Wheelimus

He simply didn't deserve to make it out of the first inning, not actually took out :roll:

If Matt Murton isn't going to play everyday, send him down to Iowa to actually get regular playing time. Then you can play Everyday Freddie and Angel Pagan when he gets in left. We're out. Murton needs to play everyday to continue to develop and become a good ballplayer. If your idiot manager won't do that, then you have to demote the kid Hendry. Hopefully the guys at Iowa can bring back the patient guy who was doing pretty damn good.

That kid Angel Guzman went 5.1 innings only gave up a run. The pen held it. We scored 3 runs. AND WE LOST. The moral of the story? We must be cursed. In more ways than one. Because we had the freaking idiot with the 7 plus ERA start the damn game! This, folks, this is what people are talking about when they say that the management of this team cost us a win. You knew that Rusch was going to stink. You didn't know that about Angel. Angel has not had 286 games of (mostly) sucking to let us know he's going to be bad. So why on earth was Angel Guzman not the starter? The Cubs organization has to look at this game and think "we chose to lose this one." Seriously, you robbed poor Hank of the only game this year where he's going to go 3 for 4 and hit a homer. Pathetic. There has to be change and there has to be change now. The organizational philosophy that starts Glendon Rusch and sees more in Bynum than Murton just because Fred can slug it better than you'd think he could just has to go. Until then, I'll root for the individuals to succeed, but I'm not sure I can root for the current management to succeed. Not until they show me I should put that kind of faith in them.

Well, at least Michael stayed in the game. He goes down and I start believing in the freaking curse...

Perhaps I just have little faith in this franchise to give us an improvement over Hunter and am willing to take the guy who isn't all that good over what we'll probably wind up with instead. Which will probably be the center field equivilant of Neifi....

I still can't believe a guy got demoted purely because he didn't hit a batter. The kid (Sean Tracey) had a 3.86 ERA in 4.2 innings. He'd done nothing to deserve going down.

At this point, Cuban should get a group together to just buy the freaking Tribune. Find partners who are interested in spearheading the newspaper and other divisions, and he can just focus on running The Cubs.

It would be nice for Dusty to make Friday his "forfeit lineup" day, ugh, let us at least compete the rest of the weekend... Oh well, bright side is Glendon will be out within 4 innings and we'll see the relievers pitch :? EDIT: What makes me scream is, we have Angel Guzman on the staff. We know Rusch will be trash. Why not throw Angel out there instead? At least there, you have the possibility that he throws a good game, he has the talent. Rusch...you just know he's getting rushed out of the game...

Hunter's slugging is down this year which is killing his OPS because he usually has only a decent (at best) on base percentage. .335 for the year. Still, even with his hit in slugging, his .749 OPS would be an improvement in center field over slappy's .587, nevermind the improvement in defense. If the cost was just Slappy and, say, Rich Hill, I bite, but only if we get a window to negotiate a 2007 contract first. I don't want anymore rentals.

It was always mentally [expletive] to trade Patterson. It wasn't like we were in a budget crunch or had a better place to spend the money even if we were. We weren't going to get less for him, or even if we did it's not like it would have mattered. We should have hung onto him as the 4th outfielder. Had we done that, he'd be starting with slappy on the bench now...

Who knows, it'll all depend on how the Cardinals do without Pujols, and if they make any big moves to compensate. The Central might be shaping up to be a division it won't take a huge amount of wins to take. If that's the case and we get to 40 wins before we get to 40 losses, we have a shot. However, for that to happen I think the following need to happen. #1 - Last nights performance from Juan Pierre needs to become the rule, not the exception. He has to get his butt on base twice a night fairly often. If he continues to falter you have to pull the plug on the experiment and actually think outside the box for once by letting Todd Walker leadoff, followed by Cedeno. #2 - Jacque Jones has got to continue not being Jacque Jones. Who would have thought we'd have a .900 OPS out of him at this point. He needs to at least maintain an .850 OPS or better. It's even to the point that with his crazy high slugging percentage, he's probably the best choice in RF against lefties unless we make a trade. Can't believe I just typed that... #3 - Last night's dominating performance from Z has got to become the standard for Cubs starters. No excuse not too. Wood has got to get healthy and stay that way, and Prior needs to be pre-injury bug Prior. Marshall and Maddux as our 4 & 5 need to be the weakest links in our rotation, and they need to not be all that weak. #4 - Do not, I repeat, do not over rely on Tony Womack. I'm glad he's hitting, I hope we get another season of fluke Cardinals Womack, but 5 or 6 good games cannot buy him 20 bad ones. If he starts to falter, get him out of the 2 hole and get Ronny in there. #5 - Bullpen has to continue to click, and Novoa and Ohman have to continue to improve and grow into important parts. #6 - DLee needs to come back, and be DLee quickly. And ARam needs to start being ARam, finally. A whole lot of "what if's", but if everything falls into place, who the hell knows.

As is, I think he'd net us a B-level prospect and nothing else. If he starts to come back around, maybe a little better.

Hopefully his desire to play and to actually get a major league contract next year will lead him to be more giving about where he plays.

I wouldn't worry too much (those who would like to see Dusty fired, but would feel bad rooting against the team). We're 18-30 right now. We've got at least 14 games before DLee or Prior come back. With the way we're playing and who we're playing, going 5-9 or 4-10 on that stretch is a real possibility. Hell 0-14 is... So lets say we go 5-9, that's going to put us at 23-39, 100 games left. If it's true we're a .500 at best team even when healthy, then our final record should be 73-89, pretty damn near disaster. I can't see Dusty being extended for 73-89, but I'm sure the Cubs will prove me wrong :(

$10 says Henderson could beat Pierre's .269 OBP...

He's only done because his ego won't allow him to be a part time player. His line against lefties last year, .288 .370 .471 .841, is more than good enough to earn himself a bench job or a platoon job. But I guess that wasn't good enough for Sammy...

Sure, why not. I'm so desperate at this point I'd like to bring in every single retired player there is who is still in shape, just to find that one diamond in the rough... "2006 Chicago Cubs Open Tryout: Help Us Not Suck!"

A well trained monkey for manager at this point...

Is it wrong that my level of desperation has reached Sammy Sosa levels? He split good against lefties last season, we have a right fielder who can't hit lefties to save his life, and a left fielder who could stand to have a few righties off at this point. I wonder if Sammy would return as a part time player for a chunk of change. Yes, I am that desperate to not suck...

Interleague Play: Give New Meaning To The Word "Designated Hitter" :lol:

Well, for starters, you talk to Mad Dog and see if he (still?) is against playing for the freaking Yankees and going to the playoffs. Just sell it as "we can't guarantee we'll be as competitive as you deserve, and this could change the Cubs franchise forever. You'd be doing us a big favor" Maddux as the start of the package if he agrees. If not, go to Kerry Wood and give the same speech. You gotta try. Beyond one of those guys (and if they refuse, you have to decide if you can offer a good starter who can't say no. Marshall most likely.) they're going to want an offensive player back. If we're building for next year, we need to give away as little of what we already have offensively. So, crazy thought. Spin Rich Hill to the Dodgers for Mueller or Garciaparra. Send him to the Yankees in this package. So a quality starter, a bat to replace what they're losing, and at this point you probably start including prospects. Think it has a snowballs chance in hell?

Well, you could go old school and bring out the chestnut that Terry Funk did a few weeks ago on WWE Raw, which for AJ would be the following "AJ, YOUR WIFE IS A WHORE"

Agreed, Womack is a slight upgrade over Neifi on the roster. I mean, so is Ronald McDonald, but it's still an upgrade... Anybody have a big hole at sucky middle infielder who might take Neifi off of our hands for a cheese sandwhich?

Only 4 games, but he's got six hits in twelve at bats, two walks, two k's, .500/.571/.583/1.155 How long do you think they let him play at Iowa before he's called up?

He appears to be done, but it wouldn't be [expletive] to sign him to a minor league deal and stuff him at Iowa, who knows, maybe something happens. If not you just let him go.