Friday, April 15, 2005

The Score

Much to the chagrin of the Uncouth Sloth, a couple of people in Chicago, still listen to 670 the Score (okay, me, Mike D and Chuck). I don't know why, but after tonight's Cub game, I turned on Mike Murphy's show. Maybe I'm a masochist, maybe it helps my self esteem to laugh at idiots on the radio, or maybe I just like to listen to a guy who's voice apparently emnates from the world's largest nostril. Whichever the case, I didn't have to listen for too long before I got a little angry with Murph. See, I actually agree with him that Dusty Baker is a lousy manager, but Murph seems incapable of blaming GM Jim Hendry for any of the teams failings, when the sorry state of the bullpen is Hendry's fault. I like most of what Hendry has done during his tenure as GM, he's shown a knack for making the big trade at the right time to give his club a boost down the stretch. But the simple fact is, when Hendry first came on the job, he said his first order of business was to fix the bullpen, and now, 3 years later, it's still not much better than it was in 2002. And the fact that the bullpen's shortcomings may have cost us and NL pennant in 2003 and a Wild Card spot in 2004, means that Hendry does have some answering to do for this. But not the way Murph sees it. Somehow, the bullpen's failings are all due to one Andy McPhail, who, while a total weenie, hasn't been running the on field baseball operation for some time. Mike seems to think that it's Andy's fault that Hendry only has the 5th highest payroll in the league. Surely, no man could build a respectable bullpen with those kinds of restrictions. Unless that person is running the Minnesota Twins, who through trades and call ups have put together one of the best pens in the league. Hell, you don't even have to be that smart, as evidenced by Kenny Williams and the White Sox, who, while they lack a dominating closer, have a very deep pen, which they're going to need to win close games with their brand new pop gun offense. The truth is, Hendry has failed to build the bullpen, and it has cost the Cubs. Because almost every team knows that if they knock out Chicago's starter with a 1 run lead or less, there's a very good chance they're going to come back and win that game.

4 Comments:

Blogger Chuck said...

The best thing about Murph (no, not 11 PM) is that he is one of the only unabashed Cubs fans on the air. Sure, he's sensationalized, but at least he wants what we all want - winning.

And he knows the game better than people like Teinowitz and Kaplan.

8:27 AM  
Blogger dbrown said...

I just found your blog through baseballblogs.org

I like Murph for the most part, though he is a little too nice sometimes.

I'm a Boers and Bernstein man myself. Best radio in Chicago.

Go Cubs.

9:57 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I finally got yer link in. Course, I'm a Sloth. Takes awhile.

2:42 PM  
Blogger CT said...

The one day I don't get a chance to check back here, and I've finally got comments. Anyway, I don't question Murph's knowledge, but he should not be allowed on the radio unsupervised. Nobody needs a partner more than Murph, because he ends up talking himself in circles and contradicting his own points over and over.

Oh, thanks for the hookup Sloth, I figured you get to it. Or that you just hated me.

7:57 PM  

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