Better late than never...

Fukudome is headed to the Indians for a couple of prospects. Supposedly the Cubs will pick up more than half of his remaining $4.7MM this season.

Cubs are picking up all but 775k

glad the cubs are finally realizing how useless ***udome was

Sadly, he was more useful than most of our lineup.

Hendry is a moron. I can see not wanting to trade Marmol (although he should have at least listened to what the Rangers wanted to offer), but to not deal Byrd and Pena is asinine. Neither are long term players on this team. We aren't going anywhere the rest of this season, so we should have traded them for whatever we could get.

Yeah, I'm not quite sure what to think about the deadline that came and went. I suppose there is still time to make trades via waivers so I won't make any declarations regarding that. I think only the Pirates were interested in Pena and from what I understand, they were lowballing us.

The strange thing is that management seemed fine to keep the team the way it is and no one wanted to be traded. Everyone is content in their mediocrity. I think the Cubs have the players that could put together a solid season if they all were playing well, but I think the vets' window of consistency and superior play has already shut. As far as the team goes, I just don't think there's enough discipline for them to be successful (particularly as it relates to defense). I don't know whose fault that is. ARam says it's not coaching, and he's partially correct. But I do think once mistakes become a trend it is coaching's fault.

Just my thoughts. At this point, the only thing that will change the way things are is if Hendry goes. IMO, the first half of his tenure was great, but since then he's lost touch.

The worst part about this is the stupid things they've been telling the fans. I'm not sure if it's worse if they're trying to placate them and know they're lying or if they're really stupid enough to believe what they're saying.

Hendry and Ricketts were BOTH quoted as saying this team didn't need to be dismantled, and that it was only a few pieces away from being a contender next season. Can you think of any "couple" of players they could get that would make you think this team could make the playoffs next year? Keep in mind they've also been saying, more than once, that they're considering keeping Pena instead of pursuing Prince or Pujols.

Compound that with the inexperience of the coaching staff:

http://www.bleedcubbieblue.com/2011/7/18/2280930/the-inexperience-of-the-cubs-coaching-staff

...and the fact that at least we could have had Sandberg. I've said this probably 3 times this season already, but he earned that chance more than Quade ever did. He was told if he won through the Cubs minor league system, he'd get the chance at the bigs. Well, he was AAA manager of the year last year. They not only didn't hire him, they made one of their legends mad enough to coach for another system...where his team is currently leading its division AGAIN in AAA. He also played big league ball, while Quade never made it past AA in his playing career.

Also worth noting are the inept contracts. Pujols and ***udome were making almost identical amounts. Soriano was signed to an EIGHT YEAR deal that would take him almost to his 40s and put him in a league where he has to wear a glove.

I'm guessing most of you tuned out, but there have been 2 things recently that let you know these guys are lost. First, during the last Astros series, Campana was put in left for defensive purposes (because you signed a DH to fumble around in left on bad knees), and even he kicked a ball into the bullpen in a one run game. At that point, the ball goes under the bullpen guys' chairs, and with Campana running over, THEY DON'T MOVE FOR A WHILE. They take a few seconds to sit there as he looks around in their midst. Bob Brenly was clearly trying to contain his managerial anger, saying how unacceptable that was.

Second, obviously, the meltdown Saturday. On Holliday's slide, Castro AND veteran Pena took time off to argue with the blue about a slide while the runner jogged home. It's not a timeout, morons. I rarely see people do that kind of stuff in city league softball, and we're all drunk. This quote was from bleedcubbieblue.com

quote:

---

If you're a new baseball fan and wanted to know why the Chicago Cubs haven't won a World Series since 1908, just slide in a DVD copy of Saturday's bottom of the fifth inning at Busch Stadium.

And there it is: a quick but essential history of the Cubs, conveniently reduced to youtube.com length. It's a remarkable collection of physical errors, brain freezes, indifference, feral pitching, the obligatory managerial meltdown and other acts of baseball malfeasance.

---

In conclusion, they're embarrassing. They're 6th highest in payroll, but being outplayed in every part of the game by the Pirates. When you have that kind of money and market, and you consistently do stupid things, it means you have inept leadership. The bad news is that they sound like they plan on trotting the same group, from top to bottom, out there again next season.

[This message has been edited by Lance Uppercut (edited 8/1/2011 12:44p).]

DLee has 2 HR's and 3 RBI's already tonight for PIT against the Cubs.

Cubs 5
DLee 3

Lance, you failed to mention how at the beginning of the season the Cubs were suposedly going to stay young and play it conservatively and then they promptly trade off 3 young prospects for Matt Garza. Mind you that I only watched about 15 minutes of the futures game prior to the all-star game and had to shut it off cause I'd already seen 3 former Cub farmhands playing.

Cubs going HR crazy tonight. Last I saw, Soriano had 2 and Aramis, Soto, Byrd, and Colvin each had one.

6 tied the franchise record. Good to get some payback against the Bucs and that's 3 in a row.

7 is the franchise record. Colvin just missed hitting his second of the game from what I read.

Colvin's went a long way. Hopefully his playing time at the end of this season pays off.

Castro homers and has another 3-hit game (pretty sure he leads the league in that category) as the Cubs win 1-0 to sweep the Pirates and pretty much end their playoff hopes. Garza went 7 innings giving up 4 hits and 2 walks with 7 K's. Marshall & Marmol were perfect in the 8th and 9th. That makes a 4-game winning streak.

It looks like the 6 HRs is a road record.

And also, we've got one more against the Buccos today before we can call it a sweep.

http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20110803&content_id=22720976&vkey=news_chc&c_id=chc

Quade and Colvin were ejected from yesterday's game stemming from whatever Colvin yelled after he Kd looking.

According to Colvin he was expressing frustration with himself, but I'm guessing he also commented on the call which was off.

Watch the clip in the video. Apparently this umpire has a real reputation, and he lived up to it tossing Colvin and then tossing Quade as Quade was already walking away. It's great listening to Bob call out the ump's reputation and how he'll "insert himself in the action" of every game he's in.

Bob has really been telling it like it is this season, at least in the games I've watched recently. He hasn't held back on the bullpen incident in the Astros game, and then this.

Where the hell was this team earlier in the season?

Apparently, the problem all along was ***udome. I always had my suspicions about that guy.

Finally back after a Staff induced week off. The Cubs have been winning quite a bit lately. I like it. Did everyone see the new Santo statue? Thing is beautiful.

You'll have to pardon my misremembering the exact quote, but during Pat's speech he talked about how when they were talking about the concept of the Santo statue they had 3 basic concepts, 1) Ron on offense, 2) Ron on defense, and 3)Ron with his hairpiece on fire.

I'll tell you what, since I got hooked on twitter I don't frequent this thread near as much as I used to.

[This message has been edited by bluestainedivy (edited 8/12/2011 12:21p).]

Guys, things are boiling over in Atlanta/the North side. I don't know all of the details, but Z gave up 5 HRs tonight the last two of which were back to back. He followed those up by throwing at Chipper and consequently getting ejected (I believe). After that he cleared his locker and left the clubhouse talking of retirement. Supposedly Quade is "fuming". Obviously, Z is the top story, but secondarily the talk is also of why Q let him stay in while struggling.

We'll see how this develops.

[This message has been edited by bluestainedivy (edited 8/12/2011 9:56p).]

He's done. Might as well retire. The Cubs won't being him back and he is radioactive. What a moron.

You rang? Oh, you said moron, not maroon.

Anyhow, you could see this coming a thousand miles away. Dude is a total selfish ******bag. Good riddance.

Yep. Please go away.

I'm also glad to see ARam, Fonzi and Dempster not sticking up for his shenanigans. I'll bet the MLBPA is ticked.

The Cubs won again today. They're 10-3 this month, which is in 4 series against the Pirates, Reds, Nationals, and Braves. 7 of those were road games. They start a series against the Astros in Houston next.

Would have been nice to start the year this way...

Life really is better when the Cubbies are playing good baseball. Just in time to go watch them Tues or Wed... or both.

psst...psst...we tomahawk chopped Uggla's streak.

Soriano has cleared waivers.

Does that mean that no one's claimed him?

Correct. That means we are free to trade him to anyone (assuming he waives his no trade clause and we eat most of his contract).

If it's not one Carlos it's another.

WTF? I was watching the game and Marmol's fastball didn't get over 92. Something must be wrong.