cubs dane

Finally a move in the right direction. It feels like 2 seasons since the Cubs have made a significant move to win. I hope this is the start in upgrading the personal on the field, giving Lou the talent he needs. Spend wisely and this could be the start of something special. =D>

The sad part for Cub fans is that they have regressed in talent last year, while the Sox won it all last year. Ive always respected effort and cajones, Williams approached the year with both. Hendry approached last year by trying to accomodate the manager, and management, and the Cubs went in reverse. Same thing this year. I hate to say it, the Cubs may own the town, BUT the Sox have the hardware. Hendry and Baker both deserve to be fired, imho.

ltb wrote No need to insult. If you and I disagree, thats fine. That's all you'll get from me.

yes, let's fire hendry around the time of year that he's proven time and again that he does his best work. if hendry is going to be fired, it has to be when the season is over, not now, because you'll do nothing but hurt the team more. Hendry should be fired because he allowed the Cubs to limp into the regular season without making necessary personal moves to be competitive. No LF, RF -questionable backfill, no lead-off man, and the bullpen in shambles! Offensively we lost 25% of our offensive in the OF. The same offense that struggled against mediocre pitching. Losing personal like Alou, Sosa, (look at their numbers last year), Clement, Farnsworth, Grzsalanick(whatever). We added Blanco, Burnitz, and Hairston.Oh, and subtracted from an already weak BP by failing to sign a closer and lost farns lol no LF OR RF? i don't know if you know this, but we signed a guy named burnitz, who is outproducing what sosa did by this time last year. the bullpen wasn't in "shambles" to start the year - sure, we could have used a reliever - but what did you want? a 3 year, $21 million commitment to benitez? or how about a 2 year, $12 million contract for percival? if you think we should have signed one of those guys to be our closer, you're crazy. hendry said, starting in the offseason, that dempster was going to be the closer this year. dusty, however, made his guy (latroy) the closer and put dempster in the rotation. now dempster is in the role hendry said he should have been in all along, and guess what, he's doing just fine. losing sosa is something that a lot of people whine about because of the home run totals - burnitz is outproducing him this year, so i don't see why you even bring sosa's name into the argument, as it only weakens yours. alou's offensive numbers would be nice in left field, but considering the contract he got from sf, no thanks. farnsworth had fallen out of favor with the entire organization and it was decided that he had to be moved - i didn't like the deal all that much (though with scott moore doing so well, it's looking a lot better), but it may have been one of the things forced on hendry by macphail (which the sosa deal was). we couldn't afford to keep clement, so why are you crying about that? i'd also like to point out that you completely missed the point of my post. COMPLETELY. why would you fire your general manager that has proven that he can make great deadline deals year after year right around that time? i said that if you're going to fire hendry, you have to wait until the offseason to do it. i guess reading comprehension just isn't your strong point. I'll make this brief and to the point. The off-season was a disaster. We went backwards. We had certain needs and they went unfulfilled. Our offense was adequate, no more. I cite the September fold as an example. We lose 2 of our most productive players and meekly filled in the positions. Our Bullpen was inadequate last year. We had no closer. Nor did we get anyone to fill that spot.Plus we lost Farnsworth, who ate up alot of innings, most of the time in an acceptable manner. To address your specific points... OF, to me it is not of consequence that Burnitz is outperforming Sosa. Sosa was thru by the end of last year. The fact that we lost 70+ hr's ( in Sosa and Alou,)plus big-time RBI production. In an offense that was flawed last year. We did not make up for that production on paper, and its playing out. The closer situation, LATROY? as closer? Joe Borowski? Clubs that are world serious have a good pen. Losing Farn's without replacing him was also an mistake. I say Hendry has to carry the load and be held responsible for the poor product that is being put out on the field. The Nightmare started in the off-season, and all we're doing is watching it unfold. I felt this way from the very beginning, go back and check my postd if you doubt. Little offense, and little bullpen make for a disaster, I don't care how good you're starting rotation is. If you think Hendry can pull a rabbit out of his arse, the time to have done that was not when we are 13 games out.

yes, let's fire hendry around the time of year that he's proven time and again that he does his best work. if hendry is going to be fired, it has to be when the season is over, not now, because you'll do nothing but hurt the team more. Hendry should be fired because he allowed the Cubs to limp into the regular season without making necessary personal moves to be competitive. No LF, RF -questionable backfill, no lead-off man, and the bullpen in shambles! Offensively we lost 25% of our offensive in the OF. The same offense that struggled against mediocre pitching. Losing personal like Alou, Sosa, (look at their numbers last year), Clement, Farnsworth, Grzsalanick(whatever). We added Blanco, Burnitz, and Hairston.Oh, and subtracted from an already weak BP by failing to sign a closer and lost farns

The humbling of the ego is always difficult. Sometimes in crisis comes opportunity. I hope Corey comes back stronger than ever, and rebuild's his baseball foundation. Skoal, baby!

Well written post. =D>

Wait a minute. ZZ, aren't you Mister Optimism when it comes to the Cubs, Et tu Brute!!!

Firing Dusty will not be the answer. Last year I was one of Dusty's biggest detractors. He had a team that should have been in the playoff's at the minimum. Baker's ineptitude was so transparent to me. This year Dusty's just as worthless. BUT, with the personal that he has( this is where Hendry comes in), what can he do? Who is the manager going to put in LF ? Who should Dusty go with from the bullpen ? Who should catch ? Or play CF for that matter ? No, Baker's hands were handcuffed from the start of the season. Could another manager have done incrementally better, no question!! It like saying Patterson is the answer for all this season's woes. No his isn't . There were just too many holes to plug right from the beginning.

Offseason-you can't lose production from Alou, Sosa, Grud's,starting pitcher in Clement, and not have a closer, as well as losing Farnsworth..who had his moments. Oh we added Burnitz. The offseason my friend.

The time to have changed this team has come and gone as far as this season is concerned. The off-season was the window of opportunity. This team was limited by the results of our off-season, and the personal that the Trib and co. went with. The players and roster are the problems. As in poker, it was a losing hand from the beginning, we're just playing it out. Same problems, no production out of LF, no bullpen, no offense, and Dusty to run the aslyum. Sorry to be so pessimistic, but the handwriting has been on the wall, imho.

Problem with Hendrys approach was you knew you were going to be without the corner OFs, which translates into a huge deficit on offense. You traded a durable, sometimes brilliant Farnsworth , and didnt replace him. Plus did nothing to the closer situation. Like taking 2 steps backwards. Plus last years team had more depth. Thats why we hung on til Sept. we had Gruds, Holly as a sub, Clement as another SP, Farns as another strong arm in the BP. This 2005 product is not the quality of 2004. Weve had injuries this year, Nomar, Walker, and Wood. I submit to you that the 2004 team would have absorbed the lost of Wood(Clement), and Walker(Gruds), Nomar(more over-all offensive) and would be near the top, even with Dusty managing.

The Cubs must take the high road on this one. They must play and pay Maddux as if there is nothing at stake. What is at stake is the clubs trust, their image, plus its the right thing to do. The clubs must stand by their decisions when they signed the player, like the Sosa decision, right or wrong. To Job a HOFer, would be tragic. Dont nickel and dime the situation, because the Cubs would be Dollar foolish. I not saying Maddux is worth it at this point in his career, Im saying the Cubs cut the deal, now live with it! BTW, you never know, Maddux is such a classy guy, it wouldnt surprise me that he could work out something to not hurt the club. I have a very high image of Greg, maybe I naiive, IMO.

Doesnt Macias have closer experience as well ?

Based on the last few post I think we should have game show threads or sections. Tim it your call. Maybe only 2. A general game show category. An a baseball game show category.

I dont understand why Dustys managerial moves would even be a issue here. This is a discussion board, he is the manager of our team, to put him above reproach to me is ridiculous. I personally think Baker is not a good manager. You can say anything you want about that. Agree or Disagree. But why would I try to CONTROL the positive posts? It doesnt make sense to me. I think thats what this board is all about, freedom of opinion and thoughts. If someone thinks hes good, thats fine by me. It wont change my mine, unless Dusty has a change in style, Ill think what I want.

I think that point is very arguable. If you look how the Cubs failed miserably in the stretch last year, I think as manager he has to take alot of the responsibility. He allowed that team to run amuck, imo. If you look at the most successful season in 2003, it could be argued that the workload he put on Prior, Wood, and Z fading in 2003 was caused by overuse of IP, and bled into 2004. I think what was not arguable is that Wood and Prior ran out of gas at the end of 2003 and Z had nothing before the start of the playoffs.

Here are my new actual predictions. Team Predictions 1. 79 wins. 2. 6 wins. 3. 550 runs. 4. 530 earned runs. Player Predictions 1. 30 home runs. 2. 30 BBs. 3. .310 BA. 4. 110 RBI. 5. 12 wins. 6. 2.75 ERA. 7. 125 Ks. 8. 15 games started. 8. .725 OPS. ----------------------- ETA (Serena) Team Predictions 1. 79 wins. +350 2. 6 wins. + 10 3. 550 runs. + 0 4. 530 earned runs. + 0 Player Predictions 1. 30 home runs. + 0 2. 30 BBs. + 30 3. .310 BA. + 0 4. 110 RBI. + 5 5. 12 wins. + 40 6. 2.75 ERA. + 0 7. 125 Ks. + 10 8. 15 games started. + 10 8. .725 OPS. Total: 455