dalgreen

With all due respect, some of you should never criticize Hendry. The Cubs need to get the best player possible at all positions that are open. When you finish with a piss-poor record as the Cubs did, you don't go and pencil guys in for next year two days after the season-finale. That was the problem in 2006. Instead of going after the best players we just penciled in Murton, without getting top grade players in the outfield. We need to go after the best available players, period, and if after it's said and done it's Theriot than so be it.

Now there's a fascination with Grace. Can't Cub fans let go of former players? Grace is not a good color analyst.

I'm glad you pointed that out. Neifi Perez did the same thing years ago. He had 200+ hits in a season and didn't hit .300 because the idiot had over 700 official at-bats because he refused to get on base via a walk. Same thing goes for Pierre.

Bingo. You are exactly right. This team needs a serious shake up....like when Dallas Green/Jim Fry came in. Something big. Moves like promoting the marketing guy to be President....is like making the Cruise Director Captain of the ship. It's very small time, and likely to end in disaster. Not that disaster really even matters anymore.....after 2003....this year....all the other years....honestly.....how could it get any worse? Very hard to be optimistic about things. I'm beginning to think some on here are talking about a subject they really know nothing about. The president of a baseball/football/hockey/basketball team primary responsibility is not on the field stuff, but off the field(business)stuff. Again, if a president hires the "right" baseball operations guys then the president doesn't have to know much on the field stuff. Andy MacPhail was bad because he didn't hire good people. The president's major role is more of the business side than the operational side.

I don't know what kind of working experience you've had, but all you have to do as a president of a baseball team is surround yourself with good people who make good baseball decisions and then the president can just take care of the business side of the team. That's ideally how things should go. I still would love to hear one Cub GM or President pronounce, "Any season where we aren't contending for the NL Central Division will be considered a failed season." Then back that up with good decisions and you can set a good culture of expectations for winning. I hate the Cardinals but that is something they've seen to have over the Cubs over the decades. Players go there with an expectation of winning. I don't think that happens with the Cubs.

I'm surprised you're playing this game with him. Some just want to criticize just to criticize.

It's not that long ago when he was a manager and I don't recall many Cub fans thinking of him as a good manager. He loves veterans and plays old school ball. But then again, I'm one of the few who blames the players we have/get more than the manager. Once again, I'll remind everyone of the 2001 NLDS game 5 when the D'backs were playing the Cardinals. Game 5 in Phoenix, the D'backs have runners on at first and third with one out in a tie game bottom of ninth. Brenly calls for a suicide squeeze with Tony Womack at the plate. Womack bunts through it and leaves the runner out to dry. Runner on first advances to second on the rundown. Womack saves Brenly by getting a two-out hit. Had they not won that game, Brenly would've been called the manager who made the dumbest decision in the history of baseball.

I'd throw the name out Girardi out there but unfortunetly I'm the only one on the board who thinks Joe deserves credit for fostering the development of the young players down there, and bringing out their "talents" So IMO, there are managers that can bring out the best in players. Joe is one. Brenly I see as a guy who needs established talented vets to succeed. That's the difference between the Cubs and some other teams. The Marlins have young guy who others see as "not ready" and they are, while we have guys who are ready and not. The Marlins did have talent, but for some reason I bet had Girardi never worn a Cub uniform many, many wouldn't even want him as manager.

I don't want Baker back but I do think it's a miscarriage of justice that Hendry got an extension and therefore gets more "playing" time than Baker when they both have done an equally horrible job (and I probably hold Hendry a little more responsible).

I'm one of the few people who actually like Dan McGlaughlin,but I can't stand the fact that he falls in line with other St. Louis media and makes ridiculous "homer" statements. Tonight he, and that idiot Hrabosky agreed, stated that, "It's remarkable that the Cardinals are still in first place despite having the second worst winning percentage in the NL since June 15th." What makes this statement stupid is that it's really not remarkable since the NL Central is really, really bad. I'll give you one guess who the only team in the NL with a worst winning percentage since June 15th than the Cardinals is.

Yeah, I actually thought he'd have to have surgery a few years ago. Rarely do you find guys who rely on sliders lasting this long without major surgery.

My guess, and it's only a guess, as to what "playing the game the right way" means is working to improve on mistakes instead of continually missing cutoff man after cutoff man. It also means not taking steroids, understand and execute the fundamentals, not continually getting picked off of base, etc. The White Sox reference? :?

We ask the same question every year and they (at least Hendry) shows up. Depending who he hires as manager, I suspect he won't get hammered by fans.

Tony LaRussa will not be fired even if the Cards miss the playoffs. I believe he would resign before Jocketty would fire him. I only know a couple of Astros fans, and although I'm making a generalization off of two people, I can stomach Astros fans a lot more than Cardinal fans. At least Astros fans are only sickening until football season, Cardinal fans are arrogant and cocky 365 days a year. I think a lot of the hypocritical Cardinal fans who have been cussing out Izzy for the past few years, wish he were back now. Cardinal fans should be fortunate that Pujols' oblique injury earlier in the year wasn't more serious like it could've been, or they'd be in second place or worst right now.

That would be the "Cub" thing to do. Hire Rothschild as the new manager even though he did absolutely little while being the pitching coach for the Cubs. After the past four seasons, I fail to have read or seen any evidence that he was on a totally different page than Baker regarding how to use pitchers and pitching philosophy. I don't know why a lot of people blame Baker for ruining Wood and Prior without mentioning Rothschild's name, too. Rothschild should go out the door along with Baker.

I give props to Bruce for bringing up Dallas Green's name. Too bad many on here are too young to have gone through the Dallas Green era of GM competence, where we actually developed pitchers and position players and got quality free-agents, and made trades that actually worked out. I still say it would be nice to hear one Cub President or GM emphatically state, "Any year where we aren't contending for the NL Central will be considered a failed season." It is a shame that MacPhail seems to fly under the radar of many over the years. People have screamed about Baylor, Baker, Lynch and Hendry leaving but you rarely hear or read many fans screaming for MacPhail's departure.

Actually there are plenty of reasons. First and foremost would be his team could be so bad that it would be nearly impossible to win 15 games. He can't do it all on his own. But you kind of make my point for me. It would be a big mistake to simply say, well, he was good in the minors, and he was good for a nice stretch here in 2006, therefore he's going to win 15 games and be our number 3. A more reasonable approach, and one that would greatly improve the Cubs chances of winning, would be to set-up the rotation so that you aren't counting on Hill to be your 5th starter. He's not going to be great for 30+ starts. Like most young pitchers, he's going to have his ups and downs. In the end he might be great, he might be terrible, or he might be a prototypical number 3 starter. He's not a lock for anything, however, and it would be a major mistake to build your team on the assumption that he is a lock to be good enough to justify having him as your #3 starter going into the season. aside for hill, there are several young pitcher ready to contribute in 2007-marshall, mateo, marmol (although i think marmol should switch to closer) to go along with z & prior/good free agent. gahallager & veal might no be too far behind either. my point is that i would rather see the cubs go young and stay within their system instead of getting a bunch of expensive free agents. the talent is there, they only need an opportunity & some good coaching imo. this avenue has worked for teams like the marlins, oakland & the angels so it is not out of the realm of possibilty. With all due respect, this sounds like a typical Hendry bad move. Hill has looked good for six weeks and all of a sudden you're guaranteeing him 15 wins next season. What happens if the league figures him out once every team has seen him on multiple outings? I have no problem with Hill being in the rotation, but he's got to be a #5 starter, definitely not higher than #4. I'm all for the Cubs winning the division, even if it means achieving it by signing veteran free-agent starters. Plus, I will continue to be extremely skeptical of any progress from our young pitchers as long as Rothschild is the pitching coach.

Izzy hasn't been a shut down closer for a couple of years now. Over the last couple of years, he's recorded saves but always got into trouble doing it. Rarely, he came in and got a one, two, three inning. It's finally catching up with him. Now I just hope Hendry doesn't say, "He has great stuff, he just needs to work with Rothschild to get back to the great closer he was." I never thought of Izzy as a great closer.

At this point, the Tribune should say, "Jim you don't know how to manage a $90 million+ budget, so we'll see how you handle a $75 million budget." I don't blame the Tribune, they've given Hendry the resources needed to field a contending team, he just doesn't know how to construct a contending team.

People not going to games in September doesn't mean the same thing as people not going to games in June, July and August. We've been out of the race since mid-May, and it took this long for the lowest attendance of the year?

Help me understand why Dempster should receive praise for standing up when he stinks? He said pretty much the same thing two months ago, so when is he going to start doing what he says he needs to do? Dempster's words mean absolutely nothing to me if he doesn't do anything about it. It's as frustrating as seeing Cedeno get mad at himself for striking out swinging on ball four. Then he does the same crap again and again. Saying you stink and getting mad because you stink means nothing to me unless you do something to change.

Baker had tremendous help from Hendry, though. But I would never call the 2003 team one of the best Cub teams. They got extremely lucky to win the division....er ..... I mean they got lucky that Houston lost the division.

The leadoff hitter is important because he hypothetically sets the table for the middle of the lineup. A leadoff hitter with a higher OBP gives the 3-4-5 hitters a better chance to drive in a run. Or at least thats what the MLB textbook says. I never said the leadoff hitter isn't important. I just think it's a little overrated since it's important to have the leadoff guy of any inning to have the ability to get on base. The point of my post is you need to have four or five guys in the lineup with good OBP to have a successful offense. I could live with a .330 OBP from the leadoff spot, as long as we have four or five other guys with a .360+ OBP, with one of them coming from the #2 spot. And please don't interpret that to me I'm fine with re-signing Pierre.

I've always said the leadoff hitter is overrated because other than the first inning, on average, how many times does the #1 hitter lead off an inning? You need to have four to five high OBP guys in the lineup to have a successful offense. Our offense has been no better since Pierre has learned to get on base over the past two months. Why? Because other than Lee and Barrett (who've both been hurt) no one really gets on base consistently. You look at the Cardinals (other than this year) and over the past five or six seasons, they've had five or six guys in the lineup with good OBP.

Sorry, but I'm sick of people asking why people don't ask Hendry and Baker about this. What makes you think they don't get asked about this? They do. They just don't care. Just because they don't act on these things doesn't mean they're not asked. They just don't care about it.