frostwyrm

Having a bum like Jason Jennings face 29 Cubs hitters on only 87 pitches was a low point for the whole team except the pitchers. People have complained about the Cubs' free-swinging ways, but this game really stands out.

I'm not happy about the situation but both ethical and practical considerations prohibit deliberately sabotaging Maddux's chance for the option.

And using Leicester to sac bunt Corey to 2nd, instead of stealing. I guess Dusty was scared of Mike Piazza's cannon of an arm. (hairston. kinda hard for the pitcher to bat with the leadoff man on base) Oops, I meant Hairston, not Corey. Regardless, if Leicester is not pitching in the next inning you have to PH for him and have Hairston attempt a steal while Piazza is catching.

And using Leicester to sac bunt Corey to 2nd, instead of stealing. I guess Dusty was scared of Mike Piazza's cannon of an arm.

I'm sorry for insulting your son on Mother's Day, Mrs. Macias. That's pretty much what I expected. Very high brow stuff. I said I was sorry. You're being mean-spirited and unforgiving, ma'am.

I'm sorry for insulting your son on Mother's Day, Mrs. Macias.

What is with your labels and generalizations? I don't know too many people on here that have bought a Neifi Perez jersey. So wjhat is a pro-Neifi fan? At best from what I've read is that people are giving him his props because he has hit much better (minus the 17 at-bats before his homer today, which I doubt you'll give him props for) than any of us had hoped. I hate that Perez has to play, just as I hate that Hollandsworth starts, but I'm not rooting against them. Several of your posts suggests this regarding Perez. I have fully expected Perez to come down to earth, but what if this is his career year (I doubt it, but would love for it to happen) As far as I'm concerned, I think people who have read my posts know which players I can't stand. I just have no need to spew my hatred for them on a daily basis as, unfortunately, some other posters do for players or coaches. Again, just who is this pro-Neifi crowd you speak of? There were some pretty heated arguments here when Neifi was playing over Hairston. Some of us here maintained that Neifi is a horrible hitter who should only start when there is no alternative and Dusty was a fool for starting Neifi over Hairston. Some of those who diagreed with that opinion were not entirely polite about it, which is why I don't mind taking the occasional potshot at them.

The pro-Neifi crowd has been strangely quiet lately. No doubt they'll wait until AFTER Neifi has a good game, then post. That seems to be their standard operating procedure.

I was talking about the misuse of talented players. :D My bad, I just skimmed, then posted, which is always a bad policy. But you could have put Mark Bellhorn on the list. Benching him for Lenny was absurd.

How could you leave the immortal Lenny Harris off the list?

So who will end up with more plate appearances in 2005, Jason Dubois or Jose Macias? We could start a betting pool and put in a Vegas style handicap. With no handicap I would bet on Jason, but spot Macias 20 PA's and I'd bet on the Gremlin.

Jose Macias: 31 plate appearances Jason Dubois: 32 plate appearances Todd Hollandsworth: starting in left field, because of his defense.

20 games into the season Dubois has logged a whopping 6 plate apearances more than Jose F. Macias has. I wonder if Hendry regrets resigning Hollandsworth.

So when do you think Dubois will get regular starts vs. RH pitchers? The fact that Macias pinch hit for Dubois vs. a RH reliever Saturday, on a day when he was 2-3, shows me that Dusty still has very little confidence in Dubois' ability to hit RH pitching. He will remain badly underused for a while yet. If Holla has a hot streak Dubois should ask to be traded. I'm sure your joking. The 27 year old rookie making a demand like that is laughable... if he did I'd hope they'd demote him back to the minors. Just go with me here: Dusty, as mananger of people, needs to support all his players, even when they suck. Especially with vets who have had success in the past, and are older, he has to baby them a bit. Hendry and Dusty always said HOlla was the starter, they can't just bench him at the first sign of struggling, can they? That would demoralize him and send a bad message to the team. It's a long season. I think yeah, maybe in a month, if things progress like they are, Dubois will have proven to all, including Holla, that he should start regularly. Yeah I was joking, sorta. But I do believe that all Holla has to do to bury Dubois for a very long time is get hot for a couple of weeks.

So when do you think Dubois will get regular starts vs. RH pitchers? The fact that Macias pinch hit for Dubois vs. a RH reliever Saturday, on a day when he was 2-3, shows me that Dusty still has very little confidence in Dubois' ability to hit RH pitching. He will remain badly underused for a while yet. If Holla has a hot streak Dubois should ask to be traded.

Dubois jacks a homer Apr. 27 but gets pinch hit for by badly slumping Holla again. Macias PHed for him the day before. Will Dubois ever play a whole game in a Cubs uniform? How bad does Holla have to be to get benched?

Starting Hollandsworth over Dubois is worse than World War II.

Many of us here stated long before opening day that the glut of outfielders and the acquisitions of Neifi and Hairston make Macias redundant and a waste of a roster spot. We could trade Hairston tomorrow and Macias would still be unneeded. Unfortunately Macias will probably not be cut right away because Hendry blew $825K of the Trib's money on him and it would be too embarrassing to cut him this soon. If Macias had been signed for the league minimum, and I'm pretty sure he could have been, then he would already be halfway out the door.

Maybe you should track the errors to hits ratio for Macias... Macias' most important stat: ROSTER SPOTS CONSUMED = 1 This number must be reduced.

So what does the book say when Hill is up, first base is open, but the guy behind him had gone 3 for 3 with 2 home runs off your current ace thus far? Your argument is just as vaild as the argument for not letting that guy beat you, again! So how can you really fault Dusty when you're dammed if you do and dammed if you don't. When you are thus dammed, you can only rely on your players, and Dusty's BP totally blew it for him tonight. They let in 4 runs in a one run game! Macias and Perez's success I find funny. I say keep Perez, but what is Macias? Our new defensive replacement? He played a very solid 3rd the other day, a great outfield assist...too bad he's 1 for 12. It really is Hendry's fault he's on the team. And if those relievers had pitched well we'd get to hear you tell us about Dusty "pulling the right strings". Of course when they play poorly it's always "hey, what could Dusty do? The players blew it." It's so predictable.

Oh certaintly I would point that out, except the fact that Dusty was not here in 2001 and I would have assumed that this was a Dusty thread. My Bad. Agreed Talent is at a higher level, however the "trend" that we are speaking about is the Dusty trend. You can't argue those results. 2 Years, 2 winning seasons. Baylor had similar talent and didn't get anywhere in '02. Remember also that last year the talent that you speak about that Dusty had was hurt. The only talent that didn't get injured in some way last season was Alou & Lee. Even Zambrano had forearm issues. You have to say that Dusty did a pretty solid job last season adminst the team turmoil and injury issues. Most other teams with issues like that end up a major disappointment, like the 1st half Houston Astros of '04. One of the my main gripes about Dusty fans has been that whenever anyone brings up 2001 Dusty fans refuse to discuss that season and quickly try to change the subject back to 2002. Guess what, that's exactly what you did. Another question: if you won't discuss 2001 because "Dusty was not here in 2001" and this is a "Dusty thread", then why did you bring up 2002 again? Dusty wasn't here till 2003.

Thats funny, cause I get a similar feeling that some people here will have posted ad nauseam "Macias Still Sucks"; "Fire Dusty NOW" when Dusty has his first 4 game losing streak. I guess I should just wait until the end of the season when Dusty delievers the 3rd straight winning season (something which hasn't been done in my lifetime) and then respond to those "Fire Dusty" comments. If you want a broader view of the trend towards winning seasons then we should say that the Cubs have already had winning records in 3 of the last 4 seasons, starting with Don Baylor's oh-so-talented 2001 team that won 88 games. Oops, I forgot, Dusty fans like to pretend 2001 never happened.

I get the feeling some people here would have posted an "attaboy Dusty" after every one of Lenny Harris' 24 hits. I look forward to Macias' 1st RBI: "Dusty pulled the right string!", etc. ad nauseam. Macias had 22 RBI's in 2004, and 2005 will be a long season for me if I read and respond to that many "attaboy Dusty" threads. And there is Neifi too. If I had any self-discipline I would just wait till the end of the season, when Neifi and Macias have booked another year of predictably awful numbers in their awful careers, and then respond to the several dozens of "attaboys" that have accumulated over the course of the season.

and amazingily enough the Cubs have scored 7 runs by the 3rd inning. Lets try to make sure that the moves are poor before we discount them Hindsight is 20-20. Benching A-Ram, Barrett, and Nomar for Prior's first start is a really bad way to build his confidence, in my opinion. Waiting to see how it turned out isn't exactly fair, is it? This is like when Dusty would do something stupid in 2003, have it work out, and Chip Caray would say, "Dusty pushes the right button again!" Those drinking birds can push buttons, too. Yet we use hindsight all throughout this thread to take issue with Dusty's decisions. totally wrong. Dusty bashers complain about what dusty is doing beforehand either here or in gamethread/flashchat. dusty supporters wait until neifi gets a hit to say anything here. BINGO.

Dude, you're talking stats now. Not your strong suit. Speaking of stats, I have some question for you: A) If we were to start Neifi in 100 double headers, how many times do you think he would go 6 for 9 or better? B) If we were also to start Hairston in 100 double headers, whom do you believe is likely to be the more productive player - Neifi or Hairston? C) Should questions A and B influence Dusty's decisions on playing time for the rest of the season?