Rick Hahn is on Hit and Run and said there have beeen individual meetings with certain players to send a message that they have to play better. He's very disappointed with the energy level and said these players planned on spending the summer in Chicago could be in for a rude awakening in short order. There may be a couple more but these guys had to have been sat down.

1. Alejandro De Aza
2. Tyler Flowers
3. Alexei Ramirez
4. Nate Jones
5. Adam Dunn

Listening as well. Hahn should point the thumb with Tyler Flowers. I have no reason to doubt Flowers came into this season prepared and ready to be an everyday catcher. Unfortunately, he's just not good.

Right. so what do they want him to do? Be better than he can be?

I think Flowers was a case of wishful thinking

_________________
"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”

De Aza is only #1 on your list. Lots of issues to point at on this team, but he is well down the list.

_________________
"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Keyser has an irrational hatred of De Aza that is unmatched.

_________________

But the .295 OBP is unacceptable


Just like with Castro. .260 with very few walks is not getting the job done

It is a problem, but would you put De Aza as the #1 problem to be dealt with on this team?

_________________
"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

No, but Keysers hate is a lot less crazy this year

DeAza is not doing very good, but he is far from the biggest problem with this team.

_________________

Hahn seemed ready to blow this shit up. Thankfully.

_________________
Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

Message not received.

It won't be easy to do that. What is there of value that can be moved?

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Rios will have value to someone, but if I was a GM I would not want him, as I think he is a headcase and trading him will get you nothing more than a guy who flops after a trade.

Someone will take Paulie from you, for no real prospects, just to have him on a team for the playoffs. You should be able to move Peavy towards the end of the year.

But basically there is no value to be moved it is all about salary dumps.

_________________
"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”

A guy who struck out in 41% of his at bats last year is not a guy that should be depended on for offense. He handles the pitching fine and if thats what they wanted primarily from him, then letting A.J. go made sense. But to expect him to also be a solid offensive contributor regularly was stupid.

_________________
Go Cubs!!!!

If he was smart, he would have done it this past winter (as I said he should have) and traded Rios for a decent prospect. He might have even found a taker (while picking up some of the salary) for Dunn. But instead he re-signs Peavy, lets A.J. go and turns the Catching over to a guy who struck out in 41% of his at bats last season (same as Dunn) and expects this squad to beat Detroit, who added Torri Hunter and had Victor Martinez coming back from his injury??? Hahn has shown me that he's not a very good GM and has shown terrible judgement. He should have blown this thing up and begun a rebuild. Instead, he will wind up with a higher payroll squad that will wind up in 3rd or 4th place and get a lousy draft position to boot.

_________________
Go Cubs!!!!

Not going to say stupid, but had to try it at that point. Groomed the guy for years, had to give it a shot, it didnt work, happens all the time.

It is what you do once it doesnt work that matters.

Kind of like having a mascot that looks like a CDC specimen that scares the crap out of little kids. You recognize this abort that project and look for something new.

_________________
"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”

I agree about Konerko. Someone will probably take him, but give nothing of real value in return. But he's not hitting much and his power seems greatly diminished. But they could get something perhaps for Peavy, if they deal him before he breaks down....again. To a contending team, he might be of real interest. Thornton also needs to be dumped. As much as he has been bad, there are always teams looking to add a left hander and just to be rid of the salary should be looked upon as a positive. I think Alexi Ramirez would bring a decent prospect and I doubt he's a guy they see as a piece of any long range plan anymore.

_________________
Go Cubs!!!!

For me, he looks a bit like a charachter from Men in Black. Given their old slogan "Good guys wear Black" it kinda fits.

_________________
Go Cubs!!!!

All I remember is how bad these mascots smelled.

_________________
"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”

Stunk as bad as the Sox offense has of late???

_________________
Go Cubs!!!!

I think Ramirez has the most value. Maybe you can squeeze a premium pitching prospect out of him. Maybe. But I don't think you're going to get much for Peavy. I'm going to say the same thing here that I would to Cub fans who think TheoandJed can just sign some bum off the scrap heap, get lucky with him going 10-8, and then flip him to a "contender" for anything of value. Nobody is going to give you much to rent a pitcher like that. They can find their own bum off the scrap heap. And yeah, guys like Garza and Peavy may be better than guys like Dylan Axelrod, but the difference over the last 6 or 7 starts isn't enough for someone to hand you the future Tom Seaver for those kind of guys.

The Sox are fucked. And their answer is just going to be to go cheap and lose nearly 100 games and there will be about 1000 people in the stands come September. And we're still stuck watching Dunn strike out for another year.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Maybe you could get a good prospect for Peavy. Decent one for Rios, Alexei. People are always desperate for relief help. They have three decent veteran RPs to unload.

Buy yes. They are fucked. This has been apparent for years. That is what happens when your farm system gives you very little over the course of a decade (or you trade it away for bad old bums).

_________________
Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

Agreed. They are fucked. At least Paulie comes off the books after this season. I think Reinsdorff realized this and that's why they hired Hahn, knowing he'd be objective in evaluating thier talent and he wouldn't be afraid to unload their vets and begin a rebuild.

Yes attendance will be down but if they can put together a young, scrappy roster for next year and beyond, I think the fans will like that. Clearly paying guys like Dunn hasn't been the answer (i.e. the Kenny Williams model).

We shall see if Hahn (and his people) are astute evaluators of talent as clearly all the vets need to be gone. I'd keep Sale and that's it. Reed can get them alot of talent and he and Peavy are their top assets IMO.

Rios, Crane and Thornton have decent value too and they may get something for Alexi as well (although his contract minimizes the return);

Paulie won't bring much at all so maybe they keep him on and do a year end "tribute" for PR purposes which wold be well deserved.

They may be able to get value back for Tank too if they decide to unload him as well, ditto De Aza.

Mully wants the Sox to cut Adam Dunn, so there's that.

_________________

I would cut Dunn yesterday. But JR doesn't understand what a sunk cost is. Dunn is the hitting version of Jaime Navarro....rich, fat, lazy, and BAD.

_________________
Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

Fuckin biggie. Picking on the looks and aroma of a 30 years ago mascot.

_________________

It's funny that some people think DeAza is so terrible, and yet, he has as many RBI on June 3 as the great Scott Podesdnik had in the entire 2005 season.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

A better means by which to judge leadoff hitters would be runs scored. How do they compare in runs scored??

Also, the stolen bases Pods accumulated allowed the hitters behind him to get better pitches (fastballs) a lot of times, which helped them to be more productive.

_________________
Go Cubs!!!!

And they proceeded to get they're asses kicked two more games. Maybe they're just not that good.