abuck1220

wow, i didn't see that. pretty huge development if he's out...they had a bunch of games at GABP this week. looks like i'll outstart you 8-7, but, let's face it...my starters suck. at least your two best guys aren't the ones w/ two starts...and vazquez's second start is in coors. i think lee & overbay are the keys to my team this week...they need to have big games at GABP. three games for gonzo in coors needs to translate into a hr or two from him. and my bullpen has carried me all year...i need a big week out of them.

it's on. cedeno got robbed for nsbb POY!

just in time for the postseason run!

well, i guess i'll watch the game today. my rule for the rest of the season is not to watch unless cedeno/murton/hill play.

is this some kind of joke?? :shock:

baker seems to be the last person to realize that this current group of stiffs isn't winning, hasn't won and will continue to not win. since when does playing your worst players = trying to win? This is infuriating. When teams are out of contention in September, they play the kids so that they can better evaluate what role they can play on the next season's team. It provides the GM with better information for the offseason. baker's already covered himself on this one by saying that you can't really put much stock into what kids do in september because teams don't have a book on them. also, if he plays murton/cedeno consistently now and they set the world afire, he'll have to listen to a month of everyone saying 'why didn't you play those guys instead of hollandsworth, neifi and macias?' if there's one thing that baker's good at, it's covering himself.

Does he really value OPB though? To me, Hendry is moreso trying to emulate the Yankees than show legitimate concern for OPB. For example, the Yanks collect superstars. Sheff, Giambi, ARod, etc. are all players brought in by the the Yankees because the are superstars. Sure, their stardom arises partially due to their strong OBP statistics, but those are likely incidental to the fact that the Yanks want them. Due to payroll constraints (as everyone has who aren't the Yankees), Hendry is kind of the poor-man's Brian Cashman. He collects lesser star players on the cheap. He appreciates that Lee, ARam and Nomar have potential to produce, but OBP is incidental. Hendry hasn't shown a willingness to chase, or force the play of, high OBP players with limited power like Boston or Oakland does. OBP just doesn't seem to be a priority in the supporting cast. i agree w/ you, jc. the only guy he's gotten that would indicate that he cares about OBP is lawton...and his OBP sucked while he was here. so i don't know if he'll go that route again any time soon.

Because he does it for a living? Because he, and his staff, are the closest people to the players, and presumably have a lot more institutional knowledge than anyone on this board? I don't know why people operate under the assumption that because a GM makes some mistakes, he doesn't know anything. Name me a GM who hasn't made mistakes. They're dealing with people, and people are extremely variable in their abilities and their reactions to new and stressful situations. I think Hendry is a very good GM, even while admitting he's made his share of mistakes. But whose opinion do you trust more, someone whose staff works with the players every day, or someone on an anonymous internet message board who probably has never had contact with the player in question, much less run a sports organization? so just because he does it for a living he's automatically good at it? you've never worked w/ anyone that sucks at their job? i don't care how much contact he has with his players. fact is, he has a top payroll and the team SUCKS. SUCKS. it's not that they're just not living up to expectations...they're awful. i'm not saying hendry's never done well, but i can't say how anyone can say he's a 'very good' gm given the team's failures over the past two seasons.

jim hendry also thought glendon rusch was a good option to start. he also thought signing mike remlinger was a good idea. he also thought hiring dusty baker was a good idea. in short, jim hendry has shown that what he thinks isn't necessarily right. i dont' know why people operate under the assumption that just because a guy is a gm/manager, he knows what he's talking about. last time i checked, the cubs have a 90+ million payroll and are fighting to stay out of 5th place. i don't know why you give a guy in charge of that mess so much deference.

i'm glad i'm not involved in all these nail-biters. that last spot is certainly up in the air. i hope the team that takes it doesn't play the role of 'wild card team that hits the postseason running'.... 8-[

if hendry didn't 'agree with baker' then he shouldn't have hired him. people are acting like hendry and baker have drastically different philosophies. dusty's philosophy/strategy/reputation was well-established when hendry hired him. if hendry is now unhappy with how dusty has run the team, then it's hendry's fault for not knowing what he was getting himself into and i don't know how much credit i want to give hendry for not trading walker. he didn't trade lee for humberto cota either, but i'm not about to throw him a parade for that. keeping walker was a no-brainer.

they owe it to the fans to win games. like they did yesterday when rusch pitched. and the three previous times when rusch started. the best part is, he'll sit in the bullpen unused for two weeks and then get a start at houston or against the cardinals. then he'll pitch poorly and dusty can say 'i told you so'. wow, this season was fun.

hell, let's get him back out there for a few more relief appearances in september. maybe have him play winter ball. or go on one of those babe ruth style travelling baseball exhibitions in the off season.

looks like hill will be in the pen for some reason. gotta get a few more starts for rusch, i guess...reward him or something like that.

hill k's two in an odd one inning of relief. wonder what the deal is w/ hill coming out of the pen... does this mean sergio's starting in rusch's spot? if so, wouldn't they want to stretch him out more? maybe mitre got hurt and hill was available in the pen because they know he's coming up tomorrow. what a mysterious situation...wish i would have listened to the game. :x

I guess that's why we have numbers to measure them then. Walker's been slightly below average at 2B this year, a 97 rate(100 is average). I can recall a few times when there were routine balls hit to him, he doesn't make the play and they call it a hit when it should be an error. And as I said before, bad range. well, what you can 'recall a few times' certainly is more reliable than statistics. i'm with you...walker sucks.

baker seems to be the last person to realize that this current group of stiffs isn't winning, hasn't won and will continue to not win. since when does playing your worst players = trying to win?

Lol @ your obsession. Perhaps it would have been idiotic to let Hill get shelled a third time in a row??? I'm glad he got on his feet @ Iowa. Let him start the rest of the way and move Rusch to the pen. what's funny is that when hill was pitching poorly, and rusch was pitching well the fact that you were starting a thread per day about it was just fine. but now that you've been proven WRONG (and have been noticeably silent on the matter), i'm 'obsessed' with it. of course when you were saying the two needed to be flipped it was after hill had pitched poorly, and when i said that sending hill down for rusch was stupid it was before rusch pitched poorly. but i guess it's easier to be 'right' when you say stuff after the fact. Just cause Hill got guys out @ Iowa doesn't mean he'll get guys out in the big's. Wellemeyer can get outs @ Iowa too. The guy didn't need to get thrown to the sharks a third time, and when you're a big market team in a pennant race, and you have a guy w/ 3.32 ERA in 10 starts in the pen you start him instead of the kid who can't get anyone out. With that said, I hope Hill does great when he returns. big market teams like the yankees, cardinals, mets, phils, astros, white sox and anaheim are all using rookies. other non-big market teams that are in contention like florida, atlanta, and oakland also have a ton of rookies contributing. i don't think it's any worse for a big market team to depend on a rookie than it is for a big market team to depend on a crappy journey man lefty two years removed from a 6.00+ era/1-12 season and with a career era approaching 5. but hey, why are we arguing...it worked out great. rusch pitched fantastic and the cubs are in the driver's seat for the wild card spot.

Grand slam in a pinch hit appearance, I assume it's his first major league at bat. doesn't count. cardinals don't have a book on him yet. in addition, prince fielder's walk off two run homer today didn't count either.

The Cubs owe more to me than sending Rusch and Perez out there every 5th day and every day for Perez. i got home from school in time to see the end of the game on wgn. it must have been in about the 8th inning and the crowd was dead silent. all the sudden you hear some guy scream 'you call this progress??!!' at the top of his lungs. could be my new sig.

Lol @ your obsession. Perhaps it would have been idiotic to let Hill get shelled a third time in a row??? I'm glad he got on his feet @ Iowa. Let him start the rest of the way and move Rusch to the pen. what's funny is that when hill was pitching poorly, and rusch was pitching well the fact that you were starting a thread per day about it was just fine. but now that you've been proven WRONG (and have been noticeably silent on the matter), i'm 'obsessed' with it. of course when you were saying the two needed to be flipped it was after hill had pitched poorly, and when i said that sending hill down for rusch was stupid it was before rusch pitched poorly. but i guess it's easier to be 'right' when you say stuff after the fact.

When you're trying to win, you're trying to win. Rusch has been there all year and the Cubs owe it to him and their fans to keep him out there despite the results. that's my favorite line...that the cubs owe it to the fans to try and win. and to do so they're going to trot out the same stiffs that have gotten them into a fifth place deadlock. makes sense to me.

let's hear it for the cubs and their decision to swap hill with rusch! hill's three starts since being sent down... 3-0, 20 1/3 ip, 17 h, 4 er, 3 bb, 28 k's rusch since having a rotation spot dropped in his lap... 0-4, 16 1/3 ip, 32 h, 18 er, 6 bb's, 15 k's in a season full of idiotic decisions, it'd be hard to say this was the cubs' worst one, but it's pretty darn stupid. good job, idiots. anyone still want to argue that the cubs made the right call????

lee out of the game. how mad would you be if you bought tickets to this game?