biittner77

Hendry probably looks at it this way. He needed a platoon partner for Jones in RF and Monroe fits that role. If He can find a vet RH CF to back up Pie his OF for next year is set. If Pie emerges as the player most think he can become the lineup looks like this: Soriano Theriot Lee Ramirez Jones/ Monroe Derosa Pie/ Jay Payton type guy Kendall/ Soto Hendry is probably OK with this lineup since it is basically the same as the one now and that lineup- in Hendry's eyes is good enough for the NL Central. If Pie develops, Theriot stays productive and Hendry adds another starting pitcher to push Marquis back to the 5th spot then they probably can win the NL Central.

If your Trembley, what do you say to your players as they go bat in the 9th down 27 runs? "OK guys, all we need is 27 to tie and 28 to win" "C'mon Corey, we need baserunners"

These are all references from various people here at NSBB. Since I have no idea who came up with what I can give no direct credit. Here's a couple that didn't make the cut: The frozen remains of Ted Williams The inanimate carbon rod A deep dish pizza from Unos Sammy Sosa's boombox

Kepping in mind that this is really the first season where Soto showed this level of offense. Also keep in mind that the PCL is very much a hitters league this year. If the Cubs fall out of the race we'll get to see a what Soto can do. More likely we'll see him make the odd defense replacement appearance. I could see him PH for Blanco regularly as the situation dictates.

Not really. Patterson was called up during the minor league season, so he lost development time by sitting on the bench in Chicago. By the time Smardz is called up the minor league season will be over, so he won't be missing out on any development time. The Cubs are likely to call up all the guys that have already gotten the call this year: Ohman, Petrick, Gallagher, Cherry, Cotts and Rapada (in approx. that order) Soto, Fox and Patterson That's already a lot of players. If they do call him up I doubt he gets more than one appearance, maybe 2 if the race is over and its the last day of the season. That's probably not going to hurt him nor will it help him very much.

Now that he's been activated, there's something I've wanted to know. Which option best finishes the sentence below: ____________ would be better defensively than Cliff Floyd

Whatever you do don't open the Babe thread at work.

Somewhere Joe Mrogan is thinking "Whoever's won more games, that's the only stat that matters for a pitcher.

Sounds like something Hendry would do. Really glad he never got the chance.

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 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 that is so hard for some of you to acknowledge the things Hendry has done well. It's like the guy owes some of money. The Hendry regime has been disappointing. I remember being very excited when Hendry was promoted to GM. At the time I believed- as did a lot of other people- that the guy that built the #1 farm system in baseball would not squander those resources. I believed Hendry could establish the Cubs as a perennial contender. Yes, Hendry added a lot of young, homegrown pitching but then he hired the worst possible manager to lead the team. Hendry has made some good trades but he has also overpaid for a lot of crappy bench players. Basically Hendry has been very mediocre.

That's strange. If he's such a great receiver why did they move him to corner IF?

Cubs dodge bullet.

Yes, I saw Gooney's post about Hendry's record. I also saw and then quoted his response to this question about how to evaluate a GM. At that point everyone accept Cubswin understood that neither Gooney, nor anyone else was trying to say that W-L was the only way to evaluate a GM. Then he started questioning people's reading ability. That to me is belittling and something we could do without. I've been here since the beginning and I can count on one hand the number of times Tim has called someone out. Think about that for a while.

they didn't even show the highlight on espnnews when i was watching it. That's because he plays for the Reds not the Reds Sox. He's not on the Yankees either and therefore not worthy of ESPN's attention.

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?

There's got to be a lot more players on this list. It doesn't mention the much ballyhooed Scott Podsednik claim by the Cubs for example. Is there any way to know when Jones was waived? If it happened before Soriano's injury that makes more sense. I still doubt that they really wanted to go with Pie and Pagan in CF the rest of the way.

Is Hill really miles better defensively than Soto? By reputation Soto has always been considered a good defensive catcher.

Had to be Matthew Howell against our archrivals the Orioles. Next time up he had a triple to complete the cycle. * Among the choices, I said the Sandberg game since it happened during the best season I've ever had as a Cub fan and it was twice and it was against Bruce Sutter twice and I hate the Cards and I hated Willie McGee. *That was for the Princess Anne Cubs

Gary Cates and Yusef Carter for Willy Mo Pena seems fair

What a bad idea. An 18 year old kid who just signed and clearly hasn't been prepped for dealing with the media. That was absolutely hard to listen to. Bad move Cubs. Good luck to Josh in the future... Yeah, that was brutal. I remember when they brought Montanez to the booth after he signed. Monty at least managed to sound like he hadn't just drank a quart of Nyquil. Actually, Vitters reminded me a little of Sandberg when he first came to the Cubs.

Fox looked pretty good. He took some borderline pitches to draw that walk. Maybe uncle Lou will start him again today. Other positives? After Howry gave up the HR I knew the game was over and went to bed so I got an extra half hour of sleep. Though I have to admit that I expected the Reds to score 3 more runs in the 9th.

Seems like people said the same thing about Tony Gwynn. Speed isn't really that big a part of Cabrera's game. As far as I'm concerned he can keep a hot dog in his glove while playing RF for my team with a beer in his back pocket so long as he keeps putting up those numbers.

If the Cubs can hang around until the end of August they should be in good shape. They have a favorable schedule and they get more useful help from Sept. call ups than Milwaukee or especially the Cards. Position players Soto: effectively ending the Koyie Hill era Fox: RH power off the bench Patterson: Speed off the bench Pitchers Ohman: hopefully used exclusively aginst LH hitters Gallagher: can eat innings in long relief Cotts: pitched well the other night, probably gets a courtesy call Cherry and Mateo could also get the call The Cubs will also be getting Soriano back as well as Pagan. Could make for a really crowded duggout.

you'll have to be more specific. Or not.

What's the point in posting this? Seriously, why even bother if this is all you're going to say? It's Gallagher's dad. Still. What's the point? Perhaps he's hinting that it won't be Gallagher won't be sent down.