YearofDaCubs

Almost all those players on the Cubs you mentioned are injury prone and missed significant time last year. What does that tell you? We all knew the risks involved with injury prone players like Prior, Wood, Aramis, and Nomar. And so what if Walker was out for a significant amount of time when he was gone Hairston was playing very well. We were playing our best baseball when indeed Prior was out so I dont believe the injuries were that much of a factor. We plain out sucked. And now that we have everybody you can make a case that we are playing worse now than before. Our offense is terrible and so is our pitching.

Dusty decides to put Hawkins back in the closers role in the beginning of the year when he clearly sucked. We knew this from last year. What exactly did Holla and Perez and Macias do to get all this playing time? Their stats looked horrible and it was obvious that starting the kids would have been a better option. I'm not just blaming Baker but dont think for a second he doesnt have a part in the season which tanked. Let's not get into last year where Dusty lost all control of HIS team. Dusty also does not hold his players accountable when they have ZERO fundamentals.

Because your best players should be starting and that wasnt the case this year.

It seems you measure Hendry's value differently some others. I don't look at this season and blame Hendry. He assembled a team that should have made the playoffs. Number of wins is a reflection on the manager more than the general manager. I measure Hendry's worth in value of deals. Or maybe you are the one who measures it differently. Wins and losses are the only things that matter. How can you possibly measure the value of a deal, if collectively, all those deals fail to produce more wins? I don't see how a manager can be held accountable for the record, but not the GM. Managers don't win games. They can lose some, and Dusty has lost a few on his own with his silliness. Players win the games, and the GM assembles the players. With a top 5 payroll the past 3 years, Hendry simply has not assembled a good enough team. There is no justification for this team not averaging more than 90 wins per year the past three years. Some say 2003 was overachieving, but there was nothing overly impressive or surprising about 88 wins. It was only the failures of the rivals that allowed 88 wins to be meaningful. 88 was nothing to get giddy over. It was an acceptable progression. But last year's team should have been 92-95 wins easily. Dusty hurt the team's chances, but the team still came up short. And this year there was no justification for the giant step back. This entire organization's focus has been in the wrong spot. Hendry has to take blame, Dusty gets blamed, but he deflects it like he typically does. Hendry has actually stepped up and accepted blame, fans shouldn't feel sorry for him and stop assigning blame to him just because he's the one with the guts to accept it. I agree with you 100%.

I do have a problem when our organization's priority to get rid of Sosa is bigger than putting a better team on the field which is exactly what the Cubs did.

There is no doubt in my mind that Dusty cost us more games than he has won. The mere fact that he did not play the best players at their respective positions just because they were rookies cost us. Perez over Cedeno? Holla over Murton and Dubois? Even Perez over Walker and Hairston. Hawkins over Dempster in the closer role. His is a stubborn manager that cannot accept criticism. You point out his mistakes he will do one better and not change anything just to show you who is boss. He is that type of manager and thats the kind of manager we do not need.

As far as the Walker stats some have posted. I agree his numbers are good enough where he would be a good option at leadoff. I would like to see more speed but you guys are right the man can indeed leadoff.

It seems you measure Hendry's value differently some others. I don't look at this season and blame Hendry. He assembled a team that should have made the playoffs. Number of wins is a reflection on the manager more than the general manager. Omar Minaya assembled a quality team in NY, but how many wins would that team have if Dusty Baker was the manager there? I measure Hendry's worth in value of deals. Hendry creates the plan, Baker (fails to) execute it. That doesn't make the plan a bad one. This team was not a playoff ready team. Not with the onconsistent offense we have had the past 2 years. And our pitchign has regressed as well. You say injuries? Well, I say bs because Hendry knew we have a roster full of injury prone players. You say it's Dusty's fault? Sure, he is part of the blame no doubt but it is Hendrys job to do the right thing and fire his butt if he is not working out which he is not.

You say Hendry is improving the team but I dont see it. Sure, he has traded for and signed some good players but those are individual stats as far as I'm concerned because when it all said and done we have regressed from last year and there is no way you can deny that. What a slap in the fact to have an OF consisting of Burnitz,Patterson, Holla. It doesnt get any worse than that. Few people on this forum knew what was to happen to the Cubs this year and they were right. We had no chance of winning this year.

It will be interesting to see what moves and trades Hendry makes this offseason. I'll tell you this though, if I don't see improvements on this team(especially the OF) I will boycott them.

Can you imagine a rotation of Prior, Z, Wood, Burnett, Maddux? One can only dream :)

The Cubs sure do seem to have a lot of them. I thought the idea was to trade for postion players with all this young pitching since the Cubs don't prefer to draft them. You bring up a good point. All those pitching prospects we brought up this year havent done squat. It also doesnt seem like we have a power OF ready to come up for us. I think Harvey might be our only power OFer we have and hes not even close to ready.

I doubt that will happen. The Elias Sports bureau rankings determining FA compensation are generated from a players previous two year stat. average in relation to his peers at the position. Nomar hasn't done the Cubs any favors with his performance at the plate thus far this season.....I doubt he'll rate as a Type A FA. Well, there goes that idea. Damn.

I say we dont trade Nomar and be hopeful somebody signs him so we can get a #1 pick in the draft.

No thanks. Keep Walker and his cheap option, trade Neifi or bench him. Trade or release. Another player that has to go.

If they want Cedeno to play everyday all they have to do is bench Neifi Perez.

Source? Straight from Hendry's mouth on Comcast sports net.

Good point, I was assuming JVB was n the 40 man but he is not.

OUch I was just watching the replays and the fans let them have it. I love it. It shows that enough is enough. Subpar play is not good enough anymore. There were a lot of people that were against booing the CUbs but I'll tell you what, they deserve every bit of it and more.

I am of the opinion that we should release Macias right now and stock up with kids on our roster. Baker would kill himself if he cant user any veterans hahaha.

JVB to take Holly's spot and Wood will be placed on the DL so that will make room for one more.

WHo cares if they suck or not. What do you expect to get for Todd Hollandsworth? He was worthless to us so it's better than nothing.

Hendry said that we really wanted one of those guys who was drafted in 2004 and came highly recommended from one of our top scouts. I think it was Blackford.

After the Holla trade Murton and JVB will join the team.

We got Todd Blackford and Angelo Burroughs??