Soul

Pierre finally does something right.

I'll bet half this crowd thinks it's Alou.

Alright Giants fans time to find the Beer man again :roll:

Yes and the grande finale will be a massive firework explosion in the shape of an asterisk.

Why the coy disguises? Just start every Cub hitter off @ 0-2 or 1-2 :roll:

Walker's hitting ability has gone on the 15 day DL

Top of the order coming up for the Cubs

Lens' right. These fans care for nothing other than Barry's next AB.

It takes more effort to suck like Pierre than it does to be good. No, seriously.

Walker continues to impress me defensively at 1B. Yeah, he's done O.K. Too bad the rest of the club hasn't. And Walker's bat has gone to sleep too, though I don't think that started when he moved to 1st.

And as if to say "not so fast Cubbie fans you still suck," Jones comes up...

Barrett still cares. Give that boy a Baby Ruth bar!

Silly. She goes where all good girls go.

Hah. Here we go again friends.

Righttttt. Like we'd want a guy with a career .276 winning percentage. what are we doing with a manager with a winning percetage over 500? Brenley has this, a World Series ring, Baker dosent http://img435.imageshack.us/img435/7748/acfef68ch.jpg I never saw a manager try harder NOT to get one of those than he did in the 2001 playoffs. It helps to have Schilling and Johnson. I'd rather keep the "Brenly face" out of our dugout. So wait. You're saying a manager who doesn't burn out his two super-stud pitchers and wins a World Series because of it should be kept out in favor of one who burns them out and begins a death march into the abyss? Help me out here.

Glad someone else heard "June 10." I was kinda shocked by that. But the more I think about it, if the small cast is coming off on June 3, mid-June doesn't seem too unlikely. Certainly a lot better than July 1 or later that most people originally feared. Sounds more like June 10th is day he returns to *playing*, not returning to the Cubs.

I assume that he didn't just say it in the paper. I assume that what he said "to the paper" was a paraphrase of what he told his team. If you think that there's zero chance of players taking something like that seriously, then why even have a manager? If your players respect you, I do believe they'll listen, and maybe even (gasp!) "try harder". It's a dangerous assumption to make. Many coaches berate players in private while not bashing them publicly. And besides, think about what the criticism is. It's not basketball or football where increased hustle makes an extraordinary difference. Increased concentration and commitment almost always make a difference. The Cubs concentration sucks, and has for years. That's why you see so many crappy outs on the basepaths and dumb plays in the field. The players are to blame, yes, but the majority of the blame goes to Dusty, IMO. EDIT: And how the heck do you know that increased hustle doesn't make a difference in baseball? That's nonsense. I don't buy that a coach ripping the team in platitudes is the difference between them losing a series and then going on a winning streak. And calling out a team in that nature is just as likely to make players press as it is to increase concentration and commitment. You can't hustle your way into hitting a line drive, or making a good throw to first. Come on. He doesn't rip them in private either, you know that. Let's stop pretending. He's a bump on a log; he's doing nothing.

I'd take Brenly. Over Baker? Come on. Easy decision. Would he be my first choice? Probably not. But if it's Brenly now or watch Baker for another 5 months, then give me Brenly please. I'll even take Otto in the booth for 5 months. Basically anything to get Baker out at this point. If someone's got a good idea how to get Hendry out of here too, please share.

Simple question. If we don't want to read articles like this, then why do we put up with the continual, abysmal mismanagement of this ballclub?

Thats why he has added 25 points to his AVG since this weekend?, only idiots thought he would stay cold all season Aram would get good money wherever he went, a decent 3rd baseman that hits for power and average for 10 million, or whatever he is going to make next year, I am not so sure that other teams will shell out that kind of money for a guy that can't play a full season and doesn't always show the desire you like to see in a guy you are paying that much money to, well maybe the Red Sox, but they already have Manny, and Aramis is no Manny. You dont think other teams outside of the red soxs would give more money for a guy who hits 300, 30+ home run, OBP at or above 350 and around 100Rbis in a year that would be typical though, go get rid of someone who has been consistent and get someone who was good 3 years ago and hope he turns out to be that player again ( Jock and Pierre) I still want to keep him. Not sure he's going to approach those numbers this year. We'll see. It's a more difficult lineup to hit in than he's used to. Well---not since his Pittsburgh days anyway.

That's apathy. I'm not there yet. I'm still too busy being angry. :)

Because at this point we'd be extremely lucky to get back half what we paid to land him in the first place. It would be yet another transaction in which Hendry bought high and sold low. (Or, to be more precise, he bought low but paid an inflated price, then went ahead and sold low.) Pierre has been terrible, but there's a good chance his numbers will at least somewhat improve. (They really can't get much worse unless he starts making no contact instead of weak contact.) In addition, I wouldn't coniser Pie fully ready just yet, and he could definitely use a bit more time in the prospect oven. I'd just let Pierre play through his struggles, and hopefully he'll improve to the point where he'd make decent trade bait at the deadline if we're out of it or is doing well enough to contribute to the team if we somehow claw our way back into the playoff race. I suppose. If he's hitting this way at the deadline we're still going to lose our shirts though. It looks very much like the Marlins knew something we didn't and declined to let us in on the joke :wink:

Why move him out of the leadoff spot when we can move him out of town? Get rid of this joker. Bring up Pie. Do it now.

That's not really the pace though. It's like when people were saying the team was still a game over .500, so you can't complain. Yeah, the overall record was "fine" but the trend was downward and it was plainly obvious. Greg has had 5 game stretches like he did to start the season in the past couple years. I want to hope that this won't be the same season, when he racks up the mediocre-to-bad starts almost as quickly as the good. He was great to start the season, but we knew it wouldn't last. The question was how much he'd decline. Right now it's looking like the answer is "quite a bit". It's got to be tough getting up to pitch when you realize what kind of ballclub is behind you. I know he's a professional, but there's nobody helping him out there. Our pitchers go to the mound, and it might as well be the island in the TV show "Lost." No rescue in sight.

To believe, there must be something to believe IN----otherwise we're just gullible. Wood and Prior are just as likely to revisit the DL later in the season as they are to pitch solidly to the end. I'm sorry but until they prove something, that doesn't qualify as "hope." Wade Miller is a big, smiling question mark. Derek Lee will be nice to have back, but it may be too late by then and honestly our offensive woes go much deeper than Lee's absence. There's a reason the Marlins got rid of Pierre, and a reason the Twins got rid of Jones. My God, Hendry got rooked to high heaven on these guys. He's a lightweight by any measure. This is quickly becoming a disaster. Good teams don't go on 7-10 game benders where the entire team is just junk. You may lose a few in a row, but not like this. Not like this.