wastra

I wouldn't pay more than $5MM for him. That's my point. He's already overpaid and overhyped. Atlanta knows it. Of course, that means he's probably perfect for Hendry. :roll:

Furcal's OPS is practically meaningless. Any leadoff hitter's is. I'd take a .600 OPS from my leadoff guy if it meant he was hitting .200/.400/.200, especially when you add in his ability to steal a base at a great clip. Furcal's career OBP is .346, and .341 as a leadoff hitter. THis year, it is (again) .340 He's just not that good a hitter. There is no way that man is a $6-8MM + player.

I still don't get the love people on this board shower on Rafael Furcal. Somehow, I think we could do better than a .750-.770 OPS for $8MM. Hell, I'm willing to bet that in a full year, Cedeno puts up a.740+ OPS or even better. Furcal has a cannon, and plays the field well. But jsut because he's hte best free agent shortstop in a year devoid of other quality free agent shortstops doesn't mean we should give him a monster contract. And FWIW, he's been attrocious at Wrigley the past 3 years. .175/.195/.350

No. Is there an emoticon that properly expresses the fact that Hendry is giving me daily migraines?

So was McClain already on the 40-man, or is he yet another guy taking a spot that JVB could have?

Was he already on the 40 man? I was hoping the Lawton trade would be an opportunity to get JVB on the 40 man.

Well, once again, Dusty surprises me. At elast he's getting mildly creative with Aramis out. I still question benching Walker for neifi. It smacks of Baker's insistance to play neifi every day no matter what. The best lineup, IMO, would be this one with Walker in place of neifi. Damn the lefty-lefty thing. Still, if you accept that Walker will get rest vs. many lefties, this isn't a bad lineup. Don't know about the order, but it's probably the right personell given the situation.

I'm probably in the minority, here, but I don't want Furcal. I don't really want to overpay someone millions for a .753 career OPS just because he plays short. Basically, if you spend $6 MM on a shortstop, and get a .753 OPS hitter, you can get a much higher OPS out of $6MM by getting a corner outfielder. I would much rather spend big bucks at both right and left (or trading for corner outfielders who make bigger bucks) who will give us a .825 or higher OPS and letting Cedeno man short than I would on spending big bucks on a shortstop who WON'T post an .800 OPS and one corner outfielder and letting murton handle left. At elast by spending on outfielders, we KNOW we can get two solid hitters, whereas spennding it on Furcal we're taking a chance on both short and a corner spot (i.e. can Murton handle it?)

exactly how is it the fans fault? Do other teams fans do something different that allow their prospects to flourish? Is it their accents? Something in the water? Do they not go to the games thus minimizing the likelihood of bringing career ending embarassment? Are we that much worse than Philly fans (note, where I currently reside)? The are ahead in the wild card and consistently CRUCIFY (on the air, in print, in person) their players, players that are on a winning team I might add. If anything, I think we expect TOO LITTLE from our players. you've gone through 3 or more levels of the minors, are getting paid $$$$ to play sports and have been groomed for this moment probably since you were 5 years old. PRODUCE. SHeesh My point is that Cub postion players, especially since they are few and far between, have an added pressure to succeed and we as Cubs fans want to do so. But, when they struggle we tend to jump on them a lot more than the normal player since we've been waiting X amount of years for them to be up on the Cubs. I want them to produce also. Like whom? Patterson was given a wide range of lattitude by fans for about 4 years. They started booing him this year because he's worse now than he was 2 years ago. Fans loved Choi, they cheered Murton, I haven't heard any Cedeno boos either. IIRC, they even cheered Dubois up to the day he was traded. Fans at Chicago are probably MORE forgiving than any place else I've ever visited. This year's fans are less forgiving than in the past, but no less so than any other teams' fans. Go to Cincy and hear them boo the bullpen sometime. Go to the Yankees and hear them boo everyone on the team when they're losing (Except Jeter and Tino).

I doubt anyone here is arguing that we shold load up a roster of rookies around Lee and ramirez. But if hendry manages to have a roster with a solid right and center field, 2B, and 1-4 starters, there's no reason they shouldn't expect a Cedeno and/or Murton to be a starter in that lineup as well, and have a young pitcher or two from the system man the 5th rotation spat or a bullpen spot. Realistically, you can't just buy a team unless like the Yanks, you have $170MM to spend. You need SOME homegrown talent to let you offest the cost of signing then keeping the Lees, Ramirezes, and whomever we get to fill holes next year. the problem arises when you have a coupel young players on the team, and surround them with mediocre veterans (and then, of course, don't plat the youth). The best way for a youth movement is to surround them with top-notch veterans. You can have a rookie start at short if your offense isn't deficient everywhere else. You can have a murton in left if your right and center fielders can caryy a big offensive load. With Burnitz and Patterson, you cannot have a murton. With Neifi or Macias at second, you cannot have a Cedeno. At least you can't if you truly plan to contend. So I think what most of us argue is to actually spend on a couple positions in ORDER to let us try out the kids at the others.

I read the article this morning, and while on one hand, Hendry says the blame for the team should fall squarely on his shoulders, he then proceeds to issues about 15 excuses of why it wasn't his (or anyone else's) fault. Now, I understand that it's important for him to keep up a positive image to keep the team from folding entirely or keep the fans somewhat interested, but I'm really getting fed up with the "enabling" mindset of thsi organization. It's never directly anyone's fault. Everything's just peachy, and it's always some extinuating circumstance beyond their control. It's never the pitcher's fault, the players' the manager's, the General Manager's. And they talk as if the team is right on the cusp of the post season...like it's really close to being a dominant team. Here's a news flash- we're not even on the "cusp" of being a .500 team. This organization needs drastic overhauls on everything- from how they build and manage the 25 and 40 man rosters to how they scout and draft, to how they instruct hitters, to how they teach pitching mechanics, to how the major league team approaches hitting, fielding, and defense, to how the manager uses and abuses his players. There is very very little being done superbly in this organziation right now. We mangled the 40-man roster to the point where we lost one of our best pitching prospects for practically nothing and perhaps our best relief prospect coming into this season and during this season isn't even on the 40 man roster, so we are going to have to scramble to get him up. We've mangled the 25 man roster all season going with 12 pitchers (only about 5 of whom are mildly effective anyway), and adding ineffective veterans with bad approaches to hitting throughout the year. We've mangled the USE of the 25-man roster, having guys with sub-.300 OBP hitting at the top for about 1/3 of the season (or more) while not using younger players who at least have the potential to be more effective. Our players at the major league level have generally underperformed, with the exception of Lee and Ramirez. Our training staff certainly doesn't get any awards- the number of strains, pains, sprains, and pulls the past 2-3 years is unbelievable. Our minor league instructors haven't exactly done a great job teaching plate discipline, or working with pitchers to correct mechanical flaws that can lead to injury. Our scouts haven't exactly focused their talents on guys who demonstrate such batting approaches either. So from the front office down to the training staff, I think this organization needs to stop making excuses and start making changes.

If we wind up losing JVB to rule 5 and guys like Hollandsworth and Neifi are still on the 40-man, I vow right now that I will never EVER watch another Cubs game until hendry is Tarred and Feathered (or at least summarily canned). That being said, I don't expect to lose him.

Sweet Lord. :evil: If we take Barret's bat off this team, they'll have to land Manny Ramirez, Johnny Damon, AND anotehr big-time hitter in the outfield in order to offset the what-now-looks-imminent combo of a light-hitting catcher and Neifi in the everyday lineup. :roll:

I vowed last year not to spend another dollar on the Cubs that could in any way get back to the Cubs until Dusty was fired. I broke it when I ordered the Extra Innings package (all teams sharei n that revenue), but I turned down 3 trips to chicago to watch them, and have refused to buy a new Cubs hat all year despite the fact that my dog ate my old one. I am boycotting the Cubs until Baker is gone. No attending games (it's easier when you don't live in chicago, but I normally went to 3-5 games per year before) for me.

And now Aramis is on pace for... The DL. Quad injury today. No news yet.

I'm perfectly fine with letting Cedeno handle SS next year IF (big "if") Hendry goes out and gets a couple (or three) really solid outfield bats. You re-vamp the outfield, and we can AFFORD to let someone sink or swim as a young player. Yo ureturn wit hthe type of offense we got from Patterson, Hollandsworth, Burnitz, Dubois, et al and we need freakin' Miguel Tejada out there.

Bottom line: Neifi makes an out 70% of the times he goes to the plate. That's just attrocious. Period. He's infinitely worse at the plate than todd Walker as well. Whoever's trying to say he's better is living in a dream world. And if anyone is trying to compare defense: Neifi is better than Walker, but he's not exactly gold-glvoe caliber these days. He has a higher ZR, but lower fielding percentage and range factor than Walker. (I know, they aren't real telling stats, but it's not like Neifi is playing GG caliber out there. He's been adequate, nothing more.)

You can't keep comparing Neifi to a 25th man. He's NOT. He's the #1 substitute on this team. He's the 9th man. He's the primary infield backup. On top of that- WE cannot compare our 25th man to a typical 25th man. Aside form how we feel about it, our manager has a philosophy that he wants to play all his guys as often as possible. There are some merits to that, and some downsides, but it's a trait Dusty has had for years, and one he openly espouses. So given that strategy, WE need to field a much better bench than the average team. We cannot afford to have token hackers eating a bench spot becuase they're going to get far more at bats than the average bench hacker. It simply makes zero sense to have a manager with a certain style, then build a roster for an opposing style. So our bench can't really afford to have a 25th man.

I gotta be honest. I think talking about signing shortstops is premature until after september. We have a great opportunity to give some youngsters a shot for everyday atbats. Murton and Cedeno spring to mind rather quickly. I want to see them every day for a month, then we can see who's available elsewhere this offseason. Unlike the Dubois fiasco, we shouldn't enter spring training next season with no clue as to how Cedeno and Murton can handle it, because they BETTER be playing THIS YEAR.

Neifi Perez started at shortstop again Monday as Nomar Garciaparra's back continued to bother him. Manager Dusty Baker said it bothers Garciaparra more to run than it does to hit. He doubled twice Sunday in Colorado. "You have to be really thankful we have Neifi,'' Baker said. Chances are, the Cubs will re-sign Perez for 2006 and not Garciaparra, whose health issues make him too big of a risk. -Chicago Sun-Times Is there an emoticon for vomitting? I'm real thankful for his .693 OPS. :roll:

If I remember correctly, the last two position players the Cubs picked first were Patterson and Harvey, right? Am I missing one between them?

He was in the minors and he was very successful. Yeah, I'm well aware of that. He pitched all of 7 innings at Iowa. Even then, they should have notcied he didn't have a dominating slider.

I think a lot has to do with how the cubs approach talent evaluation. the Cubs are old-school toolsy kinda guys. they just are. Damn the OBP, Damn the performance numbers. Damn sabermetrics. Damn the control numbers. Damn the amount of walks. Damn the number of times he swigns for the fences and whiffs. Tell me how hard he throws and how much it moves. tell me how his swing looks and tell me how much power he'll generate. That approach works better for pitchers than hitters. With pitcher's they're starting with the one thing you can't develop or teach: "stuff." Either you got it or you don't. You can TEACH control. With hitting, it's the opposite. Guys can bulk up. they can develop power, but generally, you've either got discipline or you don't. So the toolsy approach to hitting is, IMO, a backwards approach. When scouting hitters, they should look at guys with some clue as to how to approach an at-bat, then weed out the ones with no hope of ever being good at it. That leaves you with guys who can judge the strikezone at some level, AND have the tools to do it successfully. As for neifi- I'm fine with him as a 25th man at some level, but on our team, he WILL NEVER BE A 25TH MAN. Our manager openly likes to play everyone often. So he'll get twice as many atbats and starts as any other team's 25th man. On top of that, Dusty loves this 25th man in particular (not ripping Dusty for either of these traits). So if you know your manager prefers to play the scrubs whenever possible, you can't give him scrubs who aren't solid players. Knowing Dusty's philosophy- go with Vets, and play ALL the vets whenever you can, that means you can't field a standard bench, it needs to be better than mosto ther teams' benches would be. That's not a knock on Dusty. that's the philosophy he openly proclaimed when he came here. It's a knock on roster construction that has 2-4 pretty piss-poor vets at any given time that we KNOW will get a ton of pt.

Williamson is sayign that it's his sldier that's getting shelled. His slider was what made him a good pitcher in the past- it has good velocity and a sharp bite to it. Now, apparently, it's coming in at around 82 mph without much bite. I'm not trying to throw around more accusations against our organization, but it seems to me that the fact that a recovering pitcher doesn't yet have the one out-pitch that made him effective pre-injury should have been diagnosed and taken into consideration in, oh, maybe Iowa?!? It smacks a bit too much of someone, like Hendry, realizing that he's starting to be on the hot seat for his offseason moves, and he was desperate to make it seem that he had a plan for the bullpen all along- and that Williamson was it. I don't mind that they signed him and are trying to get his arm back in shape. But you don't throw him into the majors when he doesn't have his stuff yet post-injury. I mean, for God's sake, we jsut went through this BS with Borowski. SOMEBODY in our organization has a very very poor short-term memory.

that Williamson was rushed back to the majors well before it was determined he was ready/capable of getting major league hitters out? Seriously, he's not ready yet, and he shouldn't be in the game in a tight situation.