...and sent Patterson to AAA (thank god). I am so fucking pissed right now. Baker is so overrated...he's just a player too old to play who puts old guys in the lineup every day (like Todd Hollandsworth), he's not a manager. The Cubs have a great farm system, but don't have a manager to utilize it. Baker should be managing the fucking Giants in their current configuration, the oldest team in history. I'd love to see Bobby Cox come manage the Cubs for a week and bring up 9 rookies and start at least 3 of them. Namely, Cedeno at SS, Dubois in LF, Pie in CF, and bring up some pitchers who aren't Wellemeyer or Leicester. Murton, Kelton, Dopirak, E. Patterson, and Grant Johnson could be called up.

Vent your anger about the Cubs here.

I should add that after they got 3 hit shutout by Horacio F. Ramirez, I took a bet offered to me by a co-worker...I win $10 if the Cubs get less than 7 hits. Well guess what....

I'm not complaining.

i don't know much about the other guys, but dopirak is pretty terrible. sure, he had a great year last year but he can't even hit the florida state league right now and he plays terrible defense. but yeah, they suck, need a new manager and need to trade for at least two guys who can help big next year.

it is hilarious they were shut out by ramirez though, since he's probably the braves seventh or eighth best starting pitcher.

I'm amazed how quickly my optimism from a few years ago has gone completely in the shitter. I guess I should have been expecting it, being a Cubs fan. Honestly, the horrible luck of what could have been one of the greatest pitching staffs in the majors just drives me nuts.

Hey, I'm not saying he's necessarily pro-ready, nor are any of the other guys. But he can't be any worse than what they're doing right now. Just put them in there for a couple of weeks and get them hungry for their jobs again.

Ill trade yo Dusty for Jim Tracy any day of the week.

Great article about Dusty and Hendry in today's Tribune:

Cubs' faults fall to Baker


Published July 8, 2005


Well, at least the Cubs have an official scapegoat now.

Identifying the root of their troubles was about all that will be accomplished by the Cubs sending Corey Patterson to Triple-A Iowa after getting swept Thursday in Atlanta.

It would be nice if this stark wake-up call could send a signal to Patterson, but that's asking too much. Patterson does not appear capable of adjusting his free-swinging approach, so the guy once likened to Rickey Henderson is doomed forever to remain on the Gary Pettis career path.

No, if the Cubs were going to accomplish something significant, they would have found somebody to take Patterson in a trade, saving themselves the tease. With the exception of the first half of 2003, before he blew out his knee, Patterson has been a major disappointment for two managers now.

Anyone paying attention grasped this long before Cubs manager Dusty Baker, who had Patterson in the right spot in the batting order for exactly one game back in June--when he hit him eighth at Yankee Stadium. Why Baker let Patterson persuade him to put him back in the leadoff spot--the move that triggered the losing streak that reached eight games with the sweep by the Braves--is a mystery.

But the truth is Baker has had just as bad a season as has Patterson. Ditto general manager Jim Hendry, who is spitting in the wind if he thinks neophyte outfielders Matt Murton and Adam Greenberg will be upgrades over Patterson and Jason Dubois. They have potential, but neither has played above Double A. They could get eaten alive.

Dubois was as well prepared for the majors as a hitter can be, proving himself through the minors and in winter ball. But even such a relatively seasoned 26-year-old couldn't handle being jerked around by a manager who would rather turn a veteran role player (Todd Hollandsworth) into a regular than develop a young hitter. Dubois would have survived with regular at-bats but wasn't getting them.

While Patterson's 6-for-46 slump was the centerpiece of the Cubs' latest swoon (7-17 since June 11), it's too easy to put their problems on him. The reality is that the biggest problem remains the bullpen. And Baker's handling of the team has been curious since spring training.

It's July 8, and the Cubs still don't know who their second-best relief pitcher is. That is an indictment of both the front office and the manager.

Was anyone surprised when the bullpen surrendered six runs in the eighth inning to lose the nightcap against the Braves? Ryan Dempster has been a blessing as the closer, but the setup crew has been in shambles all season. The worst injury of the year, worse than Nomar Garciaparra, Kerry Wood or Mike Prior, was Chad Fox's blown elbow in April.

That, of course, could have been prevented (or at the very least delayed) if Baker had not brought Fox into a 10-3 game and not left him in for 29 pitches on a night he didn't have it. The season-long bullpen situation might have been better if Baker had not called a late audible that moved Dempster into the season-opening rotation.

If Dempster had opened the season as the closer, which was the plan entering spring training, LaTroy Hawkins might have found his comfort zone back in setup relief. Instead Hawkins infected the staff with bad karma until Hendry peddled him to San Francisco--the best move he has made since the Sosa trade.

Meanwhile, the thin lineup around him exposed Patterson for being little more than a supporting player.

For all the talk about how he needs to use his speed, the one thing that kills Patterson is his vision. He swings at far too many pitches, including pitchers' pitches that are just outside the strike zone, and struggles to make hard contact. He never has learned to trust his bat speed, letting the pitches get closer before he commits.

Murton and Greenberg are both promising hitters, but the best outfielder in the Cubs' farm system is Felix Pie, a 20-year-old center fielder who was playing between Murton and Greenberg at Double-A West Tenn. The Cubs don't want to rush him, but he's a better bet to be the Cubs' center fielder in 2007 than is Patterson.

Will Baker still be the manager in '07?

Barring a dramatic turnaround, that's the question that will occupy the last months of this season. A center fielder can be assigned only so much blame.

i agree with the spirit of the article, but


who the hell is gonna take patterson right now? get real


this overlooks the fact that Hendry was basically stuck with one task last offseason that he had to get done before he could do anything else. But if getting Jerome Williams for LaTroy Hawkins is part of a bad season, ok.


unfortunately, it's roberto novoa


you've got to be shitting me. the guy's had like 19 surgeries on his arm.


had he even made any moves between trading sosa and trading hawkins?


yes, in 2007. that's a year and a half away. jerry hairston should be out there now

No, the article said "they would have found somebody to take Patterson in a trade, saving themselves the tease . . ." meaning, when everyone knew he was nothing more than a role player, but was still highly touted (i.e., either last year or during the off-season).



Hendry's problem last off-season was the illusion that Borowski was going to return to 2003 and get 33 saves, not necessarily finding a replacement for Alou. The offensive productivitity among Alou, Sosa, Hollandsworth/Dubois and Burnitz is negligible. Like the article says, the main culprit still is the bullpen, which Hendry did nothing to shore up in the off-season.



A big unfornately. The problem is, Baker is damn stubborn that he wanted to send Rich Hill down to protect him, even though he was their best set-up man, at 22 years old.



Agreed . . . I cringed when I read that as well.



I think he signed Henry Blanco and Chad Fox.



The thing I laughed at last night in the second game was when Hairston went out to play left field in a double switch in the 8th. Hairston's been griping all season how he can play left, but Baker has refused saying left is a difficult position to play and, without experience, Hairston wouldn't play it. The problem is, Hairston played left field in Baltimore, so it wasn't like he had never played it before. Then last night, Baker finally puts him in when they are down by 5 runs. What a disaster.

oh, ok. the wording was less than lucid for that part of the article.


i was referring to dumping sosa. But i will grant you believing in Borowski may've been a bit short-sighted. still, how many quality relievers are really out there to be signed/traded for in a given offseason? (good) Relievers are easily the shortest supplied commodity in baseball. i just have trouble pointing the finger at hendry - maybe i'm being lenient because he has a pretty damn good track record, i don't know.


so, "not really". heh.


how the hell is left a difficult position to play compared to center or even second base?
i was listening to the radio yesterday and they were talking about how dusty baker was basically the perfect manager for the "steroid era" of baseball, where you just rah-rahed a bit and then sent your hulking monsters out to poke the ball into the stands. can't say i disagree.
is don baylor available? heh.

ok, this is the type of thing, along with pitch counts and not knowing what's important to an offense, that drives me crazy about baker. i honestly think the guy is a moron. yesterday, in the first game of a day-night doubleheader, baker put michael barrett into the game for henry blanco. the cubs were already down 6-0 and baker knew barrett was catching the second game. why put him in instead of just pinch hitting him the next inning? the move made zero sense and the only good that possibly could have come out of it is blanco falling down the steps on his way to the bench so the cubs could get a real backup catcher.

anyway, also about hairston, it's not like dubois or hollandsworth can actually play defense. neither even has the tools to do so, yet hairston does, but since baker apparently has something against him he sat. baker sucks. it's weird how far having barry bonds on your team will take you.

also, to hickman, i agree with you in theory, and the cubs calling up murton i like. he looks to be ready. but dopirak has been plain shitty. he has a sub-.300 obp with a miniscule slugging average. he's a bad A ball player at the moment, so I'm sure there's someone else in the cubs' system better right now.

Davo, forgive my ignorance, who is that in your Avitar? Pete Van Wieren?

yep, it's The Professor himself.

awesome, If I could figure out where to get it and how to do it, I'd get Skip Carey.

Instead of the tomahawk on the new sunday hats, they should have just added a few ribs from Skip and Petes BBQ.

yesterday, the camera panned over the crowd and skip said "all the people with smiles on their faces just came back from skip and pete's barbecue." he keeps getting better.

as for the avatar, just google image search, save and resize.

edit: or you can save this one and use it. i'll go back to PVW

You guys are ignoring the biggest problem of all here: this is THE CUBS we are talking about. You didn't see any of this coming?

cub fan in april

cub fan in may

cub fan in june

cub fan in july

cub fan in august

cub fan in september

cub fan in october *crickets chirping*





i do respect the undying commitment of the cub fan though... i'll give you guys that... always hoping... always believing