Soul

It was not his son, but his son DID get drafted in June! Ahhhh. Very interesting :)

David DeJesus for the Royals, and no, I don't think he is related to Ivan. Good lord Nomar. Thanks (both of you) I mean, it's just a simple throw from shortstop to first. Why does it seem we can't execute when it matters?

A player named DeJesus had an inside-the-parker today. Forgive my ignorance: is that Ivan DeJesus' son/nephew/something? Anyone know?

Feels good to have some solid middle relief for a change, doesn't it?

That's true. The .306 OBP with an average of .293 tells me the guy never takes a walk, which limits his effectiveness. I'm beating my head against the wall cause Macias didn't take a walk. 4-3 is better than 5-3. The guys a bench player who can play a bunch of positions. You want to bring back DuBois, who has a lower obp and can't play any positions? I wasn't speaking of that AB, I was speaking in general. And you know it. But you had to throw in a useless, sarcastic comment anyway. Thanks.

The nitpicking of Macias and Neifi's a bunch of crap. Macias is a utility player, who hits .300. I have no idea why he and Neifi have become the whipping boys. This team was not built around them. It was built around a couple guys named Wood and Prior. Maybe it was built around the wrong two guys then. Just a thought.

That's true. The .306 OBP with an average of .293 tells me the guy never takes a walk, which limits his effectiveness.

Get a hit? Well yeah, get a hit 8) I was referring to taking it back up the middle rather than trying to swing for the fences or trying to do too much.

Damn dudes (& ladies). That was just a nice, nice piece of hitting from the Gremlin. That is *exactly* what to do in that situation.

Yeah. We've been patient for 100 years. How much more patience do we need to have? But I do appreciate your point of view.

That's alright. I'm O.K. with a little "ire" right now. Because as I Cub fan, I don't really think it's O.K. to be happy with what's going on right now.

The problem is that throughout this argument you've sounded a whole lot like someone trying to assign all or nearly all of the blame to Hendry. Unless I am mistaken, no one here has said that Hendry is an awesome or stellar GM. He is certainly flawed, but has done enough to merit another chance, IMO. Dusty hasn't. I have used hyperbole to make my point. It's true.

Well, at least you're finally admitting some of the blame should fall on Hendry for the decision to hire Dusty. That's alot more than I thought I would get out of you. As for the chain of command: oh come on, you can't honestly tell me you have never entertained the thought of where this club might be if the Tribune sold it to a more proven owner. At least a more dedicated ownership team. I know I have. How many World Series titles have the Tribune deliverd? There's no reason to have any loyalty to them or shield them from criticism. MacPhail either. I think this whole thing has to be blamed on everyone involved. I see alot of Dusty bashing. I engage in alot of Dusty bashing. It's high time Hendry took some heat too. If we want to extend that to MacPhail and the Tribune ownership team (or whatever they call the committee dedicated to the Cubs---probably the Cubs Steering Committee, hah), fine by me.

Why did it have to? Other teams don't operate like that. The Braves moves in 2004 haven't impacted their ability to play well in 2005. You may think that passes for good front-office work. I'm telling you it doesn't. And I'm right, because the result is teams like the Braves win every year and we don't. Of course I agree putting the team in contention was a good choice. However, sacrificing the future for a season isn't what perennially successful clubs do. They win every season. That's what I like about you Vance. You pull up all the details. I'm not as concerned about details as I am about being a successful franchise year in and year out. And that isn't happening. I'm concerned about results. If I don't see them, then blame must be assigned. Everyone else feels the same way: that's why the Dusty bashing on this board never ceases, myself included. Hendry deserves some of that blame as well. Why did he have to "mortgage the future" for 2004 when other successful franchises, even on less money, don't have to do that? We have the largest payroll/budget in the NL, vance. If we can't win with that, then using the excuse that the "money wasn't there" is ridiculous. Even so, I certainly wouldn't have forgiven 2005 bad play just because we made the World Series in 2004. Only because he made it that way. The only thing that's ridiculous is making excuses for a failure. And yet, year after year, others make moves in each offseason, develop players each offseason, put together teams each offseason, and win each and every season. Yet we cannot. For your point to have validity, the moves that teams like the A's, Braves, Cardinals, and others would have to have a bad effect on future years. Yet it doesn't.

You haven't done squat to address my post, because you can't. You cannot attribute that lion's share of the 2005 failure to Hendry, and I pretty well proved why. Dusty is at least 50% responsible for the Cubs record this year. If you can refute what I said in my post, go ahead. Dusty is at least 50%. And Hendry hired Dusty. There. I just completely refuted it. Again.

I wasn't talking about 2004. I'm talking about now. You think the team they will be fielding this evening is better than the one that went to the playoffs in 2003? I hope not. The team is in a shambles NOW. Who knows what would have happened in 2004----though it was disturbing that when we finally got healthy, that was when we bought the farm. While we were still injured, we actually played better. I wasn't complaining about Hendry last year. You can try to shift the focus of the discussion to 2004 if you want. I'm not buying. I'm talking about looking back at the end result of 3 years of Hendry, and not liking what I am seeing. It's a 2005 perspective, not a 2004 one.

XZero is right. Sliding into first slows you down. Omar is wrong in his analogy: 1) Sometimes a dive for a ball in the outfield is necessary to get the glove into the correct position to catch the ball. It doesn't have much to do with moving faster in these cases. 2) In other cases, a dive for a ball is accompanied by a final leap, which gives a temporary boost in kinetic energy. Unfortunately, crouching down to slide into first base makes it basically impossible to "leap" at the bag. I'm pretty sure somebody did a study that proved diving into 1st slows you down. But I can't remember who or where to dig it up.

I answered all your questions one by one. Then you just rationalized why my answers didn't mean anything and I'm not going to play that game. My answers to your questions stand, and they prove that Hendry has dropped the ball. Hey dude. If you're OK with a .500 ballclub out of contention in mid-August, that's your business. I'm not. Hendry built this club, and it's not in contention. Therefore he should get some of the blame. I'm looking around the league at ballclubs who *ARE* getting it done. I'm looking at frachises like the A's, who are in contention year after year on a fraction of our payroll. They do it with callup after callup. Where are our callups? Where's our calvalry to save the season? Nowhere to be found. I'm looking at teams like the Braves, who have done it for years with a solid foundation and great F.A. signings. Now they're doing it with a great minor league system feeding the major league ballclub. Again---where is ours? They have a much better manager than we do, too. So---why didn't we hire a better one? Hendry dropped the ball on that, too. I'm looking at even a team like the Brewers. They have no payroll, for all practical purposes. How can they be ahead of us in the standings and you won't even consider Hendry might have failed? What a minor league system they have developed. Meanwhile, ours has been drained.....by HENDRY, and the results have been we are out of contention. The Cardinals do it another way: they sign great F.A.s every year, and piece together a ballclub with deftness and good assessments. So---why is Jocketty able to do this but Hendry can't? How can a new franchise like the Marlins already have 2 World Series Championships and nobody's upset? How does that happen? My point is, Hendry is not getting it done. Why is this even a debate? The ballclub stinks. Hendry is in charge. It's about time he started getting some of the blame. Cbbryan----I agree MacPhail should get some heat. But if I'm going to be crucified on this board for calling foul on one beloved Cubs employee, don't expect me to be crucified for trying to call out all of them at the same time!

Yeah, you all know I'm right but you can't accept it because you put your faith in Hendry. I did too. But I know when to cut bait if the guy isn't getting the job done. And he's not. So rationalize all you want. I knew this Cub team would be where they are in February. I told you all as much, and was summarily dismissed. That's fine. I'm right about Hendry too. With him as GM, the Cubs will not return to 2003 form. Just wait and see. I know I'll never convince you guys with my words because that's impossible. Time will do the convincing for me. Wait and see. That's all I ask.

I'm sick of waiting for Corey to produce. He's old enough & experienced enough now. Produce, or we need to find someone who can.

Understood. Although, as I have been saying, if you hire a manager who can't get the job done, then at some point that also has to come back on you.

You knew Nomar was going to be injured for the season? Wow you have some amazing talents. No closer? We have a solid closer in Dempster. Hendry was intent on making him the closer all winter. At some point during spring training either he or Dusty decided with the injuries of Prior and Wood he should be shifted to starter. What middle relief did you want him to sign? Middle relievers aren't worth giving big dollars to because they're so inconsistent. Remlinger and Hawkins were two of the top relief options when we signed them. Honestly who else were you going to sign to backup Nomar who was willing to be a backup? Please, give me one example of someone who would have been a major upgrade on Neifi that was willing to play behind Nomar. You wanted him to re-sign Clement and also make those other upgrades on the same budget? How was he going to do that? Besides, Matt hasn't exactly been pitching up to that contract this year. Hollandsworth is fine as a 4th OF. Hendry doesn't pencil in the lineups everyday. Where was he going to dump Remlinger without eating almost his entire contract? Macias is fine as a 25th man. Again, Hendry doesn't fill in the lineups. For all of your complaints, I'd like to see what you would have done on a similar budget to counteract the poor decisions that you think Hendry made. Yes, I knew Nomar was going down for the season in February. And I wasn't the only one. Didn't take any talent at all----he always goes down. He's made of glass. Solid closer in Dempster?? How about having a solid closer coming out of spring training for a change, instead of blowing leads in April & May until you figure out what to do? There's a novel idea: have a good team coming out of spring training!! Oh, wait, it's only a novel idea in Wrigleyville. All the other winning teams have already figured that out. Middle relief---wow, there were plenty of guys available. I'll give you one: Dustin Hermanson. He's done very, very well on the South Side. Yet Hendry didn't even give him a look. Why? As for a backup to Nomar---how about signing a decent shortstop who isn't made of glass in the first place? Other than that, there is a massive laundry list of players who are better than Neifi Perez. He's junk and everyone knew it. Are you saying no other teams signed a backup shortstop who was better than Neifi Perez last offseason? That's a big glass of Cubbie Kool-ade!! You're allowed to drink it if you want to, of course. And I'm allowed to call it what it is. Hendry already did dump Remlinger. So why wait until now? So you're saying Macias is good for a guy with half his butt back in the minors? OK, I'll give you that. I expect more from my bench though. Especially when our bench is as woeful as it has been. Budget? The Cubs have the biggest budget in the NL. Teams with less than 1/3 of our payroll are beating us in the standings. This isn't about budget. How can you possibly even bring that up, when the Cards are 20 games better than us on many, many millions less budget? How about the Stros? What's their budget----20 million less? 25? Again----yes, Baker fills out the lineup cards. So who hired Baker? Yep---Hendry was the guy who wanted him. So sorry dude, but that one isn't going to fly either.

Except that there's no way Baker would come here for anything less than four years. And Jim Hendry wanted him badly enough to give it to him. Right. So again: how is Hendry escaping the axe? I never hear any media on his case, nobody ever examines the endless train of bad moves he has made to get us in this position, the incredible ignorance of players who were obviously not capable of staying injury free, the blind seeking of Dusty Baker without knowing anything about his lack of actual managerial skills. In my view this whole debacle rests right at the feet of one Mr. Jim Hendry. Every season has been worse than the last. Every year a deeper nightmare. Sure he made a couple good moves in 2003. Good for him. GM's with TALENT make great moves every single season. Witness Jocketty and Beane. Hendry couldn't touch their jock straps. It's time for Hendry to go back to running the minor leagues and bring in an actual talented GM. Talent-wise, the Cubs are probably not as bad as their record indicates. They sould be a couple games over .500 unstead of five games under. I really don't have a problem with most of the Cubs roster as it stands--which is Hendry's job--but I don't like the way it's being used--which is Baker's job. I see. And who wanted Baker to be his manager? Case closed.

Except that there's no way Baker would come here for anything less than four years. And Jim Hendry wanted him badly enough to give it to him. Right. So again: how is Hendry escaping the axe? I never hear any media on his case, nobody ever examines the endless train of bad moves he has made to get us in this position, the incredible ignorance of players who were obviously not capable of staying injury free, the blind seeking of Dusty Baker without knowing anything about his lack of actual managerial skills. In my view this whole debacle rests right at the feet of one Mr. Jim Hendry. Every season has been worse than the last. Every year a deeper nightmare. Sure he made a couple good moves in 2003. Good for him. GM's with TALENT make great moves every single season. Witness Jocketty and Beane. Hendry couldn't touch their jock straps. It's time for Hendry to go back to running the minor leagues and bring in an actual talented GM. That's a completely unfair assessment. What "endless train of bad moves"? Alfonseca, Estes, Maddux, and not getting full value for Sosa (he was obviously put in a bad spot) is all I count. There are plenty more good than bad moves. You can't honestly complain about the trades he's made. You can't complain about the FA signings too much, especially in light of the money and years the non-Cubs have received. Oh come on. Unfair assessment? The Garciaparra signing---everyone knew he would be injured for the season. If you didn't, then you weren't seeing him objectively. No closer-----NO CLOSER. No middle relief of consequence. Keeping Remlinger. Keeping Macias on the team. Thinking Neifi was the answer if Nomar went down. Hollandsworth. Clement. CLEMENT! Add those to your list. It's been all downill since '03, my fellow Cub fan. And Hendry has been at the center of it all.

Except that there's no way Baker would come here for anything less than four years. And Jim Hendry wanted him badly enough to give it to him. Right. So again: how is Hendry escaping the axe? I never hear any media on his case, nobody ever examines the endless train of bad moves he has made to get us in this position, the incredible ignorance of players who were obviously not capable of staying injury free, the blind seeking of Dusty Baker without knowing anything about his lack of actual managerial skills. In my view this whole debacle rests right at the feet of one Mr. Jim Hendry. Every season has been worse than the last. Every year a deeper nightmare. Sure he made a couple good moves in 2003. Good for him. GM's with TALENT make great moves every single season. Witness Jocketty and Beane. Hendry couldn't touch their jock straps. It's time for Hendry to go back to running the minor leagues and bring in an actual talented GM.