dalgreen

Can Brenly still hit? No manager would turn this team around. Some thought firing Baylor midseason would salvage 2002, and it didn't. Let's go back to game 5 of the NLDS of 2001, shall we? A certain manager in the bottom of the ninth, at home, in a tie game with one out and runners at first and third with Womack at the plate called for a suicide squeeze. Of course, Womack missed it and the home team lost the potential winning run in the rundown, but the runner at first went to second. Manager was saved from being criticized and from being called a buffoon only because Womack singled with two outs. Of course, no one talks about that call because they ended up winning the World Series. Johnson and Schilling led that team to the World Series, not Brenly.

Fire Dusty. Fire Jones. Fire Neifi. tommorrow. This crapola of a team needs some overhauling. I no longer understand the criticism of Perez and Jones and Pierre. These guys were not stellar players immediately before their arrival to the Cubs so why would we think they'd be better? I understand criticizing good players who are playing subpar like Ramirez, Walker (of late) and Zambrano, but why criticize sucky players? If anything, Hendry should get severe criticism for signing these guys. What percent of people on here were in favor or re-signing Perez and signing Pierre and Jones? If I remember correctly, it was low. I think it's been pretty well established of late that when we attack Jones, Perez, Rusch, Pierre, etc, we're really criticizing Hendry by association. Why should anyone be critical of good players who slump? That makes less sense than expressing disapproval for bad players who are being bad. Our good players aren't slumping, they're just not playing smart baseball. When you go down meekly after swinging at a first pitch breaking pitch that's stupid baseball. Hitting the ball hard and right at someone is a slump. Swinging at eye high fastballs is playing stupid baseball not a slump. Jones, Pierre and Perez just plain suck. I'm not even going to start in on Hairston's futility. But there's one constant with all these guys --- they're all brought in by Hendry. To the sports "experts" who continually state that Hendry is a good GM, how then would you describe Walt Jocketty? http://www.northsidebaseball.com/Articles/ArticleText.php?ArticleID=117 That's a slump, not stupid baseball. As for Jocketty, he didn't set the world on fire this offseason (the Cards were inarguably a worse team heading into 06 than they were in 05), but I'd be more comfortable with him in the front office than Jim. You chose an article about one player. I'm talking about the whole team playing stupid baseball with many people having stupid at-bats. This team might be in a slump, but it's playing stupid baseball most of the time. As for Jocketty, once again, you listed one year where they had a down year, yet they're still fighting for first place and he didn't have the payroll that Hendry had. The Cardinals and Cubs had similar payrolls from 2000-2004. Guess which team had more playoff appearances?

Fire Dusty. Fire Jones. Fire Neifi. tommorrow. This crapola of a team needs some overhauling. I no longer understand the criticism of Perez and Jones and Pierre. These guys were not stellar players immediately before their arrival to the Cubs so why would we think they'd be better? I understand criticizing good players who are playing subpar like Ramirez, Walker (of late) and Zambrano, but why criticize sucky players? If anything, Hendry should get severe criticism for signing these guys. What percent of people on here were in favor or re-signing Perez and signing Pierre and Jones? If I remember correctly, it was low. I think it's been pretty well established of late that when we attack Jones, Perez, Rusch, Pierre, etc, we're really criticizing Hendry by association. Why should anyone be critical of good players who slump? That makes less sense than expressing disapproval for bad players who are being bad. Our good players aren't slumping, they're just not playing smart baseball. When you go down meekly after swinging at a first pitch breaking pitch that's stupid baseball. Hitting the ball hard and right at someone is a slump. Swinging at eye high fastballs is playing stupid baseball not a slump. Jones, Pierre and Perez just plain suck. I'm not even going to start in on Hairston's futility. But there's one constant with all these guys --- they're all brought in by Hendry. To the sports "experts" who continually state that Hendry is a good GM, how then would you describe Walt Jocketty?

Yes, because we have to expect perfection out of guys just coming up to the majors at all times. Your response makes little sense. I didn't even imply perfection was needed, but please throwing 25+ pitches in the first inning kills any team's hopes for their starter to go deep. Man, some of you are touchy. I understand there's this unwritten rule for some that it's only a 6-12 team member problem, but I blame everyone -- rookies aren't excluded-- in a Cub uniform and anyone associated with the construction of this team.

Fire Dusty. Fire Jones. Fire Neifi. tommorrow. This crapola of a team needs some overhauling. I no longer understand the criticism of Perez and Jones and Pierre. These guys were not stellar players immediately before their arrival to the Cubs so why would we think they'd be better? I understand criticizing good players who are playing subpar like Ramirez, Walker (of late) and Zambrano, but why criticize sucky players? If anything, Hendry should get severe criticism for signing these guys. What percent of people on here were in favor or re-signing Perez and signing Pierre and Jones? If I remember correctly, it was low. So we shouldn't say that sucky players suck? Of course you can. But follow it up with sucky GMs suck.

Perhaps if a couple of our young pitchers wouldn't have to exert themselves in the first inning, maybe they could get to the seventh or eighth.

Fire Dusty. Fire Jones. Fire Neifi. tommorrow. This crapola of a team needs some overhauling. I no longer understand the criticism of Perez and Jones and Pierre. These guys were not stellar players immediately before their arrival to the Cubs so why would we think they'd be better? I understand criticizing good players who are playing subpar like Ramirez, Walker (of late) and Zambrano, but why criticize sucky players? If anything, Hendry should get severe criticism for signing these guys. What percent of people on here were in favor or re-signing Perez and signing Pierre and Jones? If I remember correctly, it was low.

I don't understand the question. This isn't Playstation. Baker/Baylor can't make Barrett not swing at an eye high fastball, they can't make Hairston lay down a bunt, they can't make pitchers not walk the leadoff hitter, etc. I think you'd have to throw Riggleman in there who had inept offenses in 1997 and 1999, but that may have been before your time. Nice try at the cheap shot, but you're wrong, oh well. I thought starting Bynum two games in a row has a negative impact on the offense and defense, but I guess I'm just a 10 year old idiot who doesn't know anything about baseball. Thanks for educating me. Cheap shot? You asked about Baker/Baylor and now you bring up Bynum. I totally understand a thread about the ineptness of Bynum, but I didn't understand the question of Baker or Baylor, when the whole offense sucks right now. By the way, I have no idea how old you are -- we have a lot of teens or early 20's on here, so really you could've been 6-10 years old back during the sad Riggleman years.

Wasn't this just the second game that Murton didn't start? And at this point it doesn't matter who is playing because nobody can hit consistently. I saw Barrett swinging at a Corey Patterson type pitch tonight. I didn't mind shaking things up a bit, but I still don't know why Bynum, Hairston and Perez are all on this team. I can partially understand two, but don't understand why all three are on this team.

I don't understand the question. This isn't Playstation. Baker/Baylor can't make Barrett not swing at an eye high fastball, they can't make Hairston lay down a bunt, they can't make pitchers not walk the leadoff hitter, etc. I think you'd have to throw Riggleman in there who had inept offenses in 1997 and 1999, but that may have been before your time.

there you have it. who could we have got. rf's don't grow on trees. I said corner outfielders, or heck anybody with a high OPS. The problem is a lot of fans want to complain about the offense, but also want to call certain players "untouchable". I couldn't believe all the upset people at the Prior/Tejada rumor. Or the Prior/Abreu rumor from last season. I'll say what many of us said going back to before spring training: Everything would have to go right for this to be a really good season. And so far plenty hasn't gone right.

He is definitely valuable. There aren't too many All-Stars who aren't valuable to their team. I wonder how well the Cardinals would be doing if they had to go three weeks without Pujols let alone six to eight weeks. However, this goes to show that Hendry had another subpar off-season. Many of us on here said we needed a corner outfielder with a high OPS. I will give him props for improving the bullpen, but he still didn't get the lead-off guy we needed-- unless you call a guy with speed, who doesn't get on base a good leadoff guy. Admittedly, I don't know who we could've gotten in terms of a corner outfielder, especially since many Cub fans inexplicably deem Prior or Wood as an untouchable. I'm still scratching my head as to why we have Perez, Hairston and Bynum on the team. I can see one of them, maybe even two of them, but all three?

I think it's pretty ridiculous that people have a problem with this thread. No one is starting threads everyday documenting when Corey struggles. But this is simply an incredibly stupid play by Corey Patterson and it's worth mentioning. What's more ridiculous? Corey making a baserunning blunder or a whole team scoring 4 runs since last Saturday without any days off? And in that span, how many pitchers have or had ERA's over 5.00 entering those games? I'll trump that Dusty, the Genius, has got Bynum in LF tonight in place of Murton and Neifi at SS in place of Cedeno. So, if a team is scoring 0 runs, what does it matter who starts and where?

I really want Corey to do well, but I just saw him strikeout on an eye high fastball from Schilling. Since some like to follow former Cubs, how's Paul Bako? I watch some Royals games, but turn the channel every time Bako is up. Why do crappy hitters insist on swinging at the first pitch?

It looked like an ankle injury to me. For those who didn't see it, Alou was chasing a ball into foul territory and seemed to have caught his spike right where the dirt and grass meet as you enter foul territory. He then fell off balance and hit his back against the side wall. He seemed to also land pretty hard on his tailbone. He was carted off the field. I hope that was only precautionary.

=D> =D> =D> Of course the problem I have with the hindsight fans is that there's no guarantee that Alou would've put up similar numbers if he'd stayed with the Cubs. I don't watch many Giants games because I don't care to see/hear about Bonds, but I wonder if Daddy Alou puts up with Moises' bad baserunning, poor throws, first pitch ground outs, not calling off the SS/3B on pop ups, not giving ground to the CF on fly balls...... As I said in my first post, I bitched lots about Alou. I have since repented and hope Moises forgives me. But why do you miss him and why are you repenting? I guess I'd understand it more if he were still with the Cubs and putting up unbelievable numbers. But as I said, there's no guarantee that he'd have the same seasons with the Cubs as he's had with the Giants. I see this as similar to Pirates fans who bitched about Ramirez now asking forgiveness. It's sports.

=D> =D> =D> Of course the problem I have with the hindsight fans is that there's no guarantee that Alou would've put up similar numbers if he'd stayed with the Cubs. I don't watch many Giants games because I don't care to see/hear about Bonds, but I wonder if Daddy Alou puts up with Moises' bad baserunning, poor throws, first pitch ground outs, not calling off the SS/3B on pop ups, not giving ground to the CF on fly balls......

The main problem with this team is that if you go back to some threads prior to spring training, you'll notice a lot of us said, "Everything will have to go right for this to be a great season." Well, it hasn't. As usual, we've been without Wood and Prior for a significant amount of time, Rusch has been the Glendon Rusch of old, some guy who looks like Zambrano and walks like Zambrano isn't pitching like Zambrano. And, lastly, Lee being out. So, I think Ramirez is just a small amount of the problem. Even if Ramirez was performing well, instead of losing games by eight and ten runs, we'd be losing by five or six.

I liked Stone, but, man, I thought he was overrated. I agree with you that he did make many inaccurate predictions and I think a lot of people who don't remember what you're talking about I would guess have been following the Cubs closely only over the last 5-7 years. What I really hated was how he was the master of the obvious, yet some would swear he was a genius. Such as, "Well (insert star hitter) you've fallen behind 2-0 with first base open, you might as well go ahead and intentionally walk him". Or, "Another sweeping slider right here (on a 1-2 pitch) should strike him out." Again, he was very good, but not the genius many think he is.

I can't be too mad at Baker. Since Pierre rarely gets on base, I wouldn't know how to manage the situation either. :P

From the Trib: Lee Could be out 2-3 months Thanks. I hadn't read that in the Trib earlier.

Anybody else heard anything regarding Lee's injury other than what was reported on the SCORE or 1000? I don't hear either one of them, but I find it strange that they've reported something that I haven't seen on ESPN website nor cubs.com.

Here's an idea -- how about be patient and see what happens with the players we do have instead of going into panic mode? No, the offense won't be as good without Lee as with Lee, but who knows? It looks as if Jones (and I'm not comparing him to Lee) is improving and Ramirez should as well. I just don't understand the let's begin trading idea. Can we at least see how it goes this weekend, first? I have a feeling some of you would be willing to overspend without even knowing how the team would do.

Every single manager (of a road team) in baseball would save their closer for the possible save situation in the bottom of extra innings. If you're a home team, managers generally have their closers come in in the top of the ninth. Also, why did Dusty blow it last night? Had Ramirez hit a two-run double or three-run homer, would we be second-guessing? Let's just get this rubber game and head to St. Louis.

There's only been two people who have said that Lee is better than Pujols, and one of them(Vance) was obviously joking. There was some debate about who's the better defender or who had the better '05, but I don't think people are claiming what you think they are. Thank you for the feedback, however, this isn't the first debate on this topic on this board. I'm not only referring to those (albeit two) on this thread, but I'm referring to those who already this year and last year were debating who the best was, including those who may only be reading but not posting.