Tracer Bullet

Frankly, the Tigers have a lot more talent than we do. Granderson is coming along nicely, and his OBP is good (though he may be better off not as a lead off hitter). Then they have Pudge, Ordonez, Thames (got playing time thanks to DY & Monroe's injuries - or other issues), Guillen all playing well. Shelton was one of the best hitters in baseball for a month. Oh, and Rogers seems to be doing fine, but they also have Bondy and Verlander pitching great baseball. Leyland is getting a little too much credit, in my opinion. They're playing well for him, but they have a lot of talent there.

Not to mention he's one of the best offensive Cs in the league. It's not like we'd be trading a great offensive first basemen, of which there are many.

I disagree with every fiber of my soul. Lack of baserunners and bad pitching has been the downfall of this team. In that order, in my opinion. When you're scoring runs, pitching well, and winning, "heart" doesn't seem to be an issue that gets raised often.

Barrett punched AJP in the face essentially b/c he plays for the White Sox and that's a big rival. That shows heart and fire to me. May not be a wise play, but Barrett still cares. And I don't think he's the only one.

That's a heck of a standard there, .380. Only a handful of lead-off hitters each year have that OBP, so .380+ is really the elite lead-off hitters around the league, not simply the good ones. Right now only Youkilis, Ichiro, and Roberts have that threshold or better as everyday players, with Freel and Carroll also above the .380 mark in limited, part-time duty. Depends on who you look at, I guess. You act like only 3 guys in the league ever put up a .380 and can hit in the #1 spot. I don't care if they're a "lead-off hitter" or not. For example, Jeter has a .427 OBP. I hate Jeter, but he'd be a great lead-off hitter (even though he usually bats 2nd). I'd have no problem with Freel as an everyday 2B/SS and leading off at .380+. Rios has been used at leadoff at times this year and he's at .383. DeJesus is over .400 and batting lead-off (though he missed a lot of time for injuries). I'd much rather have him in CF and leading off than ol' 43. Heck, drop it to .374 and pick up Sizemore, Swisher, Brady Clark, little Sarge, Utley, and (ugh) Eckstein. And Brandon Phillips is just a bit lower at .372. And I'm sure there are other guys who could lead-off that I missed. So that's 14 guys who are .372 or higher, all could easily end the year above .380. Why is so bad to want my team to have a lead-off hitter w/ an OBP that 14 possible lead-off guys have (not all leading off on their current teams, but that's not my fault)? I don't think that's too high a standard. If the Cubs valued OBP as much as I'd like them too, they could easily have a .380 OBP guy at the top of the order. EDIT: I shouldn't have included Swisher - if he were our RF, he would not be leading off (nor is he for Oakland). But I left off Vizquel and Freddy Sanchez who are both over .380 this year.

The Cubs do not have a nucleus of position players, their position players suck. They need to put together a lineup and a pitching staff. Do you really want to get rid of all the position players? If not, who would you keep. I'd guess DLee. Anyone else? Barrett? ARam? Murton? Cedeno? Walker (maybe for one more year)? None of the above?

I agree. But if JH thinks we'll turn around quickly & compete in '07, he'll probably want both of those guys. I wouldn't mind seeing Maddux & Dempster (among many others) traded though. Teams love veteran SP and I'd like him to deal now when there are a lot of teams who have a shot at the playoffs (thus more bidders). Teams also love "proven" closers. I don't think Dempster has proven much w/ just one season of work, but if someone will value him as a "proven" closer - I deal him now.

Jones has been doing well lately, but I'd argue that he's not a good hitter, based on career numbers. Pierre is just not a good hitter at all. His .350 OBP for June is the lowest OBP I'd consider acceptable for a leadoff guy. It should be .380+. And I think you left out Barrett, who is a good hitter. But your point still stands, we have some good hitters. I really think it comes down to Dusty's philosophy (which some have apparently adopted - Murton - and some had before they got here - Jones, JP - though Jones is on pace to have his second lowest BB/AB rate of his career, and he has some pretty low rates) of swing early/swing often. He wants aggressive hitters and preaches that. Someone in another thread posted a list of all the Dodgers with OBP above .350 or something like that. And there were a lot of them. There have been a lot of threads that document the correlation between OBP and scoring runs. I think its that simple. You fill your lineup with high OBP guys and you'll score more runs. You fill your lineup with 3-4 OBP guys and 4 hackers and you won't score much.

Thanks.

I disagree. I think the Cubs will extend Z. I don't know the cost, but I think the Cubs will pay it. They have one of the highest payrolls in the league. They can afford to pay Z.

This is the part I like. . Boy isn't it exciting. If we got someone like Shines. We'd see (probably). . Guzman Pitching Hill Picthing (maybe?) Matt Murton in LF Felix Pie (if Pierre is traded) and possibly even more young up and comers this year. Will we though? Isn't some of that on JH? Dusty shouldn't have final say on who is w/ the big club. It's Hendry's fault that Rusch is still on the 25-man while Hill mows down AAA batters. And I don't want to see Pie anywhere near Chicago this year. Just stay at Iowa and figure it out first, please.

Seeing the full quote makes this look a lot less accusatory. The one you quoted doesn't, but the quote in Serena's post looks pretty accusatory to me.

Maddux's contract does not include a NTC. But Hendry & Maddux have a handshake agreement that Hendry won't trade him w/o Maddux's consent. I don't have a link, but I've seen it in almost every Chicago paper at some point this season. If Bruce comes by, maybe he can confirm.

2-run double. I think I'll remain standing, thank you.

Garner is apparently dumber than Dusty. My 16-month old son could at least draw a walk against Rusch. Why would you bunt w/ Ausmus?

We've still got Mabry and Zambrano left to PH. That's a fair point, but I assumed through all of this that Dusty wanted Howry to get Ensberg and whoever else too (why, I don't know). But then he takes out Howry? Seriously, if only Hendry knew even the slightest thing about baseball, he'd fire Dusty for stupidity alone. Bruce, if you're out there, please, PLEASE ask Dusty what the heck was going on in his head in the 7th/8th innings. Was Darin managing as a "take your son to work day" kind of thing? Did he lose a bet and have to let a fan manage for an inning on the 4th of July? I can't believe out manager is this freaking stupid.

Hate to say I told you so, Dusty, but you don't double switch when the Ps spot is due 4th the next inning. Looks pretty dumb when your team goes K, K, pop out and the Ps spot never comes up.

Pagan for Nevin and then JJ for Murton? I figured it out - Dusty just got the news that he got fired so he wants to play everyone in his last game w/ the team. That has to be it. Please.

This is possibly the dumbest move Dusty has made in weeks. A - remove one of your best hitters and replace him w/ one of your worst - when Barrett's spot has to come up again if you are going to win, B - use your backup C in the 7th inning (good thing we have Nevin!), C - use a double switch when there's no guarantee that the Ps spot will come up in the next inning. Wouldn't we be better off just putting in Howry and seeing what happens the next inning? If the Cubs go 1-2-3, you can replace the P in the 9th with a guy you want leading off - NOT BLANCO. Cripes Dusty, it's like you're just throwing darts at names on a wall.

I'm absolutely floored - what's going on here?

Since hoping Hendry decides to go after high OBP guys is just a waste of my life, I'm hoping Hendry just goes after guys who SLG like crazy. If we only get on base 30% of the time, but the vast majority of our hits are doubles and homers - that's better than what we have now. I'm guessing he'll go after more speed-guys. We all know that injury is the only reason his "catch the ball" philosophy didn't work.

But why would Atlanta want 43? Even if we paid all of his salary for this year, I don't seem them taking him. Or are you thinking there would be a 3rd team involved?

I don't care if the Sox and Cardinals were both 100-loss teams - this is still unacceptable. The Cubs goal shouldn't be "keep up with the Cards & Sox" - it should be "win the damn Series already."

Yeah - if you haven't read FJM's take, you really should hop over there. Just great stuff.

Ross doesn't deserve it. I'm a big fan of the guy, but he has 110 ABs at the halfway point. Even if he gets 57 ABs a month (like he did in June), he'll still finish w/ around 300 ABs. That's just not enough for All-Star consideration. It's his manager's fault, but I don't think he's really in the running. I also don't think you take Barrett out of consideration b/c he punched AJP in the face. In fact, I'm betting that any player that thought McCann & Barrett were a toss up picked Barrett specifically because of the punch. McCann is deserving, Lo Duca is not. But my point isn't that Barrett should be there over McCann. I'm just disputing the claim (from the first page) that no Cub deserves to be there. Barrett certainly does.