Sammy Sofa

YES, CUBAN B.

yes But then who's the cool old guy?

Oh, if only. I would love it if they fired Lou, let Trammel finish the year and then signed him up for at least one full year with Sandberg as the bench coach. I've resigned myself to the inevitability of Sandberg as manager at some point, so at least with that outcome he spends some time with the big league club under someone else as opposed to jumping right in.

Didn't this spaz make a big weepy farewell post?

To be fair, I guess, one would expect a team to have gone 1-8 against the Pirates to be a LOT worse than 5 games under .500. I'm not saying that Lou's is off the hook, but whatever. if it weren't for the fact that as a whole, the national league sucks and is rather unimpressive, my opinion is that lou would have been long gone by now. in a normal year, any team that is that close to .500 but is 1-8 to the pirates should have been fired well before the start of june. the extreme mediocrity of the nl is saving a lot of jobs now. Probably true.

Why is this the only conclusion? Why do you think this is likely as opposed to the much more likely conclusion that they took a low risk gamble on who might be a serviceable 25th man and got REALLY lucky (for the time being)?

It's ridiculous to conclude that they saw anything other than a low risk 25th man. How the hell can someone look at the Brewers and assume they have some kind of amazing scouting ability that basically nobody else in baseball or focused on baseball had when it comes to McGehee? He's a lucky break.

The Crew had some kind of indication. I'm not sure what it was, but they knew something. And you know this....how? because they signed him. They aren't signing players who they think will automatically suck. Neither do the Cubs. See dew's post at the top of this page: they almost certainly signed him for vastly different expectations than what they ended up with. McGehee was not on anyone's radar as being this type of player. Look at almost any evaluation of him as a minor leaguer.

To be fair, I guess, one would expect a team to have gone 1-8 against the Pirates to be a LOT worse than 5 games under .500. I'm not saying that Lou's is off the hook, but whatever.

Nope. I will be the vulture scooping up tickets for next to nothing. Same here.

Or the guy who has always been a free swinger was free swinging. I know that, but not realizing the ball got away is inexcusable. No matter what Byrd has done to this point, his free swinging attitude is exactly what the Cubs didn't need. Sure, but it is who he is; he's a very aggressive hitter. If that's what they don't need then they shouldn't have signed him in the first place.

Or the guy who has always been a free swinger was free swinging.

What? It's a tangent from the game and it's a discussion about the Cubs. Are the game threads only going to consist of updates as to what happens in the game?

How could anyone argue it wasn't a fluke? Please point out where people here have argued otherwise. Yes, I'm going to meticulously search through 50,000 posts to try to find a few that back up my opinion. Well, it just seems like an odd conclusion to take. Why would someone still be arguing that it wasn't an outlier season?

The approach this team has at all times is comical. Whether it's cutting down on their swings with 2 strikes, hitting the ball where it is pitched, swinging at the first pitch after a 4-pitch walk, it's all just bad. And has been bad for the majority of my life as a Cubs fan, except for 2008, when they reverted back to form in the postseason. sOPS+ measures performance relative to the rest of the league within a particular split. Think of it as OPS+ for specific situations alone. The Cubs sOPS+ with 2 strikes is 133. The Cubs sOPS+ with a runner on 3rd < 2 outs is 110. BUMS. MY EYES DON'T LIE.

Then what would be the point? And yes, I would love to see them move Lilly, Fukudome, Lee and Zambrano.

How could anyone argue it wasn't a fluke? Please point out where people here have argued otherwise.

The Crew had some kind of indication. I'm not sure what it was, but they knew something. And you know this....how?

Why not? Grabow was overpaid, but this year is clearly beyond the pale in terms of how he usually pitches. There's a very good chance he's been pitching with an injury.

It's subjective, but I really don't understand when people try to explain when Lou "gave up" or "mailed it in." This is the same Lou that has been here the whole time. Remember in 2007 when he said he wants someone who can catch the damn ball? Remember in the 2nd game of 2007 when he walked to the mound and told Dempster (the closer at the time) its 30 degrees, we are up 3, throw strikes. I just don't see the same things from Lou. I don't expect to act like an idiot and get thrown out of games, but I expect more than "I don't know what to do". He doesn't have to throw players under the bus, but is it really that hard to separate Lee and Ramirez in the line-up? His big change to shake up the offense was to move the ice cold Marlon Byrd to the 2nd spot so he can make even more outs in a game? Maybe he hasn't mailed it in, but he sure isn't trying too hard to change the fortunes of this team from a line-up perspective. Talk about putting a bow on a pig; they just had an inning the other day where Lou went out to talk to the pitcher and the ump and then the next pitch thrown by the Cubs resulted in a DP. Whoopety-doo. And the "catch the damn ball" crap was just regurgitating the same single-minded focus that Hendry had at the time to "fix" the team that actually ignored everything else that was actually wrong so that they can just blame it on one "super problem" (catch the ball, lead off hitter, get more left handed, etc.). Lou is basically the same loopy, lazy guy he was when he got here. You expect more from a guy that never demonstrated his entire time he was here that he'd be an acceptable manager unless he had a team where their talent or performance that year could succeed in spite of managing.

It's subjective, but I really don't understand when people try to explain when Lou "gave up" or "mailed it in." This is the same Lou that has been here the whole time.

What exactly would dumping Crane Kenney have done to improve the team this year? So having someone above Jim Hendry who actually knows baseball isn't a good idea? Maybe having someone with the stones to fire the manager who admittingly says he doesn't know what to do? $4 million per year for the manager to act like he has given up. Maybe it wouldn't help improve the team this year, but keeping Kenney sure isn't helping. As a fan, all I see is the status quo and that is not good enough. If I was the head of a group trying to purchase a franchise, I would have a plan in place for changes the first day I had control of the team and improving bathrooms would not have been high on the list. A winning team is the best fan experience, the best marketing plan and the best way to grow revenues. Except it's difficult to field a winning team if one of the main avenues of revenue is a dump that's literally falling apart. Wrigley had to be and still has to be improved and renovated and its revenue streams need to be capitalized on (like through more advertising). The Ricketts don't have bottomless pockets. They need to ideally set in place what is necessary to provide them with the revenue stream which would allow them to to keep the Cubs' payroll high. Your shortsighted focus as to what you think should be their first priority would be an exceedingly foolish way to run a business that they just dropped a massive amount of money on. How do you propose they field a winning team if they don't focus right away on the areas that will bring them the money to do so?

I don't think Omar is who you think he is.

Over which OF? How 'bout the one who basically hasn't been hitting for 2 straight weeks or more? If it's just a spot start, fine, but it's not the best idea to push it further than that. Even with the slump Byrd is much more valuable out there because of his defense compared to Colvin.

If Cubs fans stop going to Wrigley, he'll have no choice. He has little choice this year. People aren't going to come out and spend more money just because he fires Hendry and/or Lou during the season. The actual team this year really can't be improved significantly unless the money is there or they're stupidly willing to start trading off their decent prospects.