BleedCubbieBlue81

Actually, I would love the idea of being able to say, "I'm a partial owner of the Chicago Cubs." I'd contribute to a "Help NSBB buy the Cubs" movement.

Agreed. Anyone but St. Louis would be alright with me right now. And I'm sure St. Louis feels the same way about us. But somehow I don't think they have to worry about the Cubs winning a world series this year. Chicago needs a world series, but White Sox fans would turn it into something horrible. They wouldn't focus on the fact that they were the best team in baseball that year, they'd focus on the fact that the Cubs DIDN'T win it. Instead of celebrating a win, they'd be looking for the first available Cub fan to put down.

You unknowingly just gave a very valid reason for Dusty to be fired. SO by crusading against this thread, you may have just helped the cause. Dusty's inability to field a team that will give the Cubs the best chance to win each day is the reason I want him fired. Well, there are many other reasons, but that is the main one.

Well, ignorance is contagious.

I'm with you on this one. The infield is solid when Nomar is healthy. Keep him. We'll be able to get him for significantly less. Plus, both Nomar and Mia love Chicago. They are building a house in the suburbs right this second. Keep Cedeno as a back up and dump Neifi onto someone else. If no one wants Neifi, leave him as the backup, and let Cedeno get some AB in the minors. Outfield is where we need help. Burnitz has been our only consistent OF all year. I'm not against resigning him. Holly has to go. He's like Neifi, he "saved us" for about a month, but other than that, his offensive production has been horrible. And it's pointless to keep him around with Murton in the majors, and Lawton possibly being a Cub next year. Cubs need to agressively pursue a solid center fielder, and get all the bullpen help they can.

Patterson's hitting over .270 at Iowa with a pretty good walk rate. My mistake. Didn't think his average was that high. I still don't think we should bring him back just yet though.

If he's still hitting low .200's by September 1st, then he should stay in Iowa until spring training. If he can prove himself worthy then, give him another shot. If he's still playing like a bum, he can stay in Iowa again next year. Just my opinion though.

Careful, I don't think "Nutjob" is a very PC term these days. You might want to consider using the newer, more PC term... "People who ran out of stuff to complain about, so they try to side with the native americans in a pathetic attempt to save face after raping and stealing their land." Yeah, that has a much better ring to it.

Hendry should have moved the vets when he had a chance. I'm curious, if Perez and Macias are so valuable why not see what worth they have in the open market? Maybe they can save another team from despair like they did the Cubs. I agree that Wood should get the surgery done ASAP so he will be ready for 2006. Interesting that you say that. I have read rumblings from different GMs around the league regarding moving the deadline back to Sept. 1st. The thought being there are still a lot of teams in the race at the current deadline, so there aren't many sellers. Meh. Don't push the deadline. Eliminate the wild card. Go to four divisions of four teams. Easier scheduling. You actually have to "win" something to reach the playoffs. The AL should add two teams to get to 16 and doing the same thing. I know, baseball revenues, blah, blah, blah. Put the extra teams in NY and LA and they'd do fine. And hopefully, they'd take enough revenues from the other teams there that it would level the playing field a bit. That's actually an interesting theory. But if that happened, I could see MLB adding two wildcard spots like football does somewhere down the road. Just a gut feeling though. I'd like to see the divisions evened out though. I think it's ridiculous that the AL West only has four teams in it.

8.8% of the people that took that poll are wrong.

Dusty quit long before the players did. You can tell by the way he talks, he doesn't care about this city or the Cubs. I think the right move would be to hire a homegrown guy, or someone like Sandberg that has lived and died with this team before. Not someone that's here because the money was right.

Yeah, it seems to me that being drafted by the Yankees could be the worst possible thing in the world. You're doomed to stay in the minors unless you are traded.

I can picture his response now... "Well Murton's average has dropped from .462 to .400 over the past few weeks. He's in a terrible slump. Plus, Macias saved this team. Also, he's more capable of handling the summer heat than Murton. It's not because Murton's a young guy. Didn't you guys see me play all those kids in spring training? I always play the young guys in spring training, so I don't know where this idea of me not wanting to play the kids comes from."

If he sucks it up and dumps Dusty in the offseason, then I'll be satisfied. Otherwise, he's just driving a freight train with no brakes.

Tar Heels... :shock: Yeah, that's right... I went there. :lol:

If the Cubs were going to shut Wood down the day they realized they had no chance, he should've been shut down two days after opening day. Get the surgery now, come back next year and show everyone you still have nasty stuff.

Happens when there are too many people trying to access the database. In other words: TRAFFIC. Yeah, I know. But it seemed to me that traffic was a little light on these boards today, so that's what threw me off. Oh well, it's working now, so I don't mind. But yeah, Clark seemed pretty bitter towards Raffy. He said if he had a vote for the Hall of Fame he would not vote Raffy in. When asked about McGwire and Bonds, he said that their numbers speak louder than Raffy's and he would vote them in. McGwire was always a power hitter, and he has won a world series. And for Bonds he said has too many MVP's, and his numbers are TOO good to leave out.

Anyone else here this on ESPN radio a second ago? They were interviewing Will Clark about how he felt about Palmeiro being caught. They were teammates together in college, and I guess they had some sort of dispute when Clark got signed as a free agent. Clark said he is not surprised Palmeiro got caught. And that it is in Raffy's nature to try and hide it because "that's just the type of person he is." When asked what he would say to Palmeiro now if they were to talk, Clark said, "Hahahahaha, you got caught!" He pointed out the fact that Palmeiro never hit over 40 home runs until Canseco showed up in Texas, and that Palmeiro never had over 85 RBI's until Canseco showed up in Texas. He also said that trying to say you unintentionally took steroids is a joke. He put it in the same category as golfing. "It's like walking up to the tee box with a putter instead of a driver. You know what's in your hand, and you wouldn't make that mistake unless you meant to." I found that very interesting. Clark was very quick to put down Palmeiro. EDIT: What is wrong with these boards today? I get a critical error every time I click on anything.

Heh.. Bud Dry... haven't heard that in years.. Did that go the same way of Crystal Pepsi, Coke II, and the Arch Deluxe? Crystal Pepsi was just awful. I remember the Arch Deluxe though. I was a bigger fan of the Beef Wennington. Yes, that's right, McDonalds gave Bill Wennington his own sandwich. EDIT: I posted that before typing it what I really meant to say. Lawton is supposedly sub par defensively. Holly might have been a slight upgrade in the 9th. We had a two run lead with our closer coming in. So at the time, it didn't appear that either would get another at bat. While I don't agree with the benching, I can see Dusty's motives.... I suddenly feel very dirty.

You could make a case for him to be the longterm leadoff man for the Cubs, but I think his price tag is too high. The Cubs will have some available money this offseason, but throwing at Lawton is questionable IMO. I like the trade for this season. It seems like the wild card will go down to the end, so he might be a difference maker, and give our power guys more rbi chances. His defense is a liability though. Welcome to the boards though. Always good to see a Cards fan that is willing to talk baseball.

I'm not saying Edmonds won't make it in. I'm just saying I don't believe he belongs in the Hall. For the record, I never thought Palmeiro was a lock for the hall either. He was borderline, and this might have really hurt his chances. The hall of fame is getting easier to get into these days. And having Pujols on your team just kind of overshadows Edmonds accomplishments. I think if he were THE marquee player on any of his teams, then he'd have a better shot at it.

Say it ain't so, Bruce. Say it ain't so... :cry:

Hawk and DJ are the two biggest homers in the league. If the shoe were on the other foot, and a pitcher from the opposing team got tossed, they be saying it was the right call... and that the Cubs suck.

Sure he will, I'm sure Ryno will fly him out there to show him his new plaque. :lol: I believe Bonds was tested earlier this year. Can't be positive, but I remember ESPN mentioning something about it.

I just lost a TON of respect for Raffy. I always thought he was one of the game's good guys. Now I see that almost everyone has skeletons in their closet.