goonys evil twin

I'm more worried about hoping Pierre lives up to the contract Hendry is going to give him than what those guys do in Florida. By the time Florida is back to contention, this Cubs team will be on to a completely different window of opportunity, and I'm just concerned with the current window now. With Pie in the wings, you think Hendry is going to give Pierre a new contract? It would be quite idiotic to trade what he traded if all you were planning on getting was a one year rental. I think Hendry believes an OF of Murton, Pierre and Pie could be really good in 2007. Even though Murton doesn't have a good chance of putting up good corner OF numbers and Pie probably has no chance of putting up good corner OF numbers, at least in his rookie year.

The problem many have is they have a pretty good idea of exactly what they will get out of Pierre, and it's not enough.

That's what happy holidays always meant (add in Thanksgiving), until the extreme religious right got on the "war on XMas" bandwagon. The word holiday is going to be as dirty as liberal in a few years. Probably has something to do with those dirty euros using it instead of vacation. I know people who went years not thinking bad about the term "happy holidays", who now rally around the whole convoluted mess. If you want to be truthful about it, you shouldn't say Merry Christmas unless it is actually Christmas Day or maybe Christmas Eve. Saying Merry Christmas on December 2nd kind of makes you look silly since it's not Christmas. Do you say Happy Easter on Ash Wednesday?

At the risk of being branded a "Hendry apologist", how do we know they didn't? I would think it's more supportive of Hendry to assume he didn't offer a contract to Burnitz.

I'm more worried about hoping Pierre lives up to the contract Hendry is going to give him than what those guys do in Florida. By the time Florida is back to contention, this Cubs team will be on to a completely different window of opportunity, and I'm just concerned with the current window now.

That's for sure. He was a little more hesitant to make this change, but when push came to shove, he made it. I think he gave Orton every chance to keep the job. I think Lovie played this about as good as one could have. Indeed. I think one thing to take into consideration is how healthy Rex truly was before today. I think that if he was in better condition, Kyle might have gotten the hook in a quicker fashion. I wanted Rex earlier, but I can't really complain about Lovie's timeline. When I saw Rex getting ready to come in I bolted up in my seat (went from laying down on my couch to sitting somewhat upright really) and was pumped. That was a move that had to be done. And I'm somewhat happy it happened midgame. I feel the hype surrounding Rex's first appearance being announced days in advance would have been too much of a distraction, and I don't like QB's to be too jacked up for a game, which he would have been if he was named starter on Tuesday before the game. Now he got the first game action jitters out of the way. He's also going to a place where he has already won in the past. Did anybody notice Peter King's fine fifteen note on the Bears? Last week he had the Bears 8th, after the Pittsburgh loss. Dallas, Tampa, Carolina and Pitt were all behind the Bears, and Atlanta was 15th. He basically said the loss to Pitt wasn't that big of a deal. This week he moved the Bears down to 10th, and put Carolina and Pittsburgh ahead of the Bears. Pitt, I won't argue. But the Bears just swept the NFC South, they already beat Carolina and dominated a good team at home one week after a loss that he said wasn't a big deal. How do they go down? And later he said: "How are the Bears going to win in January with that offense?" Does anybody think Peter went to bed a little early on Sunday after coming off a caffeine high? No mention of Grossman. The team was rated lower after winning a big game at home against a good but desperate team (desperate teams usually win even matchups). Peter, they aren't going to battle with the offense you last saw. Grossman won't put up 300 yards and 3 TDs a game, but this team no longer has to hold the opposition to less than 7 to have a good chance to win.

I've never been a big DC fan. I never feared him when the Bears played against Minny. If he was available for next to nothing, I might take a chance on him. However, his contract is not salary cap friendly, and the trade it would take would not make sense for the Bears.

A, where was there a blanket statement, and B, don't take it personally that I didn't like your idea of Conine. You know who I'd like for that role, Kelton. He could give you decent production against LHP 200 times a year. Of course, that ain't happening. That should be a role for a guy like Mench, but people want to make him a starter. I don't know his status, but Craig Monroe is an unacceptable everyday corner OF who does hit well against lefties. A guy talked about before, Reggie Sanders could do some damage, but he's also a risk to take away time from Murton. Marlon Byrd has disappointed as an everyday guy, but he would be a decent 4th OF on a team that needs a bat against LHP.

Holding your breath would be unwise considering the avail. options. Idealism doesn't mesh well w/limited resources. Regardless, I'd steer very clear of Conine. Under different circumstances he'd fit the bill, but not with this team, as it stands.

Did somebody say they were awful? They're role players, secondary moves, nice additions to a good team, but hardly anything to hang your hat on if you're coming off a losing season and have the holes the Cubs have. Hendry has time to salvage this mess, but it is a mess, it's been a mess for a while, and it will continue to be a mess unless he changes his ways.

Well, I said it would be nice to have a good RH platoon option with Green, since he can't hit lefties. Conine is not a good right handed platoon option (he doesn't hit lefties all that well), he's really old and will probably be worse next year than he was this year, and he'd be a perfect candidate for Dusty to use in place of Murton far too often. What I'd like is a player more like Murton, young and right handed, who wouldnt be a risk to get undeserved playing time over another young OF. In fact, what I'd really like is another LH corner OF, and then let Murton get in 400 PA between LF and RF.

Oy vey.

And there's not a lot of good players left to make the team any better on December freaking 17th. The offseason is bad because they haven't gotten better. This was a bad team that needed a lot of help, not just tweaks among role players.

Well, maybe not 100 times, but he's start 50 games easily. Which is around 30% of the time, almost that of a natural R/L platoon like the one he would have w/Green. He'll start for Murton 50 times, the Green platoon (which wouldn't happen at all) would be seperate.

Well, maybe not 100 times, but he's start 50 games easily.

What about Conine? Conine would start 100 games on this team. Didn't he sign already? Looking at splits he doesn't hit lefties all that well either.

It's kind of cute how you forget who the manager is. I remember. It's more like ignoring than forgetting. But actually, Dusty sits his regulars quite often. He played Burnitz far too much, but I think that was partially because he felt he had no other option. If you get a decent enough RH bat off the bench, I think he'd love to sit a guy like Green on a fairly regular basis.

signing giles would be admitting that there's something to the statistic of on-base percentage. hendry will never do that, he hates OBP, and will go out of his way to avoid players who have it. Who wouldn't want Giles? But I think its unfair to criticize Hendry for not signing Giles. Giles had no intentions of leaving the West Coast. He turned down bigger money elsewhere to stay in SD. according to who? Giles was offered $34.5 MM/3 years from Los Angeles, but turned it down to stay in San Diego. And that's not a lot more money. 3/$39 would have been a starting poitn to convince him to move.

Green is decent enough to be of help to this team. I just wonder where the 4th and 5th OF will come from. I'd almost say you'd have to keep Corey (to sub for Murton on occasion) and then find a RH OF bat because Green should sit against lefties whenever possible. He's Burnitz esque against the southpaws.

I'd see if I could switch Williams to a bullpen arm and/or a prospect, keeping as much starting pitching depth as possible on the Cubs. They should do whatever they can to keep Rusch out of the rotation. Garland is a nice chip to have in trades right now. I'm just afraid it would cost too much to get him. I see another team trading more than he's worth, and more than I'd want to see the Cubs give up.

Not being a world beater himself doesn't make him as bad as Burnitz. He's better. There's a pretty clear distinction between the two players. And I wouldn't want either as the starter.

Do you say, "Q-tip" instead of cotton swab or "Kleenex" instead of tissue? Big difference. A q-tip is a q-tip. It doesn't matter what brand, same with a kleenex. A coke, pepsi, sprite, dr. pepper, mountain dew, etc are all very different.

All the other GMs doubted Neifi's ability to play, as he was put on waivers and not picked up, but Jim took him, and mistakenly signed him to much too big of an extension, twice. I'd much rather have Jimenez than Perez.

Career only? Not much to go on, especially when talking about two old guys. Burnitz's slightly younger age does nothing for me. They're both old. Sanders has held up better with age. Outside of Coors Burnitz has been awful for a while.

You think it's drivel, I think it drives home a point. It was a sarcastic response to some pretty insincere words coming out of Hendry's mouth. Why do you pretend like there isn't a problem with the Cubs right now? Do you really think everything is fine?