If you can put up with him and his antics he is THE BEST PLAYER ON THE PLANET.

I don’t know how you get him, I doubt he even is on the Cubs radar. But if you can convince him or Sori to play right field, sure you would be sacrificing A LOT OF Defense but damn if you don’t win 105 games with the same team plus Manny.

Pipedream and I hate the guy but I feel like I would love him if he were hitting .330/35/125 for the cubs

Howard and Rollins of course, and Utley was on track until he got hurt last year (or was it the year before) and Rollins is a switch hitter and the other two are lefties…..so they got us beat there.

The Rays were the second best AL team all year, I dont know that their lineup is any better than the Cubs, maybe it was the Mohawks? Certainly Upton and Longoria are on there way to being mega-stars, and I have no doubt Longoria will be a better player than A. Ramirez sooner than later.

I dont know who the Rays intangibles/leader guy is, maybe Percival, I think for the Phillies Rollins is their heart and soul, he laid it out last year that they were gonna beat the Mets.

For all the questions of who the Cubs leader is, the guy who unites them is an “us against them” mentality, well I dont know if he exists. Dempster seems to be well liked and jovial, Lee is kind of laid back, Zambrano is too emotional to be counted on as a leader…..but this is kind of odd, b/c all those intangibles and fire in the belly characteristics are exactly why I hoped Girardi wouldve beaten out Lou for the job.

The philles just have a more balanced lineup, and the Rays are just an up and coming team hitting on all cylinders at the right moment.

The players on those teams aren’t concerned about the years of failure. They are simply going out and having fun.

The Phillies are doing it, because we aren’t (or couldn’t). I’ll admit, I haven’t watched any of the NLCS, but we could easily be the ones up 3-1 on Philly if we played like the regular season version of the Cubs.

The Rays are an interesting story and I wouldn’t mind seeing them win it all. They have a bunch of young guys that look like they’re having fun and are on a tear.

that the Cubs don’t need that one guy to make a difference. They really didn’t need one all summer. The Rays and Phils are playing loose and pounding the baseball. We pounded the baseball all summer but we did have streaks where we looked like Little Leaguers out there. Unfortunately, the LL Cubs showed up for the playoffs.

The BoSox/Dodgers pitchers are being crushed, simple as that. Both teams got some big hits early in the series and it relaxed them. The Cubs got a 2 run dinger from DeRo but that got trumped by the Loney slam and they never recovered. I have said it multiple times, they recovered all year, why didn’t they in the post season? You have to ask them. Lou didn’t help matters, either. Maybe Lou needs to be the guy to rattle their cages and get them to loosen up.

I have also said this before, they players say the 100 year thing has no effect. Maybe in their hearts, it does. They have to say it doesn’t affect them in public, they’re pros. Bu they are still human. And watching post season futility either from the Cubs dugout or from the other side, you tend to think it’s bigger than they let on.

I’ve said it before, they have to get off to a hot start in the NLDS and probably every series. Otherwise the fans, media, and probably players are going to think, “here we go again”. Or have an a team like in ‘03 that doesn’t have much expectations.

Sidenote, I was impressed at 11:10 eastern time with the Red Sox down big, there were not many empty seats at Fenway.

They’re coming to the park ready to play and when on the field, they execute accordingly.

The Cubs easily could have done the same. They had the talent.

They did not come to the park ready to play. They became head cases and melted down.

Next question …

Mike Schmidt said he was excited to get Pete Rose on the Phillies team in 1979 because the Phillies had lost in the NLCS three seasons in a row from 1976-1978. The Phillies finished a disappointing fourth in 1979. They came back to win the World Series in 1980. Schmidt felt Rose was the leader they needed to get over the hump.

I don’t see a Pete Rose-type leader on this club. The Cubs did have Gary Matthews, Sr. as a veteran leader in 1984. I don’t see Zambrano, D-Lee, A-Ram, or Soriano or anyone else being a “Sarge” on this team.

A leader-type guy? Or a jerk?

I think one of the best leader/jerks is this guy:

I dont know if I wouldve been able to handle that

The team needs to execute. The team needs a little luck. That is the secret to post season success.

There has been a lot of talk about “mental toughness” and “playing loose”. Anyone who watched this team all year KNOWS how mentally tough they were. They never backed down. They never gave up. To suggest that they lost this attribute the second they entered to postseason seems a little inconsistent to me.

To the extent that “mental toughness” and “playing loose” has anything to do with it, I think you have to go back to the Game 1 Grand Slam. If Dempster escapes that inning, perhaps the whole mental complexion of the series changes. If the Cubs had put up 2-3 runs before the Dodgers did, maybe the same thing. Maybe the team can exhale, relax a bit, and start playing ball. To get to that point you need a little execution and a little luck.

We have a good team, but AMEN to the need for a big time player. We may have finished with 97 wins, but 39 of them were aginst very weak Astros, Reds, Pirates and Cardinals. When we go up against teams in tougher divisions we have problems, ie, being swept by the Rays for example.

but I know one player on our team that seems to fit that bill, and he was left rotting on the bench in the NLDS.

Aside from that, I don’t know. We’ve reviewed this aspect ad nauseum. These teams go out to play, not to satiate other people’s beliefs about destiny. Watching the Rays, they’re just playing the game, and they’re outplaying the Red Sox. Who is a leader on that team, or someone that plays the role of leader more than someone on our team?

For the Phils, they have Matt Stairs. Why oh why did we ditch Matt Stairs? That, and a lot of players on their team are fairly fired up guys. They possess the “intangibles” that the Cubs don’t. That’s the best way I can explain it.

Don’t know what it is about the guy – he’s not the best player in the league, but he’s just a good ballplayer. I think that type of player makes a big difference on your club.

I lifted this from the Wall Street Journal back in April.

Question:

In baseball, suppose the American League champion is better than the National League champion, such that it has a 55% probability of winning each game against the NL champ. Then the NL champ nonetheless will win a best-of-seven-games series four in 10 times. What is the smallest odd number, X, for which a World Series between these two league champs that is best-of-X will ensure that there’s a 95% probability of a just result — the superior AL champ winning?

Answer: The probability of the AL team winning a certain number of games can be represented by a graph of the binomial distribution, explained here. Calculating the probability that the AL team wins at least n games in a series of 2n-1 games is equivalent to graphing the probability of winning a certain number of games, and then adding the area under the part of the graph equivalent to the AL team winning at least n games. (This assumes the series continues even after one team clinches, which makes the calculation easier and doesn’t change the result.)
In Excel or another spreadsheet program, a single formula handles this. In Excel, that’s =BINOMDIST. This calculates the probability that the NL team wins no more than n-1 games, which is necessary for the AL team to win the series. Applying this formula to every possible number of games, from seven and up, you eventually find that the AL has a 94.9% chance of winning a best-of-267 game series and a slightly greater than 95% chance of winning a best-of-269 game series. So the right answer is 269 games.
Comments: A best-of-269 game series is 107 games longer than the regular season. And yet that’s how many games it would take to feel 95% confident that the better team won, if the better team has a 55% probability of winning each game. Lower that to 53%, and it would take 751 games to properly sort them out — a doubleheader each day of the year wouldn’t suffice. Probability really varies each game, depending on home field and pitching matchups, but this approximation does illustrate how likely it is for the better team to lose. "This is why the baseball postseason is so ridiculous," reader Joe Lurito commented. "It’s basically a crapshoot at seven games."

…in Game 1 of the NLDS because it’s painfully obvious to EVERYONE there (except apparently the manager and the pitching coach) that your starter (Dempster) has NOTHING left – and then and only then do they even have someone START TO WARM UP, it’s pretty obvious the ‘engine’ that was the Cubs team (the 97-win one) is not running correctly anymore.

That still astounds me. What is it about how Lou and co. manage in the post-season that seems a complete 180 from what I saw in almost all the other 162 games???

“Screw everyone else, we’re in this to win it for US”

The Cubs have a massive money advantage over most MLB teams. Unfortunately, MacPhail did not believe in exerting that advantage, and we passed on players like Carlos Beltran, and then signed Alfonso Soriano.

That being said, the primary problem with this Cubs team is that it has no truly great power hitter. Soriano is streaky and kills mistakes. Aramis is streaky and a very nice complementary player. Derrek Lee looked like he was going to be that great power hitter, and he’s paid to be that guy, but it’s become apparent that it just isn’t going to happen for him.

Where do the Cubs’ rivals get their great power hitters? Generally, through the draft, and generally, by drafting hitters who already displayed power at the college level. I hate to keep harping on this, but the Cubs seem to be allergic to college power hitters for some reason. We’ve drafted college pitchers (Prior, Hagerty, Blasko, Brownlie, Samardzjia, Cashner), we’ve drafted college kids who haven’t displayed power (Glanville, Colvin), and we’ve drafted prep “power hitters” (Vitters, Harvey, Montanez, etc.), and prep “tools” guys like Dunston, Patterson,

You’d have to go all the way back to Rafael Palmiero in 1985 to see the Cubs taking an established NCAA power hitter. I don’t know why that’s the case.

It seems that we do a lot of waiting and hoping for guys to turn doubles power into HR power, while other teams just draft the Teixeras and Utleys and Howards and Brauns and Longorias and LaPortas and Wieterses of the world and get on with it.

Let’s take a look at the Cubs current roster and evaluate their “outward” leadership and, for lack of a better term, fire on the field. This is purely subjective of course.

Soto – Too young to “lead” the team now. Has potential as an IRod type player. With another year or two of success, he could become that veteran leader.

DLee – Too laid back, mellow. I believe he has been significantly, but understandably, distracted since his daughter’s illness. Good lieutenant, but not the guy to lead you “over the hill”.

DeRosa – Good character guy, but not a superstar leader that people will follow. Too bad, because as a former quarterback he probably has just those qualities.

Theroit/Fontenot/Cedeno – No (notice that all their names end in “O” or “no”? Just sayin.
Ramirez – Another quiet guy, not a vocal leader. Doesn’t seem to have the emotion.

Soriano – Headcase. Yes he can hit, but not a guy you want leading you into battle. He might just run the wrong way.

Edmonds – Here is the mold of the guy we want. Just a younger version. The trick is finding him. I admire the way that he stepped up this past year. If he had been here a little longer, another year perhaps, maybe it would have made a difference.

Fukudome – Bwahahahahahaha. No. Even if he remembers how to hit, he is clearly not a dynamic presence in the clubhouse (at least in a positive way.)

Pitchers – Pitchers generally don’t fill this role. Throwing every five days just doesn’t open the door for this sort of leadership. However, a guy like Dempster could help steady the pitching staff.

Wood is the exception here. As a closer, he could be “that guy”, like Trevor Hoffman in SD. But to be that guy, he needs to be more consistent on the mound. And when I say more consistent, I mean 40 saves in 41 attempts consistent. For him to be that leader, he has to come out and there has to be no doubt in anyone’s mind that he is going to get three outs. I don’t think that has been there the last two years.

So, we have a bunch of soldiers, a couple of guys who have the numbers but not the personality, a couple of flakes, one “leader” past his prime, and another who may be coming into his prime – and that is a big maybe.

As for the other teams…

IMHO, the Dodgers aren’t solely benefitting from the Manny-effect. Yes, his bat is ridiculous, and his headcase antics serve as a distraction for the media, allowing the rest of the team to get their jobs done. But the Dodgers are a team of veterans who came together at the right time. They have a couple of leaders in Kent and Garciaparra, they have young kids who are producing. Even Casey Blake has been a steadying influence.

As for the Phillies, they are the prototypical “good” team. Strong up the middle both offensively and defensively, a good mix of power bats and OBP guys, and solid defense.

The thing that has bugged me the most about the season is the way the media has portrayed the Rays as some sort of miracle. There is no miracle. There is the benefit of drafting intelligently near the top of every round in every draft for the last 10 years or so. Yes, fans put up with 10 years of mediocrity, and now that talent is blooming. This is no miracle, it is simply good administration, good leadership and good managing.

would like to see us get baldelli for the league min. if possible and see if he can turn it around.

Sorry but there is no one miracle man and there never has been. When teams win suddenly folks decide it was player
X who made the difference despite the fact that player X was on the team for the past 3 years when the team sucked and in fact player X was WITH the Cubs a few years before or comes a year later. Now getting the right player(s) with the talents you need makes the difference but not some single guy who inspires and kicks ass at the same time IF anybody should do that it is the manager and I am not going there.
Frankly there is a lot of luck involved but it does in the end boil down to the right players, managers and coaches being able to do what they are supposed to during the season AND in the post season and not goats, signs, good fans, bad fans or a single player you can just go out and get.

But I think Evan Longoria is going to be something REAL special…Even more than I thought this season…

Could prob hit 30+ HR’s a year…Perennial All-Star? This guy thinks so.

…any pursuit of one guy who would lead the team to postseason success would be a fool’s errand. You can’t pick leaders off a grocery store shelf; they have to evolve from within the team. Did the Cardinals “raise” Albert Pujols to be a leader? No, he grew into that role by both action and attitude. There are probably other examples.

What the Cubs need to do is continue putting together well-balanced teams and making it to the postseason. And they need to play as a team and not look to any one player to “ignite” them. I keep going back to how Lou repeatedly said that Alfonso Soriano ignites the offense and then shuddering at the prospect of a contending team’s offense livng and dying according to such an extremely streaky player. (And, yeah, I know all players are streaky – but Soriano’s streaks just seem more pronounced, either in reality or in appearance.)

The Phillies and Rays are winning because they’re playing a team sport as a team. That’s what the Cubs need to do to win.

daver said:

“You can’t pick leaders off a grocery store shelf; they have to evolve from within the team. Did the Cardinals "raise" Albert Pujols to be a leader? No, he grew into that role by both action and attitude.”

Which I think is a very good point.

So, the one guy?

Geovany Soto.

Maybe not yet, but I think in a year or two he will be.

He gives it everything he’s got, is a great hitter, good defender, calls games, manages the pitching staff (including Zambrano!), shows leadership qualities.

He of the career 97 OPS+, and the 2008 OPS+ of 84?

Does this mean you’ll be making your personnel post today? I’ve been waiting to hear your opinions on what (if anything) needs to be done! :)

Kenny Lofton was available ALL season. He has the following:

1) Left handed bat
2) Playoff experience
3) Quality leadoff man

We need a top end lead off hitter, whoever the next Kenny Loften is will hopefully play for the beloved.

I invite you to check out the Blackhawks. While they are trying to find themselves in a new system being implemented by HoF head coach Denis Savard, they’re a young team trying to break through. They’re the 2nd youngest team in the NHL.

And for the first time since Gerald Ford was President, they are on TV. Yes, the Blackhawks have stepped into the 20th century, just 40 years a bit too late.

Even if you’re not a hockey fan you may be interested in seeing the fastest team sport in the universe.

and then sign Furcal for SS and sign Dunn to play First base…

Furcal
DeRosa RF
Rammy
Dunn
Soriano
Soto
FOntenot
Johnson/Pie/Fukudome looks good for me

They don’t have the 100 year monkey on their backs like we don’t, forget all the goat and curse bs. Not winning it at all since 1908 and not being there since 1945 has a huge psychological impact on the current team whether they admit it or not.

When I look at the current roster, the one player that I think comes closest to emulating Beck’s grit, determination and guile has already been mentioned – Reed Johnson. Again, that diving catch he made earlier in the year could have been the signature moment to a perfect year.

Soto has potential in this regard too. Takes a lot of moxie to go to the mound and bark at your pitchers – and he did that LAST year when he was just a late-season callup.

No question that Larry R. is NOT going to improve the pitching to Championship quality and depth.

Go outside the box for a refreshing and winning change – bring Dr. Mike to an organization that really needs him, and find ownership with the guts, smarts, and heart to truly support Dr. Mike!

Shane Victorino does nothing but play hard, smart, and constant hustle baseball in every game. He can cover right field better than Kosuke, and adds a great bat, speed on the bases, and leadership spark to a lineup.

Not sure how the Cubs pry him away from the Phils. Probably pitching and prospects plus a multi team trade.

Victorino should have been targeted for acquisition long before Kosuke was ever considered. Probably would have cost far lees three years ago too.