Wow

[yumy...@sbcglobal.net]

I need to say that this organization is just completely pitiful. If
there was any doubt in my mind before the Marmol incident that Dale
Svuem was a major league manager, it has now all been erased. A month
into the season and Svuem throws Marmol under the bus!

If Svuem and the rest of the brain trust didn't want a guy who was
going to come in and walk three or four batters from time to time,
then why didn't they trade Marmol in the offseason, instead of Sean
Marshall. Marmol is a career 80% closer. The reason why he is not
better is because he has outings where he simply has no control. This
is nothing new, this has been happening since day one. If Svuem didn't
want to put up with this then why did they keep Marmol?? Did he think
this problem would suddenly disappear overnight?

On top of this, what's even more appalling is how Svuem bashes Marmol
in the media for throwing a 3-0 slider. Bashing your player in the
media is bad enough, but does Svuem have a clue who (or what) he is
talking about. Marmol's best pitch is his slider. That's why he throw
it on 3-0 counts (DUH??!!) Once again, if you didn't want a pitcher
who throws 3-0 sliders, then why is Marmol on the team?

Honestly, this organization is so pitiful that it's beginning to get
funny.

Lance

[yumy...@sbcglobal.net]

Since this is one of the first times I'm reading the group this year,
I figure I may as well spew out a few more words.

Reading through the posts, the one that really caught my eye is the
one blaming Jim Hendry for leaving such a bad team behind. Honestly,
part of me has to wonder if it is actually sarcasm. How can Hendry
possibly be blamed for this mess??

Hendry Starters:
Garza ERA: 2.67 ERA+: 141
Dempster ERA: .95 ERA+: something ridiculous
Samard... ERA: 3.41 ERA+: 111

Brain Trust Starters:
Volstad ERA: 6.11 ERA+: 62
Malholm ERA: 6.20 ERA+: 61

Starters Traded Away By Brain Trust:
Zambrano ERA: 2.53 ERA+: 152

Hendry Players Let Go By Brain Trust:
Ramirez OPS: 622 OPS+ 68
Pena* OPS: 844 OPS+ 144

Brain Trust Replacement Players:
Stewart OPS: 576 OPS+: 59
DeJesus OPS: 612 OPS+: 72

*What I really like about letting Pena go is that he was the first
left handed Cubs hitter since Billy Williams to hit 33 homers in a
season. There's also his ability at first to handle the bad throws
from Castro. But hey, why does any of that matter. Ricketts saved
himself $5M by going with DeJesus.

Brain Trust Trade
Stewart OPS: 576 OPS+: 59
Weathers 27 year old minor league middle reliever
Colvin OPS: 890 OPS+: 125 (plus he's playing CF for Colorado)
LeMahieu 23 year old infield prospect

Good thing we made this trade, you certainly couldn't have a guy like
LeMahieu taking away a roster spot from Blake DeWitt (sheesh).

Yes, I can certainly see how this is all Jim Hendry's fault. These new
players that were brought in during the offseason are certainly much
better than anything we had in past.
(I suppose from Ricketts' point of view this is true since the new
players have lower salaries.) I really hate to think what would have
happened if we had stayed with that terrible team Hendry assembled and
added one player like Mark Buehrle.

Oh well, I think what bothers me most about this is MLB refusing to
let Mark Cuban buy the team. We may not have had a world series any
time soon, but at least we would have a team with major league
players. What Ricketts has done to the organization is just criminal.

Lance

[tks]

I'll just say I disagree with just post.

You say what Ricketts has done with this organization is
"criminal"....Please....Come on, you act as though the Cubs have had a
history of success.

Three consecutive winning seasons last decade does not relate to a solid
organization and that is about all the Cubs have to show as being
successful.

Hendry's problem wasn't judging talent...His problem was giving players
salaries which virtually makes them untradeable. This basically ties the
hands of the new administration.

What is criminal is that Hendry did not look beyond the year he was in
and wasn't concerned about the long range ramifications.

From that standpoint, I say....Thank God and Grayhound he's gone!

No...It may take a while but Ricketts, Epstein and staff will get this
straightened out but probably will take a few years.

tks

[Frank Sereno]

On 4-May-2012, tks <tks...@yahoo.com> wrote:

> I'll just say I disagree with just post.
>
> You say what Ricketts has done with this organization is
> "criminal"....Please....Come on, you act as though the Cubs have had a
> history of success.
>
> Three consecutive winning seasons last decade does not relate to a solid
> organization and that is about all the Cubs have to show as being
> successful.
>
> Hendry's problem wasn't judging talent...His problem was giving players
> salaries which virtually makes them untradeable. This basically ties the
> hands of the new administration.
>
> What is criminal is that Hendry did not look beyond the year he was in
> and wasn't concerned about the long range ramifications.
>
> From that standpoint, I say....Thank God and Grayhound he's gone!
>
> No...It may take a while but Ricketts, Epstein and staff will get this
> straightened out but probably will take a few years.
>
> tks

On the other hand, just to play Devil's advocate, look at the lack of
success that the Super Friends' former teams are having this year. Much of
Theo's success in Boston was letting free agent players go while getting
draft picks in return. That method of acquiring talent has been eliminated.
One other method he used was paying huge contracts to drafted talent to get
them to forego college eligibility. That option has been closed as well with
MLB going to a slotting system and limiting the money that can be spent to
sign draft choices. I believe that Theo will be able to find a way to
optimize the Cubs' acquisition of talent, but there's certainly no
guarantee. He could end up being just another failure on the funeral pyre
that is the Cubs.

[Mark Anderson]

In article yumy...@sbcglobal.net says...

> Since this is one of the first times I'm reading the group this year,
> I figure I may as well spew out a few more words

There are lies, damned lies, and statistics. And over half of
statistics are made up.

There isn't enough data to properly evaluate any of Epstein's moves one
way or the the other or even tell how even this year's team will end up.
You can flip a coin and sometimes it will land heads 8 times in a row.
In the long run, however, that won't happen.

[tks]

Sorry to disagree with you once again. I don't think Sveum has thrown
Marmol under the bus at all...IMO, Marmol has thrown the team under the bus.

Sveum has been very patient with Marmol. Leaving him in situations he
created with the hope he can work his way out of trouble. If anything,
Sveum has left Marmol in too long, trying to build his confidence and to
say he has thrown Marmol "under the bus" is a bit of an exaggeration. (
Man, I really hate that phrase).

Also, Sveum discussed Marmol's pitch selection with Marmol right after
the game, before he talked to the press and what he said is 100%
correct. He told Marmol when the count is 3-0 don't keep going to your
slider, which was causing all the control problems...Go with the
fastball. Even if the first two batters hit home runs, the Cubs still
have a 1 run lead with the bases empty.

Marmol's best pitch is his slider but NOT when he has no idea where it
is going and that was his problem in that game as well as others.

Nope...I think Sveum was completely justified in taking Marmol out of
the closer's slot...Let him work in less critical situations until he
figures out what is causing his control problems. If you watched him
last year you could see he didn't have the same confidence that he
showed in 2010 and before....Something is definitely going on with his
delivery and/or his mindset.

Finally, it seems to me, to say this organization is "pitiful" after 26
games of baseball is being a bit too dramatic.

tks

[xxx]

hendry went "all in" and crapped out, leaving us a big fucking mess in
his wake. fuck that guy. glad he's gone. theo won 2 championships with
a team that had gone nearly 90 yrs without a championship. it's WAY
too early to pass judgement but i'll take my chances with theo for now.