Jehrico

While he'd be a better fit for the Cardinals than anyone else, I still agree...

When did this happen? Clemens beaned Jones in his first plate appearance. I thought he missed him, then hit him on the next pitch that at bat...or was I hallucinating after 18 innings?

First, Clemens tries to bean Jones, and misses. Then he succeeded. Later, Jones got revenge by hitting a 3 run HR off of him. Mateo also extracted some additional revenge by plunking Clemens when it was his turn to bat, earning many cool points with me. Dusty pulled Mateo in the 6th for a PH after just 78 pitches in 5 innings (probably so he wouldn't get beaned in the pitching arm by Clemens). Clemens just missed Theriot with the first pitch, then grazed his uniform with the second. In response to the attempted beanings by Clemens... Touch'e I have no lost love for the Astros...beating them in an 18 inning marathon after all of that just made this one that much sweeter

:lol: This is a site for Cubs fans, right? Consider the audience. Count me aboard the "Illinois for National Championship in '07" Bandwagon too!

well, at least we know that if hendry respects anyone it's maddux, so hopefully jimbo will pay attention. If it is a dig at the team, then I just lost alot of respect for Maddux. He's as culpable as anyone else of tanking after DLee got hurt. He went from Dr Jeckyll to Mr Hyde after his 5-0 start. He's the last guy to be talking about anyone performing or playing hard on the field.

I'm more hopeful of Harvey making the team than EPatt anytime in the next two years. If Harvey ever figures out that just a little more patience will go a LOOOOONG way with him, he'll get his status as a top prospect back VERY quickly. My biggest concern with him is that he's in the wrong organization to learn that (that said, I wouldn't mind seeing him rushed to AAA to work with Von Joshua, maybe the only person in the org I trust at mentoring prospects). I don't see what everyone else sees in EPatt...he's a good prospect and minor leaguer, but he's not that great of a prospect. I doubt he'll ever be more than a AAAA player. I hope he proves me wrong, but I don't see that level of talent in him.

How do you think that will impact Aramis' decision regarding the opt-out clause, and what will Hendry do now? My opinion: the price for Aramis is now 5 years $55M. Do you really think ARam will want almost $2 million more per year than Wright is getting now? IMO he's not too smart if he's hoping to get more than probably the best thirdbaseman in the game right now. Agreed. I'd have to take Wright over ARod right now, if it were a one-for-one option. As much as I love Aramis, he isn't as good as Wright, he's more injury prone, his defense isn't as good, and there's questions about his hustle and attitude at times. I think 4 yrs @ 36 mil is more appropriate for Aramis.

Too bad the search function is disabled, they were many who thought he was a bust. Maybe I was understating it abit, but it seemed to me that most of his detractors were down on him for his perceived lack of mental ability to handle this level, not his physical abilities.

If I could know then what I know now, I'd say neither. I'd go with Texeira, as Barrett has been hitting the cover off of the ball as well. Draft Tex for third, package Aramis for Arod, move Ronny to second, never make the move for Izturis.

I don't think anyone doubted Hill had the ability to succeed at this level, but rather whether or not he would have the ability to mentally handle being in the majors. He's had two good starts in a row now...what are the odds that he's gotten the monkey off of his back? I'm hoping this is a sign that he's finally turned the corner and can be the pitcher we all hoped he could be. Honestly, I was in the camp there for awhile who thought he'd never amount to anything, I'll happily be the consumer of crow if he keeps this up.

I got the impression that his offense was more important, not the Ws and Ls :wink:

Hoffpauir is hitting around .250 at AAA after his hot start...he's really been struggling. I wouldn't call him up.

wow, 2 million people have moved to the city since I moved 18 months ago? Why wasn't this on the news? :wink: Maybe not in the city proper, but if you include all of the burbs and what not, isn't 5 mil about right?

When you have 5 million in the city alone, plus millions of other fans state- and nation-wide, you're going to get your share of idiots. This only reinforces that fact.

Pick him up, then package Howry, ARam, and TWalk (or some comparable package) to the Yanks for ARod.

Why, so Cora can enjoy the breeze as he repeatedly swings and misses?

Why do you think he's the real deal? Just wondering what about him strikes you as making him a more solid prospect than other similar minor league pitchers... I hope he makes it up and has some good success with us, but I'm not willing to put that kind of claim on him just yet.

Fixed

Could Mashall have taken ARam's comments personally? The offense sure wasn't what won this game for us...

Didn't he know about that though before signing with the Surf Dawgs? I have a hard time believing this is something that just came up out of the blue...

did anyone else see this classic quote from Chandler, reference to being traded? How is that any different than the Bulls the last couple of years?

Hendry gets some blame for giving Jones, Neifi, and Rusch inflated, multiyear contracts. He also gets votes for the horrible Pierre trade and not having enough depth pitching wise. However, despite all of that, despite the injuries, this team is better than they are performing. Dusty's career has been built on getting the most out of mediocre players, and he has been absolutely ineffective in that department. He's lost his touch. He might still be able to keep most of his players morale up and he might still be able to keep their respect, but he isn't getting the most out of hardly anyone on the team, other than maybe Jones, Barrett, and Blanco right now. Everyone else, IMO, could be doing better than what they are.

It seems every top prospect has taken a step backwards in the last year or two. There's sooooo few decent prospects anymore that's worth getting excited about. I'm beginning to come of the opinion that Flieta needs to go when they finally can Dusty and crew as well. Not sure it's fair to blame Oneri for the troubles of Blasko and Haggerty. Where did I do that? I commented on the overall, drastic backwards movement of the system. Injuries to prospects are going to happen, but the system as a whole has digressed incredibly over the last 3 years. Name one power-hitting prospect that is showing any promise right now? We have none in the system that are worth getting excited over. Who was the last position playing all-star that we've drafted and groomed? That's an indictment of our ability to develop position players, and Oneri is the head of player development. I made the stretch when I read the responses from you and NCCubbieFan. Re-reading it again, I may have made a bad stretch. I did kind of derail the topic a little bit...

To be fair, how many teams have been able to develop starting pitching like the Cubs? They've drafted or signed 4 potential number ones (Prior, Wood, Z, Willis). Yeah Prior was a no brainer, but still. Since 2000 the Cubs have spent two-thirds of their first and second round picks on pitchers. They drafted pitching more than hitting. It all starts there. Also, look around baseball. Who was the last star position player the Padres developed (Khalil Greene)? Giants? Diamondbacks(Jackson/Tracy)? Expos/Nationals(Vlad)? Yankees(Johnson)? Red Sox? Mariners? Angels? The Cubs system has worked. They have netted talent through the minors via trades and have developed pitching. That is more than most teams can say. Can it be better? Of course. Could it be a lot worse? Absolutely. And to answer the true question. Corey Patterson would have been an All-Star in 2003 had he not gotten hurt. Excluding him, the last is probably whenever Mark Grace made the all star team last. Wood was prior to Oneri, he gets no credit there. Developing pitching is only half of the job, you've got to develop position players too. As for some of the other teams you listed, are you implying they have had comparable success to what we've done? I hope you're kidding, they've all done vastly better than we have. The last time I checked, Arizona was doing an outstanding job developing young position players, perhaps as well as anyone else in baseball right now (see Conor Jackson, Chad Tracy). We got Murton who grew up in the Red Sox system (they also developed Varitek, Youklis, Hanley Ramirez, Nomar, Mo Vaughn). The Angels have quite a few good young hitters, and a good chunck of their offense is homegrown, they're one of the better teams at developing position players in the game as well (Erstad, Anderson, Figgins, Molina, McPherson, Kotchman were all homegrown players on their roster last year). The Yanks developed Nick Johnson and several others. Most of their core from their championship years (Bernie, Jeter, Posada, etc) were homegrown. They stopped winning when they started trading all of their prospects off and started trying to buy championships. I'm amazed you listed Montreal in that category. Look around the league, and you'll see a ton of successful players that came up in the Expos system, they just never could afford to keep any of them outside of Vidro (just looking at their 2000-2004 teams, they've had Vlad, Barrett, Andres Galarragga, Orlando Cabrera, Milton Bradley, Brad Wilkerson, Brandon Phillips, Grady Sizemore, too many others to list that came up in their system). The Padres haven't been that great, but they've produced far more regular players that stuck for more than a couple of years than we have. Only the Giants have been as bad out of the teams you listed. As far as Patterson is concerned, any success he ever had or will have is in spite of, and not because of, any development he got from our system. The guy has enough pure talent and potential to make Beltran at his best look like a hack. There are no other position players in baseball that were drafted by the Cubs that either look like future all-stars, or are past all-stars. The last ones were Grace, Palmiero, Dunston, Girardi, and Joe Carter. Am I missing any from the last 30 years, or are those 4 it? Granted, Oneri isn't responsible for 30 years of futility, but things have not improved on his watch.

Remember that scene from Major League II when they got into a brawl with themselves, and the other team just stood there watching? We could be headed that way ourselves...except, of course, without the second half run to put us in the playoffs... Maybe we need that Japanese guy to tell everyone else on the team that they have no marbles.