BigbadB

For further proof that a players numbers suffer playing at Petco, see: Cameron, Mike Castilla, Vinny Piazza, Mike (Actually, Mike's numbers look about the same over the last several years, until you look at his home and away splits. Look up anybody. Play at Petco and your offensive numbers will suffer. Even Chan Ho Park can pitch well there.

Tell me why Jones is a big mistake? Half this board wanted to spend more than $30 million to bring Brian Giles on the team. Note that Hendry might have been right about Jones and this board might have been wrong about Giles: OPS Jones .851 Giles .785 SLG Cedeno .402 Giles .397 Platoon Jones and Murton in LF next year, and you'll have an OPS over .900 in LF. That's some nice work, but it's not that simple. Jones plays in the NL Central, home of the: 3rd, 8th, 12th, 13th, 14th and 16th best pitching staffs in the NL. Brian Giles plays in the NL West, home of the: 2nd, 4th, 6th, 7th and 9th best pitching staffs in the NL. Brian Giles plays in the absolute toughest hitting park in baseball. San Fran, LA and Arizona are other tough hitters parks in his league. Jacque Jones plays most of his games in arguably the best hitting division in baseball. If Brian Giles was playing for the Cubs, his numbers would be considerably better. Side note: Brian Giles can get the ball back to the cut off man on the fly. :wink:

Thank you Huston Street.

If Blanton keeps it up, I'll have 4 quality starts out of 5 so far this week. :cheers:

Yep, although I'd certainly listen to offers for impact prospects. The problem I see is that Hendry can no longer be trusted to make the right moves to make this team better. That's why before any moves take place, they need to get someone in the front office that will make the right deals to make the team better. I'd be on the phone with the Marlins daily asking what it will take to get Cabrera. In the meantime, the Cubs should continue to showcase their youngsters and boost their trade value. A couple more really good outings from Marmol could really improve his trade value.

That was a pretty bad signing. He'll end up in someone's rotation for league minimum.

The Angels are trying to peddle their current 2b (Adam Kennedy), who is very comparable to Todd Walker. Howie Kendrick is 22 years old, plays 2b and is hitting over .400 in Triple A and is very ready to be an everyday major leaguer. The Angels also have a surplus of guys who can DH. I think it's safe to assume Walker will not become an Angel this year. And I think it's also safe to assume that the Angels would not trade a top prospect for someone who isn't much of an upgrade over Adam Kennedy.

Excellent point, Dalgreen. Arrogance is exactly what it is. Matter of fact I can hear a voice that sounds just like Joe Morgan's saying "unless you played the game, you can't have a true understanding of it". There's probably a lot of truth in this. As there is probably a lot of truth that Hendry doesn't really know how to build a winning team. Instead of copying teams like Atlanta or the New York Yankees, he emulates the Florida Marlins and Chicago White Sox. Copying another teams success because you aren't creative enough to build a winning team yourself wouldn't be such a bad thing if you copied organizations that establish long term success, not just one year wonders. But, what would I know? I'm not a "baseball man".

It's so refreshing to see an article like this. The 4 players that are blasted in this article are the same 4 players I've been harping on all along. Each signing or trade was a horrible decision on their own. Combining any two of the signings or trades borders on ridiculous. Combining the 4 of them together should be enough to justify losing your job. Instead, we saw an extension, which is beyond mind-boggling. I can't think of a single baseball man outside of the Cubs organization that could sit here and analyze what Hendry and Baker have done with this team and honestly say that this organization hasn't been moving backwards ever since they made the last out in the 2003 playoffs. Not every move has been a bad one. But, way too many have been horrible. Since the end of 2003, the Cubs have added approximately 20m to the yearly payroll, they had quality players on the major league roster and had one of the top farm systems in baseball. They shed their roster of all the bad contracts, and they were in a position to build a powerhouse team. The words dynasty were being spoken around here after the 2003 season, myself included. I'm not a pessimist. As much as I speak negatively about the Cubs these days is how I spoke positively about the Cubs as the 2003 season came to a close. The future was bright. The farm system isn't nearly the strength as it once was. The increased payroll was wasted on non-difference makers and lost causes. The talent at the major league level was sent packing for little or no return (Patterson, Nomar). If baseball people were to write a book on how to screw up an organization, they could just go back and look at what Jim Hendry and Dusty Baker have been doing since 2003 came to a close and write the perfect recipe for a best seller. They are getting exactly what they paid for. Awesome article, Bruce!

I must be at least tying the world record with 10 starts this week. If I don't win, it' full on fire sale mode for me.

That's horrible. I'd trade Rolen for a small fortune. :D

Exactly. You can't assume that every bunt attempt would have been an out if he was swinging away instead.

Please discuss in the thread that's already open on this topic.

Ha ha! Career .309 OBP or whatever it is is exactly what this team needs at the top of the order. =D> Never in all of my many years of being a Cub fan did I actually cheer for Cub losses until this year. I cannot support this idiocy. I just can't do it. I hope that Dusty and his Pierre/Womack top of the order gets shut out tonight.

Well, I wonder what Tim might want for the incredibly oft injured Kerry Wood? I'm shopping.

Probably not. They have no reason to be disrespectful to Maddux. There are 3 teams in the Southwest that they could trade him to, so there really isn't any reason to be disrespectful to him, either. See what the Padres, D-Backs or Dodgers are willing to give up for Maddux. All three teams might feel that a quality starter might put them over the hump down the stretch. Maddux would probably be a 3.25 ERA or better pitcher pitching regularly in Petco.

The glass isn't half empty. It hasn't had water in it since the end of 2003.

I could only agree that Patterson would be starting ahead of slappy if there was a different coaching staff. With the same coaching staff, I'm not sure Patterson would be doing what he's doing now in Baltimore. Think of all the other teams that wanted nothing to do with Patterson this past offseason. Bet some of them are kicking themselves now. However, I do agree that it's an absolute waste to trade a guy like Patterson when his net worth isn't anything more than a couple of never will be's.

And the truth should set you free!

Between all the double switches and pinch hit at bats for the pitchers, yeah, I'd say their using the equivilent of a DH for at least part of each game. Oh, and the Cubs #3 hitter is only 4 RBI ahead of the Cubs #9 hitter.

Here's a useful fact. Kansas City Royals= 231 runs Chicago Cubs= 228 runs Want to make it even worse? The Cubs have played 1 more game than the Royals.

Don't look now, but Kansas City just past the Cubs in run production. :shock:

Did anyone start Kameron Loe this week? Yikes.

I can't imagine their record is very good on ESPN either. Actually, their record kind of sucks no matter what channel their showing on. :D

Hall can play multiple positions and would make for an ideal guy off the bench. Amazing that the Brew Crew would consider bench depth as a need and the Cubs consider it unnecessary. Bill Hall or Neifi Perez. Such a tough choice. Not! I'm going to take a wild guess that Bill Hall doesn't make half what Neifi Perez makes. [-(