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soapy

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Everything posted by soapy

  1. soapy
    Breaking him into the majors in the bullpen doesn't mean he's going to be the next Sean Marshall. Plenty of starters break into the league as relievers.
  2. soapy
    Well, you may be right. I admit I'm not very knowledgeable on this stuff, hockey-wise.
  3. soapy
    My understanding is that this has been the book on Niemi for awhile. It doesn't sound like it's some big secret that they need to keep away from the media. It's kind of like a pitcher saying he wants to try to get Soriano to chase pitches out of the zone instead of throwing him a knee high fastball to get him out.
  4. soapy
    Yeah, I think the idea would be very intriguing, but I would rather see it done with someone like Silva rather than Zambrano. Like you said though, it will not happen. I can't imagine Lou/Hendry thinking outside the box like that. They're just stretching him out to get him back in the rotation.
  5. soapy
    I guess I'm just not sure why you need to "go deeper" than W/L. Isn't that the bottom line? His job is to put together teams that win. His record is barely over .500. End of story, IMO. Every team has injuries. One can even excuse one bad year because of injuries, but it's been 7-8 years now. In that time, there's really only been one team that was very good (2008). In fact, that's the only team that won more than 90 games. He's out of excuses. Every team that has had the number and severity of injuries that the Cubs have had has had poor seasons. I'd like to see what the Cards could do without Carpeter, Wainwright, and Pujols for a couple of months. Look at the injuries the Mets have had causing them to have horrible seasons. Yes, like I said (in the very next sentence) sometimes a bad year can be chalked up to bad luck with injuries. However, if you keep relying on said injury-prone players and expecting different results, you are to blame. If you have had eight years to show what you can build and have produced one 90+ win team and have an overall average of about .500, you probably haven't gotten the job done.
  6. soapy
    which is usually why they are relievers to begin with.
  7. soapy
    If you had told me that Geo and Soriano would be putting up these numbers, I would have thought this offense would be leading the league in runs. Heh...
  8. soapy
    I guess I'm just not sure why you need to "go deeper" than W/L. Isn't that the bottom line? His job is to put together teams that win. His record is barely over .500. End of story, IMO. Every team has injuries. One can even excuse one bad year because of injuries, but it's been 7-8 years now. In that time, there's really only been one team that was very good (2008). In fact, that's the only team that won more than 90 games. He's out of excuses.
  9. soapy
    Hendry was promoted to GM mid-way thru 2002. From 2003-2009 the team compiled a record of 587-545 while managing to increase payroll from $75.7 million in 2002 to $146.6 million in 2010. I have no idea why anyone would consider that impressive. The guy has absolutely done some good thing in his tenure, but his overall record is completely unimpressive once you consider the resources he's been given. He took over a team in a bad state, but he's had nearly eight years to turn this team into a regular contender while having a sizable financial advantage over most of the competition for much of that time. Just because this is a team with a history of failure doesn't mean I need to accept six winning seasons in the last decade as something impressive. As far as I'm concerned, that should basically be the floor of expectations for a team with the kind of resources the Cubs have. I'm in no way in the "anyone but Hendry" camp, but I think he's been given ample oppurtunity and it's time to move in another direction.
  10. soapy
    Oh I certainly have no issues with either the Lilly or the Derosa signing (though I was skeptical about both at the time, I was wrong). In fact, I think they're both very good deals in retrospect. Soriano is the only really bad contract that year. However, I think the only reason he was able to correct or maybe cover some of the previous mistakes was the huge bump in payroll. The payroll in 2005 was $87 million. In 2010 it is $146+ million. Hendry was given an enormous amount of payroll fexibility starting in 2006 and that's what allowed him to turn that team around quickly. Now (perhaps) some of the big dollar contracts given out over that time (be it deserved or not) may be coming home to roost as some of those players are getting older. One can argue that he had a window in which that big budget could "buy" him a championship and that window is now closed. Basically, he may not have over-spent for any particular players but he still handed out contracts that are now possibly hampering the team (at least in the near future) because the team (operating under his leadership for the previous three years) was in a position where it had to spend that money on FAs to compete. Having said that, I don't think it's a huge long-term problem that they can't get out of in a few years.
  11. soapy
    Well CCP, I think you give him far more credit than I would for the 2006 to 2007 turnaround ($$$$), but you make some other reasonable points. I'm still not convinced he should keep his job (it doesn't really sound like you are either), but thanks for getting into it.
  12. soapy
    I think part of his point is that he's fixed those things since they caused the events leading through 2006. So...he was bad but he's improved type of thing? I mean, that's oversimplifying what he's saying, but that's sort of what it sounds like. He put the people in place that made those mistakes and let things decline for three years before he acted.
  13. soapy
    CCP, Don't you think 2 and 3 in your 2006 breakdown also point to Hendry? He's ultimately responsible for those, IMO. Particularly hiring and keeping Baker (I want to say he hired him, yes?).
  14. soapy
    Being worried that a new GM may actually be worse than Hendry is a legitimate concern, but it in no way justifies him keeping his job. I don't really consider that as part of the question of should he be fired. I think the answer to that is certainly yes as he hasn't met the standards I expect, particularly given his resources. The certainly could hire someone worse, but I think that's a seperate consideration altogether.
  15. soapy
    I'm curious to see the reasoning for people who chose "neither".
  16. soapy
    If Silva continues like this all season (or even close) I'd be more than happy to give Hendry well deserved credit for the trade and pat him on the back...on his way out the door. His overall track record is still very poor, and he doesn't really deserve to keep his job, regardless of this trade.
  17. soapy
    I think you mean Zambrano.
  18. soapy

    It's Time

    soapy replied to lumafia's topic in Chicago Cubs Talk

    I enjoyed that as well, SSR. Haven't thought about that in a while.
  19. soapy
    It's stupid to boo a physical error for a player who's just breaking into the league. It's not terribly unreasonable to boo any player who makes a lazy play and it costs his team something (in this case, and extra base which didn't end up hurting them in the end). I'm sure he was just frustrated that he made a mistake, but that doesn't excuse it. It's not a big deal. You move on. But I think it's perfectly reasonable for fans to give it to a player for a lack of effort every once in a while.
  20. soapy
    Yeah, the only time I noticed the boo-birds (on tv) was after the third error when he gave up the extra base by not hustling to the ball. I think it's pretty reasonable to boo something like that.
  21. soapy

    It's Time

    soapy replied to lumafia's topic in Chicago Cubs Talk

    I totally agree with you. If the Cubs play .538 ball the rest of the way they end up 84-78 and have a decent shot at the Wild Card. Now I agree that they have sucked this season, but you can't tell me that they can't play .538 ball assuming ARam and DLee start hitting. ARam might have a "down" year, but he's not going to stay in "Aaron Miles land" the whole season. I think the flipside of that is that you probably can't expect Byrd, Fukudome, Soriano and Soto to all continue to maintain OPS north of .970. In fact, you can't likely expect any of them do do that.
  22. soapy

    It's Time

    soapy replied to lumafia's topic in Chicago Cubs Talk

    I wouldn't have a problem with putting Trammel in as manager immediately, but I don't think it makes much difference. As frustrated as I am with Lou, I don't think the Cubs are a new manager away from being a contender. Lee and Ramirez have to start hitting and (to a lesser extent) the bullpen issues need to be solved. If those three things happened, I think they'd probably be good enough to have an outside shot at the WC. Of course, that's not saying much for a team with $140 million payroll, but that's probably another discussion entirely.
  23. soapy
    I'm a little surprised this happened before Kevin Noreen even visited. Is he off the table now? Maybe they assume they can't get him?
  24. soapy
    Maybe this is exactly why everyone said you shouldn't judge who goes to the pen based on 3 [expletive] starts Or really, one. As opening day was Z's only bad start.
  25. soapy
    Right. Lou basically just blamed Dempster for not asking to be taken out: Really, Lou?
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