wastra

Hendry really does nothing BUT gamble moves. It's like he's still in a MLB Draft mode. When he is successful, they're GREAT looking moves, but we tend to forget that he's making 10+ deals/signings that turn out to be mistakes or even horrible catastrophes for every one good move. Look at this team: Rusch:original signing was a reclamation gamble after a joke of a season. Neifi: seriously. Jones: Gamble after two terrible seasons. Pierre: Gamble after a terrible season Ramirez: Gamble during a poor season Lee: great trade Maddux: Overpaid for aging pitcher who has pitched pretty mediocre at best since coming here. Howry: Good signing Eyre: Good Signing Dempster: Reclamation gamble Williamson: Reclamation Gamble Bynum: Huh? Pagan: NRI, I believe....gamble Walker: Last minute signing was a good move Hairston: Desperation move, gamble coming off injury plagued seasons Murton: Good job to get him added in the Nomar deal, but handing him LF is looking like a gamble. Barret: Gamble. Had injury problems and had never performed to his expectations. Turned out to be a good gamble. Blanco: Not really any type of signing other than poor. Novoa: Kinda a gamble, but not a huge one. Seriously- the only people he's signed on this roster who weren't gambles were: Walker (a no-risk, low cost signing), Lee, Maddux, Eyre, and Howry, Murton and maybe Novoa. Great job, Jim. We haven't actually improved this team in 3 years. I don't know what standards make that a "good GM," but by mine it's certainly not.

If I'm Hendry, the only people I wouldn't be looking to dump are: Bullpen: (I'd do my best to keep the nucleus together) Dempster Howry Eyre (might be one of our few good trading chips, though) Lineup/Bench: Ramirez Lee Barrett Rotation: Zambrano Marshall Unfortunately, he's locked himself into Neifi, Jones, and Rusch and I don't see many teams rushing to trade for them without having the Cubs pick up the bulk of the salaries. I'd actively try to trade/dump: (although all are tough sales due to various issues) Pierre Jones The entire bench Hairston Bynum And see if I can get some value for: Williamson Walker Wood Prior And I'd LISTEN to offers for (but It would have to be good value): Murton (i'd rather platoon him) Cedeno

The OF will be changed with Pie, Carlos Lee or Cabrera, and Murton or Murton/Jones platoon. Let's see if that happens first before stating it as fact.

If this team returns basically the same nucleus with only changes in center, 2B and MAYBE starting rotation, Hendry would be well served to hire bodyguards, because the fan base will crucify him.

I only wish we got runs for every chopper to third. Murton and Ramirez would be co-MVPs.

They weren't wins. They were gambles that didn't work out in our favor. They wound up being washes, or double-losses, whichever way you want to look at it, because in no way did either trade help our team. At the time, any sane individual would have made them though. In they end, they didn't work out, and we didn't lose anything. Then how is that a win? So a trade that doesn't make us worse is now a win? that's pretty low standards.

They weren't wins. They were gambles that didn't work out in our favor. They wound up being washes, or double-losses, whichever way you want to look at it, because in no way did either trade help our team.

ESPN said a few days ago that Durazo signed a minor league deal with the Yanks, and won't be playing for a while anyway (other than DH) because he still can't throw due to his injury.

Because admitting what is wrong with this team is for them to admit they personally fouled up horribly, and endanger their own jobs. It's easy for people who have no personal responsibility to see what's wrong and say something about it. But if Mariotti, for example, was RESPONSIBLE for it, he might be trying to placate fans AND his bosses in order to protect his own job.

I gotta be honest...after the horrid offseason, I was already at step 5 before the season started. The freakish hot start almost gave me hope for a decent season, but anyone who thought this was a contending team pre-season was wearing pinstriped eye glasses (which I can certainly understand). BTW- I am naturally pessimistic about the Cubs. My experience has shown that to be the proper approach. ;)

This doesn't bother me. I've given up on this General (mis)Manager's decision making process. Still, the ONLY hope is that Womack catches fire as he did in St. Louis a couple years ago, and moves Pierre to 8th. There's no hope that anyone in our system is going to come up and start making this team WIN, unless they can pitch every day, and hit .800 with an .800 slugging percentage.

I've accepted that he's pretty much finished. I put the blame squarely on Baker. I don't know if Baker is directly responsible, but he certainly did nothing to HELP the matter.

Hendry has 2 or 3 really really great trades. (Hundley, Ramirez). He has a LOAD of terrible personnel decisions, though (see pretty much our entire current roster). He can't produce major league position players from our system. He can't figure out how NOT to have one of our more talented prospects taken in Rule V while such esteemed talents like Jose Macias and Neifi take up 40 man roster spots. He can't field an outfield who is even mildly proficient at the plate. He can't figure out that signing guys to high-priced 2 or 3 year deals when we're the only suitors is bad business and ruins our chances of helping the team elsewhere. He is a NOT a good GM by any stretch of the imagination.

Just got home and saw the Cabrerra sac fly. How's woody looking? I see 3 BBs, but he's kept them from hitting him too hard, from the line score.

Yes. Instead of trying to plan a team with some sort of coehsive strategy, let's just sign Rusch to a two year deal for twice what he's worth already knowing 2 of our 3 good pitchers won't start the year with us. Great excuse. Lee's injury SHOULD hurt the offense. But as much as I am happy to see DLee at first for us, he's not the greatest hitter in the history of baseball, which is what going from a solid offense pre injury to the league's worst as our post injury performance would imply. So either Lee is the greatest hitter in the game, or we were really playing well above our heads prior to his injury. This team is worse than it could be due to injuries to Wood and Prior and Lee. Right now, this team is among the worst in the NL because there is very little built AROUND Prior, Lee, and Wood. And that's all on the GM's shoulders. No one is sayign we should be 10 games over with these injuries. But anyone who claims we should be THIS BAD is just kidding themselves.

I'm in the camp of people who believe Dusty should be more critical of his players. Barret *ed up today. he got frustrated and hurt our team in the process. Baker has no business defending that. Baker still needs to be fired, but today's comments about Barret have nothing to do with it.

AJP may be an ass. He may not be well liked by pretty much everyone in the game. But Barret was in the wrong 100% here. This was nothing more than frustration catching up with him. This team is lost, and there can be very little doubt about that now.

I watched it live on television and I still don't believe it. It's just...just... there are no words for the utterly imbecillic, idiotic, stupid, pointless.... I gotta get a beer.

Nope. there was no bunt. Mass hallucination. *That's actually the most logical explanation for it.*

That didn't happen. I refuse to believe it.

No way that happened. No way.

That couldn't POSSIBLY have happened.

Jacque Jones was the only guy left because of the debacle caused by the mad rush to dump Sosa for anyone with a pulse, and the subsequent unwillingness to shell out for a legit OF bat. I've seen about 100 people say that the Jones singing wasn't that bad because there weren't many other RF options last year and I say that's a terribly short-sighted approach. We were desperate for a RFer because Hendry painfully mismanged the position on the roster since 2003. Not only have we not had a solid RFer for 3 years, we haven't had a particularly effective OUTFIELDER for about 3 years (acknowledging that Murton is still essentially a rookie). That's unforgiveable, and unfathomable. And the Estes and Alfonseca signings aren't directly related to this year's team; they were given as examples of the real issues. They're symptoms of the greater problem that is this organization's baffling tendency to give overly-large contracts to/trade for underperforming players which has culminated this year in the signings of Perez, Rusch, Jones, Pierre, and more.

You've GOT to be kidding. Seriously. If he's letting the fans get to him that bad ALREADY, he'll be carrying firearms out there in a year.

My LORD I want Jones off this team in the worst way. Lucky Jim managed to outbid...er...someone...maybe...to sign him for 3 years. :x :?