BigbadB

I'm not buying your argument that his numbers are lower than Jacque's because of the division he plays in. Giles has played a whole 2 games in Dodger Stadium, 2 in AT&T Park, and 3 in Chase Field for a combined 32 at bats, and he has 11 hits in those 32 at bats (about a .340 average). Oh, and he has an OPS over 1300 in both AT&T Park and Chase Field. And I don't think I need to mention Coors Field. The bottomline is that Jacque Jones has outproduced the much wanted Brian Giles. For half the cost. I suppose that depends on what you consider "outproduced". Giles has scored 12 more runs, driven in 6 more RBI, and has a .388 to .327 OBP advantage over Jones while playing in a much tougher park to hit. I don't see it as coincidental that Giles numbers dropped significantly when he moved from Pittsburgh to San Diego. See how his SLG dropped in 2003 from Pittsburgh to San Diego. See any other player on the Padres team and how their SLG's dropped when they moved to Petco. It's a simple question. Who would you rather have? Jones, Neifi and Rusch or Brian Giles?

Whoops. You're right. I did mess that up. However, Derrek Lee does have 3 more walks than the 2 spot in the Cubs line up.

Sounds like Hendry and Dusty have him well trained to join the big club. :roll:

Fun facts: Derrek Lee has as many walks as Juan Pierre and Neifi Perez combined. Derrek Lee has 3 more walks than Jacque Jones. The Cubs pitching staff has 5 more RBI than Juan Pierre. The Cubs 2 spot in the order is now officially worse than the lead off spot. Lead off= .290 OBP #2 spot= .288 OBP Brilliant!

Oh, and...... Tim for GM!! :w00t:

Sounds familiar. Yeah, good one. However, my list will only have good players on it. :D

How 'bout the HGH supplier?

Me. Neifi Perez will never bat above 8th in the order. Dempster will never sit more than 3 days in a row. Good hitters will hit at the top of the order. Bad hitters will sit on the bench. Players who don't have their head in the game will be pulled immediately, even if the inning isn't over. Umpires will not be someone I speak respectfully with and go sit down after they made a very bad call. I will likely get kicked out of the game after I have insulted him and his mother. I will consider PHing Zambrano over Bynum. I will not waste outs with stupid sacrifice bunts at stupid times. I will have the respect of my players because I will want to win more than any player on the team. I will inspire them to want to win. I will not burn out my pitchers arms in meaningless blow out games, or at any other time, actually. I will bench players who do not display a decent amount of patience at the plate. I will give my GM a list of players he can sign or trade for. All others need not apply.

Giles still isn't hitting for a lot of power even away from Petco, only an .852 OPS. And how is Aramis doing? :wink: Players struggle, and Giles has been struggling a lot like Aramis. Of course, both players have been asked to carry their teams since most of the other players are horrible.

Oh goody. Personal insults because my opinion does not agree with yours. It's really disappointing when a debate turns into personal attacks. I'm out. Oh, and you are not pardoned. Sorry.

Do you really think that Corey magically grew up in one offseason? He's a completely different player out there this year. It could be that he transformed into a good player in one offseason, but my personal opinion is that the Cubs coaches messed him up so bad, he couldn't get anything going here. Hopefully, he will give some details as to why he's turned things around so well. I'd love to hear him say that the Cubs coaching staff is clueless. It would answer a lot of my questions.

I suppose that depends on what his .850 OPS would translate to hitting in the NL Central regulary might do. Giles made his bed, he's gotta lie in it. Personally, I think he was a fool for going back to San Diego. But, the bigger fool was Hendry for not courting Giles the way he courted Furcal. For what he spent on Neifi, Rusch and Jones, he could have had Giles. Thank heaven we have Neifi. :roll:

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.