goonys evil twin

...and announcers not giving the players nicknames. Nice addition, Cornstalk. just pulling my weight around here. also, anyone notice how farnsworth's poor attitude is just killing the braves right now? whew, am i glad the cubs ditched him. That's my point. Same player...why is he successful now? This isn't about chemistry but adjustments by the manager/coaches and catcher. he was successful when he was with the cubs...at times. he got abused by baker last season and wore down. the tools were always there, and the cubs were stupid to give up on him. But he kicked a fan, man.

I agree with you. I could really care less about anything thats voted on, other than the Hall of Fame. Although it was nice to see Lee's All-star voting comeback this year as well. But the Cy Young/Rolaids Reliever/MVP stuff? I've never really gotten into it. I care about the HOF even less. To me it's like the Oscars or Emmys, a bunch of insiders congratulating themselves on their greatness. Writers spend an inordinate amount of time writing about who they will or will not vote on because they get that vote for supposedly writing about baseball. Play the games and hand out the trophy at the end, the rest is BS.

Maybe Lovie should go back to Gilligans Island because the Baker way is the right way. Until the GM releases the veteran they get major playing time no matter how bad they are. He's reached the 500 level many times and can prove it's the right way. the "right way" is 6.0 GB of the wild card right now. :wink: Well...the Cubs would be 50 games back if it was done any other way. And then they'd have to spend big money to sign the number 1 draft pick whom they would have to find a way not to use.

I think this whole discussions goes back to the theory that last year's failures were all about some sort of chemical imbalance, and not due to a lack of a performance. Blaming mediocre pitching on a catcher that fails to massage the pitcher through an outing is just like blaming a loss on players not getting along. The shortcomings of the 2004 team and the utter embarrasment of the 2005 team are all about bad personel decisions, poor management decisions and lack of performance. They are not due to a lack of chemistry, a lack of trying, a lack of intestinal fortitude, a lack of team spirit, a lack of intangibles or any other subjective concept. They put a team on the field that was statistically unlikely to be very productive, they employed strategies that are proven to statistically decrease your team's chances to win, and they ultimately paid the price when those weaknesses were exploited by superior opponents. The Cubs employ a terrible inefficient roster, and because of that they lose more than they should given their payroll. It's not about complicated interpersonal relationships, it's about production and the Cubs' organizations blatant disregard for what constitutes production.

agreed, it wouldn't look so bad if we kept Clement for another two years. Who did they end up getting in the draft for compensation from losing Clement. Because as far as I can tell that would be the only chance for Hendry's first trade not being a total disaster.

Good questions. I don't know how to change your name, but I think you can just PM Tim or a moderator to get that done. Perhaps you change to man eating tarp, then include Chicago for your location to remind people where you live, and in your signature provide a link explaining the tarp while pointing out you're a Cards fan. See, not that hard.

But the fact is they don't have high OPS guys in the OF and they aren't likely to have them next year. Downgrading the offense from catcher would only increase the number of upgrades they'd need elsewhere, and considering how difficult it will be just to fill the current needs, it doesn't make sense to make more holes.

The Cubs won more games with Barrett in 04 than they did in 03 when they didn't make the playoffs. Winning player is a contrived notion that can only be defined after the fact. Would Derek Jeter be a winning player if he was drafted by Tampa? That kind of talk just clouds the facts. Luis Sojo has multiple World Series, and because of that many NYers consider him a "real winner". But the fact is both Jeter and Sojo won because they were on great teams. Guys like Barrett take up roster spots on every single world series winning team. Mark Bellhorn was considered by many to be a stupid ballplayer with no instincts or real position. He ended up playing a crucial role on the Red Sox. Juan Encarnacion is no baseball genius, and he's got a terrible approach at the plate, yet Florida won with him. No, Barrett isn't ideal. But he's no worse for this team than 15 other guys. The Cubs can win with MB catching 130 games a year. I'd be fine with upgrading defensively at catcher and taking a hit offensively. However, the only way you do that is by substantially improving the offense elsewhere. They already need multiple offensive upgrades even with MB on the team. If they downgrade the offense from C that just adds another need to the list. I'd prefer to not make things more difficult than they already are.

He's no worse than Posada defensively. Jorge was routinely roasted in the NY papers for his "unsavvy" play behind the plate. He'd make stupid decisions, fail to block blockable pitches, and occasionally lose games. No team fails to make the playoffs because of one bad defensive player, unless that player is just extraordinarily awful. MB is not that bad defensively. You have to make choices when building a team. There are very few great defenders who hit a ton, ARod, Tejada, Lee and Pujols come to mind. If you got a great lineup, you can sacrifice some O in certain spots to insert the D. However, the Cubs do not have a great lineup, and they need Barrett's O. If they find two stud corner OF, a capable CF and somebody other than Neifi at short, then I'm all for dealing MB. But until they do that, they must find a way to get by with him in the lineup. And they can.

Yes, Piniella was traded to Tampa, sort of: By Jim Callis October 28, 2002 In a move initially reported during the World Series but not officially confirmed until Monday, the Mariners released manager Lou Piniella from his contract so he could return home to Tampa and skipper the Devil Rays. As expected, Seattle received all-star outfielder Randy Winn as compensation—but Tampa Bay also received a player, infield prospect Antonio Perez.

That would be the perfect out for Hendry. Jim probably thinks he can't fire Dusty since he placed all that faith in him in the first place. He also probably doesn't feel like having Dusty be a lame duck coach in the offseason. If AZ was crazy enough to give the Cubs something in return for Dusty it would make my year. How about they take Dusty and Macias, the Cubs get Gonzo with AZ picking up a chunk of the contract. That would be a good place for Dusty. He'd get to play in Cali far more often. The media would be less abusive. Plus I hear the desert has great fishing.

Of course, that's always an issue. It's starting to annoy me, I think I need to change/delete it.

Is he a free agent or are you talking about some kind of trade. Is the BOB a hitters or pitchers park? Gonzo has been better on the road the past few years. But he's also been slipping significantly and inconsistent in the health department. I wouldn't expect much more than a .270/.370/.460 kind of line from him next year, at the most. And that's with no idea how many games he can play. He's pretty much useless in the field as well. And like I said he better not be the big acquisition the Cubs get.

But would you take that for what he's likely to be played? Do you mean, is that enough from a LF? I think so. There's no single way to fillout a lineup card. As long as guys are productive you can find space. There are 2 corner OF spots, perhaps you get more of a slugger in RF if need be. I don't believe in the idea that certain positions have to provide a certain level of performance. I do believe that you have to pay a guy relative to his performance at his position. In other words, a really great SS should get a lot while a good but not great 1B shouldn't get top dollar. If Murton plateaud in the .290/.360/.440 range, he's usable, but I wouldn't pay him $10m when he becomes a free agent.

Agreed. I don't see why people have a problem with his power as it is. 4 HRs in 77 ABs, equals out to 26 in a 500 AB season. Even if you figure in his entire season's stats, he's still a 15-18 HR type. I'll take that if he's OBP is gonna put up a .370 ish OBP....which is his career mark before this season. If he averaged 15-25 HR per year with a .370+ OBP the next 3-5 years, I'd gladly take that production for what he's likely to be paid.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I for one haven't given up on the idea that Murton's power will continue to develop with time.

Whatever happens in AZ, I hope to heck that Gonzo doesn't end up as the Cubs big name acquisition.

Well, it doesn't bode well when all of your starting pitchers have regressed from 2003 to 2004 to 2005. EDIT: And for the record it is my opinion that we should fire the entire coaching staff(save for Spier.) A change to shake things up is necessary IMO. I've heard a lot of good things about Larry. But the results say otherwise. The pitching just hasn't been there. Control is an issue with everybody. Mechanical problems have reportedly injured many. Larry should have been all over Dusty to take Wood/Prior out of some of those games they were kept in way too long. I think they need a clean break, including Speier. Get rid of all of them. This isn't a scapegoat situation, it's a scapeherd. The whole lot of them came up short, by a significant margin.

Yeah, the last thing the Cubs need are more Dusty yes men in positions of power.

Generalized all of baseball? I generalized all of pro sports. What I didn't say is that the Twins are failures if they don't win it all this season. I said there is no point in rooting on a professional sports team unless you are rooting for them to win the championship. The A's have shown they are capable of consistently putting themselves in a position to win the series, they've also won like 4 of them in the past quarter century or so. The Braves are always in it, are still in it, and with their front office should be in it for the foreseeable future. The Twins won a couple a decade ago, and routinely give themselves a short in recent years. Bottom line is if you didn't win the world series, you failed that year. It's possible to take positives out of a season that ultimately ends in failure though. I never said it wasn't. 2003 ended in failure for the Cubs, but they were in a position to keep getting closer with smart management. Of course we all know that didn't happen. Oakland failed miserably in the playoffs 4 years in a row, but they were able to take something out of that because they kept putting themselves back in a position to change the result. Pittsburgh on the other hand has been a disgrace since the early 90's. They have nothing positive to take out of their failures. They aren't building. They aren't putting themselves in a position to improve. They are failing and failing miserably, over and over again. If they were a college team you could hang your hat on their graduation rate or something. But that's a pro franchise that has been performing like an amateur organization from top to bottom. The Cubs are somewhere in between, but on the verge of falling back into that abyss if they don't make major changes. They're failures and there's nothing else to say about it.

If your only definition of success is winning the WS, I think you're too harsh. I'll be happy if I see continuous progress as an organization. I'm as disappointed with the regression in minor league talent for the team in 2005 as I am with the record of the major league organization. I certainly want the Cubs to win the WS, but it is not the only goal with which I'll be satisfied in a given year. I can agree with this statement as well. Take the Atlanta Braves for example. If I were a Braves fan, I think I would be proud of what the team has accomplished over the last 17 years even though there is only one World Championship to show for it. There has been for that organization a consistent run of success. If the Cubs were to put together such a run, I would be quite satisfied even if it only came with one World Championship. I'd likely be satisfied and proud of such a run even if there were no World Championships, yet such a run would only increase my hunger for one. Huge difference of course. They've actually won one in their lifetimes, with this front office. And they keep putting themselves in position to win one. The Cubs front office has been inept, and shows no signs of being able to put themselves into position to have a chance.

2003 was that middle ground. Everything since has been failure. The prospect list keeps shrinking, and the major league win total has nosedived. Sure, some nice things happened this year, but on the whole it's been an utter failure.

But it wasn't his fault, the books were old, the air conditioning was on the fritz, the curve shifted, his favorite teacher went on maternity leave, they switched his schedule, the test was immediately after gym, he's young.

There's really no point in rooting on a professional sports team unless you are rooting for them to win the championship. This isn't a little league team where you can be proud if everybody just figures out how to play, or a high school team where you can be happy with the team winning big games against rivals, or even a college team where you can enjoy watching a class of players grow from raw freshmen into solid seniors, and be proud of a postseason appearance. This is pro ball. The only goal is the world series. The time for gradual improvement is long past. 2 steps forward 3 steps back will not set me up to be happy with 2 more steps forward.

Every time I argue against the conventional wisdom that says Cubs fans don't really care if they win the World Series, and that the team will never win until the fans get more demanding, I hear or read somebody insinuate they are perfectly happy with the Cubs continued mediocrity and it really puts a dent in my theory. I guess some Cubs fans really don't care if the team ever succeeds.