Hacking Out Machine

I think old Ned was a bit too smart for his own good. Thought he held all the cards and ended up getting jack as far as pitching is concerned. Note to Ned...you can't win when facing non-Neandertthals in trade negotiations.

Also, keep in mind that Myrtle Beach is among the most extreme pitchers parks in the minors. .285 .356 .421 are pretty good numbers considering that. As others have mentioned, he's barely 21 and a string bean who hasn't filled out yet. i think he looks pretty promising.

This was a great documentary. The parts about the aftermath with the other fans and the Cubs perrsonnel was awesone. The replays showing when Bartman looked back and asked the other fans if he did anything wrong and their recollection of it was really interesting. Someone was mentioning earlier in the thread that "many fans will avoid interfering with the home team", as if Bartman should have done the same. How astute of a fan would you have to be to look at your seat, look down at the field, think to yourself "Ok...I'm well above the field, but I'm only about 9.5 feet above the field of play, and if the ball comes right to my seat, the left fielder might have a play." Then, when the ball is coming straight toward him, in a packed house with nowhere to go, he realizes that there might be a play on it, and hits the deck? There was no conscious decision made by Bartman or anyone else to try to catch the ball at the expense of Alou trying to catch it. It never would have occurred to 99.9% of fans in that seat. If it happened at field level down the 1st or 3rd base line, maybe, but not in those seats. He didn't even reach into the field of play. Every meathead jackass that yelled "a-hole" or threw beer on him or took a swipe at him as he left the stadium would have done the exact same thing, and there would have been nothing selfish or malicious about it, just a reaction. Also, if Alou just had a mild reaction to the play and returned to his position, it would have been an afterthought. People might have talked about it the next day, but there certainly would not have been the ugly scene at the ballpark that night. Not that I'm blaming Alou, just pointing out that his reaction was what incited the whole thing. Many fans at the park mentioned that they didn't even notice there was interference until Alou reacted.

Yeah, me too. It's pretty much a given that he's the dream hire. I'd be on board with Hahn, Ng or Preller too. Not Ng. She's been in the same room with Ned Coletti a lot. I'd be afraid she might have retained something from him. Even if only by osmosis. It's enough for me to run away screaming.

I thought Ricketts killed it today. I am officially back on board with this team. When the sabermetrics question was asked, I thought he made it pretty clear that that's probably the most important piece with the new regime. He tempered it by saying it's just a piece, but of course he's going to say that. Any of us who lean to the stats side, if put in a press conference scenario would have worded it the same way. He understands that the Cubs current culture of hacking at everything and focusing on athletes is not and has not been working. That's why there are no internal candidates, and that's the way it should be. He wouldn't make silly blanket statements such as "the candidate will ned to have GM experience" because he is probably interested in our buddy Ben in Boston or Mr. Forst in Oakland in addition to the Freidmans and Daniels of the world. (though i know Daniels is not likely going anywhere). Bravo Tom Ricketts. As a Cubs fan fed up with .279 .303 .362 hitting lines throughout the organization, I salute what appears to be your vision of the future direction of the Cubs.

2 years ago, I told a Cardinal fan friend of mine that if I was Hendry, I would offer any team willing to take Soriano and his contract any 4 players in the Cubs organization for nothing. He said he wouldn't do it.

That's pretty much how Hendry rolls.

70 wins is looking like more and more of a longshot at this point. Normally, when the Cubs aren't good....they crater.

Oh yea that reminds me, Fire Hendry too. What...you're not looking foward to Soriano in his age 39 season? You've given up that Samardzija's wide receiving skills will ever morph into useful pitching skills? You don't like constantly overpaying for middle relief mediocrity? You don't yearn to watch guys make outs prodigiously?

Yeah, then the Cards would only win the division by 12 games instead of 18.

All I can say is that I am very thankful to have Alfonso Soriano locked up for his age 35-39 seasons for 90 million. He seems to be getting better with age. Thank goodness Hendry was able to sell him on taking the money.

I know what you're saying, and I don't mind the hits either....as long as they're singles. You can't give up homers in the closer's role, and this guy is addicted to gopher balls. I'd like to know what Gregg's SLG against is this year. It's gotta be over .500. How many homers is that for Gregg? 12? The two things you cannot do as a closer is walk people and give up home runs, and Gregg has been doing both all year.

I'd say it's more the frustration of Gregg blowing two consecutive games, though the Cubs did come back to win on Saturday. If these two appearances were sandwiched around something like 10 straight scoreless outings (just throwing a number out there), I don't think it would be that big of a deal. I'm sure a bit of it is the lack of offense on Sunday, but I think a majority of it is Gregg laying an egg on two straight days. I don't know about everyone else, but my biggest frustration is Gregg's inability to stop breaking the cardinal rule of closing, which is: "Keep the other team in the park" If you do nothing else as a closer, this is essential. Gregg is giving up homeruns at an alarming rate, as pointed out earlier in the thread. As much as he is probably their best option for closer among their staff right now, they absolutely CANNOT afford to have him out there if he is going to give up home runs. You can have patience with a guy if he goes through a streak where he gets nickeled and dimed a couple times in a row, but you can't with a guy who keeps proving to you that he's going to give up long balls. Those are immediate daggers.

Definitely. Wasn't Jimbo the director of the farm system at one point? For a brief period when the Cubs system was ranked near the top? Yeah, let's get a new GM and let him do that again. Not sure a farm system of nothing but starting pitching and .295 OBP athletic position players is the way to go again. Hendry's strength is starting pitching. I wouldn't let him touch any other aspect of drafting. I think this is one of the better snippets in this thread. Hendry's(and now apparently Wilken's) love affair with "toolsy" types instead of guys who demonstrate an actual ability to have some sort of clue at the plate has always been the biggest detriment to the Cubs ability to develop useful position players. As another poster has mentioned, it's forced them to the free agent market, and into some albatross contracts. Having said that, Hendry has started to show some evidence that he understands OBP and SLG are important as Bradley and Fukudome attest. (Now if they'd just perform as their previous numbers would suggest!!!). Drafting of guys like Tony Thomas in recent years indicated that as well. Now if we could start seeing more of a tools/approach emphasis on position players early in the draft rather than just tools, that would be great.

Oh, I definitely agree with what you're saying here..my point from my original post a few spots up was that Gregg violates the cardinal rules of closing, and as a result, he's probably among the 3 or 4 least effective closers in baseball. I focused on last year to give him the benefit of the doubt. I certainly noticed his shortcomings in the previous years, but when you aren't closing, you find yourself in a lot more low leverage situations that lend themselves to just getting the ball over to get the game over with. It happens with closers too, but not nearly as often. Gregg in his Anaheim career was about 4th in the pecking order behind K Rod, Donnelly and probably Shields in those years, so he was in a good number of mop up scenarios. Just trying to compare apples to apples. Your overall point(and your assertion about Pro Player), however, can't be disputed and I strongly agree with it....At this point in his career, Gregg is what he is. That means he is not and probably will not be a good closer until he stops walking people and giving up long balls. And that's a longshot.