This is kind of a cool poll on espn, to compare what you think about all the baseball GMs, against everyone else.

My top GM was Dombrowski of the Tigers and my worst GM was Flanigan of the Orioles.

I ranked Jim Hendry number 10.

http://proxy.espn.go.com/chat/sportsnation/listranker?id=617

I just heard on ESPN radio that Lou Piniella has ruled out being considered for the Giants job due to the distance from his home in Tampa. I guess that just leaves the Cubs for him. I will give any manager a chance, but I'm not a big fan of Sweet Lou.

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On July 31, I watched the transaction wire to make sure Jim Hendry didn't trade Greg Maddux. Even though he had become a very average pitcher at this stage of his career, I stil felt he had value to the organization. Everyone knows the rest of the story.

Maddux picked up career win number 329 last night in San Francisco.

The more I follow Maddux as a Dodger and read his comments, the more it looks like he was pushing for this trade, and he had his agent Scott Boras doing a lot of the leg work. He is now enjoying a resurrgence in LA, and it is kind of hard for me to watch. I understand Izturis is a great SS who will be here for at least the next couple years, but I sure would have liked to see Mad Dog finish off his brilliant career in Cubbie Blue.

I'm a long time reader of BCB and this is my first post. I was listening to the pregame show Friday night on WGN radio. Ron Santo was doing an interview with Ryan Theriot. Santo was asking the usual questions you would ask a guy who was just called up, but I found one question very interesting.

Santo asked him about his approach at the plate. Theriot explained that in the minors he focused on taking a lot of pitches and working the count. He said in the big leagues he needs to attack the first decent pitch he sees, because if you go deep in the count, big league pitchers will put you away.

This just confirmed for me that Dusty, Clines, Sarge, etc. tell these guys to go up to the plate and hack, hack, hack. This drives me up the wall. The Cubs approach at the plate is terrible.

Last night the difference between the Cubs and Rockies approach at the plate was glaring. The Rockies made Rich Hill work. They took a lot of walks, scored a bunch of runs, and wore down the Cubs pitchers. The Cubs swung at everything they could.

It's time for some new leadership on this team.