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which is so ass backwards. Shouldn't a manager have his own scouts that he entrusts with important things like scouting reports? It stupid some of these guys have been around for alot of losing and thus have been part of a lot of mistakes. Heck, Hendry himself has been around since 95. The head advance scouts are Brad Kelly and Randy Bush. Kelly has been around for a while and I think Bush joined the org in 99. Check out this gem: http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/leagues/NCAA/brownlie0303.html Ah the great Bobby Brownlie.

thats the second time ive seen little cesar run a count to 3 and 1 with the bases loaded and he promptly swung at the next pitch. He did it in NY against the mets. 3 and 1 is normally a hitters count but with the pitcher struggling to throw strikes, having the bases juiced, and one strike to give, and little Cesar at the plate he should not have the green light. In fact Cesar should never have the green light. Not to mention having pinch hitters available.

Yikes, he had some great rolemodels at that highschool. :roll:

Unbelievable! Jim Hendry is officially dead to me unless Miller gets traded.

of all those guys masset has by far the best stuff. So that didn't completely suprise me as much as a 12 k performance by klye Lohse and when jorge sosa & chris sampson dominated us. True not having a very pateint team doesn't help but shouldn't the game plan in these situation emphasize patience? And I never said that Baker had anything to do with the advance scouts but I was making a point that this seems to be an organizational problem. But then again, how the scouting reports are interpreted by a manager can also be part of that problem. Sorry I cant just tip my hat to a guy like Kyle Lohse who was previously in our system, so our scouts should know him well enough, and has been terrible aside from that start against us. Either way something isn't working because it has been a problem for 2 1/2 years.

Does anyone else notice that everytime we face an unknown quantity such as Nick Masset, Jorge Sosa, the Astros' Chris Sampson, the cubs are absolutely clueless? Last year everytime a team brought up a crafty lefty from the minors our guys would swing at the first pitch and make him look like cy young. Even Kyle Lohse who is a pretty well known quantity but has only started a handful of games in the last two years. He gets the start vs us on 4/15 and strikes out 12. His current record is 1 and 5. His only win vs the cubs. what I'm getting at is this team is often ill prepared to face the opposing pitcher. So who's to blame, the advance scouts, the players them selves, or Lou? My guess would be that the advance scouts should shoulder most of the blame. The majority of these guys are hold overs from the dusty baker era which is why we keep suffering from the ills of the the dusty baker era. Discuss.

1) lou is going to a seven man rotation with each guy throwing their normal side session in the bullpen. 2) Zambrano is going to start playing rightfield on the days he isn't pitching 3) tramell decides that he is still better than izturis and suits up 4) Zambrano, who is ambidextrious (sp?) pitches right handed monday, and left handed wednesday 5). lou takes over gm duties, jim Hendry finds a job at subway and is quickly fired when all of the cold cuts are missing. 6) Murton, Jones, and Floyd are all traded. New outfield Soriano, Pagan, Pie 7) Ichiro stays in San Diego and joins the cubs after the mariners recieve eyre, Jones, and a minor league pitcher. 8) no more go cubs go after wins, that song is so lame! 9). Hendry suits up to play first base in derek lee's absence. Dies on firs bunt attempt. 10). Derek Lee to right, marmol to setup, wood to the pen, eyre to the concession stand and jones/murton for a first baseman.

Monday is a travel day so what major changes could be instore on the flight to San Diego? And for all this hype it better be something crazy.

Sanders might be okay but he'll definitely be injured at some point leaving murton and floyd in right. Somethings got to give for sure and I look for Hendry to make the least controversial move and send Cedeno back to AAA, thats assuming he has options I really dont know. By the way how has theriot handled short I havent been able to see any games this week?

Stat of the day: Daytona Center Fielder Chris Amador, 5 at bats 5 K's. If four k's is the golden sombrero what is five?

I agree that upton has more upsideand is probably already better but I just find it hard to believe that Cantu couldn't find a spot, not even on the bench.

I can see the disagreement on cantu as well but I dont get letting Navarro start the season after 15 total spring at bats. Put him on the DL retro-active or something. And I still think the moves they havent made concerning the log jam in the outfield and the holes in the rotation are terrible. A package revolving around one of Baldelli, Dukes, or Gomes could bring a solid pitcher back.

this is what I was thinking ... from the D rays website:

I agree that gomes is a better choice for a Dh but Wigginton at second and a healthy Cantu at first would be much more potent. Supposedly Cantu was in really good shape this offseason.

Cantu optioned to AAA, Orvella to AAA, Shawn Riggans to AAA, and BJ Upton starting at second base? Iwamura at third? Cantu would probably have been a good option at firstbase with wigginton starting at second base. He deserved another spot after an injury plagued year in 06. Upton only hit .268 in spring training and is the opening day secondbaseman. Orvella was the best relief pitcher this spring with a .87 era and somehow got cut over a guy with a 4.26 era. I still dont see how Navarro is the catcher either, he cant hit for average, and cant hit for power. Riggans is no slugger either but double digit hr's is better than single digits and he hits for a pretty good average. And they are both strong defensively. Seems like a no brainer that riggans should be on the team especially when considering Navarro had a total of 15 at bats this spring. Iwamura is also going to be the opening day starter at third base after batting a pedestrian .220 in his first go around with major league pitchers. The original plan was to phase Iwamura in as the super sub, what about his spring made them choose otherwise? Besides the fact that he'll help sell tickets. The new management is starting to look a lot like the old management. They still haven't made a significant trade despite their lack of major league pitching and plethora of outfielders. Looks like more of the same for the rays this year.

http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070327&content_id=1861914&vkey=spt2007news&fext=.jsp&c_id=chc and the draft of 02 continues to haunt us. Jon Lester, Jonathon Broxton, Brian McCann, Jeff Francouer, Joe Blanton and Matt Cain. All guys we could have had at one point in the first two rounds.

didn't we sign him to a minor league deal in the off season? did he ever pitch, is he in minor league camp?

http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070218&content_id=1806751&vkey=spt2007news&fext=.jsp&c_id=chc I guess that explaines the poor showing. Hopefully it was just a fatigue thing.

Just as he should have been.

Not like anyone cares but, I also went to the same highschool and graduated the same year as grant, LTHS 01. But I didn't really know him much more than saying "hey" at a party or in the hallway. I do remember though that his senior season was dominating. According to my cousin he was a real hard worker. And he relied on his fast ball which was good enough to blow away highschoolers but had little to no movement.

I'm the one who originally said that. His mom and my uncle talk because my cousin and him were on the same highschool team. And also my uncle runs the local baberuth so he talks baseball with like every parent that comes in his store. But yeah word is he changed his mechanics and was back up to mid 90's during instructs. Which makes even a mediocre slider look good.

he also has one of the biggest egos of any pitcher to take the mound. I've had just about enough of him and his indecision. Also, I'm convinced he is a roid monster, he looked like he was done in 96, then in 99, and again in 02. But somehow he miraculously regains his velocity and continues to pitch. Clemens is as big as a joke as Barry Bonds.

Seems to me that Eyre is the best bet to have a down season. Over the last couple of years he has pitched a ton of innings. Combine that with his physique and his conditioning habits and you've got a recipe for the DL. I wouldn't mind trading him now while relievers are in high demand. Plus he's a Dusty boy.

I guess Edgar Omana could be interesting too. Lefty reliever who posted good numbers in the Yankees GCL league but then had a bad showing in the NY Penn League. Seem like he had the injury bug because he didn't pitch much in 04 and 05.

I know that there is a crazy sect of Cubs fans in D.C. including Dick Cheney among others. Someone inverviewed him about it once in 03 and he talked about how this group of high profile congressman and the like get together to talk cubs and watch games. Its real hush, hush, kind of like the skull and bones club :wink: