nick23

No, those are not the complete choices I listed. You left some important stuff out. I originally wrote the following: 1) Zito, Furcal, Pie in CF, and losing several valuable minor leaguers(to get Zito). or 2) Burnett, Cedeno at SS, stopgap CF, retaining all valuable minor leaguers. Right. Like I said no mention of Giles.

Now that's just ridiculous. Walker is more than capable of hitting leadoff. And he's more than capable of reaching home with less than 3 hits after him. That's just absurd talk that completely belittles the rest of your message. I'm not impressed with Furcal because he's not very good. He's fine, but he's no $8 million difference maker. He's a career .346 OBP player, and that's acceptable, but hardly impressive. He's also got a drinking problem, that, unlike Kyle Farnsworth, has actually gotten him in serious legal trouble. If Furcal is your primary offensive improvement in the offseason, you will still be severaly lacking on offense. The OF must be addressed. The Cubs have options at SS, but they don't have anything for the OF. Speaking of ridiculous. I would love to hear your explantion on why Furcal is "not very good". I'm also wondering how you know Furcal has a drinking problem. And isn't the point of a leadoff man to not only get on base, but also get himself into scoring position?

I think option 1 looks far better. Are you kidding me? Furcal is the the player I want the most this offseason. Zito would be the best 3rd starter in baseball. And who says we'd need a stopgap CF? I don't think Beane would ask for Patterson in return for Zito. In this scenario we'd have one of the best defensive shortstops in baseball and a quality leadoff hitter locked up for 4 years. If Wood comes back healthy we'd have by far the best rotation in baseball. Just resign Walker and sign or trade for a high slugging corner outfielder and your looking at a playoff team IMO. No, I'm not kidding you. Let's just say I'm not as impressed with Furcal as you are, particularly at $8M. I'll take Cedeno at $350K. Pie is the CF of the not too distant future, so I expect Patterson to be dealt, and we will need a stopgap CF until Pie is ready. Zito is fine, but I'd rather just pay Burnett his fair price and save the farm. So you pretty much just don't want to compete for a WS next year. Not if you want a stopgap CF and a Ronnie Cedeno at SS. I suppose you want Murton in left and a Klesko type player in right? There's an imposing lineup. I'm sick of having no offense. Who's going to lead off for this team, Todd Walker? I don't care about his OBP. You need some speed at the top of the order. Even if he leads off the game with a hit or walk it's going to take 3 more hits to get him home. I'm also not quite sure what doesn't impress you about Furcal. Is it the great defense? Or maybe the career .350obp. Or maybe the fact that he rarely strikes out. Or it could be the fact that at 27 he's about to hit his peak years. What is not impressive about him? I don't want a WS in 2006? I want Burnett locked up longterm and a real star like Giles in RF, and it can be done too, if we don't waste money on Furcal, and getting Burnett means we won't have to gut the farm to get Zito, who I believe will be very expensive in terms of minor league talent. We would have a real contender with Burnett and Giles on the team and plenty of young talent for trade bait. I'd also like to know who your CF is. We are close to the beginning of the Felix Pie era and Patterson is out of favor with the organization, so it makes sense to get a competent vet to bridge the gap, which will be brief if things go as planned. Well yeah, you throw Giles in there and I'd much rather have he and Burnett over Furcal and Zito. But in your original post you stated that you would rather have Burnett and Cedeno over Furcal and Zito. And, can you honestly see the cubs signing both Giles and Burnett this offseason?

No offense to you, nick23, but that's a widespread misperception on this board. The Cubs are first in BA in the NL, second in HRs, lead in total bases, and are 6th in runs scored. That's hardly 'no offense.' The Cubs' problem is that they allow more runs than they score. Period. That's a function of bad pitching, bad pitching, bad pitching and bad pitching, with some bad fielding thrown in. Stand pat on the hitting, improve the fielding (especially up the middle) and add one good starter, 2 good relievers and one great closer, and I guarantee you the Cubs will be a playoff team. That having been said, I agree with you about Furcal. He makes this team better with his defense alone. You can spout out all the numbers you want. We have a bad offense. I don't think is a misconception at all. We are horrible fundamentally, we can't get on base. It's a bad offensive team. We may score some runs in bunches but all in all it's a bad offensive team IMO.

I think option 1 looks far better. Are you kidding me? Furcal is the the player I want the most this offseason. Zito would be the best 3rd starter in baseball. And who says we'd need a stopgap CF? I don't think Beane would ask for Patterson in return for Zito. In this scenario we'd have one of the best defensive shortstops in baseball and a quality leadoff hitter locked up for 4 years. If Wood comes back healthy we'd have by far the best rotation in baseball. Just resign Walker and sign or trade for a high slugging corner outfielder and your looking at a playoff team IMO. No, I'm not kidding you. Let's just say I'm not as impressed with Furcal as you are, particularly at $8M. I'll take Cedeno at $350K. Pie is the CF of the not too distant future, so I expect Patterson to be dealt, and we will need a stopgap CF until Pie is ready. Zito is fine, but I'd rather just pay Burnett his fair price and save the farm. So you pretty much just don't want to compete for a WS next year. Not if you want a stopgap CF and a Ronnie Cedeno at SS. I suppose you want Murton in left and a Klesko type player in right? There's an imposing lineup. I'm sick of having no offense. Who's going to lead off for this team, Todd Walker? I don't care about his OBP. You need some speed at the top of the order. Even if he leads off the game with a hit or walk it's going to take 3 more hits to get him home. I'm also not quite sure what doesn't impress you about Furcal. Is it the great defense? Or maybe the career .350obp. Or maybe the fact that he rarely strikes out. Or it could be the fact that at 27 he's about to hit his peak years. What is not impressive about him?

I think option 1 looks far better. Are you kidding me? Furcal is the the player I want the most this offseason. Zito would be the best 3rd starter in baseball. And who says we'd need a stopgap CF? I don't think Beane would ask for Patterson in return for Zito. In this scenario we'd have one of the best defensive shortstops in baseball and a quality leadoff hitter locked up for 4 years. If Wood comes back healthy we'd have by far the best rotation in baseball. Just resign Walker and sign or trade for a high slugging corner outfielder and your looking at a playoff team IMO.

mind as well hit for himself. No, we should bat Hairston for him... Oh wait, Dusty already used him to pinch hit for the second best hitter in the lineup today.

With the patheticness of the cubs bullpen this year. It's surprising Hendry hasn't caught more flack for his trading away Farnsworth for .50 cents on the dollar. He would have been a huge asset this year.

I could care less about why the cubs are going to lose this game, or about Prior going to second instead of first. With his history of elbow trouble there is no reason at all he should have been left in a meaningless game to throw 131 pitches. Dusty should be fired on the spot.

is there a reason Prior is still in a meaningless game after 125 pitches?

This is a blurb from Rotoworld. I thought it was funny. Cubs optioned outfielder Matt Murton to Triple-A Iowa. Some reward for hitting .339 in 56 at-bats. He'll be back in September, though. Jerry Hairston Jr. will take all of Murton's playing time. Aug. 19 - 2:48 pm et

What in the hell? From proper breaking in of a ball glove to the Munsters. Holy cow. He makes me laugh

I love Ron Santo

I know it's been talked about before, but Hendry knows what type of manager Dusty Baker is. He knows Dusty's preferance for veterans over rookies. Hendry knew that we would have an outfield of Holla, Cpat, and Burnitz for a majority of the year. He obviously was ok with this. We all know that Dusty's philosophy is: if you're trying to win a division you go with the guys that have been there before. You go with experience over youth. And we beat Dusty to death because of his thinking. Guess what, Hendry has the same philosophy. Otherwise he wouldn't have resigned Hollandsworth, he wouldn't have signed Burnitz, and he wouldn't have traded for Lawton. I know I got off the topic there, but I just don't see how most of you think that Dusty Baker has to go immediately, meanwhile for some reason it seems like Hendry is getting a free pass.

I agree that a managerial change is probably in the best interest of the cubs. But this season is not Baker's fault. This current cubs team is just plain bad. We have top to bottom a below average pitching staff. A horrible defense and half the time no offense. We're a .500 team at best. I blame this season on Jim Hendry. It's not Baker's fault that we can't field, hit a cutoff man, execute a hit and run, bunt, hit a baseball, take a walk, throw a strike, get a big out in the late innings. Jim Hendry assembled this pathetic team so I blame him. Actually, a large portion of that can be attributed to Baker. Almost none of these players were having fundamental breakdowns this frequently when they were on other teams. Sure they had their mistakes, but nothing like this. It's now a team wide epidemic, and Dusty always finds ways to rationalize it in the papers. Yesterday's Sun Times said he's urging the Cubs to bring back the entire coaching staff for next year. If you ask me, I don't see one person there that's doing their job well enough to earn an extension. The fundamentals are partially the coach's responsibility. He is allowing his players to become lazy because they know he'll defend them later. I know he doesn't coach baseball, but get me Bobby Knight immediately. He'll clean house in a week, and I guarantee you the pitchers will be covering first base. I just don't see how you can say a large portion of that can be attributed to Baker. Lee is the only player on this team that is considered a good defensive player. Everyone else is average to below average defensively. That's not Baker's fault. It's not Baker's job to teach these guys fundamentals. Most of the regulars are into their 30's. If they don't know fundamental baseball by now their not going to ever know it. Do you honestly believe that it's somehow Baker's fault that we have pitchers that aren't covering first base? Is it also Baker's fault that Burnitz has been picked off 1st and 3rd base in the last 2 weeks? I'm not saying that Baker is not to blame at all this season. But I put most of the blame this season squarely on the shoulders of Hendry. These last 10 months he's been absolutely awful.

I agree that a managerial change is probably in the best interest of the cubs. But this season is not Baker's fault. This current cubs team is just plain bad. We have top to bottom a below average pitching staff. A horrible defense and half the time no offense. We're a .500 team at best. I blame this season on Jim Hendry. It's not Baker's fault that we can't field, hit a cutoff man, execute a hit and run, bunt, hit a baseball, take a walk, throw a strike, get a big out in the late innings. Jim Hendry assembled this pathetic team so I blame him.

I'm thinking the conversation went like this. Espn guy: Scoop, we need you to write an article on Dusty Baker feeling the heat in Chicago. Scoop: But I haven't followed the cubs all year. I have no idea if Dusty is even doing a good job in Chicago. Espn guy: Well, you could always make it a race issue. Scoop: Good idea!

Anyone read this yet? It's on ESPN.com. If you haven't don't waste your time. Completely ignorant. Here's a line from it just so you know what angle he takes. The only question left to ask will be this: If it were Bobby Cox and not Dusty Baker, would I have ever had to write this column?

I don't know if anyone has mentioned this yet but, now that we have a true leadoff hitter in Lawton. Why not bring Patterson back up and bat him 7th behind hopefully Nomar when he returns. Patterson plays a better center and he could add a little more power to the bottom of the order.

Why can't teams ever just tie the game against us? They always have to go up a run or two.

Yeah, he should only put in our good relievers. All 1 of them. Dusty should not be blamed for this loss. I can't think of any bad moves he's made today.

OUCH!

How about some more 8th inning magic?

WRONG. It'd be a 1 run game if Dusty had pulled Ohman. How many times has Dusty made this 2 inning mistake with Ohman this year so far, 10? GET A CLUE MORAN!! As for our hitting, it's streaky. Having a lineup full of streak hitters like Perez and Hollandsworth is the reason. Perez April 68 11 25 2 1 3 12 3 1 7 0 0 .368 .403 .559 .962 May 108 11 28 6 0 2 9 3 1 9 4 0 .259 .283 .370 .654 June 109 13 25 3 0 2 8 2 1 12 0 2 .229 .248 .312 .560 July 89 7 21 5 0 1 11 1 0 7 0 0 .236 .242 .326 .568 Hollandsworth April 68 3 17 4 1 1 6 7 1 15 0 1 .250 .329 .382 .711 May 36 0 4 1 0 0 3 3 0 11 0 0 .111 .179 .139 .318 June 75 12 27 6 1 2 16 2 0 8 4 2 .360 .372 .547 .918 July 59 6 13 4 0 2 4 6 0 8 0 1 .220 .288 .390 .678 Total 241 21 61 15 2 5 29 18 1 45 4 4 .253 .305 .394 .700 [expletive] unnacceptable from a $90M team in LF. Especially with Murton hitting well in very limited AB. Perez is our backup shortstop. That is why I said LF and not SS. I wanted to make a secondary point that Cedeno should have been put in as the regular about a month ago. Perez with a god awful sub 600 ops the last two months!! I'm sorry. I didn't read your post close enough.

WRONG. It'd be a 1 run game if Dusty had pulled Ohman. How many times has Dusty made this 2 inning mistake with Ohman this year so far, 10? GET A CLUE MORAN!! As for our hitting, it's streaky. Having a lineup full of streak hitters like Perez and Hollandsworth is the reason. Perez April 68 11 25 2 1 3 12 3 1 7 0 0 .368 .403 .559 .962 May 108 11 28 6 0 2 9 3 1 9 4 0 .259 .283 .370 .654 June 109 13 25 3 0 2 8 2 1 12 0 2 .229 .248 .312 .560 July 89 7 21 5 0 1 11 1 0 7 0 0 .236 .242 .326 .568 Hollandsworth April 68 3 17 4 1 1 6 7 1 15 0 1 .250 .329 .382 .711 May 36 0 4 1 0 0 3 3 0 11 0 0 .111 .179 .139 .318 June 75 12 27 6 1 2 16 2 0 8 4 2 .360 .372 .547 .918 July 59 6 13 4 0 2 4 6 0 8 0 1 .220 .288 .390 .678 Total 241 21 61 15 2 5 29 18 1 45 4 4 .253 .305 .394 .700 [expletive] unnacceptable from a $90M team in LF. Especially with Murton hitting well in very limited AB. Perez is our backup shortstop.