Magnetic Curses

i don't want an underdog, i want someone who knows what they're doing. people who aren't good at their jobs get fired, period. his contract would be bought out. don't feel sorry for hendry, he won't actually be living out of a cardboard box on clark, if that's why you're feeling sorry for him.

this doesn't prove anything more than the organization has made some pretty terrible moves at GM in the past 20 years, and hendry seems to be fitting right in. what's illogical to me is that a corporation like the trib insists on employing grizzled "baseball men" to run this particular part of their business when employing statisticians would make much more business sense. hendry doesn't have a plan for this team, it appears like he's just going about his job in a willi-nilli fashion. not to be confused with milli-vanilli.

You're just afraid that a rag tag pitching staff will keep Hendry from signing Mussina.... :D Then again, a STL win will mean more guys like Weaver. yuk, but did you see the catch that edmonds made in game 4?

Gary Sheffield is an idiot. and a far superior player.

Wasn't this our problem in 2004? Either we would win with the long ball or we sucked. Piniella has stated that the home field should be an advantage to us. If that is true (and I believe it is), then we had better learn how to win when the wind is blowing in at 20 mph. Power will not help us much in that situation. As with any good team (coach), you have to learn to adjust to the environmental conditions of the ballpark, particularly with Wrigley. If we want to be a playoff contending team....we have to learn how to use Wrigley as an advantage to us. Ken no, the problem in 2004 was that we sucked at getting on base. i don't know how we use wrigley as "an advantage to us". other teams aren't building teams around wrigley field, in an effort to come into wrigley and beat us. what we need to do is get people who actually get on base and drive the ball. forget about "contact hitters", juan pierre is the perfect example of what's wrong with that myth.

this is so awesome. i can't wait to see what kind of terrible record we have next year. i, personally, am praying for a really really poor record with a 115 mil payroll, as opposed to a simply mediocre record where everyone keeps their jobs. hendry will be gone, finally. then we can focus on getting better.

Kind of sounds anti-Soriano for center, though he does go on saying how athleticism is important in center. The "butcher on defense" line probably counts out Adam Dunn too then. It also counts out Carlos Lee, for that matter. i thought lee was pretty decent in left. i could be wrong, though.

the bears defense is personnel-contingent. they allow the players to make the adjustments on the field. without brown, those adjustments might not be made correctly.

Isn't Steve Smith pretty similar? Carolina still worries me if we were to meet them in the playoffs. not really. boldin is about 4 inches taller and about 40 pounds heavier. the announcers had it right on, he's a lot like sterling sharpe used to be, only faster. steve smith is a guy that uses his elusiveness to find the holes in the defense. boldin will run right up to the DB, use his body to seal the defensive player off, catch the ball, break a tackle and run by everyone else. guys like plaxico burress, moose, keyshawn johnson, and randy moss all are big, but don't have the bulk, agility, or strength of an anquan boldin.

i'm rooting for the cards. if they can win the series, it will go far to showing folks that the playoffs are a complete crapshoot.

why soriano in CF? has he ever played there before? I think he could play CF as well as he played left. From all indications he's brutal at second. There are also more decent options at 2b than there are at CF. Now if we could trade for Andruw Jones and sign Soriano for second, I'd be for that option as well. i just don't like the idea of acquiring a guy to play a position that he's never played before. i think the idea sounds very weird.

:shock: that's what happens when nobody is blocking him. seriously. the cardinals had a very basic blocking strategy against the bears. they didn't play max protect the whole game, but they played with a tight end and focused only on blocking the down linemen, which is why we didn't get many sacks. when we showed blitz, leinart simply checked down to the zero pass, which wasn't as difficult as the announcers would have you believe. i wasn't particularly impressed with leinart, it was boldin who did most of the work. leinart just used his head, and the offensive coordinator made it very easy for him. they obviously had very few plays that they ran offensively in the game, either the zero pass, the medium-level slant, or the trap to edge between the tackles. the problem was that boldin was the EXACT type of player that would give our defense problems, quicker and faster than our linebackers and a man among boys against our DBs. their strategy was just to get it to boldin, who would "post up" our CBs, or just run right by our linebackers, which he did often when he had the ball. there was little we could do to stop it. there isn't another receiver in the game like him, so i'm not worried. when they ran the ball, the linebackers just ran up and tackled edge. any other running back with that amount of carries against a linebacking corp like the bears would have had 2-3 more fumbles. as for what the bears did on offense, it's simple. they got behind early and just started flinging the ball. the cardinals didn't play the run at all, relying on the quickness of their nickles to stop the run if it happend, and it didn't happen much, stupid stupid stupid. it appeared to me like the cards just ran the nickle and dime out there every single snap. rushing 5-6 linemen and dropping everyone else back into coverage. if the bears would have just been able to get into their regular, balanced offense, grossman would have had a better game. he was asked to do too much. to insinuate that griese would have done significantly better than grossman is probably wrong, unless he would have handed the ball off more. grossman had no time to make any kind of decision and no receivers to throw to, it's that simple. i wish that griese would have gone in, though, if for no other reason than to remove all question from the mind of those who think he's better than rex. how ridiculous. i honestly don't know what the hell is wrong with you people. rex is the QB, get over it. i'm sorry he dissapointed you when he got hurt and you hardened your hearts to him in much the same way you've hardened your hearts to prior and wood. i know you don't want to be hurt again, but you'll just have to take that chance.

why soriano in CF? has he ever played there before?

Their treatment of very good players is really weird. Do that fans hate these guys or just managment? philly fans are the most obnoxious in all of sports. plus, the philly accent may be the most terribly annoying accent in existence.

from what i can tell pierre didn't like it on the north side of town. i'm glad.

pierre hustles and hustling is the most important part of the game! remember the gashouse gang? they hustled, never washed their uniforms and won the world series, hence hustling and dirty uniforms or just poor hygiene practices are necessary to build a world series team.

You have been around long enough to know that it will never happen. If he wins they will say that Lou had nothing to do with it, if he loses it will be all his fault. Seriously, when will people stop bitching about this board? It's getting to be a friggin joke. The Cubs lost NINETY-SIX GAMES last year, how happy do you really expect this place to be??? don't you know? negative posters on this board are the reason the cubs lost 96 games this year....ultimately, they are the reason that dusty failed. shame on all of you.

You only leadoff a game once guarenteed. leadoff hitters get more PA's than the other players. i don't mind the idea of hitting a very good hitter in a spot where he's guaranteed to get a lot of plate appearances.

i don't know if i lost respect for denny green or if i ever had it. he composed himself the way a child composes themself. i have no problem with emotion, but to behave like phil helmuth after taking a bad beat is ridiculous. yes, the bears played badly on offense, but it was mostly because turner decided that he wasn't ever going to run the ball. the cardinals decided to rush the QB and drop everyone else back in pass coverage, nobody was left to play the run, yet turner kept throwing it. hopefully he's learned that we're a running team first and a passing team second. i'll give the cardinals credit, they played inspired ball in the first 3 quarters by springing a defense that the bears obviously were not ready for. the good news is that we won.

i don't even know what you're trying to say here. are you yet another person trying tirelessly to grind an axe with any and all affiliated with Moneyball?

Too bad Lou didn't hire Joe to be his bench coach. i think steve stone likes to say things.

wow, none of those things are particularly important for a 1 or 2 hitter. Are you kidding me? Have you watched the Dertroit Tigers? Granderson gets on base, then Polanco moves him over with a bunt, or the hit and run. Works out pretty well for them. Whitesox used it in 05 also. no, you're the one that's kidding yourself. i don't understand why some people think bunting is so important for a #2 hitter. #2 hitters should be hitters that you don't need to bunt with. in fact, the entire concept of putting a hitter whom you have so little faith in getting a hit with at the top of your batting order is foreign to me. you don't ask good hitters to bunt, when you do, you waste them. the only hitter that you should ever even think about sacrificing a man over with is the pitcher.......or neifi perez, and there's no excuse for him being in a major league lineup everyday, anyway.

, Taking pitches and drawing walks swinging away and hitting the ball like a man :x yet another example of people who have jobs in baseball, people who are very close to baseball and whose livelihoods depend upon baseball having absolutely no objective clue about how to build a team--or what to fix when your team is broken. i really don't want to hear another person tell me that baseball insiders know more about baseball than anyone else who watches the games.

And I'd rather have a scrappy hustler who gives 100% that hits 290/392/523 instead of a guy who gives 75% and hits 290/392/523 or 243/260/316. so you agree that hustling is a peripheral that simply enhances, but isn't necessary? again, hustling no help hit curveball.

if dusty didn't get along with mcgowan or sabean, i'd hate to see how piniella would do with them.