Rob

Because he's a poor manager? "What are you talking about?!? He won us back to back division titles and won 97 games last season!" Seriously, Lou has gotten progressively worse since he's gotten here, and has been flat out BRUTAL this season. I'm not even saying he should or will be fired, but come on. There's a very good reason a lot of people want him gone. Stop looking at win/loss records to determine how good a manager is. Look at the moves he makes and what he does. If you do that, it's easy to see that he's been pretty awful. If Lou is terrible and should have won more games with the team he has, then Hendry must have put together a 100 win team. You can't hate Hendry AND Lou AND acknowledge that there have been a ridiculous number of injuries/under-performances. Lou is a great manager despite his flaws. What evidence is there that he "is great"? I don't know if it's enough to qualify him as great... but he certainly does have some great attributes. For one, we know that he absolutely has a positive effect in certain ways. This is Lou Piniella's Cubs everytime the media mentions it. We don't get a bunch of negative attention for showboating players, clubhouse fights, etc... he absolutely takes a lot of media pressure off the team by being the one in the spotlight all the time. Also, I really have to give it to him... he does a fantastic job of handing the workloads of our starting pitchers. He could be a bit better working the back of the bullpen guys into more games... but all in all I have very few qualms about how he handles our pitching staff (aside from the occasional guy like Wuertz or Hill whom gets stuck in his doghouse and can never get out). His lineups generally didn't contain Andres Blanco batting first or second... He brought in Trammell, who has done an excellent job as the bench coach. And I'm sure there's plenty more. Like many of you, he was far from my first choice... but that doesn't mean he hasn't done quite an admirable job of managing... despite the occasional hit and run gone bad.

If Mike Rizzo doesn't get to keep the GM job in Washington, I'd be interested in bringing him in as well.

The numbers fluctuate, but they're usually pretty close to equal. Situations like those are the ones where a manager makes the difference, trying to predict how the opposing manager will respond to having first base open with whatever hitter is coming up.

Earl Weaver really said it best... If you play for one run, that's all you're gonna get. So you had better be sure that run will win you the game.

It was Larry Himes. Sandberg hated him because of Sosa and the Cubs' new video room. He worships DG. yeah, sandberg has no love for larry himes as noted in his biography second to home. if my memory is correct (i haven't read the book in almost 5 years), he was pissed at himes for not re-signing dawson and letting maddux go to the braves. dallas green is the one who insisted that he be a part of the larry bowa trade, so sandberg has a lot of respect for green. sandberg is my all-time favorite baseball player, but his speech at the '05 HOF was just a "back in my day..." rant and him grinding his sammy sosa axe for 15 minutes. kinda disappointing to hear him rag like that on the biggest day of his professional baseball career (so far). Yeah, that was it... Deep down, I knew it wasn't Dallas Green... but I couldn't figure for the life of me who else it would have been. Now I just feel stupid.

Slighty peering towards 2010 for a moment, I'm excited that, for the most part, we should probably have several intriguing guys at each full season level. Peoria looks like it could be fascinating again, although it might be a team that struggles due to youth. Most of the bats in Peoria right now should be headed to Daytona. I'm not real sure I see anyone being jumped to Tennessee. Maybe Flaherty. That said, a long way to go before next spring. Two small dreams I have: a) One day, our GM can stop signing a ton of washed up has beens/never was for AAA. b) That we will be able to fill our "role players" in the big leagues with guys from the system, saving us a bunch of money in the process (certainly, I am hoping for star talent as well, but if we develop the role players, that will give us some help the next years and offer financial flexibility when contracts start coming off, rather than having to pay ridiculous amounts for middle relievers). I said this in another thread, but I think that the system might be the best in the NL Central. Certainly, not something to get too excited on, but a huge step in the right direction and one that could bode well for our future. I dunno... I do kinda like keeping some AAAA guys around in Iowa. Personally though, I much prefer the top prospect washouts like Koyie Hill than junkers like Trenidad Hubbard. And I don't buy our system as the best in the Central. The Pirates still have a nice leg up on us, if for no other reason than Pedro Alvarez... but I'd take our system over the Reds and Brewers... and the Cards and Astros are beyond terrible right now.

I don't have the book on me, but I remember reading a biography of him where he lashed out at... I wanna say it was Dallas Green... for having some computer printouts designed to help dictate strategy.

This.

he was never going to play; reed johnson was the platoon partner for fukudome and the corners were filled by bradley and soriano. pie was never going to "figure it out" in a role where he never played and didn't get to adjust to major league pitching. Agreed. Once we decided to sign Bradley, Pie had no place on this team. I really wish Lou would have given Pie a fair shake last year though... but of course he defaulted to the scrappy veteran Reed Johnson after about 4 games.

You know, I understand the urge to have all your players know how to bunt, hit and run, etc... they can be useful tools to have. But they need to be used sparingly... and Ryno's strategy seems to be to "manufacture" runs... and that's bad.

I'm going to assume that the Cubs were thrown in there by shear laziness. Cubs will almost assuredly take a look, but they wont be major players.

Yep. If someone who isn't pick protected signs him. Even a sandwich pick and a second rounder has more expected value than Ceda.

I said it at the time of the trade, and I mean it now... I'd rather have six years of cost-controlled Jose Ceda than one of Kevin Gregg... but if he's our closer all year and leaves as a Type A FA we've offered arby too, we came out way ahead.

It's just a matter of who gets hot when. Hell, if Soriano gets really hot, he can almost win us a 5 game series by himself...

Ryno was my favorite player growing up... and I think he'd make an excellent bench coach. But I don't want him to manage the team. He's completely backwards.

Entourage

http://www.fangraphs.com/lgraphs/290814116_Pirates_Cubs_138435942_lbig.png

That was a tough play.

call me crazy... but I kinda want to see Koyie hit into a triple play here. I can't imagine anybody has ever hit a triple and a triple play in the same inning before.

Sori's leg kick was reaaally off on those first two pitches.

No one will ever beat Rusty Kuntz. Daley Cox was up there... but we just released him.

Logan White and Kim Ng say hello. Logan White is the best GM prospect and if they were to replace Hendry, he would be the only one on my list. Chris Antonetti belongs on the list too... but I'd prefer White. Antonetti will replace Shapiro when Shapiro gets promoted in about 1-2 years. That's pretty obvious from the way he turned down the Cards job. But he did interview, so there is a slight chance he was willing to be stolen away.

I never wore a cup while playing sports. After blowing out my knee one time too many, I was too slow to voluntarily slow myself down more with one of those.

That'd make the Pac Rim haul pretty darn impressive this season if true. If there's one thing that Jim Hendry has done real well on, it's allocating his resources to the Pac Rim. We're getting a lot more bang for our buck out there than we would be duking it out with all the other teams in the Dominican, Venezuela, etc...

Not that anybody is interested, but I'm revising my list... 1.) Josh Vitters - Tools are obvious, but his injury history is becoming slightly worrisome. 2.) Starlin Castro - I actually considered giving him the top spot. He's done more than just hold his own at such a young age... he's been fantastic. Even his slow start at Tennessee is nothing to be concerned with, as he hasn't struck out yet in 33 AB. 3.) Jay Jackson - There's nothing not to like. 4.) Andrew Cashner - I'm coming along slowly on him. I question his ultimate ceiling still simply because the organization doesn't seem to see him in the rotation down the road. 5.) Hak-ju Lee - I heard Tim Wilken refer to him as a first round talent, and he's certainly playing like one. His power may never materialize, but he has all the makings of an excellent player with a high average, plenty of walks, plenty of SB, and fantastic defense. 6.) Chris Carpenter - First round talent with injury problems. The performance is about what I expected... but he's got a ways to go before the injuries don't scare me. 7.) Kyler Burke - I've been higher on him than most in the past, and I'm continuing the trend now. He's starting to hit for average, and some of those doubles are going over the fence. I'm starting to see a lot of Jeremy Hermida in him. 8.) Dae-Eun Rhee - His stock drops slightly on account of the injuries... but I am in love with his arm. Something tells me he could take an Angel Guzman path to the majors... but he'll pay off at some point. 9.) Brett Jackson - I still think he was a mistake of a pick, but he's doing his best to prove me wrong. 10.) Junior Lake - Hasn't produced this year, but he's got tools out the wazoo. Plus, this pick should piss off Truffle.