SouthSideRyan

Two words. Contract. Year. 2002 was a contract year for him as well, and he was suprisingly less idiotic then, too, and took the Giants to the World Series. I don't buy that for a second. He has the tools to manage more effectively this year and is doing a fine job thus far! He had the tools in 2004 and 2005 as well. What happened then? Dusty is a below-average manager who pulled his head out of his butt long enough to try to get an extention (or a big contract somewhere else). Once he has it, you'll see the Dusty of old. Let's look at it this way. Dusty is good in his first year on the job, and in contract years. 1993: Won 103 games 2002: Got to the World Series 2003: Led Cubs to NLCS 2006: Looking pretty good so far. I think you should always be leery of someone who only performs at his absolute best once money is on the line. Dusty has given us very little to complain about this year, but where were these managerial smarts a few years ago? I'm pretty skeptical about the contract year phenomenon in the first place, but at least with players there is something they can do to improve themselves.(Work out more in the offseason, take extra time in the cages, field, reviewing film.) With a manager what does he do to do well in a contract year? Did he go to the library in the offseason and take out books on strategy because he realized this season mattered? Did he say "now that I've wasted the last 2 seasons actively trying to lose games, now I'm gonna try and win?" Dusty's always tried to do his best with regards to winning games, he's just doing it a lot more intelligently this year than in year's past.

I would love to see this armless, eyeless track star you speak of. :) Armlessness should cut down on wind resistance.

A Cubs-Cards NLCS would be the stuff of legend. Especially if the Cubs won. :D On a walk of grand slam by Barrett. :wink: No. Big Z slams them, with his arm and bat I think that'd piss them off more than an Edmonds slam beating us.

Naked Twister.

I don't have the exact quote or wording but I believe DLee said something to the effect of " The money doesn't mean that much to me, I want to play for the Cubs." That's pretty close. And Gammons wasn't pitching the big markets to Lee. He asked a question that any reporter would ask a recent MVP candidate in a contract year. I completely disagree. Knowing Gammons's history and the fact that he explicitly told Lee you will make more money if you go to the Red Sox or Yankees was pretty unprofessional. If a team asked Derrek that question it would be tampering, because Gammons is a supposed unbiased reporter, it's "journalism"

Nothing gets Cardinal hatred going quite like living in Champaign 8 months out of the year.

Is it possible we could get a middle infielder in the deal too?

A ridiculous excuse at that. Cards fans(no offense meant to the good people here) are so high up on their self-made pedestal that anybody actually into a game is considered low-class? That they haven't been there before? Cardinals fans can act like this was our world series and that they have bigger fish to fry, but it just kills them inside that we swept them. That's why they're all having their ritual suicides on CardsTalk. Ripping on fans for being excited about their team, really just blows my mind.

The Cubs haven't lost a series to the Cardinals since July of 2004.

17 man pitching staff.

Thanks NCCF. No gratitude to Ichiro~!

Hehe, the one guy used the initials TBBFIA in one of his posts talking about himself and other users of the forum. Try and figure it out.

3 year splits: .297/.360/.505 vs. Cards .267/.328/.467 vs. all teams.

Gammons also mentioned in the game how he tried to pitch to Lee to sign with the Red Sox or Yankees after the season. Absurd.

"Grin and Barrett"

Projecting forward: Conor Jackson or Prince Fielder? (BA, R, HR, RBI, SB, BB, K, TB, OPS)

I don't think either of them is an upgrade to Crosby.

I for one would hate to see the Cubs have to give up major league talent again like they did in the A-Ram and Nomar trades.

Unfortunately, that's not too reflective of his career against us, which is pretty impressive. The cards lineup has definitely regressed, though. Taguchi, Encarnacion, and Miles are all pretty big steps back from Sanders, Walker, and Grudz. The Cards' known quantities (Rolen, Pujols, Edmonds) are still very formidable, but they're going to be relied on much more with the decline of supporting talent. To be honest, if Ronny and Murton give us even decent production, I think our lineups are pretty comparable. Eckstein---Pierre Encarnacion---Walker Pujols---Lee Edmonds---Aram Rolen---Jones Taguchi---Barrett Molina---Murton Miles---Cedeno Unfortunately, I'm guessing they'll upgrade LF at some point in the season. I don't know if you were directly comparing them but Jones is nowhere close to Rolen. The bottom 3 do make up the difference though.

Drafted him in Round 24 of my keeper league.

I still don't know how to change my username. ANy help?

Now was not the game to use him though.

I don't think the people who posed the question are the same ones who give Corey "unlimited slack". Also, some of the reason that people would prefer Corey over Jones isn't over performance, it's about age and contract. But at the same time Jacque has had a couple good seasons in the majors while Corey had half of a good season. I understand your point but at least Jacque has proven to be a decent player. He's 30, going on 31 while Corey is 26 so I see your point on that matter as well as Jones' 3 yr contract. Here's hoping Jones turns it around. Corey had a good season in '04. .266/.320./.452 with 168 strikeouts is a good season? That's a bit generous, don't you think? He was very good the first half of 2003. I do remember a couple times in 2004 where he looked like he was putting it together, but it was always a fleeting moment and he returned to the same old Corey. 266/320/452 with elite defense in CF is a good season.

I think it's fair to point out that Baltimore's pitching staff has been equally horrible.

I don't think the people who posed the question are the same ones who give Corey "unlimited slack". Also, some of the reason that people would prefer Corey over Jones isn't over performance, it's about age and contract. But at the same time Jacque has had a couple good seasons in the majors while Corey had half of a good season. I understand your point but at least Jacque has proven to be a decent player. He's 30, going on 31 while Corey is 26 so I see your point on that matter as well as Jones' 3 yr contract. Here's hoping Jones turns it around. Corey had a good season in '04.