goonys evil twin

I think some can but what I don't like about Prior is when he struggles he doesn't seem (yeah IMO) to be able to fight out of it. He's had a lot of success and can't deal with failure when he face's it. He's freaking fighting his way out of some rather screwed up injury issues, as well as having to deal with the ineptitude of Dusty Baker throughout his major league career. This all seems like more of the "he's not man enough" rubbish that everybody falls back on when explaining why things aren't so fine and dandy right now.

He's 25 years old. Not many 25 year olds are carrying their team or shutdown aces. Besides, nobody that plays once every 5 games carries a team.

Hendry will be gone if the losing continues, but he's safe through next year. So give him a chance to hire a new guy and make it work, if it doesn't, they're all out in a top to bottom house cleaning. Not sure, MacPhail has always come out smelling like a rose, I think upper management likes him, and he has gotten a lot of projects the Cubune wanted done, accomplished, this last year, getting those bleachers expanded. While their record is not good, I think Andy will still be safe. I also think he got those luxury boxes done a while back, although I could be wrong about that, but Andy is a good "yes" man. BCB I'm not sure Andy is going to be a longterm member of this organization. He's been here 12 years and that is an incredibly long amount of time for any executive. He could be in the commisioner's office by 2008, or he could be hired by the next prospective buyer looking for some MLB insider to help guide his purchase. Plus, the ownership situation is still very much in doubt, given the TRB's recent woes. I don't think Hendry will be here in 2009, and I wouldn't be surprised if he's gone before 2008, unless fortunes change drastically.

Hendry will be gone if the losing continues, but he's safe through next year. So give him a chance to hire a new guy and make it work, if it doesn't, they're all out in a top to bottom house cleaning.

I'm pretty sure it is.. Also, that last picture is Dan Kolb (local boy) Looks like Ronny trying to lay down a sac bunt to me.

I'm not sure it can get worse. If Hendry's next hire is a failure, he could easily be gone after next year, and that, in and of itself, would be a positive. His 2 year extension only goes through 2008, and if he has 3 miserable years in a row, the Cubs probably won't give him a chance for number 4. So, give Hendry a chance to hire somebody other than Baker, and see if they can win next year. Or else he's gone.

Yeah, and Neifi once hit a homerun and Rusch once won a game. Having done something good in his stint as GM doesn't mean much. Most of the worst personel people in sports do something right along the line. The problem is big picture. The big picture on Hendry is bleak. This team is worse now than it was when he took over, that says it all. I, for one, wasn't all that impressed with 88 and 89 win seasons. Put together some 90+ win seasons and routinely contend for a spot in the world series and I'll say you've done something as a GM of a big market team.

Fox lit up high A early this season, but he was repeating the level at 23, and since moving up to AA he hasn't hit at all. I've heard lots of questions about his defense as well (not sure what the answers were to those questions, but they were asked).

The Cubs only have to go 51-28 to finish at .500. That's a .646 winning percentage, which translates to a 104 win season.

He's taken a ton of heat on here. And every single story about Baker earlier in the year effectively blamed Hendry by deflecting criticism away from Dusty. The problem is he got the extension and is here to stay. There's little hope to see him gone anytime soon. Baker's contract is up and the talk surrounding him has intensified because it's more likely.

Plenty of high quality baseball players have been acquired by trading away relievers. But it doesn't just have to be a 1 man deal. Throw him in with Walker, Jones or Pierre and the deal could be sweetened.

A 2 year $22.5m deal is not that hard to beat, not to mention, playing for somebody other than the Cubs is probably worth an additional $4-5m per year in happiness. It may not be hard to beat, but why bother? He's never intimated that he's unhappy in Chicago. To the contrary, he's always seemed a lot more at peace where the spotlight is off of him and he can produce with a higher-profile talent in front of him. Any team that would be looking to sign him would probably see him as a front-line talent with expectations on production. And any large market team that would see him more as a supporting player may not be willing to pay him top dollar. I know I wouldn't. A rich large market team wouldn't pay him as much as a smaller team? I could easily see a large market team giving him a 4/46m deal to come in and be their #5 hitter.

A 2 year $22.5m deal is not that hard to beat, not to mention, playing for somebody other than the Cubs is probably worth an additional $4-5m per year in happiness. You really think he'd get a deal that pays him more than 11 million a year at this point? I don't. He might settle for less to get out of this circus though, I know I sure would if I were in his shoes. It's the years that are the deal breaker. He's only guaranteed 2 more years. Ballplayers crave longterm contracts.

No, there really isn't. Our outfield (overall) is pathetic, our infield is average at best, and our pitching is absolutely atrocious. A handful are having down years, but most of what's happened is because we do not have enough talent in those positions. On paper, don't you think we have talent? We never really had a true #5 hitter going into the year, and we knew the team was lacking in power - but we came into the year with a strong closer, bullpen, and pretty good defense. The hitting was improved for the most part (on paper), and the starting pitching, as far as we knew, was going to be above average (Zambrano, Maddux, Wood, Prior, and a few promising rookies contending with Rusch/Williams for the #5 spot). Pierre/Walker/DLee/Ramirez/Jones/Barrett/Murton/Cedeno wasn't the WORST looking lineup pre-season. There is some talent in there. There is a lot of physical talent, but very few baseball skills. That's what happens when you try to put a track team on a baseball field. Baseball isn't a sport for decathletes. The lineup was bad from the start. It's been bad for years, and it was easy to see that it would struggle this year, again. When you ignore the biggest problem and overemphasize the wrong areas for improvement, you make it very difficult to improve the team.

Heart is the problem? Not having baserunners isn't a problem? We have very good hitters? You've said the exact opposite of the truth in this post.

A 2 year $22.5m deal is not that hard to beat, not to mention, playing for somebody other than the Cubs is probably worth an additional $4-5m per year in happiness.

So after spending the past week surrounded by Phillies fans, apathetic Phillies fans (the only kind), but Phillies fans nonetheless, and listening to some sports talk radio down there I think it's safe to say that Philly has soured on Abreu. Maybe not management of the team, but the town, people and "experts" don't seem that interested in keeping him around. Any excitement about that team is centered on Utley and Howard, but there isn't much excitement. My theory was that ownership was hoping that the new stadium would coincide with some successful teams that would take advantage of the highly populated, sports crazy and relatively wealthy population that makes up the Philly sports scene. After stagnating for a few years they seem to be taking a step back, and ownership wants changes. I'd really like to see the Cubs take a run at Abreu, who is sitting at .289/.442/.473 right now and could do wonders hitting #2 in front of Lee. He is signed through 2007, with a club option for 2008, and my guess is he'd waive his no trade rights if the team picked up that option. And my feeling is why not. They aren't going to get anything close to his level of OBP by any free agents. Carlos Lee would probably give you more power, but his contract would be much longer and you might have trouble competing with the Yankees on that one. And if they could trade Jacque Jones over to the corner outfield depleted Yankees this year, the Cubs could still make room for a Lee/Abreu corner OF tandem. I'm not proposing any theoretical trades. But Hendry might only have 1 season to turn things around, and that won't happen by trading role players for role players. The Cubs need an impact bat. The Cubs are desperate for OBP, and Bobby does bring some SB numbers that would entice the speed happy Cubs.

The Cubs do not have a nucleus of position players, their position players suck. They need to put together a lineup and a pitching staff. Do you really want to get rid of all the position players? If not, who would you keep. I'd guess DLee. Anyone else? Barrett? ARam? Murton? Cedeno? Walker (maybe for one more year)? None of the above? Only Lee approaches irreplacable status, but I'd trade any of them in the right deal.

You really wonder why they are last in so many stats? It's because they are about 50 years behind the times in terms of thinking about how to win baseball games. They think walks are for pansies and that real men swing early and often. They think the goal to hitting should be to not strike out. They didn't like the results when they were a high slugging team with no base runners so they went with a bunch of slappy mcgees to "balance things out" and now they have a couple singles hitters and no base runners. It's pretty simple, they don't draw enough walks (and that is by design, not accident) and they don't hit the ball hard enough when they swing. Oh, and Juan Pierre is not a good hitter, not even close.

The Cubs do not have a nucleus of position players, their position players suck. They need to put together a lineup and a pitching staff.

Andy and Jim came up just short in an attempt to match.

I don't know the accuracy, but it seems like the Braves are picking up the bulk. Mike Hampton p 8 years/$121M (01-08), plus $20M 09 club option $20M signing bonus ($1M to charity, $19M deferred to 2009-18 at 3% interest) 01:$8M, 02:$8.5M, 03:$11M, 04:$12M, 05:$12.5M, 06:$13.5M, 07:$14.5M, 08:$15M, 09:$20M club option $6M buyout Colorado to pay $49M ($20M signing bonus, $8M in 2001, $8.5M in 2002, $2M in 2003, $2M in 2004, $2.5M in 2005, $6M buyout in 2009). Florida to pay $23.5M ($7M of 2003 salary, $8M in 2004, $8.5M in 2005). Atlanta to pay $48.5M ($2M of 2003 salary, $2M in 2004, $1.5M in 2005, $13.5M in 2006, $14.5M in 2007, $15M in 2008).

But they didn't, wouldn't and couldn't make a big difference in the season.

The road to respectability: Cubs need to go 52-31 (.627 W%) to finish the season at .500.

Boy, that Nevin kid is just tearing his way through the league right now. Gotta get him more playing time.