Jon

To be fair, the GMs in baseball that don't adhere to these beliefs are rare, and even those that practice the exception do so for only a select belief, rather than across the board (such as Towers and his bullpen; Towers is still keen on the other traditional views). It seems a bit rough to paint Hendry as a villain in this respect, given the vast majority of his peers are right there with him. Sure, and I did say "like most of baseball," but I don't think the criticism is any less warranted. Peer influence, especially in regards to how certain traits are valued, is a strong force in MLB, but for someone whose job it is to make these kinds of decisions, they have to be constantly re-evaluating their direction to make sure it's the right one. Hendry may very well do that, but he certainly hasn't hit one that I agree with.

It may not even be a question of whether or not old dogs can learn new tricks. Personally, if I was a hitting coach trying to improve an established "star's" swing and approach at the plate, I'd be very, very careful not to screw anything up. There isn't a whole lot of job security as a hitting coach, especially when performance is based on overall results, not necessarily the improvement or lack there of for a few hitters. Soriano came to the Cubs with an established history of being a very streaky low OBP, high OPS guy. I can't imagine that many hitting coaches would want to mess around too much with sugh a huge investment. The risk of trying to take a little away from what helps produce their numbers in order to make them an even better hitter can just as easily make them worse. Of course, there are lots of things that can be done and I'm sure the Cubs and Soriano work on them, but we're not going to see any major overhaul. Soriano is what he is. Actually, I was relatively pleased with his numbers last year. That's probably only because my expecations for him weren't that high, though. He signed a horrible contract from the Cubs' perspective and came pretty close to matching his best numbers. My worry was that we weren't going to even get that for the first few years of the contract. I just hope that he can stay somewhat close before it goes south for the last five years or so.

All schedules will be released at 1 PM tomorrow on the NFLN. I'd imagine that it will leak out before that, though.

The Cubs, like most of baseball, believe in traditional "positions," such as leadoff hitter and closer, instead of viewing players as what they are, which is either a hitter/fielder or pitcher. Their desire to groom a closer was the reason why Marmol went to the 'pen. They have long believed that he could be their closer of the future. Of course, these beliefs are also partly responsible for why we absolutely must have a LOOGY in our bullpen, why we can't have three left-handed starters in the rotation, and why Hendry has been obsessed with finding a left-handed hitter. Rather than determining personnel moves based on what players actually produce or have the ability of producing, he's been looking at players who can fill those roles.

Not quite. I'm sure there's a Yankees vs. Red Sox forum in the works.

Did they ever say who was buried in the shirt or did that just not deserve the media attention?

Hooray for wasting the bench! That wasn't a waste. It was a great move by Lou. No. It was a waste. Honestly, would you rather have Soto or Pie up there in that situation? It's a question of whether losing Pie was worth having Soto face a lefty rather than Soto facing a righty. Of course, if Charlie didn't take the bait, Lou probably would have had Pie lay down a bunt. Chased ball 4. Bah.

Did Cedeno miss a sign or was Lou enjoying some high quality drugs? Hahaha. Soto can do anything.

I'd rather have Soto hit with Pie out of the game than Pie lay down a bunt, which is what he would have done.

Pie taking one for the team.

Abuck said that the Cubs' coaching staffs don't always know what is best. Unless I'm mistaken, I don't think anyone would disagree with him.

I say nothing. They can't afford to go forward without Hill and they won't remove Lilly, nor should they. I'd love to see Marshall in there over Marquis or Dempster, but Marquis would have to struggle for a good month before anything happens. The bottom line is that we're only two weeks into the season. No pattern or streak going on right now is going to continue over the course of the season. The personnel decisions should have been made when the roster is set. They shouldn't be making decisions based on two or three outings. Of course, Piniella would change his mind if someone looked at him funny while taking the field. Who knows what's going to happen.

You're the one accusing him of having head problems and you want me to find proof that he doesn't? The talk of Hill's confidence, not "head issues," came before his major league success and yet you're contending that his mental issues are a reason why he struggled in one game over a season later? Rothschild needed something to help explain why Hill was struggling in the majors but not in AAA. A certain minor league pitching coach would disagree with Rothschild's explanation. But let's go straight to the source: I'd feel confident if I got major leaguers out, too. I'd also lack confidence if I couldn't. That doesn't mean my struggles were due to mental issues or that my success can be credited to mental strength.

Yeah...

When they deal with confidence and head issues, as acknowledged by Hill and the organization numerous times, it is much more than that. That "issue" just took off. The Cubs made some comments and everyone picked up on it and wouldn't let it go, so they interviewed Hill about it a bunch of times. What was he supposed to say? There was even talk about a book that Rothschild supposedly gave to Hill on sports psychology to help him out, which helped. The only problem was that Hill had that book for several years. Saying that he has "head issues" is just absurd, whether it comes from the Cubs, media, or on a message board.

Comments like "gets in his own way" or "he is his own worst enemy" are used to describe just about every good pitcher who is going through command issues. They don't actually mean anything other than walks are doing more damage than the opposing hitters.

No. Last year, you could see inside Upton's head and the "getting it" part of his brain was quite active.

What about Michael Wuertz? I'm not sure if this discussion should include bullpen pitchers, but I don't believe he was ever thought of as more than an average prospect. Perhaps earlier on, but he certainly struggled at Iowa.

Fans applauding someone for beating out a possible DP is one of the most annoying things they can do.

The TV situation for the upcoming USMNT matches has been set: 5/28 @ England - 2 PM CDT - ESPN Classic live 6/4 @ Spain - 3 PM CDT - ESPN2 on a 1-hour tape delay 6/8 vs. Argentina - 6:30 PM CDT - ESPN Classic live

Actually, that series is only scattered singles right now. It gives a bunch of seating choices but you can only select 1 seat. Based on what they did for the first homestand, though, I'd say that there is a good chance they'll release some seats before the start of that homestand. Of course, saturday games are going to be harder to get, especially as we get closer to the summer.

Hahaha. That HR just made my night.

Why on earth was Theriot stealing there?

It's a safe move for Fausto. Since he has 5 arbitration-eligible years remaining, it will provide some nice security. Certainly at $15 million he'll be set for life. Then again, he's only 24 years old. You don't see many 24 year olds playing it safe. We'll see if it pays off for the Indians, but if it doesn't, they're not out that much money.