JakeSlater

If he gels with Pierre, of course. If it all stops, then back to the drawing board.....simple as that. I want what is working, and I won't complain about Tony hitting in the two hole if Juan's starting to play more like the .305 career average guy that we know he can be.

Neifi should be #8 in the order, but Pierre and Womack? NO WAY! Right now, we've averaged about 7 runs a game in the past 8 games, and 6 of those games were with Womack and Pierre at the top of the order. If Womack doesn't hit, he walks.....if he hits, it's a bonus. Plus he's the only #2 that Pierre has gelled with right now. While I will admit that Pierre has picked it up over the past 8 games (324/375 by my count), Womack has been steadily declining. He started 5/7, but has gone 238/304 in the last 6 games. He's also walking a bit, regardless. I knew his hitting wouldn't last long, but he does walk a bit, and he's good on the bases when he gets there. Not saying he's an awesome free agent pickup, but anyone that can gel with Pierre and help get him back in the fold works with me. In the two games with Neifi in the 2 spot, he went 1 for 8, and in that one hit, he didn't DARE steal because Neifi hacks away all the time. That either brings a foul ball or instant DP for a fair ball. I don't dislike Neifi. I think he's good for what he brings to the table, which is defense at 3 infield positions, but he should NOT be a 2 hitter at all, regardless of how he's hitting.

Neifi should be #8 in the order, but Pierre and Womack? NO WAY! Right now, we've averaged about 7 runs a game in the past 8 games, and 6 of those games were with Womack and Pierre at the top of the order. If Womack doesn't hit, he walks.....if he hits, it's a bonus. Plus he's the only #2 that Pierre has gelled with right now.

And having Womack in the second spot is lighting a fire under Pierre. Guy is getting hits, taking walks, and stealing bases with Womack up there. Doesn't seem to have any pressure anymore, unlike the past couple months. Why was he tanking when Walker was hitting 400+ and taking walks behind him? I can't say for sure, but it seems like there is some kind of understanding with speedy guys. Seems like they are more comfortable with each other when they know the other won't be caught off in a double play most of the time, or make a stupid mistake at the plate. Tony Womack compliments Pierre well, and we've needed that. If Tony's hitting, that's a bonus. If not, he takes walks. Best of both worlds. Do you actually believe any of that? For one thing, I said I couldn't be for sure, so it was an educated guess. But remember that Pierre had Castillo behind him for a couple years in Miami. It's always good to have a speedy guy behind you in the lineup. And I don't understand the hatred with Womack. Not at all. Been a solid ballplayer with us since he's been here. You hate him because Dusty likes him or something? We've won more with Womack in the lineup, and he's STILL hated. Yikes.

And having Womack in the second spot is lighting a fire under Pierre. Guy is getting hits, taking walks, and stealing bases with Womack up there. Doesn't seem to have any pressure anymore, unlike the past couple months. Why was he tanking when Walker was hitting 400+ and taking walks behind him? I can't say for sure, but it seems like there is some kind of understanding with speedy guys. Seems like they are more comfortable with each other when they know the other won't be caught off in a double play most of the time, or make a stupid mistake at the plate. Tony Womack compliments Pierre well, and we've needed that. If Tony's hitting, that's a bonus. If not, he takes walks. Best of both worlds.

Not yet we haven't. The time is now to come back. Can't blow it anymore.

And having Womack in the second spot is lighting a fire under Pierre. Guy is getting hits, taking walks, and stealing bases with Womack up there. Doesn't seem to have any pressure anymore, unlike the past couple months.

Maybe Carlos will celebrate by flying down to St. Louis, breaking into Edmonds' room, and giving him a nice 5 minute whoopin........ending it by putting more mascara on him.

Makes you wonder how good the pitching would be if Oscar Acosta stayed around.

Well, we gained a game and a half on the Dodgers this week and are 9 back. Gained a game on the Cards and are 12 1/2 back. Long ways off, and we need to keep winning, but right on the track you laid out

Where is everyone that said we'd lose 8-1 yesterday?! I think we're going to sweep this series now. I knew we'd win the series from game 1, regardless of yesterday.

Thinking that way is like buying lottery tickets because, you know, you can't win if you don't play. Not even a close second in comparison.

those numbers have declined every year since 2003. he is on pace for career lows in his hitting rate stats. he is also on pace for a career high in strikeouts. he is mediocre, and if he continues playing like this, he is awful. As I said, easy to complain now instead of seeing what happens. Pierre's starting to get his stroke back though.

Yeah, I know. We can't think that way because it lets the rest of this board be miserable. As I said, it's easy to cash in the chips right now. Everyone that's ever been a success in history has been down at one point or another. May happen, may not. I'll just take it one game at a time.

This is the atttitude the Cubs Front Office always has, and it bites them every time. They would always rather go for quantity over quality. He'll make $13 million for the rest of the year, or roughly equal to the salaries the Cubs are paying to: Hairston ((2.3) Perez (2.5) Rusch (2.75) Pierre (5.75) So would you rather pay $13 million for one great player, or $13.4 for four awful ones? Ok, I'll give you 3 of those players, although I think one of those players has a lot of upside on defense. But to call Pierre awful is a BIG stretch. Struggling in 1/4 of the year, even if he's starting to come back little by little, does not an awful player make. He's been quite good over the past few years. No, he hasn't. He was mediocre at best last year, brings only one element to the game-speed-and is a liability in the field. He has steadily declined over two consecutive years, and the Cubs gave up at least one solid prospect for him. He's been bad for a lot longer than 1/4 of one year. Talk about a "what have you done for me yesterday" attitude. He has a .305 career BA with a .355 career OBP. He has 267 career stolen bases and 211 career Ks. Doesn't sound like mediocre to me. He'll be just fine on this team.

Our first baseman is better than theirs, so's our third baseman. And we have Dempster. If Wood and Prior do come back and stay, that's the same thing. They have Clemens, we have Maddux. I'm not saying we're going to do it. I'm saying that nothing is impossible. It'll just be tougher. By the way, about the good players crack. We have.......when healthy Lee Walker Ramirez Murton Cedeno Barrett Jones(so far) Pierre(he's not hitting .230-.240 all year) You telling me those aren't good players?

In order to get the Wild Card, the Cubs would have to catapult over 9 teams. There are other divisions, too. Houston catapulted over 12. Very tough road to hoe, but not impossible. We'll see what happens.

Thanks for the details on the conversation. What did he say the players thought of Dusty Baker, now that we heard how much of a joke Rothschild is?

This is the atttitude the Cubs Front Office always has, and it bites them every time. They would always rather go for quantity over quality. He'll make $13 million for the rest of the year, or roughly equal to the salaries the Cubs are paying to: Hairston ((2.3) Perez (2.5) Rusch (2.75) Pierre (5.75) So would you rather pay $13 million for one great player, or $13.4 for four awful ones? Ok, I'll give you 3 of those players, although I think one of those players has a lot of upside on defense. But to call Pierre awful is a BIG stretch. Struggling in 1/4 of the year, even if he's starting to come back little by little, does not an awful player make. He's been quite good over the past few years.

Saying a team that's bad is bad is not the easy way out. Its honest. If you want to make excuses for a bad team, fine. I didn't see the Cardinals fold this bad when they lost their star third basemen, best pitcher, star center fielder, etc. They are bad. That needs to be accepted so that changes can be made so that this team improves for the foreseeable future. It's the easy way out when it's not even June yet, and a TON of teams in history have come back from bad records and won. Not a guarantee, but I refuse to just say it's over. I won't say we'll win either. Right now, this team's still a bad one, and still makes mistakes, 2 game winning streak or not. They need to play better. Can they? Oh yeah. Will they? Only time will tell.

The pitching will likely improve if Prior and Wood can get back to 100%, and anything Miller provides will be an added bonus. However, adding Lee back to this lineup will not suddenly catapult them over bunches of other teams to put us in a position to be significantly better than we currently are. We had a weak lineup with Lee in it, and we have painfully seen how putrid it is without him. The optimism is admirable, but reality is saying the season is over. This isn't a lineup that will put together a 35-10 stretch. Alot of people seem to think that Lee being out of the lineup is the reason the offense sucks. No one person makes or breaks an offense. Wanna know what's funny. This offense was pretty darned good at manufacturing runs and doing little things without the homer when Lee was there. In fact, they picked Lee up when he started to struggle a bit down before the injury. So I didn't think Lee leaving would make THIS much of a difference. It sure did. And whoever thought Houston had the horses to catapult over teams to win the Wild Card last year? They had Clemens and Oswalt, but Pettite struggled off and on, and the other two sure didn't do much. Plus about this time, they averaged about 2 runs a game, which was about what we were doing. They came back. Not saying our team will. I think they can, but they just have to. And we don't have to catapult over 4 teams........only 3. There is a wild card too.

Easy to say that when the team's 20-31 with the star first baseman out, the two main pitchers out, the 40 year old being the #2 pitcher, a long suspension coming up, and other sordid things. This isn't a full blast 20-31 team, you seem to forget that. If it was, I'd have put Dusty's head on the block personally.....and I have twice anyway this year, not personally of course. I'm not saying we'll win. We might go 63-99 for all I know. I'm just not going to go 51 games into the year saying it's over, it's over. I don't take the easy way out, and I never have.

Two games? They've won two in a row, haven't they? They can play better than that month of May showed. They just have to, period.

Whatever dude, whatever. Team's playing awful right now, but they aren't an awful team. They can play better than this, and the last two games have shown that.

Well, only time will tell. I won't just up and say that like a psychic. It's up to what we have to get us out of this funk. Another win would be nice tonight.