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While I'm not completely opposed to Nevin, I'm not a big fan of bringing in someone who can only play 1b. Nevin is horrible anywhere else defensively. What good is a guy who can only pinch hit once the regular is back to play everyday? I know you probably follow the Padres a lot closer than me. (I follow the Angels pretty close.) I saw on ESPN that Nevin's played some rf in the last few years. Has his defense just become horrible? I guess they could always put Murton in RF and hide Nevin in LF versue lefties. He hasn't played in the OF since 2003, and he was pretty wretched out there.

They need more fire. FIRE!

Todd Walker would have been a fine leadoff guy. Leadoff man was only a weakness when Dusty would bat Corey leadoff. Murton too. the more i think about this, the more it makes sense. murton's SLG is really low for a lower-half of the order guy... his .370ish OBP would look nice in the leadoff spot bat him 2nd. the cubs need some speed batting #1. cedeno can do that. a team that gets few extra base hit isn't going to score many runs playing station to station ball. Murton could be a GIDP machine batting 2nd. As of a few days ago, he was hitting the second-most groundballs in the NL, behind only Juan Pierre.

The rumor is he has Alzheimer's. If so, that sucks. I have an uncle w/ alzheimer's. It's a sad way to go. Yep. It's very tough on families. It makes me feel for Steinbrenner and those close to him.

Strangely enough, on the new morning show on ESPN 1000 radio, Sean Salisbury had Mike Ditka on as a guest, and he talked to Ditka for five minutes about whether Dusty Baker is a good manager or not. I can't wait to hear how Derrek Lee grades the Bears draft or what Todd Walker thinks the Bulls should do to improve the team in the offseason.

I don't think anyone should get their half-shirt in a wad over tongue-in-cheek comments about Edmonds. But they should be uptight over something that Steinbrenner says about his employee? Of course not. I hold the employer-employee relationship to be sacrosanct. He signs their checks. If Steinbrenner tells them that Yankees can't have beards, then they should have to shave their beards. If Steinbrenner wants Giambi to lay down more sac bunts, then Giambi should start giving himself up for the team. If Steinbrenner calls a player's mother names, I think that's OK, too. If Steinbrenner punishes his players by allowing only cold showers in the clubhouse, that's fine with me. If Steinbrenner wants to go into the clubhouse and spank the players with a big wooden paddle, then so be it (although Edmonds might ask to be traded to the Yankees if that were to happen). No one should get upset over what Steinbrenner says about an employee. NOBODY!

I don't think anyone should get their half-shirt in a wad over tongue-in-cheek comments about Edmonds.

Pujols is not very clutch. Don't tell that to Lidge down in Houston. I've met Brad Lidge. He's a nice guy. Too nice. I could take him in a fight.

Did someone say something about "fire?" Because that's what this team needs. FIRE!!! We need a manager who will plant his foot in Barrett's nether regions when he costs us eleven games in the standings with his passed balls and poor rundown abilities. We need a manager who will slap the taste out of Pierre's mouth when he misses the cutoff man. We need a manager who will shout profanities in the clubhouse and motivate this team to win. The team OBP clearly shows that they don't want to win, and until we get someone with some FIRE they won't win.

We need Z to get ejected in the 1st and then go on a bat swinging rampage....maybe turn over the food table in the clubhouse and decapitate a few gatorade coolers You know what would really help the team win some games? If Aramis Ramirez started hitting singles to right field and busting some heads in the clubhouse. That's what this team needs! More singles and more expression of aggression! If Angel Guzman gets tired after only 120 pitches on Thursday, Aramis should smakc him upside his head and say "Do your job and stop whining!" (in spanish of course). If Jerry Hairston bobbles a ball, Aramis should run across the diamond and give him a flying kick to the face. If Dusty fails to argue a bad call in the 8th inning, Aramis should argue it on Dusty's behalf, kicking dirt and flinging bases. THIS TEAM NEEDS FIRE! FIRE!!

Pujols is not very clutch.

Finally, a poster who understands the free agent market. MPC is right. I heard Clemens was considering coming to the Cubs in June for $1 million, but once he heard how the fans were treating Jacque Jones, he changed his mind. Unless our fans are more friendly (I suggest bleacher fans wear nametags and address the players as "mister" and "sir"), we'll have no shot at signing an impact free agent next year.

Walker's not bunting?

Fire Dusty. Fire Jones. Fire Neifi. tommorrow. This crapola of a team needs some overhauling. I no longer understand the criticism of Perez and Jones and Pierre. These guys were not stellar players immediately before their arrival to the Cubs so why would we think they'd be better? I understand criticizing good players who are playing subpar like Ramirez, Walker (of late) and Zambrano, but why criticize sucky players? If anything, Hendry should get severe criticism for signing these guys. What percent of people on here were in favor or re-signing Perez and signing Pierre and Jones? If I remember correctly, it was low. I think it's been pretty well established of late that when we attack Jones, Perez, Rusch, Pierre, etc, we're really criticizing Hendry by association. Why should anyone be critical of good players who slump? That makes less sense than expressing disapproval for bad players who are being bad. Our good players aren't slumping, they're just not playing smart baseball. When you go down meekly after swinging at a first pitch breaking pitch that's stupid baseball. Hitting the ball hard and right at someone is a slump. Swinging at eye high fastballs is playing stupid baseball not a slump. Jones, Pierre and Perez just plain suck. I'm not even going to start in on Hairston's futility. But there's one constant with all these guys --- they're all brought in by Hendry. To the sports "experts" who continually state that Hendry is a good GM, how then would you describe Walt Jocketty? http://www.northsidebaseball.com/Articles/ArticleText.php?ArticleID=117 That's a slump, not stupid baseball. As for Jocketty, he didn't set the world on fire this offseason (the Cards were inarguably a worse team heading into 06 than they were in 05), but I'd be more comfortable with him in the front office than Jim.

Hey, man. You don't throw the fish back after your girlfriend makes you walk past a house with a dog in the front yard. Is that a parable?

"I don't think you can do better than Juan Pierre," Hendry said. "And Willie Mays wasn't available for right."

the bullpen is dusty-proof though Not entirely. He can still use the same guy 5 days in a row while letting other guys rot. I think Rothschild had to remind him that Dempster was still on the team last night.

A triple with Pierre's arm in center.

Fire Dusty. Fire Jones. Fire Neifi. tommorrow. This crapola of a team needs some overhauling. I no longer understand the criticism of Perez and Jones and Pierre. These guys were not stellar players immediately before their arrival to the Cubs so why would we think they'd be better? I understand criticizing good players who are playing subpar like Ramirez, Walker (of late) and Zambrano, but why criticize sucky players? If anything, Hendry should get severe criticism for signing these guys. What percent of people on here were in favor or re-signing Perez and signing Pierre and Jones? If I remember correctly, it was low. I think it's been pretty well established of late that when we attack Jones, Perez, Rusch, Pierre, etc, we're really criticizing Hendry by association. Why should anyone be critical of good players who slump? That makes less sense than expressing disapproval for bad players who are being bad.

nah, dusty likes walking out there and doing his double switch. it's his trademark. I really don't think Dusty understands that he can bring in another pitcher without double switching.

"We like a lot of things about Jacque," Cubs general manager Jim Hendry said Tuesday in announcing the deal. "He's a very versatile guy. We were very intent on trying to get a left-handed hitter. He's very athletic, has some pop in his bat, an outstanding throwing arm. He's a versatile player and had a lot of upside in him."

Who else is going to carry the team? Rusch's back is thick enough to carry the team.

Cubs have scored 1 run on a homerun tonight. SF has scored three runs with a sac bunt, infield hits, etc. Clearly small ball beats power every time. We need to add more team speed and bunt in the first inning more often.

A secondbaseman with normal sized legs could have gotten to first on time. I totally blame Neifi.

At Bonds or Neifi?