Jerry Mumphrey

Anyone have a link to the article explaining how Minaya told Reyes he can't play Dominican ball in the offseason because he's too valuable to the team? That's exactly what Hendry should have told our new 5th-highest paid player in history but he was completely spineless on it as usual. Just like how he won't call out players or coaches, only blames bad bounces, and also how he wouldn't fire Baker or even tell him who to put in the lineup when it was obvious he was screwing that up for 2+ seasons. All this nice-guy carp does is cost him the respect of fans and players. You think guys don't play for Minaya or Steinbrenner? You bet they do because those GMs will act like a boss. Soriano tends to fade down the stretch as is and now he's going to need off-days beginning in ST because of our lame, gutless GM. Great, you worked from a hospital bed over winter meetings. I'd prefer if you worked on making your coaches and players show that type of sacrifice.

With 134 Ks in AAA, it seems Moore would project to be a strikeout machine in the NL.

I don't see Nevin getting a job starting for anyone next year, but maybe someone out there who values stats beyond BA and K's gives him a shot. What is he a LF,RF, 3b, 1b?

Yeah, but all we got was cash and a PTBNL. How is that considered a good haul for this organization? Why not just keep Nevin as a platoon partner in right and DFA plan B? My point is, they basically gave him away.

...among regulars, and his OBP ranked fifth. Of course Jim Hendry would need someone to explain those terms to him, but you'd think he might have caught on that Nevin is more productive than Mabry.

Do you think Hendry realized the Phil Nevin had the third best OPS on the team among regulars, and was fifth in OBP? Could that be why he got traded? Will JH ever get a clue or is he forever saber-avert by nature?

I've gotta say his rant about Jones is justified. If you look at the big picture, why does our team put up with an everyday outfielder who throws like a drunk little-leaguer? It costs the teams several runs a month as is, but in a well-scouted playoff game teams would take extra bases on him all the time. An owner like Steinbrenner wouldn't put up with it. You would either have the entire staff working with him until he stopped spiking it into the ground, or make him a platoon guy who doesn't play right field in close games.

If anyone gets that on video, send it over here...*cues The Natural* http://www.northsidebaseball.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?t=35021

Maybe a break beat with a looped soundbite of Ron Santo saying "now Jones...he's got a problem out there"

I was thinking more along the lines of the theme to "The Natural" with slo-mo footage of some moon shots from right field.

Sorry I don't have one to offer, but has anyone ever put together a "highlight reel" of Jones' throwing attempts this season? This guy is ridiculous! Was he always the same deadeye cannon in Minnesota?

This type of thing just reminds me that Hendry isn't fully commited to winning. I always get the sense he values his professional relationships over the good of the team. If you can't afford to reserve the field for your own players to practice, how about finding someone who will coach for less than $4 million a year?

It's because he knew that triples would cost him in the SB department.

Perfect start to a rainout.

^^^^^^^ Because most of the white rookies were pitchers. Good example of why one should never rely on cherry-picked statistics.

Fine, I'll tackle this one... Here's my list of Dusty's pets (i.e. players given more chances for success by Dusty than their statistical histories should have allowed): Neifi (always batting second) Macias (1st pinch hitter) Pagan (ordained MVP despite no success) Novoa (rubberarm) Pierre (take a day off when you're killing the team) Jones (shouldn't start vs. lefties) Hollandsworth (should not have started a whole season) Hawkins (shows he's not a closer repeatedly) CPatt (always at the top of the order) Rusch (not a legit #5) Clines (useless) Any more? So the list is about 80% black, quite over-representative of the league make-up. So I'd say yes, Dusty does tend to favor black players and coaches. Is this bad? Only when you're desperately trying to win the pennant with an overpaid roster contructed by a clueless GM.

No kidding, how about this for the subect of an article. Cub fans are among the most knowledgeable in baseball. They turn out in droves to support the team because of a beautiful, historic ballpark that hasn't succumbed to needless modernization, and tends to exhibit a social environment of true cameraderie. Armed with a recent uptake in spending toward roster improvement, ownership has given fans a taste of postseason play and hope for an end to the nearly-60 year pennant drought. However, the ownership commitee has coupled this financial investment in competitiveness with poor upper management decisions (like the hiring of Minnesota Twins re-treads) serving to hamper, no torpedo, the fans' hopes of a World Series appearance. The Wrigley-faithful, above average in fan-intelligence by most accounts, cannot stomach such an obvious failure in the plan to bring a historic moment to their favorite environ, and their patience has worn off. What is there for a fan to do, who pays the salaries but is shuttered from the decision making? Aside from public protests outside the front gates (already been done) about all the thinking fan can do is boo, boo his little tail off, boo the lineup, boo the errors, boo the manager, boo the pitchers, and litter the field. To do otherwise is offering tacit approval of Andy MacPhail on down by virtue of each man's 100 bucks for the experience watching a lousy team at the greatest ballpark. Something like that.

They tried being "good" fans for the past 90 years, Don. Let's just make sure to separate the issues of Cub fans really starting to get pissed off, and high-profile black Cubs reporting racist hate mail. Dempster gets booed just like Latroy did when he blew so it doesn't seem like there's overwhelming bigotry in the stadium. Management is clueless and waaaay behind the curve in constructing a winning team, which has the very knowledgebale Cub fan base growing irate. The fact that a few people may have written letters to the Cubs containing the n-word is something completely different and I suspect it's just as likely to have come from unsavory Sox fans. Let's just be careful not to equate booing a lousy team with racism.

Cubs just traded Neifi Perez to the Tigers for a top 10 minor league prospect...who happens to be a catcher known for great defense. Now what was that everyone was saying about Steve Stone losing his clairvoyance?

All of Pierre's SB's come in meaningless games when the outcome is no longer in doubt. Hey Fred...

Hey thanks, I guess we should've kept Grudz.

Hey fellas? Fellas? Without looking I'm going to call BS on the "Todd Walker's slugging percentage is .388" claim. I'm pretty sure it's a bit higher than that. Anyone want to check and link to it? We may just all be too quick to apologize in the face of slander.

It's the manager.

Just so everybody understands, a bunch of the teams ahead of us are going to be playing each other the rest of the season, meaning there are many guaranteed wins for teams not named the Cubs. This is why we were basically eliminated by the all-star break. Someone with some time and math skills should check to see the date it becomes mathematically impossible to slide into contention.

Now that I finally have membership, allow me to pick an old scab. The moment that many Cub fans, including myself, realized the level of complete idiocy the Cubs were paying millions for for in Dusty Baker was Game 2 of the 2003 NLCS. A young Mark Prior was getting worked exceptionally hard since he came back from injury and here Dusty runs him out with an 8-run lead in the 6th inning. That moment drew a few wha???'s around Chicago, but when he runs him out agin for the 7th up 12-0 the whole stadium was befuddled. That move was embarrasing in its ineptitude. Everyone in Wrigley was starting to worry about his arm. As a fan, it did not feel good to watch. And if even the fans were growing concerned about his stamina for future games, you can bet it had gotten in Prior's head too. You don't think Prior was thinking about those pointless innings during the meltdown of game 6? "Fan intereference and now an error, great now I get to throw even more pitches!"