Tom Smith's Cubs Blog |
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Thoughts on the Chicago Cubs and other topics in baseball. E-mail Tom at: tomsmithcubs@ hotmail.com
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Saturday, July 06, 2002
TED WILLIAMS: Ted Williams died yesterday at the age of 83. Having been born after he retired I never got a chance to see him play but did get to see him throw out the first pitch at the 1992 All Star Game in San Diego. A sad time for baseball fans everywhere. Friday, July 05, 2002
"THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES DON" SIGN: Who was the guy with the "THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES DON" sign in Atlanta tonight? What memories from the Baylor era does he want to remember? Baylor mismanaging the team? The Cubs playing poor fundamental baseball? I want to try to forget as much as possible the Baylor years. KIMM COMES IN: The Cubs have hired Bruce Kimm who was managing at AAA Iowa as interim manager. Or is it Jim Essian? It should not come as much of a surprise that the MacPhail/Hendry team did not hire a big name manager with a winning past such as Buck Showalter or Felipe Alou. Those would have been individuals who would have been a threat to MacPhail's power within the organaization. Instead we get Bruce Kimm for the rest of the year just like we got Essian for the rest of the 1991 season after Don Zimmer was thankfully let go. It is possible Kimm could become the manager full time. Kimm is really going to have to turn this team around if he is going to be accepted by the fans. This is MacPhail's eighth year with the Cubs and quite simply MacPhail is just not going to be able to sell a four year rebuilding effort under the new Hendry/Kimm team to Cubs fans. With the talent on this team and in the minors that we keep hearing about we expect results, soon. Thursday, July 04, 2002
COVERING ALL THE BASES: It is not unusual for two competing newspapers to report contradictory coverage of the same story. Nor is it unusual if two or more reporters for the same newspaper write differing accounts as to why something happened. Each reporter sees events a little bit differently. But it is rare that the same reporter would write two articles that are full of contradictions as to what he just wrote. In Thursday's Chicago Tribune Teddy Greenstein does this by writing two articles about Don Baylor that are so full of contradictory information it is almost hard to believe the same writer wrote them both. In the first article Greenstein writes, "When and if Cubs President/General Manager Andy MacPhail fires manager Don Baylor baseball will hardly be surprised." Then in the second article Greenstein states "He (MacPhail) appears to be in no hurry to replace him (Baylor). Then Greenstein tells us "with a labor war appearing imminent the Cubs don't want to pay two managers to sit around." So Don Baylor is or is not going to get fired. In other news the Cubs may or may not play a game today. The Cubs may or may not make a trade today. And Col. McCormick's World's Greatest Newspaper has had better reporting than this. WEDNESDAY'S GAME: Cubs finally have a decent game. Wood seemed improved. The offense had some spark as well. Wednesday, July 03, 2002
BAYLOR IS ALMOST GONE: Don Baylor is gone it is just a matter of time now. That is my conclusion after reading this in Wednesday's Chicago Sun-Times. Baylor says he and his wife talk about his getting fired and that management can fire him if they want. Baylor knows his days are numbered and now is trying to spin the situation against MacPhail by complaining about not re-signing Eric Young and Ricky Guiterrez. Which is all one needs to know as to why Baylor should go. Young so far this year is hitting .242, 2 HR, 17 RBI, 24 BB, 15 SB, 6 CS, and .641 OPS. Guiterrez is .243 BA, 2 HR, 10 RBI, 10 BB, 0 SB, and .585 OPS. Whooopeeee!!!!!! These are players Baylor wishes he had back and is saying this is why we are struggling! Whereas Corey Patterson is hitting .273 BA, 7 HR, 31 RBI, 15 SB, 1 CS, .315 OBP, and has a .733 OPS. Now that .315 OBP needs work but to say Young would be better in the lead off spot is just not true. Now the Cubs have had a bunch of guys batting second but Bellhorn has been there of late and he is hitting .248 BA, 10 HR, 26 RBI, 5 SB, and has a .901 OPS. Yes Don, we really miss EY and Ricky. TUESDAY NIGHT'S GAME: The Cubs kept battling back but fell short. Todd Hundley came up in the ninth as the potentially tying run and not shockingly struck out on a pitch way outside. Alex Gonzalez walked. Then Bill Mueller tapped out weakly to first. 19TH NIGHT GAME POSSIBLE: The make-up game against the St. Louis Cardinals may be made up on July 29 at 7:05 P.M. As guessed the neighbors are whining. WOOD'S NON-DEFENSE: In Tuesday's Chicago Sun-Times Kerry Wood sort of defends Baylor but he really does not. Wood finished his defense of Baylor by saying, "The organization has done a great job getting the talent we have in here. We haven't done our job as a team. We should be winning games with the guys we have here." Wood is essentially saying that the team is underperforming with Baylor being in charge. With friends like this Baylor does not need enemies. PHIL ROGERS DEFENDS BAYLOR: In Monday's Chicago Tribune Phil Rogers defends Don Baylor and says the Cubs should keep Baylor. Amazingly Rogers dismisses motivation and strategy as important in a major league manager. Rogers also says, "...it's hard to see why Baylor should lose his job. When your team hits .241 for three months and has veterans like Fassero and Kyle Farnsworth messing up in the bullpen you get a 33-46 record." Well Phil when you have a 18 year MLB veteran hitter and former hitting coach in Don Baylor as your manager and your team that is loaded with veterans who have been productive elsewhere and it is hitting only .241 for three months maybe it is time to think that Baylor may be part of the problem. WHITE SOX SERIES: First two games were disappointments. On Sunday afternoon Clement had another real good game. |