brinoch

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C'mon dime, you've been here long enough to know that this isn't warranted. Feel free to disagree with a poster and his or her thoughts, but do so without the insults.

Corey on being sent down: I believe that those two quotes shows you the difference in maturity level between Dubois and Patterson. Dubois is looking at it half-full, and WANTS to improve his game to get back to Chicago, whereas Corey Patterson is looking at it half-empty, and he prolly feels he doesn't "deserve" to be sent to AAA. I honestly believe Corey is in AAA for quite awhile, to be honest, or he won't be with the organization after the trade deadline. His attitude, right now, STINKS to high heavens. C'mon. The guy just got sent down -- he might not have even known about it yet. How do you know his attitude is terrible? Because he didn't want to talk about getting demoted. Gimme a break. You ever get dressed down at work? Would you want to talk the media about it? Why does everything that Corey says or does get dissected to the nth degree? Give it a rest.

One would hope.

Bruce Miles

Really? Then why bring up Cedeno? If you're just going to play Neifi, there's no reason to outright Wilson and promote Cedeno. We've seen this before. Baker did it to Dubois last year and it cost he and the Cubs valuable development time. He's doing to Cedeno, and he'll do it to Murton. Dusty won't play rookies. He needs to go buh-bye.

Prior and Zambrano would get on base more than Neifi and Corey did. If the Cubs are throwing in the towel, you give the youngsters time to play. But setting back their development by sitting them on the bench is, frankly, stupid. Young, developing guys need to play. Cedeno, for example, should be playing, not sitting. If you bring these guys up, they need to be in the game.

1 week isn't "too long to rot". For a regular player not playing in the All-Star game they get 3 days off. Adding in 4 days before that isn't going to ruin them or harm their development. Not that I'm in favor of that, but it's not like giving a player a week off to learn things at the ML level is going to hurt them. I disagree. The best thing for young guys is to play everyday. A week is a long time, and for what? To sit on an ML bench? There's a certain value in catching the first pitch and carrying the bags, I suppose, but not a great one. After reading the Cubs.com article, they are giving Dubois and Patterson a couple of days off and then they are headed to Mesa for hitting work. After that, they'll meet up with Iowa for the game on the 14th. The Cubs won't call them back up right away -- they'll need another week at least to regain their strokes and practice in game what they've been learning in Mesa. So you're looking at the 22nd, perhaps, before Corey and Jason return. I think it's inarguable that sitting Greenberg and Murton for two full weeks is foolish and short-sighted. Moreover, the article gives no impression of impending doom for Dusty, so I see no hope for Matt and Adam (and Ronny) to get PT. Nope, we'll see more of Hollandsworth-Perez-Hairston.

Iowa doesn't play again until the 14th due to cancelled games from Dennis. Meanwhile, the AA ASB is also 12th through the 14th. So even if they are up for a cup of coffee and dropped to AA, they won't get to play again 'til the 15th. That's too long for these guys to rot.

34 scattered starts isn't even close to being enough time to fully evaluate what a player can do in the big leagues. But if this is just for them to get their swings back, it's both at the cost of Murton and it shows that he has no faith in the coaching staff. And yet, Sarge is the main hitting instructor for the 2nd year in a row. Has there been any change? Barely. Gene Clines works with a few hitters, but Sarge is basically doing the same thing as he was doing last year. Dusty is still there. If they have continually failed, why do they still have their jobs? Unbelievable. They may not in the very near future. Without singling people out, this team has failed miserably. Dusty might be paying for it with his job.

and tell me how you know they'll waste away on the bench? this could be a precursor to dusty's firing, which would lead to young players actually having a chance to play. We'll see what happens, but how would this indicate Dusty being fired? If Baker was going out, Dubois would stay and both Macias and Perez would sit or be released. If that doesn't happen, this is almost like the opposite. Dubois wasn't performing. He got his shot for nearly a month and did nothing. I don't think Doobie had a future as a starter on the Cubs, regardless. I don't think he was ever given a full chance, which does nothing but hurt the Cubs and does a real disservice to Hendry. Not only do they not know what if he'll be able to contribute next year, they killed his trade value. That is true, but it's water under the bridge at this point. It's too late for Dubois, I think. If he could have succeeded, he was ruined by Dusty. I can't believe Hendry is foolish enough to repeat that. I don't think it's too late for Dubois. He's only 26 and he's had 1/2 a season under his belt. More than likely, he and Patterson will play everyday in Iowa, get their swings back and head to Chicago rather quickly. My hope is that they both succeed in correcting their problems. And if Hendry hasn't seen that Dusty doesn't like youngsters by now, he's never going to see it. If they don't get a chance to play this is a terrible move. There's no value in letting them rot on the bench. All the youngin's.

But despite the losing streak, isn't it early to pack it in and play the youth? This is a $100 million team. I can't see Hendry waving the white flag in the first week of July. The Cubs have lost 8 games in a row. They are 4 games under .500. I agree that it's too early to throw in the towel, but it's not too early to see if these guys can give you a spark. Look, what we have right now isn't working. It's just not. The only "trade" that Hendry can make is with the farm, so he's making it. The problem is that they probably won't get a chance to play.

I'm pretty surprised by this. Okay, that's an understatement. I'm amazed by this move. I think it's pretty pointless, though, if Murton and Greenberg ride the pine next to Cedeno. I want to see all three of them get a real chance. None of this platoon garbage. An everyday chance. If that means Hendry has to fire Baker for that to happen, so be it.

True enough. However, it's not like mental mistakes and missing signs are Hairston's singular failure. Burnitz has made several running mistakes recently; Alou made them all the time last season. Mental mistakes, like physical errors, do happen. You want to minimize them, of course, but they are a part of the game.

Not necessarily. Will you switch your avatar? It's hard to take you seriously with that. :D WHY? WHO'S DISRESPECTIN' WHO?

Baltimore is leading the division by 4 games. I think you are mistaken. Boston is 48-35, Baltimore is 44-39 -- Boston is leading by 4 games. Check the standings...

You're right. Baker should be slammed repeatedly for placing incompetent hitters in front of Lee. But using that as the only reason for this year's failure thus far is shortsighted. The bullpen has at least 15 losses this year, just like it's important for the 1-2 hitters to get on base, it's also important to have Burnitz, Holla/Dubois and Barrett get on base too. Also, our starters haven't been consistent. So, outside of the stupid lineups with Patterson and Perez at the top, most of the problems are players not performing. Baker, the players, and Hendry, too, all share the blame. Singling one decision, or person, as the source of the team's woes is cathartic, but frankly not realistic. Some Cub decisions that annoy me to no end: 1. Baker makes poor decisions and favors terrible to mediocre he can count on (Macias, Perez, and Hollandsworth) over the more unpredictable, yet with much more potential rewards (Hairston, Dubois, Cedeno). 2. Baker uses relievers in situations where they are prone to failure -- like the repeated attempts to use Remlinger to get lefties out. 3. Baker demands that there be 12 pitchers on the roster, yet the 11th and 12th guys get little work (Hendry is equally culpable in this lunacy). 4. Baker continually uses Macias as one of his first options off the bench. 5. Macias is on the team. It's not like people didn't identify and discuss the problems this team would likely face during the offseason. Lo and behold, we have trouble scoring runs because the offense is insufficient. Lo and behold, the bullpen is spotty, at best.

Ugh. Having had a look at the Royals rotation, were I Pena, I'd start stretching Sisco out. He certainly wouldn't do any worse than, say, Jose Lima or Brian Anderson.

I didn't like the trade, but I for one won't complain about Scott Moore. Scott's been a very pleasant addition to the minors, and his future is pretty bright. Too bad we couldn't have both of them.

Any word on why Lee is out of the game?

I didn't see this anywhere else, but Rotoworld paid Matt a high compliment.

That was a good call -- and Ohman did a good job to Overbay.

I'll take a +.900 OPS from my LF any day of the week. He'd immediately be the best offensive OF on the Cubs. Well, I'm not necessarily saying he would have a +.900 OPS, just pointing out that over the past year, for whatever reason, he's put it all together. Maybe it'll all fall apart again soon. Maybe not. Oh believe me, I agree. I was supporting your statement.

I'll take a +.900 OPS from my LF any day of the week. He'd immediately be the best offensive OF on the Cubs.

I like Len a lot. He's excellent. I may be in the minority here, but I think Sandberg held some promise in the booth. He goes on a little long, but has potential.