C.C.

:shock:

Pierre is going to get a multi-year contract offer from someone. I hope it isn't the Cubs. If he accepts arby and plays here one more year, then I'm fine with him sticking around. But I really don't want him signed to a multi-season deal. Yep! I can't see Hendry signing Pierre to a multi-year deal knowing Pie is getting very close...

You only put power into the corner OF because usually power hitters cannot field a position like CF effectively. If Pie can do it, than it is a big bonus to get a power hitter at one of the tougher defensive positions. Exactly. You don't move a power hitter CF to corner OF because he hits for power. That makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. If a guy can handle CF, you put him in CF. That's hard to find. It's easier to fill left and right. Right. If they followed that theory AROD would've never played Shortstop.

...I don't understand. Is there something wrong with having power if you play CF? Isn't that a good thing? And his power is still developing, so he's definitely better suited for CF in terms of value, especailly with his defensive skills. And it's not as if Beltran is the only power hitting CF in the game--Sizemore? Edmonds? Damon? (how does he have 21 homers already?) Wells? Cameron? Jones? Hunter? Pie could probably use another half season, but he deserves a shot. He had an enomous slump a couple of months ago. In May and June, Pie hit under .230 and struck out 63 times. In July and August, he's figured it out. Only 41 K's in more at-bats over the last two months. In August he's been fantastic, hitting .340/.394/.620 with 12 doubles, two triples, four homers. Since the ASB, Pie is hitting .330/.378/.542. Also, after strugglng badly with stolen base accuracy, he is now 8 for his last 9 steal attempts. If he were putting up his overall numbers in AAA consistently over a season, I wouldn't be so inclined to give him a shot. However, Pie has shown at every level an ability to adjust. As a 21 year old in AAA coming off a half season injury-related layoff, it's not surprising that Pie might struggle, but it's mighty impressve how quickly and drastically he's turned it around. Comparing him to Patterson, keep in mind that Corey was promoted when he was having a bad season at AAA to be a sparkplug or some other bullcrap. He hadn't shown anywhere near the improvement over the course of the season that Pie has this year. Being cautious of rushing is important, but the situations aren't parallel. Yep! You can see him improving in all areas that have always been question marks with him, that's why I say let him keep improving down in AAA. If the Cubs were a good enough team to absorb his struggles (like the Sox did with Anderson) then I would entertain the thought, but obviously we aren't even close to that... So if they're not even close to that, then they're not going to compete. If they're not going to complete, then why not give him a shot? Because you know how bitter Cubs fans have become. If Anderson was on the Cubs this year he would've been boo(ed) off the field already. He's still improving and growing. No reason to have him do this in the bigs...

...I don't understand. Is there something wrong with having power if you play CF? Isn't that a good thing? And his power is still developing, so he's definitely better suited for CF in terms of value, especailly with his defensive skills. And it's not as if Beltran is the only power hitting CF in the game--Sizemore? Edmonds? Damon? (how does he have 21 homers already?) Wells? Cameron? Jones? Hunter? Pie could probably use another half season, but he deserves a shot. He had an enomous slump a couple of months ago. In May and June, Pie hit under .230 and struck out 63 times. In July and August, he's figured it out. Only 41 K's in more at-bats over the last two months. In August he's been fantastic, hitting .340/.394/.620 with 12 doubles, two triples, four homers. Since the ASB, Pie is hitting .330/.378/.542. Also, after strugglng badly with stolen base accuracy, he is now 8 for his last 9 steal attempts. If he were putting up his overall numbers in AAA consistently over a season, I wouldn't be so inclined to give him a shot. However, Pie has shown at every level an ability to adjust. As a 21 year old in AAA coming off a half season injury-related layoff, it's not surprising that Pie might struggle, but it's mighty impressve how quickly and drastically he's turned it around. Comparing him to Patterson, keep in mind that Corey was promoted when he was having a bad season at AAA to be a sparkplug or some other bullcrap. He hadn't shown anywhere near the improvement over the course of the season that Pie has this year. Being cautious of rushing is important, but the situations aren't parallel. Yep! You can see him improving in all areas that have always been question marks with him, that's why I say let him keep improving down in AAA. If the Cubs were a good enough team to absorb his struggles (like the Sox did with Anderson) then I would entertain the thought, but obviously we aren't even close to that...

If they try to make Pie into more of a slap hitter he will propably lose alot of his value. You don't want to change something that drastic because it can ruin a player. Look at Corey. He always struck out alot but was told to be more of a contact hitter and hit more groundballs. IMO that ruined Corey. You have to let a player be who he is. Plus you are comparing AAA numbers to the Major Leagues! It's a big difference just ask Rich Hill...

At least another 1/2 year...No reason to rush him. Why? He's had a good year in AAA. 119k's in over 500 at bats is not all that alarming. It's no where near Harvey territory. His OPS in August: over 1.000. He's responded well to every promotion. I see no reason why he couldn't do so in the big leagues as well next year. I do agree with a poster that he should not bat leadoff. I'd put him 7th in the order too. I'd much rather have Murton leading off. OBP OBP OBP. He's had a good couple of months. He needs to prove it over a year. Am I confusing you with another poster or are you someone who has defended Pierre because he's "been hot lately"? Your confused, and what does that have to do with Pie? Pierre has had success in the Bigs.

Daniel and James (Orlando, FL): Rob, we are skipping class in an attempt to get our question answered. My roommate and I were wondering how good a lineup full of leadoff hitters would fare. SportsNation Rob Neyer: (12:16 PM ET ) They'd fare pretty well if they were all Rickey Henderson or Tim Raines or Johnny Damon. Juan Pierre? Not so well.

At least another 1/2 year...No reason to rush him. Why? He's had a good year in AAA. 119k's in over 500 at bats is not all that alarming. It's no where near Harvey territory. His OPS in August: over 1.000. He's responded well to every promotion. I see no reason why he couldn't do so in the big leagues as well next year. I do agree with a poster that he should not bat leadoff. I'd put him 7th in the order too. I'd much rather have Murton leading off. OBP OBP OBP. He's had a good couple of months. He needs to prove it over a year.

At least another 1/2 year...No reason to rush him.

I would like nothing better than to sweep the Cards!

Hendry isn't a young man. He's 5 years younger than Dusty. And he was around the college game most of the time. As far as I can tell, college baseball is even more "old school" in its approach than MLB. There aren't too many Beanes in NCAA. Hendry is a "baseball man", the kind of guy with relationships throughout the sport, and a complete unwillingness to think his contemporaries are anything but the best at what they do. I had high hopes for Hendry, largely because I ignored all the signs that he completely undervalued the walk (both in terms of negative value associated with giving them up, and positive value when taking them). Ummmm...So we agree that Hendry has been a disappoinment?

Dusty's just sounds so old school. The game has pasted Dusty by. I'm just amazed that Jim Hendry doesn't see the importance of OBP? He's a young GM that has coached and been around baseball his whole life. I can't believe he's not looking at the past 4 years and not seeing the one consistent this offense has lacked? I'm not really surprised by Dusty midset, but Hendry has really been a disappointment.

God I hope you're kidding....

The market will demand it, no doubt. He'll make 15 a year somewhere..

Basically implying that a player made a mistake so bad that his 7 year old kid knows better. Is that showing respect to a player as a manager? Is that treating a player like a man? Supposedly thats Dusty's forte....unless of course your a rookie whom he doesn't like(in this case Theriot) Dusty gets bashed for being a players manager and Dusty get bashed for calling out his players. It's a lose, lose situation for him...It's obvious he needs to get outta town after this year is up.

Talk about a unnecessary shot to Theriot. Complete B.S. Dusty Baker is an ignorant racist jackass If Ozzie makes that comment he's fresh and funny! When Baker makes it it's Racist? What is this Cubs.com fourms? First off Ozzie's act is garbage. Secondly..why is he mocking Theriot still, 2 days later, after he made a mistake when the Cubs just lost thanks to a bone headed play by Bynum. Yet he doesn't even mention Bynums gaff. The evidence of Baker's predijuce is clear. Or is it the reporter? I listed Dusty's post game interview last night and not once did he mention Bynum's mistake(which pretty much lost them the game) Perhaps no reporter asked him about the play?

Although reports had him switching to Scott Boras, Carlos Lee has chosen to retain agent Adam Katz. Lee reportedly had been in the process of making the switch when he changed his mind and stuck with his agent of eight years. While it means he won't have the game's most notorious negotiator on his side as a free agent this winter, it could also result in additional teams bidding for him. Baltimore, for one, might have been less inclined to deal with Boras. Source: FOXSports.com

I don't think there are a lot of people here who think Ozzie is fresh and funny. You are talking about the reaction of one group to Ozzie with the reaction of a completely different group to Dusty. I'm making a comment for general purposes. And I do think that a lot of people think Ozzie is fresh and funny up until he starts to lose, which is happening this year. Whatever the case, the comment was just unnecessary...

Talk about a unnecessary shot to Theriot. Complete B.S. Dusty Baker is an ignorant racist jackass If Ozzie makes that comment he's fresh and funny! When Baker makes it it's Racist? What is this Cubs.com fourms?

No, but I don't believe Manny Ramirez is worth $20M per year and I don't believe Carlos Beltran is worth $17M per year. You either overpay for top talent, or you settle for second-tier players. The Cubs are apparently content doing the latter. It depends if you consider Zito one of the elite pitching talents out there?

LOL! No way, no how would the Cubs pay Zito 16-17 a year! We are talking the Cubs here... Nor should they. Zito isn't worth that much. Paying him more than $10m per is a stretch. First things first, lock down Z for the next 4 years and make sure RAM doesn't opt out of his contract...Zito will get more the 10 million a year for sure. He'll top out at 14-15 a year... Which means you look elsewhere to bolster your rotation. Zito and Schmidt may be the biggest names on the FA market, but they aren't necessarily the best values. This attitude basically means the Cubs would never land a top 5 free agent. Those guys are always going to have the Yankees, Red Sox, Mutts, Dodgers, and any other big-market team in the mix. If you're not willing to overpay for the top guys, you won't get them. And in Cub world, that means you get Jacque Jones as your RF. Do you believe Zito is the kind of pitcher worthy of a $14-17m/yr contract? I don't see much of Zito, but isn't he a fly-ball type of pitcher? High salary Fly-Ball pitcher in Wrigley Field does not sound like a good allocation of the team salary to me?

It was worth a stab at it. It was a fair gamble to take and no other team wanted Dempster also and that worked out...

My eyes are brimming with tears. I wish I can say it's only a game! The Cubs are just to much part of my life for me not to take it seriously. I wish to god I can step back and not care about it, but I honestly can't. I know, I know I should get a life and I do have a life, but summer-time for me (as long as I can remember) has been about baseball as much as anything else. Damn my Father for bringing me to my first game at 5 years old!!!!!! :lol:

He's Mike Dikta all over again...