XZero771679666304

It's almost tangible.

it's a lose-lose situation. if he gets the job, he'll be fired, bitter, and hated, if he doesn't, he'll be be snubbed, bitter, and hated. You really think so? I think Ryno is the kind of guy who would get a pass from the fans, and excuses made for him. I don't see him being hated by the fanbase unless something really strange happened.

Ryne Sandberg is my all-time favorite player. As a kid, I covered my walls with Sandberg posters, wore Sandberg jerseys, scoured shops for every Sandberg card I could get my hands on, emulated him as a player, and pretty much revered him. I felt stricken the day I come home from school and turned on the TV to find out he had retired. That said, I don't care much for his philosophy, and don't want him anywhere near the manager's job. Regardless of how it would turn out, I don't think his rep would take much damage. I just think he'd be a horrible manager, and I don't want to have to resent him. In fact, I'd prefer it if he just keeps his mouth shut as much as possible.

Barry Rozner is a [expletive] moron That's one of the most ridiculous things I've ever read. He was a dead pull hitter who didn't hit for average and didn't hit for enough power to justify all his Ks. He stole more bases, but was never a spectacular defender. And at least a big a factor in his becoming an elite player as the roids were adjustments he made at the plate, learning to drive the ball away, lay off (as many) garbage pitches and take walks. The notion that he got worse when he started hitting for huge power is as ludicrous as saying it gets colder after the sun rises. It's Sandberg-esque revere the little things to a fault hogwash. The sad thing is, there are probably a whole lot of people who buy it. Sammy was a self-centered player, sure. And he was almost certainly juiced. But the way he has been vilified just boggles my mind. The man was, for about 5 years, the best Cubs player there has ever been. He was the only reason a non-masochistic person had for tuning into Cubs games for a good long while. He was a showboat, but I never felt like he dogged it, and he was never anything but an asset to the team. The hate for him is just silly.

This

STFU, you naysayer.

This development was totally predictable, and totally appropriate. You get Colvin more ABs, alleviate the logjam in the OF, and hopefully give Kosuke a chance to boost his value before the end of the year (he has a .977 OPS this month). Either Colvin proves himself further, or tanks further so he can be written off as a regular going into the offseason. Colvin is a nice story, and it would be nice if he panned out, but in my amateur opinion is that he has too many holes in his swing not to be exposed. The sooner this happens, the better.

Yeah, pretty much. If an OF has to be moved to 1B, Colvin seems the obvious choice to me. Soriano flat out saying he wouldn't do it may be a tad unprofessional, but at the end of the day it doesn't matter.

Yeah, and while Lee hasn't been totally prone to injury, there is enough history there to make me a tad nervous, especially at his age.

It's not better than Houston, San Antonio, or Dallas. Not even close. I agree, and I hate Texas. It's not nearly better than KC or SLC either, IMO.

I like the Dunn idea, but if the Cubs sign Dunn, do they still pursue AGon? Dunn is going to get at least 3 years from someone. I think the better play is to sign a Branyan or Pena and make a run at Gonzalez for 2012.

You couldn't pay me to live in St. Louis. There are some nice neighborhoods, but between the weather, that stinky river, the crime and the locals, you can keep it. Then again, I'm not a fan of cities. There are only a handful of cities that I like enough to tolerate living in a densely populated urban area for. St. Louis just brings nothing to the table.

It's the same with Santo and Cubs fans. Both are biased to a flaw, and have next to no broadcasting skill. If you're a fan of their team, you probably love them. If you're anyone else, you almost certainly can't stand them. The difference is that Hawk is the PBP guy and gets to torture a national TV audience with his unprofessional shtick for some unfathomable reason.

This team is bad, but not the train wreck the record indicates. Many factors went into this mess. There is enough talent here to contend in 2011 with only a handful of moves made. Now will Jim Hendry make the right moves? I don't have much faith.

Yeah, top 5 here we come!

I am going to take a wild guess that you are not a history major. And what does 2003 have to do with Kerry Wood ? Gotcha. Good lord. 2003 and Kerry Wood was used as comparison to show Riggleman's usage of Wood wasn't nearly as egregious as other instances we have seen, since you attacked Riggleman on that basis. Quite frankly, I'd also take Riggleman over any of the other managers in the past 15+ years. At least unlike others, he has shown the willingness to recognize his mistakes and correct them. Maybe he's a student of history. That's not even beginning to touch the fact that holding up all recent Cubs managers to the same standard doesn't work when many of them had relatively little to work with. Especially when you realize Pineilla and Baker had more talent under them than any other Cubs managers in most of our lifetimes. Both Baker and Piniella have been a victim of circumstance to some degree, but unlike the truly great managers, both demonstrated not only a clear inability to mitigate bad situations, but the tendency to compound them. The basis for your defense of Lou is feeble. The team would have been bad either way, but Lou's management has been laughably bad, as he has consistently failed to make the obvious choices. Lee still batting third is emblematic of the decision making as a whole this season. It's immaterial at this point, but if the team were in a tight race, Lou's foibles could easily have been the difference between being in the playoffs and watching them. No doubt you'll reference the Soto issue yet again, but it has gone far beyond that all year. It's been a litany of boneheaded moves and willful ignorance of the obvious.

Keep telling yourself that, Glass Joe.

Go Cubs Go needs to get the ax, in the worst way. The guest conductor thing is also a tired act, but it doesn't bother me nearly as much.

Keeping Derrek in the 3 spot is just ridiculous. Respecting a guy is one thing, but when you have at least 4 guys who profile much better there (5, since Ramirez's resurgence), there is just no justification.

I thought Yahoo omitted a stolen base. How did that happen? Should have been a double, but DLee fell rounding first.

I'd pay to see that... I'd like to see Z vs. Braun, one on one. To the death. Honestly, Z might be the last person in MLB I would want to have to fight.

I guess at this point in the season, Id rather have a bunch of AAAers who have no business pitching in the majors than overpaying for a bunch of vets who have no business pitching in the majors, and lets face if Hendry doesnt offer run of the mill middle relievers market value, he prefers the multi year/multi million dollar approach. I'd rather have a few relievers from our system who actually have some potential getting these innings so they can contribute in the near future.

Levine mentioned him, but still that's Levine. I would be on board for Torre, Pat Listach would be interesting. I'm of the opinion that the more input Maddux has, the better. Would he want to bite off that much so soon? Who knows.

If Geo qualified, he'd be leading all ML catchers in OPS (.927).

To bad it's only benefiting my fantasy team at this point. It's been the story all year though, never firing on all cylinders.