CUBZ99

how can you stomach them? <3 mute They are teriffic to listen to, compared to most teams announcers.

As they should. That was embarrassing.

WTH?? Why was Dlee loafing?

I would be interested to know if that is the case. There seems to be some underlying animosity between Lou and Murton. You get the feeling that Lou would rather not play him at all. Granted he has not been performing wonderfully, this year, but he has proven that he can be a midly effective/cheap OF'er.

Whoa doctor, Hendry and his love for the 30 year olds. Are we looking forward to a 2008 OF that features Monroe and his .258/.303/.448 97 OPS+ career line in a prominent position? I really hope we only see this guy on the roster for the next 10 weeks. I think he pretty much said it right there. If Monroe performs like he is likely to perform, he will probably only be with the team for the remainder of the season. Now if he tears it up for the next 10 weeks..... Of course when the time comes, there is no guarantee Jim will be the one making the decision whether to keep him or not. The question then is, what would Jim consider to be tearing it up? I'd imagine Monroe could come up with some big timely hits and homers, and be considered by some to be tearing it up, while still actually putting up some seriously pathetic numbers overall. Regardless, even if he does do something like OPS 900 the rest of the way, does that justify trying to keep a guy like Monroe around? His peak is clearly in his past, his age 27 season .293/.337/.488 115 OPS+ (which, oddly enough, was heavily weighted toward hitting RHP). He pulled back to his more normal numbers as he approached 30, and is now nothing more than one trick pony. Granted, that trick is fun and all, and I've got no problem with him being on the team right now. But any sort of attempt to bring him back next year at anything more than a nominal one year contract would be very foolish, regardless of how he finishes up 2007. *I'm operating on the assumption that Hendry will be very much involved in decision making this offseason until I see the actual news release of his dismissal. He's already lasted 2 more seasons than he deserved and is signed through 2008. Should have read gooney's post before my other post. Well put. I doubt Hendry will be making any decisions if the Cubs fail to go deep into the post season. I don't view Hendry's comments as any thing more, than encouragement for Monroe. I'm sure he wants Monroe to feel he has a fresh start, and not dwell on the rest of his terrible season this year. I don't see any way the Cubs would have room for him beyond this year, in any role beside a pinch hitter.

Whoa doctor, Hendry and his love for the 30 year olds. Are we looking forward to a 2008 OF that features Monroe and his .258/.303/.448 97 OPS+ career line in a prominent position? I really hope we only see this guy on the roster for the next 10 weeks. I think he pretty much said it right there. If Monroe performs like he is likely to perform, he will probably only be with the team for the remainder of the season. Now if he tears it up for the next 10 weeks..... Of course when the time comes, there is no guarantee Jim will be the one making the decision whether to keep him or not. The question then is, what would Jim consider to be tearing it up? I'd imagine Monroe could come up with some big timely hits and homers, and be considered by some to be tearing it up, while still actually putting up some seriously pathetic numbers overall. Regardless, even if he does do something like OPS 900 the rest of the way, does that justify trying to keep a guy like Monroe around? His peak is clearly in his past, his age 27 season .293/.337/.488 115 OPS+ (which, oddly enough, was heavily weighted toward hitting RHP). He pulled back to his more normal numbers as he approached 30, and is now nothing more than one trick pony. Granted, that trick is fun and all, and I've got no problem with him being on the team right now. But any sort of attempt to bring him back next year at anything more than a nominal one year contract would be very foolish, regardless of how he finishes up 2007. I totally agree. I can totally see Hendry re-signing him, which is why I hope the decision is made by a new GM. First of all your assuming that Hendry will be the person that gets to make the decision as to whether Monroe is re-signed or not. That is a pretty big assumption considering that if the Cubs do not go deep into the playoffs (or win the WS), this season will be viewed as a gigantic failure by everyone. I can't see him lasting too long at that point. Second, it is not a dumb move to give a struggling player encouragement. I hope nobody expected Hendry to say "We signed him to be a part-time player for this year, and after that we don't have any use for him."

And he will start Thursday...bye bye Al Alburquerque! I also irrationally hate certain 21-year old Dominican kids on the basis of 11 appearances. Theres never any hatred. But he gave us no chance to win and get in the playoffs and thats what we are playing for. He was way overmatched at this level and always "hurt" The only thing they are playing for is possibly developing into future major league baseball players. Getting Peoria to the playoffs is pretty meaningless. Your post makes no sense at all. You can't possibly believe that minor league players don't want to win, and make it to the playoffs at every level?

If we got cash that probably means we gave up a decent prospect. That's not good. Maybe the Cubs will trade them Chris Robinson back.

If the Cubs win the World Series on a Monroe walk off HR, I could care less if hendry resigns him or not.

We'll see, Warren. This move costs us the playoffs when Craig starts over Murton constantly, and drives Pie out of the rotation. Soriano doesn't fix anything, either, because then his starts move to CF. We'll be too far down the drain when it becomes obvious to the Cubs that picking low-OBP guys from other teams' waste heaps isn't the way to run a team. If you have any faith at all that he'll be used properly (as if there is a way to do that with a career .303 OBP guy), then it won't hurt as much. This is Lou Piniella we're talking about here. Another terrible manager, although I'll admit that there is no such thing as a good manager. Two problems with your argument: 1. Pie isn't even in the rotation. He is used as a pinch runner/late inning defense replacement. 2. Murton wasn't going to play anyways. Lou had Floyd, Jones and Fox starting vs. the LHP last night. There is something between Murton and Lou (or an injury) that we may never be privy to, but to think Murton is going to get alot of playing time the rest of this year with or without Monroe is ridiculous.

It's always fun to have a guy who is a legit threat to hit a HR off the bench, and nothing more. But he hasn't been able to do anything against RHP this year. Need to keep his playing time very limited. DO you think Lou will be limiting his playing time? I see him filling in for Floyd & Murton a lot more. Which is terrible. Lou may even try to play him in CF. See you in a few weeks Fox or Pie. Right, because Lou is such a terrible manager. He just does dumb stuff all the time. He certainly isn't getting the most out of this team. not saying that lou is terrible, but "getting the most out of this team?" you have to be kidding. it's a $100 mil team that's like four games over .500. if that's the "most," i don't want to see the "least." By your standards the Yankees and their $200MM ++ payroll should win every game of the season. I know you really don't believe that the amount of payroll = talent available for a manager to use. Lou didn't spend the $100MM and most people would agree that he does done a good job with the resources he was given to work with.

1. Monroe is likely Pagan's replacement as the CF v. LHP. 2. 2 wins? Laughable. PECOTA pegs Monroe as 2.9 WARP over 500 plate appearances and Murton as a 3.6 WARP over 460 plate appearances. There's not a 2 win difference between Monroe and Murton if they each played every day over the course of an entire season. The notion that there's a two win difference between them in the 10-12 games we play against LHP the rest of the season is utterly laughable. I'm sick of hearing about Murton already. The guy may turn out to be a teriffic player someday, but it is apparent that Lou has some issues with him (or he is hurt) and he is not going to get a fair shot. Even if Monroe became a platoon option, he is a better option than playing Floyd or Jones against LHP. Lets hope he gets hot for a few months and can provide some sort of production.

Is that right? Outstanding. As soon as he's "healthy" and pitching well, trade him before the duct tape and bailing wire break. Or the Cubs could decide if they want him as a RP or a SP and not jerk him around. The Cubs do plenty of things wrong, but you are really stretching to blame them for Guzman's fragility. I'm not blaiming them at all. But let me run this by you and see what you think. A GM of a team has a talented but frequently injured young pitcher. He has been injury free for a while. The GM decides break camp with him as a reliever for the MLB club, then after approximately three weeks of inconsistent and infrequent use he decides he wants him to start so he send him back down to AAA to "stretch" his arm. He gets three starts in AAA then he gets sent back to the MLB club. Then from May 6 to May 17 he gets 3 starts in the majors. He doesn't do bad but cannot get out of the 5th inning. Then the GM and manager decide they want him in the bullpen where he is used approximately every two days until he comes up with an injury about a month later. Would you say this is a good plan for a "fragile" young pitcher? The Cubs always seem to take the "if he's going to get hurt, he's going to get hurt" approach to dealing with young arms. I thought the reason he moved to the bullpen was that he was experiencing soreness after throwing more than a couple of innings. So the plan was to move him to the bullpen to prevent the soreness from occurring. Not saying that I agree with the action, but with Guzman's history of injuries, I don't necessarily disagree with trying to get all you can out of him while he is healthy.

Is that right? Outstanding. As soon as he's "healthy" and pitching well, trade him before the duct tape and bailing wire break. Or the Cubs could decide if they want him as a RP or a SP and not jerk him around. The Cubs do plenty of things wrong, but you are really stretching to blame them for Guzman's fragility.

The level of difficulty does though, and Cedeno isn't good enough to play at this level. How is it possible to be so great on one level and then be not even worthy of a roster spot on the next level. It makes no sense. There are plenty of example to prove it is possible.

Is Murton hurt?

I agree, there are no real good options in the OF outside of Soriano. Hendry has his work cut out for him this offseason.

Why the hell are you breaking out splits? Murton was productive last year. Floyd was not. It's freaking simple. There's no need for clarification......................... So you'd agree that Jacque Jones was productive last year and there's no need to break out splits? WHAT DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH ANYTHING Good Lord. I'm going to take a guess, and say that he is pointing out that you should take into consideration the players usage, instead of issuing a blanket statement that player A is superior to player B.

Who is complaining? I'm just glad they finally got to Bucky and gave him the L.

Funny that Lincecum wasn't dancing on his way off the field.

because he is mowing through the Cubs with ease.

Nice little dance Lincecum did after getting the K.

Time to stop watching pitches going right across the middle of the plate.

Maybe Marquis will drill Lincecum?

Marquis is pitching giants will score more than 1