Wednesday, December 08, 2004

The Louisiana Lumberjack

One thing that I found amazing yesterday was this quote from Todd Walker:
"I'm a big fan of [general manager] Jim Hendry and a big fan of [manager] Dusty Baker, and ultimately we just have a group of good guys. Chip Caray and Steve Stone might not say that, but the rest of us feel we have a great bunch of guys that just want to win and have the talent and mentality to do it."

Amazing! These guys just can't leave that Stone situation alone. If the Cubs win the pennant in '05 this will all be forgotten. If they struggle in '05, there will be more problems with this group players.

Many fans like "clubhouse lawyers" like Walker. He's quick with a one-liner, goes on all the talk shows, and loves to be quoted by the scribes after a game. I'll take a "boring" personality like Ryne Sandberg or Andre Dawson any day of the week.

The Signing of Nomar, Walker, and Maddux's new caddy Henry Blanco leaves the Cubs with many of the same question marks they had in '04.

  1. Who is gonna leadoff? It looks to me like the current options are the new LF, Patterson or Walker. I hope they find a fast LF option.
  2. Next the bullpen. Who's gonna close and do you trust any of the setup guys?
  3. There's still a player in RF who had his boombox smashed on the final day of the year. Can they trade him? If he returns will he produce?
  4. Team Leadership, this team didn't have any (see Walker's comments)
  5. I am very concerned with the middle inf. defense.

Hopefully, Jim Hendry can find this team a player or two who will put the focus back on the field. It's sounds to me like Walker could use some help with his focus.

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