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I don't understand either. I remember reading in a number of places (not just Cub-biased, like our announcers) that he's a great pitching coach. But you're right, either this staff is terrible and he's doing all he can to get them to pitch as well as they are (unlikely) or he hasn't really helped our young staff mature in his time here (more likely, imo). Of course, other than Mazzone & Mike Maddux, you don't hear much about pitching coaches. So he might be just as good as anyone else out there (other than those 2). It might be that he, like Dusty, isn't that good with young players.

Nomar would have none of this back when the Red Sox were talking to A-Rod. The theory was to move Nomar to 2ed or 3rd to allow A-Rod to play short. Moving Nomar to the outfield wasn't mentioned back then, so I cannot comment on what the gossip, boards, radio etc. had to say about that. I doubt it would go over well with Nomar though. He doesn't seem to be that much of a team player. That may have been true in Boston (I don't really trust the media, and his teammates seemed to like him), but Nomar's in a different situation now. Unless he gets unbelievably hot in the next 2 months, he's not going to have a lot of teams looking to give him a big contract (or maybe even a small contract). He may be open to a move to 2B or the OF now. On the other hand, I'm not sure I don't want him at SS. Would have been nice to see Cedeno get a real chance to face ML pitching while Nomar was out so we'd know what he could do. But if we'd have done that, Neifi couldn't have "saved" the team's claim to 4th place in the NL Central. :roll:

I'm guessing Neifi. Hmm...why not both? Well, considering they are the same person... Exactly - I'm still trying to figure out how we had Neifi at SS and Macias in CF at the same time.

Damn you were right. Should have guessed it. "He's hitting nearly .300. He's no slouch."

I'm guessing Neifi.

Why is it that Prior's Ks take 7 pitches when the Cubs hitters strike out on 3 pitches? Oh, I forgot we need to be aggressive up there, after all, "they call it 'hitting' not 'walking.'" Thanks for the advice Dusty.

No, I didn't expect him to suddenly have a great eye for the zone. But I hoped he would have learned to take a pitch or 2. He's seen 4 pitches in 2 ABs and swung (or bunted) at 3 of them. The bunt on the first pitch is one thing. But the swing at the first pitch in his second AB, when the pitch wasn't really a good ball to hit, is how Corey got to be a .230 hitter (when a terrible OBP). Any pitcher that throws Corey a pitch in the zone before he takes 3 balls is crazy at this point.

It'd be nice if the Cubs batters would work the count and get into the other team's pen early once in a while. It's surprising that they see their pitchers go deep in counts and get taken out in the 5th or 6th, but it doesn't click that taking pitches is a good thing when they're in the box.

Just seeing the game online. Can anyone tell me if these pitches Corey is swinging at are anywhere near the zone? Doesn't appear that he learned anything in Iowa.

No offense, but imo that is one of the dumbest sayings in all of sport (along with a team "knowing how to win"). Teams win b/c they are better and/or luckier than their opponents. The Cards happen to be both this year, most of the time. The Cards are 30 games over .500 right now because they played better or were luckier than the team they opposed in 71 of their games. Not because they "found a way to win" those games. I don't even know what that means.

I heard the same thing on ESPN radio this morning, but don't have any additional info.

Sorry, but I can't overlook this. Hollandsworth is NOT a good defender. He is below average defensively. The "good defender" excuse was made up by Dusty to justify him giving so much PT to Hollandsworth. Let's put it this way. Maybe "good" was an overestimate of his skills, but he's not exactly Macias out there and as a 4th OF, I'd take him. Maybe I should have said he's been successful as a PH and he's not a horrible corner OF. Either way, I think he has value (if used correctly), but not enough to make a trade worthwhile.

I don't understand why you'd want to get rid of most of these guys when they're useful to the team now and could help the team next year, too. Holly - solid 4th OF. Good defender, has PH in the past and been successful. Walker - good, cheap 2B. Cubs have a shot to resign him, don't have great alternatives in the system and if they trade him, don't have much of a chance to sign him. Nomar - he may be auditioning for other teams, but he seems to like Chicago and might take a reasonable incentive-laden deal to stay since the Cubs gave him $8m for nothing. Even if he signs elsewhere, he doesn't have a ton of value to other teams now (and won't until he proves he's back, which will take some time). Neifi - solid backup IF, good spot-starter (as long as he isn't hitting 2nd). Macias - drop him or keep him, I don't care. But no one is going to trade for him. Burnitz - the only guy on your list that I'd trade. Has some value and the Cubs have plenty of OF prospects. Ship him out for whatever you get. CPatt - has no value. Someone make take him, but as Rocket Sauce said, might as well be the Cubs. Besides, if he plays well next year, trade him when he has value and put Pie in CF. Don't trade him now for pennies on the dollar - he's still relatively young. It's not that these guys (except Macias) aren't valuable to the team, they're just being misused. The manager is the one that plays Neifi, Holly, and Macias all the time over Murton and Cedeno. Don't trade away useful players b/c the manager can't use them correctly. Fire the manager.

From another Miles article, more love for Jose: Hitting nearly .300 with a .670 OPS and terrible CF defense. Still better than trying to work Murton and his .400 AVG and .920 OPS into the lineup, apparently. It killed me to turn on the game last night and see Burny & Walker getting the day off, but Cedeno and Murton still not starting (Not to mention Neifi and his .288 OBP in the 2 hole again). When was the last time either of these guys got a start?

Actually Ozzie: Spent three seasons in the major leagues as a third base coach, including a stint with the 2003 world champion Florida Marlins. At least that's something. I just do not get the idea that just hiring "anybody"....is ok. If it is....then the manager doesnt really matter anyway. So the hundreds of posts about Baker are silly (kind of are anyway). The point is......this is a major league franchise.....hiring someone (doesnt matter who it is) to "try out" managing at the big league level is nuts. By the way.....if Ozzies team had struggled this year he would have been fired by now.....people were just waiting to pounce on him. The team got hot.....so all is well. And Girardi has been Torre's bench coach. Why is being a 3rd base coach "at least...something" but being a bench coach isn't?

Won't they have 10 days to trade him, if possible (though admittedly, teams don't tend to pay top dollar in a trade for a player that was just DFA'd].

Any word on what the other moves will be?

He would be my choice.

Perez, Macias, Blanco should be hitting 1-2-3. Make it happen Dusty - you know you want to. Who's with me?

Neifi doubles. He's our savior! :roll:

Leadoff double - what are the chances we score?

7 pitch inning? That, in a nutshell, is the problem with this offense. And those were our 1-2-3 guys.

I'm not jumping on a bandwagon either - but I'm pulling for the As. I've been on their bandwagon ever since the first year they made a huge comeback after everyone wrote them off. Now I just like watching the same "analysts" make the same mistake year after year: April - "The As are terrible, they won't make the playoffs." July - "Shoot...how do I delete that column from my archives?"

Yes. I said that b/c the Astros remaining schedule is really easy. They have all those games against the Cubs, two games against the Cardinals on the 27th and 28th of September, and most of the rest of the season against the bad teams from the NL Central and West. If Houston struggles to beat the bad teams as much as the Cubs do, maybe we do have a shot.

One bad play at the end of a game doesn't show the importance of good defense any more so than the fact that we've only scored 5 runs in 2 games shows that the team's offense hasn't been very good either.