neely crenshaw

the problem is they have nothing else! did anyone else notice that burnitz' numbers are becoming very simlar to sammy's awful numbers in baltimore! sammy trails by a couple hr's and a dozen ribs with 80 fewer at bats! i still like the effort burnitz brings but his average(just as someone stated would happen) is falling quickly back to his non colorado numbers of the last 4 years. he will probably fall to .250 befor e the season ends. barrett maybe high on ribs but his overall offensive stats are not much beyond damian miller....he is about 15 rated overall.

i can hope but isn't this the 75th time we are asking for the cubs to start with winning one game?

i think if there were some magic switch back in the clubhouse, they would have flipped it by now....

also it much easier to take a guy who k's too much and walks very little when he is hitting 50+ homers. then it is a case when you would rather have him swinging than walking simply because there is a great chance of something big happening. with corey that is not the case and will never be the case. he can be a decent player but if he wants to be great he has to put the ball in play more.

i don't know if it's better but it would be much more consistent. my choice would be if we go with a cedeno type at short(or furcal) we can't have 2 outfielders like pierre and freel. i like them both but that would mean we are depending on corey for big numbers and we need him to be a complimentary player not the big bopper. it also means that lee and aram must have big years again. i am not sure we will ever see numbers like this from lee again. no knock on lee but those are ted williams like numbers! i like the staff..but we can't count on them and with this offense we would be depending on them to be healthy all year, if any go down for any number of games we could be done again. if we could have wood,z and prior be themselves all year we could do this lineup easily. it is a possibly great defense which would maginfy the pitching- much like atlanta did in the 90's. a couple big boppers and guys that get on and play defense. the difference is that galvine,smoltz and maddux simply never missed starts or had bad years.

are you kidding me..this isn't the managers fault. you talk about the solid core of players we have and then mention 2 players and 2 pitchers. the problem is that is all we have. nomar could be good but hasn't been healthy for several years. we have youngsters with promise but so far they haven't worked out. i like some of these players but if you are honest, at least 20 teams would never consider switching outfields with us. or 2nd basemen or catchers... etc. we have located a closer but did you realize that EVERY pitcher we started the season with in the bullpen is gone! that is a horrible job of putting together a team. poor decisions from dusty aside, connie mack could not win with this collection. it is .500 team at best. and we all want to blame dusty especially because we are now behind the brewers but the facts are that top to bottom the brewers have better players than we do.

once again maddux pitches well in a loss. people call for his head but the truth is has pitched very well in his last 5 save for one bad outing(really bad) he could be sitting at 14-15 wins right now.

i wish it weren't, but i definitely think it is. I think JH has been one of the better GM's in baseball. Sure he's had shortcomings, but as a whole, his body of work is impressive. i disagree completely. he has been turned lose with the checkbook and delivered a very poor product. i can not believe he is around if this team isn't much better next year....hopefully before that. he has a 100 mil payroll and we had an outfield of burnitz,hairston and holla...eeh

all teams have successes and busts but it seems like ours hangs on to all of them until they are no longer worth anything. one of the main positives about having a greta fram system is that you can trade some of them for proven talent. never more true than now, with today's financial situation you hav e 10 teams that are more than willling to regularly sell their high priced talent for promising prospects. a great example, the phils traded brandon duckworth for billy wagner. duckworth has not sniffed the rotation depite all the injuries to the staff last year. how many pitching prospects did we have that were of equal value to duckworth?

i doubt that houston will play at a .551 level for the rest of the season. the cubs blew it right of the gate when we played all the teams that were at or below .500 but we obviously did not make our move. we still have a chance but as i have said we can only hope to win if the others faulter ala washington. 85 wins is the best we can hope for, and that may be a stretch!

the garland trade was awful not because graland is now lights out but because at the time he was a prospect and the cubs traded him for a terrible left handed reliever. surely we didn't need to do this. this would be like someone giviong us any pitching prospect at all for remingler...that would be robbery! the cubs have been terrible at judging their great farm system. they could have gotten huge talent for cruz 4 years ago but let him prove that he wasn't a stud. same with choi,cpatt,dubois. let's look at the stud pitchers we had...brownlie-probably done-worth zip, christenson-released, sisco-got zip, mitre-worth zip-headed for a career in middle relief, as is wuertz,ohman and maybe wellmeyer(i still have hope). guzman a year ago could have landed us anyone we wanted...now he is damaged goods. with our outfielders we could have moved dubois,kelton,pie,cpatt and virtually filled any hole...know we hope pie is for real. the trades that have been good are just simply that the other team needed to dump salary and took the best the could get. aramis was overpaid and underperforming, they were happy just to be done with the contract same for choi-lee. we got gerut for dubois which was basically even, we upgraded for lawton so dubois for lawton is good but again pittsburgh was going to lose lawton anyway so they were happy to get gerut, who is cheaper and under contract. really the best move they made was willis. he may end up being special but at the time we needed a closer badly and we got a closer and a solid starter. the closer part didn't work out but i will never fault them for trying. when your closer goes down right before the start of the season you don't have many options. we have all seen how well teams do without a closer!

there is no way wood stays in the pen next year unless he is the closer. we wouldn't even pay a closer 7 mil let alone then 12 mil kerry will get. as far as blame goes hendry should get plenty...this is a crap team that he put together. we were 2 players away from dominating the nl 2 years ago and we are far worse now despite 100 mil payroll. players should take some blame also. i have said this for 2 years now and hendry is proving it for me. if we keep this staff, along with aram and dlee...it doesn't matter who else we pick up, we will contend. the point is as nice as it is to contend after living through the 70's,80's and 90's(for me) we deserve better.

griffey should clear. if claimed they may have to pick him up with his salary...i don't even boston or ny picking him up just to keep him away from the sox. i would ask what was the marlin gm thinking? he now is going to get a couple of sandwich picks for burnett.....he could have gotten something. this is the team that trdaed lee for choi because they didn't want to pay 9 mil a year....real good call marlins. biggest busts in sox history for the biggest bust in pads history...sounds like a good trade. if i am the reds ..if mccarthy is involved and i don't to apy griffey or least very little. i am all over this trade. the reds are not far from contending. they have spare ofers and could really use jr's money to get pitching that they need. i know it's a blow to attendence but the gate simply can't be that good for a team that is out of it in june with or without griff...not mention people don't go see him if he's on the dl!

we are simply not a very good team. we are not as good as milwaukee...at best we are basically the same. we are just barely better than cincy. our records are really close, as are our records against them(6-7,5-4).tough to make an argument for being better! we are consistently beaten by the good teams of the east and west. we are above .500 vs the central and the bottom 3 teams of the west. and 10 under vs everyone else. if we were still in the east we would be 10 or more games below .500 easily.

they were talking today about sending down the guys with options. except for cedeno why waste an option? remingler should go...at this point why not give his innings to ohman and rusch? he is clearly one of the weaker performers. in 3 weeks we have september call ups why waste an option for 3 weeks. macias or wilson could go also.

they are at the tops in all those catagories BUT they are 7th in runs...10th in obp and 11 th in steals. they are simply not one of the top 3 offenses in the nl!if you do not score...it doesn't matter what your average is! they don't get on base and they do not manufacture runs...they hit home runs

i think most people don't have a real problem with macias, they have a problem with how he is used. he can play many positions but he should not be a top pinch hitter off the bench, he should not a be long term fillin at any position. he should not have to get his at bats over other players. he should play when needed to spell a player. he was sammy replacement last year instead of giving dubois a shot. he was walker replacement to start. he was also neifi replacement instead of cedeno. how many times he did play outfield instead of dubois or hairston this year? if you are platooning players they really don't need to be spelled! i would have rather see hairston,dubois and holla hit off any pitcher at any time instead of macias...screw the righty-lefty crap!

i also think maddux and wood could find their way on the wire. i also think they would both clear. they are pretty expensive and a gamble for anyone to claim. the cubs are also in a position that they could let either one ofthem go and be in better situation next year by just clearing salaries. one question how does a no trade clause work for a waiver claim? if someone makes a claim they can be forced to take the player(and salary) but wouldn't this get around the no trade...since if claimed they aren't traded?

i would rather take giles for 8mil than burnitz for 7. if he is not too expensive...which with age and production he shouldn't be, i would like to take look at him. reggie sanders is another one. he is hurt now but really hasn't ever been before. he hits 270-280 every year. has an obp of 340-350 every year and hits 25-30hrs every year. plus he stills bases. he is not very expensive considering what he does.

you guys mention all these great moves that hendry will do....but what in his history tells you he will do any of it? his history tells you he will look for the cheapest vet help rather than spend for proven guys. outside of lee...who was not the dlee of today he has gone with players that had huge ?'s. aram is great pick up but had struggled badly since signing his big contract. he passed over rolen in doing so. nomar, dempster, fox, williamson, jobo,barrett(didn't he hit under .200the year before) over pudge, burnitz... he has thrown some darts that stuck but you give him far too much credit for luck. he has missed filling glaring holes and missed by trying to fill others with gambles. bottom line is...and you can blame the manager if you want but hendry has been given the most money to spend. he has 100 mil payroll and a very average team. this team would not be anywhere near the race if they hadn't changed the playoff format and added a division and a wild card! and that would be true of every year including 2003. the only reason we feel this team is even decent is that their is a wild card and they play the central teams for most of their games. if not we would have been out of the race in june the last 2 years and probably the last 3.

maddux should have 13-14 wins this year with any support. his era is high but if look closer he has been very good most starts. his era is product of the fact that when he was bad he was very,very bad with huge er stats. he has about 3 starts like that. the rest are all quality starts. i could handle a guy that pitches well about but 4-5 starts out of 30ish. he should once again win 15. that being said i really am hoping that the cubs find a way to trade him to a contender. i am sure he would clear waivers. san diego would be ideal..petco would not give up cheap home runs. we could use the 9 mil to fill other necessary spots...especially if hill continues to show he can get it done. wood needs to go. i hate to let him go BUT at 12 mil a year next season he is not worth the gamble. if we could get anyone to take him for anything we can easily sign someone to replace him that is more reliable and less expensive. carpenter and burnett would not cost 12 mil. if you think maddux is too expensive for what he gives then wood is way over priced at 12 mil. maddux and wood are 2 of my favorites. i do not want to screw maddux out of his option but we need to fins a way to move them both. 21 mil for next could go a long way towards filling holes in this team!

all are bonehead plays that cost your team. you can put the "being aggressive" spin on lee brain fart but it is baseball 101 that is taught in 2nd grade- do not make the 1st or 3rd out at third base. players are taught this about the time they are taught to cover first on a ground ball to the right side or that the batter is out on a dropped third strike when first is occupied and there are less than 2 outs!

the cubs have a chance on paper there are not that far back, and are really only chasing houston- everyone is basically at the same spot(within a game or 2) but this is not a great/good team. they will hover around .500 and unless teams have a washington like implosion and the wild card is won with around 84-85 wins the cubs are not going to win it...that being said we are close enough that one solid move could get us over the hump.

sorry, lee is right however it is also a basic play that you do not steal third with no outs....especially with your number 4 hitter up..i believe lee did that and was thrown out costing the cubs a run earlier this week. people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. lee has been/ is our best player but he still is human and makes mistakes.

the guy i would really like the cubs to pursue id reggie sanders. he is amzingly consistent. he is known as a great teammate. and being injured he will come cheaper, which is certainly hendry's style. i'm pretty sure we could get him for burnitz' money or less.