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If you consider the division that KC plays in it would be very easy to argue that they are better than the Cubs. KC has been whooping up on the NL central.

Are those the same stats that say Remlinger is better against RHers than he is against LHers. Well that dont make no sense!!!!!!!!!! If you look in the baseball book that all managers know by heart you know RHers do better against LH pitching and LHers do better against RH pitching, I dont care what the stats say.

Hendry was on Dan Jiggetts show on comcast and said that Dustys job is not in jeopardy. I openly weeped. He also said that most of the current Cub players are in their future plans??? So they probably are not going to clean house. So if Hendry is saying that the current players are good enough to win with and not wouldnt that be saying that Dusty is not doing a good enough job. This turned my weeping into bawling!!!

I seriously think he has until the ASB to make drastic improvement. He has most of his horses back now and probably will be given the next 15 games to show improvement. I hope he is fired soon also. I also hope we really clean house at the deadline. Hopefully add a player or 2 that will help us compete in the future. Personnally I would like to see Theriot, Fontenot and Restovich called up and see what they can do with serious MLB playing time, which wont happen if Dusty is manager. I am not saying these are corner stone players but they have performed well in AAA and it would be nice to see if they can add value as role players for the Cubs in the future. My only hope as a Cub fan is the end of the current regime and the Cubs taking a different course than what they have done since the end of 2003

I am not a big fan of building a team through free agency. However I am a fan of enhancing a team through free agency. I think it would have been fairly easy for the Cubs last off season to pick up Beltran. Than if they(Dusty) would have been smart enough to just bat TWalker lead-off and let CPatt play rf and bat 7th. Than having Dubois out in Left wouldnt have hurt nearly as much and he may have developed, with Hollandsworth as a fourth outfielder. When garciaparra got hurt playing Cedeno instead of Perez. Somehow I think we would be coming into this season with a lot better of an outlook. We probably would have come to the conclusion that Dubois isnt a everyday player but a good rh power hitter on the bench. Make decision to keep Garciaparra as a super sub at 1st, 2nd 3rd ss and lf where he would get 5 starts a week and we could be looking at a roster more like this. Twalker 2b Cedeno ss DLee 1b Beltran cf Aram 3b JJones rf Barrett c Patterson lf bench Garciaparra Dubois Murton Blanco and Theriot or Fontenot Add a solid starter with what we added to the bullpen. Could mix Murton and Dubois in against Lhers. We would have better depth in case of injury(like lees). Still not perfect but how much better we would be with just a couple of good decisions. Murton could have even stayed at AAA and had Theriot and Fontenot on the team. Yes the payroll would have to increase but some of that would be offset by having players like Dubois, Murton, Cedeno, Theriot and Fontenot as role players and not expecting them to carry team. Also would still have value in our system if we needed to improve at the deadline. So basically picking up Beltran with the current manager and staff would probably have just been a disaster that we would be talking about who we could get for in a trade at the deadline for. Only to be paying most of his contract next year while he was playing MVP level ball somewhere else

I think Baker is a lousy manager. I thought he was a lousy manager in 2003 so its is going to be hard to defend Baker. Have you really compared the teamthat Hendry has assembled to the one that was there in 2003. They are only better at 2 positions than they were in 2003 and probably the bullpen is better. They are a lot worse at starting pitching, lf, cf, rf. Both teams had lousy benches though the 2006 Cubs may have the worse bench ever. They are about equal at ss, 3b and 2b(though if neifi is going to get half the starts I would ? that also). So really Hendry has done an awful job. He gets by on the fact that he has improved 3 positions. He has not replaced either Alou or Sosa. Has not even come close to finding a legitimate lead off man. His attempts at that have PREDICTABLY failed. Though Dusty probably is asmuch to blame for Prior and Woods health, Hendry hasnt come up with viable other options. He has invested a lot of money into the Starting pitching that isnt paying off, He gave up a lot of talent for Pierre who sucks, he forced the coaches to try to make a lead off man out of Patterson which had predictable results. He relied to much on rookies (Dubois, Murton, Cedeno) without having enough talent around them to compensate for their weaknessess and allow them to grow. He has no clue on what a good bench would have on it, actually I dont either because as a Cub fan I rarely have seen one. He obviously doesnt value obp as a stat. Lastly he will not change the course of this sinking ship. It has been sinking since the end of 2003 and he just keeps driving it the same direction. At what point do you realize what you are doing isnt working and go a different direction. Than on top of all that our Minor League system has gone from being rated in the top 5 to below 20th. ALL OF THIS WITH A TOP TEN PAYROLL. So like I said Dusty is lousy, In this case I do feel for him though

Tigers since I grew up in Michigan and than the Marlins. Already have past the Cubs on there 3rd rebuild in 15 yrs. If only the Cubs were that smart at evaluating talent and that couragous as to be willing to suck to get better as opposed to suck to suck again next yr.

I am finding myself pulling for them to lose more and more. I am afraid that they will play somewhat decent ball for the rest of the season and that will be enough for them to extend Dusty. Everytime I see the lineup and it starts Pierre and Perez I really do hope they lose. My younger kids really want to go to a game this year also. Normally I wouldnt mind. However I dont want to be one the lemmies that show up everygame to help support this team. I am going to take them. I am going to try to do it on a night that Zambrano pitches.

Maybe it is time to put the "horses" out to pasture

why dont we send ARam, Maddux, Walker and Williamson for David Wright?

I like the Tigers too. Mainly because I am from Michigan and should probably have had them as my favorite team all along. I was watching the Tigers and Cardinals yesterday on the Cardinal station and they put up Leylands career wins and losses. He is quit abit below .500 as a manager

Cubs management quiz. Question 1 Who to play in LF? a. Phil Nevin and sit Murton on bench. b. Phil Nevin and make sure that Murton still gets at least 3 or 4 starts a week somehow c. Understand that the season is over and just let Murton play and develop d. Phil Nevin and send Murton down so he will certainly be playing. The correct answer if you were in Cubs management would be a. Any well run and building for the future team b but most likely c. What a well run but unrealistic about this years team would do d. I at least hope they send Murton down if he isnt going to play most everyday. For some reason I dont think they will until the great Bynum or Pagan return.

If I was in charge of FIFA. I would give an after game Red Card (Does this keep them out the next match, if not whatever would keep them out the next match also) to any player that was obviously taking a dive after looking at it on replay. I dont mean stop the match and have a on field ref look at replay, I mean some other official that is watching during the game. I have watched a lot of World Cup for the first time in my life and really enjoy it. They game is really getting tainted by players taking dives though and needs to be corrected in a more stern way than possibly getting a Yellow card if a referee catches it. If all the diving was removed than a lot of the other stuff would just clean itself up.

Hendry has to fire Dusty. If not than he has to put the blame on his own shoulders.

Yeah basically I was just saying that Pierre sucks. I know he is going to bat lead-off as long as he is on the team, so it isnt even a probably lineup. I am just saying that no matter how smart Dusty becomes with the rest of the order having Pierre at the top just ruins it to begin with.

Dont you think that when the Sox start going south again the Ozzie show is going to grow real old real quick with Sox fans also. It apparently has already worn out none Sox fans. I also think that when the Sox start to struggle Ozzies managing is only going to sink the ship faster.

Marmol needs to get sent down. If he isnt going to start he is just going to waste away in the Bullpen.

How come when ever someone posts a probable lineup even one that they would seriously like the Cubs to do, If it starts like this Pierre CF I just dont think it is a good lineup.

Funny How the White Sox have the best team in baseball and are sticking with Brian Anderson in CF. I agree that Murton hasnt been productive however it is not like this team is productive as a whole. WE are way below average offensively at at least 5 positions. So why would be send down a player that may have a future. I do get sick of fans and management that thinks we can somehow save this disaster of a season. Just let Murton play. In 2 yrs when he is a 850 ops guy you will be happy we did. If we send him down, in 2 yrs we will have Pedro Feliz putting up 21 hrs and a 303 obp in LF.

Season is over there is no reason to keep Nevin. Especially if it means limiting the playing time of DEVELOPING players. This is the STUPID idea that first year players should be producing at some sort of all star level and if they are not replace them with a 35 yr old has been that has been the biggest problem with the Cubs for years. So if Nevin starts in Left we will finish 21 games out instead of 24. It would be moronic to take Murton out. Let him play and he may develop into a productive player. For those who say he can do it in the minors that is just stupid. The last rung on every ladder is the top. The last stage of development for a MLB player is the Major Leagues and MOST players struggle at that level at first. He has had a nice run so maybe our return for him will be greater than Jerry Hairston

Is there been some written story about Murton going down? Or is this still just speculation here on this board? It does make sense if you follow the Cubs. What move would a forward thinking organization that really is committed to fielding a good team in the future make. DFA any of Perez, Mabry, Womack or Bynum. So since the Cubs are not run with common sense and intelligence what do they do. Send down a player that is holding his own(especially since we are not in contention) and may actually have a future in MLB.

why not have prior pitch 3-4 wood pitch 3-4 and leave the rest for the bullpen. they are already carrying more pitchers than needed this would at least give it a logical explanation

Nevin is also the back up catcher at this point. The other most obvious choice to be DFAd is Neifi, he is really the only back up ss at this point. I'm just saying that Murton has been semi-demoted(shockingly the only demotion so far from the worst offense in baseball) has options left and been a recent Dusty scapegoat. I just have one of those how stupid the Cubs are feelings that Murton in going to get sent down to make room for DLee.

I bet a nickle that Murton gets sent down to make room for him.

The real problem with frucal is we had our eyes set on him and Pierre. When Frucal fell through we had to overspend for Pierre. We didnt explore other options, like Micheals, Lofton, Giles, Renteria, Castillo. The team was to focused on speed and missed other viable options that may have been better.