BigbadB

Dusty won what with his band of misfits? Nothing. He finished 1st twice in the NL West during his tenure there. The NL West has been the red headed step child division of major league baseball for quite some time now. The Rockies have never been good. The D'Backs were only good when they had Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling. The Padres put together one good team and then have a fire sale immediately afterwards. The Dodgers and Giants are the only two teams that spend any significant money in that division. So, for 2 first place finishes in 10 years in San Fran is really not that strong of a resume. And his band of misfits featured more than just Jeff Kent and Barry Bonds. Ellis Burks, Will Clark, Robbie Thompson, Bill Mueller, Jason Schmidt, Livan Hernandez, Rob Nen, Rod Beck, JT Snow, Matt Williams, etc.. I'll go conservative and compare the 1999 team instead of the 2000 team. The 1999 Giants team that won 85 games finished the year with a .352 team OBP and scored 872 runs. What happened? The Cubs scored 703 last year. When did Dusty transform into an aggressive approach? The 1999 Giants drew 696 walks. The 2000 Giants drew 709. The 2005 Cubs drew 419 walks. 419 Dusty may not have had all star teams while he was in San Fran, but he clearly had better teams than most of the other teams in that division. If you like Dusty, I'm cool with that. Why must you convince me that I need to like Dusty? You'll have a tougher time convincing me to support Dusty than you would to get me to eat a plate of lima beans, and I absolutely cannot stand lima beans. I believe Perez and Macias hit at the top of the order together more than just once, also. [/b]

Why didn't the Phillies just keep Michaels? Dellucci to me is a guy that is a better fit in the AL. Does that make Nevin the everyday DH?

Wow, what tremendous pop the middle infield of the St. Louis Cardinals has. Between Miles and Eck, they may not match Neifi Perez's HR output.

Is Burnett back now, or does he need more time to rehab?

Nice analysis. That puts it all in perspective.

Remember last year when the Cardinals loaded up the bases and Edmonds was due up, and Dusty brought in Mike Remlinger to face him? Edmonds crushed the ball Remlinger served up. Heck, I think even Remlinger knew he shouldn't have been the one to face Edmonds in that situation. Making a move like that is comparable to a chef serving up raw chicken. There's a slight chance you might not get sick, but you probably will. Gut feeling is crap. If you play the percentages, I won't be screaming like a lunatic and throwing things at my tv. And running Neifi and Macias out there to bat 1/2 in the order ahead of Lee is asinine. I just walked over and turned off the tv, and I rarely do that when a Cubs baseball game comes on. I'd never consider trying that once as an experiment. Dusty did it numerous times. I don't care who was injured. We had Murton, Barrett among others to hit at the top of the order. Neifi is an out machine and how many times did he hit 1st or 2nd last year? Way, way, way, way, way too many times. Why do players like playing for Dusty? Because he doesn't ride their asses when they do something stupid. He just lets them play. When Moises Alou kicked the ball into the ivy and let a relatively slow runner walk around the bases for an inside the park home run, a "good" manager would have told him to take a shower and go home. He most certainly would not reward lazy, half assed play go rewarded with more playing time. I could go on and on. Being a long time baseball player doesn't make you a good manager. While I am not stating I know more about the game or would do a better job of managing a team, it doesn't mean that I'm willing to concede that every guy that has been a manager at the major league level is a good manager. And I certainly do not think that Dusty is a good manager. A good manager doesn't continue sending your set up man out to close games when it's obvious to everyone in the stands that he doesn't have the mind set to close games. Dusty did it day after day after day. If that wasn't enough, he did it again the next year. Hawkins is a good set up man. But, don't let him close. We learn when we are young that if you put your finger in a pan of boiling water, you will burn your finger. Dusty puts his finger in that boiling water everyday. Screw hunches. Play the percentages. If you lose playing the percentages, then at least you gave your team the best chance to win everyday, and I won't complain. If you have watched Cub baseball everyday while Dusty has been in charge and can still say he's a good manager, then I applaud your optimism. But, there is absolutely nothing you can do to convince me you are correct. And the saddening part of it all was that I supported bringing in Dusty Baker as the manager. I guess I didn't really know anything about him prior to coming to Chicago other than the fact players liked playing for him. I didn't realize it was because mediocre to bad veterans get more playing time and those are the guys who actually like playing for him. "Walks clog the bases" is not the mentality I want to hear from the manager of the team I route for. Baserunners score runs. The aggressive approach is good if you are swinging at good pitches. The Cubs barely scored 700 runs last year, so maybe a few more walks might be in order? To each there own. I'd actually prefer to have Baylor back. I thought his in game management was bad, but Dusty's is worse. Last year when it was apparent that the Cubs were out of it, Dusty still wouldn't play the kids. He wanted to get the Cubs record over .500 so that he could make his resume look good for another 4m a year long term contract. It didn't work. The crap he was sending out there everyday in meaningless games wasn't as good as the kids he's now planning on starting this year. I don't know who would make a good manager, and I'm not overly fond of Tony LaRussa, but LaRussa is definitely better. The Cubs had over 40m to spend this offseason and there was no excuse to put together a team that couldn't win it all. They went out and got the guys "they" wanted. Let's just see how it works out for them. I'll be cheering for the Cubs to win, but I'll be cheering in spite of Dusty's poor managerial abilities. If they don't secure a playoff spot this year, I want Hendry and Baker gone. Hendry could salvage his job only if he got rid of Baker quickly enough to not impact the entire season. I'm a lifelong devoted Cub fan. I am not a pessimistic person by nature. Baylor and Dusty have made me this way by their poor management skills. Baylor still isn't managing today, and Baker is only still managing because he managed good teams that would have been fairly successful whether he was there or some other manager that could keep Barry Bonds happy.

Add David Aardsma and his Ecstacy photo and you have post of the week!

Team Stats & Scoring 1. Number of Cubs wins, 2006 76 2. Number of Cubs wins, Cardinals season series (19 games) 8 3. Number of runs scored, 2006 685 4. Number of runs allowed, 2006 700 5. Final Placement in the NL Central Division 4th Player Stats & Scoring 1. Number of DLee Home Runs 35 2. Number of Juan Pierre Stolen Bases 44 3. Murton's Batting Average .310 4. Aramis' RBIs 110 5. Maddux's Wins 12 6. Zambrano's ERA 2.25 7. Kerry Wood's Ks 175 8. Mark Prior's Games Started 25 Tiebreaker: Michael Barrett’s OPS .780 ------------------------------- ------------------------------- 1. 76 = = +50 2. 8 = +50 3. 685 = +150 4. 700 = +0 5. 4th = +50 1. 35 = +0 2. 44 = +20 3. .310 = +30 4. 110 = +30 5. 12 = +20 6. 2.25 = +0 7. 175 = +0 8. 25 = +05 Tiebreaker: .780 Team Points: 300 Player Points: 105 Total Points: 405

I don't think that is a fair assessment of Bynum, to being compare to Macias. Everybody and their mama's knew Macias WAS NOT ML caliber, and where Macias RARELY produces anything of note, I suspect that Bynum produces more often (cause of his unique ability to ACTUALLY take a walk) then Macias. So, I don't think Bynum to Macias is a fair comparasion. Comparisons? I didn't make any comparisons. I said that I like Bynum more than Macias, and I made that comment mainly because both were basically the 25th man.

He better hope his knee is in good running shape. He's going to be running the bases a lot again this year as pitchers pitch around him. Who gave up 715? Al Downing. Many, many, many more people know this than actually watched the game. Who wants to be the next Al Downing?

Maybe Dusty finally got a chance to have a chat with all 3 of them at the same time.

Thanks for sharing, Bruce. Personally, I'm hoping Cedeno is just saving all of his big hits for the games that actually count. I might not be opposed to Neifi taking Dusty's job if the Cubs start off slow. He's already on the payroll and he seems to have a better relationship with the pitchers. NEIFI PEREZ FOR PLAYER/MANAGER!! :D

NL East: NY Mets NL Cent: St. Louis NL West: Los Angeles WC: Philadelphia AL East: Boston AL Central: Chicago AL West: Seattle WC: Cleveland

I think I like Bynum a lot more than Macias, but this move ranks at about a .5 out of a possible 10 in significance. Wasn't Bynum's deal that he was out of options?

Even worse than the .298 OBP Perez put up last year is the fact he hit into 22 double plays. You could tolerate that many GIDP's if the guy offered up something tangible with the bat, but Neifi does not. 18 walks in 572 at bats is just plain pathetic. Neifi is not the only bad player receiving a contract in the major leagues, but he will be picked on more because he plays on our team and he's making way more money than he deserves. If it's not bad enough that we had to tolerate him as long as we have so far, he's basically a lock to be here again next year.

Coors is a little league park in comparison to the rest of the league. Everyone plays well in Coors. Assuming that the way Neifi hit in Coors is the way he will always hit is like saying Jeromy Burnitz would repeat his: .283/.356/.559 37 HR/110 RBI season. Instead, he hit: .258/.322/.435 24 HR/87 RBI season. Diving in a little deeper: Jeromy Burnitz at Coors in 2004: .322/.386/.670 :shock: Jeromy Burnitz on the road in 2004: .244/.327/.448 At first look, it appears that Burnitz had a pretty good season in 2004 in overall production. But then reality sets in to the fact he played half his games in Coors. The last numbers are more indicative to what we should have expected in a Cub uniform, and they are pretty close. Because Coors artificially inflates a players stats if they play half their games there, it's not unusual for people to ignore those stats because they aren't going to be a true indicator of that players true ability. No one will argue that Neifi is a slick fielder. But, that's all he is. Most non hitting slick fielders never see a major league baseball diamond and I'm not sure why Neifi has been an exception for as long as he has.

Maybe I'm only basing my opinion on Santos based on how he's pitched like Cy Young against the Cubs, but I don't think he's all that bad.

I was only joking about the fire sale. I am willing to do trades, however. I'd like to leave Madson where he is until he has starting pitcher status, actually. Is that illegal?

It's going to take me several years to turn this team around. I'm just going to tell the boys to relax, have fun and we'll try again next year.

With the way the Cubs set up this team, I agree. Pena would not be a good fit. Now, put .370+ OBP in the top 5 spots in the order, and I'll take a guy like Pena hitting 6th. I think the Cubs could afford to do it then. We don't really know what kind of an effect steroids had on Sosa, so it's not really fair to assume he couldn't have improved on his own as he aged. A lot of players improve their OBP. Sammy K'd a lot when he was young, and he K'd a lot as he was older. What did improve was his walk rate, which was probably a combination of pitchers pitching around him and a little more selectivity on his part.

Santos is a guy (along with Kip Wells) that the Pirates will hope to land more prospects for at the deadline. It also gives the young pitchers a little more time to get ready for the majors. The Pirates are a few more years away yet, IMO.

I might be way off on my impression of Pena, but I see a young Sammy Sosa without the speed. He just turned 24. He's never had more than a half season of at bats, yet he's had as many as 26 HR's in a season. A guy with that kind of power can K all he wants if he can hit 40+ HR's a year. Sammy had a horrible OBP when he was that age also. I disagree with that last statement. 200 k's and 40 walks would be pretty awful. I don't care how many HR's you hit. Especially if he's only going to hit around .250 for average. When you have the OBP guys that Boston has, you can afford to have a guy like Pena in your line up. Once again, I must point out his age. He was 23 when he put up those numbers. Sammy Sosa had numbers just as bad minus the power when he was 23.

I phrased my response incorrectly. Nomar would have been my starter somewhere in the Cubs line up, whether it be SS or an outfield spot. Nomar wanted to come back and play for the Cubs in '06. He commented that he was willing to play different positions and wanted to do Chicago right for being hurt the last few years. He loved it here and wanted to return. If the Cubs showed any interest in him, LA never would have been an option. But, the Cubs held hands with Furcal until he signed in LA. LA ended up with Furcal AND Nomar. How do you like them apples. I've been very upset with this offseason. I hope Cedeno works out. I'm excited that he's getting his chance. But, I want Dusty and Hendry gone if Neifi is playing SS everyday too prematurely.

I would to. Maybe I didn't phrase it properly. My offense would have probably kept Nomar at SS unless Cedeno was the real deal and Murton faltered.

I might be way off on my impression of Pena, but I see a young Sammy Sosa without the speed. He just turned 24. He's never had more than a half season of at bats, yet he's had as many as 26 HR's in a season. A guy with that kind of power can K all he wants if he can hit 40+ HR's a year. Sammy had a horrible OBP when he was that age also.