halplm

I've decided this team is funny. If you laugh, it's all good! Alcohol helps... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

There's a difference between delegating responsability and delegating blame. Yes, it's the pitching coach's responsability to make sure the pitchers do their job, but it's Dusty's responsability to make sure the pitching coach accomplishes that. If something slips through like that game, it's Dusty's fault, not Larry's. He's the only one that's ultimately responsible. The pitching coach makes sure they do the drills, the Manager makes sure the team is ready and able to play in ALL aspects. No quality manager places blame. Its all on him or the team as a whole. No quality manager puts his pitching coach, center fielder, catcher, on the spot, but makes statements like "We'll be working on that," or "We have a lot to work on." Dusty DOES make a show of NOT yelling in public, but then he goes and makes underhanded and snide-like comments placing blame everywhere but on himself. His SHOW is all about himself. I will lose all faith in Hendry and MacPhail if Dusty is the manager next year. I don't care how much he gets paid.

LoneStarCubFan = find a dictionary. Poise and heart have absolutely NOTHING to do with each other. This team has PLENTY of heart to still be at .500 after everything that's happnneed. They aren't gutless or heartless or any other vitriolic adjective that makes you feel better when you spew it at them. They are talented, but not good. They aren't coached well, and they rely too much on the long ball. They don't execute. All of these are reasons they suck, not because they have a lack of heart. Today a team with a lack of heart would have rolled over. They didn't. Dusty rolled over when he filled out the lineup... How much you wanna bet Neifi bats 6 again tomorrow after going 3 for 4... Oh he'll have to play 2nd with Nomar back, but Walker was 0-4 today so he needs a day off...

well, that's certainly some fun guesswork :) The bottom line is this... to get to 90 wins we need to go 36-18. That's EIGHTEEN games over .500. The most we've been over .500 at any point this season is 6. Probably over the hottest stretch we had all year, May 10th to June 11th, we were 20-9, which is only 11 games over .500... The odds of this club being 18 over .500 over the final 54 games are so small I don't know what to think... Well now I'm depressed...

It's not really the same thing. You can have poise but the team can still not have heart. Poise is being able to stick together and accept responsability. Heart is being able to play through tough times and still desire to win. You can have poise without heart, and you can have heart without poise... but this team has neither.

All those stats show is that we have a lot of talent. Our guys can hit. But their approach changes with RISP, they don't play fundamentally well. Basically, they are the 3rd best offense in the league while not in a scoring opportunity. And if you look at the splits w/ RISP and 2 outs... they're bottom of the barrel in almost every category... swinging for the fences and failing...

Best post I've seen in a while. Nicely said. When was the last time you saw a good team's manager blame anything on anyone? Their standard answer to a problem is always "We didn't execute tonight." It's as a team they failed. Players may be singled out for exceptionally good performances, but are never singled out for a loss. I hadn't really thought of it that way, but it's true.

I couldn't believe my eyes when Maddux swung away into the DP in the fifth. Why not try a squeeze, or at least show bunt there? Anything to put pressure on the defense. One poor Cub fan in my section upon seeing Baker's complete lack of creativity jumped up, did a dance and slapped his head. He was an older gent presumably fed up with spending his waning days watching Dusty ruin the lives of several million Cub fans. Why pull Maddux in the sixth? The weather was unbearable, but Maddux hadn't pushed himself much, and he had a relatively low pitch count. The pen needs work, sure, but if that's true why go there when we didn't have to? Starting the eighth with Novoa and no one stirring in the pen was an unbelieveably optimistic choice. The kid did well to get out of the seventh ... why push it? Walking Griffey in the eighth was stupid. Kearns has been hitting well at Louisville, was salivating at the chance to contribute and has been a Cub killer since coming up. Everyone in the park saw his hit coming ... I make Griffey beat me. Not to mention the fact that had we gone into extras we'd have done so with a lineup double-switched into oblivion with Neifi and Macias up to their old tricks. Baker's prints were all over Wednesday's loss as well. The criminal misuse of the pen has been covered, but there's no way Harang goes nine if this club had any notion of how to work a pitcher. Baker tells the guys to go up there a hackin', and by God that's what they did ... all freaking night, even when Harang was on the ropes late. Dusty is an idiot. Just a comment on walking Griffey. You do have to remember how great Griffey was 10 years ago. Kearns is a youngun. Don't you know how much better veterans are than rookies? You have to take the bat out of Griffey's hands, I mean, he used to be just so unbelievable. And Kearns has only been around what, 3 years? He will obviously cave under the pressure. You have to learn to think like Dusty, and then all these type of things make sense. I mean, Neifi got a Gold Glove 5 years ago. He's obviously our best choice now.

Neifi's numbers don't matter. He could be hitting .210 and making errors every game... He would STILL start over Cedeno. Why? Because Dusty is a MORON.

I've stopped being a Hendry fan, but another manager could have won more with what Hendry gave him, even with the injuries.

Everyone knows I'm up for a little Dusty bashing any time I'm motivated to care any more, but there really is no point any more. Everyone knows he's a horrible in-game manager. He can only fill out the right lineup when it's so obvious there are no other valid lineups. He only knows how to handle a pitching staff when the starters go 7 or 8 innings, and even then it would be safer if they went 9. The only hope for the Cubs this year is if their offense can get so hot that it doesn't matter who's in the game at any time, or how many runs the bullpen gives up... because if we have to depend on decisions by Dusty, it's not going to happen. That said, I dread watching the Cubs in the playoffs (as much as I hope to seem them there) because Dusty will continue to make his unfathomable decisions, and it will be that much more depressing.

When Corey is hitting well, he is a power hitter. He hits home runs and drives in players on base. When he is not hitting well, he still gets those home runs, but he doesn't do anythign else right. What does this mean? It means he hits well when he tries to HIT, and hits poorly, but with some pop, when he tries to hit HOME RUNS. This year, he's been tossed around, never gotten in stride, thrown at the top of the order, expected to get on base. He is not, nor has he ever been, nor will he ever be, an OBP guy. That's why several weeks of Patterson, Neifi, and Macias in the top two spots practically killed the season. Corey is an RBI producer, who should be in the 6th or 7th spot in the order, with little to no pressure on him to do ANYTHING but drive in runners on base. Corey's major problem, is the Cubs organization has tried to get him to do everything a baseball player could be asked to do EXCEPT that. Corey should be slotted in the 7th spot and left there for the next 5 years. No shuffling, no leadoff... just hit .270, get you're RBI's, and play great defense. Now if only we had a Manager who didn't feel like he wasn't doing his job if he didn't drastically change the lineup every day...

Yeah, I'd hate to see a perrenial playoff contender. It would get so boring watching a winning team. Yes, I know Baker has just taken the Cubs there once in 2+ years, but come on. You wouldn't care if they made the playoffs? Making the playoffs is pointless without winning the WS. Yes, it's great to have a winning team, but limping into the playoff with players like Macias and Perez starting every day will not lead to WS victories. This team needs to move forward. The point of this thread was to discuss the Tribune article about a change in team hitting strategy. I'm sorry if I sidetracked it with my own Baker annoyances. What I'm wondering is if Baker had anythign to do with the change, or if it was the players getting together and saying "lets get on base more."

Yeah, most of my posts focus on Baker, because it's depressing to see him managing this club, and in my mind the biggest problem. Trying to fix smaller problems or blame specific players is a waste of time. I didn't say Patterson shouldn't have been sent to the minors. He needed a change. If Baker's sticking around with no clue how to manage him, that change can only be sending him to the minors. The organization has been trying stick him in the leadoff spot forever because they want him to be something he is not. He's been struggling so much this year, he finally said. FINE, put me there, and of course it didnt' help him or the team. I'm not a Corey apologist. He's not what he could have been. I just hate to see him as the scapegoat here when he is in no way the one who should be blamed. Personally, I do not wish the Cubs ill will so that Baker gets fired. I will be sad if they make the playoffs and this results in Baker staying the manager longer, because I don't see how this team could possibly win a WS, and I don't care how many times BAker can get us to the playoffs if we don't win. There's winning now, and there's winning long term. Baker is doing nothing to help us win now, and he's hurting us dreadfully long term... Saying, instead, that Corey's free swinging mentality was causing us to lose games, and we're in much better shape after sending him down... is placing blame incorrectly. You can't blame individual players anyway. You can only blame a team for wins and losses. The Manager, however is to blame for how the team plays. That's his job.

I don't like all the blame Patterson is getting. Yes, he's utterly failed to perform this year, and maybe he just doesn't have what it takes, but to blame him for the entire team's free-swinging philosophy is absurd. That's Baker's philosophy, and Patterson can't be blamed for doing things like his manager says too. That article in the Tribune makes it sound like Patterson was causing the whole team to be free-swingers, and now that he's been sent down, they can all feel free to take pitches. Baker just sometimes makes me sick. He's used sending Patterson and Dubois to make them scapegoats, disregarding the fact that he failed in ANY way to use them effectively even though everyone knows they have more talent than they displayed here this year. As much as I love seing the Cubs win (especially against the Marlins), that sweep hurt this team, especially if it bought Baker any more time running this team. Maybe I'm in the minority, but I still think this team would be better with Patterson and Dubois on the field, as long as a competent manager put them in the right spots on the field and in the lineup.

I have lots of different thoughts about Bartman. I'd like to think I wouldn't have done what he did, that I would have known the situation, how crucial every out was, and held everyone back as Alou made what would have been a catch on every highlight reel for 20 years. I can't say that would have been the case, though. Bartman was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and I hope he has moved on. This article makes it sound like he has. I imagine it bothers him far more than it bothers anyone else. I can't imagine the feeling myself. That said, I blame Gonzo, Prior, Wood, and the rest of the team FAR more than Bartman. The team could have collapsed just as easily even if they MADE that out... that would have been just as bad. In the end, maybe we'll be thanking Bartman. If Dusty got us to the World Series, he might have been the Cub's manager for the next 20 years, and I'd rather have a decade of post season play with a World Series victory, than just one trip and 20 years of rotten managing...

With three of the runs unearned as a result of errors by Perez and Macias. Well, I thought that went without saying ;)

Here's you're lineup for tonight: Hairston CF Neifi SS Aramis 3B Holla LF Walker 1B Burnitz RF Macias 2B Blanco C Z The rookies will get PH's for the pitchers' spots in the worst possible situations, and most stressful. We will score no runs, and lose 4-0. Z will go 5, 4 runs, 12 hits, 4 BB, 2 Ks. There, I've predicted it, now it can't happen...

Dusty will play the new kids?

Corey's problem is not pressure from the wild card race. Corey's problem is he's been shuffled all around the lineup, and is constantly blamed for losses.

this lineup can only score runs with solo home runs.

It seems only Hendry and Baker think this team can be contenders... After all we have 14 games left with the Cardinals, and we're only 13.5 games back of them, so we still control our own destiny in the Central!

We will lose again. I'll still listen, but only because I've already paid for it...

Gonna be interesting to see Dusty's lineups for a doubleheader...

yeah, the weather doesn't look good. I'm not worried, though. I'm sure he'll trot the same lineup out there next time they actually play. He's got to punish Hairston for his comments in the paper, and Dubois for his, well, existence, so they have to sit...