goonys evil twin

I agree with you, in the sense that the booing has gotten worse since the players have complained and the organization has gone out of it's way to make a point that it isn't helping and isn't a good thing. However, in the end it makes us look bad and not the organization. Still, come on. What do you do when your mom wags her finger in your face and yells at you for doing something? You do it some more. That's the case here. Getting inundated almost daily with "the club and its players do not condone this booing! Stop this booing! Stop now! Stop! Right Dusty? 'Hey, dude, don't boo.' See? Now stop!" just makes me want to boo them because I resent being scolded so damn much. Stop complaining about the Cubs.

Then how does it explain his use of the younger Cedeno? Don't know - probably speed would be his stance and the fact that Murton had been more clutch with RBI opportunities. He's faster than Murton so when Walker dropped to the 3-hole after Lee's injury he got the nod. Add in that Murton has had several 3-5 hole opportunities and one could argue Murton got the greater of the pressure spots. That's my best guess at Dusty's thought process. That would be my guess as well. I think it has more to do with Dusty's stereotypical views of what a top of the order guy looks like, than what a hitter actually should be. Speed trumps all.

I'm willing to bet most don't, and they don't use it as an excuse. But the Cubs are the kings of excuses. They're either pathetic for using it as an excuse or pathetic for waiting until May 16, 2006 to solve the problem.

But in the middle of a disastrous stretch of games, you can't expect anybody to get a free pass. And you can't seriously say you have no idea why fans would boo.

He did it 3 times in 2 weeks? How did you make me look like an idiot? Is that your goal, to make other posters look like idiots? You are defending Jacque Jones by saying he wasn't the first guy to get picked off a base. The point is he's the only idiot on this team of idiots to get picked off from 2nd 3 times in 2 weeks. That's what makes him an idiot.

Was Dempster being booed or was the entire team and situation being booed, including Dempster? It's easy to say you shouldn't boo a closer for blowing his first save in 26 chances, but it's absurd to say you can't comprehend why fans would boo after losing that game.

How was he horrible? He was hitting .263 off of the bench, served as a good pinch runner, and didn't make any errors. He did what was asked of him, I don't know what more you would have expected from him. a .579 OPS is horrible, bench player or not Because 19 At Bats is such an ideal sample size. :? A 25 year old with a career OPS around 700 in the minors has a good enough sample size for people not to fret over his return to the bench. Regardless, no matter how many at bats it was, the 579 OPS was horrible. Sample size has nothing to do with it.

Nobody expects all stars on the bench. But they do expect competence. And there is a wide gulf between the Cubs bench, including Pagan, and competence.

It's obviously a lot harder than you think. When this story came out in the Chicago media 3 weeks or so ago I believe it was Ozzie who said the White Sox are happy with their guy but wouldn't want to go through it again. I think it was Kenny Williams who added, if we opened this up to an open invite to all of Chicago, I'd guarantee we'd have 1,000 try out for the job and I guarantee we'd have 1,000 fail. Think about it, if you're a guy who pitched in high school or college and you haven't stepped foot on a field and really threw in 10+ years it's not easy to consistently throw a couple hundred belt-high fastballs at 75-80 MPH. If they could, they'd probably still be playing somewhere. I played the game for a while and can't imagine how nervous I'd be pitching to Walker, Lee, Ramirez, etc. It's not that easy.... And yet this was cited as an excuse for troubles against LHP years ago, not just 3 weeks ago.

Baseball people just have a real hard time with honesty when it involves other players, especially veteran players who were every any good at all. It's like getting into a club, as soon as you do anything good in the tradition sense, you are forever a good player. The only thing that could keep you out is too many strikeouts (no matter your production), too many walks (which obviously means you are afraid to swing the bat), or by questioning the conventional wisdom of those who let you in the club to begin with.

Then how does it explain his use of the younger Cedeno?

That being said, and considering I think you said you watched the game via the Washington broadcasters, did you catch what they said about Murton in the 2 hole. One guy said he watched a lot of Murton and could never envision him there. I didn't get it. Murton's patient, high OBP, mediocre SLG, go the other way, smart hitting approach seems to be pretty close to the ideal 2 hitter. So you don't want him in the 2 hole now, but do when Lee returns? Why?

Couldn't comprehend? Is he a moron? They were in a stretch of historically bad play and a tremendous losing streak. The one time they had a chance to win and they lost. They couldn't understand why fans would boo after a closer blows a save when the team is in a middle of a terrible losing streak. It's fine to get in an uproar over a fan who throws a ball at a player. But are we really going down the path when we're criticizing fans for booing a terrible team in the middle of a horrible losing streak? I've been to games in many stadiums, and each and every time home teams booed their own players in one way shape or form. And none of those times were the home time in a middle of a swoon like the Cubs were when Dempster blew that save.

Bad moves from the past absolutely have contribution to the this season. To pretend otherwise is absolutely inaccurate. It's not piling on to show how past mistakes can have lasting effects. Can you please explain to me how the Estes and Alfonseca signings of several seasons ago contribute to this season? Well, in many ways, the Estes signing led up to the Rusch signing, and the never ending belief that they must have a lefty, preferrably veteran, in the rotation no matter how crappy he was. Estes and Alf's $7m at the time had reverberating affects on other potential signings, ie, they couldn't afford other guys who could actually help the team. The Alf signing also increased the need later to overspend on the bullpen to eventually fix it. Giving him a raise for a terrible season upped the asking price for later relievers and increased the level of anxiety to fill that position later on, since he did so in such a poor way in the past. Every signing has an effect down the road. Every dollar spent on some crappy veteran can't be spent on an actual productive player. And that terrible track record of predictably disastrous signings absolutely belongs in the discussion of what Hendry has done wrong with this team. This didn't just happen out of nowhere. There is a pattern of terrible personel decisions that goes back a long way, each of which has an affect on any follow-up moves.

Maybe poor players won't want to play? Let's not pretend this is the first time the hometown fans have thrown something at a hometown player. This person was a complete idiot. And it does reflect poorly on Cubs fans. But let's keep some perspective here.

Bad moves from the past absolutely have contribution to the this season. To pretend otherwise is absolutely inaccurate. It's not piling on to show how past mistakes can have lasting effects.

We could refrain, but it would probably be inaccurate. Fans assault people. It makes them a jerk, but it doesn't mean they aren't fans. Maybe we should just refrain from pretending all fans are great and that everything should be done with the fan in mind. I don't know anything about this person. As far as you or I know she really could have been a hardcore fan who went too far. She's an idiot, and she may be a fan. I don't see the point in taking away the fan label because of what she did. That just insinuates that no fans can be idiot jerks, which just isn't true.

Why? I don't find it bad news unless they use him in the rotation. And as long as he can throw more than a fastball. Well, it's May 15, 2006. They've been struggling against LHP for years, and have talked about the lack of a LH batting practice pitcher many times during that stretch. They went through a horrendous stretch against lefties earlier this year, and partially blamed it on the lack of a LH bullpen pitcher. And now, on May 15, they think they found their guy. It's not bad news that they found a guy, it's bad news that they used it as an excuse for so long and waited until May 15 to do something about it.

Give me a freaking break. Seriously, this is absurd. Name me another guy who got picked off 2nd 3 times in 2 weeks on the same exact freaking play. Quit making freaking excuses, this is ridiculous. I give you Moises Alou who, I believe, was making a hell of a lot more money at the time than Jones is now. So you're excuse for Jones getting picked off 3 times in 2 weeks is that Alou ran poorly when he was a Cub? Like I said, absurd. This pathetic excuse making for Jones is absolutely absurd.

Pretty simple actually. Aramis has actually done some good in a Cubs uniform, over a long stretch of time. Jones and Pierre have not. Lots of others Cubs have not. I'm annoyed as hell at Aramis's start. But it wasn't stupid for Hendry to trade for him (even though I wrongfully criticized it at the time). It wasn't stupid for Hendry to sign him. The Pierre and Jones moves were bad from the start, and then they make it worse by playing like crap right from the get-go. You have to build up some equity with the fans if you want to get away with crappy play over an extended period. A minor leaguer can build up that equity by having a quality ride through the minor league season, that is, assuming the fans in question actually pay attention and understand what the minor league progression entails. A veteran can build up that equity by playing well for the team and living up to his contract. Aramis did that for most of his 2.5 years here. He isn't now. He's taking a serious hit on that equity and now has a long way to go to build it back up. But he's nowhere near Jones and Pierre territory. They're two transient squatters who haven't paid a dime in rent yet, let alone built up any equity in the house of Cubs.

I'll go with the easy answer: Alou Was it 3 times in 2 weeks? I know it was often, but this frequently? Regardless, he's not on the Cubs anymore. This idiotic defense of Jones by saying he's not the only one doing bad things is utterly ridiculous.

Give me a freaking break. Seriously, this is absurd. Name me another guy who got picked off 2nd 3 times in 2 weeks on the same exact freaking play. Quit making freaking excuses, this is ridiculous.

How is she clearly guilty? Doesn't aggravated assault actually require some sort of actual assault? Two bad things come out of this situation. A) The stupid fan makes other fans look bad. B) Now the Jones apologists are trying to shift the discussion off of his horrendous play (mediocre hitting, brutal base running and poor defense add up to horrendous play) and onto fan treatment. There was next to no mention of his indefensible baserunning gaffe when Mike & Mike talked about this situation this morning. And the vast majority of the Jones talk in the papers this morning was about the idiot fan, and not his repeated pick-offs. I have yet to read or hear what Baker had to say about the pick-off, if he had anything to say at all. In short, I hate that fan for giving a bad name to drinking and having fun at the ballpark, for making Cubs fans look like idiots and for taking away from the conversation that should be going on, which is Jones costing his team with his pathetic baserunning.

Why does Baker (and Hendry) insist on attributing everything to luck? It's not luck. It's called pitch recognition. Are the same guys at the top of the league every year in OBP and/or BA because of luck? No. To support the notion that Hendry also thinks it's just bad luck, and not bad planning, read what Kent McDill wrote in the same edition: http://www.dailyherald.com/sports/story.asp?id=189911 Bad stretches at the same time, hoping the ship will be righted? You don't build a team on hope. These guys have always been looking lightning in a bottle. Instead of actually going out and acquiring the players necessary to make this a better team, they go after lesser players hoping for them to have career years. It was evidenced by the completely asinine words Hendry used at the Jones signing. They're hoping Jacque will just magically pull out of his decline and be the player he was at his peak. Bruce addressed this problem in the section of his column called "Fatally flawed philosophy". And he was dead on. This organization is trying to overcome years of ineptitude by relying on good luck, hope and breaks going their way in the form of career years and reversed trends. This is a reactive management group. They see what others did to win, then try and follow that path, but that path changes every year with each new champion. Couple that reactive (ie. late to the party) tendency with a philosophy of hope and you have a recipe for failure.

Z clearly did not have that under control. They got lucky to get out of it. He was missing wildly everywhere. He hadn't struck a guy out since the 5th and had lost a ton of velocity. Anybody who claims he was fine there just wasn't paying attention.