It’s bad enough when you become on the third team to lose a home game to the Astros, but nobody does the whole salt rubbing into the wounds thing better than the Cubs, do they?
Not only did they waste seven good innings from Greg Maddux (it was sheer lunacy to send him out for the eighth with a rested bullpen and the fact that he’s 74 years old and his gas gauge goes from half full to empty in like four seconds), but an already anemic offense isn’t going to get better if nobody’s willing to lead off.
What’s dumber? Dusty Baker’s assertion that he can’t lead Todd Walker off because Todd can’t run with his bum knee, or Dusty’s decision to not lead Corey Patterson off because Corey doesn’t want to?
First, Todd can’t run with a good knee, so you’re not really losing his blazing speed. What Todd can do (although didn’t come close to doing last night) is get on base, which should really be the goal of any leadoff man. You’d rather have a slow guy on first than a fast guy walking back to the dugout, right?
Second, Corey shouldn’t be leading off because he sucks at it, not because he won’t do it. Didn’t we go through this crap last year when Dusty wouldn’t drop Sammy Sosa in the batting order because he was afraid he’d hurt Sammy’s feelings if he dropped him? Look, if a guy won’t bat where his manager tells him to bat he ought to be enjoying a bus ride back to Iowa.
Even if you have some half-witted notion that a player can earn the right to decide where he best fits in a lineup (and that’s absurd), Corey wouldn’t have earned that right anyway. One half of a good season in 2003 and one good month in 2004 (where, ironically he was batting leadoff) wouldn’t qualify for that prima dona status, anyway.
I’m not even going to totally blame Corey here. His quotes about this don’t imply that he would refuse to lead off, just that he’d rather not do it. But I am going to blame Dusty. If you really think Corey should lead off then all you have to do is write his name down first on your lineup card. If he doesn’t want to do it, then fine him and send him home. Don’t whine to the media that you think he’d be good at it, but he doesn’t want to do it, so you won’t make him do it. You’re not running a democracy. You’re not supposed to have guys vote on what they want to do.
What’s going to end up happening though, is the Cubs are going to use Neifi Perez as their leadoff hitter. That’s going to send shivers down the spines of opposing teams.
I can’t fault Neifi for his effort, or even his approach at the plate, since he came to the Cubs last August. He takes pitches, he bunts, he seems to actually have a plan of attack at the plate, and yet he’s still only posting a .325 on base average for the season. And if he could somehow hold that sub-mediocre .325 for the season, it would be the first season in his career in which he’s reached base that frequently.
Plus, batting Neifi first means he’s going to get more at bats than anybody else. Does that seem like a good idea?
What I think is actually going on is that Dusty wants to bat Neifi leadoff but wants to hedge his bet. If Neifi fails miserably (which is completely possible), Dusty can say, “Hey dude, I didn’t want to have to bat him there.” Now there’s a fine way to make decisions.
This just throws an even brighter spotlight on the fact that the Cubs need to trade for better players. Heck, maybe they don’t necessarily even need “better” players, just different ones of equal ability. Because what you’ve got right now doesn’t work.
Walker’s back, and that means the only position player you’re waiting for now is Nomar. I’d love to see him come back in late July and start hitting. But not only is that unlikely, it’s going to be too late.
Charlie Weis keeps repeating a Bill Parcells’ saying, “You are what your record is.” Charlie told it to the Notre Dame football team when he walked in the door. He said, “You beat Tennessee on the road and Michigan at home and you think you were a better team than 6-5. But you’re not. You’re 6-5. That’s what you earned. That’s your record. It’s reality.”
The Cubs, I’m sure, think they’re better than 21-23, but they’re not. That’s what they are. They are a sub-.500 baseball team because they’ve played like one. In fact, with a recent run of come from behind wins, they can’t even cling to that myth that they’d just been losing the close games, and not getting any breaks. Well, now they’re winning some close games and getting some breaks and they’re still under .500.
This is a 77 to 81 win team on the field right now, and they’re playing like it. If you’re Jim Hendry and you don’t want a 77 win team, well, you can do something about it.
I’m tired of hearing this crap about how “it’s early” and “nobody wants to make any trades yet.” That’s crap. What nobody wants to do is make the kinds of trades the Cubs have gone after during Andy MacPhail’s tenure. The kind where you trade nothing for an expensive something that the other team wants to get rid of.
There’s no problem with those trades. In fact, it’s nice that the Cubs will, on occassion, recall that they’re a big market team with a vault full of spendable cash and use it to get guys like E-ramis (he will hit again, right?) and Derrek Lee. But there are other kinds of trades, too. The kind where you trade an actually useful player to another team for one of their useful players. It happens all the time. Just not around here.
The Cubs have some players on their current big league roster (they’re always loathe to trade anybody on the 25-man roster) who could be useful to other teams. Jason Dubois’ going to be a nice player, but never a star, you can trade him without fear that you’ll wake up some day and see that he’s turned into a righthanded Jim Thome. Corey’s all potential, still. Maybe it’s time for somebody else to let him tease them. You’re not trading the next Lou Brock anymore, the next Greg Brock? Maybe. There are more. Here’s the thing. You can trade anybody. ANYBODY. As long as you get value back for them. Sure, if you trade Corey and you get somebody who sucks and then Corey puts up some nice years for another team, you’re going to regret that. But if you trade for somebody who can play and he plays well for you, then whatever Corey does for the other team is of no consequence.
The Chicago media is full of dopes, and there are plenty of Cubs fans who are dopes (they tend to call into the weekend Sports Central pretty regularly). But you don’t make trades based on their popularity. You make them because you think you’re going to make your team better. Wow, what a novel concept!
Truly good front offices don’t have any untouchables on their teams. They have guys who you’d have to offer a ludicrous amount of talent to get, but they’ll listen to anything. You’re not going to trade Mark Prior or Carlos Zambrano unless somebody gives you half their team, but you have to be willing to consider anything.
Right now, you wonder if the Cubs consider anything at all. It’s not early anymore. If you go into the west coast road trip and the rest of the interleague schedule with this team, you’re going to be on the outside looking in at a very mediocre National League. Don’t wait to see what happens. Make something happen.
I think I’m pretty mediocre too.
Wow. Given the opinions, targets and tone of this Dose, you’d think it would be on Ivy Chat.
‘Cept, of course, that this one is cogent, well written, has good spelling, and is mildy humorous. That clearly doesn’t mesh with the mess over on Blogger.
This could very well be the first Daily Nosh.
Hate to break it to you, Chuck, but there are only so many ways to explain that the Cubs suck and need better players.
See? There’s my kind of style. “The Cubs suck and need better players” would be a day’s entry for me.
Add in a “fuck Korey” and it’s all over.
It’s pretty hard to win when every player in your lineup but one has an OBP under 330. That’s entirely Jim Hendry’s fault, for not acquiring the right types of players. Ramirez was supposed to be a second high OBP guy to go with Lee, but that hasn’t worked out, has it? He’s turning into a huge bust right before our eyes. Slacker.
I can’t prove how verbose and clever I am if I only write a couple paragraphs. Besides, how am I supposed to kill a big hunk of everybody’s work day with something succinct?
I’d rather not find out…
I think one of Hendry’s problems is that he has tended to build a Rotisserrie-type team instead of one that actually plays the game on the field (good defense, smart baserunning, a manager who actually uses strategy). The individual player stats look pretty decent at season’s end, but the standings tell a different story.
The best thing about last night’s game was getting a burrito afterwards.
Did someone say “individual stats good, standings not good”?
heck, the cubs are playing like crap but they are “still” in it.
There’s a number of clubs, on both leagues, that are done for the season and I bet they are willing to get rid of some high salaries.
There has to be a “Randall Simon, Aramis & Lofton for Bobby Hill and cash” type of deal that someone wants to make. Hendry needs to know that it has to be NOW, if he wants to wait 1 month to make a trade, the cubs will be selling, not buying.
My face looks kinda like Eliza Dushkus’ does.
I’ll have a medium unleaded, easy cream, easy sugar…and a rasberry filled-to go.
If anybody can get you guys to .500, it has to be us, right?
Tampa
Detroit
Kansas City
Pissburgh
Cinci
Houston
Colorado
I must be Chuck in disguise. No one would badmouth Eliza, Kiera et al. except me.
Cleveland and Oakland are pretty dead, too. Seattle and Philly are close.
So far, I am searching for a left handed thumper, as well as a solid utility guy. I just called Pissburgh about sending Daryl Ward and Bobby Hill over for a week old turd…they’re seriously thinking it over.
How about Tony G. and Andy Sisco for Ramirez and Prior. Tony G….intangibles…YES!!! I woulda made this trade when I was a g.m. Hawk…YES!!!! As we select our picks to click, you at home select yours.
Hendry needs to make a value trade…he’s never done so, as far as I know. It’s always been about the money. It’s too early for teams to start dumping, but we need a tablesetter BAAAAAAD
I worked out okay, at least gimme that Sloth.
C’mon, bitches, you know Rickey’s ready to come back and take over as leadoff man extraordinaire…46 years young, bitches and Rickey can flat out get on base, steal bases, bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan…
Damn.
One big problem the Cubs have is, there’s really no Orginazational Philosophy.
With a team like the A’s, Beane is so obsessed with OBP what players all through the system are working on getting on base, and that’s the key to advancement in the Oakland system.
Look at the stats of each minor league team, and for every Murton averaging less than 1K/10AB, there’s 10 guys carrying their bats back to the bench as much as they’re running bases…
to want an “organizational philosophy”. Minor league players tend to emulate what they see happening at the major league level. You can’t coach people that don’t want to learn. Case in point: Corey Patterson, they have tried to turn him and others into an obp guy. THere’s no money or glory in that, minor leaguers see that. It starts with getting guys at the big league level who set the right example. Or maybe having a manager who will not tolerate all kinds of shit from his players.
I wanted him to stay after ’03. I know some people hate him for whatever reason and everyone seems to think he’s washed up, but he’s always been able to get on base. He’s a REAL leadoff guy. That’s the problem with this team, not enough OBP guys. The bullpen has basically worked itself out and there are several solid guys in the pen, so unless an elite closer becomes available for a price that’s not unrealistic, there’s no reason to be concerned about the bullpen. It doesn’t matter if you have Wagner, Lidge & Gagne… with this lineup, you’ll lose games to Jason Jennings and his 7.00 ERA.
This offense is weak. The whiffing outfield is at 125 K’s already this year. On track for 450-500. To start with, trade Corey & Dubois for a couple of disciplined OF’ers or surrender to the rest of the NL central.
Dolan,
Amen to your dose today! Bottom line is right now, NO OFFENSE=NO WINS!
Jim Hendry needs to get off his ass and start making some serious trades. I agree with you that every player on this team should be considered a trade prospect.
Let’s end this tortourous Korey Patterson era too. Let’s get a real leadoff hitter finally that’s not a snot nosed punk like Korey. I’d say all Cubs fans are tired of seeing this little bitch whiff all the time. Maybe we can actually get a player that is fast and knows how to use their speed.
If any takers out there want a broken down good for nothing has been like Kerry Wood, I would get rid of that loser as fast as you can too. This guy’s career with the Cubs is over.
I would still ditch Dusty also. You’re going to need to do that anyway after this season so why not do it now! It’s the perfect time and the perfect message to send to these worthless bastards.
FDAJF=Fuck Dusty And Jim Forever
Some of us communists seem to think if the Cubs draft players who have already shown some plate discipline, and continue to drill it into young players’ heads as they make their way through the farm system, they might actually be productive hitters when they make the Big Leagues.
The Cubs already have an organizational philosophy regarding pitchers. Get lots of them, especially hard throwers. If they can’t make the big club, at least they’re valuable in trade…