CuseCubFan69

Well he's not in the Lenny Harris class anyways.

Nice fundamentals guys....what a surprise.

Marshall is stepping too far towards 1st and throwing across his body..

What's the deal with Jaun looking at the ball and then running? Baker probably yelled at Murton and threatened him he'll never play again if Pierre does that again.

Dusty is a cowboy name.

Yeah, that's the true depressing stat in my mind. They finally draw some base on balls, and still end up losing. But, even the better OBP teams in the league lose games after drawing a lot of walks. But, if they were to somehow keep up that pace, I think they'd actually win more than they lose. Instead, Dusty will be able to use the "walks clog the bases" argument all over again. But they scored 4 runs and how many times can they say that?

Neifi has been moved to pitch in Rusch's slot. Guzman is going to have to wait his turn. Originally it was meant for Ortiz but those darn birds swooped in and stole him.

He didn't. He hit the DL and is on a rehab assignment. The I hurt my back but can lift a player type injury thing....I forgot. Thanks gooney.

Ok I'm lost so somebody find me....when did Rusch get sent down?

I would take Dunn if both were free agents but Lee would just cost a draft pick while I'm not sure what Dunn would cost the Cubs in prospects. If the prospects traded didn't hurt the Cubs too much I'd say Dunn but if you're talking the top 3 or 4 I'm not so sure. One nice thing, it's possible the Reds would have to sell low with Dunn since his "Traditional" numbers are down. The Reds could have gotten anything they wanted for Dunn if they traded him in the winter. That being said I'm not that keen on Lee unless Hendry can load up on other postions as well like getting an very good OBP CF.

It's too bad the Cubs can't sub for Dusty during the game as well.

The fans that bought tickets to Wrigley bought it too. If I spent this much money on a team managed by Baker I'd be quite upset.

Dusty preaches aggresive hitting and with that comes swinging at ball 4. Also, since he doesn't hold the players responsible (that we know of) the errors and mental errors continue to pile up.

Right now he can't. That doesn't mean he never will. It's absolutely foolish to never give him a chance to try and improve against righties, especially on a train wreck of a team like this one. Playing Phil Nevin in LF is one of the dumbest things this team could do. Playing Nevin and Jones against LHP is one of the few that are dumber. And sit Walker while Perez plays second. I love Baker.

Exactly. When splits suit him he uses them, when they don't he doesn't pay attention to them.

If Hendry does indeed keep Baker around it proves without a reasonable doubt he should go too. I'm curious on how much Hendry listened to Baker when or if he asked about adding players. I have to believe that Baker is leaving by or at the break. Baker is too thin skinned to last an entire season of this type of critisizm.

I remember reading Pete in the Sporting News and I thought he was a marvelous, especially compared to Bill Conlin. I think the "who can get the scoop first" thing has tarnished his image a little but as many have said, he is a brilliant writer. Get well soon Pete.

I'm all for him making $10 million for the Cubs next year... ...so long as it's based upon performance incentives. I'd love to see him PROVE he wants to be a Cub his whole career. take the 2 year, $14 million base contract with lots of incentives for innings pitched. I would like the Cubs to try and resign him with IP incentives. I'm just afraid they'll blame 2006 on injuries, and therefore rid themselves of injured players in order to solve the problem. They'll blame the guys who got hurt, without even thinking of the millions wasted on healthy guys who absolutely sucked and the circumstances surrounding those injuries in the first place. And Miller was worth a million too.

Don't tell Dusty that. He's more powerful than we know! So you caught that quote too huh? I couldn't help but laugh out loud at that one. These are the reasons he needs the horses.

Every morning I turn my computer on and go to this site hoping it'll be the time I look at the Transactions and it says those beautiful words Baker has been fired. I don't like to see people lose their jobs normally but this isn't a normal situation.

i'm far more concerned with his IsoD, actually. as for his arm, i tend to side with the earl weaver argument: outfield arm strength shouldn't generally matter, always keep the second runner from advancing into scoring position to stay out of the big inning. this philosophy doesn't work with a runner at third, less than two out and no one else on, but even the best arms are going to have trouble with a deep enough fly, and the runners won't score on shallow flies. I expected his IsoD to stink and if he could have his batting average stay around 280 to 300 I'd be fine with him...not thrilled but ok. As for arms you can't have runners taking extra bases all the time. I understand what you're saying but if I know someone suscribes to that theory I'm running at will. And believe me....will hates it when I do that. all i'm saying is that it worked pretty well for weaver, not everyone ran on his outfielders all the time. in baseball, over a 162 game season, prudency is probably the best option. Weaver also had the horses. If you have Palmer, McNally, Cueller and Dobson or another good pitcher you can go and just get the outs like that. I want OF guys that can throw hard and keep it low enough to cut. I've been watching the Cubs too long and it hurts my brain when it comes to fundamentals so anything working would be better.

it's statements like these that cause me to ignore whatever stone says about anything anymore. until cedeno learns that striking out is not the end of the world, he's going to be average, and izturis is absolutely terrible, just terrible. this team's problem is that it can't get on base or score runs and stone thinks it can be fixed by bringing in izturis? what stupidity, stone has lost his mind--even brenly offers more accurate insight into the game. stoney should stick to talking aboout how bad wood's mechanics are. I thought Stoney wanted to be a GM? Yikes.

Not with the question marks of Prior and Wood. Well you have to have some excuses available when you fail. I think these pitchers are worn out mentally because they know they can't give up any runs and the way this team fields it's just a huge drain on them IMO. Have they been good...no but they need some confidence and some runs and plays behind them would help. It's amazing what that does some times for a pitcher when they don't have to be perfect and the lift they would get with a little help.

i'm far more concerned with his IsoD, actually. as for his arm, i tend to side with the earl weaver argument: outfield arm strength shouldn't generally matter, always keep the second runner from advancing into scoring position to stay out of the big inning. this philosophy doesn't work with a runner at third, less than two out and no one else on, but even the best arms are going to have trouble with a deep enough fly, and the runners won't score on shallow flies. I expected his IsoD to stink and if he could have his batting average stay around 280 to 300 I'd be fine with him...not thrilled but ok. As for arms you can't have runners taking extra bases all the time. I understand what you're saying but if I know someone suscribes to that theory I'm running at will. And believe me....will hates it when I do that.

If Baker had Tejada at SS, Wright at third, Roberts at 2nd, Lee at 1st, Mauer at catcher and an OF of Vlad, Beltran and Dunn he would then have the horses to win. Until then just Tejada isn't quite enough.