The Voice of Reason

But Izturis has a gold glove. :roll:

Well deserved win for Howry. :roll:

Almost tore up my box seat ticket for tomorrow's game in the top of the ninth.

Cubs win like i knew they would.

Nice bullpen you built Jim. It held the Rockies to only six runs in the ninth inning. You bumbling idiot.

What about Shapiro's right hand man Antoinetti? That is who I am died hard on for next Cubs GM. he's probably good, but given that the cubs are one of the higher-profile teams in the game, i'm hoping they can get a guy who's been a GM in the past Agree. The Ed Lynch and Jim Hendry learn on the job experiments have been disasters.

See Aram and D. Lee.

What he said^.

Greatest Cub catcher since Gabby Hartnett.

He looks infinitely better than Barrett on D and not much worse on offense he seems to have a solid swing and decent pop Hendry's a genius.

In the last 11 years the Cardinals have won seven divison titles, two NL pennants and a World Series. In the last 11 years the Cubs have won one division title (by one game) and one wild card.

But to be fair, he gets results from his garbage vets. Hendry doesn't. Jockety isn't the one on the field telling a slumping player to widen his stance, or telling struggling pitchers to change their release point. He hired a good staff, and they should take credit for turning crap into diamonds. All Jockety did was put them on the roster. Jocketty should get credit for the manager and staff he hired and the players he puts on the field. Just like Hendry should be held responsible for Dusty, Lou, scouting and player development (or lack thereof) and his free agent signings and trades. The buck stops with the GM. As Banedon correctly points out, the numbers don't lie, Jocketty is a much better GM than Hendry and would be a huge improvement.

Gammons reported on ESPN that Walt is not happy with the situation in St. Louis and that he wouldn't be surprised if Jocketty left the Redbirds after this year and went to a team with a GM opening. Anybody know of any teams in need of a competent GM at year-end? A GM who has won a World Series and been competitive year after year on a smaller budget than the Cubs. I know a team with a hapless GM in over his head that could use him. Hopefully the new owners of the Cubs will throw enough money at WJ to make it happen.

Apparently the tow Truck driver hasn't moved on - good for him.

Cedeno, Riot, Murton, etc., etc. Sample size people - it's simple reversion to the mean.

and dwight smith but 89 was a fun year (until that whole ending bit against the Giants, that is) Ran into Jim Essian once at spring training. He referred to him as Wight Smith because "there's no D in him. He's plain horrible in the field."

#1) 1998 - seems like a century ago. #2) After having two hours to come up with some kind of slightly plausible explantion, the utterly ridiculous "he used his corked batting practice bat by mistake'' excuse Sharon Panozzo and the Cubs PR Dept. came up with at the press conference for Sammy after he was caught redhanded with a corked bat was the most hilarious thing I've ever heard - a dysfunctional organization at its comedic best.

=D>

*YAWN* The Cubs should have requested that the bat be x-rayed. It was definitely from Sammy's cork collection.

He wouldn't necessarily be getting bigger. As he got older the bulk probably slowed him down. He's not small again. Sammy is much smaller now than he was is 1998. Can one of you high tech guys post today's current picture from the Suntimes (pg 110) and one from 1998 so we can all judge for our selves?

think what you will, but sammy sosa does not display the traditional characteristics of steroid use, among other things. A picture says a 1,000 words. Have you compared any current pictures of the Texas slimmed-down Sammy (see pg. 110 of today's Sun-times) with the Incredible Hulk Sammy that played with the Cubs in the late 90's? Don't people usually get heavier as they get older? If the size loss is totally due to diet then Sammy should be the new spokesperson for Weight Watchers. People are supposed to get more muscular as they get older? It's absurd to accuse a player of steroid use based solely on the difference between how they looked when they debuted to how they looked in the prime. It's doubly absurd to do it in the current era where there is an abundance of legal supplements and state of the art weight training at an athlete's disposal. It's downright bat(stuff) crazy to do it to a guy who grew up in the Dominican Republic and was clearly undersized when he started out. Talk about taking my words out of context. I never said people get more muscular as they get older. I said they usually get "heavier" which is true. I was comparing the skinny 2007 Sammy to the bulky late 90's Sammy - not to when he "debuted." If Sammy was currently taking legal supplements and utilizing state of the art weight training as you imply he is, wouldn't he be getting bigger and not smaller? You are correct, Sammy started out small, got very big and now is small again - I wonder why?

think what you will, but sammy sosa does not display the traditional characteristics of steroid use, among other things. A picture says a 1,000 words. Have you compared any current pictures of the Texas slimmed-down Sammy (see pg. 110 of today's Sun-times) with the Incredible Hulk Sammy that played with the Cubs in the late 90's? Don't people usually get heavier as they get older? If the size loss is totally due to diet then Sammy should be the new spokesperson for Weight Watchers.

Oh, jesus. I should just leave this thread before I end up spending half my day here. OK, I'll check the "coincidence box" for you.

Anybody think it's worth noting the huge ERA increase by Cub pitchers when Barrett caught? Possible correlation or just coincidence?

Don't count on it Vance, rumor has it he will be leaving the game and deserting his teammates in the first inning. :lol: