CubinNY

Is that right? Outstanding. As soon as he's "healthy" and pitching well, trade him before the duct tape and bailing wire break. Or the Cubs could decide if they want him as a RP or a SP and not jerk him around. The Cubs do plenty of things wrong, but you are really stretching to blame them for Guzman's fragility. I'm not blaiming them at all. But let me run this by you and see what you think. A GM of a team has a talented but frequently injured young pitcher. He has been injury free for a while. The GM decides break camp with him as a reliever for the MLB club, then after approximately three weeks of inconsistent and infrequent use he decides he wants him to start so he send him back down to AAA to "stretch" his arm. He gets three starts in AAA then he gets sent back to the MLB club. Then from May 6 to May 17 he gets 3 starts in the majors. He doesn't do bad but cannot get out of the 5th inning. Then the GM and manager decide they want him in the bullpen where he is used approximately every two days until he comes up with an injury about a month later. Would you say this is a good plan for a "fragile" young pitcher?

Is that right? Outstanding. As soon as he's "healthy" and pitching well, trade him before the duct tape and bailing wire break. Or the Cubs could decide if they want him as a RP or a SP and not jerk him around.

Rich has Kerry Wood disease. The Cubs don't score any runs when he pitches.

Give it up to God, becuase without him they'd be screwed.

C - Soto deserves a legitimate shot. SS - Theriot's line of .290/.352/.376/.728 would be seventh out of twelve SS in the NL which is fine if you have other hitters in the order. CF - Pie, like Soto, deserves a legitimate shot. LF/RF - Ditto for Murton. There's no reason to believe he can't repeat his .809 OPS from 06 if given consistent playing time. 2B - DeRosa. Obviously, if these guys underperform then the Cubs will be in need of another bat. But if Murton and Soto can produce the lineup will be fine. EDIT: Just playing a devil's advocate here. Yes, guys deserve shots. But the fact is, they need something close to guaranteed production in at least one of those spots. Ideally they would have played Murton all year and would know a heck of a lot more about what he might bring next year. I agree. CubinNY made it sound like the Cubs had complete scrubs at those positions who had no business starting. It would be good to see an upgrade at one of those, though. I don't know where you get the idea that I think the Cubs have scrubs at every position I mentioned, but to each his own. 7th out of 12 is not good production no matter what position we are talking about, but we are talking about SS. Nobody knows what the Cubs will get out of Soto. I am one of Murton's biggest supporters and was lambasted for suggesting he wouldn't get playing time during the preseason. Nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing that the Cubs have done with Murton to date suggest that they plan on giving him regular playing time. Nothing. DeRosa is fine I suppose. I guess it's all good if one is planning on creating a medicore team and spending a lot of money to do so.

It looks like Pawelek should be about done too.

I wonder how they are going to get around the collective bargining agreement? I'm pretty sure they are not supposed to play for more than 21 days in a row without a break. Anyway, this is good news for the Brewers.

wouldn't be enough. You could make it work. Colvin, Pie, Murton, Gallagher, Veal, Marshall, Hill, Wuertz, Marmol, Patterson are all names that could be intriguing to a team in need of cheap talent. Some lower level guys, like Burke, may have made enough of a name for themselves this year to also add value to a trade. Cabrera is going to make over $10 million next year. He should be signed to a longterm contract, and I can't see Florida wanting to do either thing. Yes, other teams have more to offer than the Cubs. But, that doesn't mean those others teams will be willing. People don't generally trade their top prospects, especially when they are elite. I'll be willing to bet that Cabrerra and Willis will be traded this offseason. Florida is averaging 17k fans/game. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/attendance As a side note, I see Boston is averaging 101 % (36k/game). The Cubs are second @ 97. 101% that is amazing.

So, yes. That's one person that used the term "dynasty" towards the Cubs. He was immediately reprimanded. The second quote above -- while perhaps still too sunny -- disagreed with the term "dynasty." You picked out one overly optimistic fan and then portrayed the entire thread as being so. This team should be in contention in the NL Central for the next couple/few seasons -- and even the resident Brewer fan, the one team that could distance itself, agreed. I agree too but, being in contention in the division and being in World Series contention are two completely different things. To me the general tone of the thread is overly optimistic. The Cubs are a medicore team and I see nothing on the horizon that suggests otherwise.

So, yes.

This thread is completely out of control. Completely. The Cubs are coming off of back to back losing seasons and are mediocre this year. They very well could finish below .500. That's the makings of a dynasty? Lee, Aramis, and Soriano are good players and are capeable of putting up all-star calibur numbers. But all are on the wrong side of 30. They need a catcher, SS, CF, LF/RF, and probably a 2nd baseman. Not all of them have to be all-stars. But at least they should be able to get on base at a decent clip. They have Zambrano as a starting pitcher. I like Hill a lot and think he is a very good pitcher, but that is about it. Bullpens are a crapshoot. Now, their minor leagues look to be improved but they aren't Tampa or Arizona. Depending on who the next owner turns out to be, the Cubs certianly should be in contention in this division with the likes of Pittsburgh, Cincinatti, and Houston. But I don't see them as a perenial World Series contender unless some of the minor league talent really steps up and/or they fall into a few Aramis/Lee type trade scenarios.

Everything in life is relative. Rich Hill is incosistent compared to who? Speaking of HRs Lilly has been giving them up a pretty good clip.

I have a theory that I haven't fully explored yet. It goes like this. Hypothesis: Efficent teams are going to win more often then they lose. Efficiency = runs/hit - errors (from the other teams during games played against said team)/games played I have no idea if my hypothisis is correct.

I think its division champion or bust for the Cubs.

While this is true, he not only got Nomar for virtually nothing but he got the Red Sox to give the Cubs Matt Murton as well. But its easier to ignore the facts that disfavor your argument (see the comment about the Lee aquisition above), like the fact that we have had better young pitching under the Hendry regime than perhaps at any other time in franchise history. The pure hate towards Hendry is strange to me. He has done a poor job during at least half of his tenure (if you measure season by season), but he has also done some good things. There also seems to be some discounting or ignorance of MacPhail and Baker's roles in all of this. I don't understand why it is so hard for some of you to acknowledge the things Hendry has done well. It's like the guy owes some of you money. I don't understand why you want to put blame on Baker and MacPhail. Hendry hired Baker and may have been willing to give him an extension before the team tottaly bit the big one. I don't hate Hendry. I have no feelings toward him personally. I do hate what has happend since 2003. The Cubs seemed to be on the brink of something special.

No he didn't. If Lee was traded to Baltimore then Florida wouldn't have been able to trade him to the Cubs. Lee was traded to Baltimore, the deal was done but Lee and and the club couldn't come to an agreement on a contract extension. http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/news/031125lee.html

Honest questions: Is the top GM rated by his team's record? How do you personally calculate GM worth? I don't think there's any one way to do it. But 5 years of near the top payroll producing a record as mediocre as 383-385 is more than enough evidence to indict, try and convict Jim Hendry for being a bad GM. Cubswin, Read this post- it's on the first page of this thread-then apologize to Tim etal for being so obtuse. You're arguing to disprove a point that no one is trying to make. Back to the actual topic: If the Cubs make the playoffs this year that will be twice in 5 years. Does that change anybody's perception of Hendry as a GM? I hate to stick my head in the lion's mouth, but I agree w/ Cubswin to a point. In fact, if I had more time yesterday, I was going to post Dombrowski's record, b/c I had just been discussing it w/ a buddy this week. Goony's post says "5 years, top payroll, 383-385 record = indict, try, convict JH as a bad GM." Dombrowski: 5+ years, roughly equal payroll, 403-528 record. I don't like the repetition of "simple & ridiculous" for this method of evaluating GMs, but I think Cubswin did a good job of pointing out the obvious flaw. No reasonable person would consider Dombrowski a worse GM than Hendry, but he's got a far worse record with roughly the same payroll. Hendry inherited a good/average team and didn't improve it much. Dombrowski inherited a large pile of manure and turned it into a contender in 4 years. Nevertheless, he has a much worse record w/ the Tigers. [the flaw in Cubswin counter is that the Tigers payroll is only similar this year, before 2006, the Cubs payroll was $20-30m more a year than the Tigers] So no, his record over 5 years with payroll considered isn't enough to convict him of anything. That said if you look at the rest of the circumstances too, it's more than enough to convict. Again, consider the point I made when I first posted in this thread. Money is not the only resource a GM has at his disposal. When Hendry took over the Cubs, they had the #1 rated farm system in baseball. When Dombrowski took over the Tigers, they had a farm system in the bottom five in the majors. The talent level at the major league level was also very different. The Cubs had some quality young talent in the bigs and Detroit as a barren wasteland. The example comparing the two on W/L and payroll ignores these other resources that have to be considered when evaluating the performances of the two GM's. I'd also like to add his odd (to put it politely) handling of the 40 man roster. Hendry has not been good on the balance of things. When he's traded well, he's been the recipeient of largess from another GM. -Lee got traded to Baltimore first -Aramis was a disgruntled, hurt, player and Lofton was making a lot of money -Nomar was persona no grata in Boston He's set the market for medicore middle relievers at least twice during his tenure and his, "I decided I like guys who can catch the ball" bears no more elaboration. He's gone and done exactly what he's wanted to in two seasons, make the Cubs competitive within the division. And he's outspent everybody to do it. Those are pedestrian goals by anybody's standard. He's been a bad GM on balance and I hope this is his last season running the Cubs.

GO BRONCOS! Big Upset

"in my day kids didn't hit home runs off pitchers more than twice their age" In his self-absorbed mind he probably thinks it is a sign of respect. What Clemens doesn't know is that that kind of junk only works in the NL thanks to the stupid DH. AL baseball is glorified softball.

Wow! Now that is something to get excited about. 8 ks in one game. That probably represents about 1/4 of his total strikeouts for his entire professional career.

I take back every bad thing I've ever said about JJ. Ilove him. I would have his baby if I were female!

There is still a lot of baseball to be played. I wouldn't pat myself on the back just yet.

Wow. I was wrong. I wonder what took so long? I wonder if this has anything to do with the uncertainty of the sale. Maybe Hendry got the go ahead from MLB b/c the sale is up in the air. Anyway, good news.

I don't think he'll resign with the Cubs. I do think he'll wait and see if the Cubs match the best offer he gets I just doen't think the Cubs will.

If the Brewers end up losing this race Ned Yost has to be fired. I know he can't pitch or hit, but he's presided over a collosal collapse, if it happens. If the Cards win the division and TLR gets manager of the year I will puke.