gflore34

I'm actually the source. Just ask me anything. How many Dunn heads could you fit in a Kearns head? That question cannot properly be answered. The problem being that scientists have yet to actually find a number large enough to scope the sheer hugeness of Austin Kearns' head. If Kearns was much taller would he be able to eclipse the Sun with his head? Not only that, but the sheer amount of weight of his head that far off of earth would throw it off its axis. As a result he actually can never ride on a plane. If such an event were to occur, Kevin Mench would be injected with steroids and then launched into the air in the opposite direction to hopefully save the planet. Why Kevin Mench? Why not Carlos Lee sans the steroids?

I'm actually the source. Just ask me anything. How many Dunn heads could you fit in a Kearns head? That question cannot properly be answered. The problem being that scientists have yet to actually find a number large enough to scope the sheer hugeness of Austin Kearns' head. If Kearns was much taller would he be able to eclipse the Sun with his head?

Don't take this the wrong way, but six commas on one sentence has gotta be some sort of record. ;) Quite a nice rate stat BK! :D In high school I had an English teacher who had us write the longest run-on sentence we possibly could as an assignment. I have no idea how many commas I used, but I do remember my particular entry clocked in at three and half pages. Ms. West was not amused. A conservative estimate of two commas per page gives you seven (2*3.5).

Hendry seems to think Garciapparra' will be effective upon his return, is this good or bad? How much more than a healthy Perez can Garciapparra give the Cubs?

Don't take this the wrong way, but six commas on one sentence has gotta be some sort of record. ;) Thanks. I'm probably guilty of a comma splice.

I think your last sentence is on to something. If the Reds can rehabilitate Corey in the second half, they might be able to flip Corey for another starting pitcher this offseason... After reading Patterson' comments regarding his long swing as the primary reason for his ineffectiveness, I don't know if he'll every get "it", he's seems rather clueless. The Reds may or may not be able to turn him around; in any case, they can have him. If this rumor is true, I believe Mitre is the kind of pitcher who can have success at Great American Ballpark, when on, that sinker is heavy. As we all know his problem is consistency, in his case, unlike Patterson', I believe Mitre, given a permanent spot in a rotation, will develop and give the Reds a very good #3 starter, possibly a #2. One thing is certain of Mitre, the Cub bullpen is not the right place for him. Hill could be another very good #3, possibly a #2 for the Reds. Hill/Mitre >>>> Claussen/Hudson of the last two nights.

BUMP Hairston, other than that grand slam, hasn't done squat as our leadoff hitter. He's been slumping for a while now. He has definitely not been the reason for our recent good offense. He may be doing a tad better than CP in the leadoff spot, but that's not saying much at all. how is an OBP of .367 batting leadoff "not doing squat." isn't it more that a "tad better" than Corey's .268 OBP in the leadoff spot? he's in a little mini-slump since the All star break. no big wup. Beyond that, Hairston will take some pitches and make the pitcher work a little, on the rare occassion Patterson attempted to work the pitcher, he'd fall right back into swing at anything mode the very next at bat.

Well, this is the info that our own vance was able to dig up for us: Assuming that is true, it wouldnt be too awful hard to one up that offer. Backe and lane are nothing special. I think Jerome Williams + Jody Gerut/Corey Patterson + Pinto(maybe rich hill) sounds like a decent package. I'd do that in a heartbeat. I'd do that as well, despite the fact the Reds are giving up a position player in Dunn, it puzzles me as to why they would require a position player in return. For, they have Kearns to call up and the primary need is pitching, pitching and more pitching. I don't care how many runs they can generate, they'll never win without pitching. Surely, the Reds GM is aware of this?

Yeah, there's a bunch of those available right now. Market's just glutted with them... Man, you guys need to lighten up. I can't believe after reading my post you'd take me seriously. I'll be sure to put a smiley face on next time when suggesting a five-tool player should be sought. I still don't want Dunn. Who out there is a better option then dunn? And why is it that people think that Dunn is actually "out there?" I think it would be foolish for the Reds to part with him when they could center their team around him. And if the Reds are going to trade Dunn to a division rival, I would think they'd be asking a whole lot for him. We think that he's Out there because the reds have, reportedly, already made an offer to the Astros for him. (that spoils the no central division rivals thing, also). And we never said his price wasnt high, but when you have the chance to get a talent like that, it'd be foolish not to pursue it. If that's true, I'd like to see the Cubs actively pursue Dunn, no way should Hendry let the Astros get the jump on him again, as they did with Beltran llast year.

I believe the Cubs can win the WC with their current make-up, the key is maintaining the rotation for the remainder of the season. A healthy trio Prior, Wood and Zambrano is very capable of winning 40 or more, second half games, this alone, represents something that only one other WC contender can match - Florida (Beckett, Burnett and Willis). Another key is finding someone to effectively bridge the gap between the starters and Dempster, be it Wuertz, Wellmeyer, Novoa, Ohlman or Remlinger, all are capable, someone has to step forward. I also believe they'll score enough runs, finally, after 84 or so, games, Baker figured out his best 1-2 combination was Hairston and Walker. It’s no coincidence that once they were inserted into the 1 and 2 slots the Cubs started to show some offensive consistency. A healthy rotation plus someone to take care of the 8th inning and the Cubs have what it takes to make the playoffs - pitching, pitching and more pitching. By the way, I was on vaction for a week and have yet to look thru the Posts but, did anyone catch the Sun-Times article stating Patterson found his problem? Apparently, Patterson found, after watching flim, his long swing to be sole problem. The article goes further on to state once Patterson observed this he quit watching film. So, a shorter swing is going to improve his pitch selection? It'll allow him to get to those outside breaking balls in the dirt? And those fastballs over his head?

A prediction : Should the Cubs put forth another lackadaisical effort while losing Game 2, Baker gets fired tonight.

Now watch Prior throw 8 pitches to the first hitter...

That isn't true. Gammons either got bad info or was just making a false assumption. First of all, I have read quotes from Von Joshua (West Tenn hitting coach) that said that Pie still has a lot to work on and that right now he could play in the majors but that rushing him would stunt his growth. Secondly, the Cubs have taken their time with Felix. They aren't going to change that now. The earliest he is going to be up is next year and I wouldn't expect him up before mid-season. Good enough reason to trade for Kotsay. :wink: TXCubsFan, I respect your opinion so could you (or anyone else who care to chime in for that matter) tell me why you think Kotsay would be the best man to acquire. He's not great at getting on base. He is not great at stealing bases. He is a good CF and is hitting better than Corey is now, but aren't there better OFers available in a trade than Mark Kotsay? When you consider what he does and can do relative to Patterson, it's a tremendous upgrade, thus far, after 80 AB, he's drawn 29 BB along with .343, admittedly, nothing spectacular, yet solid. Solid play alone, which Patterson is incapable of at this point, would be gigantic plus for the Cubs.

I believe Baker is feeling the heat for not going with Hairston and Walker as a result, to prove a point that no one tells him anything when it comes to his team we're seeing this mess of a lineup. He's so stubborn that he's willing to give away games to defend his vision or philosophy.

Thanks for clarification, I should have checked his option status, so, nuke my idea, there's no way he'll clear waivers.

Its fairly apparent Patterson is not going to contribute anything this season be starting or from the bench. How about sending him down to Iowa for the rest of the season to work on pitch selection, situational hitting, etc? Many have attributed his downslide to an unwillingness to change his batting approach. I don't believe that is true, I believe he's physically unable to recoginze a quality pitch, something that can be improved upon with practice/steady work. Nevertheless, the rest of my idea: call up Grieve, insert Hairston into CF.

I think we've got a good one in the booth. And Brenly has all but said he'd go with his best OBP options head of Lee, Burnitz and Ramirez.

This garbage is getting old. Don't care if you're joking or pissed or what not. Amen, Serena. Chill on the shooting people scenario, plz. I just don't think there's a trade out there than can really fix the Cubs. Unless it's trading Dusty somewhere. I think you're probably right, but then again, I can't think of a manager that we could call in at this point to right the ship. Even if Dusty made perfect decisions, are we good enough? Having enough baseball sense to know or figure out Patterson and Perez at the top of the order is going to lend itself to prolonged offensive slumps is far from a perfect decision. gflore- I did say "if" dusty made perfect decisions. I apologize; I'm as frustrated as Ron Santo was tonight, Baker' lack of baseball common sense is beyond comprehension.

This garbage is getting old. Don't care if you're joking or pissed or what not. Amen, Serena. Chill on the shooting people scenario, plz. I just don't think there's a trade out there than can really fix the Cubs. Unless it's trading Dusty somewhere. I think you're probably right, but then again, I can't think of a manager that we could call in at this point to right the ship. Even if Dusty made perfect decisions, are we good enough? Having enough baseball sense to know or figure out Patterson and Perez at the top of the order is going to lend itself to prolonged offensive slumps is far from a perfect decision.

The Trib is spending alot of money for this crap, and I doubt they are too happy. I'll go out on a limb and say that if the Cubs win less than 2 of the remaining games before the ASB, Dusty gets the axe. You think they would eat Dusty's $4M next year that fast? For some reason I think Hendry actually agrees with Dusty's managerial moves. He is the one that supplies Dusty with the players. If Dusty goes Hendry needs to get the Axe on the same day. Do you honestly think that Dusty doesn't have a big say in personnel decisions? He has almost all of the say in who gets called up/ sent down, and all of the say in who plays. Hendry is not without blame, but Dusty deserves the lion's share of it. It wasn't Dusty's fault that Hendry failed to fill big holes over the off season and left him with a less than avg. bench. Also, not Dusty's fault that Hendry made few improvements to the bullpen. Hendry should take as much blame as Dusty. But I would like to see both of them go. That may be, but for every problem Hendry created by non-action, Dusty has exacerbated twice over with his greivous ineptitude. Remember Chad Fox, who everyone knew was not to pitch consecutive days early in the season? Well, we know how that turned out. Remember in ST when Hendry and others were saying that Dempster should be the closer so Hawk could go back to the role he was comfortable in? Well, we know how that turned out. Remember when Dubois was ripping the ball and was white hot and we watched Holla hit .200 for a month? We have a decent leadoff hitter in Hairston and an excellent 2 hole hitter in Walker, and yet we watch Perez and Patterson languish at the top of the order while Lee's prowess goes wasted? You see how a white-hot Cedeno was brought up and promptly mired on the bench in favor of an ice cold Perez? And on, and on, and on. Hendry as much to blame as Baker? I don't think so. Has JH made some mistakes? Sure, but he has made more good decisions than bad. Baker is more to blame than is Hendry & it's not even close. I agree, Baker and his loyalty to inept players, is reason #1 why this team is not going to be much better than .500 this season and didn't make the playoffs last year. In 2003, we were fortunate his loyalty was to an effective player in Lofton.

Honestly, I would just let the season go down the toilet at this point. There are way too many problems with this club that a move or two isn't going to turn this team into a World Series contender. Don't bother mortgaging a part of the future for what's probably a hopeless year. Sell off some guys in the last year of their contracts that other teams might find useful, and do a better job in the offseason of putting a good team on the field for 2006. At the very least, I'd like to see Hairston, Walker 1 and 2 for the remainder of this season. Of course, that would require, Baker putting aside his player first philosophy and going with his best options. Furthermore, I sincerly hope some yelling, shouting and chair throwing is going on the Cubs clubhouse, someone getting POed about their pathetic play.

What did Ronny say? He wants a deal to be made? He said something needs to happen...

When Ron Santo starts calling for something to be done, you know its bad. Well Mr. Hendry, if you wish to save the 2005 season, something better happen TODAY, not tomorrow, not seconds before the trading deadline, NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'd let Maddux take one for the team here, at least two more innings, the game' over, a loss is a loss, who cares if its by 3 or five runs?

He put the ball in play, I'd say that's a quality at bat.