The whole paradigm is based around a small fraction cheap airline flights to mexico of PA sequences: late in close games.  It s more important to worry about the bigger fraction of PA sequences against starters.
Now, will it happen that sometimes you ll get a close game and the other team gets to bring in a lefty to face your 3 lefties in a row?  Sure.  But if it does happen, ask yourself: did batting those 3 lefties in a row keep the game close in the first place?  Also ask, how many games did it contribute to winning as opposed to how many games did it contribute to losing?
cheap airline flights to mexico Well Doc I see your point but while we haven t had that many close games it wouldve been the difference in a win or a loss I d still like to practice traditional management style winning baseball. I don t think because we suck this year it s an excuse to bat everyone at random just because.
I don t want Sveum to order the batters at random.  I just do not want lefty/right to be the basis of ordering the batters.  I want him to stick the high OBP at the top, using power as a tie-breaker.  I don t want him to break that order because there might be a 7th inning lefty specialist.
I think we agree but we re just saying cheap airline flights to mexico it different. I m with you that I want it to be stat based on where each player bats but when it s negligible I would like to see him go LRL. I believe on numerous occasions this year he has stacked them together with no ryme or reason.
Thank you sir, you may help prove my point for me then, problem is we