Another Hendry Bomb-Keeping Baker has been his biggest yet

[WrigleyinEngland]

We can argue and disagree on his off-season moves and his inability to replace D-lee as well as the aquisition of neifi 2 but the decision to let dustbag see through this year has been his worst one yet. Check out todays trib about the gap growing in thier relationship. The only way Dusty should of been retained was on the proviso that he developed the young talent. I see no player that this staff has developed. Check out Dustys comments on hill 'he's just got to work it out no more talk' well thanks for that coach of the century. What these kids needed was a coaching team which understands the process of developing talent and coaching youth. These 2 factores should've come way before a winning coach in Jim's 'evaluating' period at the all star break.

 

We now find ourselves in the midst of a train wreck. We have an 'old school' manager who is bleeting on about judging him on the last god knows how long, coupled with a coaching staff who really couldn't give a crap because they aren't going to be around next year regardless. While dusty is spouting rubbish “We owe it to ourselves, we owe it to our fans to put the best team we can on the field to try and win because people want to see us win,”- we are not seeing what talent is actually available for next year. For some of these kids the best thing might be AAA for a year to get anything learnt in chicago out there heads.

[TheDude]

There is no difference on the field between keeping Baker for the remainder of the year and letting him go now. The only difference is in the fans' minds and in perceived PR.

[UMFan83]

No difference? How about having someone out there that know who Ryan Theriot is and where he comes from?

 

Dusty knows hes gone and hes bitter and frankly annoying when talking to the media. He has no reason to help the Cubs in their future, his only concern is campaigning for a new job. Why keep a lame duck manager in there when you can give someone else a chance to help out the organization.

[Electron Blue]

There is no difference on the field between keeping Baker for the remainder of the year and letting him go now. The only difference is in the fans' minds and in perceived PR.

 

Baker sets the lineups. We're 19 games below .500 and we're not still not playing rookies as much as a team in this situation should. Big deal or not, there definitely seems to be a difference.

[CubColtPacer]

There is no difference on the field between keeping Baker for the remainder of the year and letting him go now. The only difference is in the fans' minds and in perceived PR.

 

Baker sets the lineups. We're 19 games below .500 and we're not still not playing rookies as much as a team in this situation should. Big deal or not, there definitely seems to be a difference.

 

What rookies are we not playing? I see 4 rookies basically on the squad today. 2 of them play in left field everyday, and Cedeno plays 4 out of every 5 games at second. So, the only problem is that Neifi gets some of the starts at second that Cedeno doesn't get, which is a problem, but not a huge one. I think that there have been reasons for getting a new manager in now-but right now I think they are doing a pretty good job of playing young players. I mean, for example, we haven't seen Nevin in left field lately-that's a Dusty move that has been stopped.

[Slugger_16]

Dusty knows hes gone and hes bitter and frankly annoying when talking to the media. He has no reason to help the Cubs in their future, his only concern is campaigning for a new job. Why keep a lame duck manager in there when you can give someone else a chance to help out the organization.

 

I wish I were as optimistic of that being true as you are...

[C.C.]

There is no difference on the field between keeping Baker for the remainder of the year and letting him go now. The only difference is in the fans' minds and in perceived PR.

 

Baker sets the lineups. We're 19 games below .500 and we're not still not playing rookies as much as a team in this situation should. Big deal or not, there definitely seems to be a difference.

 

What rookies are we not playing? I see 4 rookies basically on the squad today. 2 of them play in left field everyday, and Cedeno plays 4 out of every 5 games at second. So, the only problem is that Neifi gets some of the starts at second that Cedeno doesn't get, which is a problem, but not a huge one. I think that there have been reasons for getting a new manager in now-but right now I think they are doing a pretty good job of playing young players. I mean, for example, we haven't seen Nevin in left field lately-that's a Dusty move that has been stopped.

 

I agree with you. We have 4 rookies in our rotation. We have either Pagan and Murton in left...The only rookie\kid not seeing time on a consistent basis is Theriot. We are bascially the Marlins, without the rookie talent.

[YearofDaCubs]

There should be absolutely no reason for Neifi, Nevin, and Rusch to still be on this team. None. Bottome line, both Baker and Hendry are clowns and both have to go to make the situation better.

[C.C.]

There should be absolutely no reason for Neifi, Nevin, and Rusch to still be on this team. None. Bottome line, both Baker and Hendry are clowns and both have to go to make the situation better.

 

Unless Derek Lee gets off the DL you have to keep Nevin and Marby to play 1st. Neifi and Rusch have another year left on their contract, so unless somebody wants them, they aren't going to get released. I'm sure in the offseason Hendry will try to peddle them, but again who's going to want either of them...

[CubColtPacer]

There should be absolutely no reason for Neifi, Nevin, and Rusch to still be on this team. None. Bottome line, both Baker and Hendry are clowns and both have to go to make the situation better.

 

Neifi could still contribute on a team for 2007 with a different manager. He's never going to contribute to a team for 2.5 million dollars-that's for sure, but if you release him you have to pay his salary anyway. So, that's a mistake that's in the past-so we might as well keep him and use him in the role that he was intended.

Nevin is just playing out the year-we don't have anybody they want to replace him with, so just like Mabry he is playing out the season and then they will say goodbye to him.

Rusch-same situation with the money situation-I just hope that if he continues to pitch as horribly as he did this year that they option him to the minors at the start of next year-if he can regain even last year's form he'll be ok as a reliever-not worth his money, again, but that's a sunk cost. We might as well see if he can regain some of his form over the offseason (don't let him pitch again this season), and if he is still pitching horrendously in spring training, then would be the time to either option him out or release him.

[YearofDaCubs]

What is the point of having Neifi when we have Cedeno, Izturis and Theriot? I disagree about Neifi and Rusch staying here becuase of their contracts. They are not worth it. Sometimes it's best to cut your losses and move on. Nevin should have been traded for a prospect. Mabry and somebody from the minors could have been brought up. We're not going anywhere this year so why not bring somebody from the minors to play?

[goonys evil twin]

There should be absolutely no reason for Neifi, Nevin, and Rusch to still be on this team. None. Bottome line, both Baker and Hendry are clowns and both have to go to make the situation better.

 

Neifi could still contribute on a team for 2007 with a different manager. He's never going to contribute to a team for 2.5 million dollars-that's for sure, but if you release him you have to pay his salary anyway. So, that's a mistake that's in the past-so we might as well keep him and use him in the role that he was intended.

 

Neifi is playing hte role that he was intended, maybe not intended by God, but by Hendry and Baker. He was supposed to play a lot from the very beginning. That was the plan. You don't pay a guy that much money for a guarantee of 2 years if you don't plan on using him a lot.

[CubColtPacer]

There should be absolutely no reason for Neifi, Nevin, and Rusch to still be on this team. None. Bottome line, both Baker and Hendry are clowns and both have to go to make the situation better.

 

Neifi could still contribute on a team for 2007 with a different manager. He's never going to contribute to a team for 2.5 million dollars-that's for sure, but if you release him you have to pay his salary anyway. So, that's a mistake that's in the past-so we might as well keep him and use him in the role that he was intended.

 

Neifi is playing hte role that he was intended, maybe not intended by God, but by Hendry and Baker. He was supposed to play a lot from the very beginning. That was the plan. You don't pay a guy that much money for a guarantee of 2 years if you don't plan on using him a lot.

 

Oh, I agree. He was intended for the wrong role for this team. I meant the role that he is supposed to be playing for a player with his skills-a player who should be paid less than a million, not 2.5 million dollars.

[cubfan1955]

Unless Derek Lee gets off the DL you have to keep Nevin and Marby to play 1st. Neifi and Rusch have another year left on their contract, so unless somebody wants them, they aren't going to get released. I'm sure in the offseason Hendry will try to peddle them, but again who's going to want either of them...

Why? Do we not have a minor league first baseman in the whole system?

[neely crenshaw]

here's the thing...we are awful not just bad.

jones is here for 2 more years- period. why not just sit him down and play pie.

we know what jones brings...let's see if pie has anything.

decide if you want to resign pierre, which since we didn't deal him for anything, we must want him. if we want him we need to play him or he walks. the only bad thing is we lose our prospects for a year of work.

play a combo of izturis,cedeno and theriot. neifi is signed for another season..no on wanted him last year for 2.5 mil. so no one will want him this year for 2.5mil. he is our utility guy for next year. we know what he has, so let him sit on the bench the rest of this season...if he gets pissed were is he going to go? it does not make sense to keep all 3 if they prove ready. if we want to deal one(which we should) to get the most value we can not tip our hand. not play one of them.

play murton and pagan as much as possible...put one at first if necessary. the defense can not be much worse. i like nevin and we pay him 0 but we should see youngsters. dlee is the futurs at first so, i would just as soon see outfielders play there knowing come spring training there is no spot there for anyone.

we are piching our kids simply because we must but i certainly would give hendry a little more leeway if he went young. right now this mess because of him.

every problem we have is due to a poor move by him. the more i see his team on the field, the less i forgive him. to me his best bet is to go young and maybe we forget that he brought on a outfield of pierre,murton and jones, and an infield of izturis,cedeno and nevin with neifi as a back up.

he is also the guy who told us we didn't need any starting pitching, we were fine.....good call jim