CubinNY

Bump. Just because I want the record to show I was way ahead of goony.:wink:

I don't think Jones will be traded to NY. I think they have their sights set on Abreu or someone of more significance. However, if Jones were to be traded they could bring up someone from the minors like Sing (even though he looks like he'll never make it) or put Mabry out there. It's not like the Cubs are going anywhere this year.

Could anyone imagine what life would be like for Ozzy in New York? The more the media finds out they can get under your skin the more they dig.

I appreciate his lawn care tips and serious man love for Adam Dunn.

What is the fascination with Carlos Lee. He isn't that good and he will be overpaid and old. Lee is exactly the player Hendry should stay away from.

If he's fired now though, perhaps guys like Murton would get to play every day instead of being platooned with a Freddie Bynum. Baker can do more damage to this team, even when they're losing. Exactly. I wish I could find the date of the Clines qoute about Murton needing to be more aggressive and compare his pitches seen/PA. I bet there would almost be a direct corelation to that date and Muton's OBP slide. How is Murton supposed to get better at hitting right handed pitchers if he never sess them? Again, it's one thing to platoon a vet in the twilight of his career who is used to this type of thing, and quite another to a young player who is used to playing every day. Anyone want to look up Murton's # vs. righties in the minors?

If the Cubs signed Furcal he'd just be another high priced player underperforming his contract. He's at a point in his career where he will probably underperform until he retires. I was never for signing Furcal, and I'm glad he walked away from the deal. Walker>Furcal Cedeno>Furcal Pierre>Furcal (for the money) Furcal saved Hendry from himself.

What gets me is that all the so called baseball experts do nothing but defend Baker. They talk about the injuries, the talk about not hitting, they talk about poor pitching, they talk about the lack of run scoring. It's as if Baker has no control over those things when in fact nobody has more control over them than Baker. Everybody in the media wants to give Dusty a free pass because he is a likeable guy. It kills me. He continues to put out inferior lineups on a daily basis. He continutes to abuse the starters with high pitch counts and the relivers with usage patterns. He has demonstrated that although he may be a good guy in the clubhouse and can really turn a parabale, he's a poor in-game decision maker, and that's where it counts. What is the excuse going to be when Lee comes back and hits a bunch of one run HRs and the Cubs approach a hundred loses?

That's just silly. His pitches would be more polished at this point if he had concentrated on baseball, and that's what makes his potential intriguing. You can argue he's not worth the risk, but nonsensical hyperbole doesn't make your case. so say he has lots of upside like you would for anybody else. maybe if andrew miller trained an extra hour everyday he'd be even better, i guess detroit really got a steal. I don't think there's anything wrong with suggesting he has more room for improvement than Miller because he's a lot more raw. And he's raw because he hasn't devoted as much time to baseball as typical college players do. Yes, but that is just a theory. Maybe he's as good as he would be. Maybe not. Personally, I don't see what's so silly aboout Treebeard's post. I guess we've all been conditioned to hope for the best amonst all those toolsy picks Hendry seems to be infatuated with. Whatever the case, with only 2 picks in the first five rounds maybe the Cubs did need to take a long shot. then again maybe not.

That's the craziest thing of all, it tops the cake. I could almost understand if the Cubs were bringing up some young stud, but Fast Freddy Bynum? Are you kidding me? Just when I think it can't get worse, it does.

Pitching injuries don't just *happen*. When Mazzone was with Atlanta how many of their pitchers went on the DL every year. You can ignore it but all of the injuries suffered by the Cubs pitchers aside from the elbow beaning are at the hands of Dusty and Larry. The worst being Fox last year. Dusty fell into the old I'll use the hot guy out of the bullepn approach and bam Fox's arm falls off. Then there is Farnsworth. He ran Farns into the ground at the begining of each seasoon and at the end of the season Farns gets the "can't pitch in the big game" tag. When in reality he was finished by July b/c of his usage Pattern. And I haven't even touched the starters yet.

But I'm not just looking at him. His production has dropped some recently, and he's been frequently hurt the last 6-8 years. He's also old. Big Frank has been one of the most outspoken critics of the steriod testing program in baseball (saying they needed to do more) and actually led a semi-revolt a couple years ago against the union. I don't believe hs was on the juice.

This just really upsets me. That's all I can say. They are killing my love of the Cubs. Killing it.

A-Rod appears to have worn out his welcome with the Yankee fans. He is being booed after every bad AB and the papers are having a field day. Yankee fans don't like pretty boys, unless they are Derek Jeter.

He's tall, has good hands, and runs good routs. I'm not so sure about his speed though. I think a lot depends on what ND does this year and how often they get him the ball. But all the hype and PR ND generates here on the East Coast will likely increase his percieved value. Unless he gets hurt or starts dropping passes I don't see him slipping. [stephan A Smith voice] Quite frankly, I think this was a wasted pick and wasted money. [/stephen A Smith voice] Jack McKeon was known as "Trader Jack" when he was GM of the Reds. I think Hendry should be known as "Long Shot Jim" To me at least, Sammy NEEDS to pick one sport. Football or baseball. There is an old saying, "if you try and chase two rabbits, you end up not catching either," some crap like that. In other words...pick a sport, and concentrate on it. I'm willing to bet that both the Raiders and the Royals were equally frustrated with Bo Jackson, and his indecision to pick one sport to excell at. Weiss is correct, there is no possible way for him to play two sports at the professional level. Football is the safest bet and most lucrative avenue. I cannot be objective as I 1) Hate ND with a red hot passion that only those who grew up in "Michiana" can appreciate and 2) Love the Cubs with a red hot passion that not many outside of NSBB can appreciate. It would be a no brainer for me. I'd play baseball. BTW, do you still live in Prattville AL? My wife is from there and her parents still live there.

Finally someone who accepts it for what it is. Now, I just proved my original point pages back that Elia is getting too much credit and Cubs coaching is getting too much blame because he hasn't made any big improvements as a hitter; he's just slightly improved to mediocrity and started going for bunts and infield hits more and possibly refined some of his running techniques or workouts to increase baserunning ability and speed. That's not your point at all.

He's tall, has good hands, and runs good routs. I'm not so sure about his speed though. I think a lot depends on what ND does this year and how often they get him the ball. But all the hype and PR ND generates here on the East Coast will likely increase his percieved value. Unless he gets hurt or starts dropping passes I don't see him slipping. [stephan A Smith voice] Quite frankly, I think this was a wasted pick and wasted money. [/stephen A Smith voice] Jack McKeon was known as "Trader Jack" when he was GM of the Reds. I think Hendry should be known as "Long Shot Jim"

I'm not buying your argument that his numbers are lower than Jacque's because of the division he plays in. Giles has played a whole 2 games in Dodger Stadium, 2 in AT&T Park, and 3 in Chase Field for a combined 32 at bats, and he has 11 hits in those 32 at bats (about a .340 average). Oh, and he has an OPS over 1300 in both AT&T Park and Chase Field. And I don't think I need to mention Coors Field. The bottomline is that Jacque Jones has outproduced the much wanted Brian Giles. For half the cost. Can we at least wait until the 3/4 of the season is over to proclaim JJ a good buy. He's been doing well but the season isn't eve half over yet.

Sadly, the Cubs are not one or two players away from contention. They are @ 1/3 of a team away from contention. Tinkering here or there won't make this team good for this year or next. In fact, it's what Hendry has done for the past 3 years with very limited success. And the free-agent class is once again filled with overpriced aging veterans who likely won't perform up to contract. They should sell whatever they can to try to improve toward the future. This includes Zambrano, Prior, Lee, and anyone else. Now that doesn't mean they should dump them for just anything. The offers would have to be equal to or greater than the tallent for players like Lee and Zambrano and some of the top prospects. If that is the case, I don't see any of them to likely be traded. Barrett is an adequate catcher who is an above average hitter for a catcher. He is a premium stock for his position, they should get premium return for him. Guys like Jones, Pierre, or any of the middle relievers probably aren't going to get the Cubs much, but if the right offer comes they should make the deal. Closer is the most over-valued commidity in baseball, still. I imagine Dempster would fetch some premium talent. Regardless, with the current decision makers on the North Side I'm not real confident about any choice they make.

...sell, sell, sell.

And for a fraction of the price of Slappy Daddy 4-3 (it's his rap name).

He had Randy Johnson and Curt Shilling. And a juiced Luis Gonzalez. And Mariano Riveria botching an easy comebacker DP. When I listen Brenly "stratigize" during the games, I am fairly confident that he would be a worse manager than Dusty. He wanted to bunt to first for five innings to see if Edmonds can play first. Brenly has said many stupid things in the year and a half or so as color man, but that wasn't one of them. He only kept saying that because the Cubs were too stupid to ever try. No that was a stupid idea.

He had Randy Johnson and Curt Shilling. And a juiced Luis Gonzalez. And Mariano Riveria botching an easy comebacker DP. When I listen Brenly "stratigize" during the games, I am fairly confident that he would be a worse manager than Dusty. He wanted to bunt to first for five innings to see if Edmonds can play first.

Ques Teck is just an excuse. The last time MLB reported data, it showed that the Umpires gave the correct call @ 90% of the time. It's a fiction of Burhle's imagination. I really can't understand why this gets into the pitchers' head. The absence or presence of Ques Tech has nothing to do with Burhle's pitch counts. I wonder if anyone has bothered to look up his home/road (non Ques Tech venues) PCs, walks, and hits to see if there are any discrepencies. Even if there are discrepencies it could be do to reactivity (knowing Ques Teck is present).

That's right. Companies can prepare the books however they want for managing the business internally; GAAP applies only to reporting to outsiders. So a business could really have three sets of books; one for reporting to shareholders, one for tax reporting, and one for managing the business internally. It's not legal to intentionally mislead the public. An outside auditor (if doing their job properly) would not sign off misleading financial statements; an auditor has to express an opinion on whether the financial statements fairly reflect the business's operating results and financial position. Plus' date=' under Sarbanes-Oxley the company's CEO and CFO must certify, under penalty of law, that the financial statements are not knowingly misleading. As far as the IRS is concerned, the issue is simply whether the company has fully reported its revenue and is legitimately entitled to deduct the expenses they have. As long as the revenue and expenses have been reported in compliance with the tax code, the company's obligation is merely to pay the lowest amount of taxes they are required to pay by law. Deducting expenses in order to reduce the tax liability is perfectly acceptable as long as the tax code (or related IRS guidelines or court rulings) permit the deduction. If not, then it's tax evasion, which can result in fines and/or jail time.. In fact, tax evasion is how Al Capone and other gangsters of that time were caught. It could never be proven that they engaged in illegal activities (even though everybody knew they were), but it could be proven that they received income that they didn't report on their tax returns. By using tax evasion to get them, it only had to be proven that they had income that wasn't reported; it wasn't necessary to prove how they got the income. Test tomorrow. :D[/quote'] Thanks professor. Next question. Do you think MLB teams (or any professional team) intentionally mislead the public when they report earnings. If so, how much do you think the Trib makes on the Cubs? Do you think they can sustain $130 million 25 man roster? I know a lot about behavior but next to nothing about the world of high finance.