I LOVE MIKE FONTENOT AND RYAN THERIOT!!!!! IF YOU GUYS READ THIS I LOVE YOU TWO GUYS

Aggreed Baron. This is a F-ING JOKE!! They just got their asses whipped by a lst place team, and probably going to get swept going into LA. The past week or 2 these losers just layed down and died. EVERYONE on this team! I've had it! The front office, like you pointed out, is a F-ing joke! Start of by getting Kukodome who SUCKS, Bradley SUCKS, Miles sucks, Soto who had a good year last year SUCKS, Miles f-ing sucks, Gregg f-ing sucks, Heilman f-ing sucks, Samardja SUCKS, Fontenot sucks, Marmol now sucks, and LAST BUT CERTAINLY NOT LEAST SORIANO!!! 100+million for this ass-clown.....he's a clown out in LF. He's a clown batting! I am sick of this shit, everyone comes here after doing fine elsewhere, SUCKS ASS IN CHICAGO! I can go on and on....

Mark,

And why do you think that is? (everyone comes here after doing fine elsewhere and sucks ass)

I have my own theory. First of all, we don't go after proven winners, do we? Soriano...After he became a full-time player with them, they didn't win a championship. Lilly bounced around from the Yankees to the A's to the Blue Jays, and didn't win anything. I could go on and on...Only Derrek Lee and Aaron Miles were even close to full-time players when they got their World Series rings, and Miles didn't hardly contribute anything to the 2006 Cards with a .263 avg, .324 OBP, .347 SLG, 2 hr, 30 RBI. Lilly and Soriano might've gotten rings with the 2000 Yanks...I'm not sure. But neither player contributed much at all, with Soriano playing in like 22 games and Lilly in 7 games. Neither of them were on the postseason roster though.

In fact, I just want to go over the big free agent signings/trades once again that Hendry brought over that were supposed to play a major role on our team:

Jacque Jones-3 yrs $16 million, career .277 hitter, .326 OBP, 20 hr, 72 RBI average...but crappy arm, and for a corner OF, he was nowhere near what you wanted for that position; 31 yrs old when contract signed

Ryan Dempster-4 rs $52 million, 1 season under 4.71 ERA prior to last season. Only 4 seasons out of 8 as full-time starter with more than 30 starts; 32 years old when contract extension signed

Derrek Lee-5 yrs $65 million, averaged 28 hr, 86 RBI prior to signing extension...which, while decent, is NOWHERE near what you want a $13 million/yr first baseman averaging. You want that over 30+hr, 100+RBI, and close to .300 avg, of which he had just one such season prior to extension; 30 years old when extension signed

Ted Lilly-(worked out well for us...but) 2 seasons out of 8 under 4.06 ERA, only 3 seasons with more than 30 starts; 31 yrs old when signed a 4 yr contract

Milton Bradley-(need I say more?) averaged 85 games played over 10 seasons, and had a max year last year with 22 hr, 77 RBI, and all of that for 3 yrs, $30 million; 31 yrs old when contract signed

Jeromy Burnitz-Cubs signed him coming off a career year in Colorado---thin air for $4.5 million at the age of 36...yeah...not a wise move at all

Aaron Miles-coming off career year with Cardinals with .317 avg, .355 OBP, but had a career .282 avg, and paltry .322 OBP prior to signing with Cubs; at 32 yrs old, signed 2 yr $5.5 million deal

Kosuke Fukudome-coming from Japan, we never knew what we were going to get...now we know...but for 4 yrs, $48 million? That's quite steep, considering Ichiro is the only Japanese position player to truly be worth the contract he signed; he was 31 when we signed him. Hideki Matsui was 29, and Ichiro was 27 when they signed...this was a HUGE risk, and for $12 million/year for a corner OF, you'd expect Ichiro or Matsui-type numbers, but NOT a .260-.270 avg with 10 hr, 50 RBI.

Alfonso Soriano-I could go on and on about this clown...let's just say this. For all the hype coming in, the guy had crappy peripheral stats like OBP, K totals, walk totals, etc. that you'd expect out of a lead off hitter; at age 30, Hendry signed him to an 8 year $136 million deal.....yeah, 38 yrs old at the end....WOW!!!!!!!!!

Fact is, Derrek Lee, Aramis Ramirez, and Jason Marquis are the only major free agent/trade acquisitions he made with players under the age of 30. Lee and ARAM are by far the best hitters we've gotten in a long time under the age of 30 via trade/free agency. ARAM was 25 when we traded for him, and Lee was 28 when we got him for Choi.

So, when you look at things from that perspective---with the ages in mind of all his acquisitions, you'll see EXACTLY why we suck. Fact is, we never commit to going after guys like Carlos Beltran (27 when signed his deal), Mark Teixeira (28 when signed his deal), Adam Dunn (29 when signed his deal), etc. Hendry clearly prefers to go the aging veteran route, and that is PRECISELY why we're in this situation right now.

Lee will be 35 at the end of his deal

Fukudome, 34

Soriano, 38

Dempster, 36

Lilly, 34

Miles, 33

Bradley, 33

Let's forget about how old they will be, and instead ask the question....how the hell can you even trade a player like that?!? That's old, and their production is slipping, AND all except Miles are making $10+million. Fact is, there's almost no way that you can do it, unless they step up their production (like Lee is doing right now...and hopefully he finishes with 30+hr, 100+RBI, which would be the first time he's done it since signing the extension btw), and all you can hope for with Bradley is that in the next year, he figures out how to get on base 50% of the time, because it's quite clear that he is NOT a power/RBI threat whatsoever, and perhaps some team would like a guy that gets on base half the time...who knows? One thing is for sure, Lee, Fukudome, Soriano, and Dempster all have no-trade clauses, which complicates matters even more

No, this team most certainly is going nowhere, because we simply do not have the trade chips necessary to get younger. As I've stated before, other teams do not just trade their top prospects for your top prospects. They trade them in package deals for veterans. The only veterans we have that might be worth something in trades are Lilly, Zambrano, Marmol, and Theriot. And can you imagine what our pen would look like without someone like Marmol? Could you imagine what our rotation would look like without an innings eater and guy that has NEVER had a season above a 3.90+ERA (aside from his brief call-up at the beginning of his career where he was in relief).

Lilly and Theriot would be the only guys I'd be comfortable with trading. I'd also trade ARAM, but he has a no-trade clause. He most certainly would bring a decent haul, but then you're taking away your only RBI threat. Get my point?

So, next year we're most certainly stuck with a pathetic OF that looks like this:

Soriano-.270 avg (hopeful), .320 OBP, 25 hr (hopeful), 70 RBI (hopeful); 34 years old, $18 million

Fukudome-.270 avg (hopeful), .370 OBP (likely), 10 hr (likely), 60 RBI (hopeful); 33 years old, $12 million

Bradley-.270 avg (hopeful), .390 OBP (likely), 10 hr (likely), 50 RBI (hopeful); 32 years old, $10 million

Is that not the most pathetic OF you've seen in MLB?!?!?!? And yet, there's absolutely NOTHING we can do about it....NOTHING....two have no trade rights, and the other can't be traded even if we wanted to due to production....actually, that stands for all 3 of them too.

In fact, the only projected regulars next year if we go off of what we've seen recently, that will be under 30 years old next year, are Soto and Baker...and that, my friends, is IT. Everyone else will be 32 years old or over, aside from Theriot (at 30 yrs old). If you thought this year is ugly, just wait until next year...it's going to get a whole lot uglier. And to think this all could've been avoided had Hendry signed Dunn instead of Bradley. At least we'd have someone besides ARAM that we could count on for 100 RBI.

I'm not even signing up for mlb.tv for next year. It will be very ugly, and there's no possible way to improve the club this winter, unless the owner decides to eat $90 million for Soriano ($45 million if you can convince someone he's at least a $9 million/yr player), $24 million for Fukudome ($12 million if you can convince someone to pay half, which would make him a $6 million/yr player, and might make more sense), and $20 million for Bradley ($10 million if you can convince someone that he's a $5 million/yr player, which like Fukudome, might make sense). If we found takers, we'd have to eat $67 million, but that's a hell of a lot better than paying this jagg-offs $134 million combined over the life of their deals for .270 averages, and less than 180 RBI COMBINED

So is this more 2001 or 2004?

2002, rather.

this is worse than 2004...

truthfully, Lou is not mostly to blame here... He is actually a v.good manager...

The Soriano, Bradley, Fukudome, Gregg and Heilman signings have made Jim Hendry into the laughing stock jackass dunce that he is...

Les Grobstein on the Score has a great perspective on this for what its worth.

I've never heard of Les but he's cool to listen to.

Pound for Pound .. ie -- $ for $.... The Cubs are THE worst team in baseball.. in a close tie with that other perenial dissappointment... the NY Mets

Who dat say dey gonna beat dem Saints? Who dat? Who dat?

The problem is that so much of Cub Nation is just simply accepting of this GARBAGE product out on the field.....

Lou Piniella has gone SENILE.

Jim Hendry has ALWAYS been a moron GM... and consistently ranked out of the top 10 of every major sportswriter in America

I mean are we really 1 game away from a sweep by the MOTH#$# FU#$#$ PADRES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By anything but the Padres, please!!!

Guzman recovered a little late from his share of the concussion--but he's a keeper.

Let's hope the team plays well tomorrow.

I turned it off after that Blanks home run....I'm not going to waste my time anymore with this team...I was fine a few days ago not watching them...I'll be much happier then

Cubs detailed offensive stats

Batting Average -- 28th out of 30 teams

Night Batting Average - 30th out of 30 teams

HR - 16th out of 30 teams

SB - LAST out of 30 teams

OBP -- 22nd out of 30 teams

Slugging -- 18th out of 30 teams

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/stats/byteam?cat=Overall&cut_type=0&conference=MLB&year=season_2009&sort=706

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/stats/byteam?cat=Splits&cut_type=36&conference=MLB&year=season_2009&sort=722

This is the worst offense in a decade for this team

At this point in the season, all I can really do to make baseball any fun anymore is to figure out what the Cubs are more likely to do first. Well, I guessed wrong, cause I figured the Cubs would be no-hit before they had an inside the park homer against them. And yes, that inside the parker was mostly on Bradley. That's just fundamental baseball: when a ball is hit deep, you go deep, and when a ball may stay in, you have to be ready to make a cut off. Bradley being that shallow (because he was coming from shallow rather than a straight line horizontally) is inexcusable.

This season is a mess and anyone not named Theriot, Lee, Ramirez, Lilly, Fox, or Fuld can take an equal share of the blame for this one.

nope whos gonna fire them we dont even hv an owner

Here's a poll....Does anyone think that Lou or Jim will get fired before the season is over?

Before the end of the season, no.

There is not an owner in place to make that decision.

Nope.

But it's more likely as soon as the new management takes over.

Lou: walks away with contract not renewed.

Hendry: keep his job another 100 years.

boy i rarely type anything during a game but this is the worst. it is almost unbelievable the things that seem to happen to us. the question i ask is where was bradley. he never entered the picture until koske picked the ball up. that was a heck of an effort by fukodome too bad i cant say the same for milt

For all you dusty ass-kissers out there...

Career Managing Record -- .521

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lou_Piniella

And for all the people that took great pleasure in destroing Dusty Baker -- Career Record --- .521

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dusty_Baker

Well, Baker will fall with this current Reds organization. LOL

I don't know. Baker is good at nurturing young athletes, especially on hitting. He's an old-fashion ballplayer who reads Shakespeare, though. Anything bad can come out of his good. LOL

"Walking clogs the bases. You've gotta swing the stick, dude."

I'll still take Lou.

22nd out of 31 teams in OBP in 2009

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/stats/byteam?cat=Overall&cut_type=0&conference=MLB&year=season_2009&sort=723

Fat lot of good the 'walking' did for the offense this year

2008 was pretty good, right?

Lou was hurt by staying in Tampa for all those years too.

Not as good as 2003... no?

Touche.

Where in the hell was Bradley on that shot by Blanks?

The problem is that this offense is donkey shi#.... It has no Power, No Average, No Speed... No Nuthing!!!

The SEASON IS OVER!!

Well Blanks did it again...unbelievable! Put a fork in it...we're done!

A brand new low for the Cubs...

This is incredibly bad.

Inside the park HR!

LOL

The ump is squeezing Guzman.

I'll rephrase Joe Torre in the 2001 World Series, as he taught his stars after a tough game 2: "Don't argue for balls-n-strikes. That moves you away from excelling."

Actually, Torre said "That gives you an excuse of not excel in the game."

We've got two hits from Lee, Baker, and Dempster. And one bloop hit from Soriano. That's pathetic! You know you're a diehard fan when you keep coming back to watch this crap every day!

It really sucks not having much hope we can come back late when we're down. Last year, I really felt like we could come back no matter what the score was late in the game.

Trivia: Santo the first to wear ear-flapped helmet.

Rumor?: John Smoltz signed with the Cards.

Soul crushing

Real nice Lou...let's let Soriano bat again cause he got a bloop hit. He freakin' SUCKS!

Nice K there Sori...no "you can't see me" tonight (as Bob pointed out...haven't seen that in awhile).

PLEASE tell me that Fox will pinch hit for Soriano in the 8th!

Fox for Dempster then replaces Soriano?

Last night's team concussion is still affecting everybody but DLee and Baker. Demp had poor concentration, Dome looks beat, Lou looks like he's grieving at the passing of an old teammate. Only two more innings to catch a spark.

Neil, Aaron, Matt, Others..

I'd be interested to get your take on this stat.... which I think is HUGELY revealing about this offense.....

The Cubs are DEAD LAST, no ties, in Stolen Bases on the season in ALL of major league baseball

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/stats/byteam?cat=Overall&cut_type=0&conference=MLB&year=season_2009&sort=711

ABSOLUTELY DEAD LAST ON THEIR OWN!!!

The Cubs also rank 4th last in all of baseball in team batting average...

So Dead Last in Steals, 4th from the rear in average --- hmm what does that equal?

Well, speed is important. It's essential to the game: the speed of stretching out to turn a linedrive hit into an out, the speed of running from first to score on a single, and so on.

The Cubs does have more triples than some teams that are ahead in stolen bases (e.g. A's), and the Cards aren't stealing that many more either.

But the Cards can win. The put men on base and ...

The win.

By the way, Ryan Dempster, he's on. Great job fending off after the "stretch"!

That says more about team speed than stolen bases.

I'd rather see a stat about first to third on a base hit.

That being said, the last real good year for us was with Kenny Lofton leading off and stealing bases.

We need a true leadoff man on this team so bad. I just don't know where to go. And I no longer want Roberts. He'll be 33 next year..

I don't know.

Matt, there's actually some stats for offensive speed that is meant to show it like on-base%:

Bill James, current Red Sox advisor's "speed score" and Dan Fox, current Pirates stat director's "BRAA".

That should be Ryan's last inning for the night. He really hung in there, pitching through fatigue, striking out with sweat all over his head.

We are against an organization that's falling apart, thanks to an ownership change and a bad taste per shopping Peavy and any multi-million player around.

We are supposed to win, but we are struggling...

Well, at least I got to see the trio in cub costumes and Bears hat on.

Priceless. LOL

well, at least the Rockies and White Sox are still in contention for me....I at least have interest in their teams, though I'm not a loyal fan of either, I'll root for them as long as they don't play the Cubs.

Soto, Soriano, Miles, and Fontenot couldn't hit their way out of a paper bag right now. They're all garbage, and Piniella should know this by now. Fox, Hill (because of his defense), and Baker should be in there every single day from here on out

I think we all agree 100% Aaron!

Is there any real reason we're letting the Pads run all over the bases?

Soto catching maybe?

Two of the three tonight are on Dempster. He's not paying attention. They are getting walking leads then taking off.

I quote Santo, "His head is just not in the game."

Dempster is not paying attention to them tonight.

looked like another missed call.

I don't care how safe Venible is.

Lou needs to argue there.

Agreed.

need a double play here.

Ramirez just saved a run.

I would prefer runners at first and second as opposed to just second anyway.

A 4.31 ERA in the National League is quite poor... That translates to about a 5.50 in the AL

I hate to say it... but Dempster has allowed 4 ER in 5 innings to the worst offense in the majors in the most pitcher friendly ballpark...

He has been really average this year.. it's the truth!

and...like I said before about Dempster....he's a career 4+ERA...so you have to score no less than 5 to win with him on the mound. Think our offense could ever do that? Not a chance!!!!!

Ugh.

Yep

Dodgers are up by 3...we gotta get this game!

Pujols will hit a grand slam.

Unfortunately, with the lineup they have, they are never out of any game.

I know what is now, it was just the pressure of reaching his 1500 hit. Now watch him go on a huge streak the rest of the year. (sarcasm)

Nice Job Sori!

Maybe that will get him going.

Phew.

We need every positive we can get,

Matt, that line "maybe that will get him going" has been the most over-used, and unfortunate phrase that's been said this year...I'm not singling you out, as I know it was probably tongue-in-cheek, but isn't it pretty sad that we keep hearing that for nearly this entire lineup?!?

Oh I agree fully.

That was more of a hope fueled statement than a logic fueled one.

Sori's bloop will look like a line drive in the box score. LOL

Hit #1500 for Soriano counts ... not pretty but it counts.

that's hilarious....and should tell Piniella and Hendry something....walking FUNKODOME to get to Soriano....LOL

And Sorry-Oh-No made them pay.

LOL

Maybe the only time all year.

Haven't seen that happen since Sori's been here.

Nick, going to see that more often down the stretch.

Is Sori mad, Dome walked intentionally to pitch to Soriano.

I would like to see Fox hit for Soriano right here...not going to happen, just saying.

Aramis has a huge strike zone during this at bat ... from his shoulders to below his knees.

Top two in the lineup 0-6! If just one of them would get on we'd have another run or two!

Demp doesn't have good command. The Cabrera triple was a fastball right down the middle. He's had more than his share of problems to deal with this year.

Baker looks like he could sustain at .285 + with some pop too. He's one guy trying to win a job and should be a plus for next year.

I agree...Baker seems to be a nice find and he seems to be really playing his ass off for a permanent spot. You gotta tip your hat to guys like that!

Logjam in front of him...EY Jr. behind him.

I'm still not sure why the Rox released him.

Logjam at the position in addition to his injuries?

He's consistent.

I wish Alfonso could do that "can't see me thing" and

really disappear from the Cubs.

Good one agustin...that's funny!

on a positive note, unrelated to the bunch of losers playing in San Diego tonight, Colvin hit a walk-off home run tonight. And Kyler Burke and the Chiefs keep rolling over the competition. I believe he has a minor league leading 41 doubles, and he also hit a home run tonight. Hoffpauir is also 2-for-2 thus far, so hopefully he's getting his swing back, and Barney is 2-for-2 as well, raising his average steadily recently.

On another note...Dempster is putting on a hitting clinic for sucky mcsuckfaces Bradley, Miles, Soriano, Soto, and Fontenot tonight.....if you're keeping track, our damn pitcher is 2-for-2, when our $18 million man can't even track the ball right. Did you see his pop out to RF?!? Dude didn't even know where the ball was. LOL....WOW!!!!!! It's no wonder we're seeing career years hitting from guys like Dempster, Lilly, Zambrano, Wells, and Harden....They ARE the offense...AND the defense for the team. That's an awful lot of responsibility on anyone. It's about damn time that a pitcher like Dempster just goes off on the team for how shitty they are at offense. It's LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOng overdue

Nice job by Dempster, he's 2-for-2 with a RBI.

Baker's a gamer...I hope we bring him back next year.

Ron Santo says:"That fastball was right there...I'm convinced Soriano needs a lighter bat" Ha Ha.

DEMPSTER giving "Z" competition.

Nice job Dempster!

Nice job Baker! Now let's see if we can get him in!

Not a good start.

You can say anything about Dempster tonight and this season but this offense needs to hit.

As for that Miles quote, I spit Coke all over my computer...

Shoot me.

Soriano... 3 for 30??? He's streaking!!!

fundamental baseball folks...we don't have a single player on our team that even knows what that means. Look at Eckstein...huge slap on the back in the dugout for moving the runners over, starting their scoring rally....this is the WORST bunch of professionals I've watched in my entire life....the 2009 Cubs rank up there with the New York Knicks of the past couple years in terms of worst professional play by players earning multi-millions.

I could understand the poor play coming from a bunch of guys earning MLB minimum $400k, but not mult-millionaires who "earned" their paydays by performing at a high level. So far tonight, I saw Bradley give up on a liner to RF that he should've caught with more effort...which led to the 1st run, then I see Soriano botch one to LF...you saw the look on Dempster's face both times...He was like, "what the hell am I supposed to do?!?"

I hate this team with a passion....we suck