Arnold Layne

No, I'm saying that 0-3 in back to back NLDS's is not flukey, but rather an indicator of a weak team. Also, these are not robots out there. It's perfectly reasonable to accept that the playoff chokiness has saturated their psyche. So the answer is, what? Until the Cubs win another WS, any team that loses in the playoffs regardless of their regular season succees needs to be blown up or at least significantly reconstructed because they have "saturated psyches?" Come on, that's not realistic at all. I don't have the answers. All I know is that this team isn't worth the price paid. There's very little talent on the offensive side of the ball. The team was much more talented last year with DeRosa and Edmonds in the lineup.

Agreed.

Sure they do. The end result of both seasons was a very, very poor playoff "performance" where the team simply failed to compete on any level in any capacity of the game. These are not robots out there. Psychology is a giant portion of human beings. You can't just ignore external factors and how they play upon a team. Many players have said there is "extra pressure" due to not winning a world series in 100 years. Is this true? Maybe. We wouldn't know unless we were those players in that playoff series. A team that repeatedly chokes while maintaining the same group of core performance leaders is certainly succeptible to a saturation of their psyche. If you were at your job, and every year you did well in sales, but at the big convention you lost ten major accounts(and you repeated this for several years), do you honestly think this would not affect you psychologically or in terms of your overall performance in that field? That could happen as well. But improvement does not always equate to good performance.

Ok, I agree with most of this thought process. But the Cubs have shown they aren't good enough to pull this off. There's nothing about this team except for the SP that indicates they have any chance of reaching the world series. I would love to be proven wrong. Right. But I don't think firing the GM is giving up. I think it's working towards a WS end result.

No, I'm saying that 0-3 in back to back NLDS's is not flukey, but rather an indicator of a weak team. Also, these are not robots out there. It's perfectly reasonable to accept that the playoff chokiness has saturated their psyche.

I'm sorry Mojo but this is some epic apologizing. Hendry taks the blame for Bradley, period. That was on the wall and is not hindsight at all. Soriano seems to always have nags. He's getting older(and who even knows his true age?). It looks like Soto put on a Freshman 50. Also, he was not guaranteed to repeat his 2008 performance. To blame the offense on injuries is ridiculous. Yes it is the fault of hitters who aren't hitting as well as they should. That does not mean they should get the boot. But what is disturbing is that this team plays like this as a complete unit. When they flop, there's not a set ot two guys who lift them out. Ramirez and Soriano are the Cubs best bets in this regard. Soriano needs to get his [expletive] together.

0-3, failed to even show up for an inning in the NLDS. That's a very strong indicator that they were flukey, or lucky. If you looked at Lee's numbers before his freak 2005 season, you could see that it wasn't such a huge surprise. Lee never proved he could sustain that kind of performance, but Hendry gave out the contract anyway. I'm not blaming Hendry for paying Lee that money, but rather the NTC. Also, the NTC was completely idiotic for Soriano. Accountability is required in a streamlined and competent organization. There's nothing wrong with making changes to make changes if they are intelligent moves. A "huge" spanner that allowed for a $140 million payroll? I bet Neil Huntington would love to have that spanner fall out of the sky and hit him on the head. Scraping above .500 while having a top 5 NL payroll the entire time? Given more than any Cub GM in the history of the franchise? Out-payrolling the next closest in-division team by $35 million and struggling? The middle of the season doesn't matter. If you have to make a move, make it. That reminds me of Baker playing his .310 OBP favorite vets at the end of the year "to be fair to the rest of MLB in the spirit of competition" rather than trying to develop some young talent during garbage time.

What injuries are depleting the team of talent besides Ramirez? And shouldn't a $140 mil payroll cover for that? Stuff happens I guess. Except it always happens to the Cubs, every time.

That's up for debate. Aaron Miles had a good reputation as a "grinder" too among his peers. The state of the Cubs is bleak IMHO. The team is loaded with two huge unreleasable contracts (Soriano and Lee) while having a very weak farm system. Our outfield is incredibly questionable and has been since the demise of Sosa and Alou. The point is that this is not a good team. It was created bya GM who spent like a pirate at a Persian brothel but without any real thought or concern for the long term implications. If you don't think firing Hendry is reasonable, then you need to proivde reasons for keeping him.

I agree with this basic idea, but at the same time I just don't realistically see anyone available that can truly turn this offense around. I'm hesitant to start doling out prospects for guys that ultimately aren't enough to turn around an offense that will potantially have this many holes for most of the season. So what is the plan? You seem to shoot down everything but offer nothing specific of your own.

What does this have to do with today's Cubs game, or the state of the Cubs? Please try to keep up.

You're a moron. I'm not interested in talk radio anger. Thanks for the reply though. You keep spouting the "radio talk" line at other people but yourself only offer suggestions along the lines of firing Hendry as if that will automatically fix the team. My response to your analogy was because I was surpsised at how simplistic and incorrect it was. Does Hendry have his faults? Of course. Has he made a lot of mistakes? Hell yes. But to compare him with something that does NO good whatsoever is just completely faulty and kneejerk pessimism. In any evaluation of Hendry you have to take the good with the bad: you cannot simply focus on the bad and act like everything else does not exist because that's of course going to make the "anyone else would probably better" line of thinking you seem to be supporting seem like the right move. It's the same perspective you have to take towards this season so far: yes, there are parts of it where Hendry clearly dropped the ball. There are also key aspects of it that are out of the control of any GM. It's not as simple as "Hendry [expletiv e] this up and needs to go." Removing Hendry is just a small step towards creating an intelligent baseball operation. It won't solve anything instantly and it's a knee-jerk reaction on your part to assume that is the meaning. When looking at the Chicago Cubs, you can come to a few conclusions: This isn't a smart team. The GM isn't exactly a bright guy either. Firing Hendry will not in itself fix the Cubs. But it is like moving the couch out into the garage before you start painting the walls and finishing the floors.

You're a moron. I'm not interested in talk radio anger. Thanks for the reply though.

I love people who step on a nail, let the infection creep up their leg, get high fevers and then say "leave the nail in, I'm gonna beat this thing!". Wow. OMG.

Please, propose your changes. Do you have anything besides firing Hendry and Lou et al? I'd love to bring even just one gamechanger of a player, but who is out there? Where can they play? First, get rid of the guy who paid Aaron Miles $5 million. Also, this team is such a rats nest of incompetence and NTC's that it would take a genius to repair it. What would really change by firing Hendry? Who is out there to take over that would be so different? Hendry has his share of mistakes, like that contract, but just how bad this offense has been as a whole can't be pinned on him or anyone else besides the players. i love the people who cry "fire hendry" as if that will magically rebuild our farm system, undo the bad signings and turn the cubs into a 120 win a year dynasty. I love people who step on a nail, let the infection creep up their leg, get high fevers and then say "leave the nail in, I'm gonna beat this thing!".

Please, propose your changes. Do you have anything besides firing Hendry and Lou et al? I'd love to bring even just one gamechanger of a player, but who is out there? Where can they play? First, get rid of the guy who paid Aaron Miles $5 million. Also, this team is such a rats nest of incompetence and NTC's that it would take a genius to repair it.

Just keep your head to the grindstone, fellas. No changes necessary. One day luck will fall on our side. Now let's go get some Dairy Queen.

Why would you platoon a player who is in the top 8 for many offensive categories in MLB at his position?

lol This team is a pile o' junk.

His one cheek there looks like it's trying to hatch fish eggs or something. Good crikey. http://www.tnfish.org/SpeciesFishInformation_TWRA/Images/YellowBullheadBarbelsPigeonRiverBartCarter.jpg

:-))

:blackeye:

You know who hit: 320/.397/.594/.991 in 147 at bats (or with a homerun once every 18 at bats)? You know what he followed that up with: .204/.260/.339/.599 (with a homerun every 34 at bats). Yeah, we didn't need to watch that happen again with a 2nd retread Cardinal player. I appreciate what Edmonds did last yr, but to hope/expect him to do it again would have been foolish. As foolish as signing a guy who has one season of 500+ AB's his entire career and who was a DH at a tee-ball park for $30 million? No, as foolish as to give a utility player who have power, no speed, very little "actual" versatitily on the field, and barely league average hitting ability a 2 yr $5million contract. At least with Bradley it wasn't production that was being question it was his health. Speaking of that Miles comes back tonight, doesn't he? Ugh.

Why would anyone be surprised that playing the field may impact his at bats? He was a DH last year and hit fine. Fresh legs work wonders. It is not unrealistic to think that a player who never has more than 300 AB a season and who recently became a DH might be impacted by wear and tear. Bradley has had more than 300 ABs 5 times in his 10 year career. Right that was a "mistype". What I meant was he averages 300 AB a year and has only had over 500 AB once in his career.

You know who hit: 320/.397/.594/.991 in 147 at bats (or with a homerun once every 18 at bats)? You know what he followed that up with: .204/.260/.339/.599 (with a homerun every 34 at bats). Yeah, we didn't need to watch that happen again with a 2nd retread Cardinal player. I appreciate what Edmonds did last yr, but to hope/expect him to do it again would have been foolish. As foolish as signing a guy who has one season of 500+ AB's his entire career and who was a DH at a tee-ball park for $30 million?