BigbadB

Cub fans worst nightmare........ 0-7 Fuzzy Logistics have basically been in fire sale mode most of the season, but is about to win for the 5th time in a row (6th overall), saving the managers job and an outside shot at being at or near .500 by August 5th. :D

I have Chris Shelton to offer.

If you aren't competing for anything this year, it probably doesn't matter. But, I'd get rid of all the part time players, either by dumping them or trading for a full time player. Walker, Murton, Lofton to name a few. Murton might be someone to stow away on your bench, but Lofton and Walker may never be regulars again.

The 2006 Florida Marlins are 10x more fun to watch than the 2006 Chicago Cubs. (though I really did enjoy Zambrano's baserunning skills yesterday). I'd rather sit and watch a bunch of no names with heart and soul doing everything they can to prove they belong in the big leagues than a bunch of spoiled, whiney, overpaid veterans pissin' and moanin' about why they are 20 games under .500. Personally, I think Florida is only a Cabrera and Willis trade away from giving the Mets a run for their money next year.

Dusty: How in the world did he score a run?

Alex Sanchez career: .296/.330/.372 Is Alex Sanchez a class A FA? No. Does Juan Pierre's last 2 years compare with Sanchez? No. The only 2 things Pierre has on Sanchez is AB and a clean bill of health. That teams are dumb enough to continue hitting such a poor hitting hitter at the top of the order does not make him a class A free agent. If the Cubs want to fill CF next year, they could get the same or better effects by trading for Sanchez. No thanks. The Cubs have somewhat identical options in their own minor leagues if they want a fast, low OBP lead off hitter who will make really fast outs.

All of this stuff is happening (ie. Barrett decking AJ, Jones lashing out at fans, Walker lashing out at the booth) because why? THIS TEAM SUCKS! We haven't seen the last of it either. This team isn't going to wake up tomorrow and be a good team. When you lose, you start pointing fingers. You have trouble keeping your composure. It's not fun going out there day after day knowing the season is basically over, except for the meaningless games that still need to be played. I feel for the players. They didn't assemble this lousy team. Management did. It's not about race. I don't see the race card being used. The Cubs have had 2 different black managers in this century, and one received a very nifty 4 year contract. What has he done with that contract? I'll be the first to tell you he didn't earn it. There has been no accountability this year for this teams suckage. Hendry should resign effective immediately. MacPhail should follow suit. Resigning now would actually be a good way to go out. It might just allow them to save face and land another professional job of some sort, someday. If they status quo, I can't seen anyone wanting to take a chance on them anytime soon. A captain goes down with his ship, but this isn't a ship. This is a professional baseball team. Or, should I say it's SUPPOSED to be a professional baseball team. The problems start and end at the top. If this was a good team, there wouldn't be all this hatred spewing forth. Walker would be patting Cedeno's bottom rather than looking for someone else to blame. Besides, it's not about looking for scapegoats. The whole team loses, not just the person who made the error or struck out with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 9th or didn't hold the runner, etc.... We saw all of this in 2002 with Baylor and we saw it again in 2004. It's happening again in 2006. Management has been given the tools necessary to build a winning team. The fans know it. The fans also expect it. Because management didn't build a winning team, someone needs to be held accountable. There hasn't been 1 firing at this point. The pitching has been horrid and the ability to get on base and score runs has been horrid. A lot of people need to go for those two reasons alone. I'm sure Walker will end up being the scapegoat when all is said and done. I won't condone his actions, but he is not the problem with this team. MacPhail, Hendry, Baker, Rothschild, Clines, Matthews, Pole and any other significant person in charge of building and maintaining a winning organization should be the scapegoats. It's managements fault that Jones is getting into it with fans. It's managements fault Walker is lashing out at Brenly. Put a winner on the field and everyone is happy. EVERYONE! Bottom line.

It wasn't luck. It was good pitching. Remember that horrid 2002 season? The team scored 706 runs and posted a .321 OBP that year. In 2003, they weren't much better. They scored 724 runs and posted a .324 OBP. They made some strides in 2004 by improving the OBP to .328 and increasing their run output to 789, but they fell off dramatically last year with 703 runs and a .324 OBP. They weren't lucky in 2003. The pitching was so good that they won games in spite of the poor hitting attack. If you had great pitching, you might be able to get away with what Houston and the White Sox accomplished last year. But, it's risky to do nothing to improve a bad offense and assume your pitching will carry you. And right now you are seeing why that is such a risky game plan. The White Sox didn't sit on their hands after winning the World Series by living and dying on a strong pitching staff. They went out and improved the offense this offseason while also working on improving the pitching staff. Hendry had an average pitching staff at best last year. He had a horrible offense. Instead of focusing on improving the offense, he focused on speed and defense. Gee, why is this team 20 games under .500? And I'm no rocket scientist.

We've been saying this for a lot longer than the beginning of this year. I think I mentioned it casually at least once everyday last year. That Derrek Lee finished with (by far) the lowest RBI total in the history of the game for guys with 99 XBH's or more speaks volumes.

Is Pierre better than Tavares? Not by much if he is. So, Houston trades Ensberg for a Tavares clone that makes 15x more than Tavares does, and some B level prospect that "might" be a major leaguer someday? I don't see it.

Their goal at this point is to attempt to win as many games as possible to give an impression the season wasn't really all that bad. Which means that Murton will stay on course as a part time/seldom used option in LF. Neifi will continue to get incredible amounts of playing time, etc... I honestly don't think they'll make any significant moves. I also don't think any of the players that will be tradeable parts will have very much value at the trade deadline. Who in their right mind will pay top dollar for Pierre, Nevin, Maddux, etc...?

Huff wouldn't be a good move at this point. He's in the last year of his contract. The Cubs don't need any more of those.

I will happily accept Hendry's resignation. MacPhail's too, for that matter.

Didn't they just have some problems with Cabrera the other day? I want to say he got pulled from a game for his actions. But, the last week has just been a blur, so maybe I'm making stuff up.

HAHA! Bowden is still haunting the Reds.

Yeah. He changed his underwear last week. . . . . I think. Nope. You are incorrect. Turning them inside out is not "changing" your underwear. :wink:

If the Cubs had 120m, I'm not so sure you wouldn't see the same line up out there with everyone getting raises. Having the ability to evaluate talent will take this team much farther. Just look to the south for a prime example. The Cardinals payrolls usually closely resemble the Cubs payrolls. The Cardinals are winning division championships and the Cubs aren't.

I was so far down when I left town, I was writing in a loss for last week. Just got home to see that I made a very strong comeback. Cool!

I'm not saying that. And I don't think Emmitt should be off the radar. However, you do have to take the strength of the team each guy played for into consideration. Emmitt's line blew open tremendous holes play after play. Barry and Walter had to create their own holes and then get creative to get downfield.

If you are asking me, he's probably top 10, but not among the elite. I might even have Gale Sayers ahead of Faulk. I'm not a fan of either guy, but O.J. "Bloody Glove" Simpson and Eric "I'm so full of myself" Dickerson are somewhere in the lower 10 as well. Heck, Shaun Alexander will be mentioned with this group in time. Walter and Barry are the two best ever, but Walter wasn't a quitter.

Umm. No. A good SS should be brought in if Cedeno isn't any better than what he has shown so far. :wink:

And it sounds like he stole that material directly from the Milwaukee announcers, who basically said the same thing.

Barry Sanders had a chance to surpass Walter as the greatest, but he quit. Sorry Barry. Greatest back of all time is Walter. And that is absolutely not a homer pick even though I'm a Bears fan. Comparing Emmitt to Walter is quite comical. Emmitt played on teams that went to the playoffs year after year. How many players on teams that Emmitt played on are going to be in the Hall of Fame? Better QB, better receivers, better offensive line. Emmitt had it all. Emmitt wasn't even the best of his generation. Barry did circles around Emmitt. Walter created most of his yardage despite playing on poor offenses year after year. Same argument can be made for Barry, but he's a quitter. Defenses keyed on Walter because he was the offense. Especially in the days prior to McMahon and Gault. But, he still managed to get downfield. Teams couldn't key on Emmitt because of the threats to Irvin and whatever stud receiver was on the other side of the field from Irvin. Emmitt just had to follow Nate Newton and Co. to get all the yardage he got.

Weather? :sunny:

And once the end of spring training comes and you realize he can't play anywhere but first base anymore, what do you do until June 15 when you're allowed to trade him? He hadn't played more than half a season since 2003, and if he was healthy he probably would only be able to play where we had an MVP caliber player. There was plenty good reason not to pursue him after last season, and it's still valid considering the Cubs' injury troubles last year and considering Nomar hasn't shown an ability to play anywhere other than first(despite LA going to multiple options at 3B and LF). He couldn't be traded before June 15th without his approval. What, Nomar would veto a trade that would likely mean more playing time at a position that he can play better? I doubt it. Nomar has been doing very good at 1b in LA. Why move him? LA does have multiple options at 3b and LF. Mueller, Izturis, Saenz, Guzman and Aybar can all play 3b. Kemp, Ethier, Lofton, Ledee, Repko, Cruz Jr., etc.. can all play LF. Because he hasn't played other positions is not a good enough excuse to say he can't. His transition to 1b has been quite good. SS or at least former SS can play just about anywhere. Heck, Barrett was a former SS. Other than the fact his knees are probably too screwed up now, I think he'd be fine just about anywhere in the field. Going into 2006 with Cedeno as the everyday SS was a tremendous gamble. Especially with Murton penciled in as the everyday LF. Especially with Dusty as the manager. It's not my mess. It can't be undone. But, the results speak for themselves.