CubsInNC

Couldn't they transfer Hendry to another position? I mean, they're gonna have to pay him anyway, so why not leave him in as "Special Assistant to the GM" and whatnot, let him re-negotiate A-Ram's deal, while the Cubs look openly for his replacement?

Give him a good double switching... BOOOOOOOOOO :P Thank you, Thank you, I'll be here all weekend. Try the waitress and tip the beef! act>

Give him a good double switching...

Why should he change anything. According to Dick Cole, his friend, he's not responsible for it. Sheesh. That statement is wrong on so many levels, it hurts my brain to try to analyze. ... ... . . ... . *!&^@&*%#@^%!

There was some discussion of Clement in Transactions, but I couldn't find the thread. Labrum/Rotator Cuff huh? Same as Kerry, correct? Consipiracy theorists unite! It's the chemically enhanced Old-Style....

If DFA'd/released the team is still responsible for the salary. I don't remember Belle specifics, but it's very possible that the O's did this with him.

Update on the situation: The Sun-Times reports that Glendon Rusch, while his life has likely been saved, his baseball career may be over. He will be taking blood thinners (likely Coumadin/Warfarin) for 6 to 12 months to prevent additional clotting, and doctors have told him: I wish Glendon the best in his recovery, and hope he can be fully normal again. And may his career not end the way 2006 went for him.

Who would pay him $7-$9 million a year? Other than Hendry? If he has another year like this one, he'll be as serviceable as Juan Pierre, and be able to get the same type of money. He won't get 12-16, which would be for top level CFs, which he's not. He provides a little SLG from a non-traditional SLG position, and his CF defense is pretty good. I'm not saying he *should* get that. But that he likely will.

In Jim Hendry terms, Corey really progressed. He was "clutch." Got the big hit. Scored runs with his glove. Corey had an overall pretty good year, for where he was the last few years. In terms of his projections, Corey's nowhere near where he should be, but he's a very serviceable CFer now. He'd get signed to a multi-year deal, about the $7-9mil range, if he can repeat this season. I think he's going to be fine, overall.

Hmm. That would be uber-cool. Wonder if this community would support a tracker of solely legal videos? Might have to look into that.

Oops.... you spoke too soon. I gotta be in Memphis by midnight. Gotta run. Iron will, and lead foot. Godspeed my man. Mmm. That was post #711. Time to go get a slurpee. Maybe a taqito too. Mmm.

Chasing Lilly: This Right's for You by Michael Barrett Dominance: The John Smoltz Comeback by Kerry Wood Are You There God? It's me, Jerry Fontenot. by Jerry Fontenot How to Conquer You Inner Cub: A Collection of Stories of Beating the Odds from Jerry Hairston, Greg Maddux, Phil Nevin, Neifi Perez, and Todd Walker and last but not least, #1 on the unwritten best-seller list: Seven Brides for Seven Second Basemen by Bynum, Cedeno, Hairston, Izturis, Perez, Theriot, and Womack

There are 2 options for this computer simulation. If you have a "AI" computer, who learns from mistakes, etc. Something like the computers and programs IBM developed to beat chess masters. A computer like that, I think would fare much better overall in a long-term competition. Speaking of Kasparov vs. IBM, In the matches against Deep Blue, Kasparov tried to outsmart the computer by making some unconventional moves. It didn't work because the computer wasn't bothered by Kasparov's unexpected moves. I would like to see the human vs computer to see how it would affect the human managing against the computer. Hmm. I think even Deep Blue would be bothered by some of the past 4 years of managerial moves.

There are 2 options for this computer simulation. If you have a "AI" computer, who learns from mistakes, etc. Something like the computers and programs IBM developed to beat chess masters. A computer like that, I think would fare much better overall in a long-term competition. A computer running a program that decides what to do based on a prior manager giving the programmers input, would probably not fare too well overall. If my human manager was one of the best of all time, I would say that in situation 1, the computer would probably win the majority, mabye 55-45, over a span of many years after the computer learns what to do, what works, what doesn't, etc. In situation 2, I could see the computer losing about 60+% of the time. Nothing to back up my arguements, but it's a fun topic to consider.

I'd take Dunn, the FA, if it meant I could move Jones or Izturis for cheaper, similar production. Right now, I'm not sure I'd take Dunn, the trade, unless it meant Izturis or Jones was sent to Cinci. I can't see the Reds taking that deal though. We have some glaring holes to fill this offseason. We need a high-OBP hitter to leadoff. We'll likely need players at 2B, CF, and a few SPs. I can't justify the extra cost in trading for Dunn (several of our cheaper, productive SPs, most likely), above and beyond the limited salary flexibility we'd have. Yes, a large Wood contract comes off the books, but we're gonna eat into some of that with needing to resign Aramis. I just don't think that once we would complete a trade for Dunn, costing us cheap pitching, we're gonna have enough left to sign the SPs we'd need to even remotely contend in the next few years, let alone next year.

And with that, I have a new found respect for the man. And it explains the occasional wide-leg steps he has to take.

Smokey Burgess, Gene Baker, and Don Hoak. The last of which Ron Berler explained away by saying he "conquered his Cubness" hating the organization and ownership so much from his brief stay in Chicago. He went from a team that finished 98-55 the year before (Brooklyn) to the Cubs who were 60-94. Aside from that team, and the D-Backs, there have been no exceptions.

Goony, I agree with your sentiments, as much of his OBP is BA driven, and he's getting slower with age. However, would a 1 year rental, for the cost of slightly more than we paid Fla be too much, if we also signed Soriano at 2B and moved Jones to CF? We'd have a CF with above average SLG, and 2B with above average SLG as well. Would a 1-2 with Murton & Ichiro get on base enough in front of Lee-Ramirez-Soriano-Barrett-Jones to work well enough? With that lineup, there'd be times I'd bat the Pitcher 8th (Z, etc) in front of Izturis. how much more would andruw jones cost? that would give some pop in the OF, just in an unusual spot. we could keep jjones in RF and have a theriot/fontenot type at 2b. murton could hit 6th or 2nd with a new manager, and 2b could leadoff. I think any package the Braves asked for, for A. Jones would start with Pie+Hill+Epatt and go up from there.

Goony, I agree with your sentiments, as much of his OBP is BA driven, and he's getting slower with age. However, would a 1 year rental, for the cost of slightly more than we paid Fla be too much, if we also signed Soriano at 2B and moved Jones to CF? We'd have a CF with above average SLG, and 2B with above average SLG as well. Would a 1-2 with Murton & Ichiro get on base enough in front of Lee-Ramirez-Soriano-Barrett-Jones to work well enough? With that lineup, there'd be times I'd bat the Pitcher 8th (Z, etc) in front of Izturis.

well...if he tries, then i don't mind that he's not very good. as long as he tries. He takes a lot of pitches but doesn't walk a lot. He must have about 200 K's, right? Naw man, he's a great two strike hitter. ps in case anyone was wondering its not true To re-emphasize your point, this season he's hitting .242 in 2-strike counts, (260AB) and has a measely 13 walks. After being down 0-1 in the count, he's also hitting .242 with 8 walks. Since 2002, he's hitting .259 with 2 strikes. Since 2002, Juan's been a .275 hitter after being down 0-1. Juan is about 30 points better in BA and 100 points better in OBP after 1-0 counts in that same time frame. In his career (2000 thru now) Juan sees 3.43 P/PA. Career numbers for other players: Randall Simon sees 3.02, Youkilis 4.49, Thomas 4.02. So Juan must not be taking that many pitches if he's closer to free-swinging Randall Simon, than Thomas.

Please don't tell me this is a statement of endorsement. Does the man deserve to be let go... yes. Did he help at all in his tenure with the Cubs...somewhat. Should he still be treated with respect, because he has treated the fans with respect... yes. Dusty needs to part way. He hasn't really worked out with the organization, and I'm sure he can find a better fit elsewhere. This doesn't mean he should be trashed and humiliated on his way out. He can probably say something to do it on his own. Show him the class he shows the fans when he is speaking to them after games. I am not endorsing firing him, since we've kept him this long. But if I were to show him the same respect he shows reporters and fans, I would fire him 2 games before the end of the season. He's tried to blame rookies, not having his horses, and a few other errata. He's blamed injuries, some of which he's had a big hand in. He's put sub-par lineups out there frequently (Neifi, Macias, Holla, Mabry, Lenny Harris, Bynum, etc). Many things he's done make no sense to Cubs fans. So, backing him all season, vowing to hold him thru the season, etc, and firing him 2 days before the end (or 1 week, or something aside from the last day) would make no sense and thusly be fitting. In reality, I'd rather he just keep his mouth shut, and the reporters not ask him questions that lead to these responses. Because at some point really soon here, he's gonna say one thing too much and it's gonna peave a lot of people, and get him labeled, again. He spoke out in San Fran before he left, stating many things that indicated he wasn't happy there. And now he's trying to burn his media bridges in Chicago too, so he can get out, and the org looks like the bad guy. So, Dusty, shut up. And beat reporters, stick to asking him about baseball. At least then we get stories about fishing.

That's like wanting to beat up your significant other just before the divorce is final just because you always wanted to. It's all over in 3 weeks. And what kind of slap in the face would it be to fire him right before the last game?

I was under that assumption as well, but this struck me otherwise: I don't see an exemption in that text, because in other places in the CBA they refer to all 25+ players in the majors in september as active roster.

Being on the 40-man roster and not in the majors is the start of the clock. You have 3 years of that available. So anyone added to the 40-man and the 25-man at the same time doesn't start accruing options, before September 1. From my interpretation of the current CBA, it appears that anyone added to the 40-man in September and called up doesn't start accruing options. I found some references online that said that September doesn't count towards service time, but can't find any reference to that in my skimming on the CBA.

Woohoo! The dancing horse celebrates! http://www.c3studios.info/NSBB/crazy-horse.gif And so does Super-Tom! http://www.c3studios.info/NSBB/TOMCRUISE.gifhttp://www.c3studios.info/NSBB/tom_cruise_dancing_gif.gif