goonys evil twin

Who did you want? Keeping Nomar was never a pie in the sky goofy concept. He was willing to come back cheeply and switch positions. It's not in the same category of thinking about keeping Burnitz or Patterson.

http://www.weather.com/weather/local/60613 Cool but comfortable? http://image.weather.com/web/radar/us_ord_closeradar_medium_usen.jpg

In '99, '00 and '01 I would have agreed. But this is the Cubs window, there's no more waiting around. I'd trade any prospects for great young talent right now.

Yeah, he'd be a heck of a platoon player if he stopped sucking on the basepaths and in the field.

They lost 14 of 16, and 4 straight when you wrote that line. They've now just won 2. I would wait until they win 15 of 17 before talking yourself up as a prophet.

Was Bruce forced to lay low after that article? The other guys handled the Cubs beat in today's paper.

3s a streak

No, we wanted some people back, with improvements elsewhere. Burnitz to Jones isn't an improvement. The bench was not improved. The starting rotation could and should have been addressed better. I'm not saying the job is easy. I am saying Hendry has done a lousy job.

Pierre Murton Walker Barrett Ramirez Jones Hairston Cedeno

He quoted you because you quoted him and asked a question. I still don't get why you think it was directed at you.

Exactly. They hired a guy that by all accounts was a fantastic candidate for the job and gave him plenty of resources to do the job right. It wasn't until the past couple years that his style proved to be a problem for further improvement of the team. Going forward, I would hope the Tribune would put greater pressure on Andy to win more games. But up until very recently I'm not sure there's much of a legitimate gripe about how they've let Andy do his job.

What's this about?? It means watch your language. People have been using clever contractions and characters to represent words that are clearly stated in the NSBB Guidelines as inappropriate. Warnings, suspensions and bannings will follow if the behavior doesn't stop. And now I'm curious as to what it was that I said that led you to direct this at me. What makes you think it was directed at you? He quoted nobody in that post, and it followed a post by somebody else.

What do you mean alter your life? If games 6 and 7 were tough to swallow, then you had some sort of emotional investment in the game. Which means you would have derived some pleasure in seeing them win and going to the World Series. And I don't think I asked you if you were satisfied without seeing a world series. You actually asked me if I've ever gotten any happiness out of the Cubs (which would insinuate that you have). You also accused me of searching for things to complain about, to which I replied you don't have to search to find reasons to complain about their current situation, unless, for some reason, you enjoy the current situation.

That speaks more to the way Andy and Jim hand out the money than how much money the Tribune lets them spend.

This is just not at all true. The hindsight accusation is completely bogus. Many people were up in arms about these moves long before they were made. Many said they would much rather have Burnitz for 1 year than Jones for 3. Many said they would rather have Patterson for relatively cheap than Jones or Pierre for a lot. Many said they wanted Nomar back at the cheap deal he was supposedly willing to sign. You're dead wrong on this, dead wrong.

Ensberg also didn't get much exposure to big league pitching until he was 26, completely throwing off any career comparison with Aramis. Rolen is a good comparison. He came up early and had better and more consistent early success. He also had injury problems during his peak years. Look at this though, at 26 and 27 Rolen had an OPS+ of 127 and 132, at the same age Ramirez was 136 and 137. (at 25 Rolen had the advantage 126 to 104). FYI, in 2002, Rolen hit .194/.313/.265 in May and .253/.349/.458 pre all star, before finishing at .266/.357/.503. I would say Aramis could easily accomplish that the rest of the way. In April of 2001 Rolen hit .205/.308/.352 and just .278/.366/.430 pre all star break.

Are you serious? I sort of stopped paying attention to the Cubs for the past week, aside from SportsCenter highlights and box scores in the newspaper, so I'm asking because I don't know. Did that really happen? What was thrown? And did the guy get his *** kicked by the other fans? In a nutshell Drunk female threw a ball that reportedly came close to his face.

Yep -- he issued warnings to both teams after the first pitch -- which as you noted was thrown behind Barry. Nothing wrong with how Joe West handled that situation IMO.... Springer threw a SLIDER on said pitch, Wind City. Take it from a former pitcher, if you are TRYING to hit a batter, you don't try to hit the batter with an "offspeed pitch", you use the "Good ol'e #1", the fastball. The warning on the first pitch was BOGUS. Now, any pitch leading up to the HBP---exlcuding the first pitch---I would agree on the warning. But to instantly issue a warning on a SLIDER, is plain stupid. I hit guys with "sliders" a couple of times in college. It happens more often than you would think, because it gives you a built in excuse. I hit guys with "sliders" too, since my slider slid as much as my fastball, it was easy to say that.

Well, then why bother? Why bother with what? I have followed the Cubs since I can remember, but them winning or not winning the world series wouldn't change my life or give me a sense of satisfaction. I'd be happy and hope to see it one day, but it does nothing for personal satisfaction. It would be different if I played or worked for the Cubs, but I'm just a fan. See the Red Sox fans for example. They won a couple years ago for the first time forever and they're even more rabid than ever. If they were truly satisfied, the fans would just show up and cheer for anything the Sox do on the field. They don't so obviously the Red Sox title two years didn't satisfy their fans. Enjoying, or getting any satisfaction out of a team's success is completely different from "being satisfied". Enjoyment and satisfaction are temporary feelings. Being satisfied suggests permanence. The players themselves typically don't remain satisfied with winning one. So, you're suggestion that you can't take any satisfaction from a win because you aren't part of the team doesn't jive with the rest of your statement. Hey, if you can passively observe this team without any emotional ties getting involved, more power to you. But then I'd refrain from admonishing those who have taken an emotional stake in the team from expressing disappointment in how they are run. You don't care. Fine. Others do.

That's true.

Career rate stats, for a 27 year old who made the majors at 20, are not very telling of his abilities. It would make a lot more sense to talk about his stats for the past 2-3 years (2003-2005 - .296/.350/.532). What a guy did at 21 in limited major league action isn't going to be a realistic indicator of future expectations.

So you expected Jones to be a piss poor defender who routinely gets picked off? Piss poor defender? No. He has a horrible arm, but he's not a 'piss poor defender'. Bobbling grounders, throwing grounders and missing cutoff men. He's looked awful in the field so far. Nothing close to what Hendry sold him as, and no better, probably worse, than Burnitz.

Well, then why bother?

I'll tell you one thing, the celebration looks more like the Cincinnati Reds winning a regular season game on a walk off more than somebody winning a world series. They all look exhausted.

I'd give you play by play but I wouldn't have much to offer other than guy in red kicked it to another guy with funny hair, then a guy in yellow got in his way, people fell down and pretended to be hurt, then got up. And a guy just gave himself a standing ovation for coming off the field.