17 Seconds

I know I'm late, but... How are you gonna lose to Wisconsin? Come on...

It all depends on how Ricketts feels about Lou I guess. I know the current guys incharge think very highly of Lou. One question I have is has Lou ever been fired? Most managers haven't been. Nobody ever thought Torre wouldn't be welcome back either and he was basically run out of town (despite the BS one year offer that was only made to save face). Sometimes you just have to make changes. Like I said though, it's not a matter of whether or not they think highly of him. Of course they do, and I doubt they'd blame him if they choked 3 straight years. I'm just saying at that point it would probably be time for a change. When you completely are overwhelmed by the stage andget swept once, you can write it off as a lot of things. When it happens twice, you start making character changes in the clubhouse (Wood, DeRosa, Bradley). If it happens 3 times in a row, you have to get drastic and completely change the attitude in the clubhouse. That would start with changing managers....whether Lou is to blame or not. Now that I think about it though.... if the Cubs make the playoffs and choke again this year, I bet Lou would retire.

I'm not so sure. If the Cubs make the playoffs again and totally freeze up and get swept agin, I could see them wanting to shake things up and fire Lou... even if he might not deserve. At that point you can no longer just make some roster moves and hope everything will be okay in Octboer. You'd have to have a major change in the clubhouse. Hopefully it doesn't come to that, because I don't think Lou has anything to do with the choking.

The Cubs payroll is currently 137.2m, take away Miles 2.2m and keep DeRosa and our payroll is 140.5m. I'm starting to think getting rid of DeRosa had more to do with getting Fontenot regular AB's then anything. Because I don't think the 3.3m saved is really the issue. I think they like Fontenot bat alot, and feel he can put up simliar numbers to DeRosa, but from the LH side of the plate. Now I wouldn't have made the move, because I'm worried about the outfield depth. But I can understand the Cubs liking Fontenot and wanting to give him regular AB's. We will just have to wait and see how these moves work out next year. I have a feeling they will work out alot better then some think. I don't know. Fontenot got a nice chunk of PAs last season (284) and you'd figure that since they just added a right fielder who is a virtual lock to miss time (whether Hendry wants to admit it or not) he figured to get a lot this year even if DeRosa was still on the team. Either way, you can never have too many good hitters, especially when you've got more than one injury prone starters. For a team that's admittedly in "all out win mode", I don't think they woud trade away a good hitter just to get another guy at-bats when the one they're trading away is pretty much a sure thing to produce and can play multiple positions. For those reasons 9not to mention the less than stellar package Hendry got back), I think it was 100% a salary dump. I probably would have been indifferent on the offseason had they kept DeRosa. I just don't see how you can plan to sign Bradley and then get rid of your number 1 insurance policy. That's really bad planning to me. Every other option for when Bradley goes down seems pretty ugly. Johnson against RHP, Fukudome against LHP, Gathright Hoffpauir, Miles.... all those guys look pretty gross. I've heard the argument that Jim could go out and get somebody if Bradley goes down.....but unless he goes down with a significant injury where you know he'll be out for months, I don't see Jim trading for anybody good to fill in... not if it's only for a few weeks and we have limited trading pieces as it is.

I'd like a mod actually show me what I did wrong in this thread and get a response other than "I don't have time, I'm going to bed" followed by like 4 insults. Seriously, can a mod actually look through his. I mean, seriously. Talk about attacking the poster and not the post. "Oh that Dexter...starting fights again. There's really no other explanation"

Make my PMs actually work and I will I don't have time tonight to try and figure out why they don't. So don't report any more posts unless you actually want something done about it, and don't whine when someone does do something about it. Huh? I reported the earlier post when he flipped out on me for no reason because I was sick of it. Then he stopped and we started talking about something else in a reasonable manner. Now I'm whining because I didn't intend for somebody to come in here and tell us to "break it up guys" as a solutionKind of weird, especially when that was done hours ago. Your PMs should work now, so you can complain privately now. So I'm complaining because what you're doing doesn't make sense? Okay. Next time I'll refrain from reporting something now that I know the result will just be a od saying "Hey shut up guys" 4 hours later, followed by ripping me for oing nothing just because of things I've said in the past.

Make my PMs actually work and I will I don't have time tonight to try and figure out why they don't. So don't report any more posts unless you actually want something done about it, and don't whine when someone does do something about it. Huh? I reported the earlier post when he flipped out on me for no reason because I was sick of it. Then he stopped and we started talking about something else in a reasonable manner. Now I'm whining because I didn't intend for somebody to come in here and tell us to "break it up guys" as a solution? Kind of weird, especially when that was done hours ago anyways.

Make my PMs actually work and I will

One a side note..... if Pie ends up OPSing like .770 next season and Hill suddenly become good or even adequate, I think i'm going to flip out based on the orioleshangout alone

? That was done a while ago. We're fine having our current discussion right now

I don't get this reference

maybe if it's bouncing you should try controlling it first

Fukudome is still in the lineup (against RHP, so for the majority of the games) so Bradley isn't replacing him. He's basically replacing Edmonds. Fontenot is replacing DeRosa. I'll play nice but, as usual, you're fixated on semantics. It really doesn't matter who replaced who where, it's about the overall effect on the offense. If you believe that Bradley is better than 2008 DeRosa and that Fontenot can is better than 2008 Fuku, you have to say they got better. CF platoon notwithstanding. Obviously health will be a much bigger issue than CF production. Why does it matter if Fontenot is better than Fukudome? That implies Fukudome has been replaced, when he hasn't. Nobody is replacing Fukudome. He's still in the lineup. Edmonds is the one who is being taken out of the lineup. It's to determine what kind of upgrade or downgrade we'll see though since Edmonds didn't play a full season. Plus we got a .900+ OPS from Fontenot in a good chunk of at-bats and that doesn't seem likely to be duplicated. Why does it matter if Fontenot is better than Fukudome? Becasue he will (or at least appears set to) take the AB's that Fuku loses this year. How? Fukudome is slated to be the every day CF against RHP, meaning he'll be getting close to the amount of at-bats he got last season. He's still playing. He's not being replaced by anybody. Not to mention Fontenot still got 243 at-bats last season. If Fukudome plays against every RHP, how many AB's does he figure to get next season? Like 400, at least?? He had 501 last season, meaning he's only losing about 100 at-bats, or less, while Fontenot only gains like 150-200 Really, Bradley is replacing Edmonds (except he'll be playing every day...when healthy) and Fontenot is replacing DeRosa. Fukudome is not being replaced in the lineup, he's just switching positions. Jeebus. Could you please stop with the semantics? It doesn't matter who is replacing who where, just that the production will be coming from different places than last year form a couple of guys. Bradly can counter DeRos 500 AB's. Fontenots possible 450 to 500 AB's will counter Fukudomes 2008 500 AB's. And the Fuku/johnson platoon will be compared to the Johnson/Edmonds platoon. You're too focused on who is replacing who that you're ignoring the point - weather this years lineup will be worse than last years. I'm sorry, but nothing I'm saying is semantics at all. Fukudome doesn't belong anywhere in this conversation. Naturally, we're discussing things that have changed between 2008 and 2009, since we're comparing the two. Fukudome hasn't changed. He's still in the lineup. He's irrelevant to this conversaton.. That doesn't make sense. We are comparing this year's team to last year's team. Fukudome is not being replaced by anything. He is still in the lineup. Nobody is replacing him just like nobody is replacing Lee, Ramirez, Soriano, Theriot, or Soto. Nothing has changed there. It has nothing whatsoever to do with semantics. We're talking about the lineup dude, not the defense. If guys like Lee, Ramirez, Soto, Soriano, etc don't belong in this conversation, then neither does Fukudome. We need to sotp talking about him. He's still here and still in the lineup. Okay, let's do it your way. If Bradley is replacing DeRosa's at-bats, and Fontenot is replacing Fukudome's at-bats.... who is replacing Edmonds 298 PAs of a .927 OPS? Who is replacing Fontenot's 284 PA's of .909 OPS? Together, that's almost a full season of a .900+ OPS. Let's say miraculously Bradley stays healthy all year and matches that. Okay, that takes cares of that. Now to replace DeRosa, we'd need Fontenot and Miles to combine for an .857 OPS at 2B. Those are the 2 things that need to happen to equal to replace last year's production, assuming the other regulars do what they did last year. We'd basically need close a full season of .900 OPS from Bradley and an .850 OPS from 2B.

Fukudome is still in the lineup (against RHP, so for the majority of the games) so Bradley isn't replacing him. He's basically replacing Edmonds. Fontenot is replacing DeRosa. I'll play nice but, as usual, you're fixated on semantics. It really doesn't matter who replaced who where, it's about the overall effect on the offense. If you believe that Bradley is better than 2008 DeRosa and that Fontenot can is better than 2008 Fuku, you have to say they got better. CF platoon notwithstanding. Obviously health will be a much bigger issue than CF production. Why does it matter if Fontenot is better than Fukudome? That implies Fukudome has been replaced, when he hasn't. Nobody is replacing Fukudome. He's still in the lineup. Edmonds is the one who is being taken out of the lineup. It's to determine what kind of upgrade or downgrade we'll see though since Edmonds didn't play a full season. Plus we got a .900+ OPS from Fontenot in a good chunk of at-bats and that doesn't seem likely to be duplicated. Why does it matter if Fontenot is better than Fukudome? Becasue he will (or at least appears set to) take the AB's that Fuku loses this year. How? Fukudome is slated to be the every day CF against RHP, meaning he'll be getting close to the amount of at-bats he got last season. He's still playing. He's not being replaced by anybody. Not to mention Fontenot still got 243 at-bats last season. If Fukudome plays against every RHP, how many AB's does he figure to get next season? Like 400, at least?? He had 501 last season, meaning he's only losing about 100 at-bats, or less, while Fontenot only gains like 150-200 Really, Bradley is replacing Edmonds (except he'll be playing every day...when healthy) and Fontenot is replacing DeRosa. Fukudome is not being replaced in the lineup, he's just switching positions.

yeah, why would pujols want to team up and form a combo of 2 of the best RHB of all time? what a fool

I'm sure Boras loves quotes like that coming out to the media

It seems like even when they win, it's a win thy they barely scratch out even while being outshot and outplayed. I can't remember the last time I watched a game where they handily outplayed the other team, and I watch most of the games.

/thread

Absolutely pathetic. What happened to this team? Everytime I turn on the game they're getting dominated....even when they win

that really doesn't sound like something hendry would say.... or any GM for that matter

Fukudome is still in the lineup (against RHP, so for the majority of the games) so Bradley isn't replacing him. He's basically replacing Edmonds. Fontenot is replacing DeRosa. I'll play nice but, as usual, you're fixated on semantics. It really doesn't matter who replaced who where, it's about the overall effect on the offense. If you believe that Bradley is better than 2008 DeRosa and that Fontenot can is better than 2008 Fuku, you have to say they got better. CF platoon notwithstanding. Obviously health will be a much bigger issue than CF production. Why does it matter if Fontenot is better than Fukudome? That implies Fukudome has been replaced, when he hasn't. Nobody is replacing Fukudome. He's still in the lineup. Edmonds is the one who is being taken out of the lineup. It's to determine what kind of upgrade or downgrade we'll see though since Edmonds didn't play a full season. Plus we got a .900+ OPS from Fontenot in a good chunk of at-bats and that doesn't seem likely to be duplicated.

Fukudome is still in the lineup (against RHP, so for the majority of the games) so Bradley isn't replacing him. He's basically replacing Edmonds. Fontenot is replacing DeRosa. And our bullpen is probably worse than last year. Damn, no Eyre or Howry. Or Wood Plus Eyre was really good for the Phillies. I'd love to have him back All Eyre and Marquis had to do was be traded to go from NSBB whipping boys to beloved quality pitchers. When Eyre was still on the team and not being used, many people here were wondering why, and many people were wondering why we dumped him. He only gave up 1 run in his first 10.1 IP last season, then he had 3 straight bad games and they just quit on him. That's when he went to Philly and was light out. Also he had a .74 ERA over his last 30 games (24.1 IP) of 2007. He would have good stretches. And then turn to crap so you couldn't trust him any more except for mop up work. I would say that the 7.15 ERA and 1.71 WHIP while with the Cubs is why they quit on him. But hey, I am sure he really is great and a guy like Gregg is completely useless junk. Eyre had a good 06, a bad first half of 07, a great second half of 07, and was very good in 2008 outside of one bad 3 game stretch. That means he was good for the vast majority of the past 3 season, yet you're making him out to be awful. People just hate him because they only remember when he was really bad. He's notg reat by any means, but he's above average and at the very least.. a great LOOGY. Something that we don't have.

except that hill actually had a full good season

Yeah we're talking about the team on the field, not the factors that led to that team

It's risk/reward. What's the benefit to trading away Hill? You get a low A reliever. Even if there's a 5% chance that Hill can contribute something this year, that's a better bet than the PTBNL turning into anything. i'd say it's much more likely that the PTBNL helps the cubs than rich hill ever would. as hendry said himself, rich had his shot and he blew it. he blew it pretty badly. Except for that entire season where he was really good yeah he was awesome in 07. but then he forgot how to throw strikes in 08. past success doesnt really mean much when you can't do the fundamental thing a pitcher is supposed to do -- throw strikes. But you said he was given his chance and blew it, which isn't really true. He was given his chance, did really well, and then fell apart. And where did Hendry ever say he was given his chance and blew it?