Don't Believe It

Lot's of interesting nuggets of information in the latest article from the Sun-Times...

Who's the closer if one doesn't come in a trade?

"We feel a lot of times the most successful closers are people converted from other roles," Hendry said. '"We are going to give Ryan Dempster an opportunity to do that in spring training, if nothing else changes."

Shake that magic bottle! Same tired old Cubs policy.

As for free-agent outfielder Magglio Ordonez, the Cubs will consider him only if Sosa is traded and they don't get an outfielder in exchange. They haven't even investigated Ordonez's physical status with his troublesome knee. That will only happen if the time comes that Sosa is gone and Ordonez makes sense. For now, Hendry is happy with a left-field combo of Todd Hollandsworth and Jason Dubois.

Did I read that correctly? The Cubs have no interest in Ordonez if they can't move Sosa? Well they are staying consistent, because they are not even bothing to check out his physical status much like the Cubs never even bothered to talk to Beltran once. And talk about shooting yourself in the foot by not getting Drew, Beltran or Ordonez, next year's free agent class is going to be mightly thin on talent. Which means second tier talent will probably be getting 1st tier salaries. Nothing like over-paying for garbage when the market will be thin on talent. Way to go Hendry!

But don't forget about Dubois...

"And Dubois is a guy that people are forgetting about because he is not a big-name free agent. But he is a guy that we are asked about weekly in any trade, and a year and a half ago no one heard of [Pittsburgh's] Jason Bay or [San Diego's] Khalil Greene, young guys that really made their mark last season. Rookies break in every year and people say, 'Where did they come from?' Dubois can be that kind of guy."

While that is true those teams and the teams they came from were willing to work with minor league talent. Give them full playing time and never look back. I would love Dubois to get the chance to be the every day LFer, but I honestly think it is a crock.

I heard the same bullshit when Hendry and Baker were pumping Choi. How much they will stick with him through his slumps and help him along. As soon as Choi slumped, that was it, time to pull the plug. Baker has his "stud" Hollandsworth to replace Dubois when he fails. And much like the excuse with Choi, "we are in the middle of a pennant race we can't afford to break in a prospect" speech I heard from many Cubs fans. If we were Minnesota or Oakland I might believe the Cubs if they say they are going to let Dubois be the man in the OF, but we are not Minnesota or Oakland so I don't believe it for a second.

And much like any young player that Baker has on his team he will jerk them around so much just to try and make them look bad. I don't know if any one recalls Dubois last game before the September call-ups in June. Dubois had a fantastic AB and really showed some great bat control. His reward was to be demoted to the minors. And he wasn't demoted right away if I recall correctly. He sat at the end of the Cubs bench for a week or two while Baker ignored him. And of course we know how Baker rewards guys who have hot streaks, they get benched for the guys on cold streaks. Which in turn puts everyone on a cold streak.

Bottom-line Dubois needs to hit .300 from day 1 till the end of the season to even dream about getting over 300 AB's. If his average dips to .250 at any time, stick a fork in him Baker will not allow some punk kid to hit .250 when he can have a veteran do it just as well.

Oh and how much better would the organization and fans be about Dubois getting the starting gig in 2005 if he was the starter in RF when Sosa was out? We don't know how well Dubois will do this coming year but we could of learned a little last season. Playing during Sosa's injury would of been valuable development time for Dubois if the organization was serious about him being the LFer next year.

The Cubs believe Dubois will be the everyday LFer as much as they believed they were in the running for Carlos Beltran.