Corey Patterson

[Larry Horse]

This may get kind of long so forgive me. I'll start with the subject at had Corey Patterson. If he was handled properly he may at least be a productive player. Ever calling him a future star was a serious miscalculation by anyone who made such claims. When a player has no plate discipline in the minor leagues HE WILL NOT FIND IT IN THE MAJOR LEAGUES. That being said if he was made a 7th or 8th hitter where plate discipline isnt as important, he would probably be a ok hitter now. Trying to make him something he is not is only going to have negitive effects. So hitting him lead-off or in the middle of the order and then trying to change what he is only make matters worse. Basically like several other players, Dusty has missused him to the point he is worthless.

 

About bringing players up through your own system. It has to be the most successful way to build a team. Now I am not saying dont make trades or pick up free agents. I am just saying that ALL of the world champions of the last 10 years(except the 97 marlins) have had a core group of players that were developed in their own system. Last years Red Sox are almost another exception but they do have several key players who they did develop.

 

The Cubs have only developed 2 position players who started more than 3 years for the Cubs in my lifetime. Dunston and Grace. Almost Patterson. They have traded away 3 Hall of Famers who are position players in my lifetime (Brock, Carter, Palmero).

 

Also the Cardinals have two position players in their starting lineup from their system (Molina) Also how many players have they, the Braves, the Astros brought up and used in the last 20 years. These 3 teams are probably the 3 best teams in the NL over the last 20 years and are not afraid to use their minor league systems. For as long as I have been alive the Cubs seem to try to figure out what young players cant do instead of sending them out to play in a role they can be successful at. This isnt just Dusty either this has been happening since I can remember. Heck Tony LaRussa played Molina when he was hitting below >100 in April. He just said go out and play good defense and I will bat you 8th. Whats he hitting now 270.

 

To sum up I have always thought this is why the Cubs are a Losing organization. Playing guys like Hollandsworth and Perez and barely being a 500 team is sad. I would rather be 5 games below with Cedeno, Murton or Dubois(yes i know he is gone, just referring to earlier in the season or last year) then go 500 with Proven Veterans. The young players have room to grow, we pretty much already know what we are getting from the veterans. 500 baseball

 

You said that much better than I did.

[anemic offense]

post by newusername

 

You bring up some good points in your post, most notably the Cubs lack of success in produving home grown players. Although Z and Prior are studs who came directly from our system, you can't reasonably expect to be consistently successful without producing SOME positional players from your own organiztion. Even the Yankees, despite their spending spree attitude, have 2 all star players produced from within. Without the productive mid 90s prospect groups they never would have had the success they did in the latter half of the decade. We definately need to improve in that department.

 

But as bad as our system (over the last 10 years) may seem on the surface, the Cubs have netted some outstanding players directly as a result of it. Few teams can rival the likes of a Lee, Ramirez, Nomar (when healthy, if ever) Z, Prior, all all-star caliber players, obtained in trades or from directly within the minor league system. With these players a core is in place to be a championship caliber team. So why isn't it happening? What's the real problem?

 

The true culprit of this team's problems is its FA acquisitions. Over the last 3-4 years we've had very few FAs who've been remotely productive (striclty numbers wise or production vs. salary wise). The rest have been utter disasters. A quick rundown of reasonably successful FAs gets you Moises, Dempster (decent), Rusch, Burny, and Walker. On the other side, the disaster signings have given us Maddux (9 mil for mediocrity), Remy, Hawkins, Bartosh, Fox, Mercker,Alf (came via trade but was resigned), Blanco, Agonz, Macias, Lenny Harris, Estes (I may have forgotten some). No team can expect to have 60-70% of its FA signings be moribund and be successful. Conversely, our most hated rival, the Cardinals, have had so much success in this department it makes me nautious. They've gotten outstanding/career years from Edmonds, Tavarez, Izzy, King, Taguchi, Womack, Carp, Grudz, Sanders, etc. On the flip side, they've gotten poor performances from....um....nobody? Honestly the only bad poorly performing FA I can think of is Eldred, but there isn't too many long relief pitchers who are worth a whole lot better. Take a look at some other successful teams, and you'll see a similar trend. You just can't have such a large percentage of FAs flame out and be successful. And until Hendry can do a lot better job in this department, we'll be mired in mediocrity. One more year of this crap and he needs to be fired.

[NewUserName]

Do you think that players preform better under Larussa because of proper useage than under Baker. A couple of quick examples are would Larussa kept Hawkins as a closer after last years failures. Would Larussa kept starting Hollandsworth. These are 2 players that had value except they were/are used in roles they have never and will never be good at. There are other ones also Perez(not an everyday player or bat at the top of the lineup) Weurtz(should never pitch 3 straight days) Remlinger(not a loogy) Macias(not a pinchhitter) Corey(not a lead-off man) Rusch(should be a starter, though in lie of Hill and Williams pitching well should be traded or even better Maddux should be traded) Dubois(Not much value on the bench) Murton(same as Dubois).

 

One other thing about playing young players that I didnt mention in my last post is the enthusiasm they bring to the game. I think it should be the teams goal to start one rookie position player everyyear. I know this is not always feasable but you would only have one rookie everyyear learning while the others helped them and helped win games. Their enthusiasm might rub off on the veterans while the veterans are helping them learn the game.