BigbadB

This is been the most fun game of the season. Watching Dusty's reactions has been quite entertaining. Almost as hilarious as "Everybody Loves Raymond". Tomorrow's Chicago Sports sections should read: Lee comes back, everyone else kicked to the curb.

Agreed. But, Chippy and Steve are working elsewhere for stating the obvious. I wonder which veteran player will be calling the booth today from the clubhouse? The only thing missing from today's game is someone to kick the ball into the ivy in Wrigley instead of picking it up and throwing it in. Luckily, Bob and Len can rent a car to get home from the Twin Cities when the team refuses to let them on the team plane.

By the way, I'm sure Dusty will be all over Murton for his error, but the errors by Neifi (two of them), Nevin, Walker and Jones will go unspoken because they are veterans.

Can't you see that the momentum has changed? Derrek Lee being in the line up has made all the difference. The Cubs have a zero on the score board, but they aren't losing another game this year. He's going to replace Neifi as the guy who saved the Cubs.

Wait, according to Ozzie, Ozzie can't lose his job until after Mariotti loses his.

I have zero interest in Trot Nixon, and I'm not sure that Jones to Nixon would actually be an upgrade when you consider health.

Nope. I didn't say a guy with an .860 OPS was a bad player. But, an .860 OPS from 1b is not top of the line production. It's closer to average production.

I didn't say it wasn't a steal. Derrek Lee was one of the most discussed players available in trade the year prior to the Cubs getting him. Florida was totally dumping his salary, whether you wish to believe it or not. Okay, slightly above average when comparing him to other 1b's in 2002 and 2003. Much closer to mediocre than best of the best.

That's just wrong.

<-----------bullpen sucks!

It's absolutely bag time. Any team that could continually run OBP's below .300 in the top two spots in the order deserve bags.

Nobody has ever been this bad or stupid.

When exactly was he solid?

This is where you are way off base. No one here is critical of Jones OR Murton. They are critical of the guys who assembled the team with Jones and Murton as your corner outfield. Jones would be an acceptable LF if you had + production from a good RF. He'd probably be an outstanding CF given his production. If Jacque Jones and Matt Murton were the two halves of a platoon compliment in LF with a really good RF, you probably wouldn't be hearing much criticism about either player. Hendry was the one who went with Cedeno and Murton as his everyday starters for the 2006 season. Thinking he could get enough offense out of these two rookies and an average player like Jones was a huge error in judgment. Not only did he go with these guys as his everyday starters, he had no quality back up players if they ended up struggling worse than they are now. The Dodgers played it much better. There was a lot of criticism of how poorly the Dodgers offseason went, but you absolutely cannot deny now that they went into this last offseason with a much better approach than the Cubs did. The Dodgers have so much depth, they don't know what to do with it all. They slowly promoted the kids one by one, and they have solid veterans as back ups if for some reason the kids struggle. Hendry placed all his hopes on a couple of kids to be as good as advertised, and he had no back up plan in the event they struggled. The Jones contract is a joke. I don't dislike the guy. I just don't think he's worth a 3 year deal. His biggest weakness offensively happens to match the biggest weakness that continually goes ignored in this organization. If you're going to spend 3 years and 15m on a guy, make sure he is good at getting on base. Austin Kearns was an available bat this past offseason. He makes less than 2m a year right now, and he matches Jones in most offensive stats but is much better at drawing walks. He's just an example of how poor of a decision it was to spend 3 years and ridiculous money on a guy who has the same disease as most of the other players on the team, poor OBP. I love the kids, but before any offseason moves were made, my suggestioin was find a lefty compliment for Murton and get a stud RF. Since Cedeno didn't really have any real competition and would almost be guaranteed to play everyday, it made good sense to improve the offense in the outfield. I also suggested bringing back Nomar. Nomar provided protection and depth. If you couldn't get a stud RF, you could stick Nomar out there. If you did get a stud RF, you could put Nomar at SS and use Cedeno as a defensive replacement/spot starter. When Lee got hurt, you could slide Nomar over to 1st and put Cedeno at SS. There would still be a loss of offensive production downgrading from Lee and Nomar to Nomar and Cedeno, but if you had GOOD outfielders, the offensive drop off wouldn't have been that signficant. My criticism isn't with Jones, himself. It's with the guy who signed him to be the stud offensive player the Cubs needed to go out and get. We got the short end of the straw. Plain and simple. Almost any criticism's of this team revert back to management, and not the player. This team was constructed so poorly, it's hard to find a place to begin. Nobody hates Neifi, Rusch, Pierre, Bynum, Mabry, Womack and Blanco. By themselves, having any one of them on the team as the 25th guy wouldn't draw much ire. Collectively, it's one of the worst benches in the history of sports. It becomes even worse if 1 or more of them actually start a game. That is Hendry's fault. That's what you get when you don't know what you are doing. Am I happy that a guy who doesn't know what he is doing just received a 2 year extension? Absolutely not. That's why most of my posts point to Hendry, MacPhail, Baker and his coaching staff as the first moves that need to be made. These are the guys who will be making the decisions this next offseason on who to add to this team. For that, we should all be very scared.

Derrek Lee was a possibility back in the 03-04 offseason. Florida was trying to move him for pennies on the dollar. A few teams showed some interest, but not enough to take on his entire contract. Derrek Lee was an average offensive 1b prior to his 2005 season with the Cubs. When the Cubs traded Choi and Nannini for Lee prior to the '04 season, I don't think anyone here could visualize Lee putting up the '05 season that he did. It was a total salary dump from the Marlins side of this deal. Hendry got a steal of a deal, as Lee not only made it a totally lopsided trade, but he went from an overpaid, mediocre 1b to an underpaid all star 1b in 2005.

You mean like tonights line up? Uh, yep. I haven't looked up the stats, but I'm going to go ahead and guess that Walker is better against lefty pitchers than Neifi is. Walker stroked a single and drew a walk against one of the toughest starting left handed pitchers in either league. Meanwhile, Neifi did get a hit, but it was a seeing eyed infield pop up. Walker's walk lead off an inning. Neifi's hit would have been the last out if it was caught. The evidence is mounting. Further evidence is overkill.

Nevin's home run nullified by the guy who drew the walk prior to the Morneau home run. Brilliant!

Wasn't the idea this year to get speedy players that could put pressure on the defense? The Cubs don't hit and run, they don't steal many bases (except for Pierre) and they don't find a way to get on base. Yet Baker's offense seems to have 2 tactics: the sac bunt or wait for someone to hit a HR. I know many here don't believe in the stolen base or the hit and run. That's not even the point. The Cubs either have no plan, they had a plan but scrapped it or they simply don't have what it takes to make it work. You need to have guys on base for the hit and run to be effective. You need to have guys on base in order to be quick on the basepaths in general. Fact!

Thank you. Jered Weaver under control for six years or possibly losing Aramis for nothing at season's end? hmmm.... If we are going to analyze it like this, shouldn't we assume that the Angels would need to look at it like that also? Why would they trade Weaver for a guy who could opt out of his contract at the end of this year?

He's also depth for the Reds, something Hendry has no comprehension of.

Just wow.

I don't think I ever neglected the former (getting on base). I simply implied that without the latter (getting them in), the former doesn't do that much good. In another medical analogy, if the heart dies the brain will die but if the brain dies anyway the healthy heart doesn't do much good. However, with the grand overall analysis provided by BigBad, it is obvious that the getting on part is about 90-95% of the total issue. And, I readily agree that having good (and smart, which may be inherent) hitters is really all it boils down to. Sorry for my over analysis. Actually, OBP isn't anywhere near 90-95% of the total issue unless we are only discussing scoring runs. SLG, starting pitching, bullpen, bench depth, defense and sound fundamentals have to figure in there somewhere as well. I'd probably add line up card construction as one also, but if you flooded your roster with good OBP guys, it really doesn't matter a whole lot how you fill out the line up card. After all these years, Dusty still doesn't know how to fill out a line up card. When filling out the card, ask yourself these important questions: Should Neifi Perez bat before Derrek Lee or Aramis Ramirez? Should Neifi get more at bats than Derrek Lee or Aramis Ramirez? Is Neifi Perez good at setting the table for guys like Derrek Lee or Aramis Ramirez? Is Neifi Perez good at getting on base (using facts rather than pure instinct, of course)? If the answer is no to all of these questions, what is he doing batting 2nd on the line up card? Someone pointed out earlier in this thread (or another) that Juan Pierre was the only sub .300 OBP guy batting lead off in either league. That would be because Dusty is not smart enough to recognize the problem and do something about it. When he actually took Pierre out of the lead off spot for a game or two, he put him in the #2 spot. Wow, what a revelation. GENIUS! Take a struggling hitter and slide him down one spot, as if this is going to motivate him to win his old job back. [-( I have a better idea. Put him at the bottom of the order IF you have to play him at all. Put him where his bat can do the least damage. It's the principle behind where you bat anyone in the line up. You bat the most productive hitters 3rd and 4th with the hopes that your #1 and #2 guys get on base in front of them. If you're going to bat your best OBP guys 6th and 7th, then it would also make sense to bat Lee 8th and Aramis 9th to make the best use of your best OBP guys. But, how much sense would that make? About as much sense as it makes to bat these sub .300 OBP guys at the top of the order where they will not only continue to be sub .300 OBP guys, but they'll gobble up most of the at bats as well.

I wouldn't. Starting pitching is very important, but you're talking about a once every 5th day starter compared to an everyday player at a tough position to fill, and one of your true offensive threats.

Agreed. If the Cubs had Alex Gordon waiting in the wings in the minors, sure, see what you can get for Aramis. Scott Moore is the only potential hole filler at that position, and there is no guarantee that he'll be anything special in such an important offensive position on the field. And you can't just pin your hopes that some other deal could fill that huge, gaping hole you just created, therefore you don't make that deal. Now, Jacque Jones and/or Juan Pierre for Jered Weaver and you got yourself a deal. We have Murton and Pie, and replacing the production of Jacque Jones would be easy to do via free agency.

Thank you.