wastra

I know you are being sarcastic but I have seen and heard this excuse so many times I have to comment. The fact that they game Hendry an extension is not an excuse to give one to Baker. All the writers who keep saying you have to give Baker one since Hendry has one are completely insane. This isn't preschool where if one kids brings candy to class he has to share with everybody. You don't justify a stupid extension by saying somebody else got a stupid extension. I agree. But if the Cubs think highly enough of Perez/Hendry/Rusch's performance to give them extensions of more than one year, I find it hard to think they'll not do the same for Dusty- whose level of suckness is at least on par with theirs.

I think he just stopped doing roids last year when the testing started, and we're seeing the precipitous result of a 41 year old man who was artificially playing better than he should have been able to for years. He's just plummetting downhill without the roids to keep him stronger and help him stay in playing condition, IMHO.

I gotta be honest... usign this organization's other moves as performance benchmarks (extensions to guys like Hendry, Perez, Rusch), then I don't see why Baker DOESN'T deserve an extension. (No, I'm not arguing FOR that, so please note the sarcasm).

Jacque and Juan are two guys where what-you-see is what-you-get. It's silly to think they'll change HOW they approach hitting, so we shold be hoping for them to just be more successful at the way they're doing it now. If they're going to swing at everything, let's just continue to root for them to find holes in the defense. Their style of hitting WILL lend itself to very very hot streaks and ridiculously cold streaks, and we should hope for more of the hot ones. Jacque has gone to left once or twice recently, which could help him tremendously. Juan has hit three or four line drives recently (which makes it harder for the 2b to catch). So instead of complaining about HOW they hit, I'm resigned to chearing for them to do it THEIR way BETTER. This is a good example. Jacque is doing a BETTER job hitting the ball where they ain't, and that's a very good thing. If he can do it for a lkong period, that's how guys like him put up solid seasons....by hitting .300 instead of the .250 he hit last year, not by suddenly learning how to take walks. Keep it up, JJ!

Has John Mabry managed to catch up to a fastball over 90mph yet this year? Why would any opposing pitcher throw anything offspeed near the zone?

two outfielders on the same team so inept at the simple act of throwing a baseball? Seriously...I know e've had innacurate arms or weak arms before, but this is ridiculous. Pierre throws rainbows 15 feet over people's heads and 10 feet off-line. Jones stands in right field and drills the ball into the turf 15 feet before it reaches the infield. And these aren't just flukes- they've both done it 5 or 6 times this year. We're not asking you guys to hit a moving target from 300 feet, we're asking you to THROW A BASEBALL, and paying you quite well to do it.

I just have very little faith that Hendry will make the right personnel move. The real question is how bad does a GM have to be over 3-4 years to NOT get a contract extension?

If Slappy McSwingingbunt doesn't get on a tear this year, it'll make, what, 3 out of six full seasons that are below average for a leadoff hitter?

I generally agree with Wastra, but on this I have to disagree. Hendry coveted Baker from day 1 in his tenure. He brought in his guy to manage the team. I believe (admittedly a guess on my part) that Hendry is just fabricating the team that Dusty wants. Dusty wants a veteran lineup, he gets it. Dusty wants a speedy lineup, he gets it. With a few notable exceptions (Murton/Cedeno) Baker has gotten the rosters he's asked for. The exceptions were the guys that Hendry feels strongly in favor of. No question on the rule 5 goofs, I completely agree. Jones has picked it up lately (a little) but that signing fits the Baker mold perfectly - speedy veteran with good fundamentals, poor plate discipline and a decent glove. To me that is a Baker signing more than Hendry. I honestly believe that Hendry believes in Dusty so strongly that he'll deliver the roster that he asks for, with a very few exceptions. Look at how things have changed regarding young players - the knock has always been that Baker won't play kids. It's was only when Hendry stepped in and forced Murton and Cedeno into the lineup that they played consistently. I don't mean to put all the blame on Dusty, and Hendry certainly does deserve some shots, but most of the failures are Dusty forcing Corey to hit leadoff, and putting Neifi in the 2 hole, or sac bunting unecessarily. It starts with Dusty. I think Hendry is beginning to see this which is why Dusty hasn't been signed to an extension. By the end of the year I honestly think we'll be looking for a new manager. As I said, Dusty is a poor manager, and the fact that he IS our manager is Jim's failing. I was just sayign that I don't think the level of sucktitude of THIS year's team is really all that much Dusty's fault compared to Hendry. And if Dusty is pulling the strings on personnel decisions so completely behind the scenes, then again Hendry has failed miserably as GM. If Dusty's making those decisions, then he's obviously terrible, but I have no reason to believe that. Hendry has never shown the ability to assemble and manage an effective roster, there's no reason to think the only thing holding him back is Dusty. Dusty is a problem, but he's a lesser problem than Hendry, who is the reason Dusty is here in the first place. I would prefer that the Cubs fire Hendry today, and hire a new GM quickly, who in turn fires Baker.

I'm sorry, but I really did laugh out loud at that. I'm glad Theriot's up, but speed is not what this team lacks, it's talent. The Trib is so clueless. LOL.

As bad as this roster is, prior to Lee's injury it was better than the one Baker started with last year. Even without Lee 2-8 in the last 10 is inexcusable given who they've been playing. It's a mild improvement over last year's, nothing more. Still a bad lineup. Any lineup that apparently is mediocre at scoring runs with one player but the worst in the NL without him is a bad lineup. I love Derek Lee, but as Jay Mariotti wrote today "Sure, Derrek Lee is a wonderful player. No, he isn't the most indispensable hitter in baseball history, which is how the ballclub has responded since his wrist was fractured. "

At this point, it's a bit silly to say who'd you'd trade for, because it's impossible to say who's definitely available and what that team would want in return. So the real discussion is who would you get off this team one way or another, and which of our minor leaguers would get the callup? Bynum, Rusch, Williamson, Hairston, Perez, Jones, Pierre, and half the other righties we've used out of the pen this year (Wuertz, Aardsma, Williams) really have no business on a roster intending to compete in the next two years. So obviously, you have to start trying to find homes for them where it won't cost you all their salary to mvoe them. I wouldn't even hope to get back more than a few mid-level prospects from the whole lot of them along with some castaway garbage. Who gets the PT? Pie obviously is a guy you want to give a look to. Otherwise, just let guys who've worked hard get a few minutes of fame...Sing, Greenburg, Johnson, Theriot, etc. Ultimately, the fact that we're in the situation we're in should be inexcusable from MacPhail's view.

I don't blame Dusty for this team's performance- at least not primarily. This is a terrible roster. It was a bad roster before Lee got hurt, and it's a terrible one now. That's Hendry's doing. Frankly, due to the awful roster, Baker can't really do much that will help anyway. We're going to lose either way. That doesn't make Baker a decent manager. he's a pretty poor manager, actually. It's just that this year's awful lineup is Hendry's doing (just as the fact that Dusty is Managing that roster is Hendry's doing.) Jim has made 4 or 5 really good moves as GM and about 10-15 horribly bad ones. He's simply not shown he has the chops to manage a major league organization, and he needs to go.

Really points out the shortcomings with the Cubs' organizational philosophy and where this team stands. [The Cubs Rank] Fourteenth in on-base percentage. (This is a stat whose importance is so foreign to this organization that it might as well be from some other galaxy. Can the Cubs finally see their fixation with “speed” and “athletic guys” is silly and pointless? We’re playing baseball here, not competing in the decathlon.) http://www.dailyherald.com/sports/beatwriters.asp?column=miles&id=186433

For much of the past 3 years, I blamed the Cubs struggles on Baker and bad luck, primarily. I was well aware of short comings on the roster, and risky gambles with signings/trades. But when last offseason began progressing, I knew where the problem lay. It's Jim Hendry. The guy changes his "philosophy" every offseason. One year, he wants athletes. The next, it's lefty power. The next year, it's "team" guys. Last offseason, it was "guys who can catch." He artificially created a market for guys like Rusch and Perez when there was no market for them, thereby forcing himself to pay them about twice what they're worth. For the second straight year, he settled on a terrible right fielder, and this time locked the team into the guy for THREE YEARS. He continued after the center fielder/leadoff guy he'd been fantasizing about for 3 years, despite the fact that the guy had an awful leadoff season last year and throws the ball about as hard as a 3 year old girl. All this weakened our farm system and tied our hands financially. That's not even including the previous 2 years of roster bungling where we lost a couple of our better prospects to RULE FRICKIN FIVE. I have no misconception that Baker is a good manager. He isn't. He's terrible (which is another Hendry failing), but at this point, our season is squarely on Hendry's shoulders. We haven't improved our lineup for 3 years. In fact, we've got consistantly worse. We haven't improved our rotation for three years. In fact, it's got worse. It was clear last winter that this team was heading for a gut check. In response to a 3rd straight miserable failure of an offseason, Hendry got an extension. And THAT signing is the reason we'll stink again next year.

Such a minor issue, though, with the other problems with the organization. It's become painfully clear that our GM doesn't have a clue, and the roster he's assembled doesn't have a snowball's shot of the playoffs in the foreseeable future. I'm in agreement than Bynum is not a good ballplayer, but DFA'ing him won't help us in any meaningful way, IMO. This organization needs changes, but the changes need to start where the problems originate: at the top.

corey: .277/.299/.446/.745 ouch. I didn't want to see Corey back, but I'd much have preferred a year of Corey to three years of Jones. And I said that when we signed Jones. :x I remember reading that on this site from several of us. I actually said that by year 2 of the Jones era, we'd want Hollandsworth back.

Sort of. I predicted around .500 if all went as expected this year, and I certainly didn't expect to lose Lee. So I enver really had much hope that this was actually a team that could make the playoffs. Still, it really *es me off to watch. But the one silver lining I find in seeing them struggle is that the longer the Cubs are absolutely putrid, the more chance the organization will actually make management personnel changes, which I believe are 1-2 years overdue.

corey: .277/.299/.446/.745 ouch. I honestly laughed out loud when I read that.

That's Hendry and the Trib. They're willing to overpay for mid-level players, but they're unwilling to get in bidding wars for top-tier free agents. Hendry should GM a mid-market team, not this one. He just has no clue. that would be an even worse disaster than this. he would single handedly cripple a 40 mil payroll team with a signing like jones. you think it's bad that he takes up 1/20th of this payroll? imagine the damage he would do if he make up 1/8th or 1/6th of a team's payroll. One less mid-market team to beat us. :wink:

That's Hendry and the Trib. They're willing to overpay for mid-level players, but they're unwilling to get in bidding wars for top-tier free agents. Hendry should GM a mid-market team, not this one. He just has no clue.

In almost every other organization, heads would be rolling.

When was the last time we actually just went and got a marquee player- either through trade or FA? Hawkins? Ramirez? Lee wasn't a real Marquee player when we got him, and almost everyone else we get are guys who've been struggling that we're hoping can turn it around, or were just never great to start with. Is this a Chicago team or a Kansas City team?

still employed WITH A DAMN EXTENSION Now you're just depressing me.

This team has got worse every year for the past 3 now. I cannot understand for the life of me how most of our management is still employed.