3/16 ST Cubs (Hill) vs Angels (Weaver) 2 PM

[goonys evil twin]

It's not a Cliche and you know it's true. Look at any world series winner the past 3-4 years and you will see Solid D and Great pitching.

 

Boston sucked on defense.

 

It is interesting, though, that the Red Sox acquired Dave Roberts and Doug Mientkiewicz to help them with speed and defense down the stretch.

 

Help yes, but they didn't win the WS with great defense. They went from brutal to just bad.

[stitchface]

It's not a Cliche and you know it's true. Look at any world series winner the past 3-4 years and you will see Solid D and Great pitching.

 

Boston sucked on defense.

 

It is interesting, though, that the Red Sox acquired Dave Roberts and Doug Mientkiewicz to help them with speed and defense down the stretch.

 

they got Roberts to steal 2nd of course! :D

[MeatampPotatoesMan]

double steal.

 

oh, baby, Neifi!

[Laura]

hopefully the wind howls in daily.

 

Home & Away! :wink:

 

Ugh, they're running wild on the bases.

 

Sounds like a nice play by Neifi (dare I say).

[WrigleyinEngland]

Man can you imagine us trying to outslug the Reds?? Yikes that might not be fun, Double steal, Wake up Hill!! Miracle play Niefe?? what is this crap!!!!

[C.C.]

I tend to disagree. I've seen plenty of games he couldn't turn 2 or couldn't make the easy play. His range is really poor. I just want someone with better range. With a Cedeno at SS you want someone solid at 2nd base.

 

and with rusch, williams, maddux and hill in the rotation, you need someone that can hit the freaking ball.

 

damn it, hill...4-2.

 

Defense and pitching wins.

 

hey, if the cliche sounds good, it must be true.

 

It's not a Cliche and you know it's true. Look at any world series winner the past 3-4 years and you will see Solid D and Great pitching.

 

lets see how far back we have to go - Boston 2004 - shaky defense, decent pitching, great offense.

They signficantly improved their defense @ the trade deadline with the additions of Mienkiewicz & Cabrera

 

And don't forget they had Schilling and Pedro. And they improved their D at the break.

[stitchface]

I wish we had tv for this game. It's kind of hard to tell how hill is really pitching by the pbp.

 

Really? I can tell by the pbp that he is pitching very poorly. apparently he can't hold baserunners either. fortunately for him vladdy swings at everything.

[Fred Hornkohl]

Kennedy stole third, Figgins stole second

Cabrera grounded out to short, 6-3, Kennedy scored, Figgins to third

 

 

CUBS 4 LAA of A 4

[abuck1220]

 

C'mon the Minors are littered with great Minor League pitchers who never did squat in the Majors.

 

no kidding? thanks for enlightening me.

 

I'm not basing my judgement on just today I'm basing my judgement on all the times I've seen him pitching in the bigs.

 

which is not very frickin' many.

[WrigleyinEngland]

Stick a fork in Rich and post him to Iowa..........

[MeatampPotatoesMan]

Vlad vs. Hill, the rematch

 

0-0 curveball, swing and miss

0-1 high fastball, same result

0-2 Vlad grazed by pitch

 

dang it.

[Fred Hornkohl]

Guerrero hit by pitch

 

2 outs, men of 1st & 3rd

[TrueBlueCubFan]

It's not a Cliche and you know it's true. Look at any world series winner the past 3-4 years and you will see Solid D and Great pitching.

 

Boston sucked on defense.

 

It is interesting, though, that the Red Sox acquired Dave Roberts and Doug Mientkiewicz to help them with speed and defense down the stretch.

 

Help yes, but they didn't win the WS with great defense. They went from brutal to just bad.

Mueller,Cabrera,Nixon,Mienk. are all above avg. defensively. They were avg. to above avg. as a team.

[goonys evil twin]

C'mon the Minors are littered with great Minor League pitchers who never did squat in the Majors. I'm not basing my judgement on just today I'm basing my judgement on all the times I've seen him pitching in the bigs.

 

Did you do that with Maddux's first 20 innings? How about Randy Johnson?

 

 

It's foolish to base your judgements on the first few innings you see of a pitcher. Disregarding minor league performance is just as foolish.

 

He's no Koufax. He might never be a regular starter. He could be a nice middle of the rotation guy though, and so far I've been mildly impressed with him. I would have liked to see more, but you can't always get what you want. So, instead of constantly ragging on a guy with limited experience and repeating the same false line about his pitches, I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt. With guys like Rusch in front of him, there's no reason to pretend he's got no business here.

[abuck1220]

I wish we had tv for this game. It's kind of hard to tell how hill is really pitching by the pbp.

 

Really? I can tell by the pbp that he is pitching very poorly. apparently he can't hold baserunners either. fortunately for him vladdy swings at everything.

 

at least this inning all (?) the hits have been on the ground. and it all started with a slow infield roller.

 

his biggest problem this inning was his inability to finish off two lefites that he had 0-2.

[Fred Hornkohl]

Rivera singled to center field, Figgins scored, Guerrero to third

 

 

CUBS 4 LAA of A 5

[C.C.]

Stick a fork in Rich and post him to Iowa..........

 

I'll say it right now Hill is destined to be a lefty Spicialist and a darn fine one at that. Unless he figures it out late in life, he is 26.

[abuck1220]

Stick a fork in Rich and post him to Iowa..........

 

and jeff weaver to salt lake city.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

It's not a Cliche and you know it's true. Look at any world series winner the past 3-4 years and you will see Solid D and Great pitching.

 

Boston sucked on defense.

 

It is interesting, though, that the Red Sox acquired Dave Roberts and Doug Mientkiewicz to help them with speed and defense down the stretch.

 

Help yes, but they didn't win the WS with great defense. They went from brutal to just bad.

Mueller,Cabrera,Nixon,Mienk. are all above avg. defensively. They were avg. to above avg. as a team.

 

Nixon is nothing special defensively, and Varitek, Bellhorn, Manny, and Damon are about as bad as it gets.

[MeatampPotatoesMan]

salmon just missed the 3 run jack foul. whew!

[abuck1220]

Stick a fork in Rich and post him to Iowa..........

 

I'll say it right now Hill is destined to be a lefty Spicialist and a darn fine one at that. Unless he figures it out late in life, he is 26.

 

thanks for your proclamation. i'll make a note of it.

 

by the way, it's a lot easier to say that certain minor leaguers won't make it (as you've so deftly pointed out, most don't). why don't you rattle me off some guys that you think will make it?

[goonys evil twin]

Mueller,Cabrera,Nixon,Mienk. are all above avg. defensively. They were avg. to above avg. as a team.

 

Nixon isn't good, and he was a platoon guy anyway. Mueller barely gets by at third.

 

We were told every WS winner won with solid D, and Boston did not have solid D, or anything close to it. The difference between the Cubs with Walker on D and the Cubs without Walker on D isn't a trip to the WS or not. It's just a bogus cliche that defense wins championships in baseball. It's not true. Pitching wins. Defense is far down the line on contributions, well after offense.

[Fred Hornkohl]

BOTTOM OF THE SECOND INNING

 

Mathis grounded an IF single to third

Mathis stole second base

McPherson grounded to second, 4-3, Mathis taking third

Kennedy lined a single to center field, Mathis scored

Figgins walked, Kennedy to second

Kennedy stole third, Figgins stole second

Cabrera grounded out to short, 6-3, Kennedy scored, Figgins to third

Guerrero hit by pitch

Rivera singled to center field, Figgins scored, Guerrero to third

Salmon flied out to center field

 

3 runs, 3 hits, 0 errors, 2 men left on base

 

              1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9    R H E
CUBS          4 0                  4 6 0 
LAA of A      2 3                  5 5 0 

 

pitcher     IP  H  R ER BB  K HR 
Hill       2.0  5  5  5  2  1  0 

[WrigleyinEngland]

Bruce if your still around do you think that not having Blanco and Barret around has been a real bad break for some of the minor league pitchers?? I was just thinking that if Guz had thrown something different to those fastballs he may not have given up the three run bomb the other day. I also think barret and Blanco might know these guys better on how to get them out Hills had a couple of guys 0-2 but couldn't finish them.

[C.C.]

 

Did you do that with Maddux's first 20 innings? How about Randy Johnson?

.

 

Well Maddux was 20 when he came up and Johnson is a power pitcher who normally mature late. Lets compare Maddux and Johnson at age 26. Wouldn't that be more fair?