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Seconds to Stardom: The Tragic Tale of Richard Lewis

As I said in the comments section, good teams are rarely fooled by their prospects. They bring them up early, give them extensive playing time, and then honestly evaluate them. The Cubs were in the same situation in 2004 that the Braves are in now. If Lewis had got the opportunity that Freeman is getting, his career may have turned out differently. And so may have the Cubs' fortunes.

In just another example of a franchise that works in the right direction, the Braves today bring up highly touted 20 year old first baseman Freddie Freeman. The club is just 3 games up in the pennant race, but yet the kid gets a start tonite...replacing veteran Derrick Lee. The Cubs would never do that.

Site's been acting goofy, so if you get two of these, ignore one, but...

You're leaving out the biggest part of the story. Derek Lee is hurt and Troy Glaus is still on the DL. This isn't a "looking towards the future" move. This is a "Our starter is hurting and his backup is on the DL, so we'll start the rookie until he's 100%" move. Purely designed to get by until Lee is ready, not taking him out for underperformance.

You're missing the point...on the North side, they'd (a) make Derrick play thru the "discomfort" (and then make excuses for him later), and (b) certainly wouldn't entrust the backup to a 20 year old. And Derrick has been less than stellar since the trade.

Quote from Atlanta Braves site.

"With Derrek Lee's back still providing some discomfort, Freeman may get more than just a couple of starts at first base. He is expected to fill that role on an everyday basis for the Braves next year."

And naturally both show up once I post a second one...I have no idea what "Twitter" is still, but I hate it, because apparently that's what is loading.

Except the biggest part of the story that you're missing is that Derek Lee is hurt and Troy Glaus is still on the DL, so a rookie is starting to give the starter time to recuperate. This is a move made solely out of necessity, not really "looking towards the future".

The Cubs wouldn't even replace a clubhouse cancer like Milton Bradley before it was too late. Remember the mantra ... "He's not ready, He's not ready, He's not ready"...

Not sure if anyone saw the article in sun-times today about Fredi Gonzalez.

I will bet my right arm that he's the next cubs manager. Hendry tends to place a lot of importance on past relationships, to a fault. And he and Gonzalez go way back.

Trust me, it won't be Sandberg. And Barry Rozner told the story about cubs gave token interview to Girardi 4 years ago because he basically begged them. They didn't want him. I don't think they like him. Just a hunch.

Soooooo cub.

From Sun Times:

Gorz x-rays inconclusive. No displacement to outside of hand but CT scan scheduled for thursday.

From Tribune:

X-rays show no displaced fracture on Gor-Z's left hand, but Cubs will have CT scan done Thursday on top of pinkie.

WGN Radio is reporting X-Rays on Gorzelanny's left hand came back negative

I'm sorry. I am officially off of the Marmol bandwagon. I have seen this act way too much. They need to do something else for a closer next year.

Be careful what you wish for.

Just remember all the crappy closers we have had in the last 20 years. It would take 2 hours to list them all.

Closers aren't perfect, they blow saves. It happens. They can't save every game.

Do you like Broxton on LA ? Paelbon in Boston ? Jenks on sox ? Well, they have all been getting rocked in the last month or 2.

MArmol is too wild, but his stuff is unhittable. He's a real difference maker that I would not give up. His control can be improved.

Maybe next year we should just be happy to see closing situations. Hasn't been that many this year. Of course 5-6 run leads are good too. But my whole point is that a closer shouldn't be walking guys. At least Kevin Gregg threw strikes. They were generally hit out of the park, but they were strikes.

Marshal has really been struggling in last month or so

...hopefully he turns it around. He's a keeper

Hoffpauir with a single ...

Kosuke with a double ... 2nd and 3rd, no outs again.

Good job by Marshall

Will see Silvas tongiht, letcha know what i see!

Not sure if any of you saw the aricle in sun-times today about Fredi Gonzalez, but I will bet my right arm he is next cubs manager.

Hendry tends to place importance on past relationships, and he and Gonzalez go way back. I think that's one of Hendry faults, among many.

As I have mentioned many times before, it won't be Sandberg, trust me. As for Girardi, I've heard that cubs thought he was very arrogant in 2006 for turning down other job offers with little or no experience. They ended up reluctantly granting him token interview, but was really considered serious candidate.

Of course, he would never hire what the fans want (i.e Ryno, Girardi, Brenley)

Ugh.

Quick: What Cubs OF has the highest OPS on the team?

Did you guess FUKUDOME?

Maybe he should play more.....

Could be worse, we could have Manny

It is worse: we've got Sorry-oh-no instead. At least Manny, on occasion, produces.

Yeah, its not like Soriano has hot streaks that produce insane power numbers over short periods of time and currently has over 20 homeruns or anything like that.

Hey, you must be listen to Dr. Goebbels propaganda about how productive Sorry-oh-no has been for the Cubs. Let's look at the stats:

Fact: Sorry-oh-no is a platoon quality player. He hits lefthanders to the tune of .295BA .372 OBP .581 slugging .953 OPS. EXCELLENT.

VS. Righthanders: .246ba .292obp .477slugging .769 OPS

Sorry-oh-no hits in the Spring, when the pitchers are not as sharp with their breaking stuff.

April .292 3hr

May .308 6hr

June .234 4hr

July .225 5hr

Aug .245 3hr

Please don't tell me that Sorry-oh-no hit "with insane power for short periods of time" in 2010, unless you call a solo shot "insane power." I don't see him killing the ball at all, unless you play him EXCLUSIVELY to face lefthanders.

April

Yeah, they like to ignore that part.

But hey, Soriano's a "good clubhouse guy", so Hendry's ok with that $18m investment...for another damn 4 years.

From Paul Sullivan

Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts will be involved in the managerial search, but at this point he's leaving the process in general manager Jim Hendry's hands.

"It's Jim's responsibility to go out and find a new manager," Ricketts said in an interview with beat writers Wednesday after ceremonies for the move of the Harry Caray statue. "What he'll do is he'll create a short list and I'll meet with everyone on the short list.

Would there be different criteria for outside candidates, as opposed to the two in-house candidates, current manager Mike Quade and Triple-A Iowa manager Ryne Sandberg?

"That would be up to Jim," he said. "It's his responsibility to give us a short list and we'll talk the names through and come up with the right answer."

The idea of Sandberg being hired to help sell tickets in 2011 is not part of the Cubs' thinking, Ricketts said. Sandberg will be judged on how successful he'd be as a major league manager.

"The fact is, it's Jim's job to decide what manager to bring in, but it's about winning, not about marketing."

So the Cubs won't necessarily go for a big name?

"I don't think we need a marquee name to sell tickets," he replied. "What we need is a team that produces on the field. And that's really what's most important to us."

As for the team itself, Ricketts said they've not discussed upcoming free agents that may be available on the market come November.

"We haven't gotten to the point where we've talked about that for next year yet," he said. "Obviously if a couple contracts roll off, that might give us a little bit of flexibility, and we'll see where that takes us."

The number of empty seats at Wrigley Field on the last two homestands has been troubling, but Ricketts does not seem overly concerned that fans are tuning out the Cubs.

"Obviously we want every seat full every game," he said. "The attendance has been very, very strong in the grandstands, but certain day games and the last couple of night games, the bleachers were softer. I think we've got to put a winning product on the field to make sure all the seats are full every year."

So will the Cubs hold the line on ticket prices this offseason?

"We don't have our pricing strategy for next year locked down," he said. "But we'll see."

Ricketts said attendance and payroll go hand-in-hand.

"They're related, obviously," he said. "The more attendance generates more revenue, more revenue gives you more flexibility to increase your payroll, but the fact iu we have a really strong fan base, and hopefully we'll put a very attractive product on the field next year and attendance, we did pretty well this year even with kind of a tough season. Hopefully next year we'll get it back up to where it was three years ago."

Ricketts said he hasn't spoken to former manager Lou Piniella since he retired prematurely to attend to his ailing mother in Tampa.

"The last time I spoke to him I told him I'd get back in touch with him and come down and see him at some point and get his input on the managerial search process and various insights into this year's teams and some of the young guys coming up too," he said.

Is it possible that Piniella would remain in the organization as a consultant?

"It's not a conversation I've had with Lou,' he said.

Or what about Todd Hollansworth. You must of forgot about those days. Hell the only reason we signed Andre Dawson back in the day is becuase teams were afraid his knees wouldn't hold out and weren't going to take a chance on him. That maybe a little "over the top" but is not that far off.

Yes, I hate the work of JHendry. I freely admit that. I expect Ricketts will give him the word that "I've gotta pay for this mess. No FA signings. Cut salary to the bone." And then we will live off of that minor league system that JHendry has accumulated. And then you, yes, YOU, can tell us all how we were wrong about JHendry being the worst GM ever. All this talent he accumulated in the minors will now pay off. Ricketts has said that he planned to win via minor league players. So we'll see how good Mr. Hendry is at talent evaluation. I personally think he's a poor talent evaluator. Hey, don't forget: he's the one who has accumulated all of these minor league arms that the Cubs have called up this year. How successful have they been? Smardzija? Berg? Stevens? Gaub? Atkins? Russell? Caridad? Gray? Schlitter? Mateo? Cashner? Coleman? Diamond? How successful have these been? Name ONE minor league pitcher that has come up and done the job at the ML level in 2010.

Yessir, in my opinion, Mr. Hendry is a poor talent evaluator.

For those of you in Rio Linda, that's 13 minor league arms the Cubs have brought up, and to a man, they have been pounded. The Pittsburgh Pirates have lit them right up into flaming torches.

Couple of things:

1) Is Baker hurt?

2)Snyder really deserves an opportunity at Wrigley...How else are the Cubs ever going to discover if he is a 4A player or a big leaguer?...there are several players I can think of to take off the Roster.

Looking forward...I don't see Nady or Fukodome with us next year...give Snyder a shot now...and see if he is worth being the fourth outfielder next year...until Jackson is ready...my guess is that he is at least as good as Nady...

(with better defense and less $$$ cost.

Fukodome to Japan at 50% or more salary savings sounds about right over the winter.

I actually expect Colvin to be better next year...but who really knows?

I don't see Ricketts making any huge splashes in FA...but rather continue the salary dump...and see what the kids can do...with a few "hold the fort" free agents thrown in.

2012/13 we'll have a better feel for which kids will stick...and Ricketts

should be ready for some major signings then.

Aaron. I don't see the Cubs signing Dunn

at all...that boat sailed with the Bradley signing...it's just too great of a $$$commitment for an AL DH to be.

I see the Cubs becoming a Pittsburgh Pirates type team: dump salary, trade away those who might command too much money, and generally run a bad team out on the field, all the while JHendry's mouth will be flapping about being "just 3 or 4 or 5 good moves away from contending." In other words, some propaganda for suckers to lap up and keep spending at the ballpark.

I thought that was what you wanted. At least Aaron wants that. For no reason becuase the Cubs dont have the same financial restraints that a Pittsburgh Pirates have. Just because.

I just hope that you JHendry haters(which I'm not saying that he hasn't made mistakes or that he is the best GM ever) dont get what you want and we go back to the days that the big off-season signing was Matt Stairs.

We will see what you think about some of Hendry's moves then.

In the third largest market in baseball with one of the highest payrolls, you should be able to better at GM that Jim Hendry.

Jeff Baker has sore left achilles

Updated lineup - Baker out - Barney in

Today's lineup:

DeWitt - 2B

Castro - SS

Fukudome - RF

Hoffpauir - 1B

Colvin - CF

Soriano - LF

Barney - 3B

Hill - C

Gorzelanny - P

Today's lineup:

DeWitt - 2B

Castro - SS

Fukudome - RF

Hoffpauir - 1B

Colvin - CF

Soriano - LF

Baker - 3B

Hill - C

Gorzelanny - P

Good on Quade to keep the same lineup structure, because it hasn't really looked like it has failed at producing offense. Now all they need to do is get some better guys in some of those spots and get their pitching to not suck every few games and they're on the right track.

Of course, that also means LOTS of roster moves, and that isn't happening, so yeah...