The Voice of Reason

Nice job by Gordo to substaniate my high opinion of the Brewer's GM. What a contrast he is to the incompentence that is Jim Hendry. Again I ask, can we steal this guy? He's only 90 miles away. http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sports/columnists.nsf/jeffgordon/story/CA0EB6B0A5B09AAF862572E400670A43?OpenDocument

The self-proclaimed "best fans in baseball" :roll: deserve better.

It's obvious that the years of unnessarily diving for balls has taken its toll.

Great move - as long as it's the starting rotation in AAA.

I agree that this is his team and that he has had the needed budget if the situation called for it (i.e. Furcal) His bullpen is NOT high priced but I agree that he has paid specific bullpen arms large contracts. I disagree that he overpaid for them. Considering the market (look at what the Reds paid in players) but Hendry has spent large dollars on typical large dollar positions. Setup men cost as much as some closers and it most cases of large payroll teams, are the biggest source of overspend. From the "fixes" available to Hendry when he signed Howry & Eyre (who both were worth what they got paid last year) who else received big money and were worth it? The minor league system is in better shape then you make it out to be. Hendry has little to do with actual development and scouting. As a GM, you have to delegate many things and Hendry can't be everywhere to see every player. Does he sign off on the big ones? Certainly. But in Hendry's tenure as GM, the "big ones" that went bust went that way mostly from injury and not from lack of talent. You can't predict injury for the most part. Hendry's tenure as scouting director was sucessful, so I doubt that he suddenly forgot how to scout. The main argument I have against the general school of thought on Hendry is the money. Budget has little to do with success. Just because the team has a high payroll shouldn't be a reason for a poor grade on a GM's tenure. Hendry overpaid Eyre based on one career year. If you're going to use last year's performance of Eyre and Howry, you also should use last year's performance of Dempster which was poor. IMO giving Eyre a three year contract was silly. Several scouts and baseball insiders predicted that Kerry Wood's motion would lead to arm trouble but Hendry gave him an expensive long term contract anyway. If you're going to use the Reds for comparison, I'll use the Brewers. The majority of their position players were developed in their farm system and their budget is much less than the Cubs. As for the Cubs, there is Theriot who's starting because of the failure of another high priced Hendry FA who was paid for a career year - DeRosa. Large budgets don't guarantee sucess but they do allow for a margin of error and should increase a GMs odds for success. The failure to get Furcal also led to Hendry giving away Mitre and Nolasco for virtually nothing to get a one year mediocre lead off hitter . Baseball has changed and Hendry hasn't. He's too "old school" and prefers to totally rely on scouts, gamers and "guys who can catch the ball" rather than be open minded about things like OBP, OBS, WHIP, etc. The game has passed Hendry by. It's time for the Cubs to get a new GM.

So you think Hendry has done a great job and anyone that thinks he should be fired is insane? :? I think that he has done a better job then what is being bantered about after a tough loss. Ironically, the overall mood of the board has shifted today to a much better balance of logical and unemotional reponse. What I was commenting on was the fact that an obviously emotional response to a VERY tough loss was initiated by a poster named as a Voice of Reason. Inherently, you should be the 1 poster who has no emotional response in a situation, but a reasonable one. Which of the following statements do you disagree with or consider unreasonable? It's his team. He had all the money in the world to build it. It's his high priced "pen" (among other things) that he said was "fixed" that's killing this team. There's not a lot of reason for hope in the minor league system he built and oversees.

Any sign of rain? With our bullpen, it's our only hope.

So you think Hendry has done a great job and anyone that thinks he should be fired is insane? :?

It's his team. He had all the money in the world to build it. It's his high priced "pen" (among other things) that he said was "fixed" that's killing this team. There's not a lot of reason for hope in the minor league system he built and oversees. He's had his chance and now it's time for him to go. Any way the Brewer GM can be stolen?

Any Dempster defenders left? Any at all?

But then you don't get to see Erin Andrews. Always a nice plus. :D If you like Erin Andrews, you'll love this... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIP7a9Z-YBM Did she ever sue that kid with the wandering hands? Was "your investment" worth it? We settled out of court. 8-[ Now this has me laughing.

But then you don't get to see Erin Andrews. Always a nice plus. :D If you like Erin Andrews, you'll love this... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIP7a9Z-YBM Did she ever sue that kid with the wandering hands? When did that happen? 3/4 of the way through the youtube. The kid with the big smile on his face and a hand full of Erin.

But then you don't get to see Erin Andrews. Always a nice plus. :D If you like Erin Andrews, you'll love this... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIP7a9Z-YBM Did she ever sue that kid with the wandering hands?

Their interleague schedule will bring the Braves back to the back. http://www.sportsline.com/mlb/story/10180420

I think if you asked Soriano if he was black, he'd say no I'd rather ask him why he doesn't get more walks.

Maybe he's just trying to extort the beer sale business at Turner Field for his sons. The same type of "strategy" worked on the North side of Chicago with Anheuser Busch.

Hmmmm. Enjoy the nice day or watch the Cubs lose. See ya.

It figures. The Cards finally suck and now the Brewers are great. It sucks being a Cubs fan.

It's a beautiful day in Chicago. Got to take advantage of it before the cicadas invade in a few weeks.

Crap, pee, run around naked. Whatever it takes... I'll definitely be naked the night the Cubs win the world series. Won't that be kind of offensive to the other old people in the retirement home?

A

Sammy releasing his medical records would not end any of the speculation. There could be any number of medical conditions, up to and including drug abuse, that might not be recorded there. I'm not sure how to make it any more clear. It wouldn't do what you say it would. Soul what do you think is more likely? A major league baseball player chooses not to release medical records because: A) It is a matter of principal to him as he is an acknowledged privacy advocate and sincerely concerned about potential violations of HIPPA privacy laws. or B) He knows they can help confirm his use of steroids.

The players union gave Sammy the OK to release his records. Why not just to it and end all the speculation? The standard is and should be higher for high profile athletes. This is his chance to develop some good will with the HOF voters. Look what happened to McGwire after his ridiculous performance under oath before Congress. He didn't admit using steroids but in the eye of the HOF voters, by dodging the questions, he might as well have. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2864613 Well the HOF is a popularity vote, so that's another story. I could refuse to vote for Sosa because I didn't like his haircut if I was a HOF voter and so inclined. We don't even know if Sosa's medical records would contain any enlightening information anyway. And if there's something else in there that is personal and he doesn't want to disclose, then that's a perfectly good reason to withhold the information. So if he does in fact choose to withhold the records it doesn't mean squat, period. You don't have a vote and I seriously doubt if any the voters that do would use the criteria you suggest. Medical records are released all the time with portions blacked out that are irrelevant to the pertinent facts. If Sammy has nothing to hide regarding steroids, he should release his records. I said that to make a point. Sorry it went over your head. And no, personal medical records are NEVER just released without express permission of the patient. You may wish to look up more information on HIPAA: private medical records are private. None of this changes the fact that if Sosa has, say, herpes and wants to keep it private he'd be revealing that very embarrassing fact just to "prove" a negative -- which can't be proven anyway. Medical records won't prove a damn thing. Every person on the planet has something or another that doesn't show up in their medical record, including drug use in some cases. I never said medical records were released without the patient's approval but they are released all the time with sections blacked out and the patient's permission in litigation, settlements, insurance claims, etc. - sorry it went over your head. Medical records are used in litigation all the time and have proven many things which is probably why the investigators want them. Just because they might prove something you don't want to hear , that doesn't make medical records any less useful in the chain of evidence. Come on, these investigators are professionals, give them a little bit of credit for knowing what they are doing.

Checking everyone is not practical. It seems like they are targeting former or current Orioles. Do you think there is a slight possibility that there may be a reason (or leads) to substantiate why they are targeting Palmeiro, Grimsley, Sosa, Segui, Tejada, Tatis and Jerry Hairston, Jr.?

And then if nothing is found in his records, people will be asking about the portions that are blacked out. No. All records pertaining to possible steroid use would need to be released. Records not relating to steroids use but of a potentially embarrassing nature (e.g., anti-depressants, STDs, etc.) could be blacked out. A simple avadavit stating all steroid-related information was disclosed could be obtained. Releases like this happen all the time. It's not a big deal.