anemic offense

Not saying he has great range, but (with Todd) we're talking about replacing a player (I like him but..) who might have the WORST range at 2b in all of baseball. Miller's not that bad...is he???

I honestly haven't seen him play enough to confidently comment on how his defense is now. But using conventional wisdom there is NO WAY he can be as slow laterally as Todd, and its doubtful his glovework has evaporated in the last 3 years. I'll stand corrected if I'm wrong (if someone has seen him play enough to back up your theory I'll take your word for it), but I just can't see Mueller being a DOWNGRADE over Todd DEFENSIVELY. Offesnively is another story, but it's all on what this team values, and/or if they are looking (hard) for IF/2b options or not.

If he's getting three years, I'd likely pass. I could definitely think of worse options though (Neifi). No way the Cubs would (or should) bite at 3 years. but if they could get him down to one with maybe a mutual option for a second, I think it would be a mutually attractive option.

...Bill Mueller? Although RF certainly seems to (and should) be their top priority, he'd make a great fit at second base. His range isn't as good as it once was, but he's got an outstanding glove and should be vastly superior to Neifi offensively. We've already seen him play in a Cubs uniform once, when his grit and determination was something to be desired. Although definately not someone you'd want to get in a bidding war for, or someone who you wouldn't want to give more than two years to(prefarably one), he should definately be of interest to this franchise. If the price is right, the Cubs could shore up there infield, allthewhile avoiding giving away valuable prospects. This would allow Hendry to focus his resources solely on (if he isn't alreay) RF, and would make Walker (again, if this is what teams are looking for) more ependable. This is what I was thinking, and I am curious to your thoughts and opinions on this.

I don't really think it's because the Cubs don't want Todd, because they do (and should). But part of the problem is the Cubs aren't viewed to have a lot of positional ready prospects who could serve as trade bait. Add this to the fact they have an oft injured pitching staff (so they need all the MLB ready pitchers they can get), and the Cubs just don't have a lot of appealing tradeable commodities. Then there's Todd. A left handed bat who hits for good numbers, is versatile densively (even it below-average at every position), is a great clubhouse personality, and has enough integrity to where his salary isn't ridiculous. Bottom line is the Cubs would pry LOVE to keep Todd, AND be able to trade for what they want, but its just not a very plausible scenario. What maybe the only saving grace for Todd is the Cubs 05 lineup. Although its definately not scaring anyone as of yet (though I think it will surprise, people underestimate the power fundamentally sound hitters have on a lineup...ie Murton, Cedeno, Pierre), this lineup figures to be DEMONSTRABLY better in the speed department. Pierre's an upgrade over Patterson (he actually knows how and when to steal a base), Cedeno's an upgrade over Nomah and Neifi, and Murton's an upgrade over Holly and Dubois. Especially if the Cubs are smart enough to bat Cedeno in the 2 hole (he makes exceptional contact, can situational hit, and makes for an impossible DP target), they may be able to slide Todd down to 7th in the order. IMO, he'd be a pretty good fit there, and the Cubs could maybe use some hit and run with he and Neifi (or whoever 2b will be). But if this doesn't happen I think he's gone. It's too bad becasue he's one of my favorite Cubs (he has enough character not to demand ridiculous salaries, and just plays where he wants to play).

he tells them "see these? these are birds on bats. throw the ball three inches off the corners and they'll be called strikes. now go have a career year." Unfortunately for the Cubs -- namely Greg Maddux -- these "rules" do not apply. ah so Card fans can recognize that some players have received the benefit of the call at some point in time, but never the Cards. no. never. like you guys have never whined about Bonds or Clemens getting corner calls against you. like you never saw a Yankees game between 1996-2000. Maddux hasn't received any favors in his two years back with the Cubs. how many times have we seen him start off the mound, only to have the call not go his way...and then the inning blows up in his face. a couple years ago, I looked into the Cards staff for, I think it was 2001, a year in which they had something like 15 different pitchers that also pitched for other teams that year or the following year. turns out, that each and every one of them were better as Cardinals, whether they were with another team before or after the Cardinals. another example, you'll note that the years the Cubs have performed their best in the recent past all followed an uproar over umpires. 1998 followed the strike/firing, 2001 followed the enforcement of the high strike, and 2003 followed the introduction of Questech. maybe coincidence. maybe not. you may want to attribute it to Duncan, but wouldn't you think that these pitchers would take Duncan's wisdom with them? at least a couple of them? nope. not one of them improved once they left the Cards. there has to be some other explanation. luck? maybe. umps? maybe. some of it may have to do with Duncan or the pitcher being washed up, but just because the umps give certain calls to certain players or teams doesn't mean there has to be a conspiracy. I recently had the chance to pick the brain of a high A umpire who is moving up to AA next year. he completely agrees with me. somehow, he finds himself not always being consistent and at times giving certain players or teams benefits that he doesn't give others. its nothing he's conscious of at the time, just something that happens in the moment. it happens in all sports guys. go ahead and get upset with me because I bring it up. that's legit, I admit that I whine. I personally am outraged by injustice at just about any level, so I vent. but to pretend it's not happening is completely disingenuous. Dave Duncan is a major reason for their success, but a lot of the credit (obviously) goes to Walt Jocketty. It is utterly amazing (and sometimes lucky) how the man continually signs players who perform beyond expectations. Aside from an eye for talent, I think he has an eye for players that have room for (and can attain) improvement. Imo, this is the sole reason why the Cardinals have kicked everyone's *ss the last few years. They do the best job of supplementing their team through FA than anyone else in baseball. On the same token, the Cubs are one of the worst. It's kind of hard to be competitive when EVERY SINGLE one of your (Cubs') FA signings is a complete disaster. And Jocketty's doing this WITH LESS payroll flexibility (than the Cubs). He and Schurholz are definately the class of baseball.

As much as it would look to be on paper, I highly doubt it will be the case Think about it...exactly how many FA signings have the Cardinals made over the last 2-3 season that haven't worked out??? Womack - career year, Grudz - career year, Tavarez - career years, Taguchi - solid, Carpenter - Cy Young award, Marquis - solid, Sanders - solid, etc. etc. I'm beginning to think they could sign my dead grandpa and get a .310/.400/.550 line. They make me sick.

Phil Rogers isn't on crack, he's just stupid. This moronic trade is just one of many to come from his senseless delusions. Another that comes to mind his his suggesting the Cubs trade for A Rod a few years ago. The Cubs (as usual) had other holes to fill (not to mention a finite payroll) yet he still thought they could take on a $25 million p/year contract and be a powerhouse. Unreal. As I already stated, I know he's a complete moron, but what's truly perplexing is usually one can somewhat understand where another is coming from, even if the logic is wrong and flawed. However, in Rogers' case, his ideas are so unreasonable and stupid, that I can't even begin to fathom how he comes to the conclusions he does. Like in this little gem. He straightaway acknowledges the importance of pitching, yet neglects to mention Zambrano is THE ONLY one of our "ace" starters who has always been healthy. Not to mention he is still young, and not even in the peak of his career (his control can still improve). Just what the hell does he think would happen to this team if Prior and/or Wood goes down again? Without Z they would be screwed. And if he somehow thinks Millwood or Washburn would be good replacements for Z think again. Millwood is consistently one of the most overhyped and overpaid pitchers of this era and his good season last year is likely an aberration. I'm just glad this idiot is not our GM because we'd be totally screwed. Hendry does a POOR job of helping the team via FA but at least he can make some trades. Rogers can even make up good ones on paper. This only scratches the surface of the rediculousness of this trade. As another mentioned, how does he think we can take on the added $10 million + payroll (assuming Z makes 6-$7 mil in arbitration and the Cubs find a comparable salary (not talent) replacement) and fulfill the rest of their needs??? He also doesn't even account for the years we'd be giving away. Zambrano has at least (barring injury) 6-7 years of excellent baseball left, while Tejada is on the wrong side of 30 (and may decline at any time). Throw in Cedeno and Patterson (though Corey needs to be traded) and the Cubs would be giving them 3 MAJOR LEAGUE ready players all 26 and under. If the trade wasn't bad enough with just Zambrano alone, it's even WORSE when you consider all these factors. Throw in the riskiness of unknown production when any player switches leagues, and you have the makings of a disaster. And this isn't even taking into account the probability of Cedeno turning into a star (he is EVERYTHING this team needs right now). IMO, he's much more important than Murton. Now that I think about it, I'm not even sure what's funnier. The rediculousness of this trade, or the fact Rogers can land (and retain) a job at one of the largest papers in the US. Hell, even ESPN (which has become a joke in and of itself) PAYS Rogers to put his filth on their website. If Phil is good for ANYTHING, its giving other people hope. If this hack can get paid to be a journalist, then EVERYONE truly has the ability to be what they desire. Rogers is living proof.

...is the riddance of the excessive bat waving in his preswing. I've always been a beliver it was the BIGGEST reason for the excessive popups and K numbers since it caused him to swing with his arms. Now that he's toned this down I've noticed he's swinging more with his hands. This has allowed him to stay on top of the ball as well as make more consistent contact. As a known Corey hater, I have to admit this is a positive sign. If he can continue to use his hands as the primary catalyst for his swing he may very well turn his career around. But what I can't understand for the life of me is how this wasnt' corrected sooner. If an untrained eye such as myself, could spot this weakness years ago then what does this say about our coaching staff? Do we have that many incompetant individuals in the dugout as to not spot the obvious sooner? If there was any doubt in Hendry's mind about the intellect of our current crop of coaches this is irrefutable proof. Do the right thing Jim, extracate these clowns out of here.

I and several others have metioned it before, but these threads are long overdue. Every SINGLE year Rothschild has been here we've had an underwhelming bullpen. Not to say all of their woes should be attributed to Larry, but we've had quite a bit of talent (not this year) in the pen for most of his tenure. He has been an utter failure with turning around pitchers, with Farns being a glaring example. Kyle did bring some of his troubles onto himself (excessive partying, etc) but its hard to think him having a sub 2.5 ERA both before and after Rothschild was PC is a coincidence. He and the rest of Baker's cohorts need to get the axe ASAP. Except for Speir that is, he's done a pretty good job at 3B, imo.

I don't know as much about these guys as some of you do, but I fail to see many's fascination with Dope. Yes the guy hit fourty home runs, and yes he hit above 300 las year but...he also had a fairly low OBP while totalling a ridiculous number of Ks. Point is, his hard swinging low thought approach is likely to yield less and less results as he moves up the ladder. So far, if I'm not mistaken, his numbers are TERRIBLE at high A. He also is, from my understadning, an average to poor defender wih below average speed. I don't know about some of you guys, but I feel power is one of the most OVERRATED aspects in baseball. Yes, its important to have power in your lineup, but when a player has to compromise most every facet of his hitting to hit the ball out of the ball park, is he really that good of a power hitter to begin with? Any fool can go up there swinging for the fences but it takes a ballplayer to do it and maintain some level of consistency. He may be quite a bit older, but Sing has shown this ability at EVERY level while fulfilling the aforementioned criteria. Just how some of you can rate Dope ahead of Sing is mindboggling. With that said I bet Dope turns out to be a colossal flop.

After skimming through three pages in this thread I thought I'd see my lineup. Well, I didn't so here it is: - Lawton (CF/RF) Great OBP/speed at the top. Something this team's been lacking for years. - Murton (LF) Good siutational hitter with decent speed who doesn't K much. I think he'd make a great hit and run candidate. - Lee (1B) Need I say more? - Ramirez (3B) Diddo. - Burny (RF/CF) Having a pretty solid season. - Barrett © The biggest waste in out current lineup. There is no reason WHATSOEVER to leave one of our best hitters langishing in the 8 spot. Seemingly every time Baker's slid him up this year he's produced. He also has decent enough speed to hit and run with Walker. - Walker (2B) Todds better than a number 7 hitter but he's way too slow (with a productive Murton) to stay in the number 2 hole, and its hard for me to supplant the guys ahead of him. He should still get some opportunites to drive in runs. - Cedeno (SS) The more I see this kid the more I like him. If he can prove to get on base consistently at the MLB level he'd make a great #1or 2 hitter. Has shown he's already one of the best fundamental players on the team. He can hit the ball the other way and has plus speed. But for now I'd have to leave him here. - Pitcher - If Blanco and or Macias are in the lineup I'd move Carlos up to 7 or 8. He's a much better hitter than those two. :D

You bring up some good points in your post, most notably the Cubs lack of success in produving home grown players. Although Z and Prior are studs who came directly from our system, you can't reasonably expect to be consistently successful without producing SOME positional players from your own organiztion. Even the Yankees, despite their spending spree attitude, have 2 all star players produced from within. Without the productive mid 90s prospect groups they never would have had the success they did in the latter half of the decade. We definately need to improve in that department. But as bad as our system (over the last 10 years) may seem on the surface, the Cubs have netted some outstanding players directly as a result of it. Few teams can rival the likes of a Lee, Ramirez, Nomar (when healthy, if ever) Z, Prior, all all-star caliber players, obtained in trades or from directly within the minor league system. With these players a core is in place to be a championship caliber team. So why isn't it happening? What's the real problem? The true culprit of this team's problems is its FA acquisitions. Over the last 3-4 years we've had very few FAs who've been remotely productive (striclty numbers wise or production vs. salary wise). The rest have been utter disasters. A quick rundown of reasonably successful FAs gets you Moises, Dempster (decent), Rusch, Burny, and Walker. On the other side, the disaster signings have given us Maddux (9 mil for mediocrity), Remy, Hawkins, Bartosh, Fox, Mercker,Alf (came via trade but was resigned), Blanco, Agonz, Macias, Lenny Harris, Estes (I may have forgotten some). No team can expect to have 60-70% of its FA signings be moribund and be successful. Conversely, our most hated rival, the Cardinals, have had so much success in this department it makes me nautious. They've gotten outstanding/career years from Edmonds, Tavarez, Izzy, King, Taguchi, Womack, Carp, Grudz, Sanders, etc. On the flip side, they've gotten poor performances from....um....nobody? Honestly the only bad poorly performing FA I can think of is Eldred, but there isn't too many long relief pitchers who are worth a whole lot better. Take a look at some other successful teams, and you'll see a similar trend. You just can't have such a large percentage of FAs flame out and be successful. And until Hendry can do a lot better job in this department, we'll be mired in mediocrity. One more year of this crap and he needs to be fired.

I believe the term is loosely used to describe the home team driving in the winning run at the end of the game. IMO, whether or not the visiting/losing team is giving up as the play is progressing is irrelevant. The term "walk off" is simply referrring to the circumstances of which the winning run was scored, ie by the home team at the end of the game, whereafter both teams walk of the field. I think that's where the referrence comes from.

Note: Walka and Barrett are interchangeable. Aram and Burny are too for that matter.

I don't quite understand some people's obession with Adam Dunn. Not that you necessarily fall into that category but a monstrous power hitter, who plays poor defense, is slow, and strikes out a ton helps this team how? Right now our biggest weakness is a lack of run scorers, not run produces. As far as Murton goes I'd love to see him start everyday and hit in the 2 hole. Not that he's extaordinarily fast, but he has above average speed, makes consistent contact, and does a superb job of hitting the other way. This would allow Todd to slot down to an RBI slot in the lineup, a place I think he'd thrive in. IMO this should be our everyday lineup: Hairston Murton Lee Burny ARam barrett Walker Cedeno Pitcher spot I'm obviously dreaming with Cedeno, since Neifi's Dusty's boyfriend, but I believ this is the lineup which best utilizes the talent we have thus yielding more results. But I'm afraid its nothing more than a pipedream with Dusty at the helm.

??? Corey has almost as many stolen bases in 14 AAA than he did in half a season in the big leagues. As bad has he had been at the plate, this was maybe the most inexcusable facet of his game. Not that he was on base much, but when you have the speed he has only to stand at first and show no clue as to when to steal, you're really asking to be sent down. Personally I'm sick and tired of his ineptitude in a Cub uniform. Time for him to stink it up elsewhere.

Oh god enough with the pitch counts. 130 pitches, let alone 112 isn't an alarming amount for Z. Your worreis would be better placed fretting about him getting hurt on a slide or barehanding a line drive. As for Baker running him out there I didn't have a problem with it...initially. But given Zs borderline effectiveness in today's game he should have been on a VERY short leash. He should have been yanked after the single, and most definitely after the double. Dusty leaving him in after that point was beyond poor judgement and it may very well cost this team the game. I can't believe this team might lose a Z vs. Tomko matchup. If this loss (if it happens) isn't enough to get Hendry to realize this team has no chance than I don't know what is. When your team has been on the rollercoaster 100 games there's no reason to assume the can do otherwise now.

...Jim Hendry. Seriously what gives folks? He and Fleita have done an admirable job (at the very least) with a once moribund farm system and we've also seen the masterful trades he's been able to pull off, but the free agents? Latroy, Mercker, Burnitz (he's been decent but he was NEVER what this team needed), Maddux, Blanco, Macias (trade?), and Remy have all been relative disasters(either soley on performance and/or in conjuction with outrageous contracts). If Hendry could even have done a MARGINABLE job filling lineup gaps with quality free agents this team wouldn't be in nearly the quandry it is now. Just to make sure I'm clear on this, I am in no way advocating a Hendry oust, to the contrary I'm a big Hendry supporter. But for this team to be successful, both now and in the future he's GOT to do a better job at this. We cannot consistently usher out lineups with next to 0 OBP and contact guys along with BP pitchers who implode on a regular basis. Not to mention compouding these problems tenfold when you hire managers who impose blind faith thereby maximizing these deficiencies on their team.

They're good for the same reason this team languishes at .500: they execute. Enough can't be said of a team that maximizes their runs. When their pitching's good they execute and play small ball in order to win. It's not always how many runs you score or give up but when you do so. That's why stats are meaningless unless they're used in conjuction with visul performances.

I don't like 'em. Although you can't expect the new announcers to be very critical given the way Stoney was ran out of town, you'd think (via them of course) this team's mistakes were all due to bad luck. God I miss Stoney. At least he'd call it like he'd see it. I find myself muting the broadcasts and turning on Pat and Ron more and more. I used to think Ron was terrible because he didn't know what was going on but man he grew on me. If the world had more guys like him it'd be a much better place. It'd be great if they'd flipflop for a day and let those guys in the tv booth. That'd be one hell of a telecast!

1. Hairston CF 2. Walka 3. Lee 4 ARamis (not hittng him behind Lee is the 2nd biggest lineup mistake Dusty's made all year) 5. Burnitz 6. Barrett (although he's been struggling of late he's no #8 hitter) 7. Holla 8. Cedeno 9. Pitcher Cedeno would be a good fit at #2 as well. That kids going to be good. A 22 year old kid who can hit the ball the other way (like he advanced the runner the other day) is pretty impressive. And he still hasn't maxzimized his physical potential. With Neifi reverting back to career levels Hendry needs to override Baker and get this kid in there NOW. BTW Patterson gets traded to to the DRays for a bag of baseballs. Number one at least they're useful and number 2 I figure it'd best served to send this eyesore to the team with the lowest atttendance. Enough people have suffered already.