SB Nation User Blog: Chitown Mojo

How Shall We Remember Dusty?

Chitown Mojo — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 19:07:14 -0000

I'm gonna start off by apologizing. I'm sorry.

I'm aware that there are a lot of you complaining about the excess and mediocrity of certain diaries, and to tell you the truth, I have no idea if this is worth a diary of its own.

I personally don't see where the problem is but given that this is a community I'd like to apologize to those who think that this is a waste of their time...and of the site's space.

I spent the past 10 minutes debating whether it was or it wasn't and couldn't come to a conclusion. Bottom line is that I'm curious about this and would like to see what people think about it, so I'm just gonna go ahead and post it. Continue reading if you are interested.

There was a column that appeared in yesterday's Tribune written by Carrie Muskat's soul-brother, Mr. Paul Sullivan. In it, he writes about the season past and its most memorable moments. What I found interesting was what he called the year's "Best Interview":

Best interview:
While talking with Baker in July in the Cubs dugout in Milwaukee, he began discussing his reputation in his family for "jacking" up the kids who misbehave. So I asked him why he doesn't "jack up" Ramirez for not running hard. "I have jacked up Aramis," Baker protested. Then why is he still not running hard to first base? "He's better than he was, ain't he?" Baker replied. "This [guy] has been doing this for a long time. OK?" Baker then got up and made a dramatic exit, putting an exclamation mark on the interview.

While I never was a Dusty supporter, I was also far from being one his fiercest detractors.

Can the man construct a proper lineup card? No, far from it.
Can the man properly handle his starting pitchers? Take your best guess.
Can he make good use of his bullpen? See above.
Does he seem a bit too nonchalant at times? Definitely.

That's my best Muskat impersonation, and here goes another one:

Does he tend to get the best out of his players? Yes, I think he does.

What Dusty said during that interview was correct, Aramis was nothing but a One Hit Wonder before arriving to the Cubs and he has since become one of the best and most consistent third baseman in the majors. He's not the only one to have blossomed under Dusty's wings, I can think of several players having their best years with him in charge ( Barrett, Wood, Lee, Dempster, Rusch, Borowski, Grudz, from the top of my head).

I am glad that my team does no longer have him at its helm (oh so glad) and while I don't think he would be a good option for any club as head coach, I do think he has his place on a team's bench. As a bench coach, special assistant, or I don't know what, but as something.

Those intangibles we so often argue about, I think Dusty's got a pretty valuable one.

Soriano and Dr. Dre

Chitown Mojo — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 23:57:34 -0000

Discussing Soriano's press conference and his striking resemblance to a certain rapper.

I just finished watching Soriano's press conference on cubs.com and a few things struck me.

First of all the guy seemed nervous, uncomfortable in front of the press. This is probably gonna be the most press coverage he's ever gotten, more than in NYC given that he's the star on this team. And from what I gather he was loved in NYC so there was never any media or public pressure on him (at least not the kind he'll get here if he starts 0-20)... This all just makes me hope he gets off to a good start so that we don't see him instantly disintegrating.

Secondly I hate all the "I'm a great athlete, I have great power and my great legs" cr#p being repeated over and over. Reminds me too much of my ex-favorite player. Been there done that.

And finally, because everything written above was all filler, let's get down to the real shocker...and this is bizzare to say the least. This man has an eerie ressemblance to the Dr.Dre of the World Class Wrecking Cru days. Freaky:

http://members.aol.com/ProfQuater/World.html

(First picture, first guy from the left)

Anyone agree?

Soriano COMPLETE contract details

Chitown Mojo — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 06:12:26 -0000

"Complete" because a diary was already posted with the contract details but it was missing the incentives which I believe we have yet to discuss on this site.

This you already knew:

Signing Bonus: $8 million

$9 million
$13 million
$16 million
$18 million
$18 million
$18 million
$18 million
$18 million

But "tadaaaa" the fun little incentives:

Soriano's deal gives him a complete no-trade provision and guarantees a suite on Cubs road trips, according to contract information obtained by The Associated Press. In addition, Soriano is guaranteed six premium tickets for each home game during spring training, regular season and the postseason _ and for the All-Star game if he is selected.

There are also plenty of incentives for the five-time All-Star, who will be the Cubs leadoff hitter. He gets $250,000 for collecting most All Star votes, $350,000 if he is selected the World Series MVP, $250,000 for the league championship series MVP, $300,000 for the MVP award and $75,000 for a Gold Glove.

As another provision, Soriano will donate $25,000 annually to United Way and $25,000 annually to Cubs Care foundation.

Funny how he gets the least amount of money for the award he is most unlikely to get... My feeble mind tells me it should be the other way around.

Discuss

Soriano playing winter ball

Chitown Mojo — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 13:08:16 -0000

Good morning all, hope everyone had a pleasant night, I for myself haven't slept one minute. Very happy thanksgiving to all! I'd like to say that the little image on the top left of my screen is brilliant. Ok moving on, apparently Soriano wants to play for his dominican winter ball team and is waiting to get here next week so he can ask our dear Hendry permission. Permission that IMHO will be granted, he's not our big soft mushy Jimbo for nothing. Ahh what a heart. Well anyways, YEY, with our luck he'll break his leg trying to jump out of the dugout to celebrate a teammate's homerun...it's happenned before. Am I the only to think that after signing such a contract YOU STAY PUT?!?

Non-Baseball Diary: Michael Richards aka "Kramer" Loses It

Chitown Mojo — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 01:48:44 -0000

Most of you probably already know this, and to tell you the truth I'm not quite sure why I am posting this except for the fact that I am stunned by it. I had the utmost respect for the guy, comedic genius IMO, but I have completely lost every ounce of it now. To make a long story short, during one of his stand up comedy shows on sunday night, he started yelling racial slurs at a couple of african-americans who were in the crowd that night. As you will imagine the "N" word was thrown around, along with comments such as ""Shut up you n***! Fifty years ago we'd have you upside down with a f------ fork up your a--."
At a loss for words... Here's the link for the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-T7uKvpzVXI

What an asshole.

Manny on the trading block.....again

Chitown Mojo — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 16:10:46 -0000

Apparently it would only take a couple of prospects and we could have him for 42 mill/3 years. That seems more than reasonable to me given the caliber of such a bat.
I personally have always loved Soriano but I do not want him on our team, and even less for a deal that would be paying him more than 15 mill when he's 38. C-Lee is out of the question in my book: too fat, too slow, too expensive.

Now the question is, and I ask this because I realize I would be, if given the chance, the worst GM possible (I'm a wuss when it comes to giving away prospects), what prospects would you guys be willing to deal? In my book, gallagher, veal, and pawelek are untouchable, but my guess is we would have to give at least one of them... So which one would you be willing to deal, and which other would you add to make the deal final?

Kei Igawa is the Answer....NOT!

Chitown Mojo — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 23:34:13 -0000

This little bit comes from Keith Law's "Top 40 Free agents". Igawa comes only at 31st, behind the likes of Borowski (sigh). I like his "mini-scouting" on the players, especially the pitchers, of the list. Not quite sure he would be the solution, and certainly not as our #3 starter.

Share your thoughts:

"One of the best left-handed starters in Japan, Igawa wasn't expected to come over this winter as a free agent, but his current employer, the Hanshin Tigers, has apparently made an about-face and will post him this week. Igawa is primarily a two-pitch pitcher, with a below-average fastball in the 84-88 mph range with a little run, and a plus 74-79 mph curveball with a late two-plane break. He has a slight stabbing motion at the start of his delivery, but stays on top of the ball well, giving the curve its good depth and creating some downhill plane to his otherwise flat fastball. He also has average command and plus control.

The downside to Igawa is that his fastball may be a little short for MLB hitters, in which case, he'll end up a reliever, and probably a good one with that plus curve as a lefty-killing weapon. (He does throw an occasional changeup, but prefers to use his curve to get righties out as well.) The upside would be if his quick delivery makes the ball hard enough for hitters to pick up that his fastball plays up to average, in which case he could certainly pitch in the back end of an NL rotation. He's also an ideal candidate to learn a splitter, although that's a common pitch in Asia and it would be a surprise if he hadn't already tried one."

I mean, two pitches? And one of them below average?

Shiza Minelli I hope I'm not breaking any laws here...

Rich Hill and Rob Neyer

Chitown Mojo — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 03:15:45 -0000

This is probably the stupidest and pointless post, but I'm so high on this kid that this little bit of endorsement got me giddy electric (I know what I mean)... Praise the future, Hendry don't trade this kid...PLEASE.
Was on the espn gamechat and after flooding Rob with the same question over and over, I finally got an answer (and then apologized for my rude behavior, just thought I'd mention). Here it is:

Nassim (New York)
Your thoughts on Rich Hill?

ROB NEYER
I love him, think if he's healthy he'll be quite good. Solid fastball, wonderful curveball. Love him.

ROB NEYER
Thanks for sticking around through all the precipitation. Hope to see you tomorrow night. And did I mention I love Rich Hill?

BUZZMASTER
All right, fans, that'll wrap up our rain edition of the chat. Thanks to Rob for sticking around to field questions. We'll be here tomorrow night at 8:30 for Game 4. Hopefully we'll have some baseball!

My one minute of fame... Truly enjoyed it, and now I need to get a life.

Pine tar, tanning and shaving...

Chitown Mojo — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 23:34:27 -0000

I just finished up reading a pretty surprising article on CNNSI, and I found it interesting enough to share it with you guys. According to a Major League bullpen coach, not only was it really pine tar that Rogers was using, but his success in the innings that followed him removing the substance from his hand was due to suntan lotion or shaving cream or a combination of both. Again, according to this same coach, the reason La Russa dropped the issue after the game is that "everybody" uses it, and his pitching staff probably got mad at him for bringing the whole deal up in the first place because they themselves do it and feared that umpires would be looking at them the rest of the series....thus not allowing them to use any of the substances, and indulge in that little cheating that apparently most major league pitchers do. Again I point out that the guy basically says that EVERYBODY does it, although he only stated that it helps grip a baseball and gave no indication as to what effect it would have on a towel (so our team is clean for now). I'm a bit skeptical of the whole thing, I'll let you read the article and give me your opinions. Here's the link, warning it's a bad read incredibly redundant....guy takes two pages to say the same sh#t over and over..EnJoY

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/jon_heyman/10/23/scoop.rogers/index.html

Big NasS