SB Nation User Blog: DartmouthCubsFan

Wilson Betemit: The Short Term Solution

DartmouthCubsFan — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 12:52:22 -0000

The Cubs went out of there way this offseason to get more LH and in effect by diversifying the types of bats we had, decreased the flexibility of the roster; largely based on the loss of Mark DeRosa. An injury-free season may have covered up this hole, but such was not the case and when Aramis Ramirez went down (the most indisposable Cub piece), the Cubs lack of depth was exposed immediately.

Since that time we've been pining for solutions and now one may have just fallen into our hands. The White Sox decided to designate Wilson Betemit for assignment yesterday in order to promote uber-prospect Gordon Beckham. Congrats to Sox fans for getting to watch a young talented player who can play all over the diamond, best of luck to you and Mr. Beckham, I for one think he's going to be a very good player.

But today, I want to focus on Betemit. Betemit is a switch-hitting utility player that has never really been given consistent playing time at any major league stop, despite showing good skills. He strikes out too much (28% career rate), but he draws walks (10% rate), hits for power (9.7% extra base hit rate) and has played every position on the diamond except C and CF. He's the PERFECT solution for us right now based on his skill set and now his availability. The only seasons he's gotten more than 250 PA's, he's posted an OPS over .780 and he's just 27 years old.

Go get him Jim Hendry, like.... NOW

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/betemwi01.shtml

The Elephant in the Room - Carlos Marmol's Declining Command

DartmouthCubsFan — Sat, 16 May 2009 18:57:41 -0000

There's been a lot of discussion about the bullpen this year with some of the struggles we've had at the front-end of the pen and the constant roster turnover we've seen in those areas, but something I haven't seen discussed at length is the drastic loss of command from Carlos Marmol.

I believe this is the Elephant in the Room no one wants to discuss. Last year Marmol was a huge point of discussion with most of the talks focusing on Marmol's extreme usage patterns and the effects in Marmol's effectiveness after the break. Perhaps the best analysis done on this matter came from harbdall times writer Josh Kalk, in this article: http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/anatomy-of-a-player-carlos-marmol/

The article was posted in early July just prior to the All Star Break and just prior to Marmol's most memorable meltdown last year on July 12th (Rich Harden's debut) in which he blew a 7-2 lead in the 9th allowing 5 Runs (1 ER) on 4 hits and 1 BB. The article focused mainly on the contention that Marmol was fatigued and the effects of overuse were readily available in the pitch F/X data. Fortunately for us, Marmol got some much needed rest during the all-star break and closed out the year exceptionally strong, posting a 35:10 K:BB Ratio in his final 29 innings

The question now is: are we paying the price this year for the effects of last year or is this simply a bout with command Carlos has had throughout his career?

Because no matter how we look at it, the numbers suggest Carlos' command has been worse this season than at any other point in his career. In order to create an assessment, let's take a look at his statistics and his pitch F/X data.

First, the stats:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/marmoca01.shtml

Marmol's K/9 is in decline for the 3rd straight season from 12.5 down to 10.1, still elite but a pretty steep decline nonetheless. At the same time we see a significant increase in the BB/9 up to a career high 9.0 (heading into today's spectacular performance). This is a swift change in direction as Marmol had been steadily improving his command.

Now the Pitch F/X data:

http://www.fangraphs.com/pitchfx.aspx?playerid=2790&position=P

Note, I'm not an expert with Pitch F/X data so please feel free to correct me if i'm wrong, but here are things I notice:

1. Marmol's Fastball velocity is down .5 mph after peaking last season at 94. Conversely, the average velocity of his offspeed pitches are each higher this year. Part of this may be the idea that Marmol is "overthrowing" and as such losing command on his breaking balls.

2. In terms of movement, Carlos is seeing more tail on his 4 seam fastball (a good thing), but losing significant amounts of movement in all of his off speed pitches. To me this suggests instead of being able to "break off" or "snap off" his offspeed stuff, the pitches are hanging a bit more.

3. This is on another FanGraphs page, but Marmol's Contact rates are also up, meaning he's missing less bats.

So here's what we know:

- Marmol's command has been significantly worse this season

- He's lost movement on his breaking pitches, but generally velocity has been fine

- Marmol's been far more hittable this year getting less swings and misses, which has led to an increase in his H/9 and a decerease in his K/9

- since the beginning of 2008 no reliever in baseball has appeared in more games than Carlos Marmol

I've been of the opinion Marmol's been overused for some time and a lack of any semblance of confidence in any other players in the pen has lead to an abuse of one the organization's most prized possessions. With that said, I'm certainly open to other viewpoints or explanations. The one thing we know for sure is we need more outings like the one we got today from Carlos.

So what does everyone think?

Poll

Why has Marmol's control evaporated?

He's been overworked and may be showing signs of fatigue or injury

34 votes

He's battling short-term command issues and he'll be fine

116 votes

150 votes | Poll has closed

Tremendous Story on Matthew Cerda

DartmouthCubsFan — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 18:30:46 -0000

I have to say this is one of the better pieces I've read on .com and it's one that moved Matthew Cerda up my list of favorite Cubs prospects. For those that aren't familiar with the name he's our 4th rd pick out of Oceanside, CA as a high school SS who we're working on converting to C. The prospect guys (hi Josh) can talk about him a bit more in depth, but this is a wonderful story that I hadn't seen posted anywhere else around here. I've posted the link below:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=cerda&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab2pos1

Dolphins Stadium Entertainment during Cubs-Marlins Series

DartmouthCubsFan — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 16:42:58 -0000

I'm not usually one who concerns myself with what others think or do. I don't think ESPN has a ridiculous East Coast Bias that prevents them from showing the Cubs and I could care less that they'll refer to "the curse" or different things like that in the past, because I feel for the most part their decisions are all made with the idea of how to generate the most ratings and I don't particularly find their coverage of the Cubs to be one-sided in a negative way or suffocating. Joe Morgan in particular is another story though..

I digress, my point is I don't generally get worked up by what others think or how others approach the Cubs. I also seem to have a different viewpoint of fandom than a lot of others, since I don't particularly care what any of the Cubs "rivals" do. I root for the Cubs because I love the Cubs, and if they're in direct competition with another team I'm obviously rooting against the other team, but i've never understood why people actively root against rivals as if a "rival" losing makes you feel better because their fans feel worse. The ideal doesn't resonate with me and it's one that quite frankly disgusts me.

So where am I going with all of this? Well if you happened to attend any of the Cubs-Marlins games this weekend you'll notice that the Marlins seemingly made a conscious effort to create an aggressive environment between Cubs and Marlins fans. The "jumbotron" whenever Cubs players came up had a picture of the 1908 Cubs behind them with a moving Goat and any time a Cubs player struck out or the Marlins made a good play they'd play a loud Goat noise. The Jumbotron also routinely rewarded Marlins fans making derogative signs towards the Cubs. A fan who brought a big picture of a Goat was routinely shown as well as a fan with a Marlins Jersey which he had written the number '03 on and written the name "Bartman", and fans who brought signs saying "This isn't the year", etc. It struck me because I've been in South Fla for over 20 years and of late (since '03) the environment at the stadium between Cubs fans and Marlins fans has become more aggressive and confrontational. I've seen FAR more altercations in Cubs-Marlins series than any other series i've ever attended and it's not particularly close. I'm not saying the Marlins fans are more wrong than the Cubs fans, because there were certainly plenty of bafoons in Cubs paraphanelia looking to start trouble, but I guess what I don't understand is why an organization would go out of their way to antagonize and create an aggressive, confrontational atmosphere through their in stadium entertainment.

I decided to ask those questions to the Marlins team president who I was able to get an email address from his local radio show down here. I've yet to get a response, but I'll post the email I sent below. If anyone else was at the games and felt the same way and felt compelled to question it David Samson can be reached at D.Samson@Flamarlins.com. As I said before, I'm generally not one to complain and make a big deal about episodes like this, but I felt the Marlins campaign was suffocating and antagonizing and wanted to find out if others who attended the games felt that way as well.

Here's my email to Samson:

Mr. Samson,

First and foremost let me preface this email by saying I've become a big fan of yours and Dan Le Batard's by listening to the show. I enjoy the candor each of you bring to a number of conversations. I also admire the Marlins organization and baseball operations for all the success your group has had and I honestly wish more people in the South Florida area appreciated it as much as they should.

I am a Cubs fan who grew up in South Florida and has lived here for over 20 years. I've attended Cubs-Marlins games for the last 10 years and I've attended a number of Marlins games over the years as I'm a baseball fan in general who has an appreciation for the talent your organization puts on the field.

With that said, I have to say I'm disappointed in the way your organization has chosen to approach the Cubs-Marlins series this year from a stadium entertainment perspective and from a broadcasting perspective when on the road. It seems the focus of the campaign is to hammer home the pitfalls of another organization rather than celebrate the successes of your own.

In the road broadcasts earlier this year the TV crew went out of their way to remind the viewer of the "Bartman" incident and went out of their way to suffocate the viewer with information on "the curse". After each of these mini-segments it was reminded to the viewer that the reason this is covered is because its "a part of the history", in almost an apologetic way to Cubs fans for the suffocating coverage.

This focus has continued into the stadium as the stadium scoreboard has shown the 1908 Cubs when Cubs players bats and shown a moving Goat. When the Marlins make a big play a "Goat" voiceover echoes the stadium. In between innings fans who bring in paraphanelia disparaging the Cubs are rewarded by being shown on the "Jumbotron".

I can't understand why the organization's focus is so much on the pitfalls of another team and the suffering of another fan-base rather than celebrating their own (while limited in time) successful tradition. This is an organization that has won Two titles in the last 11 years, why does the focus need to be on what another team hasn't been able to accomplish?

As a Cubs fan clearly I'm biased in the fact that I've had enough suffering and I don't need to be reminded of it every 10 mins. But as a fan of your organization's operations as well I can't for the life of me think of the benefits it brings to the Marlins.

It creates an atmosphere in which fans are rewarded for disparaging the other team and their fan base. This atmosphere resonates into the stands where Cubs-Marlins games seem to have more confrontations than any other Marlins games i've been to. Routinely arguments are breaking out in the stadium and just in these last two games I've seen at least 7 people escorted out for poor behavior. Certainly I'm not pointing the finger at either fan base, because there are clearly bafoons on each side who "have a few too many" and become a bit too involved in the confrontational aspects of fan-dom. What I am confused about is why an organization would want to fuel this type of attitude towards one another by creating an attacking ad campaign on the opposing team's fan base. It becomes apparent that fans are going to be rewarded for disparaging Cubs fans. This creates an environment where Cubs fans feel defensive and battered by the stadium experience and Marlins fans feel encouraged to behave in a way that the Jumbotron operators will reward.

It comes off from an outsider as a classless stunt and one that I can figure out what the benefits are. The crowds the Cubs-Marlins series are some of the biggest of the year and I don't understand why your organization would want to intentionally remind another fan base of their suffering, encourage a divisive and aggressive tone for each of the two fan-bases, and instead ignore the positive tradition of both fan-bases.

This wasn't the way Cubs-Marlins series were approached in the past where the positive traditions of each fan base were celebrated. I remember the Marlins celebrating Harry Caray with a 7th inning stretch and the overall environment was much more cordial.

If you could provide some sort of reasoning or forward this to the person who could provide reasoning behind this campaign, I'd appreciate some insight. I just can't figure out the benefits to the Marlins organization of such a campaign and I feel the negatives are apparent in the aggressiveness brought out by both fan-bases in ballpark altercations.

Thanks for any consideration and attention this email receives. I hope this is taken into consideration in the future and Cubs-Marlins games can be more about the game and less stirring up aggressiveness between the two fan-bases.

Eyre traded to the Phils

DartmouthCubsFan — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:47:58 -0000

I was just listening to the Phils-Marlins broadcast and heard the PA announcer had just announced that the Phillies acquired Eyre for a minor leaguer Brian Schlitter.

Here's our newest Cub!

http://minors.baseball-reference.com/players.cgi?pid=34300

minor league reliever, good K Rates and a good job limiting HR's, walks a few too many, but a decent return for the bullpen jester

Apparently I need seven more words. Sigh.

What's the Difference?

DartmouthCubsFan — Mon, 05 May 2008 16:41:49 -0000

I haven't read through "all" of the recent posts, so forgive me if this isn't post worthy or if this was addressed in a game thread I missed, but can someone explain to me what the difference between Friday and Sunday night's games were from a starting pitching standpoint? Because as we know the end result was much different, as one pitcher is in Iowa and the other is still in the rotation with no threats to his spot.

Let's take out names (although i'm sure they'll be relatively obvious) and just focus on the performance of the two individuals in question.

Friday night vs. Sunday night:

Through the first 5 batters:

Pitcher A: 2/3 IP, 1 K, 3 BB's, bases loaded 2 out, score 0-0

Picher B: 2/3 IP, 1 K, 3 BB's, bases loaded 2 out, score 0-0

In both instances a mound visit from the pitching coach came, but in one instance the bullpen began warming.

Each pitcher was allowed to face the next batter and each had differing results. Pitcher B gave up a 3-2 BB that walked in the first run of the game, making the score 1-0. Pitcher A gave up a rocket line-drive that would've scored 2 runs but was snared by our glorious gold glove 1B, ending the inning with a 0-0 score.

While it would seem those results are fairly similar, Pitcher B was immediately removed from the game and handed a plane ticket, while Pitcher A was allowed to work through the inning and last deeper into the game.

Pitcher A's night continued on, as he allowed 2 runs in the next inning, squandering a 2-0 lead. The damage could've been worse but he was saved by a rocket line drive that turned into a DP because of some slick fielding at the SS position. Despite allowing 2 more runs and a rocket that could've resulted in another run and a bigger inning, Pitcher A was allowed to stay in the game. Pitcher A then settled down in the 3rd inning, walking one but ultimately getting through unscathed. However the next inning things unraveled again when Pitcher A yielded his 5TH walk of the game just before Albert Pujols, who promptly doubled in the winning 2 runs.

So here's my question? What was different between these two situations that led to completely different results? Maybe it was how the two pitchers had pitched coming into their starts? Let's take a look:

Pitcher A: 1-1, 4.45 ERA, 1.62 WHIP, K/9 = 5.4, BB/9 = 3.18, IP/S = 5.66

Pitcher B: 1-0. 3.79 ERA, 1.42 WHIP, K/9 = 6.6, BB/9 = 6.6, IP/S = 4.75

Both pitchers were clearly ineffective heading into these starts. While one pitcher had immense struggles with his control, the other pitcher was getting raked around the park. Neither pitcher was lasting deep into games.

So if there wasn't much difference between their previous 2008 results, maybe it has to do with how these players have performed further in the past. So let's check out how they each performed for this manager last season:

Pitcher A: 12-9, 4.60 ERA, 1.39 WHIP, K/9 = 5.12, BB/9 = 3.57, IP/S = 5.79

Pitcher B: 11-8, 3.92 ERA, 1.19, K/9 = 8.45, BB/9 = 2.90, IP/S = 6.09

So if anything Pitcher B has a better track record of delivering performance under this manager's regime.

So why is Pitcher B in Iowa and why is Pitcher A still in the rotation?

Note: I'm not trying to suggest Marquis should be in Iowa, I'm just trying to understand what the difference between these two situations is, other than the way the manager has handled them. Both Pitchers have struggled and pitched well under the Cubs expectations, but one was sent packing and the other was left unscathed (No suggestions of skipping him, no threats to his job status, no suggestion of a trip to the bullpen or the minors)

So what the heck is going on here?

A different kind of Wrigleyville?

DartmouthCubsFan — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 13:47:19 -0000

A lot of the stuff I post on this blog tends to get ripped by a certain select few, so I'm fully expecting that to happen again while I post another "contrarian" viewpoint, but here goes anyways.

As everyone writes about their feelings about the actions and reactions of Zambrano yesterday I can't help but feel that something significant has changed since 2003 for Cubs fans.

Now I'm not that old (only 25) nor have I had the chance to grow up in Chicago for any portion of my life as a Cubs fan. I was born and raised in FLA by a father and grandfather who were from Chicago. They raised me to be a Cubs fan and they raised me to be the person I am today, largely influenced by what I've learned growing up from being a Cubs fan.

See the Cubs taught me about humility when the Bulls were running off championships. They've taught me about heart ache plenty of times, but most of all they've taught me about two specific things: 1) Loyalty and 2) Family.

I always thought the best thing about being a Cubs fan was that loyalty and heart ache were lessons learned and that no matter the struggles, fans would fall in love again with this team every Spring. It taught me about what it means to be loyal and it always made me feel like being a Cubs fan meant you were part of a family. A family that got together every spring and celebrated a new season and a new hope.

When I listen to older Cubs players I didnt get the chance to see live talk about their relationship with the fan base and their relationship with city, I always gushed at how much they fell in love with the fans. Whether it was Santo, Williams, Fergie, or Mr. Cub himself, they always talked about how we had the best fans in the world and the word LOYALTY always came up. Many times they'd talk about family and how they felt this city and this team had adopted them into that family.

And when I heard all those things before, it would create a warm feeling inside that let you know that being a Cubs fan was about just a little bit more than anything that happened on the field.

It was about what happened in the stands or in the homes of people watching nationwide to know yourself that no matter how frustrating the season was or how poorly things were going, there were millions of other people out there feeling those same things, and that one day... one fateful day when it DID happen, all those people would be their celebrating with you (whether in person, or from a far, or even in spirit).

But since 2003, I cant help but feel this has changed. Players have been "booed" out of town from Corey Patterson to LaTroy Hawkins to almost Jacque Jones and now Big Z??

Expectations have risen since we were so close in 2003 and the fans have gone into a win now mentality. As I read through this board I continuously see the calls for players to be benched or sent down or outright released after cold streaks. I think every pitcher this year has been told by fans that they should be skipped once or sent down. Every time someone goes through a cold stretch people are calling for them to be benched. We've gone from "absolutely MUST SIGN Z" to "we should trade him" to "thank god we signed him, it had to get done" to "booing him off the field" in a 6 month span the group opinions on Z have changed 4 times! The same things can be said of people's reactions on Jacque Jones and even Derrek Lee

When you listen to players give interviews about what its like to be a Cubs player today, you don't hear the same feelings of joy and admiration shared by Banks and Santo. Instead you hear about "expectations" and "they'll let you hear it", etc. Even after DLee's HR on Sunday, his comments about the fanbase were tempered a bit and cautious. Players today talk more about how its something they've come to expect and something they have to deal with. You don't hear the players gush about the fans like they used to, instead you hear players very aware of the expectations placed on them

Maybe its always been this way and I just haven't been exposed to it growing up so far away from Chicago, but I had always hoped fans were "better than this". I'd listen to Santo and Banks and Fergie and even Milt Pappas recently talk about Cubs fans in such a great light and when I turn on the games or log onto discussion boards I don't see what they're referencing. I see emotional, thoughtless, self-indulgent people looking to ridicule and be pessimistic at every turn. I see growing impatience with the organization and the players.

Maybe its a new era and its because of the rising salaries, ticket prices, etc but my vision of what is to be a Cubs fan never included this...

I never thought we were the best fans in the world, but I did think loyalty was one of our strong suits (given the history), unfortunately since 2003 with the White Sox, Red Sox, and Cardinals winning titles in succession its seemingly made the fan base a rabidly impatient group just dying to have their own needs fulfilled.

Their own need to stop worrying about this "curse" or the long history of losing. Their need to secure the "bragging rights" or whatever it is has that's intensified and become THE REASON they're fans. I always thought being a Cubs fan was about something different, I thought it was about being a part of a family. A family of Cubs fans that all shared the same high points and low points together as fans, and together with the team. Players became enshrined in fans hearts forever like Santo, Williams, Fergie, and of course Ernie, but now the fan base is acting as if anything less than a championship is a failed season.

While yesterday may have been a low point for fans because we lost an opportunity to gain a game on the Brewers and the Cardinals, yesterday was a low point for me, as a Cubs fan, because the dream I had of what it is to be a Cubs fan crumbled a bit

Side Rants:

Let the name-calling and bashing ensue... For some of you I'm sure i'll be the type of fan that embraces losing and helps perpetuate the Cubs stereotype. For some of you I'll be supporting Zambrano's play or his behavior

but let me make sure to say right now those things arent the case. I hate losing as much as the rest of you and I want this team to win as badly as the rest of you, i really do. But I also want my kids to grow up listening to Cubs stars of this decade talk about the same things Ron and Ernie talk about.

I also don't condone Z's behavior in the press conference or his play on the field yesterday, but I don't see the need for booing. His struggles yesterday were not from a lack of effort, if anything they were from trying "too hard" to make things happen. Booing should only be reserved (in my opinion) for a lack of effort, and there wasn't a single time Big Z wasn't hustling out there. The results were poor and the response after the game was also poor, but the effort was not.

1st Place!

DartmouthCubsFan — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 14:07:37 -0000

I'm almost speechless to think i'm sitting here on August 2nd and seeing the Cubs in 1st place. It's almost like a dream after the nightmarish start to this season, but its happened.

Jim Hendry's offseason plight to save his job has brought about a quick turn around in the team's fortunes and combined with a weakening NL on the whole (thanks to limited offseason activity by the top teams and a lack of impact prospects spread throughout the league), the Cubs have a legitimate shot to get into the playoffs and do some damage. It's a beautiful thing and while i'm aware of the $72 million in committments we have to 6 players come 2009 (DLee, Aramis, DeRosa, Marquis, Lilly, Soriano) and openly terrified of this clubs future, i'm living in the moment and loving 2007.

I questioned this plan all off-season while all the way suggesting if it brings a championship run in the next 2-3 years it'll be worth it and with Tim Wilken at the helm restocking the farm system we could still have a chance to be successful further down the road but it would ultimately be severely dependent on his ability to restock the system quickly.

Regardless i'm really happy right now and am looking forward to a pennant chase down the last 8 weeks of this season.

As i've learned when i've gotten older, the journey is often more important than the end result. The 2006 Bears brought me one of the most unforgettable seasons of my sports fandom life capped off by watching the Hester kick return next to my dad in person at the Super Bowl. The 2003 and 2004 Cubs brought me two great years of pennant chasing and while they came with a lot of heartbreak, they also came with a lot of memories of watching games with my father or sitting alone in my fraternity room rocking Leo Mazzone style hoping for something good to happen. Every day i'd wake up with a smile on my face and looked forward to every game, while i've done this pretty much my whole life with the Cubs, Bears, and Bulls its a different feeling when those games are being played in a playoff run. And I cherish all those feelings that come along with it, because its not every season you get to enjoy those feelings. When I was younger, i took for granted the Bulls run and thought it was more important for bragging rights than anything else. Now as i'm older, the important things are the memories i have from those days, not the trash talking of friends and rivals, but the cartwheels i tried to do on the lawn after MJ hit the game 6 winner in Utah or the feeling i felt getting on a plane during the Bulls letdown against Portland, only to find by the time i had gotten off the plane they had another victory and were on their way to another championship

So today and for the next 2 months i'm going to soak in every moment of this pennant chase and enjoy everything it brings.

While i'll be rooting as hard as i ever have for a happy ending and god do i hope there's a happy ending behind this.. i'm going to make sure to enjoy the journey

Think we're a bad fielding team?

DartmouthCubsFan — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 15:28:45 -0000

think again

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pkimQBCeCjbhlRcEb9PBbfw

The spreadsheet in the link above is used for "Ultimate Zone Rating" and is considered one of the most "cutting edge" fielding metrics

I came across this link while reading an article on hardballtimes.com

(http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/ten-things-i-didnt-know-last-week38/)

Right now as a team we're #1 in all of baseball with +41 Runs. The team leader is Soriano in LF with +9 Runs and Pie has already been +6 runs in CF in limited time.

The worst fielder on the team.....

Caesar Izturis -3 Runs (thoughts BlueMike?)

on top of that we've had the best OF defense in all of baseball.

for those JD Drew supporters out there this past offseason he's near the bottom of the list with -13 Runs.

When you think about some of the pitchers we have with low BABIPs (Hill, Lilly, Marquis) all come to mind as pitchers that had been having more early season success than their peripherals suggested, this would make quite a bit of sense that our fielding had been superior to this point in the season in terms of covering ground and getting to balls.

Dusty Bashing

DartmouthCubsFan — Tue, 22 May 2007 14:06:29 -0000

One of the more prevalent themes of the threads around here has been the incessant "need" to bash Dusty Baker in some form or another. Now I understand the frustration with a lot of the moves Baker made during his tenure as a Cubs manager. I, myself, will never understand the affection he had for Neifi Perez.

I understand the frustrations but why can't we just let it go and move on. All the comparisons between Lou and Dusty are nauseating. Lou essentially gets a free pass with everything on this site just because he's NOT DUSTY. That's ridiculous. Dusty was 256-230 (.516) as a manager with the Cubs before his final season in which he was essentially managing a AAA ball club. Seriously no manager could've won with the AA staff we were throwing out there (Marmol, Mateo, Guzman, Marshall, O'Malley, Hill, Walrond, Jerome Williams, Ryu, etc) and the AAA level talent in the position players (Cedeno, Hairston, Mabry, Neifi, Womack, Bynum, etc).

Dusty was the manager of a team that got as close to the World Series as most of us have ever seen a Cubs team get. So why can't we just let all the negative things about Dusty go just as easily as all the positive things we seem to have forgotten?

All i'm saying is I understand the frustration with Baker, i was there too. I just don't understand why he gets ZERO credit for the positives he brought to the organization and why we continue as a fan base to make snide after the fact comments about him. All the "dude i'm just saying" quotes, etc are immature. Let's just get past the fact that he's not our manager anymore, which many of us wanted. While he was here, he accomplished more in one season than any Cubs manager has in the last 60 years and then had 3 VERY average seasons after that. I can think of plenty of Cubs managers that have contributed less to the organization than Dusty. The guy went through enough with all the racially evoked threats he received, can't we just close the book on Baker and focus on what we have now? And how about just evaluating what we have now on their own and not as a comparison especially when their records so far are nearly identical (Baker's career win % with Cubs = .496, Pineilla's so far = .476)

in other news... cubs website is reporting Wade Miller will rejoin the club on Tuesday.... what more do we need to see from him? UGH