vance_the_cubs_fan

Macias is a defensive upgrade to Dubois at least (covers way more ground and showed, amazingly, that at least he has an accurate arm last night) but definitely not Hairston so bad move by Dusty. Dusty must've brought him in for his speed to play no doubles defense, but nice bobble. Macias may even have more time in the OF thruout his career than Hairston for all I know, but Dusty should have been ecstatic that Macias-as-defensive-upgrade worked so well last night and not been greedy and done it twice in a row. Dusty pulled that string one too many times - half-amazing it even worked once. Sadly, Hendry will not cut the cord. Macias may come thru one in a great while, but he will no doubt level out back to overally lousiness very quickly. You're kidding me, right? Macias can play multiple positions, but he plays them poorly. He may have more speed than Dubois, but he doesn't get good reads or jumps on balls hit to the outfield. Dubois also has a much better arm than Macias.

Dusty gets a lot of credit for the back to back winning seasons, but with the talent this team has had over the last two seasons, it would have been a major choke job not to have winning seasons. I believe any number of managers who were available in the offseason of 2002 could have produced such. I think that Bobby Valentine, Bob Melvin, Mike Hargrove...hell even Ray Miller may have been able to do what Dusty did with those teams...and maybe more. We'll never know. I haven't always been on Dusty's case. In fact, I applauded his hire at the time. I hadn't watched him in depth and he had a good record and a reputation as someone who could get the most out of his players. Doubt began to creep in my mind during 2003. He made a number of questionable in game decisions and not only did he insert Lenny Harris into the starting line-up, he batted him lead-off! :pukel: But, through it all, I kept giving him the benefit of the doubt. After last season, I've even begun to question his ability to control a clubhouse which was supposedly his strength. He makes a lot of excuses and seems to pass the buck. It was never his fault. I remember when the team was making many fundamental errors last season, Dusty repeatedly said, "My teams don't play that way." Newsflash, Dusty. That was your team. I began to sour on him a lot last year, but still ultimately defended him. This year, it took one week for me to finally say enough is enough. His off the wall comments, his inability to put the best line-up on the field, his reliance on piece of crap Macias...I've finally had enough.

When I saw Dunn was out after being spiked I figured Rocket put the date rape drug in his gatorade. :lmao:

He already has a good nick-name.

would this make him a "Wookie"? I just think it is a little misleading to call anyone with a .375 BA a whiff machine. But I guess nicknames can be used when the point is weak.

Run! Here comes Vance! I'm avoiding this thread for obvious reasons. ZZ thinks like Dusty. He thinks just because Dubois is a rookie he should be the 25th man. He ignores Dubois' 316 BA in Iowa, his 389 OBP and his 1.019 OPS. He ignores the fact that he was an AFL MVP and that he's performed at every level, and I'd bet put up better minor league numbers than Macias or Perez ever did. He ignores the fact that Dubois is hitting .375 this year despite the fact he's played sporadically compared to Hollandsworth's 241 BA. He ignores the fact that Dubois has an OBP of 444 compared to Hollandsworth's 333. Dubois should be getting more starts instead of rotting on the bench. With Walker out, Dubois should be the first option off the bench. Of course, ZZ believes in everything Dusty does. So if Dusty has Dubois at the end of the bench, that's where he should be. I just have trouble trusting Dusty. This is the man who believes tall people have more moveable parts, black people play better in the heat, that walks clog the bases, that the Yankees didn't win by walking (when in their WS years, they were among the playoff leaders in walks), and spouts wonderful stories about fish to try to get his point across. Of course, trusting ZZ would be trusting someone who doesn't think Adam Dunn has value either, so maybe I should be done with the discussion.

Looks like Dunn missed a game last night due to an injury.

I'm completely convinced Fontenot could hit better than Perez.

Dusty doesn't think creatively. I wouldn't mind seeing Fontenot get the start at 3B over Neifury. I don't care if that's what Dusty's thinking or not. Either way, it shows that Dusty has no clue who to send up there for a pinch hit appearance. Look here. Macias has not had an OBP over 300 since 2001?!?! He's had one year where his slugging eeked above .400. So what if he doesn't K as often as Dubois. That just means he finds other more inventive ways of making outs. He's not very good. Won't ever be very good. It's bad enough to have him on the team, and for that Jim Hendry is at fault, but it's worse that Dusty uses him as the tenth man when he should be the last guy used and then only in the case of an emergency.

The answer I got? Somone needs to tell Carrie that Macias cannot make better contact than Dubois. And when Macias does make contact it is usually a weak ground out or fly out. There's a reason he has a career OBP as low as he does. He sucks! It kind of makes sense to me, note the kind of - Dubois was on pace to whiff 150 times over 600 ABs in AAA last year. So what does that translate to in the bigs - 175 Ks? I think the prevailing notion among baseball managers is that someone who whiffs that much doesn't make contact regularly. This whiffing/lack of contact is really Dubois' only glaring weakness. I think if he wasn't such a wind machine he'd be our starting LF this year. (Yes I know, Dusty stil wouldn't play him, he hates rookies, that's still my story.) Dubois' strike-outs have nothing to do with his not playing left. And what's even more amazing, even with striking out 175 times, he could still get on base more than Macias. And Macias has a pretty high strike out rate himself without the benefit of any power.

The answer I got? Somone needs to tell Carrie that Macias cannot make better contact than Dubois. And when Macias does make contact it is usually a weak ground out or fly out. There's a reason he has a career OBP as low as he does. He sucks!

And while they were likely worse prospects on the 40-man than Sisco, it is not very easy to remove someone from the 40-man. While a rule v pick must stay with a team's 25 man active roster for an entire season, if you tried to remove someone from the 40 man, they could be claimed by another team with room on the 40 man and be sent right to the minors. This likely contributed to the decision to keep certain players on the roster and to not roster Sisco.

And who can forget Dusty hitting Lenny lead-off? That alone should have your membership card in the Mangers Union revoked.

dude, someone needs to slap you silly. Would you guys be so bananas about him if he hit .210/.375, 200Ks and only had 30 homers this year. Dunn is so all-or-nothing I wouldn't be surprised if he does terrible and doesn't even reach the Mendoza line. He could hit .270 and 50 dingers - I dunno. He's an enigma at this point. An enigma wrapped in shroud caught in a riddle stuck in fog surrounded by uncertainty. And he is worse than Carlos Lee in LF. And that is bad.... if "all-or-nothing" means that he gets on base 40% of the time, then i'm all about the "all-or-nothing". you just don't get it: getting on base is better than not getting on base. i don't see what you find so difficult to understand about it. That point is simple enough for even me to understand. If you're getting on base 37-40% of the time and adding 35-50 HR's with it, you will be helping your team win a lot more than you are hurting them.

Are you serious??!? Where did you hear this? Levine on ESPN 1000 said Neifi would be starting. I hate Dusty. :evil:

Are you serious??!? Where did you hear this?

Fontenot makes more sense than Lewis in that he'll provide a left handed bat. He also replaces Walker as a first rounder from LSU on the ballot.

Out a month is a lot better than out a season. Get well soon, Todd.

Not only will the injury likely end Walker's season, it could end his tenure with the Cubs. He will not get the plate appearances to guarantee his option, so I'm not sure if he would be brought back. This is a sad day, for us and Walker.

And it really should have only been two, if the umpire hadn't incorrectly called the runner safe at first. That is so true.

Maddux's history of success is also a wee bit deeper than Carpenter's too. The Admin has a point there. In fact last year was the first year that Carpenter was successful and healthy.

Another quote from the same article: Even the Cubs are saying he might be out for an extended period. I know the official report is sprained knee, but I believe that was also the initial report on Patterson's injury. Doesn't sound good. At least it's at a position with a good replacement, but somebody would then have to come up and fill the void on the bench. Would this be Ben Grieve's ticket back to the majors, I wonder? Grieve would be my choice. He'd give us a left bat off the bench.

Carpenter's line today: 3.1 IP, 10 H, 2 BB, 8 ER

:sunny: Things are looking up. :sunny:

He looked very good. Considering he was brought into a game with the Royals already trailing 7-1, it appears they are going to ease him in with mop up duty. I'm pretty sure at this point he's as good as gone. I wouldn't be so sure. There's 157 games to go and he has to stay on the roster for all of them. While he looked good tonight, he may not the next time he's used. :roll: :roll: Must be February 2nd, I keep seeing the same poster with the same comment over and over again. Yeah it must be Feb 2, cause I keep seeing the same poster making pessimistic comments over and over again. :roll: :roll: :roll: