Aramis Ramirez opts out.

Aramis Ramirez has decided to opt out of his contract and I think that might be one of the best things to happen to the Cubs. Why? Well first of all when the Cubs needed him to hit last year, he couldn’t have hit a beach ball with his bat. When the Cubs were finally practically out of the race, Aramis started to hit and inflated his stats to the point that it looks like he had a good year. At the end of April he was batting .197/.321/.394 and he hit .266/.296/.495 in the month of May. In June he started to bat a little better with .276/.325/.476, but still added with the first 2 months is a very disappointing line for a 3^rd baseman. I understand in July and August he was probably one of the hottest hitters in baseball, but by then what did it matter for the Cubs? There were plenty of times he would hit a grounder or a fly ball and not even go half way down the baseline, which is inexcusable for any player playing baseball in any league, that includes T-ball.

Also what makes me mad was when the contract was signed all Aramis kept saying is that he wanted to be a Cub through the whole contract and that the option to become a free agent would not be exercised. Well now that it has I say good riddance. I know currently the best choice the Cubs have at 3b is Scott Moore, but I say why not give him a chance there. By freeing up money with the loss of Ramirez, I think that the Cubs should use that money to sign Carlos Lee for LF and move Matt Murton to RF and platoon him with Jacque Jones. Then sign Alfonzo Soriano and insert him at 2b, making Ronny Cedeno the backup IF. Then go after 2 starting pitchers, the ones I would suggest one of either Jason Schmidt or Barry Zito and then maybe a guy like Jeff Suppan to fill the role of inning eater, but also be useful in it.

Reportedly: Lou signs 3 year deal

Sorry about not writing again, school, work and baby keep me busy. Also this last weekend I was in Detroit at the playoff games, what a blast. Hopefully the Cubs can make it back again sometime soon.

Espn is reporting that Lou Pinella will sign a 3 year deal with the Cubs. I am happy that the Cubs are getting a proven manager, but is Lou the right guy?
I know he has great credentials, but when he was in Tampa Bay he did nothing and yes I understand that the D-rays spent no money for him down there. I'd rather the Cubs spend money like the D-rays, then hand out contracts to Rusch, Perez, Macias and Dempster, like they have the past few years (and that is only to name a few). The Cubs are going to be a young team unless management has decided to go and try and sign Soriano for LF/2b and Zito for SP and then get another SP because 1 isn't going to be enough, and don't forget a closer. If they don't do that, then this team will really show what Lou is made of because like Dusty he has tendency to play veterans over younger guys (time to get old fast Murton). Also like Dusty, pitch count be damned, which sooner or later will catch up to Zambrano's arm, it did to Wood and Prior.
Saying all that, I do have to say I am happy to get a coach like Lou as I think he will fit in better with the organization then Dusty has over the last 2 years of his contract. Also hopefully he can help the younger guys develop more and play them on a consistent basis (and not alter all their mechanics). So if the report is true and you sign Lou, good luck.
Who would I have signed?
I would have signed either Bruce Bochy (if it was possible without costing the Cubs to do) or Joe Girardi. I think Girardi would have been a better fit with the Cubs, plus he know the organization and knows why it fails (after achieving a lot of success outside of Chicago). Maybe he could have turned this team around, but it looks like the Cub fans will never know (at least for the next 3 years).

Long live organ music!!!

As soon as I read this, I had to write a posting about it. Why? Easy, skip to the 4^th to last question and the answer given by John McDonough. A few of my friends and I have had this conversation in the past and the one thing we all agree on is that there needs to be more organ music in baseball and a lot less recorded music played from loud speakers. To me the organ is a part of baseball that is dying and needs to be held onto and Mr. McDonough seems to agree. So thank you for keeping the organ music for us fans and keep playing it Gary Pressey.

Why Bob Brenly should not be manager in 2007 for Cubs

I don't think that Bob Brenly is the right type of manager for the Cubs for many reasons. Don't get me wrong, Bob Brenly wasn't a bad manager with the Diamondbacks and yes he did win a World Series, but he also had Schilling and Randy Johnson when they were running on all cylinders. The Cubs don't have anything close to that and while they have Carlos Zambrano for a whole season, he is no where as dominant as those 2 starters were back in 2001.
Also Bob has been in the booth with the Cubs for the last couple of seasons and while he might have become familiar with how the players can play, he also probably has upset some of them by comments. Now I usually wouldn't care about this, but I think it is just best to start from scratch and this way there is no excuses when they lose 95 games again about how the team couldn't respect Brenly all year due to what was said in booth.
Lastly, while Bob Brenly isn't the worst TV announcer, he also isn't the greatest either. So there must be some reasons why the Diamondbacks let him go and why he wasn't hired by another team since. I also know that in 2004 when he was let go, the Diamondbacks were starting to rebuild, but if he wasn't able to help there, what mode do you think the Cubs are in now?

Weds. or Thurs. I will have more on who I think should or shouldn't be the new Cub's manager.

Andy McPhail Resigns

Today team president Andy McPhail has resigned from the job. It is effective immediately. Taking his place for the interim period is John McDonough.

This is the perfect start for the off-season for the Chicago Cubs and I would like to thank you Mr. McPhail for realizing it was time to go. If he hadn't realized it, I am positive he would still be the president next year also.

Now hopefully they actually go out and get a person from the outside to take over as president so they have a different philosophy because this philosophy they have hasn't worked in about 100 years. Also maybe the new president would see it fit to fire Mr. Hendry and also let Dusty go (which will happen anyway) and the organization can restart from top going down. That is what this team needs, a complete purge of management and most of the current players.
One thing is for sure, the Cubs need to find a new president soon because any lingering in finding one will also lead to Hendry and even McPhail around (to help until transition over) to make more decisions and that is the one thing Cub's fans don't want.

I have an article that will be posted soon, but I wanted to write about this as soon as I heard about it.