Soul

I was watching "Chicago Tonight" a while back(last summer, I think) when Bob Sirott was still hosting and he had a chat with the managing editor(I think was his title) of Crane's Chicago Business who was a frequent guest on the show. Anyways they were talking about the speculation of the Tribune selling the Cubs. And this guest went on to say that the selling of the Cubs is far from unfathomable. Bob Sirott questioned the motive to sell when they have made such a profit in the purchase just as you stated, "21 million in 1981 and now they're worth over 500 million". The guest From Crane's Chicago Business explained that as long as the Cubs keep the team it is just that......a number. If it is/was about money than they would/will just cash in that cow(i.e. sell). Well, only if you thought the value was going to go down. As long as it continues to rise, just hang on to the coat-tails and let her go. ......which is probably what the Trib is doing, come to think of it.

Yea, I realized it was fake when it said Juan Pierre had AIDS. Although that would explain his quick drop off in production. :lol: If anyone is interested in seeing it, its here: http://random-f.com/images2/images/1168852151_shocking.gif Its pretty funny, what someone did was replace all the blacked out names with famous ball players. Wow. That's NOT funny!! :shock:

With Hendry and Baker here this organization is only going to get worse. Everyone on the planet wanted Wood to be shut down. Except those who make the decisions. How stupid is that? Still though. Considering Wood's poor mechanics, it's hard to know if they would have just delayed the inevitable by shutting him down. I have no clue. Either way, it's hard to dispute the mismanagement of our starting staff over the past 4 seasons.

Dempster is developing an annoying tendency to play with fire.

Whew.

How come it always seems like Howry struggles?

Not only is our '06 ruined, but at this rate our '07 looks bleak as well. Ok well maybe our '07 looks poor regardless, but still. How long can Z take this kind of punishment?

So stupid. I cannot believe how stupid Dusty is. Trying to save the bullpen I guess. Dusty needs pitchers with bionic arms.

Wow, only 16 pages late in the game on a weekend. Safe to say the popularity of the '06 Cubs is........waning.

Certainly we're in full-blown development mode now. I'd start evaluating the young players. But it's the Cubs. Prepare for 4 more months of Neifi and getting shut out with no clue on what our young players have to offer.

Exactly. No point in rushing him back. This season is already in the toilet. He should take his time coming back. No, no, you're wrong! Lee comes back, and Pierre will magically become a great leadoff hitter, everyone will get hits with RISP, Kerry Wood will be cured, Mark Prior will regain his old form, and we'll make the playoffs! Model airplane glue is a wonderful thing. So is bourbon! Double-dose of Jack tonight for the soulster. The Cubs are an eternal excuse for heavy drinking :)

Some quotes from this thread: As a Cub fan, I would take NO pleasure if this is true I do not want to see this pan out to be true. I'd be disappointed if this proved to be true I wouldn't be surprised but I'm not accusing yet. I despise the Cardinals as much as anyone, but something like this isn't just bad for Pujols or for the Cardinals if it's true. And if this ends up true, it wouldn't be all that bad for baseball. I'd love to just throw down and full-on accuse Pujols, because honestly I've suspected him for years. But I've got to wait for more evidence than this, even if it does come from a Cards-friendly site. ...and that's just a sampling. I don't see this rush to judgment you're speaking of. So I hope you're speaking of people outside this site, because frankly, the posters here have been very careful to reserve judgment. You are right, for the most part, about posters on this forum and thank you for posting that. It is refreshing to see those posts and it is easy to forget that a lot of people are waiting for the truth. I guess it is just frustrating in general how a lot of people just jump to conclusions so fast regarding rumors...I do not understand why in our society people love to build people up just to tear them down...thank you again for the reminder that this is not the goal of everyone. Yeah, I just wanted to be clear on that because while I totally understand the rush-to-judgement culture exists, I think this site has been pretty careful today in relation to some others I have seen.

Well everything is constant until it changes... It just feels constant because the fan base is ready to turn the page, but ownership hasn't gotten to that point yet.

Some quotes from this thread: As a Cub fan, I would take NO pleasure if this is true I do not want to see this pan out to be true. I'd be disappointed if this proved to be true I wouldn't be surprised but I'm not accusing yet. I despise the Cardinals as much as anyone, but something like this isn't just bad for Pujols or for the Cardinals if it's true. And if this ends up true, it wouldn't be all that bad for baseball. I'd love to just throw down and full-on accuse Pujols, because honestly I've suspected him for years. But I've got to wait for more evidence than this, even if it does come from a Cards-friendly site. ...and that's just a sampling. I don't see this rush to judgment you're speaking of. So I hope you're speaking of people outside this site, because frankly, the posters here have been very careful to reserve judgment.

That could have a couple of connotations depending on how you look at it!!! poojuice.

I agree, i just don't want to see him start ever again...use the rookies, they need seasoning anyway, season is over anyway. Sure, I'd throw Marmol out there. Why not. He's started before. If he stinks, so what. Not like Rusch was going to do any better.

Since it's unlikely that the sources of steroids/HGH limit themselves only to baseball clients, it's really going blow doors when & if this thing starts to leak over into other sports and their superstars. Others have mentioned the NFL. That's the biggie. Hold on to your hats. Romanowski and the BALCO investigation was likely the tip of the iceberg. And once they find out that the "proven, effective" drug policy of the NFL isn't doing diddly squat to stop steroid abuse, you're really going to see some crap flying. Most notably from Washington D.C.

Given his contract structure, and what Hendry said about him earlier, I don't believe that was the intention. This is not like the Dempster and Williamson contracts, where they paid them a small salary to rehab and then owned an option for the following year. They only control him for this season. So if all he does is rehab and loosen up a bit, the Cubs don't have the option of just bringing him back. He can leave. That was my bad then. I assumed we were doing a Dempster part deux.

Of course. But with the Cards, it's starting to look like an organizational philosophy. That's a tad bit worse than just Sosa. Though I admit: Cubs obviously knew Sosa was juicing; they should be called on the carpet just like anyone else who knew. "You knew, and did nothing?" You should have no place in the game. I don't care if it decimates baseball for a few years. I'm all for rooting out every single juicer and their support people, whoever they are. I'd rather have a clean game, even if it means ripping out many of the big names in baseball. So what? In 5 years, the game would be back and clean. I'll make that sacrifice any day of the week. I'll bet such a cleansing would take out more Cards than Cubs though.

They had him in the bullpen for the majority of his appearances in 2004 and 2005, a greater majority than when Milwaukee used him out of the pen. And I doubt he'd be good in long relief. He had a WHIP of 1.61 out of the pen from 2003-2005. It's 1.40 there this year. I don't think they signed him to be a starter. Considering how they used him in 2004 and 2005, I think they signed him as a swing guy. The problem was signing him at all, because no swing guy is worth what they gave him. The ideal was Prior, Wood, Zambrano, Maddux and Miller. Rusch was in a group with a bunch of kids for the 5th job early. But they did not want him starting all year. This isn't just a case of the Cubs misusing Rusch. The problem is using him at all. I mean, on a good team, you don't sign Rusch. You grab someone who's better. My understanding with Miller was, we were going to rehab him in '06, put him in spot-duty if he was ready either in the bullpen or maybe a few controlled starts, and then see if he could be moved into the rotation in '07. Maybe I'm wrong about that. I know Rusch was in it with a bunch of younguns in spring training, but you know this is Dusty-ism----it was always going to be Glendon... I really don't have an argument for paying Rusch a ton of money and making him a starter. There can be no argument for that. I'm just saying hey, you pay him a mid-range salary and throw him in long relief? Maybe if he knows that's his role and you don't see him very often he works out alright. I do realize he's a crappy pitcher though; I don't want any misunderstanding about that much.

I'd love to just throw down and full-on accuse Pujols, because honestly I've suspected him for years. But I've got to wait for more evidence that this, even if it does come from a Cards-friendly site. On a side note: McGwire, now Pujols. If this did turn out to be true, what does that say about LaRussa and Jocketty? Don't tell me they don't know, because as the good ole boys say "son, that dog won't hunt."

He wasn't made a full-time starter by the Brewers. He's been a starter the vast majority of his career. The Brewers and the Cubs are actually the only teams that have tried him out of the pen (the Brewers did it because they figured out he sucked). The problem is he also sucks out of the bullpen. There is no ideal role for Glendon Rusch. And I don't see how you can possibly justify the claim that the Cubs have been trying to keep him as a starter. They've used him out of the pen more than anybody before. Well, they signed him to start, really. It was going to be as the #5 this year, right? Now they wouldn't do it because if everything was going balls-out with Prior & Wood they'd surely have Marshall starting 5. But my understanding was, at the beginning of the year, Rusch was going to be the 5, and move in to Prior and/or Wood's role if they went down. I'll bet Rusch would be alright in long relief. You'd only see him if someone got sick before their start or got hit with a line drive in the 2nd inning. But the Cubs didn't do that. They signed him as a starter and said "here's our insurance policy for Prior & Wood." That was silly. They've only moved him to the bullpen becuase they now are beginning to realize what a foolish mistake that was. And the Brewers kept him as a starter until he reached 1-13. That's not putting him in the bullpen as a sound baseball decision. That's hanging on to nothing and watching it rot for weeks & weeks in front of thousands of fans. And now they've got new everything: new owner, new GM, new manager & coaches.

The Cubs knew Wood needed shoulder surgery last year. And they knew something was wrong with Prior early in the spring. They signed Rusch for exactly this reason. They had 2 guys likely to miss some time, and their insurance plan was Glendon Rusch. They got what they deserved. Hendry was just stupid enough to believe everything would be OK with Prior & Wood. That's why Rusch was the backup plan. It was a huge, and inadvisable, gamble. The other piece of this puzzle is: just because Rusch was made a full time starter by the Brewers doesn't mean that's what role he's best for. Yet the Cubs have been trying to keep him as a starter ever since. Silly.

In other words, yes.

first of all, rusch has NO upside. none. secondly, you're kidding yourself if you think the cubs can get a "decent" prospect for a guy that would be w/o a team if not for the cubs. he's old and he has a 7.29 era. the cubs aren't getting crap for him. Don't forget a multi million dollar contract through next year. Don't forget a career 4.96 ERA. He'll have a little value because he's a lefty. If he were a righty he'd have no value at all. Remember his absolutely horrid year in Milwaukee? The Cubs took a chance on him, and it really helped them out....for awhile anyway. I agree with the statement that this guy has to be moved to mop-up, but I would not DFA him or trade him just yet. Let's get somebody else to start NOW, please. I doubt Rusch would have 2 starts if it wasn't for the Wood/Prior fiasco. This is what happens when you gamble on highly paid pitchers and they crap out. You wind up starting Rusch, and getting killed. But I really can't be angry at Glendon, because he's a fish out of water starting regularly. He should be long relief.