Requiem For The Cubs' 2011 Season

Eisman57 on Mar 19, 2011 9:30 PM CDT
…this team does nothing particularly well. The current Vegas over/under on the ‘11 Cubs is 81.5 wins which at this point looks like a pipe dream. I predict 72 wins out of our current collection of ’no hit, no field’ misfits.

Eisman57 on Mar 22, 2011 8:34 PM CDT
Bet the farm on 72 wins or less. Hopefully Ricketts will finally grow a pair and dump our underperforming GM. Teams that tolerate mediocrity tend to be, well, mediocre.

Eisman57 on Apr 15, 2011 9:47 PM CDT
Sorry Al…The ‘11 Cubs are simply not a very good team. Starting pitching is thin due to injuries, the back half of the bullpen is a mess, the offense is spotty at best, and the defense is among the worst in MLB. They’re playing .500 ball against mostly bottom feeders to this point. They’ll need to play well to get to achieve my prediction of 72 wins.

Its going to be an interesting offseason. While I will watch the postseason I want it to be over so the Cubs moves can start rolling.

Thanks for another great year of BCB Al!

I can’t even laugh about it. Horrible recent past, seemingly horrible near future. Starting to wonder why I bother.

Al I think you deserve extra credit for this year because it’s a lot easier to run a site when everything is sunshine and lollipops with the team.

I wasn’t really around much til 07 so I don’t know how it was in 06 and last year I was in and out due to my health issues.

Maybe it’s a sign of progress that it was our first back to back 85 or more loss seasons since 99-00!

Each year I say I am going to spend less time here also. Granted this year with them being so bad I did spend less time…….. but I still spend way too much time here March-Sept.. :)

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2011/09/beane-expects-to-stay-put-stadium-verdict-upcoming.html

I’m weak, I’m pathetic, I’m waiting for Hot Stove…

And can someone tell me what channel tonight’s game is on? It’s not on WGN or CSN Chicago. Is it on WCIU? I can’t seem to find the other team’s feed either.

I enjoyed the opinions, the thought processes, the banter, predictions and (some) of the blather! In fact, barring a coupla “tiffs”…it was an enjoyable season on BCB…not so much on the field! Lastly, a very special thank you to Al…the guy who made this possible, all us armchair MLB players, just “sharing our genious” with one another… /tries to think of a way to blame Al for truly crappy season…can’t, gives up/ :]

Shouldn’t “Count Down Clock” read xxxDays, xxxHours, xxxMins, xxxSecs until "Opening Day 2012?! >>>>>> (Look on right sidebar)>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>→→→

My first year following BCB. This is a good place to read about the Cubs, and Al, I appreciate your efforts to keep everyone from going negative, and to remind us all that we are Cubs fans, and we should act like Cubs fans instead of people who boo their own team and start waves.

I think I predicted a season roughly as bad as this. As always, it comes down to starting pitching. Cashner was a wild card from Day One, and Hendry destroyed all is rotation depth knowing full-well that Russell couldn’t handle it. Lack of reasonable depth at #6 and #7 cost this team at least 5 wins. Obtaining Garza was nice enough, young, talented, but his numbers didn’t indicate “Ace”, they indicated inconsistency, which is what he gave us. A solid #2 starter to go wtih Dempster, a solid #3 or #4, and Zambrano, a solid #4 or #5. Winning teams have at least one ace, sometimes two or three, and that’s just baseball.

The bullpen, good if you don’t count Marmol. I didn’t mind his extension when it happened, but I sure hate it now. He went from unhittable to untradeable in one season. Four more wins or so lost to Marmol’s bad delivery, but our setup men made up for most of that. I still don’t like Szamardzija that much, but I would take him back as our 6th and 7th inning guy. Not to start.

The offense… adding Pena to a team that already had three #6 hitters in Byrd, Fukudome and Soriano gave us a very ineffective bunch of guys, most of which either couldn’t hit good pitching, or couldn’t hit when it counted with runners on. Add the fact that Geo gave us one of his “fat” seasons, and we didn’t have much chance to score enough runs to overcome an inadequate rotation. Castro and Ramirez were solid pieces, but they are not elite hitters. It would be nice to have a Fielder or Puhols next year, but we might just have to wait.

Quade, Listasch, Riggins and DeJesus…. All bush league. Strange decisions, poor leadership. Of course they didn’t have the talent to work with, but I don’t want to see the Cubs move forward with these guys. Most of all, we need a real third base coach, and a real manager.

Terry Francona may become availabe. We’ll have a new GM who cannot be worse than Hendry. We have an owner who understands that money needs to go to the draft. Let’s hope he understands that he needs the right organization top-to-bottom to develop them. I do want Andrew Friedman, and I sorta hope the Rays lose three this week – it could be our only chance at getting him.