jersey cubs fan

A football GM job is difficult. Baseball is not. Hendry chooses to make it difficult by handicapping himself with complete incompetence.

That's not entirely true. That might have been your perception of how the events unfolded but none of it ever officially sat as that. They knew he'd be in the outfield and that they could put him in any of the three spots and that was enough. Of course right was discussed too--it would put his arm to best use and it's a better position to anchor. He'd need to make an adjustment anyway and his move to left was somewhat successful so in no way was right out of the question but it was always known right would be the most difficult of the three. That's all I continue to say. If right was the plan "all along" then why has he not played any right? Why when they moved him out of what you call Plan B (CF) did they not go back to Plan A (RF)? I truly don't understand how anyone could so vehemently disagree with these basic points. I never ruled out Soriano playing right and a few times now I've said it's where I'd wish him to be... but these are real reasons with real logic to it. Because Lou is trying to make Soriano as comfortable as possible, and with the gimpy hammy, they just decided to change course and have him go to the one position where he was most comfortable. Plus, at the time, Pie was the

The original plan for Soriano was RF all along. They didn't switch him to CF until he volunteered to play there once CF became a big question. They didn't start him there to protect him from the difficult of RF. Had they stuck with Murton/Floyd, Jones and Soriano from left to right at the outset, this mess would not be as big a problem.

They were planning on using him in rightfield all along until the CF experiment. I don't see why they couldn't move him there today and stick him there.

He pitches tonight. So Cotts is going to start? That's a very interesting development to this whole 5th starter saga. I did read in one of the articles about sending Cotts down (maybe it was the one on cubs.com) that he is going to start. Maybe that's just to give the Cubs a fallback option rather than definitely starting him when he comes back up. The trib article said he was going down to start.

was that a bank off the face?

he shoots and he scores

I don't have a problem with Anaheim winning, but I'm definitely pulling for Ottawa, Canada deserves a cup after the way Americans have screwed with their game.

Is this what you're looking for ? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Total CUBS 30 15 15 22 25 33 29 24 13 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 207 Opponents 23 17 9 23 24 14 34 16 15 3 0 1 0 1 1 0 181 Interesting. 66-65 in innings 7-9.

Has anybody made the screw you Melon joke yet?

I still think Lou just overreacted to the loss in NY. He talked about big changes in the heat of the moment, then once things cooled and Hendry let it be known he wasn't releasing Eyre or making a trade this early, then had to make something up to not look like the boy who cried wolf. Dempster blew a game, Guzman, Cotts and Fontenot paid the price.

Quite. So I guess the Aardsma trade was a net win for the Sox? He's at least still around, and I don't hear a lot of negativity over him coming from the South Side. Just wait until Cotts is starting witht he big club. They'll have four lefties and Marqius by the end of the year. Sounds like the perfect plan for counteracting ineffective lefty relievers.

How is he continually taken out in the 4th? Well, if he cramps up around 60 pitches then I'm sure there would be multiple times where he wouldn't make it out of the 4th/5th inning. I'd rather not have a starter who cannot make it past the 60 pitch mark. So now he can't make it past 60 pitches? News to me.

How is he continually taken out in the 4th?

They just signed Floyd, there's no way they dump him as soon as possible. He was a longtime Hendry target, and Hendry has him. Jim doesn't dump his recent acquirees.

Is it really bad luck to give up long balls? Usually you hear of luck being involved when you're talking about balls in play. But HR, BB and K are the things a pitcher controls.

Wind schmind. What was his excuse in 2004 and 2005? OPS barely over .800 for 2 years in one of the best hitters' parks, and he was on the young side of 30 then too. Speaking of turning things around, while his May looks good, he's got a 462 OPS in the past week. He hasn't done much since the day before Mother's Day.

You nonsensical ramblings aren't helpful.

I was starting to think that I was the only rational person left on NSBB. I am amazed how some posters overreact to anything that happens to be whispered by someone. I have supported Hendry in the past, but I can't believe he would give up Murton for a relief pitcher especially since we seem to lead the league in quantity (not quality) of relief pitchers. As some posters have pointed out, Murton is the kind of player that you package with pitching prospects to get a big name player. I don't believe this rumor unless it is really an outstanding relief pitcher. I was thinking the same thing. First, the over-reaction to a rumor. Second, that trading Murton would not be even close to the worst thing Hendry has done. If the Cubs were playing fantasy baseball, then Muton has has good value, but when you actually have to put a 9 man team on the field, mixing defense with offense, Murton has avg. value. Murton is only good if it's fantasy baseball? Funny, considering it's Soriano who is actually overrated by the fantasty game, with the overemphasis on counting stats like HR and SB. Murton has well above average value because he's a cheap player who can give you a .360 OBP along with an 800+ OPS. That is valuable. A multi million player with those numbers is far less valuable. The problem is Hendry painted himself into a corner years ago with the construction of this team. Every year he's made it more and more difficult to fix the issue. Murton had great value to this team until they decided he wasn't worth playing.

Do you really need me to give you a gigantic list of players who had a similarly good season in their rookie or sophomore year only to flop afterwards? Once again, I'm a fan of Murton and only somewhat playing devil's advocate here, but let's be realistic. His numbers last year do not mean "there is no reason" it won't happen this year with regular play. His numbers last year are not the only support.

They aren't his numbers becuase he doesn't get to play on a consistent basis. The people running the Cubs are traditionalists. They want a Slugger in the corner outfiled spot. I called this as soon as Hendry went ga-ga over Soriano. Then they went out and got Floyd. Hendry and crew are clueless. It's a shame. I disagree that the only thing lacking is consistent play. I think there's a little more to it than that but that's impossible to argue so we'll just leave that up to be determined. It's not quite as simple as the Cubs wanting a slugger there either. The problem is he'd have to be better in every other area -- defense, speed, discipline -- and he's just not. He's below average defensively in right field and does not have significant speed. He has good discipline at the plate but this is another thing that's always been exaggerated for him. He is not an elite walker; he doesn't even have great patience. He's just a little above average when the Cubs have been so used to players below average. A breath of fresh air, no doubt, and personally I think Murton will come around to find some power but he's out of place here now. Unless you move Soriano to rightfield and he adjusts well there, you cannot imagine any longterm future for Murton with the club without serious improvements. Now if he's traded for a middle reliever - I'm pissed. But let's not treat it as if the only acceptable trade is for Miguel Cabrera because that's just nonsense. How convenient that you pretend it's impossible to argue. It's not impossible. Any reasonable analysis would conclude the playing time is an issue. I'm not acting like anything but Cabrera is unacceptable, it's pretty much nonsense that you pretend I, or anybody else, is. I'm talking about a general theory of trading a player like him. You don't trade him for short-term bullpen help. You do trade him if you can get a really good improvement. There's no benefit to trade him if you aren't getting a better player in the end. Who that is depends on who else you include in a trade of Murton. Murton and a decent pitching prospect could get you a decent starting pitcher. Murton, Colvin and Gallagher should get you an impact position player.

Last season he had an 809 OPS and a 365 OBP when given enough playing time. There is no reason he couldn't produce those #s, even surpass them if given a chance to play on a regular basis. His minor league numbers suggested he could do that, his major league career so far backs that up. A slow start to a season with erratic playing time doesn't change that. This would be classic sell on the low if he trades Murton.

Who is shocked? Well, the "!?" at the end of the thread title made me think mdwilla was surprised. Good point. I've feared Murton has been on the block for a while, and not because the Cubs can't live without him, but because the Cubs motivation for trading Murton, and target for using him as bait, was most likely going to be all wrong. If you put him in a package for Miguel Cabrera, I'd pack his bags and fly the plane. If you give him spotty playing time and his numbers suffer, then try and "shore up the bullpen" by trading him like some extra piece, well, that's just so Cubs like.

It's nonsense like this that explains why the Cubs would make such a move. Those who want to see Murton play do so becauase he's a cost effective option capable of putting up a solid 800+ OPS with a .350 or better OBP, not because they think he's great. But when you support such a player, the naysayers want to say you severely overrate said player because they assume that in order to really like a player it means you think he's tremendously productive. You don't have to be tremendously productive to be tremendously valuable to a major league roster. I like Murton because he is exactly what this team has lacked, and needed, for quite some time. People, including the Cubs, just don't get that.

Who is shocked?