We could probably argue that the Chicago Cubs playing at Wrigley is the dumbest of all their traditions, but we'll leave that for another time.  First, the 7th inning stretch has got to go.  It was kind of cool when Harry did it and it was cool they did it for the year after his death.  However, the tradition is now just awful.  If the Cubs want to have one person do it, that's fine.  Get Ron Santo out of the radio booth and hire a decent color analyst.  Let Santo sing the stretch if he wants to do it.  If not, get a new color analyst and get rid of the stretch.

Throwing the opposition's home run ball back is just retarded.  It's always been that way.  It's not even the actual home run 99% of the time so the person throwing a ball back just looks stupid.  Most importantly though, it was a home run.  Throwing the ball back doesn't subtract the runs from the scoreboard.  Also, have you ever noticed how throwing the ball onto the field holds up the game for a few moments?  Do you know why that is?  It's because a ball was tossed onto the field of play and they have to go get it.  Thanks for that.  Baseball games aren't long enough already so I appreciate you holding it up even more.  Toss the ball to some nearby child who would appreciate the souvenir and move on.

Speaking of giving a child a home run ball, any adult who keeps a foul or home run ball should immediately be banned from the stadium (all stadiums) for life.  If you can't find a child nearby that would love to have the ball then you probably shouldn't be keeping it anyway.  If that happens, just throw the ball away as you leave the ballpark.

One last things.  Bricks.  Adults running full speed.  Bricks everywhere.  Does not make sense.

I wonder if Lookout Landing dragged their fan polls out over several months? They could probably post them as FanPosts or something on the sidebar. Since this is only the 32nd best Cubs blog, we don't have that particular technology.

We are getting close to the finish. I think there are two more current players after this and three more legends. Then we'll shut it down and guys like MB, MO, berselius and shawn will have to start writing again (self-righteous)

Joe Girardi is in the third season of his three-year deal to manage the Yankees.  They failed to win the division for the first time in something like 100 years in his first year, but then won the World Series in his second season.  The Yankees are currently tied with the Rays atop the AL East with the best record in baseball.  They're a virtual lock to reach the playoffs.  Even if they fail to win the division, they'll win the Wild Card. It seems unlikely that he will not be offered an extension after the season.

Let's assume Girardi will be offered an extension.  I don't think there's any reason to think he will not be offered one at this point.  Let's also assume the Cubs would like to interview Girardi.  However, we know that Jim Hendry and the Cubs want to name their manager in early November before the organizational meetings.  This means the first week of November.  It's distinctly possible the Yankees are playing baseball up through the end of October and even into November this year.  If that happens, do the Cubs even have time to interview Girardi?

Back to our assumptions, Girardi is offered an extension and the Cubs want to interview him.  I don't think the Yankees would think too highly of Girardi's decision to meet with the Cubs to talk about a job if they have already offered him an extension.  They might pull the offer.  Girardi might not get the Cubs job.  Even if he interviews, he's no lock to get it as Ryne Sandberg remains the favorite regardless of Girardi's decision to interview or not.

Girardi isn't going take a chance on the Cubs hiring him while risking the Yankees pulling their offer (something they're sure to do if he interviews elsewhere).  This would be a huge gamble on his part, even if the Cubs would happen to be his dream job.  I doubt it is, as I imagine the Yankees managerial position is the dream job of every person wanting to be an MLB manager.  What would Girardi do if he didn't get the Cubs job?  He's passed on the greatest managerial spot in baseball for a chance to manage the worst organization in sports and comes away without a job.

If Girardi is not offered an extension, then there's little doubt he will want the Cubs job and the Cubs would probably interview him.  I just think it's hard to believe the Yankees are not going to offer him an extension.

I haven't written about the Cubs managerial opening yet for a reason and do not plan to write much else.  Ryne Sandberg is the next Cubs manager.  It doesn't take a genius to see this.  Sandberg interviewed for the job after the 2006 season.  That was the same year that Joe Girardi was passed over for Lou Piniella.  The Cubs told Sandberg that he needed to get some managing experience in the minors, something he'd been hesitant to do in the past.  He accepted the challenge and went to Peoria for two season.  A Hall of Famer riding buses in the minor leagues is a pretty rare thing.  Sandberg did it.  He was promoted to Tennessee before the 2009 season and to Iowa before this season.

In his third season as a manager, he led the Smokies to the playoffs and defeated Huntsville to reach the Southern Leage Championship.  The Smokies lost to Jacksonville.  This season, the Iowa Cubs have the best record (76-54) in the PCL.  Winning and losing has more to do with talent on the team than it does the manager, but two consecutive seasons of playoff teams looks good to the Cubs.  Furthermore, he's coached many of the young players the Cubs will be hoping can become good MLB players.

Sandberg has spent time coaching the following notable players: Starlin Castro, Andrew Cashner, Jay Jackson, Chris Carpenter, Josh Vitters, Brandon Guyer, Rafael Dolis, Marquez Smith, Darwin Barney, Welington Castillo, Hung-Wen Chen, and others.  These are some of the guys the Cubs are going to be counting in the next couple years to provide solid production and Sandberg is familiar with all of them.

I've had some issues with Sandberg in recent years.  I don't like the high and mighty approach he's taken with "players of today" and if he does that at the big league level he'll get the shit knocked out of him.  At that level, guys are going to be making significantly more money than he is, have a bigger ego than he does and they aren't going to put up with that kind of stuff.  I imagine Sandberg is smart enough to realize that and has taken advantage of pushing the buttons of the younger players knowing he can do it.

I've not wanted the Cubs to hire Sandberg in the past.  I've hated the idea in fact, but now is the time for Sandberg.  As much as the Cubs have to find out what they have in some of their prospects, they also have a great chance to evaluate an inexperienced manager on a few teams that are not going to contend.  What does he do well?  What does he suck at?  Can he handle the job?  Can he be the guy you want running the team when they have some money to spend and some of their bad contracts are off the books?  This is something the Cubs need to find out.  Not to mention, Sandberg will be dirt cheap too.  No reason to spend much on a manager when the team won't be that good.

Sandberg makes too much sense and for an organization that cherishes its own history of sucking, they have an excellent in-house candidate to take over.  He's a fan favorite and one of the greatest Cubs to ever play in Chicago.  He's performed well in the minor leagues.  He's earned the job.

I'm just posting some numbers for Soriano from Fangraphs here.  I don't think any commentary is needed other than it's been an up and down 2 seasons for Soriano and mostly it's just been down.  I have no idea what to think about Soriano at this point.  I don't think anybody can possibly know what to expect from him going forward.

As you may recall, the Cubs had several players who were first-year arbitration eligible last offseason.  The following players were arbitration eligible: Koyie Hill, Sean Marshall, Carlos Marmol, Tom Gorzelanny, Jeff Baker, Angel Guzman, Ryan Theriot and Mike Fontenot.  Gorzelanny and Fontenot were Super-2's, meaning they get up 4 years of arbitration before they become a free a gent.  First-year arbitration eligibles earn roughly 40% of their true value.  It increases to 60% for 2nd year players and 80% for the final year of arbitration.

The Cubs have traded Theriot and Fontenot.  Angel Guzman has not accrued any additional service time.  I'm not entirely sure what happens with Guzman, but the Cubs are almost certainly going to remove him from their 40-man roster so it's not that important anyway.  Hill, Marshall, Marmol, Gorzelanny, and Baker are each second-year arbitration eligible.  Geovany Soto is eligible for the first time.

I don't have any idea what the Cubs will do, but my guess is that they non-tender or trade Jeff Baker and Koyie Hill while offering a contract to Marshall, Marmol, Gorzelanny and Soto.  We can use their rest of season ZiPS and roughly estimate their value now.  It won't be perfect, because the future projections will including an aging curve, but none of those players should be greatly affected by that.

Soto's RoS ZiPS is .362 wOBA.  Over 500 plate appearances that's 3.3 WAR.  I'm ignoring defense and baserunning for now.  Using the same $4.5 million win value for 2011, that makes Soto worth $15.3 million.  40% of that is $6.1 million.  It's unlikely Soto gets that much of a raise, but that's about what he's worth based on other first-year arbitration players.

Marshall's RoS is a 3.63 FIP.  If we use his leverage as a setup man, 1.3 LI, and 70 innings pitched, Marshall is worth 1.3 wins next season.  His arbitration adjusted value is $2.6 million.  He earned $.95 million in 2010 so a raise of a little more than $1.6 million seems more than realistic considering how well he's pitched this year.  It might even be on the low side.

Gorzelanny's 3.93 FIP projection makes him worth a little more than 3 wins and just over $15 million in free agent value.  That's just over $8 million for a 2nd year arbitration player.  There's no way Gorzelanny is going to get that kind of a raise.  He makes only $.8 million this season and his stats simply aren't good enough to earn him that kind of a raise.  I'd be shocked if he made $4 million in arbitration.  I've estimated 175 innings pitched here.

Marmol's arbitration process will be the most interesting.  His FIP is ridiculously good.  It's just barely over 2.  His ERA isn't nearly as impressive at just over 3.3.  Using his RoS of 3.05 FIP and 70 innings pitched, it makes him worth and adjusted $4.4 million.  He earns $2.13 million in 2010 so it's a more than reasonable raise.  Depending on what information is considered most valuable, it's possible Marmol is paid much higher than the $4.4 million.  All we really know is that Marmol's side will stress the great stats (K-rate, FIP, HR-rate, you know everything else) and the Cubs will stress the not so impressive stats (BB-rate and ERA).  I'm going to guess the two sides agree on a $5 million contract.

The Cubs also have a couple players who will be out of options next spring if they remain on the 40-man roster.  Micah Hoffpauir, Jeff Gray, Thomas Diamond, Angel Guzman and Sam Fuld will have to be kept on the 25-man roster in 2011 or they'd have to make them minor league free agents (they could re-sign with the Cubs).  What the Cubs do with some of these guys will depend on a couple of things.

First, the Cubs will have to protect some other players in the minor leagues by adding them to their 40-man roster.  They may need to clear space in order to do this.  If they do not protect certain players, they would become eligible in the Rule 5 Draft in December.  Second, what are the Cubs going to do?  Are they going to try to contend?  Are they going to rebuild?  If they try to contend many or all of those who are out of options will have to come off the roster as none of them are guys you really want to be forced to keep at the big league level.  If they are rebuilding, there's no real reason to remove any of them from the 40-man roster except for Guzman who will be rehabbing next season.

The Cubs have said they will try to contend, but we've also seen indications that they will lower payroll.  They can't contend and lower payroll, but my fear is that the Ricketts' Cubs are going to try to do just that.  They will fail as miserably as the Tribune did if that's what they try to do.  They either need to spend money and become a contending team or rebuild.  I really don't care which way they go.  Based on what the team has spent over the last year in areas such as the draft and international free agents, I don't think there's any reason to think the Cubs are actually going to do anything other than lower payroll.

The Cuba have now won two game in a row when wins mean absolutely nothing.  Losses are, simply put, more valuable to the Cubs than wins.  The Cubs currently have the 6th worst record in baseball after topping out at 4th worst a few days ago.  A win tomorrow puts him at 7th best at which point they'd pick 8th since the Dbacks get the 7th pick next year because they failed to sign their first round pick (6th overall).

I'm sure it's cute and all to a bunch of fans that the Cubs have won a couple games in a row.  Great.  What has it accomplished?  It has made their slot in next June's draft worse.  That's all it has accomplished.  Hopefully this is just a little setback and the Cubs can begin another streak like they were just on over the last few weeks.  If they were to do that, they might end up with the 3rd overall pick next June.

Tango's Fans Scouting Report is now up.  Here's the page for the Chicago Cubs.  Make sure you read Tango's instructions at the first link I posted.  I never ask anyone to spread the word about anything, but I'm hoping some of you can do that for this.  Tweet it up, put on facebook if you think it's something your friends would like.  We keep hearing about how Cubs fans are loyal and intelligent, but every year the number of ballots is much less than you'd think a fan base like this would take the time to do. Thanks.

h/t to Mish