Sammy Sofa

Actually, we just had a recent tangent where the admins made it clear that these threads are specifically not supposed to be a place where people just take an emotional dump. Besides, this is how I blow off steam.

Agreed, but the leadoff hitter is the one guy I would like to see try and at least work the count a bit. Eh, if he's getting a pitch he's confident he can hit, why lay off? There's no guarantee he's going to get another one. Nice play by Aramis!

While I understand the frustration over short AB's, it doesn't necessarily behoove a hitter to sit there and take pitches. If they're not taking many pitches AND just swinging at bad ones, OK, you've got problems. If they're swinging at good pitches to hit, well, that's what you want them to do. There's little point in sitting back on a pitch if it's one that you're confident you can hit and the pitcher isn't wild. Of course, they're not getting the hits, so there's that, too. But acting like taking pitches is always necessary or even the ideal thing to do isn't the case.

Why would they do that? Lou is gone at the end of this year even if they do fire him, and it's pretty clear they're looking at Sandberg as someone they want managing for at least a few years. Why saddle him and the perception of him as a manager with a bad team?

Denied.

That whole year with the Mets will forever be treasured in their fans' hearts.

The owner of the Orioles hasn't made Cal Ripken Jr. Manager of the Orioles. What do I win? Wait, what? When did Cal ever make efforts to manage the Orioles? It should be obvious I'm talking about the type of situation Sandberg is in, not just beloved players randomly being asked to manage out of the blue.

That was a poor choice of words, they are the sacrificial lambs that are used as a token of Hendry's idea of "look I am trying something" philosophy. Trying what? I do not know, but he has to act like he is trying something in order to save his job and getting rid of these guys will be the least offensive to people And it would be the least meaningful, too. It wouldn't placate anyone in the media or the fans, and it's not necessary since both are actually of some use, so what's the point?

This is really one of those days where it should be easier to bump a game up a few hours.

You are calling for heads to roll. How is dropping them in the order causing heads to roll? Did you read the post, or just the first sentence? I clearly stated that they need to be dropped to the bottom of the lineup. That's not "heads rolling." That's just dropping guys in the lineup.

That was a poor choice of words, they are the sacrificial lambs that are used as a token of Hendry's idea of "look I am trying something" philosophy. Trying what?

No kidding. Any talk like he's slacking off or burnt out or whatever is just absurd. He has every motivation to do well this year in what his likely his last opportunity for a really big payday. Except for the fact that he has a player option for next year, that at this point, he would be crazy to opt out of. That was my point. He can opt out after this season. If he doesn't he's potentially on the Cubs for the next two seasons. This is his best shot for one last truly epic payday since he'd be 34 if he's on the Cubs through the 2012 season.

I'm not. He might have "tweaked" something just enough in the offseason or in the spring. All it potentially takes is for just something to be a bit off for it to mess up a guy's swing and/or timing even if he's not playing in pain. Or maybe it was even last season. Those post-injury numbers are inflated by a monster July: .333 .405 .600 1.005 He then had a pretty big drop off in August: .278 .329 .430 .760 But then rebounded nicely the rest of the season: .302 .406 .465 .871 In short, I have no idea what the [expletive] is going on with him because he's been up and down since the injury.

I totally agree with you. If the Cubs play .538 ball the rest of the way they end up 84-78 and have a decent shot at the Wild Card. Now I agree that they have sucked this season, but you can't tell me that they can't play .538 ball assuming ARam and DLee start hitting. ARam might have a "down" year, but he's not going to stay in "Aaron Miles land" the whole season. He might. Some guys simply fall off of a cliff after a major injury. I obviously hope that's not the case, but it's certainly not outside of the realm of possibility. He did hit .304/.381/.496 after returning last year. The ISO's a little lower, but there were no signs that he'd be anything less than an above average hitter Weirder things have happened.

I'd be stunned if it wasn't. As much as I'd like Ricketts to be some kind of baseball savant above all else, as a businessman he'd have to be an idiot to not recognize the PR coup that would come with giving Sandberg the job, especially after 2 letdown seasons. They could easily frame it so that his first year will be a rebuilding year so he doesn't get slammed too much, if at all (look how Lou's been treating with kid's gloves), if the team does poorly. Is that what we will have been waiting a year for Ricketts to figure out? To hire a Cub legend with no experience to score vacuous points with the masses, devoid of actual analysis on what will make the Cubs successful long term? Goodness I hope not. What matters is who the GM is, and what players that GM acquires. I would prefer somebody other than Ryno, but he's not going to make or break the team. Right. Ricketts can still be plenty "baseball smart" and have Sandberg as the manager. The critical move is going to be who ends up as the GM. I mean, you can't really slam Ricketts if he promotes Sandberg. I defy anyone to show me an owner that wouldn't go with such an obvious golden choice in terms of making the fans and the media happy. Again, he has to ideally be both a baseball guy and a businessman when approaching the Cubs. Sandberg seems to not be ideal for the former, but he's sure as [expletive] a slam dunk for the latter. He'd basically be stupid NOT to do it from that standpoint.

I totally agree with you. If the Cubs play .538 ball the rest of the way they end up 84-78 and have a decent shot at the Wild Card. Now I agree that they have sucked this season, but you can't tell me that they can't play .538 ball assuming ARam and DLee start hitting. ARam might have a "down" year, but he's not going to stay in "Aaron Miles land" the whole season. He might. Some guys simply fall off of a cliff after a major injury. I obviously hope that's not the case, but it's certainly not outside of the realm of possibility.

What exactly are these options they would be finding out about? Mainly if any of our current coaches can manage. Pretty irrelevant since it's obvious that the Cubs are lining up Sandberg for the job. Well that sucks then, if true. I'd be stunned if it wasn't. As much as I'd like Ricketts to be some kind of baseball savant above all else, as a businessman he'd have to be an idiot to not recognize the PR coup that would come with giving Sandberg the job, especially after 2 letdown seasons. They could easily frame it so that his first year will be a rebuilding year so he doesn't get slammed too much, if at all (look how Lou's been treating with kid's gloves), if the team does poorly.

No kidding. Any talk like he's slacking off or burnt out or whatever is just absurd. He has every motivation to do well this year in what his likely his last opportunity for a really big payday. If he's terrible this year he can always choose not to opt out and try again next year in his contract year. That's why people had better pray he at least puts up respectable numbers the rest of the way if they don't want him on the team next year, because if he's terrible this season he'd be a fool to opt out and leave millions on the table if he has a good contract year next season. The team has an option after next year, so if he kicks ass next year I wouldn't be surprised if they used it. Then he wouldn't hit the FA market until after the 2012 season.

How can Nady and Fontenot be spun as scapegoats at this point?

Wait, what? Talk about being melodramatic. Finishing 83-78 was underwhelming and a letdown, but a "historic underachievement?" Yeah, right. By Cubs standards it was a glowing success. Yeah, no kidding.

No kidding. Any talk like he's slacking off or burnt out or whatever is just absurd. He has every motivation to do well this year in what his likely his last opportunity for a really big payday.

Wait, what? Talk about being melodramatic. Finishing 83-78 was underwhelming and a letdown, but a "historic underachievement?" Yeah, right.

What exactly are these options they would be finding out about? Mainly if any of our current coaches can manage. Pretty irrelevant since it's obvious that the Cubs are lining up Sandberg for the job.

Get cracking doing what? Why not just let it play out? Let the contracts that are expiring expire (ideally after you've traded those players and convinced them to waive their NTC and pray to God that Aramis opts out), let Lou walk at the end of the season and let Hendry go with just a year left on his contract. Simply waiting things out could easily be the smartest thing Ricketts could do and definitely an indicator that he's "figured stuff out."

But at least the best manager would have Lee and Ramirez, especially Ramirez working out their problems from somewhere in the 6-8 spots with some combination of Soto, Byrd, Soriano and Kosuke in the heart of the lineup. I understand letting your stars work out of a funk, but how long can you keep a guy who looks absolutley lost at the plate and another who doesnt look much better in the heart of your order? And that's how this hypothetical manager would maybe have the team at .500. Not really awe-inspiring. The vast majority of the "blame" falls on the team.