neely crenshaw

i know this is incomprehendible to dusty but since hairston and cedeno both missed the sign...is it possible the coach screwed up? not out of the question that they both missed it, but when ever two players miss the same sign...it could be that the coach did something else. it's also possible that dusty realized after the fact how freakin' stupid it was and is covering his own tail.....now that sounds more likely!

it's good to see that dusty has learned the error of his ways. no more yanking a guy out of the rotation after a couple of bad starts! thank goodness we get to see if rusch can actually pitch in the majors! no need to see if hill or anyone else might come around...the 10 years that g-unit has been in the bigs certainly aren't enough to tell us anything....let's keep trotting he and perez and macias out there....if rusch throws a freakin' no hitter, it is still the wrong decision to pitch him.

rusch has a 10+ era since july 1, maddux has around 3.33. he has had two poor starts 6 er out of 11 since july1. without those starts he has a sub 2.50. if rusch was in the rotation all year he could not post a 4.47. maddux 's era has steadily dropped, just like last year. he should have his 15 wins already. he has lead us in wins and innings all year. zambrano has one more turn in the rotation. he has not missed a start in two seasons. when this season is done he will have his 32 starts. he will have had about 4-5 poor ones. and i will guess that in his other starts his era will be mid 3's or lower. which is real nice for your no.4. 9 mil is alot for a 3rd or 4th starter but if you ask people to take less money upfront to help the team then undoubtedly you will have to pay more than they are worth at the end. blame hendry for not doing anything when the money was lower!

i think it's ridiculous that you stand behind hendry. he is the one that put together this god awful team to start. it's more of a crime that we are in a situation where we should play kids, than the fact that dusty won't play the kids!

wiliams is 5-5 as a cubs starter...

that will help

Can't say for sure... you may be right. I do know that none of 'em were Dempster's !! Yep. The Cubs have never lost a game that Dempster has entered in a save opportunity. we are certainly pushing this jinx thing here...

it looks like we were doing it at the same time...i was shocked to see aomeone got one in while i was doing it!

pepper is a hitting game where guys line up in front of a hitter, who trys to hit a ground back to them. if they miss the next guy is up. if they hit it and someone boots it, they go to the back of the line. usually it says no pepper in front of stands with no screen, to keep the ball from going in the stands.

duck snort baltimore chop flare gork skillet-hard glove muffin-soft glove "K" for strike out frozen rope uncle charley-curveball lord charles-really good curve ball hose-strong arm twin bill-double header...i believe it comes from having both games listed on the billboard

this looks right up hendry's street. take a gamble on a formerly good player, hoping he comes along, but not spending much/ he has tried this with aram, dempster, williamson, wilson even neifi, grieve and to a certain extent burnitz. with the questions with our pitching...why not. drop him a low ball deal..some incentives and see what happens. getting 2 duis is not good but t's not like he dropping a .30 on the BA level. i would bet most of us have had 3 beers/drinks and driven....that could lend you a dui.

it's very hard to factor in trades. free agents you know who is available but for a trade to takes two to tango. if i could could i'd trade for manny, sheffield, micheal young, clemens,rivera,smoltz and pudge rod. but who knows who is really on the market? i think manram would be but it would probably take aram to get him....i don't see dropping him for prospects even high ones, expecially if they win again! zito may be around but i don't any hitters(maybe murton,they don't need cedeno) that we have, who fit in billyball. and our young pitchers are not on anyone's hotlist anymore. if we are going to tarde for help we need someone who may take achance on patterson because he is young and not real expensive...he could be worth a gamble for his potential. or we need to find someone who needs a shortstop(if we sign furcal) or is willing to drop expensive or soon to be expensive players for prospects/pitching prospects(like choi for lee) tampa,kc or maybe florida might be a place. the real problem is the only value we have is in players we need...murton,hill,cedeno,pie...the others are years away or have real questions about them..patterson,mirtre,wuertz,wellmeyer,guzman, sing,dopriak.. we no longer have much value in our prospects.

[ 1. C! 2.A..we have no other prospects unless you move cedeno or play hairston, which dusty would not do this year 3. B 4. A he wants to start, and i don't see that unless it's in left...don't want that 5. B but should be C 6. B 7.A. 8. C 9. B....we finally filled this hole, please don't be stupid enough to start over, that worked really well last time. unless he gets really greedy and looks to score a huge payday! this will probably be his last chance at a big deal so that worries me. 10. C-PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE! this is not what i would do but what i think the cubs will do.

since july1, his era is almost 1.5 points higher than maddux's....as the season has worn on he has become very average. he is still good but not the prior we all hope for...and need. you all want maddux gone but here's the stats maddux is 10-11 since july 1st his era has dropped from 5.02 to 4.43 during that time, he has gone 3-5 and the cubs have gone3-8 prior on the other hand has gone from 2.68 era to 3.76. during that time he has gone 5-4 and the cubs 7-5. his era during that span has been 4.86, maddux's has been 3.54 take away 2 bad starts(out of 10) for maddux and he has a 2.36...take way prior's one great start and he is at 5.30 for his 11 starts. maddux has also thrown the same amount of innings in one less start. the point is if prior's quality starts came on maddux days the record would be much different. quality starts are nice but we need more than 6 innings and 3 earned runs from prior. if we are going to continue to bank on pitching, we need prior at 2.70 not 3.70! and if this trend doesn't stop or slow down mighty mark prior will be sitting at a 4.00 era this season! quality starts or not.

damon my thought is to sign nomar very cheap, especially if he finishes this year healthy. have cedeno as a back up....if you sign furcal then i guess you either trade cedeno or make him a second basemen. nomar could be a one year deal. if you sign damon either patterson becomes your leftfielder or he is also traded. that would also steer my rightfield decision. if we keep patterson then it's tough to sign giles. we would have 3 lefty starters in the of, all with little to medicocre power(giles and patterson might go 25 but might hit 15 also)if patterson's gone...giles would be the guy! great fit, older but gets on base.obviously manram would be awesome in wrigley but i don't see us pulling it off. i go with murton or another righty. lineup damon-cf walker 2b dlee 1b aram 3b giles rf nomar ss barrett c murton lf p bench...would like to see some with some pop to pinch hit and can play the corners. it would nice to be able to put someone with a bat in for dlee/aram occassionally and not macias! geoff blum? branyan would be great if they would go for it. branyan may look for somewhere to start. i want cedeno up without neifi. i don't have a problem with neifi but if he is here, cedeno won't play. it would be nice to have hairston as a utility player but he will want to be starter also. so i don't think he goes for it. he would be a nice balance to damon, walker or giles against lefties, and to spell murton some also. guardado would be nice as a lefty setup/parttime closer keep dempster rather than sign wagner(just because i know the cubs will not get everyone) the 12 million dollar question is wood. as i see it, the rotation has got to be wood,z,prior and maddux. i don't see anyone taking wood or maddux retiring. so do we sign/trade for another stud starter knowing wood is a huge question mark. of course if we do, it will cut into what we sign for positions.the problem is if we bank on wood and he falters we then have a staff featuring maddux,williams and rusch/hill(or the like) and that will not get it done. i don't see a youngster ready for next year...maybe we go with kerry and an improved offense, then deal at the break if he goes down.

walker is no gold glover but he has been more than decent. sandberg and ripken caught hell about their defense too. no range, doesn't dive. no one will ever be totally happy. most people regurgiatate the defense thing because they have heard it mentioned so they think it's true. how anyone can tell if someone is working on his defense is a question for me. i mean are you there to see if takes extra groundballs early? or on off days? does he watch tape to see if he is doing anything wrong? is he studying hitters to know where to play them?i have no idea. if you know for sure then i guess you can make that statement. if we had a prospect ready or near ready i could see trading todd, but we don't. and for right now he is one of the few cubs who hits for a decent average and gets on base regularly.

and this was with our strong? lineup in. no kids and all the regulars(so called)no murton,cedeno,blance or even macias...sad but true. no reason to play the kids-right?

neifi has had a stellar year...for neifi. if anyone would have guessed that neifi would be pushing .280 with 500 at bats, they would have been committed! but he has. he is not nomar. in the grand scheme of baseball, his year is a rather aberage year but for neifi it is a career year. and unfortunately for the cub fans..it was one of the better years on the team. if patterson had these exact numbers we would be happy even without the pop. i don't want neifi back as a starter, i really want cedeno to play 90% of the games down the stretch but neifi has been a high spot in a very low season.

there is no player om this team that busts his butt everyday. maybe nurton but tough to tell when he isn't out there all the time.

I'm sorry, I was unaware this board was lacking in Corey bashing. The point is there is a discussion of guys who haven'r produced and his name isn't being mentioned. Give me a break. Why does Perez merit greater bashing than patterson? Topic of the hour? Not every discussionhas to be about Corey. This one for instance, is about the Niefster. Some of the people on this board have an unbelievable double standard. there is absolutely nothing argue about with corey....he has been awful, no fun in just agreeing

30 points on a 1000 scale- 500 at bats in a season 15 times on base 25+ weeks in a season basically on base once more every 2 weeks.

Save for OBP? OBP is meaningful, it overrides the avg difference, and SLG is a wash, basically non-existent. Neifi has played a lot more than Hairston, and used differently, which explains the difference in counting stats. Throw-in Neifi's inexcusable 17 GIDPs (compared to JH's 4) and there's no debate. i don't see where a guy getting on base 1 more time every 2 weeks puts everything else out the door. it is certainly arguable that neifi has been better. the point of my whole argument was that it is very sad that this team has been so bad that neifi has been one of the better offensive threats. even if we take the argument that he was the 7th best...with his stats that is terrible.

if you don't care why did you ask the question? i answered. i did not say he was great or didn't suck. i answered your question aboout what i meant by neifi outhit him...i meant he had a higher average. i did not say he was a better player or that he was more valuable just a had a better average.

What does that mean Neifi has outhit him most of the year? Burnitz has been better than Neifi all year. neifi has a better batting average than burnitz for most parts of the season and overall. True, Neifi has had a higher AVG, but there's a lot more that goes into being a hitter than AVG. Burnitz has a better OBP and a far better SLG than Neifi. You really believe that the 10 point advantage in AVG makes up for the 100 point disadvantage in OPS? very true but i did not say neifi was a better hitter, i said he outhit him. which usually refers to batting average like when you say "who is leading the league in hitting?" you mean batting average not best all round hitter... just a misunderstanding