cheapseats

How so? He got two fly ball outs. It's not his fault The Village Idiot took out a better fielder in RF. Howry gets out of that inning with, at worst, one run scoring if Jones stays in the game. Funny stuff............Dusty gets heat both for playing JJ and for taking him out of the game :lol: Note that way back near the beginning of the thread it was suggested that Jones should not be starting against a lefty, but should be used later in the game as the Marlins have a shortage of lefties in the bullpen. Steve Stone would call that first-guessing.

I've always thought the Cubs should embrace the history of THAT AREA. Perhaps even paint THAT SEAT a different color.

Compare to Carlos Zambrano's MLB debut, Gooz's outing looks like an All Star. Didn't Prior pitch well in his MLB debut? Yep. 10 K's IIRC.

Rightfully so. What's the point of stealing third with two outs?

Pat and Ron are wondering why Jock didn't go home.

Blancowned!

Paul Emmel was 49th out of 86 umpires in K/BB ratio last year, so his strike zone is probably slightly smaller than average. Not good for our often impatient offense.

They're both playing lousy teams. At least Milw is losing C. Wilson with a 2 run bomb. Bucs 2 Cards 2 Why couldn't we have gotten him in the offseason??? We need guys who can catch the ball, dude.

Pretty good lineup. The only nitpick I have is Jones starting against a lefty at all. Considering their lack of lefthanders in the bullpen, it would be ideal to bring him off the bench. I hate to say it, but if Restovich isn't going to start, I'd rather have Hairston in right and Neifi at second than Jones in right. Neifi is a better hitter against lefties than Jones, which isn't so much a compliment to Neifi as it is an indictment of Jones.

Not necessarily. When I was in school, I played on a very successful basketball team. In my last season, we only lost four games. We lost those four games by a total of six points (two 2-point losses and two 1-point losses). Our coach didn't yell at us after any of the four losses. We executed well. Sometimes our shots just didn't fall, but that happens. The coach actually took the blame for one loss (rightfully so) because he called some bad plays down the stretch. He did criticize us after many of our wins. I remember him being especially angry after we won a game by 30+ points. We were much more talented than the other team, but we didn't execute our offense properly, and we didn't position ourselves correctly on defense. His point was that the outcome of a game doesn't always reflect how well the teams played. Therefore, the outcome of a game is not the best predictor for the outcome of future games. Calling a moratorium on critical thought because a team is winning is short-sighted. This is especially true in April. Several teams that made the playoffs had losing records at this point last year. I'm not crazy about the Juan Pierre trade, and I wasn't when it was announced. I don't dislike Pierre personally, and it's true that we needed a centerfielder, but I wish Hendry had gotten someone else. I'm not upset with Pierre for his OBP; it's not as if he is trying to make outs. He probably will raise his OBP to the .340 to .350 range as the season progresses. I'm not upset with Pierre when baserunners take an extra base on him because of his arm. Hendry knew he had a weak arm when he signed him, and there's nothing that Pierre can do about his noodle arm. I will get upset with Pierre when he makes bad baserunning decisions. He was caught so often in 2004 that he actually hurt the Marlins' ability to score runs. So far he's been perfect in basestealing opportunities. I know that won't hold up over the year, but I hope he chooses his spots to run carefully. His baserunning can be an asset without attempting 80 steals, and there's data that proves it.

I dunno. We might have to pay some of Maddux's salary for that to work.

Sorry to bust your bubble, but the BEST way to show your disapproval of the GM (and ownership) is to STOP GOING TO THE GAMES!! I have a bubble? :? Now that I've moved 500 miles away from Chicago, I have stopped going to games. But I don't at all agree that not going to games is the best way to show disapproval. If one person stops going to games, the Tribune Company will not notice because demand for tickets is very high. If 1000 season ticket holders gave up their tickets, they would be snatched up by people on the waiting list. As long as the public is enchanted by Wrigley Field (and I like it a lot, for the record), and as long as ownership puts a team on the field that's not absolutely wretched (Royals, Pirates, etc) the Cubs are going to sell tickets. The best way to effect change is to express displeasure publicly.

Maybe I haven't noticed, but I haven't seen Neifi booed at Wrigley. Ever. And if anyone deserves to be booed, it's certainly him. If I hadn't just moved to Nashville :( , I'd print up "Neifi Sucks" t-shirts and sell them outside Wrigley.

Welcome to the board, GoCubs1982. It's nice to have you on board. I do disagree with the idea that fans should give Jones time before making a decision about him. Why would anyone base optimism on 7 games? He's played nearly 1000 major league games in his career that serve as proof of his mediocrity. I'm sure no one thinks he'll hit .300 this season. If I ever see Jim Hendry at a restaurant, PTA meeting, or church service, I will boo him loudly. However, since it is unlikely that I will get a chance to express my displeasure with the Jones signing so directly to Hendry, booing Jones is the best indirect way to show disapproval of the GM. Again, he's already had 3500 career AB. Why should we give him 200 at bats before we label him a mediocre player? Just look at his career stats. Insiders claim that the Tribune Company imposes a very strict ceiling on Hendry's budget, so perhaps he doesn't deserve all the blame for failure to sign top-tier free agents, but it's all the more reason to be upset with him for consistently paying way too much for middle-of-the-road veteran talent.

They didn't have a lefty in the pen to bring in. That's not Girardi's fault.

Hairston (if not Restovich) should be starting in right against lefthanders. The fact that Jones gets a start against a lefthander should be cause for revocation of Dusty's managing license and cancellation of Hendry's contract.

B/c there is no truth to this rumor. Or because Zach Day is pretty insignificant... Maybe it's more significant than the Kerry Ligtenberg signing? Probably neither would constitute "breaking news."

yeah I heard that too. Pierre Cedeno Walker ARam Barrett Murton Jones Perez Zambrano why does Busty hate Hairston so much? At least Murton is hitting in front of Jones. If we could just get Z hitting in front of Jones and Neifi, we'd be set.

Thanks.

http://www.goatriders.org/archives/2006/04/with_a_glaring.html

Wright and Miggy are going to put up very similar numbers for the next 5 years by PECOTA's projections. I'd be happy with either one. And there's no way the Mets should even consider Wright for Willis. If for no other reason (and there are other reasons), pitchers get injured more often than third basemen.

Has anyone ever studied the history of the Chicago river? Years ago Chicago reversed the flow so all of our sewage ended up in St Louis: http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/chi-river-wonders-story,1,6151724.story?coll=chi-archspecials-utl

Yeah, while I'm aware of that, he wasn't on the DL when we traded for Bynum. It's nice to have one Pagan-type on the team, but it's not a good use of the roster to have two guys with duplicate abilities. Did we really need Neifi and Macias last year? I think not.

For what it's worth, a lot of baseball analysts figure Pie will be with the club by midseason. What does that mean for Jones? I dunno. It better not mean reduced playing time for Murton.

Didn't we already have Angel Pagan? Maybe I'm crazy, but a right-handed bat with pop off the bench might be better than a guy so similar to what we already have.