halplm

and we sent THEM cash? this is arguably... about the absolute worst thing Hendry could have gotten for maddux... unfathomable... You know why we did this? He started at 2nd yesterday and got the game winning run. Never mind that it's the first time he's EVER started at 2nd... and he sucks! I've been listening to LA sports radio guys complain about him ALL YEAR!!!!!!!

At some point we're going to have to realize this team won't win as long as the owner cares more about the bottom line than winning. And the owners won't sell the team as long as it's making them money. AND the fans won't stop going to the games as long as they believe "this year will be the year!" Come to think of it, the White Sox and Red Sox winning, probably bought the Trib 20 more years of "If they could do it, WE can too!" marketing...

it amazes me how people can buy into things so quickly. If anything, this team got pumped up to be playing the Cardinals. It had nothing to do with anything Hendry said. I'm sure he believes it did, and I'm sure Dusty does too, because it's something that's been said in baseball for a hundred years, and they're going to take this 4 game winning streak and build 2 more extremely underperforming years out of it... this team is done... it'll be 2010 and we won't recognize a name on the roster before we get another chance at winning...

So... we haven't had any young talent come through since Dusty showed up... not just rookies, but young guys in general. Murton seems to have made his adjustments, but he's the only one... Meanwhile, young guys shipped out of the system have done exceptionally well... Is this because the organization is horrendously bad at judging talent? Or is it because Dusty and his staff try and "re-teach" all the young guys that show up in Chicago? I don't really want this to be a Dusty bashing thread... I'm really curious as to why this seems to be the case...

no, not firing him now implies if it's not yet a certainty that they want to extend Dusty. Even if they had to fire the whole staff, they could replace them with other coaches in the system. The bottom line is, if they were moving towards next year, they'd MOVE towards next year. The status quo does no one any good at all. In fact, my guess would be that they've agreed to an extension already, and will wait for a slow news day to announce it in the offseason.

Well I've now gone from pulling for them to humiliate themselves until Baker is fired, to until Hendry is fired... although I might just not care about baseball until the Trib sells the team...

woohoo, it's the first game of the rest of the year! Dusty is not being fired this year, that means we have a stable clubhouse again! We're going to win the next 30 games and be in the playoff hunt! This is just the vote of confidence this team needed! :roll: ](*,)

If there was ever any doubt... Hendry should be fired today.

They will win 63 games this year, going 63-99. This will be claimed as a great acheivement by all people involved with the Cubs, because they did not lose 100 games. Dusty will be resigned, for keeping the team together through such a tough injury plagued season, and Hendry will waste a top 5 draft pick on a football player Hendry likes for his speed and athleticism, even though he plays a different sport...

There is no reason EVER that Neifi should start over Walker. none. Period. If it's after the trading deadline, and there's a kid to stick in there, THEN Walker might not be the right guy to start... otherwise... it's him, and any other manager in baseball would know that.

...and lots of bad luck. I hate the word "curse" cause I think its a copout, but I can't ignore the string of bad luck with injuries. Doesn't it seem odd that everyone is always hurt? No, it's not odd, when you use young arms irresponsably for years, there's goign to be problems. When you don't have good backups for when the freak injuries happen, you lose a lot more games. When you make bad moves, and have a poorly conditioned team with poor fundamentals, injuries will happen more often and they will have a bigger impact. It's not odd, it's a bad basebally organization.

the problem with this team is not that they're bad at any one area... it's that it's made up of people Dusty and Hendry "like" with no regard for their actual execution. half the Cubs roster shouldn't even be playing, much less starting for a major league team...

Dusty will ruin everythign about this team before he's gone... if he's given the chance...

He says Dusty's a good choice if he's willing to shake up his coaching staff to find a better fit? Um, this is Dusty... he doesn't know how to shake up anything. He'll use the same people until he cannot anymore... pitchers, veterans, coaches... they have to be removed from his sight before he'll stop relying on options that won't work.

you guys are using the fatal mistake of using logic to try and understand this team. you have to think like DUSTY!

What could be gained? how about a Manager who knows how to run a team of young players? How about a Manager who PLAYS young players? How about a Manager that isn't trying to win at all costs playing crappy veterens trying to keep his job? There's plenty to be gained.

I really don't understand the concept of throwing away the future to try to win now... I would much much rather have a team in contention for the next decade than a run at it all now, meaning we have nothing to work with for the next several years. If we even approached contention this year... or say... even MADE it to the World Series... we'd lose badly... but Dusty would be around for a LONG time... and we'd be horrible that entire time... The entire management philosophy would be hailed as "World Series caliber" and we'd be stuck with it. We need to lose, and we need to lose embarassingly. Fortunately, we've got the right team to do that... Unfortuantely, it's the Cubs, and we can't even lose right...

That's absolutely not true if he acquires players that will help the team win in 2007. We can afford to not be sellers. Of course we can, but by "buyers" I mean spending more than someone is worth because we need them now... to improve the team now. I'm not saying sell off everyone... I'm just saying if there's any move that looks like a "win now" move... it makes less than no sense. We need to be workign towards next year...

The Cubs may have turned a corner... they may play about .500 ball the rest of the year... this will result in us sucking just as badly next year with no plan for the future. If Hendry acts like a buyer going up to the trading deadline... he's not only incompetant... but insane as well...

I'm a big proponent of OBP=runs... and in almost every case I'll want to build a team around guys with high OBP wh are very selective in what they hit... The thing that people like myself, and many others forget when talking about OBP vs. OPS vs AVG vs BB etc... is that different situation really do require different approaches to hitting. Generally speaking, I think the closer to the top of the order, the more OBP matters, and the lower you are in the order, the more AVG matters. Look at it this way.. The top two hitters, you want on base, period. OBP is their primary stat. You want them to see a ton of pitches and get on base any way they can. In fact, for the leadoff guy, walks might be even more important, because you really want him to see a lot of pitches... the number two guy, just needs to get on base. The middle of the order... 3, 4, 5... you want OPS. You need them to hit for power and drive guys in. You still want them to be extremely selective, but not so much to get walks, but to get pitches in their favor that they can drive. Walks are fine if they're not seeing their pitchers, but many times, a guy on ahead of them who can steal, for instance... a walk isn't what you really want. The bottom of the order, 6, 7 8... while I'm still big on OBP, as they'll be leading off innings themselves, I think AVG is pretty important... a LOT of times, you'll be wanting these guys just to put the ball IN PLAY... A guy that's only super selective, and draws a lot of walks... won't slap that ball outside into right field and score that essential run. You need guys on the team that can do that... Do they get on as much? No, but the pitcher's due up anyway, so they're less likely to score from first off a walk... There is no one all powerful stat that you can max to make your team great (unless team wins counts ;) ), but that's what makes Baseball Great :) It also helps, of course, if your manager knows how to fill out a lineup card...

well, no official announcement will happen before tomorrow... but who knows what might leak...

Ok, I'm going to be optimistic and think Dusty will still go relatively soon. Everyone said last week, that Hendry "evaluating things" meant Dusty was basically done, and it was more a matter of when, than if he would be gone. Granted, Hendry did say "lets see how we finish out the week" which could mean anything... but if Hendry HAS decided Dusty is gone... When will we know it? Will the press conference be tomorrow? Thursday? Will he wait until they lose a series again? If he's decided Dusty's going to go, he should let him go as soon as possible, and get whatever we can out of whoever replaces him... but then, Hendry's not done the right thing once yet... so who knows...

The scary thing is, this team should be playing better. If They pull together and play well for the rest of the year... they'll still finish 20ish games under .500, but Hendry will be able to take that and do what he wants with it... And, of course, the money will keep rolling in throughout the year...

well, at least dusty has his horses excuse in full force for a while longer...

wow, dusty put the right lineup out there. you know, it actually doesn't look that bad... why can't we score runs again?