Mugged By Fluffy

Who knows? It's not an awful deal seeing as how Getz and Fields are worthless. You're replacing a right handed bat in the outfield with a lefty, but on the other hand Teahan doesn't have the power or range for an outfield spot, and his hitting over the last couple of years hasn't been all that great. Maybe he just needs a change of scenery out of KC.

Yeah. Good point. Not really trouble, per se. I should have called it the First MLB Player to Do Something Stupid In The Offseason Award instead.

Other guys who just got a ring who make you say :scratch:: Eric Hinske Damaso Marte Jose Molina As does Nick Swisher. Sometimes baseball is not fair...

Congrats to him for winning the "First MLB Player To Get Himself In Trouble In The Offseason" award. I wonder who the runner up will be?

I heard bits and pieces of it. Looks like Crane Kenney is staying, Hendry is staying and that they are going to be judged on what happens this coming season. Says that the team has enough talent right now to win the World Series(I'm not sure I agree with that) and did not rule out any kind of corporate sponsorship at Wrigley. He says he may do it in a more subtle manner which will not take away from the integrity of the park. Made a good point that he'd like to develop the farm system and build from within so that they can stay competitive for quite a few years.

Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but that sounds like they expect Hendry to do well this year or he's gone. Good catch. Give him a chance in 2010. It made sense all along that they would give the incumbents a season whenever they finally did get the job. I'd cut the guy lose today, but I understand a new owner wanting to wait on that move. I'd cut the guy loose today too. Hendry has had his chance already, knowing for two years that the team was on the market and knowing that his job was at risk if he did not make smart moves. The Cubs don't need to be in a situation again where they may need to hire a GM and a manager in the same offseason. Keeping him around this year may only delay the enevitable, and make the management situation more difficult. Obviously this depends on the amount of quality GM's that are out there right now and wether they would take the job or not. If there are, I'd start pursuing them right away. If not, then I'd keep Hendry.

Actually he'd still be better than [retty much every analyst on the network. Their on air personalities are unbelievably atrocious. It makes BBTN seem like fangraphs. Yes but unlike Phillips, every analyst on that station(ok...other than Mitch Williams) actually knows what he is talking about. That's like the opposite of what I just said. The analysts on MLBN are atrocious. I don't know how you can say that. I turned it on for 5 minutes the other day and I heard Harold Reynolds use the phrase "clogging the bases" THREE times in that span. Then they cut over to Al Leiter next to a big screen with the Twins lineup to break down how the Yankees would attack it. His plan? To retire the first 2 guys in the lineup. He talked for about 3 minutes about how they should focus on getting the top 2 guys out before Mauer/Cuddyer/Kubel come up. Thanks Al. I wasn't sure if it was a good idea to try and retire the top 2 guys in the lineup. Great strategy. Pretty much every one of the analysts on that network relies on batting average, RBIs, and win totals for starting pitchers. It's bruuttttalllll. Maybe you should try watching more than 5 minutes of the MLB network then. Guys like Larkin are breaking down AB"s pitch by pitch,scene by scene,pitch selection by pitch selection and explaining exactly how Lee managed to neutralize hot A-Rod tonight with pitches low and in and low and away. Talked of how lefty Lee's good method of hiding the ball well to the right handed hitters worked to his advantage tonite. Talking all about Lee's off balance stuff and how he is adjusting to the Yankee hitters, instead of the Yankee hitters adjusting to the pitching like what happened in the Angles series. While they are saying this Showalter and Valentine over on Baseball Tonite can do no better than look at the highlights and throw cliche's out there like"Cliff Lee was dominant tonight" and "Yup he had everything working for him tonight" with basically no true analysis whatsoever. How about the pitch by pitch breakdown that got Sabathia in trouble with Utley? Again....you see the video and the watch the atbats to Utley unfold. At bat video shows what leads up to a 3-2 count to Utley with consecutive fastballs inside, ultimately leading Utley to sit dead red on a fastball middle- in(that he'd seen over and over in the atbat) and drive the ball into the seats for his 2nd homer. Reynolds, as annoying as he is actually broke this down well. Saying "Of course Utley knew what was coming, because Sabathia has been pitching Howard and Ibanez the same way all night. He's made no adjustments to these Philedelphia left handed hitters" and then showed the same pitch sequence/selection in the atbat tfrom the previous inning where Howard doubled to back up what he was saying. Over on Baseball Tonite.....they showed Utley's HR. "Wow that went a long way"says Singleton----with no analysis of the bad pitch selection, non adjustments made by CC and the Yankees or the events that led to the home run at all. Some of these guys at MLB may be annoying and obnoxious, but they are heads above any of the analysts over at Baseball Tonite. And less east coast bias too.

Actually he'd still be better than [retty much every analyst on the network. Their on air personalities are unbelievably atrocious. It makes BBTN seem like fangraphs. Yes but unlike Phillips, every analyst on that station(ok...other than Mitch Williams) actually knows what he is talking about.

Let us all hope that he does not end up on the MLB network.

With a bad bullpen and starting pitching by the Yanks and the Angels beating themselves in this series, the Phillies have got to be loving what they are seeing.

Chip is obnoxious and bad, but I will still take he and any other color cohort with him 10 times over a Buck and McCarver broadcast. It has gotten to the point where I have to watch Fox baseball games with the sound off.

yeah! up close he looks and sounds like a red neck Maybe his ugliness prevented him from winning MVP. He only hit .222, but that was the best clutch hitting big series .222 average I've ever seen. The guy was a menace.

Good God! Those arms and shoulders are huge. I bet she can win a couch throwing contest.

This seems like a massive overreaction. You'd think the Cubs lost 100 games reading something like this. The Cubs can't trade Gregg because he's not theirs to trade. Johnson is also not theirs to "keep," nor is Grabow. Miles is not cheap. Then let Gregg go, let Johnson and Grabow go, and take your lumps with Miles and his contract if you can't trade him. I know it's a major overreaction, but I am just sick of seeing the same plan not working. If you're saddled with big contracts(some that are tradeable),have little in the minors that you would be willing to trade(or worth trading) and have a core of a team that has proven in the last 3 years that they can't make it far into the playoffs, then try and start over. This Mets style of trying to win isn't working for them.

Come on, do you guys really think he is going to get any better than that? After all.... he is Steve Phillips.

I have such a sour taste in my mouth over these guys and have over the years watched these free agent built teams of the Cubs fail that I would go the extreme-trade everyone that I can for prospects and rebuild. It would upset the fans, but years down the line it would be worth it. Stuck with Soriano and Fukudome, but if I can talk guys like Z and Lee into being traded to good teams, I'd do it. If Dempster, Lilly don't have trade clauses--they would go too. Theriot gets traded and I keep cheapo Miles and Fontenot around. Ramirez has an option for 2011 that he can decline if the Cubs continue to languish, so I would trade him with his permission since he would be declining his option anyways. Soto stays, Grabow stays, Samardjia stays,Harden gets arbitration and we keep him. Bradley gets dumped for someone else's junk. Johnson, Blanco, Marmol,Fox,Hoffpauer and Fuld also stay. Keep Gregg since you cant get anything for him anyways. The team sucks bad for three years, but gets say---9 good prospects out of these trades. Simultaneously build up the farm system, get a new scouting director and development coaches....and hopefully in three years you've got a young and hungry nucleus of good kids, and with tweaking and free agent signings along with high draft picks the team can be good for the next 10 years. I know it's farfetched and big market teams don't operate this way, but it would be nice to see consistent long term winning out of the Cubs. A Twinslike plan would eventually get them there......the only difference is that once they are on the verge of winning I'd actually go out and get players(like Philly and the Dodgers did) to put them over the top.

She's destined to forever be a screencap used the next time the Yanks play the Angels. Yeah. I can pretty much bet the mortgage that we'll be seeing that on the pregame show in game 5, and in the next Yankee game, and the next, and the next........

Can Fox baseball possibly get any worse? Not only do we have to endure Buck and McCarver and the Yankee worship for another Oct but now....as the Yankee runs are piling on in the 9th, the camera cuts to a little girl Angels fan in the stands bawling her eyes out. That's bush league. Have some decency. Give me a break with the drama already. How low can the producers at Fox Sports get?

If only Hendry had the stones to do something like this...

This is why I am watching the game with the sound turned off. This way, the only annoyance I have to put up with is the constant corporate sponsor reminder everytime a graphic is shown.

2004 says "hi" So far this seems to be shaping up to be signifcantly worse than 2004. These guys are much worse underachievers than the 2004 club. Honorable mention goes to the Cubs of 1997, who were out of it by the second week of the season. Just a terrible, terrible team.

More like: DUI early Thursday morning Buy illegal gun during the day on Thursday Kill McNair early Saturday Looks like after the DUI, McNair wanted to take a break or end it all. However she had second thoughts. Pretty good how all of us can pretty much figure out what happened here, yet the police are mum and saying that they are having a hard time coming up with a motive. Certainly they can't be serious. All I can't think is that they must be holding off on opining due to the fact that you can't prove that the girl was a whackjob. Even though all indications of that(and a murder suicide) are there as plain as day. Seriously....Anyone with any kind of sense whatsoever can see that this is a real life Fatal Attraction.

Yeah most likely. Why else would he have ended up with two shots in the head and two in the chest? Sounds like this was one majorly p'd off(and emotional) chick. I wonder how long it will be before the made for tv movie about this comes out.

I agree with Lou. At this point, what is a dirt kicking, bases flying, hat throwing tirade going to do? Half the team doesn't seem like the kind of guys that are going to respond to such a thing, anyways. http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/chi-26-cubs-lou-piniella-chicago.ar0jun26,0,5309722.story

Yeah rollin' everything. Especially the curveball. :-)) :-))