great excuse for baker not playing the 9/1 callups

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Abuck, dude--Dusty is SOOO getting fired. Don't worry. It may not happen until the offseason, but this nitwit is gone. And I will get SOOO drunk that day, as if I needed an excuse with this team this year.

 

No more Mulletsworth!!! (small victories)

 

I'm not as optimistic as you. I don't think Dusty gets fired this offseason. :(

 

Did I just say I wasn't as optimistic as dkwg!?!? :shock:

[CubfaninCA]

Interesting stats.... Choi ranks 12th amongst 1b's in ops. Neifi ranks 13th amongst SS's in ops. Of course Choi, only has 24 AB's against lefties. And for those who want to throw out Neifi's April, Choi's pretty dang streaky himself. Hence why he got benched in 03. I could have probably struck him out w/ my 75 mph fastball in August. :o

 

Hmm interesting that anytime a good pitcher has come up recently, Choi has sat. He sat against Burnett, Oswalt and Clemens recently. But keep throwing that .817 ops @ us. He's awesome like Neifi. :D

[CubfaninCA]

It's tough to get your timing coming back from an injury when you start 10 times over the course of 32 days and never start back to back games. Of course, if the tables were turned and Karros had been the man returning from injuries, I'm sure he would have been given the opportunity to get plenty of starts and get his groove back; dude.

 

Choi tanked before the injury.

 

I think the vast majority of players in the game go through a stretch where they hit .200/minimal run production over 50 ab during the course of a 600 ab, 162 game season.

 

Indeed.

 

By they way... has Choi extracated himself from that tank yet ??

 

.809 OPS this year, still far better than Eric Karros against RH.

 

Gmab w/the .809 ops. He's still not an everyday player. He rarely plays against lefties and Tracy sits him against certain righties. Play him everyday and he's probably in the mid-700's, if that.

[Careless]

gmab?

[CaliforniaRaisin]

gmab?

 

Give me a break.

[Careless]

gmab?

Give me a break.

Wow, I really thought I had heard them all

 

Only possible conclusion: I'm getting so old

[MembersOnlyJacket]

 

Murton will rejoin the club from Triple-A Iowa on Tuesday, but Baker would not say how much playing time he'd get in left field.

 

"Depends on how [much time] I can get Corey [Patterson] and [Jerry] Hairston—he's playing pretty good," Baker said. "You've still got to win games too.

 

he continues to use this 'gotta win games' line as if playing the youngsters guarantees a loss and playing the veterans guarantees a win. here's the thing...you've been playing the vets all year, and you're fighting w/ cincinnati for fifth place. you haven't won all year with these scrubs, why do you think it's gonna happen now?

 

and doesn't this contradict his statements about how september call ups will perform better than normal because no one has a book on them? so if that's the case, and you want to win games...shouldn't they play?

 

Baker sparred with the media before Monday's game and clearly is tired of discussing the issue of whether to evaluate young talent in September.

 

This has been festering ever since the club tanked on the East Coast. Dusty has no idea how to handle this situation. He's never been in it and the situation exploits his weaknesses, which makes him look like a fool. The best thing the media can do is continue to be all over him if he continues to play his remaining veterans.

 

Murton returns today with the exit of Hollandsworth. If he doesn't play on a regular basis, I think the mainstream media will really have it out for Baker. They were tough enough on the organization when Murton was sent back; so I expect them to be all over this situation.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

It's tough to get your timing coming back from an injury when you start 10 times over the course of 32 days and never start back to back games. Of course, if the tables were turned and Karros had been the man returning from injuries, I'm sure he would have been given the opportunity to get plenty of starts and get his groove back; dude.

 

Choi tanked before the injury.

 

I think the vast majority of players in the game go through a stretch where they hit .200/minimal run production over 50 ab during the course of a 600 ab, 162 game season.

 

Indeed.

 

By they way... has Choi extracated himself from that tank yet ??

 

.809 OPS this year, still far better than Eric Karros against RH.

 

Gmab w/the .809 ops. He's still not an everyday player. He rarely plays against lefties and Tracy sits him against certain righties. Play him everyday and he's probably in the mid-700's, if that.

 

HE'S STILL BETTER THAN THE ALTERNATIVE THAT DUSTY PUT OUT THERE. Jeez, people are so quick to point out his lack of success on the whole that they forget that the "crappy" Choi WAS OUR BEST OPTION AGAINST RHP.

[XZero771679666304]

It's tough to get your timing coming back from an injury when you start 10 times over the course of 32 days and never start back to back games. Of course, if the tables were turned and Karros had been the man returning from injuries, I'm sure he would have been given the opportunity to get plenty of starts and get his groove back; dude.

 

Choi tanked before the injury.

 

I think the vast majority of players in the game go through a stretch where they hit .200/minimal run production over 50 ab during the course of a 600 ab, 162 game season.

 

Indeed.

 

By they way... has Choi extracated himself from that tank yet ??

 

.809 OPS this year, still far better than Eric Karros against RH.

 

Gmab w/the .809 ops. He's still not an everyday player. He rarely plays against lefties and Tracy sits him against certain righties. Play him everyday and he's probably in the mid-700's, if that.

 

HE'S STILL BETTER THAN THE ALTERNATIVE THAT DUSTY PUT OUT THERE. Jeez, people are so quick to point out his lack of success on the whole that they forget that the "crappy" Choi WAS OUR BEST OPTION AGAINST RHP.

 

Much like Neifi, Karros had a hot streak that bought him 2 months of bad play because of Dusty's wacked sense of loyalty. I liked Choi, but he was not great, but neither was Karros.

[abuck1220]

"You don't know how to project young players because you don't know when they're going to get it together for an extended period of time," Baker said. "One of the problems with youth is consistency. You don't know sometimes what you're going to get."

 

yeah, because hollandsworth, neifi, macias and rusch have been sooooo consistent this year.

[CubfaninCA]

It's tough to get your timing coming back from an injury when you start 10 times over the course of 32 days and never start back to back games. Of course, if the tables were turned and Karros had been the man returning from injuries, I'm sure he would have been given the opportunity to get plenty of starts and get his groove back; dude.

 

Choi tanked before the injury.

 

I think the vast majority of players in the game go through a stretch where they hit .200/minimal run production over 50 ab during the course of a 600 ab, 162 game season.

 

Indeed.

 

By they way... has Choi extracated himself from that tank yet ??

 

.809 OPS this year, still far better than Eric Karros against RH.

 

Gmab w/the .809 ops. He's still not an everyday player. He rarely plays against lefties and Tracy sits him against certain righties. Play him everyday and he's probably in the mid-700's, if that.

 

HE'S STILL BETTER THAN THE ALTERNATIVE THAT DUSTY PUT OUT THERE. Jeez, people are so quick to point out his lack of success on the whole that they forget that the "crappy" Choi WAS OUR BEST OPTION AGAINST RHP.

 

Better than Randall Simon?

[AAApittsburgh]

Better than Randall Simon?

Simon vs. Righties in 03: .277/.310/.441/.752

Choi vs. Righties in 03: .232/.349/.449/.797

[muntjack]

"We don't have a whole bunch of kids," Baker said. "Really, we have two kids as [position] players. Most of our kids are pitchers.

 

"We're going to play them. They're going to get … I can't say the majority of playing time … [but] they're going to play."

 

 

Murton should start everyday with Patterson, Hairston and Burnitz rotating.

 

Cedeno should start everyday. Period.

 

This is becoming comical.

[MustangMike]

"We don't have a whole bunch of kids," Baker said. "Really, we have two kids as [position] players. Most of our kids are pitchers.

 

"We're going to play them. They're going to get … I can't say the majority of playing time … [but] they're going to play."

 

 

Murton should start everyday with Patterson, Hairston and Burnitz rotating.

 

Cedeno should start everyday. Period.

 

This is becoming comical.

 

Although my hate for neifi has deminished this year for some reason, I see no reason in any form at this point in time for Cendeno not to play. I mean what is the point of seeing Neifi...I don't get it. Murton should play too based on the same rationale really, especially since Lawton is gone.

[dalgreen]

And here I make fun of St. Louis sports fans for their inability to let go of their former players like Ozzie Smith, Kurt Warner, Brendan Shannahan and Brett Hull. Why is the comparison of Simon and Choi still being made?

[YearofDaCubs]

It looks like Cedeno did pretty good yesterday.

[TuffyRhodes]

It looks like Cedeno did pretty good yesterday.

 

All the credit has to go to Dusty for putting him in a position to suceed!

[abuck1220]

Neither rookie Matt Murton nor Ronny Cedeno started Wednesday, one day after each had a hit, stolen base and sacrifice. "We're trying to win and observe at the same time," Baker said.

 

baker seems to be the last person to realize that this current group of stiffs isn't winning, hasn't won and will continue to not win.

 

since when does playing your worst players = trying to win?

[YearofDaCubs]

Neither rookie Matt Murton nor Ronny Cedeno started Wednesday, one day after each had a hit, stolen base and sacrifice. "We're trying to win and observe at the same time," Baker said.

 

baker seems to be the last person to realize that this current group of stiffs isn't winning, hasn't won and will continue to not win.

 

since when does playing your worst players = trying to win?

At this point we all know what Dusty is.

[badger1679666666]

Neither rookie Matt Murton nor Ronny Cedeno started Wednesday, one day after each had a hit, stolen base and sacrifice. "We're trying to win and observe at the same time," Baker said.

 

baker seems to be the last person to realize that this current group of stiffs isn't winning, hasn't won and will continue to not win.

 

since when does playing your worst players = trying to win?

At this point we all know what Dusty is.

 

I wish it was "fired" but I don't think I'm correct.

[TenzilKem]

Neither rookie Matt Murton nor Ronny Cedeno started Wednesday, one day after each had a hit, stolen base and sacrifice. "We're trying to win and observe at the same time," Baker said.

 

baker seems to be the last person to realize that this current group of stiffs isn't winning, hasn't won and will continue to not win.

 

since when does playing your worst players = trying to win?

 

This is infuriating. When teams are out of contention in September, they play the kids so that they can better evaluate what role they can play on the next season's team. It provides the GM with better information for the offseason.

 

It's what every freaking team in baseball does.

 

Hairston and Perez were backups at the start of the season, and they've done little to demonstrate that that's not their ideal role on any competetive team. So basically we're only giving partial playing time to two of the organization's best prospects so that our veteran backups can continue to demonstrate why they should be backups.

[frostwyrm]

"We don't have a whole bunch of kids," Baker said. "Really, we have two kids as [position] players. Most of our kids are pitchers.

 

"We're going to play them. They're going to get … I can't say the majority of playing time … [but] they're going to play."

 

I honestly believe this statement by itself is grounds for firing a manager. It's an outright act of sabotage to keep playing the journeymen who put you in 5th place and leave the kids on the bench.

 

http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/cs-050830cubsgamer,1,2308930.story?coll=cs-cubs-headlines

[JC]

I wish ZZ was still around to give his valuable insight on all of the Dustybusting that is going on.

 

In addition, I think I'll drive an 8" nail into my forehead.

[YearofDaCubs]

"We don't have a whole bunch of kids," Baker said. "Really, we have two kids as [position] players. Most of our kids are pitchers.

 

"We're going to play them. They're going to get … I can't say the majority of playing time … [but] they're going to play."

 

I honestly believe this statement by itself is grounds for firing a manager. It's an outright act of sabotage to keep playing the journeymen who put you in 5th place and leave the kids on the bench.

 

http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/cs-050830cubsgamer,1,2308930.story?coll=cs-cubs-headlines

That's a great word to explain what Dusty Baker is. Sabotage.

[abuck1220]

Neither rookie Matt Murton nor Ronny Cedeno started Wednesday, one day after each had a hit, stolen base and sacrifice. "We're trying to win and observe at the same time," Baker said.

 

baker seems to be the last person to realize that this current group of stiffs isn't winning, hasn't won and will continue to not win.

 

since when does playing your worst players = trying to win?

 

This is infuriating. When teams are out of contention in September, they play the kids so that they can better evaluate what role they can play on the next season's team. It provides the GM with better information for the offseason.

 

 

baker's already covered himself on this one by saying that you can't really put much stock into what kids do in september because teams don't have a book on them. also, if he plays murton/cedeno consistently now and they set the world afire, he'll have to listen to a month of everyone saying 'why didn't you play those guys instead of hollandsworth, neifi and macias?'

 

if there's one thing that baker's good at, it's covering himself.