8/17 Cubs (Lilly) @ Padres (Correia) 9:05 WCIU

[OleMissCub]

I don't think Mel Rojas was even this bad.

[UMFan83]

Who cares if Cardinals fans are reading...I've used Cardinals and Brewers message boards as a source of entertainment over the last 3 years so why shouldn't they do the same?

 

What else do they have to do? St. Louis is a hellhole and like Vance says, the Hee Haw marathon isn't until Saturday afternoon.

[Keener98]

Man, the Cardinals sure are playing great baseball right now. They're beating the teams they need to beat, and also beating good teams. Carpenter is a beast.

 

Go Cubs!!!

Dude, you are posting from a StL ip address. Don't even try to pretend. You are no good at it.

 

And surprisingly there is also a poster at GRB whos name is "Ace". Shocker huh

Is he now banned there, too?

 

 

Probably not, they tend to like douchebags over there

[TruffleShuffle]

Good thing these Padres play consistently and played up to the same level against the Cardinals, right?

 

Maybe the Cardinals are just better than us?

Are they Kyle Blanks better?

 

Seriously, what happened to Gregg? The Cardinals have turned Ryan Franklin into steroid-era Eric Gagne and we picked up a supposedly half-decent closer and he has been awful. No homers given up last year until Ward and he's given up 12 this year. There is no explanation anyone can give me for such a dramatic spike.

 

there's your answer.

[OleMissCub]

we actually have some non-haters over there at GWRB. nice

[E.J.]

http://gatewayredbirds.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=36729&start=30

 

.

 

Well, he was right. He lasted about 4 seconds.

 

I don't understand the concept of trolling. Don't people have better things to do?

[UMFan83]

God I want to break something. I'm sick of losing like this.

 

You never appreciate the value of a good closer until you get one as bad as this. We have had our share of bad closers (06 Dempster, 04 Hawkins, etc) and it never fails to enrage me. I just can't help but think of how dominant Marmol looked in the 8th and wonder what would have happened if they just used him in the 9th.

 

they'd probably be down 4-1 going into the 9th and never need a closer.

 

the problem is the lack of quality bullpen arms, not gregg. our best closer option has walked one man per inning. that's not a good sign.

 

Lack of quality bullpen arms? I have infinitely more confidence in Marmol, Guzman, Marshall and Grabow than Gregg. I'm not saying all of them are awesome, but I think all 4 would have better results in the closers role than Gregg.

[BCVM22]

I'm glad I didn't have 720 on for the end here. Santo must have been absolutely having puppies and there's nothing more depressing than a steady stream of "OH GOSH!" and "GEE WHIZ!"

[E.J.]

BTW, what's Alfonseca doing now? Maybe we can pull him out of retirement.

[TruffleShuffle]

Lack of quality bullpen arms? I have infinitely more confidence in Marmol, Guzman, Marshall and Grabow than Gregg. I'm not saying all of them are awesome, but I think all 4 would have better results in the closers role than Gregg.

 

marmol's control has been a joke, guzman is a decent option but needs to be handled carefully because his arm is made of glass, marshall can't crack 88 mph with his fastball and would be facing mostly RH batters, and grabow has neutral splits and walks way too many people. you're giving these guys too much credit.

[BCVM22]

BTW, what's Alfonseca doing now? Maybe we can pull him out of retirement.

 

He's enjoying retirement and marveling at the fact that he can count to five and a half on one hand alone.

[CyHawk_Cub]

Guess the minor league forum is the place to be the rest of '09...

[Guest]

Guess the minor league forum is the place to be the rest of '09...

that's different from the first part of '09 why?

[UMFan83]

I don't think Mel Rojas was even this bad.

 

LaTroy Hawkins was worse IMO. Down the stretch in 2004, he had 6 saves in his last 11 save opps that year (meaning 5 blown saves in 11 attempts) and blew 3 of his last 5 meaningful save attempts (he saved the last game of the season when we were already eliminated).

 

Then in 05, he started the season by blowing 4 of his first 8 save attempts, leading to him finally getting demoted. So over a 2 year stretch, he blew 9 of 19 save attempts. Just awful.

[UMFan83]

I love reading the early edition Cubs game story after a game like this. The Trib article was clearly written for a victory, and has "but it didn't happen as Gregg blew the save.." interjected randomly.

[Friendly Confines]

Only 19 days until Irish football......

[Prizefight]

What's worse staying awake, losing sleep and watching Gregg blow the game or going to bed early thinking the Cubs will win and wake up and get your heart broken?

 

 

[Expletive]

[Andy]

Only 19 days until Irish football......

Unfortunately, there's little reason to believe that won't be disappointing.

 

I'd talk about Carolina, but our season ended the day we re-signed a guy who turned the ball over 7 times his last game out.

[UMFan83]

Lack of quality bullpen arms? I have infinitely more confidence in Marmol, Guzman, Marshall and Grabow than Gregg. I'm not saying all of them are awesome, but I think all 4 would have better results in the closers role than Gregg.

 

marmol's control has been a joke, guzman is a decent option but needs to be handled carefully because his arm is made of glass, marshall can't crack 88 mph with his fastball and would be facing mostly RH batters, and grabow has neutral splits and walks way too many people. you're giving these guys too much credit.

 

And Gregg leads all relievers in home runs allowed and is 2nd in the league in blown saves.

 

Marmol has bad control but is nearly unhittable, Guzman's arm is made is glass but has often had to pitch more than 1 inning during games while making him the closer would eliminate most of that. Why does the speed of Marshall's fastball matter? There are a few closers out there without mid-90s stuff. He gets people out better than Gregg does. And are you telling me Gregg would clearly be a better closer than Grabow?

[BCVM22]

What's worse staying awake, losing sleep and watching Gregg blow the game or going to bed early thinking the Cubs will win and wake up and get your heart broken?

 

The latter. The former allows you to spit blood for the rest of the evening and then collapse into bed, exhausted from the sheer rage. The latter would have you finding out right at the start of your day that Gregg blew it and I dunno about you, but that would just ruin my day from the outset.

[Warren Brusstar]

Only 19 days until Irish football......

 

 

Can't wait to see the Charlie Weis death march!!!!

[Magdal]

Has anyone confirmed if Santo is alive still?

:-))

[TruffleShuffle]

Marmol has bad control but is nearly unhittable, Guzman's arm is made is glass but has often had to pitch more than 1 inning during games while making him the closer would eliminate most of that. Why does the speed of Marshall's fastball matter? There are a few closers out there without mid-90s stuff. He gets people out better than Gregg does. And are you telling me Gregg would clearly be a better closer than Grabow?

 

probably. grabow's whip the last two years is about 1.50. that's bad.

 

marshall is fine as a back of the rotation starter or a long reliever, but he's just not that good. he's too hittable and his control is spotty at times. you could flip flop him with gregg and still have the same issues, but nobody who could pitch 3-4 innings in an extra inning game. marmol is already used as an 8th inning setup man and fireman, so i don't see how his leverage would improve over gregg's. guzman is really the only guy that i'd bother putting in the closer role, and at this point i think it's a pretty good idea.

 

the biggest downside is that there are a handful of dumb GM's who would pay gregg simply because of his "proven closer" label; if they yank gregg from the closer role there's a good chance he'll either not get offered arbitration after the season or be offered but not signed early enough to collect the draft picks for him. if you keep him in the closer role - risky, certainly - and he puts together a strong last 1.5 months, you've got a good chance of collecting two early draft picks for him, since he's likely to be a type A free agent.

[Flames24Rulz]

Has anyone confirmed if Santo is alive still?

:-))

 

Not really sure why that's funny, but ok.

[Andy]

I don't get why anyone would give up a sandwich pick for Gregg when he's been this bad this year and is on the wrong side of 30.