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I am more than willing to except Cedeno's production being that he is a 23 yr old player. For some reason Cub fans have this idea that players enter the major leagues as good players. There are some players that do (Pujols) most however take time to develop. The one thing that the Cubs organization has failed to do for years is let young players play thru the growing process. Basically if they are not productive when they come up they are thrown away except for a few exceptions. I liked the article, mostly accurate. I dont think he was attacking Cedeno and Murton, just pointing out that they are young players that are inconsistent. I do think the whole article was kind of a slam on Hendry without actually saying it.

Can he play RF? Can he still play 3b? If not with Lee probably returning in a couple of weeks this move is about a month to late. Even a month ago I am not sure it is a great move.

How many times do the Mets have to try this approach and fail for fans to realize it doesnt work. Heck the Yankees havent won a championship since their payroll went thru the roof. Build a strong minor league system that produces talent year in and year out and championships will come.

My only wish about Roger Clemens is that everyone at ESPN would note his numbers after age 35 and mention that these do seem to be very out of the ordinary. Especially considering that Boston let him go because he wasnt great anymore. Yes this is me questioning how come he is still so good at an advanced age. Worse of all in all the steroid scrutiny of the last few years how this guy hasnt even gotten a scratch. Still on that note I would much rather pay Clemens 13 mill for a half a season than about 50 mill of the Cubs roster.

I would say as a fan it really doesnt matter to me. However I would also say that buying a championship has not been a very successful model. Building a strong minor league system that allows you to bring up replacement players and trade for value seems to have a lot more success than buying a championship.

I did think that both of Walkers today should have been errors. I have always thought that losing the ball in the sun is strange. They always call it a hit, however wasnt this one of those fundamentals that we were taught as kids. I always thought it should be an error, maybe my coaches growing up were just hard.

Jim Hendry would also like to remind you that we are last in hitting with runners in scoring position as well. This is were we really need to improve.

Speaking of Womack over Neifi. When Lee and Pagan do come back who comes off the team? I would have a hard time saying we should trim the bullpen back when the starters have been so ineffective. The only logical choices would be Neifi (since we have Womack to do what he pretty much does) Bynum or Mabry.

Dusty was managed by Tommy Lasorda though. I am pretty sure Tommy invented the term 5 tool player. He also played on a team that had Steve Garvey batting 3rd. I am pretty sure Jeff Francouer will have more career walks that Garvery had. Anyway all this complaining about the Cub and their management yet the largest crowd since 1978(?) was in attendence today. I really dont think there is any real heat under anyones seat yet.

The 1986 team had an outfield of Moreland, Mathews and Mumphrey if I remember correctly. Mathews and Mumphrey were both about 40. That team was brutal also.

To bat a magical .254(I think this is what MacPhail called the league average) with runners in scoring position the Cubs would need to get 90 hits in there 355 abs in this situation. Right now the Cubs have 80. 10 more poopin hits and we are good according to MacPhail. Heck the Mets are only hitting .245 with runners in scoring position. Somehow they have managed to score 25 more runs in this situation. I dont think it has anything to do with the 61 more abs with runners in scoring position. So our team president somehow thinks that doing better in situational hitting will help the team AND IT WILL BY 10 TO 13 RUNS. WOW THAT IS TWO LESS RUN THAN THE MARLINS JUST BEAT US BY. To lead the NL in hitting with runners in scoring position we would need a grand total of 25 more hits. I do contend that this would improve our team however if we added 35 runs to our grand total which is what this would net us we would be 14th in the NL instead of 16th. So if we lead the NL in hitting with runners in scoring position we would still be really really bad offensively. I wish just someone would throw this stuff up in anyones face who quotes we are last in the league in hitting with runners in scoring position

actually another thing that really bothers me about Womack is he played a lot of LF last year with the Yankees. Could we possibly have a lineup that has Pierre CF, Perez ss, Hairston 2b, Womack LF and Blanco C

Not only is bringing Womack in a bad idea in that he may do well and than have the Cubs sign him to a ludicrios 2 yr contract. It also says that Hendry thinks this season is still salvagable and may do something really stupid like trade a lot of young talent (Pie) for Soriano. The fact that Theriot didnt even get a chance while the ship is sinking helps reinforce what most here believe about Dusty, when given a choice between a veteran or a rookie he will almost always go with the veteran. Even if they are clearly not getting the job done.

Steve Phillips was talking about the Tigers pitching the other day (yes I know he is a idiot) He was talking how Maroth, Bonderman and Robertson have taken their lumps and have learned how to deal with adversity and yada yada yada. I think he makes a good point, most young pitchers are going to struggle. What is needed is a team that is willing to let them pitch and do poorly. Sadly the Cubs keep having these dillusions that they are a contender and would rather have Glendon Rusch suck than let a youngster develop. I think the way this season has gone it is a perfect opportunity to let Hill, Guzman and Marshall pitch. I am not saying they are going to be great, I would rather let them take their lumps and try to develop than see Rusch, Miller or Maddux waste more time on the mound though. If they dont work out than really what is lost at this point.

Why dont we just resign Sammy and let him platoon with Jones? So we can be 71-91 instead of 69-93. I wish we had a organization smart enough to realize at this point you are a lot better off playing Greenburg and Theriot over Womack, Pierre, Perez and Hairston. I am willing to bet that Florida will definatly finish above the Cubs in 2 years, which would be the 3rd rebuild in 15 yrs, while the Cubs havent done one in my lifetime

born and raised in Michigan. for some reason (wgn had games on everyday) I became a Cub fan instead. I have always liked the Tigers though. For poster who says they suck, What part of the team sucks? I have liked the direction they have been going the last couple of years and adding a Manager who will hold players accountable has finally put them in a good position. I dont know if the will win the division but they are clearly going to be a contender for this year and a few more to come. I will always be a Cub fan first however I am really happy for the Tigers though.

tomorrow being an offday something really needs to happen. Again if its just Clines or Rothschild someone really needs the axe. At some point you have to hold someone accountable not just keep saying Lee and Prior. My guess the only thing we will hear tomorrow is Barretts 10 game suspension however and some lame Cub excuses. Go Tigers!!!!!!!!

I really dont trust any of them. I also think a bigger joke is the guy who did the Sunday conversation on Sportscenter asked Pujols "how does it make you feel that baseball has testing so no one can question your power numbers?" What a joke. I will give Mike North credit for this. Keep the heat on the players, However if you really want my respect for it put the heat on guys from your team also though

I am not a big Mike North fan. However I was listening when taking my kids to school and it was pretty funny. Basically North asked every question about Prior that I wanted to know. Rothschild basically said that there is nothing physically wrong with him though. North tried to get him to say he wasnt mentally tough and Rothschild kept making excuses. I kind of enjoyed North today. Later on he was all over Pujols for not taking a "blood" test to prove he is clean. He said in 5 years when everyone is asking where was the media when this guy was breaking records and juicing, hes going to say not him. However when someone else mentioned Thome he made some excuse for not questioning him.

How about Jason Ellison with the Giants? Not a lot of power but has hit lhers pretty good in his short career. The Giants also dont seem to want to use him so I think he could be had for little. He also can play cf, though I would like to see Hairston get the abs in cf against lh once Lee comes back. Another guy to look at is Marcus Thames with the Tigers. Not very good defense but hits lefties well. Since the Tigers are in it they may be willing to take a bullpen arm (Williamson). They may not want to do anything until Young comes back though.

How about Brian Anderson? I dont think Mabry deserves this at all. I really think it would be wrong if he got suspended and Anderson didnt.

I listened to a lot of the series on radio, primarily with the Sox coverage. Ed Farmer is definatly afraid of Jacques Jones. He has been pretty good this month though, If he keeps it up and the Cubs find someone to platoon in RF with him this could still be a ok FA aquisition. It could still also really back fire also.

Rusch Mabry Perez Hairston Bynum Blanco Williams Assortment of Rookie starters This is what Hendry built as the teams depth. It doesnt take a baseball genius to pray for no injuries. Prosecution evidence #1 Wood Prior Pitchers Hendry relied on to start 55 to 60 games or he surely would have had at least 1 other viable starting option on the roster. Kind of reverts back to Prosecution evidence #1, so he either thought that those guys in #1 were viable options or he thought Wood and Prior were going to start 60 games. Either way I will put this as Prosecution evidence #2 Pierre Jones Relying on players to perform better than they did last year is never a good idea. Paying high dollars and future and probably at this point better pitching prospects than we have now for it is really not a good idea. Prosecution evidence #3 Walker Trying very hard to get rid of. Though to give him credit I am sure he could have given him away. Though to get rid of him to use an option from #1 more is silly. Prosecution evidence #4 Coaching staff The fact that the Cubs biggest problem the last 2 yrs and continues to be our inability to get on base and our inability to keep the other team off base. Yet noone, I mean noone is being remotely held accountable for it. To also bring in players that are only going to add to the problem. Prosecution evidence #5 Excuses Only poorly run outfits make them. In any well run organization performance is what gets things done. If not they find ways to perform not make excuses for not. Prosecution evidence #6 In conclusion the only bright spot I find with the Cubs is they do seem willing to give young players opportunities this year. I also believe that is part of why they are struggling. I hope the youngsters dont get scapgoated by management though because in reality the whole team is not performing. I wish they would just go all out and start trading and dfaing everyone that has no future with the Cubs and really go young. My guess is they will probably add a veteran outfielder or SS to help them get to the Wild Card which would than be Prosecution evidence #7

The Cubs only have 3 guys in their order with a obp over .320. There will be no base clogging today. edit: The Sox only have 1 guy in the order with a obp below .330, Plenty of base clogging on their side Okay now I am done looking at the bright side

Blanco does have 5 walks. Which is only 3 behind Pierre. Neifi has 5 more RBIs than Pierre. I am trying to look at the bright side. Done