Daily Cubs Bitch:

Todd Hollandsworth - .256 BA
Matt Murton - .409

Guess who the starter is every day? Remember that the manager is Dusty Baker.

wanna bet Trammel is worse?

No, because he PLAYS his young players when they deserve it. Hence, Shelton, that new OF guy, that SP that's been tearing it up, etc. They're at .500, that's amazing. The Cubs are slightly above .500, that's pathetic.

well he is the worst situational manager ever....in the wild card race....Saturday night perfect example..playing the wild car dleader...Pudge is resting (fine since its the nightcap of a double header) 7th ining vance wilson up down by three 5-2...runners on 1st and 2nd one out....why the hell do you not pinch hit Pudge in such an important game?

He is the worst roster manager ever as far as rest and lineups go..he still hits D. Young 5th and Craig Monroe RARELY higher than 7th....for some reason.

irod probably has nagging injuries.

as for the lineup, it doesn't make much of a difference anyway, if at all, so that's not going to cost them games in the long run.

Monroe has 63 RBI from batting in the bottom third....D Young is hitting 2.50 if hes lucky.... i mean it boggles my mind.

I would agree with the pudge thing..but he played the next morning and is playing tonight...so he cant be in that bad of shape and when youre in the hunt for the wild card and playing the wild card leader....whats 2 innings behind the plate.

yes, but if he's your only backup catcher and the game goes extra innings you've just wasted an off day on the 35 percent chance he gets on base as opposed to the 30 percent chance wilson gets on.

and, if monroe is getting all those rbi opportunities anyway i don't see what the complaint is.

did you check wilsons sats....is his obp 300? im not sure, i know his BA is around .145. Yeah but id be a little more aggressive than trammel is.

About Monroe, hes been hitting so well with RISP, and putting him behind Maggs and Shelton....i mean hes batting 290 with 11 HR and 62* RBI...and young is batting 250, and hes not swing wel at all....he just refuses for whatever reason to tinker with the vets. I just imagine how many more RBI chances and better pitches hed get hitting 5th in fornt of Pudge as opposed to the .232 Omar Infante.

Craig Monroe should be left right where he is. He's not that good and he's probably having a career year.

The Chicago Tribune reports Chicago Cubs MAN Dusty Baker told reporters there should be no assumptions that Cubs SS Nomar Garciaparra (groin) will get his starting job back when healthy. "Nothing is automatic," Baker said. "We'll have to see how Nomar is doing. Neifi Perez says he realized when he came here that he came here as a utility guy. But he hasn't remained a utility guy with what he has done. I hear a lot of people say, 'Hey, put Ronny Cedeno in.' What am I supposed to do, push Neifi out now? This guy has saved us."

Yes, yes you are. Dillweed.

Matt Murton has about 25 at bats -- hardly the harbinger of success.

this is where chris h 2 comes along and says dusty baker and jim hendry have jobs in baseball because they're smarter than anyone who just posts about it on message boards.

dusty baker doesn't know shit.

Ill put Jim Tracy's inabilities to manage a major league game against any of your guys any day.


hands down the worst manager in baseball.

No, this is where I come in and say it's ridiculous to say that Matt Murton should be playing left field everyday when he has no big league experience (or AAA experience), struggles against RHP with solid breaking balls, is still learning the field, is replacing another rookie who completely botched the position, has already committed an error that cost the Cubs a game against Pittsburgh, and who has a mere 22 at bats, all because he's hitting .400.

todd hollandsworth has 238 of them and he's reached base a whopping 61 times -- this is what most of us call "bad"

So what do you suggest, play Murton everyday? What happens when he falls below the Mendoza line? Then everyone blasts Baker for playing the wrong guy. Or they blast Hendry for sticking with Murton when he should have made a deal at the trade deadline.

My point is, don't tell me Murton should be playing everyday because of what he's hitting where he has only 22 at bats. If you want to tell me he should be playing for other reasons, fine. But don't base the argument on batting average. That's like saying a guy that goes 4-4 on opening day will win the batting title.

By the way, Hollandsworth has made the same amount of errors in left field in 75 games as Murton has in 7.

here's how i see it. I know Todd Hollandsworth is not a major league starter. i don't yet know if Matt Murton is a major league starter or not. Matt Murton has reached base in over half of his plate appearances so far. What's the upside in continuing to start Hollandsworth other than he's bound to injure himself again soon and go on the DL to open up another roster spot?

And yes, Murton has the same number of errors as Hollandsworth - one. big freakin' deal.

It sounds like you're completely discounting defense when it's half the game (particularly in Wrigley). Hollandsworth knows how to play left field. After the Jason Dubois experiment, you know that solid defense can't be overstated. No, Hollandsworth isn't hitting the cover off the ball, but neither is anyone else except Lee and Ramirez for that matter. Inconsistency is the trademark for the Cubs' offense. Because of that, I would take solid defense in that lineup over potential on offense from the left field spot. Playing a rookie in left, an infielder turned outfielder in center and a slow older rightfielder is suicide if you ask me. That's why they got rid of Alou, even though he's hitting .330 this year.

[quote="Chris_H_2]It sounds like you're completely discounting defense when it's half the game (particularly in Wrigley).[/quote]
not hardly, but you cite murton reaching the same number of errors in 7 games as hollandsworth has in 75, when they both only have one. For all I remember, Hollandsworth got that error in game ten or something.


So rather than try something sensical that may help directly alleviate the problem of sputtering offense, you'd rather shore up other areas of the game at the expense of trying to help score runs based on a player making one error in seven games?


especially if the rookie in left had an OPS of .708 over 70-some games, right?


that's the only reason, huh?


i'm not jerking off to the idea of matt murton in left field, but when you have a corner outfielder that's not doing what you need a corner outfielder to do at the plate, you try something else to help win ballgames. Or, you know, you get in front of the press after games and say stuff like "well, you know, here's my kid that i'm holding in front of me like a human shield, ain't he cute?"

Let me ask you this: if the Cubs are down by 1 run in the 9th with runners on 2nd and 3rd and 1 out, who do you want up there? Hollandsworth or Murton?