fiver

eh...I see the glass half full on this one. He'd likely have given up a hit if he had gone the distance. This way, a certain mystique will always be associated with this performance.

just voted for floyd and quite upset that they are getting beat by queen

good for maddux....bottom line....he's not a good option at 5-6 million plus for next year. That said, I'm pleased with his results tonight. He pitched in the very first Cubs game I saw at Wrigley in the early '90's on the way to his first Cy Young award.

Thanks for the update, Ron. It will be great to be able to listen to the AA games again.

So what you're saying is that our 2 hole is going to be stinky again next season?

like I alluded to earlier, even if that is the case, they wouldn't have put Walker at first a day or two after Lee went down when the Cubs were in first place. these games are meaningless. put him out there in game action. the change is not that great. difficult turns at 2nd might cost you one out over the course of the next five games. big fricken deal. Walker wouldn't have had a runner coming at him spikes first trying to break up a double play at 1st base. If Cedeno isn't accustomed to turning the DP (and evading a baserunner sliding) at 2B, then I don't think it's a bad decision to let him get a couple of days of work doing so in practice. Conversely, I think we'd likely care quite a bit less about a possible injury related to this type of scenario if we were still in the playoff race. There was no real reason to risk an injury to Cedeno by placing him at 2B a bit prematurely since we are out of the playoff picture. If we needed his bat in the lineup and we were in the playoff picture, he would have played 2B yesterday.....my opinion. you're envisioning an incident that happens once every 10,000 major league baseball games happening withing the next 5 games. with Ronnie's athleticism and familiarity playing around the keystone corner, I'd take my chances. we just witnessed the closer being used four games in a row and in 7 of 8 days in a row, a little over a year after treating another pitcher with a surgically repaired arm, Chad Fox, in a similar way and ending his career. we've seen Kerry Wood go from 50 pitches for a month then up to 85 pitches in a rehab start. we've seen Mark Prior try to pitch through an achilles injury when anyone with any knowledge of the body or access to webmd.com could have told you the only prescription for an achilles injury is rest. please don't tell me the Cubs management suddenly become enlightened about the risk of injury to Cubs players. fair enough...I feel dirty for sticking up for the Cubs on this decision anyway.

Fixed your post. fixed again. I guess this is my point: how many different ways can we point this stuff out before it gets as redundant as Baker's stupidity? as many times as Baker is stupid...infinity I guess Well, then...I guess I'm just not going to take part in it anymore-all these things are a given, and to harp on the same thing over and over and over again is pretty much a waste of time. I think I've read the letters OBP about 8 million times over the last couple of days. I sometimes wonder who the truly stupid ones are: Baker/Hendry for being so consistently and obviously blind to certain baseball aspects, or us for being so blind to the fact that we can't change that. Both of us feel the need to fight the same fight day in and day out. I, for one, am over it and willing to accept this regime for who it is (a fundamentally flawed philosophy) and just hope for the best for my team. If this were a marriage, then we could file for divorce, but we are Cubs fans. What are we to do? Root for the Sox? I'd rather stop following basebal altogether.

Agreed. Dusty needs to be asked logical followup questions when he spouts BS.

oh, and I agree that Dusty's statement regarding Guzman not being called up because "he was playing Vegas at the time" is ludicrous. Obviously, they made this decision for other reasons (not necessarily good ones). Baker doesn't feel obligated to give the media a straight answer about anything, and we all know this already. He flaps his gums nonsensically quite frequently.

like I alluded to earlier, even if that is the case, they wouldn't have put Walker at first a day or two after Lee went down when the Cubs were in first place. these games are meaningless. put him out there in game action. the change is not that great. difficult turns at 2nd might cost you one out over the course of the next five games. big fricken deal. Walker wouldn't have had a runner coming at him spikes first trying to break up a double play at 1st base. If Cedeno isn't accustomed to turning the DP (and evading a baserunner sliding) at 2B, then I don't think it's a bad decision to let him get a couple of days of work doing so in practice. Conversely, I think we'd likely care quite a bit less about a possible injury related to this type of scenario if we were still in the playoff race. There was no real reason to risk an injury to Cedeno by placing him at 2B a bit prematurely since we are out of the playoff picture. If we needed his bat in the lineup and we were in the playoff picture, he would have played 2B yesterday.....my opinion.

like I alluded to earlier, even if that is the case, they wouldn't have put Walker at first a day or two after Lee went down when the Cubs were in first place. these games are meaningless. put him out there in game action. the change is not that great. difficult turns at 2nd might cost you one out over the course of the next five games. big fricken deal. ....and I do mostly agree with that. I do also recall them stating that they wanted him to work on his 2B footwork for a few days to insure that he doesn't get injured around the bag (when turning DP's I would assume). I personally have no problem with that statement or action.

All...I didn't read every post in the thread, but I don't think the issue is that Cedeno does not physically possess a glove that he could use at 2B. My interpratation is that they are wanting Cedeno to take a few days of infield practice (DP footwork, groundballs, etc) before playing there in a MLB game. I know that we're all about at the end of our fuse with this organization, but let's not make a big deal about a few words that when taken literally indicate that Cedeno needs to buy a glove and break it in before playing.

Brenly comedy routine: "Since this is '70's I hope that isn't lead based paint those guys are wearing." :)

The Cubs own Neifi through '07 and Izturis through '08. How may position players who flat out cannot hit do we need on the roster? Z can't compensate for them all. Agree...except I probably would have changed that to: "Z can only compensate for them all in 1 of every 5 games."

ok..no need to stay on the laptop and continue with this discussion. someone send me a PM when Hendry has been relieved. Thanks.

I happen to fully agree with Stone(I know, I blast him a lot), but you got a true SS, a switch hitter who doesn't strike out and a glod glove fielder vs 2 more months of Maddux. We already have two true SS's on the roster for next year. Switch hitting doesn't matter if the production isn't there. Cedeno & Neifi don't strike out that much, either. Neifi won a GG, too, and we already had him and don't have to pay an extra $4M for him next year. Cedeno isn't a quality SS and Neifi is a backup. What did you think you would get for Maddux for 2 months, along with a No trade clause? explain to me how Neifi is a "backup" yet Itzuris isn't. You've read this thread, right? Itzuris is essentially Neifi Perez. We have Neifi Perez signed already. We didn't need to spend 4 million dollars on Itzuris when it could have been utilized upgrading 2B, LF, RF, CF, SP, resiging Aramis, etc.

I happen to fully agree with Stone(I know, I blast him a lot), but you got a true SS, a switch hitter who doesn't strike out and a glod glove fielder vs 2 more months of Maddux. Does it really matter that he doesn't strike out when he also doesn't get on base? He may be a true short stop, but we also have 2B, LF, and CF manned with individuals that also hit like "true SS's". Couldn't Cedeno or Nefi provide almost identical both in the field and at the plate? It doesn't really matter that he's a switch hitter when he hits neith LHP's or RHP's well does it?

That's because Stone said we should have traded Ramirez for Izturis. Yeah, Stone wanted to trade for him in early July, and he thinks Izturis/Cedeno would be our middle infield for "the next five years". That's fine if the Cardinals give us Pujols for cash considerations, DLee returns to '05 form and learns to play LF, the Mets trade us David Wright for Neifi, we trade Aramis for Ichiro, and Pierre has a 100 point jump in OBP. We're going to need some offense.

I stop caring about Cubs baseball until this regime is removed.

It's not even just poorly evaluating talent. It's also a total lack of understanding basic economics.

Getting nothing back would literally have been better. Thats a joke. I rather get something, rather than nothing for him. Do you know how much money Izturis will make next year? I'm assuming not, otherwise I don't know how the hell you could say that. Leave Jim alone. Opportunity loss is covered next semester.

Getting nothing back would literally have been better. Thats a joke. I rather get something, rather than nothing for him. Did you read my earlier response to one of your similar posts? If Itzuris had a small salary, then you would be correct. He doesn't; therefore, you are incorrect.

no salary in return. no crap players taking up roster spots in return. again....we expected to not lose the utility one could obtain from the 4+ million dollars owed to Itzuris next season. Itzuris provides a now very, very, very redundant service to this team.

I'm going to pretend I didn't see this post. There's nothing to like about having someone on the same offensive level as Neifi playing every day. Not to mention he'll be getting paid more than Neifi to be Neifi for 2+ more years. So basically you would of just kept Maddux, and let him walk for nothing? Izturis was a solid player in 04. .288 Average .330OBP 4hr 62RBI 25SB, not to mention the guy is excellent with the glove. What part of "we'll be paying him 4-5 million next year" don't you understand? This is cash that could be utilized on a player with some type of offensive prowess. Neifi is excellent with the glove. We already have the middle infield defensive subsitution roster spot covered. Capeesh? edit - "would have" or even "would've"..nevermind.