halplm

Usually the question is... "Would you take a Championship if it meant 20 years of suckage afterwards?" Most any Cubs fan will say yes to this... Arguably any fan should say this... What we're looking at here is... "Would you take an 80 win season if it meant 10 years of suckage afterwards?" If any Cubs fan, or ANY fan said this... well, that just doesn't seem right...

Except as long as Lee is gone, he's their excuse... That's the real tragedy of Lee's injury... because the team would still suck if he was here... but they wouldn't have any excuses...

I kind of look like Babe Ruth... so I could be a hitting coach... or perhaps Manager... or Bench Coach! That's always sounded like a fun job...

oh, there's more draining to do... Hendry is now in a position to have to "fix" things. he'll have to go out and get "proven vets" and he'll trade away ANY talent we have waiting to get them. Dusty knows a lot of "proven vets" His boys are all over the league... We haven't seen the last Pierre or Perez or whoever else Dusty has stuffed away somewhere ready to get paid millions to spout off to the Media how great Dusty is... It already doesn't bother me when the Cubs lose any more... I'm closer than I've ever been to actively pulling against them... Beer sales are probably up though...

You know, the more I think about it, the more this whole OBP ignorance and the fact that they REALLY want to extend Baker makes sense. It must be hard to find a respected manager that agrees OBP is meaningless. Dusty is respected (at least withing baseball), and thinks walks are not only not good, but BAD... couldn't care less how much a guy gets on, and only likes to see hits... I can't see how it could be spite... because then this team is being run by children... but I can see that they (MacPhail, Hendry, etc...) must be really pissed off at the number crunchers in Baseball, and are doing everything they can to prove a team can win without OBP... This team will be ruined for a decade... left with no farm system, and no Baseball Talent period... just a bunch of overpaid fast guys, and a management team that thinks only luck matters in baseball...

seriously, this extension will kill the cubs for 10 years... if the hendry one didn't already...

160-2, but I think the rest is spot on.

Actually, Wood's injury IS arguably Dusty's fault, or collectively Dusty and Hendry. He should have been shut down a month earlier than he was last year, and we can't even imagine what that would have meant to his injury... but it certainly would have started his rehab a month earlier...

We need to get hits, not runs! wait, or is it walks we don't want? I'm so confused...

Blanco is one of the few Cubs with any good history against Buerhle. He and Barrett should both be in the game. He's batting 0.61... I don't care how good he's been against Buerhle... and 3 for 12 is not that good... With some of them being homeruns. Look, there is no good option for DH since they got rid of the one RH threat off the bench. This is true, of course :) I'd just not have picked Blanco as the extra guy to put in there... ever... I mean I'd have neifi in there first... ok, bad example...

Blanco is one of the few Cubs with any good history against Buerhle. He and Barrett should both be in the game. He's batting 0.61... I don't care how good he's been against Buerhle... and 3 for 12 is not that good...

you know, I can't stand it when guys walk and clog up the bases to start an inning

Guy's it's the DESIGNATED HITTER... you have to put your best hitter there... it's like... a rule. Don't worry who you have to replace him with on the field... that will work itself out... end dusty logic...

Well, say Jones is the better player, don't say Corey is 2 for his last 15...

Only Dusty could use the DH to make our offense WORSE...

I swear, the only reason I can see for Barrett being the DH is Dusty just picked our best hitter right now... I mean, it's the DESIGNATED HITTER... gotta be the best hitter right...

Wait, I was RIGHT? I can too easily think like Dusty... I'm going to go crawl into a corner and cry now...

well, we certainly don't have a "real" DH... and we don't have anyone on the bench hitting very well... Probably DH Barrett or something screwy like that... I mean... gotta have a power hitter at DH, right? He's a power hitter, right?

Yes, because Jones hasn't done anything that bad this year... :roll:

Neifi would have played with us for the league minimum... even then he'd still not get a better offer anywhere...

I'm betting Neifi will DH... gotta give him those ABs to help him get his swing back! Or... bunting back... yeah...

My favorite part was "That's my game" ... and I couldn't help but agree with him... he just makes outs... that's what he does... you can count on it 8 out of 10 times...

There are two reasons Hendry might actually want Baker around: 1. He truly believes Baker is the best option available. This may in fact be true. He's completely behind the strategies Baker has for the team and has BUILT the team to fit Dusty's mindset. If this is true, Baker WILL be extended, even if we lose 120 games. This is also why the Hendry extension was a horrible idea. 2. He wants Baker hatred to cover his own failures to build a good team. He can only do this as long as Baker is there... or until he signs Baker to an extension while the team is still bad. If he signs Baker while the team is bad, all hatred moves from Baker to Hendry, as it's a stupid move that cannot make any sense. If the team turns it around, and Hendry sign's Baker... he's the manager... and the team is built around what the manager wants... don't like it, talk to Dusty... I really truly hope it's the first reason... as the second means Hendry cares only about himself, and NOTHING for the team. On the other hand, I really hope it's the second reason, because Hendry deserves most of the blame. I also think the 2nd option can explain the whole "wait until anythign good happens to extend Baker" nonsense. If it was the first, he'd already be extended, and if neither of those is true, he'd already be fired.

playing time is motivation for people that aren't vastly overpaid for years to come... Jaque Jones isn't going to get a better deal than he has... nor are several other players on the team... DUSTY is the only one that can motivate them... and I'm pretty sure he won't be back... if he were going to be, his extension would have happened at the time of Hendry's... It's going to be a long year...

If you were Prior, would YOU want to pitch with Baker handling you and this offense to back you up? I don't blame him for being slow to get back... personally I hope he's told the front office he'll be sick until they fire Baker... My own personal dream conspiracy ;)