YearofDaCubs

He is a fool. 2003 was a long time ago and with an expanded payroll we still haven't been into the playoffs since then. He has done some good trades but overall most of his FA signings have been questionable. It seems like every year we go into the season with question marks and some of them aren't corrected the following year. This years debacle takes the cake and as fans I believe we deserve better than Baker and Hendry. Don't forget that only 4 teams in each league make the playoffs every year and the Cubs had a better record in 2004 then in 2003. Is it Hendry's fault that the Cardinals won 100 whatever games in 2004? No. If this was basketball, the Cubs would have made the playoffs in both 2001 and 2004. We should have been a lock for the wild card but our inconsistent offense and blown saves cost us that year.

Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if he did it just to tick off the fans.

Feb 2 2005. He traded Sosa for nothing and signed Burnitz. Sosa needed to leave. What was Hendry supposed to do, eat Sosa's salary? I don't see what else Hendry could have done with that sitation. He did eat Sosa's salary and he could have signed a top tier FA OF instead of Burnitz. I'm not disagreeing with you, but please refresh my memory on who his other options were that year besides Burnitz because I don't remember. Magglio, Alou, Beltran, Drew and Dye.

Feb 2 2005. He traded Sosa for nothing and signed Burnitz. Sosa needed to leave. What was Hendry supposed to do, eat Sosa's salary? I don't see what else Hendry could have done with that sitation. He did eat Sosa's salary and he could have signed a top tier FA OF instead of Burnitz.

Of course there is. Too bad Hendry doesn't see it that way. It really is shocking that we still have the same coaching staff that hasn't done squat on the payroll.

Sosa looks like an old man in that picture :)

I was fine with DLee, Walker, Cedeno, ARam, Murton and Barrett. The Pierre acquisition sounded good at the time but I've had discussions with some Florida fans and they indicate he was a bit over-rated at the time the Cubs pursued him. One huge mistake is bringing in Jacque Jones to be the everyday RF. His numbers had started to decline and he can't hit left-handed pitchers to save his life. Very little plate discipline. I'd have preferred Furcal over Pierre to be the leadoff hitter but hey, Furcal went to the Dodgers for less money so not much you can do about that. Get Felix Pie up on the bigs?? Regarding pitchers, I mean we needed to add somebody solid with Prior and Wood obviously not ready to go. Maddux, Zambrano and...Rusch? Huge mistake to assume Rusch could hold down a rotation spot. His best success has been as a spot starter/middle reliever. 2/3 of the outfield is struggling. 3/5 of the rotation has been rookies. I have to think there were better options out there. If I'm wrong, so be it. But the group of players that we fielded on opening day has too many holes to contend. So what is the plan, get by for this season then get back on track in 2007? It's my opinion Hendry hasn't done enough to make the Cubs playoff competitive this season. Maybe I'm wrong and the DLee injury is the main problem. I know it hurts the team pretty bad. But then why do we stick Todd Walker at first? Get a natural 1B who is comfortable with that position. Just my opinions, I don't expect everyone to agree. :wink: Hendry keeps relying on injury prone pitchers to come in stay healthy and save the day. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. Rusch as a starter? You have got to be kidding me. Going into the offseason we had several holes and getting a OF and SP would have been excellent moves to make. Instead, he resigns Rusch and Neifi and signs JOCK to a 3 year deal. Not exactly the offseason I was expecting. Hendry could have been creative and made some good moves to make us competitive this year. Unfortunately, he blew it but I'm not surprised since he did the same thing in 2005.

He is a fool. 2003 was a long time ago and with an expanded payroll we still haven't been into the playoffs since then. He has done some good trades but overall most of his FA signings have been questionable. It seems like every year we go into the season with question marks and some of them aren't corrected the following year. This years debacle takes the cake and as fans I believe we deserve better than Baker and Hendry. I don't think we went in 04' with that many questions. That team was the best in the game on paper and folded like a cheap tent. Every year since has been a different story, I agree. He isn't a fool, but he's done a cr*p job the last two seasons. On the contrary, going into 2004 we had a ? mark with CPatt coming off an injury. It was also a problem because we lost our leadoff hitter in Lofton. Our bench wasn't that great. A lot of people including myself felt that an upgrade at SS was necessary before the season started. Losing Borowski really hurt us and it killed me when Hendry didn't go out and try to get a closer or at the very least try another player in the closer role when Hawkins was faultering. I fault Baker for leaving Hawkins in that role. Did they even try to use Farnsworth as a closer that year? I don't think they did. All that being said I felt that we were WS contenders going into the season but we did have some question marks.

Baker still managing the Cubs is a disgrace.

He is a fool. 2003 was a long time ago and with an expanded payroll we still haven't been into the playoffs since then. He has done some good trades but overall most of his FA signings have been questionable. It seems like every year we go into the season with question marks and some of them aren't corrected the following year. This years debacle takes the cake and as fans I believe we deserve better than Baker and Hendry.

Hendry is a below average GM who doesn't have a clue how to put together a playoff team with a 100mil payroll.

lol is anyone else concerned about his velocity, or is the Des Moines gun typically slow??? 89-93 is not "Wood-esque" The loss of velocity after surgery is what I was worried about the most. Less velocity = more control = less walks? No? no Greg Maddux would disagree... Maddux has always had pinpoint control even when he was able to throw in the 90's. Just because someone loses velocity doesn't mean he will all of a sudden be able to control his pitches.

I cannot believe Dusty Baker still manages the Chicago Cubs. The worst manager in the majors.

Going into this game who would have thought we would lose by a blown save? Just when you think we are about to win one we find another way to lose. All those crappy sacrifice bunts by Baker might have cost us this one. I knew we regressed from last year but boy are we just terrible right now. This team should be embarrassed of themselves.

Its #$%&ing inexcusable. I don't care HOW many runs we're up by or WHO's on the mound. What a horrible managing job by Baker. That is just [expletive]. The worset manager in the majors.

Maddux is on today.

Cedeno has a lot of range at SS.

Damn, he's 6'10.

Young, is a big dude. He looks like he's 6'6.

:lol:

[irrelevant]They also have the same number of World Series Rings.[/irrelevant] It just shows you how pathetic Pierre has been for us.

What else did you expect from Pierre?

Maddux and Pierre have the same RBI total.

Wow, Jocks avg up to .263.

He is living up to our worst nightmares. He's the first REAL leadoff hitter the Cubs have had since 1922. He's fast and steals bases and lays down bunts. What else could you want in a leadoff hitter? Getting on base would be an excellent start :lol: