samhainn77

Dunn Bradley Wilkerson Green Huff Kearns I'd also like to see us keep Patterson around on the bench and give him a fighting shot for a spot in ST. Worst case scenario he's a great defensive replacement for Murton/Pierre/RF.

Wow this wasn't predictable. I get tired, as a Cub fan of getting kicked in the teeth...I'm convinced that 2003 was just something to intensify the pain. It's not that I was overly excited about Furcal, though I would have loved to have seen his arm and range at SS. It's that as usual (for the last 2 years) we put all of our eggs in one basket and get outbid by some lunatic. Don't get me wrong, I would have been more upset if Hendry got into a bidding war and ended up somewhere in the 14s...but now what? To me...the offseason will be at least a partial faliure if we don't end up tradeing for dunn, abreu, or manny, AND pick up Bradley (and Lowe) from LA. I'd never think about Furcal again if we ended up with: Walker - 2B Bradley - CF Abreu/Dunn/Ramirez - RF Lee - 1B Ramirez - 3B Barrett - C Murton - LF Cedeno - SS My fear is that Hendry won't let that happen. A) Walker isn't a prototypical leadoff hitter nor is he known for "catching the ball". B) I don't believe Hendry appreciates OBP or OPS enough to see how much of a monster that Dunn really is and will probably continue to feel that even giving up Hill for Dunn is too much. C) I'm not sure we have the trading chips to pull in Abreu/Ramirez D) I can see Hendry letting his pride get in the way of his brain and call off any potential deals with Coletti. IMO the best thing he could do would be fleece him in a trade and leave him with that huge Furcal contract and nothing to show for it. E) This is still Dusty's team and if Cedeno and Murton aren't lights out from Spring Training on, I can see Neifi and Mabry getting the starting jobs by May if not sooner. Here is my prediction for the lineup next year: Pierre - CF (We give up Hill, Marmol, Dopriak) Perez - SS Lee - 1B Wilson - RF (Walker, Williams) Ramirez - 3B (Macias/Cedeno by June...I don't think we're done with ARam's leg problems) Hairston - 2B Murton/Mabry - LF (straight platoon) Barrett - C I'm so disgusted with next season I can't stand it and the winter meetings haven't even started yet. I've been a Hendry supporter for a while now but I'm quickly changing my tune. I really just don't thing he gets it.

I personally think this is a flawed study. I don't see "intangibles" or "team chemistry" factored in anywhere.

Dealing with that group of players, I'd go with Giles in front of Lee and slide everyone down. No reason to put that sick OBP BEHIND our thunder.

Words can't describe how depressed yesterday's transaction has made me. I've been a longtime Hendry supporter, but since the end of the 2004 season I'm starting to wonder if he hasn't taken up a trendy crack habit. The glass half full side of me thinks that maybe Hendry sees perez as a 25th man, defensive replacement and has convinced Dusty that he should be used as such. That doesn't justify the amount that he over paid for him, but it helped me get to sleep last night. This same side of me thinks that Hendry may have a deal in the works with Cedeno being the centerpiece. Again, not really ideal, but if it somehow nets us Adam Dunn, Luis Castillo, Bobby Abreu, Milton Bradley or any other relatively young, productive player then I can live with it. The same side of me thinks that this might be a sign that Hendry plans to resign Nomar for a reasonable, incentive laden deal instead of overspending for Furcal. This, in turn, would free up enough cash for us to pick up Giles, another solid reliever, and maybe Millwood. If we had a lineup of: Walker/Castillo 2B Murton/Giles LF/RF Giles/Dunn RF/LF Lee 1B Ramirez 3B Garciaparra SS Bradley/Barrett CF/C Barrett/Patterson C/CF --Yes I'm still not ready to give up on him A rotation of: Z Prior Wood Millwood Willams/Maddux I could live with overpaying Neifi to spell Nomar/Aram/Walker and I would enjoy watching the cubs in the playoffs next year...and every time Neifi was used properly I'd slowly forget how much we are paying him and how he was used last year. I would no longer have expletives before his name when I talked about him. What I fear and what I think is more likely is that we put all of our eggs in the furcal basket, he uses us to jack up the price that the braves eventually pay him. We trade Walker for Pierre or some other overrated player. Overpay for Jaque Jones. Let Nomar Walk. Ship Patterson out for peanuts. Resign Macias. Pass on Giles because he's "overpriced". Pass on Bradley because he's "trouble". Give up on Dunn and Abreu and maybe even sign Juan Encarnacion so Dusty has somebody to play in front of Murton. If we end up with: Pierre CF Perez SS Lee 1B Ramirez 3B Encarnacion RF Jones LF Barrett C Cedeno 2B A rotation of: Z Prior Wood Maddux Rusch I will not only jump off of the Hendry bandwagon, I will burn it.

100% Not only that, we'll be adding Jeff Blauser, George Bell, and Dickie Thon to the Roster. Welcome back fellas, I know it's been a while but we've got a guy who knows your true potential. Your veteren leadership will be invaluable in the 2006 season.

I've been a Hendry supporter for a while...but I'm quickly falling off the bandwagon. I knew that he wouldn't fire him before his contract ended, no matter how many completely stupid moves he made. It would be 2 managers in a row terminated before the end of contract, not to mention the completely baseless, but inevitably present accusations of racism. If this rumor is true, I'm ready for the pitchforks and torches outside Jim's door. It is inexcusable. It is one thing to realize you made a mistake and live with it for the agreed upon duration...maybe try to dusty-proof the team for 2006 and hire a more competent manager in 2007. It's quite another thing to be completely delusional and blind to the fact that you made a mistake. I hear people say all the time that they players should be accountable and not the manager. I agree that the players should be accountable for their performance and certainly share the blame this year. But the fact of the matter is, Dusty consistantly does not put his team in the best position to win. Until he does that, I'm gonna keep pointing the finger at him. Yes there were injuries, but there should be positives from every negative. After Nomar's injury, we should know today whether or not we need Furcal next year or if Cedeno is going to work out. With Hairston going down, Dubois being traded, Patterson being sent down, and Hollandsworth being a bench player...We should know if Matt Murton is our starting LFer next year. We should have had one of the brightest spots of the season closing for us from day one, with Hawkins setting him up. Though we managed to turn that situation into a few valuable arms...it should/could have been handled better. As it is, we have many more questions than answers. Murton and Cedeno have lit it up in their limited playing time...yet still don't get starts over vets with just miserable numbers. Despite what Dusty thinks, Perez, Macias, and Hollandsworth have just been terrible. It wouldn't be hard for a rookie to come up and perform at that level. Sorry about the rant, I am just so angry and dumbfounded by this rumor. I really thought we were turning a corner in cubdom with Hendry at the helm. Until this year he seemed to have a vision, creativity, and the desire to build the team supplementing the core talent with a mixture of free agents and home grown players. Now he just seems like he got lucky with a few good trades and really has no clue what he is doing.

You're right, Baker switches lineups just because...not to mention his whole lefty/righty matchup obsession. Even when a lineup works, rarely will he run the same lineup out the next day. Though I've only been watching baseball for 15 years religiously, I can't say that anyone except Don Baylor comes close to Baker in this regard.

To answer your question, because he's not on the 40 man roster. and yet pitchers who have stunk in AAA like Rohlicek and Bartosh and Leicester ARE on the 40 man. Yet Van Buren who, a lot of Cub "Minor League enthusiasts" say doesn't have Major League stuff, has for 2 seasons now, has had nothing but success, Isn't on the 40 man. But then again, for the most part, this is coming from the same group that thought Hee Seop and Bobby Hill, David Kelton and even Kevin Orie (almost forgot Mitre), were going to be perennial All Stars. Van Buren will be added to the 40 man this off season. Nice over exaggeration. I don't think I've seen anyone claim Choi, Hill, or Kelton will be prennial all stars. They were/are extremely talented and have the potential (key word here) to make an impact on the major league club. Especially when they have people like Karros, Deshields, and Willie Harris in front of them who wouldn't be hard to out produce. Don't do drugs.

They have to be playing for a draft pick. There is no other explaination. I really wish I could become a bandwagon fan...I really thought we were done with this loveable loser, keystone cops bs.

As our draft position appears to be getting better and better, I was wondering if any of you Minor League experts have had an eye on potential draft candidates for next year? Is next year's crop full of talent or kind of sparse?

That looks like Macias is at 2B. Good thinking Dusty, Walker's only 5 for his last 13, and 5 for his last 15 against LHP. Oh, and Walker had a day off 3 games ago. Actually, replace Burnitz with Nomar, move Macias to RF, and slide Perez to 2B, and that's the correct lineup. I misheard it. It's still bad, though. Macias RF Perez 2B Lee 1B Ramirez 3B Nomar SS Murton LF Barrett C Paterson CF Maddux P Me PO This is comical, I'm completely numb now. What makes this worse than anything is opening day next year, dusty will STILL be our manager, Neifi will STILL be our "backup" shortstop or starting 2B, and Macias will still be playing 10 times more often than he should be. I've suffered through a lot of bad teams, years where the only thing I could hope for was the cubs pulling a miracle off and taking the season series from the cards. I honestly just do not care about this team for the duration of the year. I can't even play MVP 2005 anymore because I'm so disgusted with the real life cubs that I am even disgusted with pixelated versions of them. Macias and Neifi at the top....I mean if you give anybody else at the stadium a chance to fill out the lineup card, nobody is dumb enough to put them in the same lineup, let alone at the top. I hope the booing starts at the first pitch and doesn't let up one bit until the last out. I'm not normally a booer, but this is a disgrace.

Let it be true! Better yet, let it be Dusty! Toothpicks are heavy.

As much as I'd like to believe that, I can totally see Dusty, Neifi, and Macias here until their contracts are up. Dusty has more than proven that he is not capable of making sound managing decisions, yet he's still here and still making the same, absolutely stupid moves.

isn't there a guy on the bench with a .400 average and .490 OBP? i think he has red hair. He's a righty, dude. Hollandsworth is, like, no slouch out there.

Man, what a terrific lineup tonight. Dusty HAS to be trying to lose his job. I mean wtf? Perez, Hollandsworth, AND Macias?

WTF is with Cub fans (assuming that's why they are asking cub questions) messing up cub names? Ryan? Woods? WTF?

Thanks to Perez chasing 2 pitches that would have been called balls. Look, all I'm saying is that it must be something that either Brenly's noticed or its been proven somehow, that Dempster sweats more than what the heat/dewpoints help produce. Why would Brenly not have just said "with the heat and humidity, its creating sweat on Ryan's hand"? IIRC, Bob said something to the effect of "because of Dempster's profuse amounts of sweat on his throwing hand, he can't get an effective grip on the ball to throw his splitter the way he wants to." I didn't really pay much attention to how much he was using the rosin bag, but I will note that Ron was pleading with Rothschild (or Barrett) to go out to the mound after Bell struck out to give Dempster a breather and to allow him to cool off. The adjective he used was "dripping" and I really don't think he was too far off. I'm not sure on this, but weren't most of the pitches he was missing with breaking balls? It seemed like ihe was having much less trouble challenging hitters with the fastball (I think he reached 97 on one) than the breaking pitches, which could be attributed to sweat. Yeah, his fastball was absolutely filthy last night. He actually hit 98 if you believe the comcast display. Howard looked completely overpowered by the fastball, he wasn't even coming close to catching up.

I don't see how steroids can make that big of a difference in your game from one month off them to one month on them. In someone younger, I would agree. But Palmeiro is getting ancient in baseball years. I doubt he had much left in the tank without juicing. Which, IMO, is the biggest concern over steroids in baseball --- it prolongs careers by temporarily delaying strength loss that would come with age. I think it would also have a big psychological effect. Not only are they stronger, but they are more confident. I'd imagine there would be a huge doubt in his mind. Did my natural ability build this career or did the chemicals? Can I perform at the same level on natural ability alone? He stops juicing this winter...gets off to a slow start and immediately thinks it's because he stopped. Continues to lose confidence, shoots up, has a decent game, confidence starts going the other way. I'm convinced that Giambi started up again as well. He looked pretty skinny coming in to the season and was hitting for zero power. July hits and he is unstoppable and IMO looks big again. Maybe I'm dreaming things up. I agree with your psychological effect assessment. However, I am not ready to blame someone just because they "look bigger." I am not going down in that cess pool as Wilbon told Mariotti (what a great exchange by Wilbon by the way). I put on 15 pounds of muscle in 2 months of hard working out and protein shakes one summer, and I am not a professional grade athlete. So I am sure they could do it natuarally as well. Yes, but you also aren't an admitted "former" steroid user who had all winter to work out hard, drink protein shakes, but still came into camp skinnier than he had ever been in his career. Then in the course of 2.5 months of baseball workouts, batting practice, road games, etc...bulked up to his old size or damn near it. I'm not saying it's impossible, I'm just saying it's improbable due to his track record. Normally I wouldn't jump on any person who had a significant size jump. I'd have my thoughts, but I'd reserve judgement. But when you admittedly cheat, you lose the benefit of the doubt. It's like if my girlfriend cheated on me. Before the fact, if she stayed out late a few times or went out drinking with her friends I wouldn't assume she is cheating. But if I catch her cheating and then 10 months down the road she stays out late...I'm automatically going to assume she is cheating.

I don't see how steroids can make that big of a difference in your game from one month off them to one month on them. In someone younger, I would agree. But Palmeiro is getting ancient in baseball years. I doubt he had much left in the tank without juicing. Which, IMO, is the biggest concern over steroids in baseball --- it prolongs careers by temporarily delaying strength loss that would come with age. I think it would also have a big psychological effect. Not only are they stronger, but they are more confident. I'd imagine there would be a huge doubt in his mind. Did my natural ability build this career or did the chemicals? Can I perform at the same level on natural ability alone? He stops juicing this winter...gets off to a slow start and immediately thinks it's because he stopped. Continues to lose confidence, shoots up, has a decent game, confidence starts going the other way. I'm convinced that Giambi started up again as well. He looked pretty skinny coming in to the season and was hitting for zero power. July hits and he is unstoppable and IMO looks big again. Maybe I'm dreaming things up.

Just for the heck of it, if they are high profile, these would be my guesses: Cub:Nomar Giant: Bonds Oriole: Sosa Philly: Abreu Tiger: Pudge Mets: Piazza, Pedro Astros: Bagwell, Ensberg Yankees: Giambi, Sheffield, Posada All hypothetical, but it was kinda fun trying to guess. I think some of the picks are sort of obvious but anyway... My guess would be: Cub:Patterson (Minor League) Giant: Alou Oriole: Mora Philly: Thome Tiger: Ordonez Mets: Beltran, Reyes Astros: Ensberg, Berkman Yankees: Sheffield, Womack and K. Brown Cub: Burnitz Giant: Sanchez (strike 2) Oriole: Sosa Philly: Thome Tiger: Pudge (Rondell White is a good candidate, So is Farnsworth if the test was before the trade) Mets: Piazza, Floyd Astros: Bagwell, Ensberg Yankees: Giambi, Sheffield, Brown

Neither Sosa nor McGwire gave up anything to hit more homers in 1998. And I wouldn't describe either one as one-dimensional. McGwire was always a good OBP guy, and he posted his second-best OBP total that year; so it's not like he became an all-or-nothing guy like Deer, Kingman, or many others previously mentioned. And his defense remained at his typical slightly-above-average level. And Sosa didn't just start hitting home runs in 1998; he actually became an overall better hitter. Sure, he stopped stealing bases. Big deal. I'll take a 1.000+ OPS with 10 steals over .840 with 34 steals any day of the week. And Sammy's defense, especially his arm, didn't start to decline until about 2002-2003. I agree, both were offensive giants...I wasn't trying to say that offensively they couldn't do anything but hit HRs. What I meant by one dimensional was their only contributions came at the plate. McGwire had zero mobility and though he wasn't really a liability at first...he certainly didn't shine. Same with Sosa and every year since it seems he's gotten sloppier on defense.

...did that have anything to do with Tim Raines getting the nickname 'Rock' though? Lol, I hope not.

From the Speech: But Harry, who was a huge supporter of mine, used to say how nice it is that a guy who can hit 40 homers or steal 50 bases drive in a hundred runs is the best bunter on the team. Nice? That was my job. When did it become okay for someone to hit home runs and forget how to play the rest of the game? That's the context of his statement. It hints that people (Harry who certainly speaks for the people) in Sandberg's day were not content with just HRs, not that nobody in his day only tried to hit HRs. In retrospect, Ryno seems less targeted at the present day player than I originally thought. He's pretty much targeted on anyone who forsakes fundamentals and defense.

This is exactly what went through my mind when I first read OleMissCubs current sig: The answer could very well be, "Back in your day, Ryno." Don't get me wrong, I'm sentimental for the "Good Old Days" myself. But there were at least as many and probably more one-dimensional sluggers in Sandberg's day than there are now. Add Dave Kingman, Darrren Daulton, Oxxie Virgil, and Cliff Johnson to your list. Good point about the Pittsburgh drug trials, too. I remember when that was going on wondering if there was anybody in baseball who didn't do coke. Now it's steroids. Difference is, players take steroids in an effort to make themselves better; those doing recreational drus like cocaine back in the '80s were doing it in spite of the fact that it could likely make them perform worse. Maybe I'm dense, but I don't see anything about Ryno's speech that said in essense "Things were better in my day". The whole thing was about respecting the game, your team, and the fans. The comments he made about hot dogging it in front of the cameras may have been from more recent events, but he doesn't suggest that hot dogging only happens now. He comments about Green and Zim saying that players like him made their jobs easier. That suggests that there were a shortage of players who played with respect when he played. Just because he asked when did it become ok to hit home runs and forget the rest of the game doesn't mean that it didn't occur in his day, it only means that it's become more acceptable as the years go by...which IMO is true. Sure guys like Rob Deer and Cecil Fielder hung around the league a while and may have gotten some fanfare, but the real superstars were people with all around games. I grew up rooting for Sandberg, Dawson, a young Griffey Jr., Tony Gwynn, Mark Grace, Kirby Puckett, etc. because they could beat you in many different ways. As the years have gone by, the game's focus has shifted to HRs. In '98 the two biggest superstars in the league had one dimensional games. Sure they were doing something unimaginable, but that's all they did. Sosa, at one time could play some D, throw out runners, and steal some bags. He seemed to give them up to hit more home runs. In some people's minds the extra hrs made up for the loss of the other areas...IMO what Ryno is saying is if you have the ability to have an all around game and you forsake D and fundamentals and only focus on HRs you aren't respecting the game, the team, and the fans.