Sammy Sofa

The example of bunting with the 3 hitter with no outs in the first inning, is definitely a bad sign. There is something to be said about playing the game the right way. To me that means hustling, picking up your 3rd base coach instead of looking over your shoulder at the ball, hitting the cutoff man, knowing when to try to get the runner going to third or throwing to 2nd to keep the double play in order, etc. Basic fundamentals of playing. Expecting your players to do those things is not a bad thing. Playing the game the right way doesn't mean calling for a sacrifice bunt in the first inning from your #3 hitter. Since I have no input to who the next manager of the Cubs will be but have a feeling it will be Ryno, I just hope he succeeds. It's not expecting guys to hit the cutoff man or pick up the 3rd base coach that people are worried about. No kidding. This Ballgame guy keeps going off on some weird tangents.

You DO want lip service, because the only action they can take right now would be little more than superficial moves. Yes, replacing Hendry would be a step in the right direction, but his replacement would be severely hindered by the current financial situation and how this team is currently made up in terms of contracts. So you don't want lip service, yet you want them to "act like winning is more important than anything?" That's basically the same thing. I'm not saying they're broke. They're trying recoup some of the cost and also not make stupid business moves that would inflate the already inflated payroll of a very mediocre team. What exactly would be the point of adding another bloated contract to this group, and who the hell do you even expect them to spend money on right now? I can say with 110% certainty that firing Lou will not make this team significantly better. He's obviously not helping, but this team simply is not very good as a whole. A team without 3-4 hitters isn't going anywhere. And yeah, you could marginally improve things by doing something like putting Byrd and Soriano 3-4, but they're both too impatient and far too streaky to turn this team around. Sure, but firing Lou doesn't fix anything you just listed. It doesn't make the team any better this year and it won't make people more interested in the team this year. If they want to fire Lou, great, he deserves it, but it's not going to do any of the things you seem to think/hope it would do.

Lower mounds, more power hitters, pitchers needing more pitches in their arsenal.

I hope you guys will be OK.

Probably despite him. A trained chimp as manager likely could have won with a lineup that stacked. Girardi's biggest knocks against him are in regards to his pitching management, and he's lucky he has a team as loaded as the Yankees are, though even already his primary flaws are being exposed. Not many, though I would definitely prefer to at least start with someone who isn't a "big name" hire. There are plenty of people with managing experience who aren't going to come in with swinging-dick egos like Lou and Sandberg. Well, that brings up one of the few things I think a manager should do, which is smart lineup management. Lou fails completely and utterly in that regard in every possible way. Many of the baserunning issues are the result of the moronic hit and runs and steals he keeps calling for. And "dropped fly balls?" Since when has that been a problem? Nobody's saying it's all Lou's fault. Sure it can. I expect little out of a manager besides smart lineup construction and knowing how to use the bullpen. They can cause a ton of harm if they can't handle either of those tasks, as we've seen with Lou, and if they feel they have to over-manage by calling too many steals and hit and runs and the like.

The big knock against Sandberg is his seemingly old-school approach to the game. He appears on the surface to favor conventional wisdom over statistical analysis. The thing with managers is that they very rarely ever do things to add wins over the course of a season. However, they do add losses by poor in-game management. Their job is to put their players in the best position to succeed. A logical construction of a lineup and proper management over the course of an entire season will have the team reaching its potential. Batting Theriot 1 or 2 while he's never getting on base, leaving Soto and his 400-500 OBP either in the 8 spot or on the bench, bringing in Grabow to blow 1 run leads because he can't get people out, etc. is not the best way to achieve good results. I have no clue how Sandberg will manage the pen, but I can only guess he'd leave Theriot at the top of the lineup because he's small and looks quick. Yeah, Sandberg seems too caught up in small ball, over-managing and "playing the game the right way" based on his rhetoric and how he's managed in the minors. It's a cliche at this point, but managers have much more impact on a team losing than they do on a team winning, and the prime way to get them to lose is with bad lineups and over-managing based on silly baseball cliches.

Well, obviously they could.

Sure, but the poster I was replying to seems to be making like the Ricketts can make moves now to significantly reverse the course of this team. That's simply not the case. A "sane" lineup doesn't actually make this team good.

Again, what do you want them to do right now? Firing Lou isn't going to magically make a mediocre team good. They're not sitting on a glut of prospects (or even just one) in the farm system that they can start playing who are likely to make the team better in the immediate future. The money isn't there yet to try and fix this with big FA signings. So again I ask, why do you keep making this statements as if there's anything they can do now that would actually make the team better? Just admit them you only want them to effectively ply you with more lip service, because that's all they can effectively do at this point. Sure, they could and should fire Hendry at some point, but again, no money to start rebuilding and why would you want them to start trading off their prospects for a team this old and flawed? Fixing this is going to take time.

Why? It's never a bad thing for guys to get extra time off, especially when they're one of the few useful players on the Cubs right now. You want Marmol rested for what exactly? 2011? Sure, why not? He's young enough that there's no reason to want to over use him in the meantime. Id say 2012. 2011 is likely to be a very ugly rebuilding year. That's not the point.

Why? It's never a bad thing for guys to get extra time off, especially when they're one of the few useful players on the Cubs right now. You want Marmol rested for what exactly? 2011? Sure, why not? He's young enough that there's no reason to want to over use him in the meantime.

Why? It's never a bad thing for guys to get extra time off, especially when they're one of the few useful players on the Cubs right now.

Oh well.

Why is it premature to say he could be HOF-worthy or one of the best ever? When is it ever premature for "could be?"

So will we see Lou use Soto?

I'll bet you've got a rager right now.

I've said a few times I think he'll be special. His debut was awesome. But when people are speaking of him as if it's a stone cold lock he'll be historically good, a reasonable person can't help but be a bit incredulous. The hype has literally be astronomical. Is that really that difficult to understand? Or do we want to keep parsing my statements as if I'm just trying to take a crap on the guy? So it's cool if you think he'll be "special," but it's just ridiculous hype apparently piled up to space (?????) if anyone else thinks he'll be special? Which is it?

Oh [expletive], you got me. Oh, wait. you didn't. I didn't say he wouldn't be special, I said I didn't think he'd live up to the hype (you know, the he'll be historically good-get his HOF bust ready stuff). It was really, really impressive. But it was one game, and it was the Pirates. What Kerry did was far more impressive, and we know how that one turned out. Strasburg has a better command of his repertoire, and looks like a special pitcher. But a lot of people are having hyperbole laced, premature baseball ejaculations over the guy. He's good, but he's not pitching Jesus. Actually, you very clearly said he wouldn't even "come close to the hype." I meant long term, clearly. Only a moron would make total value judgments based on one game. People are literally shooing him in for the HOF. That's the hype I'm talking about. I think you mean "he's a shoo-in." And the hype is mostly just about how he's likely to be an excellent pitcher and possible one of the best ever. Most of that is justified by what he's demonstrated so far, and having 14 K's and no walks in his debut is only an argument that furthers that.

Good job, Aramis. Oh, wait...

So those are the only things all of the hype around him can possibly mean?

Oh [expletive], you got me. Oh, wait. you didn't. I didn't say he wouldn't be special, I said I didn't think he'd live up to the hype (you know, the he'll be historically good-get his HOF bust ready stuff). It was really, really impressive. But it was one game, and it was the Pirates. What Kerry did was far more impressive, and we know how that one turned out. Strasburg has a better command of his repertoire, and looks like a special pitcher. But a lot of people are having hyperbole laced, premature baseball ejaculations over the guy. He's good, but he's not pitching Jesus. Actually, you very clearly said he wouldn't even "come close to the hype." It's also a bit intellectually toss dishonest to toss Wood out there as if he's the model for hyped prospects when he came into the pros with the idea that he'd be facing significant DL time over his ML career due to his usage and his delivery/mechanics. It's also not really sound to seemingly compare Wood's 20 K game to Strasburg's debut since the circumstances are drastically different. Wood's debut was a resounding thud of a turd.

I'm pretty sure he's been better about that recently. I know I kept expecting him to do that in May and I don't remember him actually doing it He's always been an impatient hitter, usually taking the least pitches per AB of any regular starter on the team. It always infuriated me when I'd hear idiots calling into the radio shows demanding that Theriot lead off over Soriano because he's "more patient."

what if he got traded to the Cardinals/Brewers and hit well against us I'd love it.

I really don't think it's possible for me to hate Theriot more.

That epic.