Tracer Bullet

I don't have time to find it right now, but wasn't there a quote in every Chicago paper recently in which Dusty defended himself as a winner. Something about his track record proved that if he had the horses, he'd win. I took that to mean Dusty doesn't think his players are very good.

I think the whole "pick up the base and throw it" routine is more effective when it doesn't take you 10 minutes to get the bag out of the ground. This guy has some work to do before he's ready for the big leagues. He has some potential though. The quote in the article about having Sears mannequins umpire the games was good.

Ramirez and Jones for little-Weav & Kendrick?

Yikes.

In addition to the players he suggests trading away and going after, I like that Bruce attacks the organizational philosophy of wanting more "clutch" hits and acquiring "change of scenery" guys. This is dead on, imo:

Great article Bruce. Though I'd also add one more move: trade Jacques Jones while he's at his peak. http://www.dailyherald.com/sports/beatwriters.asp?column=miles&id=201859 I'm also not that high on CLee, but he may be the only real power option for a corner OF spot in the off-season. [if this should be moved to transactions, please do so - I went back and forth on where to put it]

I really hope you're wrong. If we keep our backup, backup 2B rather than Murton, I may absolutely lose it. I'd love for Mabry to be gone, but I can't see the Cubs keeping Womack over him.

Maybe we could rotate in fans, like they do celebs for the 7th inning stretch. Every game, a different Cub fan gets to play RF.

Restovich? I like this idea. Restovich wasn't great in his short stint this year, but if he's terrible for a few months - who really cares. Low cost, no risk option. Unless you get a near-ready OF from the Yankees, I'd go with Restovich.

Tony Womack is a Chicago Cub (though if I had guesssed that, I also would have guessed that he's not repeating the career year he had with StL in '04).

What do I win?!?!

Jones has been the Cubs best hitter during the past two months. Right now, based upon his stats and his salary, he is a relative bargain. Also, he is just entering his prime, so I believe (though many disagree with me) that he can keep this up. Right now he is on pace for a .290 average with 30 hrs. That's pretty darn solid for $5 mil. Wait a minute. My math is a little rusty, but Jones was born in April of 1975. By my calculations, that makes him 31. I don't know the exact years that are commonly accepted as "prime years" but I'm pretty sure they are in the 26-29 range. Jones is likely at or past his prime. Either way, there is no way he is "just entering his prime." So even if he hits .290 with 30 homers this year, it's very unlikely that he'll do that for 2 more years (given past production). Besides, we're not winning this year. If someone is willing to give up a decent prospect and eat this ridiculously risky contract, just tell me where to sign. But making a deal while JJ is playing this well would be an admission that JH doesn't expect it to continue - an admission that he was wrong to sign him for 3 years. Reality tells me that JH isn't going to admit he was wrong. My guess is right now JH is about to break his arm patting himself on the back ("I knew he just needed a change of scenary. I am the BEST.").

I will give them $10 if they'll take Jones and pay his entire salary. Trade high, Jim. Trade high!

I think it breaks down to: 12 hits / 20 ABs = .600 AVG (12/20) 12 hits + 1 BB / 20 ABs + 1 BB + 1 SF = .591 OBP (13/22)

1. What's a reasonable price? 2. What are the chances he'd sign for that? Given the very slight difference in OBP and huge difference in pay-Cedeno is a better fit for the team. We could use the money not spent for Furcal to fill the holes in the team. SS isn't anywhere near our biggest problem. You're creating a false choice here. Cedeno was already expected to be a part of the team, even if Furcal had been signed. And would you seriously argue that the money not spent on Furcal has been spent "to fill the holes in the team?" I'm sick of this talk of overpaying. Wouldn't you rather see the Cubs spending $110 million this year instead of $96 million and have a leadoff hitter with an OBP some 40 points higher than Pierre's (at one point it was close to 80 points higher this season), and still have Derrek Lee in the lineup? The Tribune could easily spend as much money as the Yankees; they just choose not to. The better investment would have been to go hard after an even better leadoff hitter like Johnny Damon, whose OBP is in the .350 range. But since this is the Trib, who tries to get their free agents on blue light special, that's a pipe dream. First - I didn't create any choice - I was making a comment about the choice given. I didn't say it was between Furcal and Cedeno - the original post set up that choice. I was disagreeing with the post quoted (that Shavo would rather have Furcal than Cedeno). And I said the money not spent on Furcal could have been spent to fill the holes - it wasn't (or at least not effectively) but it could have been. No where in my post did I say the money was spent to fill holes. Second - I'm not talking about overpaying. I have no qualms with how much the Cubs are spending and would be fine with spending more. But if the choice is Furcal or Pierre - I'd take neither and use Walker - who is just as good at leading off as either of those two (plus, I don't think you can really say that had we signed Furcal, Lee wouldn't be injured - just too many intervening factors there). And I don't think the Trib was the problem this year - it was the people Hendry targeted (and to a lesser extent, the people that were available). Given the choices (Furcal and Pierre) JH would have been better w/ neither and letting Walker lead off. I'm not saying that b/c I want the Cubs to spend less, I'm saying that b/c I'd rather have Cedeno & Walker in the MI than Furcal and one of them.

To be fair - even if he put up those numbers for the last 3 months (63 ABs), it wouldn't have made a great deal of difference in our W total.

1. What's a reasonable price? 2. What are the chances he'd sign for that? Given the very slight difference in OBP and huge difference in pay-Cedeno is a better fit for the team. We could use the money not spent for Furcal to fill the holes in the team. SS isn't anywhere near our biggest problem.

I'm pretty sure that you can't serve a suspension while unable to play, even if you're not on the DL. Someone - correct me if I'm wrong, but I think if Barrett was too injured to actually play a game, they couldn't just drop the appeal and let him start serving the suspension.

What are the scalpers charging? That may be your best bet.

Did anyone NOT see this coming?

Well, I mean, it's a Cubs board. The fact that some posters hate the Sox shouldn't be surprising. There may even be 1 or 2 that don't like the Cardinals.

Hall was my choice too.

Not sure if he qualifies, but I'm pretty sure Joe Morgan wouldn't see these actions as taking a step back. He'd probably just blame it on injuries.

Even by traditional measures, like AVG, Pierre and Neifi are terrible this year. There's no excuse for continuing to run Pierre out there at the top of the order every game.

One of the saddest parts of that article is that our OBP leader has a .368 OBP. That's a fine OBP (and great for Walker), but to be the best on our entire team? Ugh.