ZZ Thorn

This might be the first time in history anyone has talked about "saving" Neifi's bat. And I can see why you're not disturbed by Dusty's PH philosophy: you share his exaggerated respect for L/R matchups. Yeah, Neifi can swing a bat left-handed, but he is REALLY bad at it. Well, I mistakenly thought we had used Hairston. And I think Neifi is Teddy "Ballgame" Williams compared to Macias, so I would 'save' him if all I had left was Macias, LOL! I think the L/R matchup thing is pretty widespread. I'd say it's very widespread. I think Dusty is one among almost everybody on that one. Some like LaRussa are constant stat-checkers, but most believe strongly in the L/R thing from what I've seen.

See, like this, put this in rants. There's no baseball info here. Tho I may have been annoying in my describing of Dusty Busters, at least I had things like facts and reasons. Whatever tho, I know I post dumb stuff just for fun too so I'm not pretending to be above stuff like the above post. I think Tim will have fun savoring his decision and being the final arbiter of this fate of this thread: it has merits, but does it really, what about posts like the above, can we create a thread that criticizes Dusty intelligently without the flamers??? Heavy is the head that wears the crown....

I read the thread (it was mostly the offseason all over again), I didn't realize Dusty could have used Hairston instead of Macias, which I would have done. I'm not privvy to all the info Dusty has, i.e. not just info that fans get thru stats, but knowlege like if Hairston is bad against a certain type of pitcher, etc., and I give him the benefit of the doubt. That's just the way my mind works - I don't assume I had a different solution that would have definitley worked. I think 2 threads would be ideal: one in Rants for the Busters to flame on, one here in Baseball cuz these are supposed to be baseball discussions and not personal flames, which they inevitably turn into when some feel exasperated. I don't know if it's practical to expect people and especially moderators to divide the two up between the intelligent baseball posts and the "Ooooh Dusty makes me so mad" posts, which is like half the thread. But, and it's a big but, I do think criticizing the manager is a part of serious baseball discussions so I for one wouldn't mind this being a sticky. Again tho, LOL, I'm not aginst criticizing Dusty for in-game situations. He often deserves them (as every manager does in a loss), he's not a great tactician in my book. Its the never-ending doomsdaying personal vitrol that I get annoyed with. It's this vitrol that some people can't refrain from boring us with that ruins a good, intelligent thread tho. I could have posted 500 times "Why hasn't Hendry resigned ARam yet," but I didn't, cuz it would have added nothing to that Transactions thread. But as for my opinion on managers in general, I believe the manager knows a lot more than I do. I also think they often go on 'hunches' and have info that is supporting that hunch. I also think they're trying to win. So I personally think its pretty futile to rant endlessly about the manager's decisions. But to each their own rants. I think UK makes a lot of good points that NSBB is a respected place for Cubs info and that the world's biggest Dusty bashing thread will naturally hurt our image of sensibility in an internet world full of uninformed and angry flamers. If we can really just discuss baseball rather than flame Dusty half the time, it will have value tho.

LOL, how can there be 6 pages on this after one game? For the record, I do not support Dusty in all instances fer crissakes - we are not related, LOL! He makes some bad mangerial moves IMO, as I imagine every fan thinks of their coach. All I ever objected to was the trashing of everything Dusty said or did without fairness. Some people really went off the deep end IMO in their Dusty Busting. In game situations are fair game to object to tho - they're endless. In game is much different than the crap I heard in the off season. No one is looking for my ok of course, but bust away on those. It was the media's constant bias against Dusty in the off season that ticked me off and caused me to defend him like I did. Now its go time and he better do his job right. I wasn't thrilled when he took out Z, but Rusch was a lefty, it was a crucial situation, Z was losing it, it worked out so I guess he made the right move. Macias was the only lefty last night. I'd much rather have seen Holla in there late in the game, but he was 75% of our offense last night so what can you do. With no one on at least he saved Neifi for a better situation. Went with the L/R percentages as most do.... I would have much rather seen Dubois in the 9th, but I can see going with the veteran Neifi in that situation. It almost worked, but Clayton made a great play. Not thrilled about that call, but not upset either. That's my take.

That seems about right JC. Glad he messed up! Like Raw said, even if he fails he's still way ahead. I don't think, cuz of this fact, he can fail and regress too easily. Even if he tanks and is returned he still has a ton of positives to feel good about.

I sure hope he tanks immediately and spectacularly.

With all the turnover in the minors, one minute it's fair to say they're all tools, the next minute you could say they're all brains. I don't think the Cubs system is aiming for one or the other - they're trying to make good, well rounded major leaguers. One thing you can't say is the Cubs don't have a very exciting farm system going into '05. And apparently Mr. Fleita can't say a bad word about any Cubs minor leaguer - maybe he's hoping for an expansion of the rosters to 62. J/k - he seemed to be fair in his praise and to really focus on a players key assets. He didn't say Pie was going to have a phonomenal eye next year or anything outlandish like that, so that makes me more inclined to agree with him. Speaking of Pie, great to hear he's added 10-15 lbs! He doesn't need to radically change his approach other than selectivity, which is something every hitter needs to constantly work on, with the added lbs those line drives will turn into home runs. A great chat tho Tim. Looking forward to a possible chat with Hughes Peel.

Holy cow - they won?! I missed it... I've been tuning in for the 4th quarter the last 3 games and the Bulls are finishing really strong. 5 in a row!! Da Bulls!

I like Dubois, but I think a Grieveesque production would be pretty good. If this guy hit 40 home runs it's be a real surprise is all I'm saying, but as a full time 30 home runs is reasonable with his power. Hey, Grieve was a good player befor he got hurt/got off roids/got not very good.

You know Dusty noticed that bomb - Dubois pretty much guaranteed himself a long look with that great game. Booya!

What are the odds of Alou's option being picked up? Not good I'd suspect because it's so pricey, but what are his chances of coming back to the team if he takes a hefty pay cut?

Here here. Thanks for the scoops Hoops. Congrats! Wow! What a gift Peel and Tim! A really great gift from guys who run a great site. Thank God I don't have to waste time on the Chicago Cubs or ESPN Cubs boards this season! This site has been a godsend in that regard. Keep doing a great job making this a great board for us Cub fans - thanks a lot. Go Cubs!