RichHillIsABeast

Matsuzaka Zito is a LHP. We have plenty of that in the farm system pipeline. Schmidt isn't coming to Chicago. Soriano isn't going to play CF, although that's where I'd like him to play. Lee is a waste of payroll. blah blah blah We need a front of the rotation starter and we're not likely to get him from the farm, trade, or FA.

Hendry has pulled off some marvelous trades in the past, especially early in his GM career before MacPhail started butting in, so I wouldn't put an ARod trade out of the realm of possibility. ARod is awesome. He just needs a change of scenery.

Its hard for me to tell too, but thats because I don't see color. Everyone is American to me. I only know I'm white because I can catch a cab and belong to an all white country club. wow

That's good news. Who would the Cubs have to give up if he were to come to Chicago? Of all the prospective candidates I like Bochy the best. If Hendry gives up any player of value in a deal for a manager he's a bigger idiot than I thought. This team needs the right players, the manager is a secondary thought. Managers don't win. What if we could give up Dempster? or Izturis? I'd rather trade them for players. It has to be a pretty bad player, IMO, to warrant trading a player for a coach. I'd say Izturis qualifies. Note, I said player of value. Izturis is of no value. Maybe in your world. Not in the baseball community...

Radke is not coming back. If he does, he'll have to have surgery in the offseason. Dude's got a torn labrum and some serious socket issues. It's over.

Who are we going to trade for Dunn? The Reds need pitching big time and we really don't have an attractive ML ready starter to trade. Hill is a flyball pitcher. That's not good in GABP. I don't think he'd be a good fit there, but if we did trade in the division, I'd rather Hill go there b/c he has the smallest chance of hurting us there.

abuck, you deserve an official nsbb fruit basket. :D

That really sounds like a guy that is reckless with young arms. Don't let the facts get in the way. The fact is he let a guy pitch after an hour and change rain delay. To me what is even more damaging is that he's seen this happen before when he was a player. He was catching Leiber when Baylor sent him out after the rain delay. Learning from past mistakes is a good thing. Repeating them is a bad thing. Starting pitchers come back all the time after rain delays with no ill effects. A lot of things go into that decision. It's not some general rule. People aren't numbers.

The A's rank 7th in the AL in OBP. It's more pitching and defense this year, which is what Hendry claims wins games.

Range factor? Bwahahahaha Sorry.

I bet Joe Morgan is praying to the porcelain god right now.

We know Brenly b/c of all his comments in the booth. Girardi is a relative unknown management-wise and baseball philosophy. For me, it's a comfort level thing. I didn't really watch too many games, so I guess I'm not familiar with his approaches. What did he say in the booth that makes you thing he'd be good in the Cubs dugout? He's all over Ramirez's slacking, Jones's poor throws, has mad man-love for Murton, knows what plate discipline is, doesn't mind talking about OBP with Len, and he's just flat out hilarious.

We know Brenly b/c of all his comments in the booth. Girardi is a relative unknown management-wise and baseball philosophy. For me, it's a comfort level thing.

Unfortunately there's a lot to complain about and very little not to complain about... Yeah, but we're starting to get to the point where we're almost creating things to complain about. That's not good.

If my choices are Piniella, Girardi, or Brenly...I think I'd choose Brenly. Neither are ideal, but I think Brenly looks better than the other two. Of course, until a decision is made, I'm holding out hope that Hendry's deliberance is a sign that he is considering more than just those three. My point by including Pena is to show that Girardi has done nothing more than what Pena accomplished, yet many would likely rail Pena a choice while proclaiming Girardi a "match made in heaven." In fact, Pena might be a better choice than Girardi. If I had my choice of anyone to manage the Cubs, it certainly wouldn't be Girardi. I just think he deserves some of the credit for what the Marlins did this season. Piniella is the absolute worst choice after the last two years under Dusty. The vet love coupled with smallball is too much for me sometimes, and I'd rather just enjoy the games. Brenly might be the best option of the 3 main candidates. We know the most about his thoughts on smallball, obp, youth etc from his time in the booth. I'd be most comfortable with him. There are just too many unknowns with Girardi. I wish we'd have gotten a better look at Fredi Gonzales, but that didn't happen. I'd be happy with either Girardi or Brenly and completely disgusted with Piniella.

I swear, some Cub fans find reasons to complain about everything and anything. Who wants Louie P in Chicago? Anyone? The choices seemingly are Girardi (b/c fans are ramming down Hendry's throat), Piniella, and Brenly...not Dierker, Pena, etc. None of those options are ideal for most people, but we're going to have to make do.

Ok, but what was the point of saying that managers can't turn a team of scrubs into a .500 ballclub in the Marlins weren't scrubs? Ever heard of Justin Verlander, Ryan Zimmerman and tons of other players I'm too lazy to look up? They never played AAA. In fact, many of them were top talent. I remember many people on this board especially praising Florida's moves because they got so many highly touted prospects. I disagree that talent doesn't get you anywhere without direction, just look at Matt Murton and Rich Hill. Do you think Dusty had anything to do with their success? Again, I don't think anyone is denying him credit. I wouldn't be upset if Girardi became the manager of the Cubs. I am just skeptical that the reason the Marlins had a solid season was because of Joe's managing. The KC Royals had a pretty bad team in 2003, but Tony Pena led them to a 83-79 record in his first full year as manager. One year doesn't make a good manager. The point of saying they're not scrubs is that even the best manager can't take a team full of crap and make them win. Zimmerman, Verlander, Willis, etc are the exception to the norm. Anecdotal evidence at best. It is not routine to graduate AA players to the majors and have them stick (and excel). The very talented ones will, i'll give you that, but by and large, the Marlins' prospects were not as highly rated as Zimmerman and Verlander. Those are guys with huge ceilings. Hanley Ramirez...his stock tanked last season. To rebound, and at the ML level no less, is flat out remarkable. That didn't happen just b/c "he is talented." Something brought the talent out consistently in every player on the Marlins staff. If they had a bunch of hit and misses bringing guys up from the minors, I'd agree with you about Girardi, but pretty much across the board guys improved. That's what good coaching does. Have you ever played organized baseball? ...beyond high school and little league? Coaching matters with young guys. With vets, not so much. I can't even believe we're having this discussion. Any experience whatsoever beyond non-competitive baseball, watching baseball, and looking at stats makes this a no-brainer (not that those things aren't valuable). I don't hear any baseball insiders saying Girardi was a non-factor. I don't hear Beinfest saying that, or the other jack*sses who stabbed him in the back anonymously. Did Girardi turn a 100 loss team into a playoff contender on his own? Hell no. Those players are talented, but a coach isn't supposed to swing the bat for players or catch the ball. He's supposed to unlock potential, and that's exactly what happened. It's either a huge coincidence that that many rookies succeeded consistently, or the coaching staff had a large positive influence. Any fool can take a team of self managing and policing vets w/ talent to the playoffs (Baker, Louie P). Getting results (best record in the last 1/2 decade for a 15M team) with young guys with a couple stars (Willis and Cabrera) is something to take note of. Am I in awe of Girardi? Nope, but he's the best choice Hendry might make. The Larry Dierkers of this world aren't going to visit the Wrigley dugout anytime this decade, that's for sure.

Take a look at that roster. A lot of those guys were at AA last season and didn't figure to be ML ready by anyone's imagination outside the Marlins org. Geez, even prospects like Hanley Ramirez had their stock drop substantially the previous season. Someone ironed out the normal rookie ups and downs. That's the coaching staff. Girardi specifically? I have no idea, but he ran the dugout. People who don't like Girardi don't want to give credit where credit is due. How many managers won 50% of their games with a team full of scrubs (refering to hypothetical scenario, not the '06 Marlins)? This isn't Major League with Pedro Cerano and Wild Thing Vaughn. Some of those "scrubs" would have started on the Cubs. They started out terrible becuase Giardi had people in the bullpen who should have been starting and people starting who should have been in the pen. He was then told to start the rookies and they started to win. Many of the best players go directly from AA to the majors. Especially with the talent of the players in the Marlins organization. It doesn't take imagnination to win and it doesn't take "leadership" to win, whatever that is. It takes talent to win and the team had a lot of young talent. In two or three years they will probably win another WS, without their fearless leader. I didn't refer to any of the Marlins as "scrubs." In fact, I specifically went out of my way to say the opposite. AA to the majors isn't unheard of, but it's difficult to do. Sean Marshall couldn't do it with good numbers. The sheer number of guys who did it last year for the Marlins is ridiculous. I don't deny that many of those guys were talented, but they weren't hyped as world beaters before. Heard of King Felix? There's some context for you. He has more talent in his right arm than the whole Marlins staff does...or so people thought before the season started. Talent doesn't get you anywhere without the right direction - direction provided by the Marlins coaching staff. No one is saying Girardi did it all himself, but to deny him any credit in what the Marlins accomplished is ridiculous hating.

Take a look at that roster. A lot of those guys were at AA last season and didn't figure to be ML ready by anyone's imagination outside the Marlins org. Geez, even prospects like Hanley Ramirez had their stock drop substantially the previous season. Someone ironed out the normal rookie ups and downs. That's the coaching staff. Girardi specifically? I have no idea, but he ran the dugout. People who don't like Girardi don't want to give credit where credit is due. How many managers won 50% of their games with a team full of scrubs (refering to hypothetical scenario, not the '06 Marlins)? This isn't Major League with Pedro Cerano and Wild Thing Vaughn.

How many teams have managed winning seasons with a 15M or less payroll in the last ten years? ZERO The Marlins have the best record of any 15M or less payroll team in the last half-decade. Putting things in context is a fun.

That's a terrible idea. Neglecting the offense is exactly why this team has struggled so much. We don't have the money to put together an elite offense. OBP and SLG have become expensive. There are other ways to win...e.g. the 2006 Oakland A's. Pitching and defense really do matter. We have enough money to improve both offensively and defensively, and to your point there aren't the pitchers out there to become an elite staff only. The best course of action would be to become better in both areas, and make sure you are balanced. Resigning Ramirez, signing Soriano and exploring a trade for a better CF or RF isone way to make your offense better. Pitchingwise, Zito and Schmidt aren't the end all, be all, but you can still get one of them, and combined with the above offense moves improve dramatically without busting the budget. I agree that we need to improve on both sides of the ball. I'm just saying that improving offensively to the point where we can overcome a barren rotation of Z/?/?/Hill/? isn't in the cards. The offensive talent isn't there. We need another ace badly. We're not going to sign two of the top tier FA this offseason. A lot of clubs have money to burn and better chances at the post-season. I'd be stunned if we signed one. But, if we do sign one stud FA, it should be a pitcher. They have the most impact.

Not to brush this praise aside, but the pitching staff said the same thing about Oscar Acosta when he was canned, and the pitchers from those teams didn't suddenly forget how to throw. Interesting that Hill is quoted as a supporter. If I recall, he was one of the pitchers that was rumored to constantly ignoring Rothschild and that it wasn't until he quit listening to him that he started to perform at the ML as he did in the lower levels. I think Hill is probably playing the PC game after his AJ/Barrett comments rubbed management the wrong way. I don't doubt that Larry has done some good things, but the failures to prevent serious injuries to Wood and Prior (well, he can't stop Giles and Hawpe) are so large that we can't risk having him back. Maybe Baker just didn't listen to Larry.

Supposedly we're into winning now that MacDonough is here. Letting Ramirez walk b/c he want another couple mil a year isn't the best PR move. Personally, I don't care that the Cobs spend more $ on Ramirez than he's worth. We do that with everyone. It just happens that this time the player is actually good instead of a veteran scrub. * Thanks for answering my question, Sr. Miles. :D

That's a terrible idea. Neglecting the offense is exactly why this team has struggled so much. We don't have the money to put together an elite offense. OBP and SLG have become expensive. There are other ways to win...e.g. the 2006 Oakland A's. Pitching and defense really do matter.

question idea for da Bruce: Ramirez has said he's waiting to see who the new manager will be and it will factor into his decision to opt for free agency. What manager hire gives us the best chance of keeping Aramis Ramirez?