Magnetic Curses

yikes, he goes from a head coaching probable to less than a coordinator. i wish ron well, hope he gets to the promised land eventually. can't say i blame teams for not giving him a head job, though, he basically held a clipboard for lovie for 3 years. it'd be nice to see what rivera can actually do when given the reigns of a defense. he's no big loss for the bears, but it's a shame that something couldn't be worked out.

Are you saying I can't use numbers properly? i think he was, seabass.

you forgot: 10.) I'm sorry, i didn't mean to be mean 11.) let's hug. 12.) you're nice 13.) you're nice 14.) i'm naughty 15.) PM me. 16.) Okay, but no weird stuff. 17.) Okay.

[whispers]shuuuuuuuut uuuuuuuuup[/whispers]

which is pretty much what a manager's job should be. I guess every single manager in baseball is doing his job wrong then. any manager that doesn't simply perpetuate the company's philosophy on the field isn't doing his job right. with the cubs, the company's philosophy is bad so it really doesn't matter what piniella does, it has to be better than what hendry wants, though. No any GM that dosent get the people to fit the manager isnt doing his job right. The opposite is a GM who dosent hire a manager to use the people in place correctly. Either way you get Jim Hendry and Dusty Baker. i'm not sure exactly what you mean, do you mean that a team should be put together to suit a management style? that's absurd. a team should be put together with pitching and production at the plate--the manager should be there to look wise and talk nice to the media. it should be a virtually meaningless job.

which is pretty much what a manager's job should be. I guess every single manager in baseball is doing his job wrong then. any manager that doesn't simply perpetuate the company's philosophy on the field isn't doing his job right. with the cubs, the company's philosophy is bad so it really doesn't matter what piniella does, it has to be better than what hendry wants, though.

Turning against him? Who's doing that? He hasn't shown up early to spring training, and it immediately turns into "well he looked out of shape to me" and "he's not early? that's not impressing anyone". It's useless garbage and it hasn't even been a week yet. Can't comment on the out of shape thing cause I wasn't the one who said that, but what's so "garbage" about saying that he's not impressing anyone by being the only person who isn't early? Whether people want to acknowledge it or not, being the last person to arrive doesn't look good. Especially when all of your other teammates get there before they have to. It's meaningless. Geez, Manny isn't showing up until March 1st. Think that will affect his hitting? ARam is here for 5 more years, don't sweat the silly stuff. It's meaningless? Haha, showing up to work on time is meaningless? I wish my boss shared that sentiment! maybe he would if you were as good at your job as aram is at his. why do baseball players always have to be compared to regular people? it's not the same thing, folks! aram sleeps with many beautiful women on top of a huge mountain of money, i doubt your lives are comparable.

Turning against him? Who's doing that? He hasn't shown up early to spring training, and it immediately turns into "well he looked out of shape to me" and "he's not early? that's not impressing anyone". It's useless garbage and it hasn't even been a week yet. Can't comment on the out of shape thing cause I wasn't the one who said that, but what's so "garbage" about saying that he's not impressing anyone by being the only person who isn't early? Whether people want to acknowledge it or not, being the last person to arrive doesn't look good. Especially when all of your other teammates get there before they have to. so, what's going to happen if he didn't show up early? what is the actual cost in terms of team wins? it means virtually nothing if he doesn't show up. personally, i hope he routinely doesn't hustle to first yet continues his superior production numbers. no sense in re-injuring a groin muscle for absolutely nothing. if i'm the manager, i tell ramirez to take whatever time he needs to get around the bases, just so long as he keeps being one of my best hitters.

which is pretty much what a manager's job should be.

Turning against him? Who's doing that? He hasn't shown up early to spring training, and it immediately turns into "well he looked out of shape to me" and "he's not early? that's not impressing anyone". It's useless garbage and it hasn't even been a week yet. i heard rumors that he wasn't hustling through the airport to catch his flight to mesa, this has already cost the team one spot in the standings.

when he DOES show up, i'm sure lou will throw first base at him and this will cause the cubs to win the world series.

not to be nitpicky, but this is one of my pet peeves. technically, we could still hire girardi as a coach, but the MANAGER's job belongs to piniella. It's tough because all through baseball it's the (head)coach but once you get to pro baseball it turns into a manager. ah ah ah, please, just call him "skip".

not to be nitpicky, but this is one of my pet peeves. technically, we could still hire girardi as a coach, but the MANAGER's job belongs to piniella.

Yeah the Angels are going to trade two of their best prospects and a good young pitcher for one year of Big Z. That's a terrible article. Obviously you are not a student of recent baseball history to make such a sweepingly inaccurate statement. Examples include, but are not limited to: 1) Bagwell for Larry Anderson; 2) Smoltz for Doyle Alexander; 3) Randy Johnson to Hou (for less than one season) for Freddy Garcia, Carlos Guillen and someone else who I cannot recall at this moment; 4) Former Cubs luminary Heathcliff Slocumb for Jason Varitek and Derek Lowe. Anyone wish to add to the above? john halama.

I completely agree with you Lou. it's just too bad his bat is going to completely negate any improvement his glove brings.

A half-way mediocre effort by Illinois and they win by 25. they're just not any good. as i said, DMAC and watkins should be starting next year. with smith probably gone and frazier not worthy of a scholarship, they probably will. I'd be surprised if DMac starts over Frazier as a Jr. Chet reminds me of a not-as-promising version of Dee, before Dee learned how to shoot. He's the heart and hustle of the team but oh my is his offensive prowess lacking. that's an understatement. but we'll see, i hope for our sakes that DMAC and watkins are good enough to start their freshmen years.

Lou don't mess around, do he? he's taken the john mcdonough seminar in "always talk world series". mcdonough knew the penchant that MacPhail had for talking about "competing within the division" and decided that was bad for business. lou's just perpetuating the new company line. that is: "we will win the world series tomorrow, if not sooner".

Why do people keep saying this? Why didn't he get a fair shot with the Cubs last year? Because they sent him back down after four starts where he had a 9.00+ ERA? It certainly looks like him going back down ended up being the right move considering how much differently he pitched when he came back up. "Lisa, I'd like to buy your rock." It could just as easily be argued that he was shaky because his first few starts were going to decide his immediate future with the team and he was nervous. I don't have any notes on it, but his stats don't look much different in his stint with the ICubs after being sent back down than they were when he pitched for the ICubs in April. I think posters on this board have had this discussion before and it went nowhere. Yeah, it's hard for it to go anywhere because it's impossible to run it again the other way and see the results. The Cubs sending him down might have been the best thing for Hill re-gaining his confidence, and the Cubs sending him down might have delayed Hill getting his confidence in the major leagues-it's really impossible to know which one it is. It's all just a matter of perspective I guess. when hill came back from Iowa in the second half, his curve was tighter and his location was excellent, iirc. i'd say he either used his time in the minors that last time to work on his control and to fine tune his curveball--either that or he got over his anxiety.

A half-way mediocre effort by Illinois and they win by 25. they're just not any good. as i said, DMAC and watkins should be starting next year. with smith probably gone and frazier not worthy of a scholarship, they probably will.

defense in center is overrated. all you need to play center is decent speed.

i would mull rooting against them if that happened.

don't worry, i'm sure lou screamed at them for 2 hours afterwards. i'm also fully convinced that his screaming ability will be the sole reason we make the playoffs.

bernstein is right, semardzjia looks like paula poundstone, but funnier.

Looks like it's the new Sun-Times beat writer for the Cubs, Gordon Wittenmyer. last year he covered the twins. on xm homeplate the other day he pretty much said he doesnt know anything about the cubs That makes me feel better about the guy. I'll wait until he learns a little bit about the Cubs before I give up on him. If he saw Rich Hill pitch, he'd probably be singing a different tune. he's not really a "youngster" anymore, either.

is that a ripoff of the "I-L-L!" chant? i don't know for sure who started it so i could be wrong. From what I remember, both schools claim that they started it first, I don't think anyone really knows. Everything I've heard says Mizzou started it, and Illinois stole it and tried to claim it as their own. they probably won it from them. Well it's mainly our football chant, so I don't see how they could've won it. weren't you doing the chant in this thread (labeled basketball, i believe)? He is, but for the most part its never really chanted at basketball games, only at football games when Mizzou scores points. it doesn't matter, it was a joke.