Lou says he's benching Fukudome in his press conference. He sounds pissed as soon as he's asked.

big fucking deal at this point. if he really had any balls hed pull soriano from leadoff.

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Agree about Soriano. He can't bat leadoff in the playoffs. Loved Lou saying Fukudome sucks. To bad it took a 2nd game for him to realize it.

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Fuck Edwards and Zobrist

And/or Lee from the #3 spot.

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And put who there, exactly?

I'm not sure why Soriano gets scapegoated so badly by Cubs fans. He's not a prototypical leadoff hitter, but his OBP isn't too much further down than where you want it to be if you did have that prototypical guy, plus the power numbers are much more. He's struggled in the postseason, true, but I think that's more small sample size than anything (he did lead off the game with a single today). His range isn't what it could be, but it's on par for left fielders and he saves you a few runs per year with assists.

There's bigger problems. You're not getting offensive production from your two prime offensive positions, first base and right field. You need guys who can rake at the corners, and since July, you just simply have not been getting that. Some of that production is offset by the fact that you're getting way more from your catcher (and, to some extant, second baseman) that you'd usually expect, but you still need those positions to produce. I think the answer in the medium term will be moving Ramirez to first to make room for Vitters, but that's 2010 at the earliest.

I think that there are a few obvious building blocks here. A 20 HR/80 RBI/.350 OBP catcher who plays good defense is a nice asset to have. Contra the other members of this board, I still defer to what I read from scouts that Pie could still be a nice player. You've got a couple of productive years left with Ramirez. Soriano might be overpaid, but you're still going to get solid production. I don't have a ton of faith in Theriot or Derosa going forward, and I have none in Fukudome and Lee.

As for the pitchers: 27 year old power pitchers with sub 4 ERAs are worth their weight in gold, even if they are more #2 types than a true ace. You don't know what to expect from Harden next year, but he is potentially good enough to be an ace. I think Dempster gets tendered as though he'd be expected to be a #3 pitcher, and I think he's satisfied as such. The one area the staff is hurt is by not having one knockdown ace type, and I don't think Zambrano will ever be that guy (even if he'll be really, really good for a number of years.

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Fire Phil Emery

Fukodome got figured out after 3 months in the bigs and now he's an overpaid strikeout machine that's an embarrassment to himself and to the fans in both Chicago and his home country.

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I really hope they let Hoffpauir play right next year. He's going to be a very good hitter for someone. I just hope it's the Cubs and they don't do something foolish like keeping/starting Fukadome and trading Hoffpauir.

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Go Cubs!!!!

There's plenty of blame to go all around. 4 errors? I counted at least 5.

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Hirsute.

"You no help me now...I say fuck you , Joboo!"

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