Someone Please Stick a Toothpick in Phil Roger's!!!
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Anyone whom has been reading this blog knows and understands my feelings about the Tribune Company getting their act together and canning the sitting duck manager Rev. Johnnie B. Or more appropriately, maybe Dusty "toothpick" Baker could wrap his lips around a revolver, but we won't go there. But, instead of firing Dusty, Phil Roger's believes the Cubs should extend his contract another 2 years. http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/columnists/cs-060717rogers,1,5414445.column?coll=cs-home-headlines
Now, I am open to all opinions, but when the opinion becomes ridiculously stupid, I feel it is my duty and obligation to call that person out. Roger's states that "Baker offers you one thing you're not going to get anywhere else—stability." Um, Phil do you realize that by extending Johnnie B's. contract, you are only prolonging the inevitable manager search. Everyone ackowledge's that Dusty does not want to remain manager of the Loveable Loser's for much longer. By extending the man's contract all you are doing is putting more grey hairs on a man whom already survived the big C. Everyone wants him out of the North Side including Johnnie B. himself, let him go.
Roger's also states that there are no other viable alternatives to Dusty other than Girardi, whom the Marlins would let go if the Cubs were willing to trade Prior or Zambrano, and Pinella whom obviously is not a long-haul guy to go with. Well, the Cubs wouldn't be in this situation if they listened to me a year ago and hired Grady Little, but thats a moot point now. I agree that the Cubs would need to give up a lot to extract Girardi from that hole in Miami and that Pinella would only solve the problems briefly, but the Cubs need to cleanse the team of this vile and destructive force that is Baker. If I were the Cubs, I would throw everything at the Marlins except Lee, Z, and Barrett and get Girardi in here. He understands the pressure that the North Sider's are putting on the Cubs and I believe he would thrive in it. Giradi is the type of guy who has no problems chewing someone out and kicking someone in the ass (Aramis Ramirez anyone?) and he is a man who could tutor young players into becoming fantastic assets to a club that needs them. Girardi could also help Barrett develop his defensive skills behind the plate.
Now, assuming that the Cubs fail to get Girardi out of Florida (we should expect this right?) and extend Dusty, Roger's has a couple ideas in which could guarantee success for the North Siders.
1.) He wants to Cubs to add a big bat for left field - Carlos Lee, Cliff Floyd, Alfonso Soriano and platoon Murton in right field with whomever. Please, lets not forget that Murton is in his first full year in the Show and he is currently hitting .277 and his obp is .344. Yes his SLG. is only .375 but come on...this is the only man in your lineup who can draw a walk. These are not bad numbers for a first year guy.
2.) He wants to get Prior healthy first. Now, this point should just force us to find this jack ass and beat him to a bloody pulp. ROGER'S, WHY THE HELL ARE YOU EXPECTING PRIOR TO BE HEALTHY YOU FUCKING IDIOT??? He then advocates the Cubs to sign a top notch starter, but not necessarily Barry Zito. Um Phil, can you please tell me who the "top notch" starters are on the free agent list?
3.) And finally the kicker....trade Michael Barrett and committ to Henry Blanco. WHAT!?!?!?! He thinks that because Barrett doesn't play defense like Blanco, despite hitting about 60 points higher, that Blanco should be the full time guy. If this doesn't make you want to scream, then you should be screened for some debilitating disease.
After these wonderful arguments by the Tribune's top sports man, I have another idea. Is it possible to get Neifi Perez, Dusty "Trusty" Baker, and Phil Roger's all together for a public stoning???
My point still stands....fire Dusty, he has worn out his welcome in the friendly confines and do whatever it takes to get Girardi in here.
Stay Classy
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12 comments:
This goes for Pat and every other member of YCS - Learn how to use proper grammar.
You don't need to use a damn apostrophe if you're just pluralizing a word.
Also, Pat, your use of who and whom is horrendous and it makes your articles hard to read.
I can't complain about the pure, vicious hate you're spewing towards The Rev. and the Tribune Co. though.
What I really didn't like about Rogers' article was that Cubs fans should "Give Hendry another winter to get it right, and if he doesn't, then the next GM can decide Baker's fate."
Talk about passing the buck. Suppose Hendry doesn't get it done in the Winter. Now it's April and the Cubs have missed out on the prime free agent signing period, and have either the ineptitude of Dusty or the instability of an interim manager for the 2007 season.
The only bad conclusion I think you made is regarding Joe Girardi. I'm not as certain he "knows the pressure the Northsiders put on the Cubs" because growing up following the Cubs (especially during the Sosa years) I didn't really sense any "pressure" to win. The Boo-birds didn't seem to come out until 2004 at Wrigley, after Girardi had left the team. But "pressure" can't be measured anyway.
Statistically, could Girardi help Barrett's defense? Perhaps. He was a catcher, but statistically, Girardi had an error every 16.2 games. While this year has been rough for Barrett, on his career, he averages an error once every 17.0 games (in his games at catcher). With such a slim difference between him and Girardi, I'm not sure what Girardi could teach him.
Clearly you don't remember correctly, because I know the difference between who and whom, you pile of shit. I know and have easy access to where you sleep. Remember that.
As an English major myself, I actually agree that the whole who/whom thing is not that important. Slightly more important than hanging participles and split infinitives (both of which are completely stupid and should never be taught to anyone ever), but nobody says "whom" when they speak, so it's not entirely necessary when you write.
Yeah, anyone who complains about split infinitives can wrap their lips around a revolver as far as I'm concerned. (By the way Pat, I love how you backed if with "but we won't go there" when you'd already obviously gone there.)
Oh that's right; this post was about sports.
1) While I agree that Dusty Baker makes poor lineup choices and that there are better managers out there, you know how I feel about the limitations of good managing/coaching. Even if Girardi were one of these better managers, I don't think high quality players are worth giving up to get him. If it took, say, Henry Blanco or a marginal younger guy like Theriot to get him, perhaps. But if they want good players, forget it.
2) Mike--I have to side with Pat on the pressure thing. Ask your older Cubs fan relatives. Any time Cub fans have gotten a taste of winning ('69, '77, '84), the pressure has always followed. Even '98--I remember how pissed a lot of fans were when the Cubs didn't trade for Randy Johnson. Hell, I remember Mel "Blow"jas getting booed when they were a cellar team in '97. And remember, Girardi was also there in '89.
Also, you're waaaayyy abusing statistics in saying that Girardi can't offer much in terms of teaching Barrett. Was Leo Mazzone a Hall of Fame pitcher? And errors for defensive catching performance? Come on.
3) My overall feeling on this issue: until the Cubs get decent talent on the field, the topic of who manages them is pretty inconsequential (if not irrelevant).
Oh Pat...one other nitpicky complaint. Link up to words in the sentence! No one wants to read "http://chicago.tribuneco.www.tribunecompany.chicago.com/rogers/baseball/phil/cubsmanager/dusty/firehisass/ornotfirehisass.html" in the post. This ain't ameteur hour.
Oh wait, that's right; it is. Carry on.
Just switch over to "Edit HTML" when writing a post, but AFTER you paste the link. once you switch over, you will see the web address twice. Simply replace the second one (the one not "in quotes") with the text you want it to read, like The Chicago Tribune reports...whatever.
What Pat seemed to be implying is that Girardi would be able to help Barrett improve his defensive skills behind the plate. For this to make any sense, I would have to assume that Girardi either has a wealth of knowledge as a great coach, or would have better defensive stats than Barrett as a player.
If you don't like errors-per-game as a stat, then how about fielding percentage?
Barrett's career fielding % as a catcher is .992. Girardi's is .991. Even this year, which is a "down year" for Barrett, his fielding pct. is .990.
Girardi hasn't been a coach that long (since 2005), so I'm confused as to why Pat thinks this.
Hopefully he didn't learn the bull-fighting techniques of Zimmer...that is, being the bull and getting yo' old punk ass thrown to the ground.
Mike, you're still not understanding my point. You're using the Joe Morgan logic of "a guy who never played the game (or in this case never played exceptionally well) can't teach a more talented player about the game." That's lunacy.
Say Joe Girardi has expert knowledge of all things catching, but his production never reflected this incredible understanding of the position due to physical limitations, nagging injuries, etc.
What he was able to produce has very very little to do with what he may be capable of knowing and teaching. If one factor does matter, it's probably experience, of which he had a lot.
But to use his career error totals to say that he was a subpar defensive catcher and therefore offers nothing in improving the skills of a fellow subpar defensive catcher is totally illogical.
Hell, maybe Barrett has expert knowledge and the best-intentioned technique himself. Maybe his mediocre production also just shows the limitations of his natural talent, and no one--Girardi included--can change that.
But again, what do Girardi's career defensive stats have to do with his coaching Barrett? I can't believe you'd even make that argument. I think you've read too many political interpretations of statistics and it's warped your ability to implement them in argument.
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