Soul

If that's what passes for a "resurgence" these days, then I'd say our Cubbies are in deep, deep trouble.

Carpenter vs. Williams. Ouch. Maybe it would be better if the storms come back and wash us out.

Just terrible. :o I sure hope he's OK.

But how much time did Prior miss? He's still going to pitch 175 innings this year. Ramirez is having a terrrific year. What you fail to realize is that it is not the injuries that have kept the Cubs from leading the Wild Card. It is that even with a normal amount of injuries this is about a .500 team. Macias and Perez are your two best bench options; Hollandsworth logs 200 ABs as your starting LF; a confirmed mediocrity like Burnitz in right (batting 4th or 5th!); Weurtz making 80 appearances; Roberto Novoa is your 8th inning guy after Baker lost confidence in Wellemeyer. Those are games going out the back door that Lee, Ramirez, Prior and Zambrano won in the first place. That's a .500 team. On $100 million that is a poor return. Fair points all around. I completely agree with you on the bullpen situation. My original point was that it was injuries + Dusty that led us to not contending for the wild card. Playing Macias, Perez, and Holly, and overusing Wuertz and Novoa were all decisions by Dusty, not Hendry. Yes, but *having* players like Holly, Macias, and Perez on the team in the first place was Hendry, not Dusty. *Having* pitchers like Novoa & Wuertz as your only decent options for middle relief (they aren't bad, but obviously there should have been better options)----this was Hendry. Yeah Dusty misuses them and he's bad too. I'm not defending him. I'm just saying there's someone else who should be in the crosshairs as well. And his name is Mr. Hendry.

Yes sir. Little league has a site: http://www.littleleague.org/series/2005divisions/llbb/index.htm

I'm not so sure. If Patterson gets on a roll, and Pie hits 260/320, we could afford a Murton in LF. Now if for some crazy reason Sing gets a call up and hits the street running, or Huff is delivered to our doorsteps, we could have a very productive and young OF You want Pie, Patterson, and Murton as your OF next year :shock: ? That's got 4th place written all over it. Sorry, but that would be just terrible. A career dead-ender in RF (cory), a young and not ready CF in Pie, and a AAA player in LF in Murton who will come back to earth (even though he really hasn't flown very high in the first place). That's even worse than what we left camp with this year. Please tell me you were just kidding. I'm not. I dont see Patterson as a "career dead-ender", and for Pie, it might be a jump, but I would accept it. Murton is the iffy part, but as I stated, Huff (or perhaps even Floyd via trade) would make a very nice addition. that would make Pie/Patterson 2/3 of our OF, which you seem terrified of. Yes, I am terrified of that. And frankly, you ought to be as well if you wish to see a successful 2006 season...

I'm not so sure. If Patterson gets on a roll, and Pie hits 260/320, we could afford a Murton in LF. Now if for some crazy reason Sing gets a call up and hits the street running, or Huff is delivered to our doorsteps, we could have a very productive and young OF You want Pie, Patterson, and Murton as your OF next year :shock: ? That's got 4th place written all over it. Sorry, but that would be just terrible. A career dead-ender in RF (cory), a young and not ready CF in Pie, and a AAA player in LF in Murton who will come back to earth (even though he really hasn't flown very high in the first place). That's even worse than what we left camp with this year. Please tell me you were just kidding.

The only guy I can think of who has been better under Rothschild is Glendon Rusch. And maybe Ryan Dempster, although he wasn't too bad before his injury problems and he was a starter, so I'm not sure much credit can be taken there. Rusch. The man who went 1-13 for the Brewers revived his career under Rothschild. And for this, the guy is as slippery as a mobster? The guy has been junk. You know who was much better? Phil Reagan. Bring him back. He did so much more in 1998 with oh, sooooooo much less.

If Patterson and Pie are 2/3 of our outfield next year, it's going to be a long, long season.

So Hendry is supposed to be able to forecast injuries? To some extent, yes. Injuries are part of the game. If you staff your bench with Perez and Macias, and if you staff the bullpen, which is basically a pitching bench, with the likes of Bartosh, Novoa and Remlinger, you deserve the results you get. How many games did the injuries really cost us? Perez for Nomar, maybe a couple of games. A healthy Wood for the collection of garbage, maybe another couple. It's still a .500 team. Burnitz, Hollandsworth, Maddux, etc. Like I said, I think it is fair to say that Hendry has done a bad job of allocating resources. Prior, Wood, Nomar, and Walker have all spent significant time on the DL, and Aramis has dealt with nagging injuries all season. Two of our three best starting pitchers, and three/fourths our starting infield. Wood aside, I don't think Hendry's at fault for not forecasting the following: a ball to ricochet off Prior's arm, Walker to get nailed by Carlos Lee, Aramis to have dealt with this and that all season, and Nomar to tear his groin. I'm not saying Hendry was perfect, but injuries played a big part in our demise this year. Maybe he shouldn't have predicted Wood to be injury free given his history, but if we had the other four at 100% for the entire season we would be in a better position to contend for the wild card. Garciaparra is made of glass. You knew Remlinger was done before the season---that's your big "lefty" out of the bullpen, nice :roll: Everyone knew Woody was an injury waiting to happen. Showed it last year. Prior, I'll give you that: it was a freak injury. I predicted Prior would be injured this year but not like that. I still think there's something fundamentally wrong with a player who's body can spend 5 months 'recovering' and then pull up with major injuries from doing nothing. It wasn't that hard to predict these injuries. And besides, the bench is insanely weak---has been all year long. Hendry did just absolutely nothing to improve it. No closer. Always nice to blow game after game at the beginning of the year while your bullpen tries to "find itself." Meanwhile the Cardinals move further & further ahead. Again----how many years is this going to happen? Shall I continue? The great Hendry has had a worse ballclub every single year he has been in charge. He's overrated. Everyone wants to worship this guy. I don't get it. I understand the excitement over 2003. I was excited too, believe me. But you know what? We ultimately did NOT get the job done, and it's been downhill ever since. Hendry has been a huge part of that failure.

Because after so many innings watching this team, Hughes needs a bucket to puke in.

Atta way, run up those numbers boys! Let's feed the stat-hounds. "Hey our offense wasn't that bad!" :roll:

"Game over, man. Game over!" "What are we gonna do now, huh?" "Why don't we start a minor league system, build up some players?" "That little Twins team does better than us with no stars, and NO PAYROLL!" "Why don't you put them in charge?!?" "Oh yea sure, with those Cardinals and Astros in our division? You can count us out!" "I guess we can just count the Cubs out of everything, is that it?" "That's right man. You go out and win with Dusty. You go." ](*,)

"Jesus, Ace where are you?!?" "I'm in SUCKSVILLE and Dusty's the mayor!" "You have to commit me......" "I seem to have some trouble letting go of the game." "That's why Kerry Wood's arm is dead! He found Mr. Dusty!!!" 8-[

Screw it. Lets see how badly the Cubs can get beat tonight. If they want to play like clowns, then don't be upset when Cub fans treat their games like a Circus.

More like: Welcome to Sucksville, Dusty. Population: You! Sigh, I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue... LOL :lol:

Welcome to sucksville U.S.A Cubbie fans. Oh Yeah....Uh-Huh, that's right.....it's YOUR Chicago Cubs!! :roll:

Bad statement. Sounds like he is just a frustrated fan who has a microphone that reaches tons of listeners. Still though, gotta watch what you say a little bit when it's your profession and everything. There are plenty of other ways he could have stated his frustration with just as much edge, yet not offended anyone. The guy is a radio host, so alot of this is planned in advance. He should have planned it better.

XZ, I agree we would be a much better team without all the injuries and mismanagement. Trouble is, we knew Dusty's shortcomings before the season started, and we pretty much knew there would be alot of injuries. You had to figure in the contingencies. Most teams would be significantly better if everything went perfectly. The trick is, what obstacles will appear for that team and how badly will it hurt them? In the Cubs' case, the obstacles in terms of injury and poor management were likely to be pretty massive. And most of them materialized, unfortunatley.

Didn't have Dempster all year.....he's good now though, although he doesn't get many opportunities lately. Maddux: you're talking Maddux in his prime. Now, he's only good some of the time. Prior is fine, but hasn't been here all year. We really have had Z, a terrible middle relief staff, and part-time contributions from Prior, Dempster, & Wood. Doesn't sound as great now, does it... It's a .500 ballclub.

Unfortunately, they aren't even playing .500 ball right now. That's how bad its gotten. True ](*,)

As opposed to getting hurt again in the field? How do you handle a player made of fine China? Play him every day?

They are playing like a .500 ballclub because that's what they are.

how can you not believe a word canseco says? he was the first to say that palmeiro juiced, and we've recently found out that he has. ESPECIALLY when you realize that the specific chemical that Jose claimed to have injected into Raffy is the same one that has leaked out as being the one Palmeiro tested positive for. Gotta love how Gene Orza is upset that the truth leaked out about Palmiero. Yet, not a word of disappointment that a supposed "hall of fame" ballplayer was actually a cheat. The players' union are truly enemies of the truth.

Hmmmm......seems strange that, right after everything Canseco said about Palmiero has been proven to be absolutely right on the money, folks come out and refuse to believe anything he says. This sounds a little like the "damned if you do, damned if you don't" scenario. Some people just don't like Canseco. Even if he was screaming at someone on railroad tracks to move out of the way of an oncoming train they STILL wouldn't believe him because he's a "slimeball." Well, slimeball he is. But he's also been proven to be telling the truth about Palmiero. I, for one, will be taking his words on who was using steroids more seriously from now on. Let's not forget he also said he & McGwire personally injected steroids together, and a short while later Big Mac---looking like a deflated baloon--was before Congress refusing to answer questions from Congressmen & women. Oh, BTW---the Canseco saga is not over. He's going to be writing another book detailing many more people behind the scenes who were involved in Steroid-gate.