Sammy Sofa

Eh?

Actually, Ronnie had a perfect bunt tonight.

Come on, Cedeno...top off that huge play with some more sweet hitting!

Brad Thompson looks like he eats souls.

"David Aardsma, YOU have just struck out Albert Pujols with the game tied in the bottom of the ninth!" http://mlb.mlb.com/images/players/mugshot/ph_430911.jpg

Aardsma's pic is very appropriate when you pitch to Pujols in a situation like this.

I meant outside of the Cubs' "world." Of course the fans and regional press are gonna talk. But to the rest of the sports world, they're pretty unimportant at this point. They're gonna get mentions here or there, but by and large it doesn't seem like most people care, good or bad. The Cubs have made themselves a non-issue.

I think Corey's "book" is a bit overrated at this point. I've going out of my way to try and see him play on EI this past month, and he's very noticeably not going after pitches that would would have had him down 1-2-3 in the past...namely the high fastballs. He's taking pitches and swinging much smarter, and hitting a lot of different pitches. I'll be surprised if he keeps up this pace or better for the whole year, but I highly doubt he gets anywhere near his lows with the Cubs.

Or maybe he just needed to be coached by people who know what the hell they're doing at least every once in a while. Corey himself said he thought he should be batting lower in the lineup, specifically as a #6 hitter. Well, the Orioles are doing just that, and letting him work there. And look at the results. Wow, what a radical approach...nobody could have EVER thought of that! Corey definitely had some ego "issues," but if what he's doing now with the O's continues, it should prove he was VERY far from being uncoachable, or terrible or a headcase, or whatever other excuses want to be made. His success should be one of the most scathing indictments of how bad the Cubs' management and coaching staffs are right now. corey had plenty of ab's in the 7/8 hole last year. sure some blame should be placed on the cubs coaching, but most the blame falls on corey. He was yanked around the lineup and expected to change his role on a near weekly basis. The Cubs' plans for him seemed to change with the winds. That kind of inconsistency and blatant misunderstanding of your own farm pick is murder on the game of a younger playing still trying to find his role and skills. It's obvious even the Cubs realized that. Look how much playing time Murton and Cedeno have gotten towards the bottom of the lineup. Most of their switches have been to the two spot. Consistency. Corey was seemingly expected to be everything except the three and four hitters. And I'm not saying he may have not been a difficult player to coach. But those players are going to come around enough that having coaches that can't deal with those situations are a real problem. Look at what it means we might miss out on.

All lefties, all the time. At least they could rest easy knowing they'd destroy the Cubs for eternity.

Me too. My beef is with the hitting coaches up on the MLB team. Clines, Sarge and Rothschild, with a heaping helping of Dusty to top it off.

Works for me. My medical knowledge is next to nil. I just want whatever needs to be done to be done to get him ship-shape for 2007.

Hill? Seriously? Really? Hill?

Talk about how more fun it is to beat the Astros with Roger Clemens back on the team?

Let's all grow handlebar moustaches!

I'm just repeating what I thought I heard. Pardon me if I don't remember every different article/post/discussion/rant about this issue off the top of my head. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong. I'm not "dismissing" anything.

If you are going to use Corey as the poster child for horrible coaching and managing, you also need to point out the success stories that the Cubs coaches and managers have had. Just to name a few players who have developed into better players since joining the Cubs in the past few years: Barrett Lee Grudz Dempster Borowski ARam Murton Could it be that some players simply play better in a different atmosphere? Was Dusty responsible for turning Barrett into one of the best offensive catchers in the game today? Was Dusty/Sarge responsible for DLee's incredible increase in power and average? Was Rothschild responsible for taking Dempster and making him into a good closer? I highly doubt that Baker had anything to do with Corey's lack of success. Corey was sucking equally before Baker came and after Baker came. There was a reason that hardly any teams were trying to trade for Corey. I'm glad that he is having success right now and hope that it continues, but to blame the coaching staff for his suckiness is quite a stretch. Corey is a massive warning sign as to how the Cubs deal with their rookie players. All the guys you listed, with the exception of Murton and A-Ram, had established careers in the bigs. I'll fully concede that the coaching staff with the Cubs may have helped them adjust to new roles or develop new skills, but I'm just as likely, if not more likely, to believe that most of those improvements came more from the players themselves. Lee studied films of hitters he admired and worked with his trainers to improve his swing. I'd lay money he would have done that no matter where he was at that point in his career. Dusty went out of his way NOT to use Dempster as a closer until it was absolutely necessary. Borowski flamed out spectacuarly due to injury...something that might be a tragic and running theme with Cubs pitching under the current coaching regime. Aramis is proving that unless he has a monster hitter in front of him, he's heartbreakingly average...or worse. Grudz is Grudz...he's decent, but nothing to call home about. And Murton...we are witnessing the tearing down of Murton by these monsters in front of our very eyes. At this point, his biggest asset at the plate is his patience, and the Cubs are telling him he needs to swing at more pitches and be more aggressive. And now he's wailing away at 1st and 2nd pitches he would have never swung at before, and getting nothing done offensively a LOT more. The Cubs' coaching staff is even worse than being bad...they're successfully RUINING players long term, or maybe even for good, if they keep their claws dug into them for too long. They can't all be sent packing too soon for my liking. Until they are, I have NO hope for Pie, Patterson, Guzman, Murton, Cedeno, etc., etc., etc..

Just to spite CubbieRich, I want my girlfriend to have Pujols' babies... ...and I'll then sell them to the Cubs, who will breed them to be an unstoppable army of uber-Pujolsesesesesesessssss!!!

Ozzie doesn't screw up his team half as bad as some other MLB managers do. Hey may be a jackass, but a complete moron doesn't randomly win the WS with the White Sox team he had. They were damn good, but they weren't world-beaters.

"GodHatesFoggs?" Heh...sacrelicious!

Trading Rich Hill for Craig Wilson is so far from being "pricey" it's not even funny. Though I agree, another player would have to be involved.

http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/images/2006/05/20/vQpqzcjK.jpg Mabry has some Tobias Funke-esque catlike agility going there.

So his average doesn't look as terrible when he's playing on grass, in the open, during the day. Welcome to Wrigley! *Leaps off of a bridge*

Nobody gives a steaming heap of crap about the Cubs right now.

I remember hearing that he technically had a tear waaaaaay back when this mess all started, but pretty much any kind of strain along the lines of what he had is always technically a "tear"...the difference is the severity of it. Apparently that muscle(s) always tears when strained or injured. The difference is whether it's minor or not, and the Cubs claim his is minor enough to not require surgery.