CubinNY

Zambrano and Barrett in 2 fights The Cubs lose for 5 straight nights Don't Worry Be Happy When the other team hits 3 doubles It may look like the start of troubles But, don't worry Be happy do, do, do, do, do, do, do, de, do don't worry be happy!

Jeff needs to do something different or this could be the worst 7+ million dollars spent in history of minor league baseball.

Off the top of my head Cap Anson Dave Kingman George Bell Frank Chance Glen Allen Hill Edit: Bill Buckner- He once stepped on Gary Carter's catcher mask on purpose after scoring just so he could pop Carter in his permed mug. All-Time for any team Ty Cobb Albert Bell

No, he doesn't. Not even close, really. Are we really arguing over a below average player and an even more below average player? You are very correct there. Not really. VORP/WARP in '06 Matt Murton: 16.2/4.5 Angel Pagan: -2.7/1.0 Murton sucks as an outfielder and can't drive in runs, what do miss about those facts? BTW, it is 2007 and Murton has done NOTHING. Your posts never disapoint in their utter mendacity. First, you tried to compare Murton to Pagan. Second, he's received sporadic playing time. It's hard to do ANYTHING when you are sitting on the bench.

This is a completely lame standard to hold Barrett to. Yes, professionalism went out with red leather jackets. Give me a break. I'm not even sure what point you are trying to make here. You don't like Michael Barrett, we get it. The fight was almost entirely Zambrano's fault. It's pretty obvious to everyone. Why does Barrett have to sit there and take a tongue lashing from one of the worst regular starting pitchers in baseball this year? Zambrano was a complete joke today. Imagine the nerve of him to tell another player to "keep their head in the game." What a delusional maniac. Good point. I consider myself a professional. I usually act such at work. But if a colleague walked into my classroom, called me a horrible teacher in front of my students, and insulted my intelligence while I was aware that he had deficiencies of his own, I'd probably point those out at that time. While it might not be the most professional way to handle the situation, I'm also likely not the one to be blamed either. Then you're not acting professional.

This is a completely lame standard to hold Barrett to. Yes, professionalism went out with red leather jackets. Give me a break. I'm not even sure what point you are trying to make here. You don't like Michael Barrett, we get it. The fight was almost entirely Zambrano's fault. It's pretty obvious to everyone. Why does Barrett have to sit there and take a tongue lashing from one of the worst regular starting pitchers in baseball this year? Zambrano was a complete joke today. Imagine the nerve of him to tell another player to "keep their head in the game." What a delusional maniac. My point is that it seems to me that many people are making Barrett the victim here. Zambrano is not the first Cub pitcher to have a problem with Barrett. Prior and Maddux both have had problems with him in the past. Z is/was stupid. Z should not have done what he did. Barrett on the other hand instigated the altercation by pointing to the freaking scoreboard after he made two stupid mistakes on one play. It's seems to me that both are in the wrong here.

This is a completely lame standard to hold Barrett to. Yes, professionalism went out with red leather jackets. Give me a break.

Wasn't there an incident with Murton earlier this year where Zambrano showed him up? I can't recall what exactly happened, but I do vaguely remember something taking place. I can remember one with Murton and one with Walker. I think there have been others as well. Zambrano, as much as I've liked him, is a punk. His bravado is fun and entertaining when he's going well, like his predicting the Cubs will win 110 games or his claiming he'll win the Cy. But when things go bad, he's an immature jackass. Barrett's an emotional player as well. We've seen this with Oswalt and AJ. The difference is Barrett is usually taking on the other team and not his own. That behavior may not be good, but it's world's better than pouting and blaming your own teammates. Zambrano was acting like a baby and Barrett called him on his prima donna attitude. Maybe if Zambrano started throwing the ball better and quit trying to act like Kent Tekulve he'd get more outs this year. I basically agree with you here. Barrett should not have started round 2, if indeed he did. I'm withholding judgement on round 2 until I know more. While Barrett went into the clubhouse, right now we don't know what happened to re-ignite things. Barrett may have gone in there to continue the fight, or he may have gone there to ask Z wtf was his problem. I don't know...and right now none of us do. We might never know. But from what I saw on the tape, it was clear this was more a cause of Zambrano acting like a complete prima donna ass, and Barrett simply pointing that out. Don't excuse Barrett. He's an ass that can't catch and hase gotten into altercations before. There is no excuse for following Zambrano back into the lockerroom. None. I've said this before, Barrett is a terrible catcher. Just terrible. He hops around behind the plate, sets up late or sometimes not at all, and gets crossed up far too often with too many pitchers. Zambrano shouldn't have started this whole thing. IMO, he is the most to blame. However, all Barrett had to do was walk away. Instead, he pointed to the scoreboard. Then he goes back into the locker for whatever reason. He's an ass.

Sometimes you have to own it. First Barrett calls for a pitch and gets crossed up Then he makes a really stupid play to compound the already stupid cross up. I looked to me like Z was telling Barrett to use his head.

Right. I takes 2 to make a fight. Z was wrong for talking to Barrett. Barrett was wrong for point to the scoreboard. They're both dunces. This goes in the lowlights of the 100 year drought. Yea Cobs!

Its about time he said it! The thing is though, he's got every single outfielder playing out of positon except Soriano. He's got Theriot everywhere. Obviously the guys need to catch the ball. However, aside from Barrett's bone headed playes most of the errors have been physical not mental. I think I'll assign blame thusly 33% to the players 33% to Lou for playing them out of position 33% to Hendry for putting together a team of players that don't fit The Cubs are less than the sum of their parts, sadly.

No, that would be the smart thing to do. Very un-Cubs-like

Back and to the left, back and to the left, back... and to the left.

And Joe Girardi would have been the perfect skipper for that process. Too bad he wasn't available. Oh, wait. Joe Girardi sucks. I'm sick of the "Joe would have been better". He's an old school, bunt-the-man over, double-switching moron. He's already ruined one of the more promising pitchers in baseball. Let him damage some other team's players. Lou might suck, Girardi swallows.

He threw in the mid 90's in high school. I doubt he'll be able to reach that again, but the Padres have to salvage something. Was this the worst #1 pick in professional sports over the last 10 years? Depends on how you view it. In terms of talent, there's a good argument that he is. However, compared to the contracts #1 overall picks in other sports compared to him, I'd say probably not. Some other candidates to consider... Kwame Brown (NBA) Michael Olowokandi (NBA) Bryan Bullington (MLB) Josh Hamilton (MLB, Arguable) David Carr (NFL) Courtney Brown (NFL) Tim Couch (NFL) If Ryan Leaf and Tony Mandrich weren't taken as the second pick they would be neck and neck in this debate and everyone else would be a distant third.

As per usual he's right on the money. He also gets in some nice digs at our favorite GM http://www.dailyherald.com/sports/cubs.asp

JP Richardi, Paul Depodesta Please no re-treads. By that I mean A Baseball Man who knows The Game.

Do you know what sucks? In relation to the Chicago Cubs National League Ball Club, the draft is all we have to look forward to this year. Even September call-ups can't get me fired up.

First, most hitters pull the ball. Second, the ball will slice towards his glove hand (LH for soriano) off of a right handed hitter. If the ball is pulled from a left handed hitter same thing. In left field just the opposite is the case. Either way the difference in positions is negligible to the point of absurdity.

You might think its complete and utter nonsense, but it's fact my friend. They are that much different. Maybe you denying it is complete and utter nonsense... What is a fact? The ball comes off the bat different? That's not in dispute. Soriano is supposed to be this uber athletic stud. He's played one full season in LF, the rest of the time he's been an infielder. He made the jump from 2nd to LF ok, kind of. He should be able to adjust to RF. Sammy Sossa held down the postion pretty well as did Jeromi Burnitz and many other medocire fielders. BTW> In RF the ball will be slicing to him off of a RH batter, not away from him.

Why not? Because it makes too much sense. It just makes too much sense ...? Maybe if we pretended there was no difference. That more or less is "why not." Murton isn't a rightfielder either but he does get better reads and handles those better. It's becoming a pet peeve of mine that people refuse to acknowledge a difference between left and rightfield. I think what you've written is complete and utter nonsense. The positions are not that much different. Nothing that 10 or 12 hours of fungo practice wouldn't take care of anyway.

That at least has as much validity as uncontrollable cramps. Probably more.

You cannot compare stats over two seasons. Those are not consecutive starts nor are they consecutive appearences. This is so much like the Rich Hill saga from last year. He's up, he's down, he's in the pen, he's starting, he's in the pen. They haven't given him enough time to go much over 75 pitches. What I'm saying is that he couldn't do it last year, even when he had about 16 consecutive starts. Why was Dusty willing to throw Marmol out there for a ton of pitches but not Guzman? Even Mateo, who Dusty had the quickest hook on, was allowed to throw a lot of pitches in some games, but not Guzman. In the last two months of the season, Dusty ran every starting pitcher into the ground, but Guzman only broke 85 pitches for him once. I find that strange. I would agree this year they haven't given him many chances to go above 75 (although they have given him a little bit of a chance, the last start he made was his 6th in a row, he should be fully stretched out already). I would have liked to see that he proved that he couldn't throw that deep into a game before I sent him down to the bullpen, but apparently the doubt about that (which I fully understand) was enough to make Lou act. If Marshall pitches at least decently, it shouldn't be too bad of a thing for the team-because while Guzman has the stuff to be a decent to good starter, his stuff gets a lot better in the pen with the extra velocity on his fastball. If Marshall is terrible as a starter, then Guzman to the pen is an awful move, because the 5th starter is more important than a reliever. Guzman NEVER made 16 consecutive starts with the Cubs. http://www.fangraphs.com/statsd.aspx?playerid=2145&position=P&season=2006 He pitched in 4 consecutive starts in April. In June he was used in the bullpen. Then sent down. Then in late August and Early September he made 5 consecutive starts and was again moved to the pen. This year he started in the pen. Then was sent down. Then brought up and made three starts. Now he's in the pen. You see a pattern?

Quite. So I guess the Aardsma trade was a net win for the Sox? He's at least still around, and I don't hear a lot of negativity over him coming from the South Side. Just wait until Cotts is starting witht he big club. They'll have four lefties and Marqius by the end of the year.

You cannot compare stats over two seasons. Those are not consecutive starts nor are they consecutive appearences. This is so much like the Rich Hill saga from last year. He's up, he's down, he's in the pen, he's starting, he's in the pen. They haven't given him enough time to go much over 75 pitches.