Thoughts on the Chicago Cubs and other topics in baseball. E-mail Tom at: tomsmithcubs@ hotmail.com

 
SORRY, SO SORRY: Sorry about the lack of updates over the last two weeks despite the plethora of Cubs news.

BAKER COOKING: The Chicago Cubs have reportedly upped the offer to Dusty Baker. Over at the Chicago Sun-Times Mike Kiley takes another shot at his Chicago Tribune Cubs beat writer competitor Teddy Greenstein by blasting Greenstein's report the Tribune Company has given the Cubs the financial ability to go after Baker. Again the column reads as a chance to slam Greenstein without naming him. As I stated back on October 28, 2002, obviously Hendry is not going to pay any price for Baker. This time though the slam is a little bit more silly than the first one. Andy MacPhail and Jim Hendry have made an offer to Dusty Baker and Baker's agent Jeff Moorad. Moorad asked for more money. This is what happens in negotiations. It does not mean the Cubs are low balling Baker as Kiley implies.

CUBS TRADE FOR DAMIAN MILLER: The Chicago Cubs have traded two minor leaguers to the Arizona Diamondbacks for catcher Damian Miller. Neither minor leaguer is much of a prospect so we really did not give anything up. Miller had a great first half in 2002 and an awful second half. Hopefully he can have a good year for us. No matter what Miller will be an improvement over Todd Hundley and Joe Girardi.

I-ROD AND HUNDLEY: The Chicago Sun-Times has another article today by Mike Kiley where he reports Ivan Rodriguez's agents Jeffrey Moorad (the same agent Dusty Baker has) said yesterday that Ivan Rodriguez would like to come to the Cubs. I have little interest in Ivan Rodriguez. Ivan Rodriguez is at that point in his career when a veteran catcher starts to get injured a lot, breaks down, and his offensive stats go down. Once a catcher reaches the 1200 game mark it is usually downhill from there. I am not interested in paying him a bunch of money to sit around because he is on the DL with his latest injury. The Cubs are not real interested either. I doubt they would be after trading for Damien Miller earlier this week. The best part of the article however is about the one, the only, Todd Hundley. Hundley says that he does not want to be traded. Todd you may not want to be traded but I and millions of Cubs fans would love nothing more than to see you get traded. Anyway, Hundley goes on saying, "I have had a hard time accepting that [Baylor] could change my career like that. I take responsibility for not getting the job done when I was on the field, but I never expected to be paid that much to be a platoon player. He didn't have to like me. We didn't live together, just worked together. But I'd hit two homers and not play for three days. It was all confused." Todd pay attention. YOU, not Don Baylor, no matter how incompetent Baylor is, changed your career by hitting .187 and .211 the last two seasons. To call yourself a platoon player the last two seasons is almost bragging. You were a bench player who occasionally played because both you and Joe Girardi are awful offensively. A platoon player is someone who is ok and the manager puts in to play the percentages. But when Hundley makes the comment, "I'd hit two homers then sit for three days. It was all confused." makes me want to laugh and scream. It was more like when Hundley would go zero for thirty then he would sit for three days. Hundley goes on to say he wants to be part of a championship in Chicago. Well Todd consider yourself a champion in Chicago. In Chicago you are champion at striking out, tapping back to the pitcher, playing poor defense, and being enemy number one of Cubs fans everywhere. Now that we have awarded you four championships in Chicago please move on to somewhere else.

MARINER MELVIN: The Chicago Cubs plan of having Bob Melvin being their back-up choice as manager if they do not sign Dusty Baker is over. The Seattle Mariners have hired Bob Melvin to be the new manager in Seattle replacing Lou Piniella who departed for Tampa Bay.

MARIOTTI RE-RUN TIME: For months we have read Jay Mariotti go on and on with the same old column on the Cubs. Yesterday he did not disappoint. Mariotti threw out the same old column with the same old tired cliches he uses. The Tribsters are cheap. The Cubs need to think big. Zzzzzzzzzz. Anybody could write his columns on the Cubs by now since it is always the same stuff. Well for months now we have had to read Mariotti's pleadings to hire Dusty Baker because Baker is oh so important to turning the Cubs around but now Mariotti tells us that even if the Cubs do hire Baker it really is not that big of a deal because, "A quality manager is worth five or six victories a season." So it really matters who you hire, but it really does not. Ok. Then Mariotti uses the always familiar phrase of his "think big". Mariotti suggests signing Jim Thome and Greg Maddux. I do not see signing Thome at $15 million a year especially if Hee Seop Choi is ready at first base. Obviously I would love to have Maddux back but I really doubt he would come back to the Cubs.
posted by Thomas at 3:19 PM