Transmogrified Tiger

I would agree with all of this. He's made some good trades. His signings have been questionable. You shouldn't have been surprised And I would add that we still have to look at the overall picture, and not just rate certain trades, signings or other moves. And I find it hard to say the overall job has been anything but disappointing. And I would agree with all of that except to say that the overall job has been disappointing with extenuating circumstances. A GM cannot be held accountable for everything that happens on a baseball team. The game itself is fraught with freak happenings, inches here or there, balls landing on a chalk line, umpires making bad calls. It happens, and sometimes it happens in streaks. Was Patterson supposed to pull an el foldo like he did last season? Was Hendry supposed to see that coming? Was Hendry supposed to see Prior getting hit by a line drive? Was Hendry supposed to see Baker using Dempster in the rotation to start the season? Was he supposed to see Dubois tanking like he did? What about the injuries to and the poor performances from the bullpen? Should/Could Hendry have signed better players in RF and LF last season? Absolutely. Did he blow it by leaving the Cubs hoping that Burnitz and Dubois would get the job done? Yes. But thats not what had the Cubs finish under .500, is it? Have the overall results been disappointing the past two seasons? Of course, but you'd have to admit that there have been a lot of things that have happened that were not easily foreseen. By the same token, the unforseen circumstances would be much easier to manage if the appropriate improvements had been made, across the board. Personnel(corner outfield), management(Baker), and philosophical(international scouting, emphasis on OBP/patience) mistakes/failures have been prevalent for a while now, and Hendry hasn't done much to improve any of those situations in some time.

Sure, you can call someone up, but what good does that do you when you are out of bullpen arms and the game is going to extra innings? This is like the situation with Macias last year. He was lauded as the 3rd catcher, but it was a worthless title. Macias was ALWAYS used before Blanco, so his use as a 3rd catcher was absolutely pointless. The hypotheticals you bring up are pretty far-fetched to be making roster decisions off of.

hahahaha, Harbaugh is INTO this game.

5 quick points and an offensive foul drawn, attaway Marquette Novak again!

I'm looking at 5-2 if Montana and Bama hold on(picked Marquette). No second weekend teams lost yet.

that was a shot.

This analyst's exclamations are the comedic highlight of my day.

Why, because they're 1 Rusch win from the World Series? Well of course not but I would think Rusch is a better option then Hill is...No? I wouldn't think that myself. Rusch is proven, but all that he's proven is he's going to stink most of the time. Hill is unproven, but he brings the chance that he'll be good. I think we're arguing over the worst of two evils. Neither has much value, if we make it to the post season, it most likely won't be due to either of their contributions, and either of them would be considered a weak link in our rotation. Hill, Rusch, doesn't matter to me. Both are equally worthless. Which one has the better shot of putting up a better than worthless season? Also, if we make the postseason, I doubt either player will be doing much pitching, especially as a starter.

Why, because they're 1 Rusch win from the World Series? Well of course not but I would think Rusch is a better option then Hill is...No? Definitely not for certain. Rusch has had 2 years that weren't garbage in his entire career. Fortunately for us in 2004(maybe not so much now), one of them came with the Cubs. I think Rusch is just as likely to give you a 1.50 WHIP and 4.50+ ERA as Hill, and Hill is going to strike out more hitters.

hey hey...Missouri isn't on the top of my list either, TT. :) That said, I haven't watched a single Bama game this year. When it comes to hoops...I'm a Hoosier. Alabama and Auburn just usually don't have BB teams that are fun to watch. haha, Mizzou isn't an easy school to like. Tennessee players are acting like they've never dunked a basketball before everytime they get a flush. Feel free, U of I fans to say that it reflects upon the coach. :D

For some reason I really don't like Alabama. For that and my picks' sake I hope Marquette comes back. Plus Crean is an Izzo disciple. Winthrop up 1 again.

Winthrop takes the lead!

I haven't seen Montana take anything outside 5 feet for a long time, they are getting layup after layup.

Same. Woohoo, Montana up 7 at the 12 minute timeout. I wish I could see that instead of Marquette-Alabama, I may try that broadband thing.

Boston sucked on defense. It is interesting, though, that the Red Sox acquired Dave Roberts and Doug Mientkiewicz to help them with speed and defense down the stretch. Help yes, but they didn't win the WS with great defense. They went from brutal to just bad. Mueller,Cabrera,Nixon,Mienk. are all above avg. defensively. They were avg. to above avg. as a team. Nixon is nothing special defensively, and Varitek, Bellhorn, Manny, and Damon are about as bad as it gets.

Taking me to Marquette-Alabama now...

I got Winthrop upsetting UT. I've got Montana taking down Nevada.

Let's go Winthrop and Montana!

New sig. BC running away now.

All early in the season, though. Teams are much different by this point in the year. I think Gonzaga goes out early. To clarify, Gonzaga didn't travel to MSU or Maryland, they were the road team in Maui for those games, the UConn one was in Maui too. I think that shows what Gonzaga is capable of, but I don't know if they can ratchet it up to that level again after so long without seeing that competition.

UW-Milwaukee pushes the lead to 10.

So, Prior and Wood wouldn't get hurt if they weren't sitting naked in a bean bag chair eating cheetos during the offseason.

THE US IS DOOMED IF THEY DON'T GET OFFENSE IN THIS ONE GAME FROM FIRST BASE.

I blame too much studying.

....