ToupeeOnFire

Way to go Murt!

While maybe my drunken brain cells might be mistaken, I think Bill James wrote extensively about the Cubs being at a disadvantage due to playing day games (with the stats to back it up). If not in his Abstracts, it might have been in one of post-Abstract yearly baseball books. Then again, maybe I am imagining things. I used to own those books, but I lent them to a friend who lives in Floridia. Maybe I am out of my mind!?!

It's on the "Boys of Zimmer" post-1989 video tape (that I own), which you might be able to find on E-Bay. If I ever get the capability to upload video to mpeg, I'll upload it to YouTube, along with my original tape of the Cubs clinching the NL East in 1984. It's worth it just to see a drunken Harry Caray warble out "Cubs Win, Cubs Win" in the lockerroom while he is being drenched in champagne.

Guzman looked pretty special out there. Oh well, at this point, every loss is a Cub win. Bye bye Dusty and go 2007 draft pick!

Not quite. If Boom Boom doesn't get picked off, the Cubs have the lead. Oh well, I'm sure Dusty will call him out in the press.

The Big Murt! We'd have the lead if Bynum wasn't such an idiot on the basepaths.

Glendon is a crafty lefty with a veteran presence that could help any contending team. He's a versatile pitcher who can both start and relieve. While it's sad that things aren't working out with the Cubs, he just needs to pitch on a team where the games actually matter. Glendon would be a fine addition to the Mets, and better yet, since he is under contract for next year, he'd be more than just a stretch-run acquisition. If baseball has taught me anything, it is that you can never have enough Glendon Rusch-type pitchers around. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v511/freejju/metglendon.jpg Good luck and Godspeed, Glendon. (This kind of post worked with Neifi, so I'm giving it another shot.)

The problem with the Garland trade was that it was for Matt friggin' Karchner. Trading a first round, top 10 draft pick for a 31 year old reliever coming off one single half-way decent season is just incredibly stupid no matter how you slice it.

http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20060822/capt.246d9fe8855f42ebb231e04b3841bb3c.white_sox_tigers_baseball_dts108.jpg Here's an example of Neifi saving the Tigers. Despite his negative contributions at the plate, here we see him keeping his teammates loose, thus allowing them to play better. In this picture, Neifi is delighting teammate Carlos Guillen with his Jack Nicholson impersonation. Carlos Guillen would go 2-3 with 2 runs scored. Coincidence, I think not.

The Cubs can't afford to go into next year with a starting middle infield of Izturis and Cedeno...they simply can't. This whole situation just underscores how awful the Izturis trade was in the first place. You could have put Cedeno at short, hope he hits a little bit better with a little more power, and be content that he is only making the league minimum, freeing up money for other areas of need. Instead we are looking at probably the worst middle infield in all of baseball, with an overpaid Izturis at short and a shaky-fielding Cedeno at second who, true to his Cub pedigree, will swing at anything and everything. If this is the plan for next year, it will not be any kind of improvement over recent years, it will be a step backwards. But that's the way this team has been trending under Hendry.

Link: http://www.baseballdigestdaily.com/bullpen/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=131&Itemid=39 Some choice tidbits: The moves that we did make in the offseason worked out well. (Scott) Eyre and (Bob) Howry have been terrific. Jacque Jones has been real solid. (John) Mabry was what we expected off the bench. So it wasn’t like the plan wasn’t solid. We just didn’t get anything out of two quality starters that we were counting on. That would be the one thing [that we’d have addressed]. And obviously you can’t control the injury factor, but that’s not an excuse either. I don't know where to start with this. Once again, we see Hendry patting himself on the back over his great off-season acquisitions. It wasn't his fault, you see, "it wasn't like the plan wasn't solid". I wonder how can he sit there and say that with a straight face? Apparently the plan wasn't very solid if the team completely falls apart because of the loss of a single player. The plan is not solid when you decide to put all of your eggs into the basket of two very fragile pitchers. Even if Derek Lee never got hurt, the Cubs would still be in the bottom tier offensively. Sorry Jimbo, that is not a very solid plan. Oh yeah, I can't ignore this: "Mabry was what we expected off the bench." He admits to this and he still went out and signed Mabry anyway. Yeah, that .223/.311/.350 batting line from a first baseman/corner outfielder is real crackerjack. We were in a position a couple of years ago when we felt our pitching would be good for a very long time. Well, geez, you think that maybe hiring Dusty Baker to foster those young arms might not have been such a good idea? Lee’s doing fine. Lee’s doing very well. He took some soft toss yesterday. I fully expect Derrek to be back in a couple of weeks and probably play the last month of the season. No word on whether Lee has progressed to towell drills. Honestly, this is good news. I think Lee needs get in there and play, if only to get ready for next year. So, we know we’re going to need another starting pitcher, and we’re probably going to need a little bit more offense. We’ll do our best. We’ll take a good look at resigning Juan Pierre hopefully before the end of the year. We’ll start working on that probably in September and see where that goes. Just a little bit more offense. Elsewhere he talks about "looking for maybe one more quality hitter who can augment (Aramis) Ramirez and Lee a little bit better." With Pierre most likely returning, that means he'll be looking at either second base or left field. At least he seems confident that Aramis will be back. Anyhow, this is just the usual Hendry hemming and hawing. Doesn't exactly inspire much confidence. I wish the interviewer pressed him more, particularly on the lack of team OBP. You can get rid of Neifi and his ridiculous two year contract, but you still have the guy who saw fit to sign Neifi to that ridiculous two year contract. I leave with you Hendry's reflection on this year's draft: Well, Timmy Wilken handles the draft. I don’t tell him who to pick. I helped him with the Samardzija contract. But we feel like we really made up for the picks we lost. We picked up a kid in the 11th round, Chris Huseby, who was unsignable type guy. We had him as a first round talent. We gave him a heck of a bonus, but we’re thrilled to have him in a year we didn’t have three picks. We also took a kid named Drew Rundle in the 14th round that we projected [to go in] the third or fourth round. We knew he was going to be a tough sign, and we gave him $500,000 which is third or fourth round money. We thought we made up for the picks. And Oneri Fleita signed one of the four or five top pitching prospects in Latin America, a kid named Larry Suarez from Latin America.

Can you start a thread on Glendon Rusch please? http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v511/freejju/tigerglendon.jpg

Is this what it feels like to win the World Series? http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v511/freejju/tigerneifi.jpg

I'm late getting to this news, but all I can say is: HALLELUJAH! http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v511/freejju/tigerneifi.jpg Now Neifi can save the Tigers. PS: I have a new favorite player, his name is Single A catcher Chris Robinson.

I wouldn't rate the trade as bad as you do. In the long run it certainly favored Texas, but the Cubs would not have won the division in 1989 without Wild Thing. Sometimes a trade can help a team in the short run but hurt in the long run. I think a better comparison might be John Smoltz for Doyle Alexander. In the long run that trade clearly favored the Braves, but in the short run Alexander helped the Tigers win the division that year (I think it was 1987, but I'm not positive).The thing is, I don't thing it would have been all that difficult to find a pitcher that would have filled Wild Thing's shoes. If anything, the real star in that Cub bullpen was Len Lancaster, and I can remember him bailing out Mitch Williams on more than one occasion. Mitch Williams only looked irreplacable because the Cubs had to suffer with a washed up Goose Gossage the year previous. Of course, they wouldn't have been in that position if they hadn't given away Lee Smith for nothing.

One of the truly bad Cub trades: Rafael Palmeiro and Jamie Moyer for Mitch Williams, Curtis Wilkerson, Paul Kilgus and a bunch of crap The modern day equivalent would be like trading Matt Murton and Sean Marshall to KC for Ambiorix Burgos, Angeal Berroa, Mark Redman and a collection of C- or lower minor leaguers. It does not seem like such a bad trade on the surface, but ultimately it comes down to trading two major leaguers with upside for a talented, but erractic reliever and a bunch of refuse.

The greatest catch of recent vintage that I can remember was Sammy Sosa's diving catch against the Pirates. As much as I love Rick Monday running off with the flag, it seems like such a cop out on ESPN's part. Of course, half the time it seems like ESPN's web gems consists of somebody making some miraculous catch after misplaying the ball. Reason #987,873 why ESPN sucks.

Aramabamadingdong!

If Izturis were healthy all year long, he'd be leading the league in glove RBIs.

Bwahahahaha! Sorry, but this is comical.

Home run by Chris Duncan, 1-0 Cards. Cubs to bat.

Neifi would be a great fit for Detroit. He plays multiple positions, he hustles, he bunts, he makes contact, he hits better than his statistics indicate, he keeps the clubhouse loose, and if one of Detroit's starting infielders goes down, Neifi can come in and save the team like he did the Cubs. Neifi is one of those rare players who's contributions go beyond the stat line. Neifi certainly will be missed, but a player of his talents can only be truly appreciated on a winning ballclub. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v511/freejju/tigerneifi.jpg

Len Kasper said they are going to interview O'Malley and warned for the potential of a shaving cream pie attack. Hopefully, there will be WGN staffers on the field ready to intercept any threats.

And to think, Ryan O'Malley went to bed last night with absolutely zero idea that tomorrow he'd be pitching 8 shut-out innings for his first win in his first major league start. Life can sure be unpredictable at times.

That should be it for O'Malley. Great job, rook!