Cubs keep Fontenot, cut Cintron; Murton odd man out -- Contract...

Very discouraging. Cedano, Fontenot, Blanco....Come on---
Championship team with these guys..Very disappointed in Hendry.

Am I the only one disappointed here?

You forgot to mention Daryle Ward. That fat joke will be "hurt" before May. Lose 80 pounds and learn to run ... then get back to us!

Meanwhile, the good news is that Sean Marshall is being kept. He's better than the super-inconsistent Hill. Before the season is over No. 45 will play a big role (as a starter) for the Cubs.

if these dolts would only learn to pitch & not throw at rowand's legs.

no playoffs for you!

For the first three responders you are all negative and don't know must about baseball. The Cubs won a wild card last year. The improved on Defense and Offense because they have a lot of speed on both sides of the ball. They have speed on the bases. They have good Pop at the top, middle nad bottom of the lineup. The pitching may be the best in their division starters/bullpen combined. Their was no team in their division that had a better Bullpen last year; they improved on it.

They Cubs should win the division playing Cardinal Ball. Pitching and Defense with timely hits win. The Cubs fell short last year because of hitting. Lee, Alfonzo etc., came out of the hole late. Lee hurt his wrist, Alfonzo was slow getting started then hurt his hamstring. Armiarez had his on and off year at third. They secondary players carried the Cubs in hitting most of last year. If the big guys hit and the secondary guy do half as good as they did last year we should have no problem driving in runs. We have a excellent bullpen. The keys is Zambrono winning 20 games. If he can do that and get upward of 14/15 wins from our other two big time starters and 10 wins from our other two, we'll win this thing. Pinella is a great guy.

Hey ****.....as bench players go Ward, Cedeno, Johnson, and Fontenot are better then most teams!! What are you looking for All-Stars on your bench!? Come on.........

American First wrote:

For the first three responders you are all negative and don't know must about baseball. The Cubs won a wild card last year.

Before you impress us with your incredible baseball acumen, get a clue. The Cubs were Division champs, not wild card winners. Yes, the Cubs will be improved. Yes, tickets are tough to come by. Why? Because there are too many people who fashion themselves Cubs fans that simply don't have a clue. There are times I wish that Wrigley Field was torn down to at least get rid of some of the baseball tourists who call themselves Cubs fans.

No one's a star player until they grow into it. I am not saying these guys will become stars, but we hav to give them a shot. Steinbrenner bought stars for years and the Yankees didn't win.It took a few key homegrown players to put them on the right path.
Every couple of years, a good TEAM wins it all. Maybe it's our time. Maybe it will not be. I do believe that, if they think they are a player short in June or July, this management will make a trade to try and get that player.
Good defense will help with offensive problems. Catch the ones you should and some of the ones you shouldn't. We tried offense with poor defense. Let's see if it works the other way.
This offense is based on Lee, Ramirez, Fukodome and Soriano hitting at a high level. If they don't, Wait til next year! Let's not too negative , yet. Lou delivered last year. Let's go for 2 winning years in a row. That would be a start.

Ten to one Felix Pie will be hitting below .200 by June. The Cubs' big Japanese experiment will turn out to be a bust, and the team will STILL need a big bat in right field. Oh, and Rich Hill and Dempster will continue their unreliability, dooming the Carnivores to 100 years of non-pennant winning futility. Ahh, yes. Some things never change.

Am I the only one excited that Cubs baseball starts in 4 days? How about we keep the negative comments until say....mid April, then we'll all be experts on the 08 team and can trash talk the Cubbies all the way to post-season. Sounds like fun! Woooo! Get a life people!!

Take it easy or go over to the Sox forum... geesh, guys. relax.

Now Wait a Minute wrote:

Take it easy or go over to the Sox forum... geesh, guys. relax.

It's funny that you mention that. I'm a Sox fan and get disgusted with the negativity that pervades most comment boards on Sox articles. I checked this one out today expecting to read excited fans enjoying the start of a new season, only to find all of you crapping your pants in anxiety. Too funny.

Oh, BTW, Cubs suck. Just had to get that in there.

HEY MILES:
Some **** is writing posts on here and signing your name...You don't like negativity? Then how can you stand the Sux? From media hog Guillen to Hawk, that whole enterprise is a failure. And low-class to boot

I can't beleive anyone would diss Ward. He only is one of the best pitch hitters in the modern era and is widely regarded as such.

As far as the rest of the bench, Blanco is an obvious must have. He's there for a Soto back-up and will be lucky to get 25 PH at-bats. As far as Ronnie and Little lord Fontenot, these kids work hard and by most accounts are good little scrappy players and give the team a lot of depth is someone needs a day off. We'll see about this new guy from Toronto, his numbers are encouraging (don't say he sucked last year, the guy had back surgery ffs)

I haven't been too wild about the Cubs overspending at the expense of their younger players. They payed way too much for one starter they didn't even use in the playoffs and who had to fight to be the fifth starter.

They paid too much for a right fielder from Japan who basically will do little more than Mat Murton can do for them now.

They paid way too much for a leadoff hitter and centerfield who ended up playing in left and spent a season misjudging flyballs and avoiding the wall when he wasn't on the disabled list.

Send Matt Murton to the minors? They have a good core of young players they can win with. They are hungry and want to play. Not fat with big contracts and secure.

I can remember when the Cubs started a second baseman at third and he started the season 0-26. He's now in the Hall of Fame.

The modern Cubs would have shuttled him back and forth to the minors until they ruined him. Just like they are ruining Murton and Pie. And they have ruined Cedeno.

It will be another heartbreak season.

[QUOTE who="Tired of **** "]<quoted text>
Before you impress us with your incredible baseball acumen, get a clue. The Cubs were Division champs, not wild card winners. Yes, the Cubs will be improved. Yes, tickets are tough to come by. Why? Because there are too many people who fashion themselves Cubs fans that simply don't have a clue. There are times I wish that Wrigley Field was torn down to at least get rid of some of the baseball tourists who call themselves Cubs fans.[/QUOTE]

AMEN!!!

The bench is probably a little above average compared to other teams...they are not stars, that is why they are on the bench. Sheesh.

again my comments being about the cubs not being that good have been censored by this corporate newsletter. i mean if you are inviting people to post their opinions why are you going to censor them?

If there are any "Baseball Tourists" on this comment board, would you mind passing me the suntan oil, please?

Ward is the only threat for the long ball off the bench, and "Chicks" love the long ball.

Question is here, why so many relief pitchers in the beginning of the season?

Cubs have a great number of quality relief right handers, and the only legiate Lefty, Erye, is on the DL. Marshall will do for now. Like to see a stonger establish #3 starter. Cubs have about four or five #4 starters on this team.

Cubs will have 90 wins this season.

Anyone want to talk about this trade scenerio -----

Cubs trade Murton, Lahey, Cedeno, Gallagher, Veal and Marquis to the Marlins for Scott Olsen, Dan Uggla and Josh Willingham.

Sully's article was about Fontenot, primarily, and I am pleased he made the team. He reminds me a lot of Augie Ojeda back in the Baylor days -- he always gave one hundred per cent effort at everything. I've noticed Augie still does that for the DB's.

I also like the comfort level which exists between Fontenot and Theriot. They've played together so long their moves and expectations of each other are practically intuitive. That cannot possibly be a bad thing. No team is perfect, but I think Lou made an excellent decison on keeping Fontenot.