Castro, Colvin and Soto make Hendry look a little better than crap.

All 3 very nice.... I see a 30-35 HR guy in Colvin, a Nomar Garciaparra clone in Castro and a very solid hitting catcher in Soto...

Add Byrd and maybe, A-Ram to the mix, and a quality left hand power bat, 1 40-50 SB speed guy, and this lineup should be set.... get rid of everyone else --- Lee, Soriano, Theriot, Fontenot, the bench dudes..... clean house!!

For me, Ricketts is a huge disappointment.

The Cubs needed an owner with guts, baseball sense, and a plan; Ricketts fails on all three counts.

With him as owner, unless he pulls his head out and dumps Hendry this offseason (yeah, I know, good luck with that), this team will be also-rans for many many years to come.

Anybody that blind, or stupid, or both regarding the mess Hendry has created has no business in baseball. Ricketts is a joke.

This is a much better game than yesterday in my humble opinion. I hope they can hold a lead for one inning. :)

Hey Suzy! nice to hear from ya.

I think that the Ricketts are too classy, and too sentimentally involved with what they have shown. I suspect DLee will be back too.

**Lou is a guy who I promise to miss once he promises to leave...so I suppose I'll miss you Lou and lock the door when you leave.

**JH is an average GM when all is said and done. Some good, some bad...but over all he should have done A LOT more considering his resources. It says a lot that other GMs say he is "nice guy" and love to deal with him. I don't hear a lot of people saying how nice Shapiro, Beane, Cashman, Epstein or Williams are.

***having said that the Rickets might be doing the right thing keeping him atleast for next season because he has certainly proven he can Dump and dump we need. Plus GM's get fired "from left field" or unexpected to prevent corruption.

****Rhyno is awesome and he could do fine, I still would take Bob or Girardi over him.

Super Win, baseball is saved!

Wow! What a great finish to this game!

What a comeback. Nice win. First big league win for Andrew Cashner

Nice come back win............. Down 6-0 & 7-1.

Aramis may opt out of his contract after all.

That's why they should seriously consider trading him as hot as he's been.

Too late, but as cold as A-ram was early in the year, that's how hot he is in July. A 1.300+ OPS now for the month; that is sick.

He is now officially better than Lee for the season

Every Cubs starter has a hit. I wonder if that is a first for this year?

No it was not. It has happened a couple of times this year ... believe it or not.

So how many guys can Marmol walk in the 9th before we start getting nervous?

Dang...ARAM is LOCKED in!

And ARam is out of his slump.

I accidentally posted it on the other topic.

RAMIREZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

First three-homer game since Sept. 2004

Holy Cow! What team is this?

DLee with a go-ahead double

just look at the careers of some of our can't miss farm guys.

1. Felix Pie -- 248 games, 14 HR, 12 SB, .252 average.....

ie -- no power, no speed, no bat.

2. Jake Fox since he left the cubs, .214 and .219 BA, 52 games, 5 HR, .250 OBP

3. Micah Hoffpauir - batting .237 in AAA, with 10 HR in 88 games.

infact, we have not one quality 50 SB or 35 HR guy within remote sighting in the minors, inspite of most peoples efforts to put lipstick on a pig

And Theriot still cannot take a pitch

Dumpster is off the hook.

SOTO! #12

On top of the batter's eye in center

Nice D in the top of the sixth

Is Ramirez still "his own hitting coach?" I know this was debated earlier this year but would like to know if he is working more with Rudy or as he said all along knows more about his swing than anyone?

Reportedly, Ramirez started working with Rudy while he was on the DL.

It is a day late and a dollar short. He should have swallowed his pride before the Cubs were out of the race.

I'd be inclined to keep A-Ram next year.... He is fundamentally more sound than Lee, strikes out less --- and could be potentially hidden at 5 or 6 when he slumps.....

We desperately need 1 BONAFIDE .300 AVG, 35HR, or a proven .280 50SB guy up top off the lineup.... infact the speed guy really matters even more...

Our lack of team speed is disgusting.

Lou did as much as he could with a horribly constructed lineup.

Ramirez with a 3-run shot ... second of the game.

Why didn't Nady run?

Nady is a clueless slug

At least Nady can't hit into a dp here.

But he can forget to run to 1st after strike 3 got away from the catcher. What an ass.

On the manager front:

Does anyone else feel that Ryno would have been totally screwed over by this organization if he doesn't get the job?

I mean, he was a canidate for the last opening (all be it not a serious one) and the organization told he he needed to get some experience and so they hired him to the job in Daytona (or Peoria can't remember which). He has patiently worked his way through the ranks and is having success at the AAA level.

Hence, if the cubs do not give him a chance, he will manage somewhere else and we will have to deal with our hall of fame second baseman angry at this organization.

I think the fact that Ricketts already mentioned Ryno as a canidate today means a lot.

I'm going out on a limb and saying that Ryno will be named as Pinella's successor before the season ends, and will take the reigns after the conclusion of this debacle.

Ryno is the right choice for three reasons:

#1 He means so much to the fans and will sell tickets as the face of the franchise.

#2 He is a Hall of Famer who was not just athletic but smart

#3 He has worked with almost all of the young guys in our system and he knows them. Who better to take this team in a youth direction then Ryno?

Then he can bring in Leon Durham as his fielding coach.

You can't blame Leon Durham for the 1984 debacle. I blame Steve Garvey, he just killed us that series.

Also, if you remember the "Bull" gave the Cubs the early lead and was crucial to the team getting that far.

Me hate Steve Garvey.

Of course you're right. But after all these years it's still fun to give Leon the Bill Buckner award.

I hate Garvey too. I'm glad his wife dumped him.

Yeah, your right to poke fun at the "Bull". I still pity Billy Buck. He was a gamer and deserved better.

I still wished the "Penguin" could have one upped Garvey.

We were so close. I cried after Game 5.

Dempster just served up another one.

The Cubs finally get a run against a reliever making the first start of his career. Just so Cub like.

Number 13 for Aramis!

Sorry Bruce, I'm not moved.

I knew the gap between the Hawks winning the Cup and the start of the Bears' season was going to be agony, but the Cubs are so much more agonizing than I ever could have imagined. Just brutal.

Gary...brutal is an accurate assessment. While we've experienced way too many "what else can I do" moments from Lou over the last two years, for me one of the telling moments in his regime was the Steve Stone/Tyler Colvin saga. First, any "study" of the game could see that Colvin deserved more regular playing time. But then Lou publicly bashes Stone, and then follows with a Colvin strategy that essentially was what Stone argued to begin with.

Lou had his golden opportunity in 2008, but since then he's been an absymal example of a manager in-charge. Lack of fundamentals, fights, mental melt downs, etc...all indicative of a manager well past his time. Adios Lou!

So the rest of 2010 now becomes the "Lou retirement show"? There is no doubt that Ricketts and JH went to Lou and indicated that he wasn't going to be resigned...so the "graceful" conclusion is to let him retire at year end. They should have negotiated him retiring immediately, and declaring the last two months of the season as the start of a rebuild process.

Doesn't the fan base deserve better than a lame duck, non-caring manager who now has absolutely no motivation whatsoever to infuse a youth effort to assess the future talent for the franchise. I can see retaining Lou if the club was still in contention...but 10 games out, and you let this guy sleepwalk the next two month, collect a paycheck, and leave an absolute mess for fans to witness now day in and day out.

As for JH, folks here like Suzy have ably provided a sound assessment of that scenario.

Isn't this all just "Cub like" in running the franchise? How sad.

I just don't agree, Bryan. Firing Lou at this point in the season would be a disrespectful move on Hendry and The Cubs organization. They are long lost and what would be the point to keep running this lame ass team out there because Jim can't decide if he should trade a Theriot or Baker of Lilly or not while Alan Trammel "manages" them?

If they were dissatisfied with Lou as a manager he should have been fired in May or early June when the wheels fell off this rig.

Hendry firing Lou would be an epic fail and complete chicken shit move right now. This is Hendry's team.

JC...sorry to disagree. The sights now need to be about what this team will look like in 2011, not how many games we finish back in 2010. And this isn't about respecting or disrespecting Lou. He admits being tired...Ok Lou, thank you for your 4 years here, but please pack up your toys and go home to Florida, or more likely to a Yankees advisory role.

The guy has no motivation whatsoever to look beyond the next two months...the fans and organization deserve more than just playing out the rest of a dismal season. This isn't chicken shit mentality...this is about running a business.

And you can bet your life that if the Cubs were still "in the hunt" that Lou never would have thrown out the retirement speech. This is just his way of ducking the inevitable "chopping block".

From Bruce Miles:

"All that said, Lou Piniella is at the top of my list. I've learned more about baseball from talking to Lou as I have from anybody. A couple years ago at Dodger Stadium, Lou was talking about why a seemingly fast guy (not D-Lee, by the way), was hitting into double plays. "It's not because he's not fast," Lou said. "It's because when he swings the bat, he screws himself into the ground and can't get a good jump to first base." He suggested a couple of springs ago that Angel Guzman move to the third-base side of the rubber because, as a former hitter, he noticed that Guzman could give himself a better angle, especially against right-handed batters. When talking about a young hitter this year, Lou said, "He's just got to learn not to chase (pitches) in too many areas. You can chase in one area, but not more than one."

Lou came here at the end of 2006 to turn a bad situation into a good one. He sized up quickly who could play and who couldn't. Soon, Cesar Izturis and Michael Barrett were gone. I didn't agree with Lou pulling Big Z early in Game 1 of the 2007 NLDS, but that's baseball. With the Tribune Co. looking to go out in a blaze of glory, the Cubs had their window in 2007 and 2008 to get it done, and they didn't. Then, management had to cut back on its free-spending ways.

But it was always fun to run into Lou in the concourse after a game and have him vent just a little bit or talk some baseball.

The Cubs job is a job that gets them all in the end, isn’t it?"

http://blogs.dailyherald.com/node/4416

This team is killing me softly.

Dumpster is a complete mental midget, and lame duck Lou just sits on his ass with that blank expression, day dreaming about how he will spend the money he is stealing.

This is just pathetic.

More mental and physical errors ... already down 3-0, make it 4-0.

Dempster's walked two to force two runs

And the Cubs are already losing ...

Nice job by Theriot. Threw the ball into left field.

Good first inning for Dempster

The news today was obviously Jim Hendry returning.

I am not going to say Hendry is perfect; he has made some head-scratching moves. I don't think he is an idiot or worthless either. Those kind of comments don't really help understand the problem.

Hendry's bad moves have been well-documented here, but I am going to state a case for Hendry:

1. THE FARM SYSTEM IS MUCH IMPROVED UNDER HIS WATCH. I know, Tim Wilken, blah blah blah, but if it's that easy, why doesn't every GM have a good farm system? The Cubs are THE leaders in Asian talent, bar none, and that appears to be bearing some fruit.

2. WE HAVE 3 DIVISION TITLES in 8 SEASONS. Granted, we lost in the playoffs, but the GMs job is to construct a team for the regular season; the playoffs is a crapshoot. Any team can win a 7-game series, but not any team can win 90 games in a season.

3. ON BALANCE, HENDRY'S TRADES ARE MOSTLY PLUSSES: There are some bad some good, but line them up, and I figure 70% are good trades. He is beating his fellow GMs in this department. Among other players, A-Ram, Gorz, Silva, Rich Harden, Garciaparra, D-Lee...look back, these guys were all acquired for virtually NOTHING.

4. HE IS DEDICATED TO HIS JOB: He signed Ted Lilly from a hospital bed. Enough said.

The biggest black mark are the FA contracts and no-trades. The no-trades are a problem, and I don't understand those moves. The Contracts? Well, Sam Zell et al were in a push to get a champion. If Soriano was the difference in 07/08, it would have been worth every penny.

I'm sure everyone will disagree

Zonk, I will agree that JH has made some decent moves. I am still in opinion though he needs to go.

The overpaid long term contracts and no trade clauses and conditions you pointed out and commented on a couple of days ago and I have also pointed out in the past are what is currently hampering this team from going anywhere or making any significant changes.

These contracts will limit the ability of this club to rebound over the next year or two at least.

This is what everyone will remember about JHs legacy and not getting a guy like ARAM, DLee or Lilly.

The only hope is that the farm system will bear fruit and at least JH can have some credit for going forward.

btw...the Cardinals have 6 division

titles in the last 10 years...with a much lower payroll.

Why is it that JH was the only GM in the majors...to offer Bradley a multi-year

deal?

I will give you #4...JH is dedicated to his job...However...still need new leadership...instead of plugging over the hill vets into holes...we have to get young and speedy...

I am extremely disappointed with the Cubs

retaining Hendry as a GM.

It shows a lack of vision...on the Ricketts part...God Help Us...maybe they like Larry Hines as well.

Keith,

I'm sure there is going to plenty of discussion on JH's plusses and minuses...

I for one think he should have been fired when Andy McPhail left...He's a holdover from the "old school"...and I'm "old school" myself.

-If you are going to give JH credit for improving the farm system...you also have to damn him for letting it get so bad.

-At best, he's an average GM...but with the Cub's charging the highest ticket prices in baseball with one of the lesser products on the field...somebody

should take the fall...and that somebody

is Jim Hendry...the one that hogtide the organization for years to come with the Zambrano and Soriano contracts...not to mention Fukodome and BRADLEY/Silva.

Just look at this season's body of work.

JH overpaid for Grabow that self admittedly had bone chips.

Signed a damaged Nady to a 5 mil/one year deal...and totally lucked out on the Silva deal...(no mstter what happens going forward)because Seattle fans would have revolted with anymore Silva action.

Thye fact is...JH has assured us a second rate future for at least another season or 2....the team is facing a major makeover...And I really don't think JH is the man to do it...Ricketts has made a major mistake regarding JH.

No disagreement here Zonk. I feel the same way. I think he pulled off miracles getting rid of Hundley and Bradley.

Didn't he sign Hundley and Bradley?

Let's set the record straight: Hendry DID sign Milton Bradley, but he did NOT sign Hundley; that was Lynch. He did trade him for Karros and Grudz, which was his first brilliant "dump" trade.

Bradley was not necessarily a terrible idea at the time; he did lead the AL in OPS the year before. Hindsight is always 20-20

Jim Hendry has have had his moments, his trades has not been bad although I never like the Matt Clement trade, but he need stop giving up no trade clauses.

Tonight's lineup:

Colvin - RF

Castro - SS

Lee - 1B

Ramirez - 3B

Byrd - CF

Soriano - LF

Soto - C

Theriot - 2B

Dempster - P