CubfaninCA

Both Hendry and MacPhail said several times afterwards that they had no interest whatsoever in a contract that long, let alone for that much. both good trib men. the bottom line is that the trib hired these guys to "mismanage" $100 million. the buck stops w/ the trib. giving the trib a continual pass is equivalent to blaming everyone except bush when things go wrong. if i got a dollar for every time i've heard it's someone elses fault, not bush.... :lol:

I'd go: 1. Dusty 2. Hendry 3. The guys Henry brought in this year (Pierre esp - quit grounding out to 2nd!) 4. ARam 5. Luck, Bad (Lee) Dusty gets primary blame for 2 reasons - (1) no this isn't a 100-win team with what Hendry assembled, but it isn't a team that should be shut-out 5 times in a 2-week span or lose 9 straight. Dusty's supposed to be a great player's manager, but he hasn't gotten the most out of these guys. His "be aggressive" policy isn't helping either; and (2) I blame Dusty in part for the injuries to Wood & Prior's arms. He worked them to death in '03 and just overuses young pitchers too much for my taste. I guess if we had won the WS that year, I wouldn't complain. But we didn't, so I do. Hendry gets the blame for bringing in Pierre and Jones to play key roles on this team. And also for the likes of Bynum, Mabry, and Neifi being our primary options off the bench. A disgrace for a major-market team really. I don't really blame the Trib b/c they could give Hendry $400m and he'd blow half of it on crap like Jones and Perez and the other half overpaying for decent players (I still think Hendry overpaid for the bullpen guys). Until we see Hendry hot after a difference maker and get outbid by another team b/c of budget, I can't really blame the Trib. Hendry wanted beltran, but that wasn't happening til Sosa's $17 million was cleared & the Trib wouldn't have done 7 and $119m either. Both New York teams, Anaheim and Boston dominate free agency. The Trib has the ability to cause they pull in tons of revenue, but decline to do so.

I'd be surprised if he stays. I think he'll get a deal elsewhere...Seattle perhaps? someone mentioned arizona as a possible destination. he might sit out a year too or maybe try to get on w/ espn. anywhere on the west coast suits him much better.

That's a ridiculous philosophy! Let's tank the year to get better for the future? Haven't we tanked enough years in the past 97 years? What makes you think that giving up on this year will make us better for next year? Makes no sense. I would rather see all the players have good years and that will bold well for next year. I want to see Cedeno, Murton, RAM, Lee, Marshall, etc. excel and get better for next year. If you watch the Cubs hoping for them to lose, why watch them? being horrible means either a lot of guys will have to suck or a lot of guys have to be injured. if a lot of guys suck, then that means the cubs will basically have to start over next year. if there's lots of injuries, then the cubs have a bunch of guys who may not be very reliable. been there... done that... i'll just root for wins cause i think baker tells the city to kiss his rear after 2006.

baker's probably gone anyway. this ain't like managing in sf... if the cubs make the playoffs, then he might stay. big MIGHT there, cause he "might" take that success and run elsewhere.

blame game 06: 1. dusty (too stubborn) 2. trib (won't pay for difference makers like vlad or pedro. we ain't NY, Boston or Anaheim). 3. the billy goat (joe morgan said so, and that lee injury was just awful luck!) 4. ramirez (can't have such a poor performance from the cleanup man) 5. hendry (he's too stubborn to fire baker, but has made some real good moves in his tenure)))

Glad to see someone in the Chicago media taking the Cubs to task, and Pierre deserves all kinds of helllll. He's been awful. Hopefully, Bruce follows up with an article on the alternatives, and points out the Trib won't pay for difference makers like Vlad, Pedro, Colon, etc. The moves that should have been made were signing Dye & Eckstein for minimal money and trading Corey a few days before he got hurt in 2003. But who could have called that??

Cubs might knock around Day pretty good tonight. In 2003, the Cubs scored 7 earned runs off Day in 10 innings. His only appearance vs. the cubs since then was last year. He didn't give up a run in an inning of relief. cubs 5 nats 4 nail biter

5 innings 102 pitches 4 K's 2 ER's 3 hits 3 walks Cubs win! Cubs win!

"Jock" Jones .773 ops Corey .733 ops Jones has been better and how many [expletive] chances should corey have got to fail miserably w/ the cubs?

june 3, 2007? :o

thank you for posting this. SWEEP THESE BUMS!

whoa nelly!

Agree. It's just baseball. Only idiots would throw or support throwing objects at ballplayers.

the trade doesn't look good, but lets wait til one of these guys becomes a solid starter. going to take a lot to eclipse the dwillis trade btw. why wait? pierre is HORRIBLE. on what is there to wait? ????? Don't you have to give up something good for it to be the worse trade ever?????????????

guess walker's on the shhhh list now.

go for the sweep. sorry, i called it guys. it's just baseball. good night & good luck

I doubt it. debating him. sure am. but i'm the stubborn one. :o

One thing I've noticed about Baker. He'll never preemptively have the bullpen warming up in these situations. He always waits until the first sign of trouble and usually doesn't pull the pitcher until it's too late. Baker is reactive rather than proactive. perhaps it's a show of confidence in z??? the guy's quite proven. no need to be pessimistic. Z looked terrible, and he was clearly tired. The Cubs, and Zambrano, got very lucky there. And who cares about showing confidence in him? The Cubs need to win, not make Zambrano feel better by having no one up in the 'pen. That's plain old bad managing. Not replacing Z was a mistake, and it was then compounded by leaving him in there for 20 pitches. amazing. washington gets zero runs and it's a mistake. i give up.

would be great to get a sweep.

maybe you need to heed your own advice and not be pessimistic, eh? all star pitcher vs. 4th man in the pen. hmmmm

One thing I've noticed about Baker. He'll never preemptively have the bullpen warming up in these situations. He always waits until the first sign of trouble and usually doesn't pull the pitcher until it's too late. Baker is reactive rather than proactive. perhaps it's a show of confidence in z??? the guy's quite proven. no need to be pessimistic. You know Z is at 100 pitches. You know you have one of the best bullpens in the league. It is inexcusable to not have somebody warming up just in case. It's not pessimism. It's called being prepared. it's called ticking an all star pitcher off.

good call dusty. thankfully williamson didn't get in there to blow this... now the $27 million arms are ready for the next 2. please save this dempster.

One thing I've noticed about Baker. He'll never preemptively have the bullpen warming up in these situations. He always waits until the first sign of trouble and usually doesn't pull the pitcher until it's too late. Baker is reactive rather than proactive. perhaps it's a show of confidence in z??? the guy's quite proven. no need to be pessimistic.

lol. marshall and wood are due up next. it's highly likely howry and eyre could appear in both game. z has it under control.