LeftCoastCubFan

I miss the days when we used to complain about too many solo shots

What should he have said? Barrett really helped the team. He not only fired up the opposition, but we are going to lose his bat for a while. Maybe Dusty should have hit him.

Not until 715 is done.

Nobody needs to say because it's just plain ludicrous. :roll:

What's the over under on having Maddux's balls checked for foriegn substances? I say two.

“Over? Did you say… over? Nothing is over until we say it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?”

Are things so bad now that we are looking to Morgan and Marotti and such to tell what we want to hear?

2/38? Is that better or worse than his average w/ the bases empty? the 2 must be 2 RBI bases empty (113 AB) .221/.261/.301/.561 runners on (38 AB) .237/.293/.263/.556 RISP (20 AB) .150/.227/.150/.377 RISP 2 out (15 AB) .000/.063/.000/.063 Wow, that is just terrible. What is more pathetic then that? From our cleanup hitter: Bases Empty (63 ab) .232/.284/.435/.719 Runners On (57 ab) .193/.309/.386/.695 RISP (39 ab) .154/.292/.333/.625 RISP 2 Out (15 ab) .133/.278/.333/.611 Or if you look at runs contributed (r + rbi – hr): Pierre 22 Barrett 25 Walker 25 Ramirez 29 Pathetic. We have much bigger problems the Pepe LePew

It amazes me how Todd Walker is immune from criticism here. In the last 16 games .204/.296/.259, yet he escapes any blame for the offensive slump. Yet people want to bring him back as a core player next year?

Baker's plan for tonight: lots of scotch. So THATS what the J & B stands for! "So Gene, dude. Sometimes your the fisherman and somtimes your the fish. Somebody has to pay for this, but with 3 rooks in the rotation we can't fire the pitching coach. So we hired Jose Macias as hitting coach. Good luck to you" Then Tom and Gary throw Gene off the boat.

I could see a cubs fan not wanting to see the Cubs play at this point badly enough that they'd rather watch the Sox play. I can't imagine them wanting to watch the Sox play more than they'd want to NOT watch the Sox play. There's no problem with watching the Sox, as long as you root for the other team. If not, you are a bandwagon jumpin' traitor.

Just a few comments: Your right that the only way Kerry would likely waive his no trade is if his option is picked up. But the team trading for him would have to see him pitching lights out for two months and believe he will remain healthy. Even if they do they would be picking up a 20 mil commitment. That limits the number of teams to a few, and limits what we could get in return. Just like Wood, Maddux will cost the team acquiring him 4 to 5 mil. That will also limit what we get back. No way we get Quentin or Gonzales. Pierre out priced himself believing he can get Furcal/Damon money after last offseason. He better get that obp above .350 for us to receive any value. Williamson will fetch a mid level prospect(s), but he likely won’t want to stay here with Dempster established at closer. No one is likely to take on Jones’s contract till at least the off-season as there are better options that are short term rentals out there. Neifi won’t fetch much. Rusch would have to pitch much better in the pen the next two months, but again a low to mid leve prospect(s) at best. Hairston and Walker are gone after the year, but again won’t fetch mutch. I don’t really see getting much back that will help us in the future from the above, other then a few average prospects and the celebration on this board. Ramirez is interesting, since he can opt out after this year, but he would have to go on a real tear very soon. He could net us some better prospects. Miller is cheap, and if he can show he’s recovered he’s a low risk low cost player that can also bring back some value. Blanco and Mabry are also free after this year, but won’t net much. If the Cubs do have a fire sale and don’t bring Dusty back, I would see it more as a sign that the team is being sold then a shake up. But given that the Cubs sold out on the first weekend again, I would expect Hendry to try to resign Wood, Maddux, and Ramirez (if he opts out) at the bare minimum.

Consider those three guys equal Giles. That alone makes us a much better offensive team. And there's also a such thing as addition by subtraction. A couple more walks a week the last few wouldn’t have helped us much the last 16. - Neifi had 33pa in that stretch and his .303obp was better then the teams - Jones had 52pa for a .327obp and an ops around .800 - Rusch gave up 13 runs in two games There performance contributed to the losing, but to single them out when it was a complete team breakdown doesn’t make sense. The starting pitching sucked. The bullpen sucked. The entire offense sucked. The defense sucked.

Even as horrendous as the offense has been, our pitching has not kept us in games. We lost 14 of 16. In those 14 losses, our pitching has been giving up more then 6 runs in 10 of them (16, 9, 8, 6, 6, 8, 6, 9, 10, and 9) for an average of 8.7 runs in those losses. Even with a better offense, we would expect to lose all or most of the. Add in the 5-1 loss in Arizona and our pitching has only kept us in 3 games. Add in Dempster’s blown save yesterday and you are down to the 2 1-run games in San Diego that could be considered winnable. So even though the offense was weak, we weren’t really in many games where a higher OBP would have mattered. Our pitching has been terrible. The offense just made it more lopsided.

He isn't used in a platoon situation. He has almost 100 plate appearances against right handers. From a quick count he's started 31 of 36 games, and saw at least 1 at bat in 3 others. So he's played in every game but 2. He is struggling as is the team, so there is nothing wrong with giving him a couple of days off. Rational statements like that aren't appreciated around here! :wink: you're right, it's much more rational to put bynum in left. Playing time in left: Murton 34g 127pa Hairston 3g 6pa Bynum 3g 6 pa Mabry 2g 4pa Restovich 1g 2pa Pagan 2g 1 pa Macias 0g 0pa (It's after 5/15 so we can resign him... te he) So Murtton gets 87% of the playing time, and is on a pace to have 576 plate appearances and we have a thread to complain about it?

He isn't used in a platoon situation. He has almost 100 plate appearances against right handers. From a quick count he's started 31 of 36 games, and saw at least 1 at bat in 3 others. So he's played in every game but 2. He is struggling as is the team, so there is nothing wrong with giving him a couple of days off.

Don’t forget that the Cubs are first a business. The Cubs franchise value was 287 million in 2002 (according to Forbes). It’s 448 million this year and can be as high as $500 million at the end of this year, moving from the 8th most valuable franchise to the 5th this year, and closing in on the Dodgers for 4th. That’s very impressive given the top 3 are in New York or Boston. 4 years of record attendance. Not to mention the growing of revenues and delivering profits to the Trib. So from a pure business perspective, the Hendry/Baker pairing has been productive. The Tribune board isn’t going to force a change, but in only extending Hendry for two years they did express doubt about longevity of the money rolling in. Unless the next few months are like the last few weeks, it’s almost guaranteed that Dusty will be offered a 2 year extension. The only thing that will likely prevent it is if he wants more then 2 years, and feels the opportunity is out there.

One of the best? Hardly not. Cedeno .385, Walker .371, Jones .349, Barrett .385. Yes he has Neifi .255 and Ramirez .291 (though it is unlikely he will by season end), and Pierre .317. Even with Ramirez and Pierre slumping and sucking terribly; their .715 and .695 OPS against righties exceed Murton’s .670. When Lee returns with .417. So he is one of the worst hitters against righties on the team when compared to the starters in OBP and SLG. You also need to realize he dropped from an April OPS of .809 to .676 in May. So he sat for a few days. He’s started 10 of 13 games. I don’t understand the problem with giving a struggling rookie a few days off. He’s still the starter. But if you look at his 3-year splits (2003-2005) which is more telling of his hitting, he has a .365 OBP against righties in 679 plate appearances (.747 OPS), coupled with his .382 this year says he’s likely to produce better in the short term. I’m not advocating this, but just pointing out that Murton is not there yet, and is still a work in progress, not a savior (unless it’s with his 1.100 OPS against lefties). Dusty has been more then fair with his development and playing time. The last few weeks yes, but shouldn't this be in rants?

You think Dusty actually uses OPS as a stat to evaluate players? OK, .253 avg and .333 slugging. I don't care which number you use or if it's Billy Beane or Dusty, Murton is not hitting righties well. Yet he still gets the bulk of the playing time in left. name the better option? obviously platooning jones and murton would be great, so who plays rightfield? The fact that Murton isn't hitting righties for power does not justify benching him to get any of the gawdawful cubs bench players in the game. It could be argued he should sit against righties in favor of Hairston. No I'm not in anyway advocating that. I just responded to the emotional posts on Dusty to show he has not been playing as well as people perceive and Dusty seems to be supportive and playing him. Nothing more.

You think Dusty actually uses OPS as a stat to evaluate players? OK, .253 avg and .333 slugging. I don't care which number you use or if it's Billy Beane or Dusty, Murton is not hitting righties well. Yet he still gets the bulk of the playing time in left.

:D

Maybe a .670 OPS against right handers may have something to do with it. 36 games, 127 plate appearances and you are upset with Dusty not playing him every inning? The team is sucking now, but this is really nitpicking.

You do realize that he's batting .311/.363/.432 against righties this year. It's lefties he's struggling against at .140/.178/.140 Murton is .246/.325/.348 against righties.

Still not over that one yet? Grudz still out played him. :P

Are you Bud Selig?