BigbadB

Link please. Welcome back. Haven't seen you around much lately.

Just wow.

Every team in sports has injuries. Good teams can over come them, especially with a good front office who prepares for them. Let's look at the other side of town. Last year, Thomas hurt and Orlando Hernandez sore, resign Everett and bring up McCarthy. This year, Contreras gets hurt, oh, there were 6 capable starters on the team anyways. At some point you also have to look at the coaching staff. There's an issue when the same guys keep getting hurt. Do you look at the specific coaches, trainer, GM for putting so much stock in these guys, or GM for not getting backups in the offseason (the pitching didn't knock your socks off with everyone healthy anyways, unless you like 4 man rotations, plenty of starters were out there). It makes it worse with a guy like Wood who has never really proven anything (remember when someone found his scouting report in the clubhouse and it was one of an average pitcher. He's making a living off of one game) and when guys not affiliated with the team or city are pointing out mechanics problems Derek Lee was a freak accident, but this Cubs bench is horrible, you need some suitable backups! Welcome to NSBB!

Outside of a few HOFers, I can't think of a whole lot of people in this era that are millionaires many times over that moved straight into coaching from their big league career. Not saying it can't happen, but it would surprise me if Maddux did it.

All is not lost. Ticket prices will probably only go up "slightly" next year. :D

Only thing I recall Womack getting started is losing streaks. Womack, like Lofton? I don't think so. Womack- .273/.316 AVG/OBP lifetime K. Lofton- .299/.373 lifetime

With 5 out of 8 everyday position players batting right handed. So much for right/left splits Dusty. If you took Murton's numbers out of the equation, it's much worse.

After the Beurhle performance, the Cubs team is: .190 AVG .270 OBP .278 SLG .548 OPS against lefty pitchers this year.

Considering their just going to bunt anyone who does get on base over, and since the pitchers are probably the best bunters on the team (outside of Pierre), why not just go with a pitcher? It's not my strategy, but if small ball is the strategy which is pretty apparent, doesn't it make sense?

The situation is this team is horrible and something needs to be done. And I have plenty of criticism to offer until it does. :P

Greeeaaaaaaaatttttt! If 2006 wasn't bad enough, you gotta bring up the last 50 years now too. :P

Whoops, I guess someone did already mention Womack in this thread. My bad.

I haven't agreed with a lot of Sullivan's columns in the past, but if he wrote a derogatory column about Jacque Jones and his 3 miscues at 2nd base in the last two weeks, his column was right on the money. For Hendry to criticize a writer for blasting someone who deserves to be blasted is silly. I suppose Sullivan could have written a column that praised all the other times that Jones didn't get caught off base, but it isn't really newsworthy. Maybe a bit of bad press is what these clowns need to quit ignoring the basic fundamentals this game was founded on. Maybe Hendry should take that article into the Cub clubhouse and tell his team that he doesn't want to read another article about poor fundamentals from this team. Not because the writers were scolded not to do so, but because the team needs to stop playing fundamentally poor. It's one thing to strike out 4 times in a game. It's one thing to give up 5 or 6 home runs from the mound. It's something totally different when guys can't perform the basics that are taught in little league. It blows me away that Hendry and MacPhail think the writers should completely look away when a player drops a can of corn (Bynum). That they should look away when Jacque Jones attempts to advance a base on a routine fly ball that requires TAGGING UP first, etc.... Actually, Hendry and MacPhail are extremely lucky that the Tribune owns this team. If it weren't for that small issue, there would be more writers in this town roasting this horribly awful baseball team. Yeah, MacPhail can probably have Sullivan removed from the clubhouse and probably even from the front page of the Tribune just like they had Steve Stone and Chip Caray removed from Tribune/WGN broadcasts. These guys (Stone, Caray, Sullivan) aren't the problem. Shutting them up only masks the problem. The problem is this team sucks and no one seems to care enough to do something about it other than shut up the people who report how badly this team sucks. What will they do next? Plead with ESPN to change the games won and lost in the standings so that it isn't blatantly obvious how bad this team is? I've got a better idea. Make some trades and kick the nonproductive people to the curb. There is no time better than now to blow it up and start over. Cut your losses. Even if you have to pay these clowns for the remainder of their contract, you don't have to reward their poor play with more playing time. Bottom line: Jim Hendry's poor decisions are what created these articles that point out his poor decisions. It isn't putting a stop to those who write the article that will fix the problem. Getting rid of the guy who makes the poor decisions is a much better start.

I can't believe no one has said Tony Womack.

Kind of makes you think about that prospect's accusation about how Hendry treated him. Not to say Jim did ruin his career, but he comes across as a decent guy in most interviews, but it's coming out that he's much more of a jerk we might have thought. Which may affect more aspects of his job than we realize. If he's a jerk, it can affect all manner of negotiations. Baltimore doesn't mind fleecing us, and they have former Cub people in their organization. Not sure they would do a trade that was fair or even. The Dodgers won't even talk to the Cubs (from what I gather) and they have former Cub people. Why is that?

If the Cubs get swept by the Sox this weekend, Hendry may more closely resemble the district manager in this clip: http://www.nbc4.tv/video/9152183/detail.html

At this point, Hendry has to be absolutely embarrassed about what he has done with this organization. And I really had high hopes for him. I really thought he had the potential to do some great things here. Now, it's no accountability and a complete lack of understanding of how to put a good team on the field. Why must we wait for him to be fired? Why hasn't he turned in his resignation? Oh, that's right. Because the ink is still wet on that newly signed extension. :roll:

Unfair and critical? The toughest writing job in the world is the one where you are asked to say something nice about a team that gets shut out 5 times in 15 days and lays down bunts with 1st and 3rd with 2 outs in the 9th. This is just MacPhail and Hendry worrying about what other people are doing instead of worrying about how they are going to fix this mess. AND TONY WOMACK IS NOT A FIX!

It will mostly depend on how well they field bunts. :wink:

Has Neifi ever laid down a bunt single?

Don't the Cubs buy up a bunch of their own tickets through their brokers? They can't be making any money off of inflated ticket prices when there aren't any takers.

You're right. There isn't a match. The players on the Yankees draw too many walks. Not sure how good they are at laying down a bunt.

http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20060518&content_id=1460008&vkey=news_chc&fext=.jsp&c_id=chc Responding to the bolded part "He can play the outfield" "He can pinch-hit" "He can pinch-run" He can do all those things, but yet he can't get picked up by any of the other 29 MAJOR LEAGUE teams. If he was a free agent that they landed in the offseason, at least they could argue that other teams might have had interest in the guy and they were lucky to get him. They plucked him off the scrap heap. No one else wanted him. So, it makes all the sense in the world that the Cubs would sign him and bring him up real soon. The only thing left to hear is that he was signed to a 2 year deal at 2.5m a year and it will be a thing of beauty. This is just funny now.

True story, When I was in highschool I went to the University of Michigan Football Camp every year. One year the swearing by the campers must have gotten out of control or something becuase Bo Shembechler had a sit down with us to talk about our language. I can only remember two lines 1. Cussing is a converstional crutch. Then a few minutes later one of his staff inturrpted him with a question and he said in a voice only those within a ten foot proximity could hear: 2. I don't give a ______ can't you see I'm giving a talk. Good story. That guy was a good coach.

Can he play back-up SS? Anyone can play back-up SS better than Perez. Although my son is pretty good. :wink: Is he available to manage, or is school not out yet?