TruffleShuffle

According to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Liriano's MRI showed no new damage in his elbow - just a mild tear in the ulnar collateral ligament. He's likely to get a second opinion, but if true this is great news. He's an exciting young player and I hope to see him pitching for the Twins in 2007.

Dodgers should be banned from the playoffs if they lose this game... how can you blow leads of three or more runs - twice - against the Cubs in the same series????

Yeah, I bet we could've beaten Kansas City though!!!

Way to overmanage by going for the lefty-lefty matchups in the 6th inning, Dusty.

Carlos Marmol is firmly committed to the Cubs' quest for Fecal League supremacy!

Bynum may be even more worthless than Neifi

damn you to hell, Pagan

Seconded

Great news for the Cubs in terms of Fecal League implications

This isn't a poll about which person you'd most like to see as president - it's which person you believe will be elected president in 2008. I know it's a crapshoot at this point, but I'll be interested to see what people think. I'll list 10 names, 5 from each party. To get the 5, I'll pick the 5 leading candidates on the website tradesports.com, which allows for the trading of real money on political futures. Or, you can pick "other" and let us know who you think this dark horse will be.

I really don't think there was a "too soon." If his elbow is going to blow out after like six innings upon returning from the DL, chances are that no amount of rest and rehab was going to fix things. I think he had probably passed the point at which his elbow could take much more pitching without the ligament going.

Should be the death sentence of the pitching coach. He is the one working with the pitchers everyday. He should of noticed this while watching film of Liriano. That is just really poor coaching if you ask me. I don't think this is fair, for two reasons. One, he was the best pitcher in baseball for a good portion of the season, and it's tough to take the most successful pitcher in baseball on a contending team and tell him that he needs to change. If his mechanics are that damaging, it's not something he's going to fix between starts. It would probably take an extended period of time, like in the offseason, and really can't be done while the team is relying on the pitcher at all. And secondly, he threw over 300 minor league innings between 2004 and 2005. If his mechanics are as bad as people say, then chances are that the ligament was already being worn down from the previous two years - not under the tutelage of the major league pitching coach. Additionally, how could the Twins can a pitching coach for one injury? Rick Anderson has been with them since 2002, during which time Johan Santana has turned into the best pitcher in baseball, and has been very durable (I feel like I should knock on wood anytime I say that about a pitcher). Journeyman Dennys Reyes has an ERA under 1.00 this year. Joe Nathan has turned into a star closer, and Juan Rincon is one of the better setup men in baseball. Here's how the Twins have ranked in ERA among the 14 AL teams since Rick Anderson became pitching coach: 2002 - 6th 2003 - 7th 2004 - 1st 2005 - 5th 2006 - 2nd That's pretty darned good, and the Twins aren't exactly doing it by signing established, big-ticket pitchers. Anderson's resume is very solid, and I can't imagine that he'd be held accountable for Liriano's elbow injury.

Man, if only the Cubs could have held onto that loss yesterday... they'd be ahead of the D-Rays and only a game out of a tie for the lead!

Digital cable :D And I bought a new HDTV last week for the beginning of college football and NFL season.

I think the Kool-Aid was spiked. It made many of us delirious. I'm a little pissed that I picked them to have the fewest wins (74), and I'm still not going to get any points for it because I'll be off by more than 10.

I think the situations are very dissimilar. The Cubs should fire their manager and front office because the product on the field is a joke. The D-Rays are more concerned with their player development, which apparently wasn't too great, considering the three best prospects there had major non-baseball problems this year.

good, at least the Dodgers got one

what an awful team this is

less dempster, more dumpster!!!

Great, 5 errors and the Cubs still might win. Dodgers should be immediately banned from the playoffs if they lose this game.

Put in Dempster in the 9th! We need a loss!

Dodgers have 3 shortstops coming to bat (Furcal, Lugo, Nomar)

Oh, I guess Izturis plays SS now and ARam may or may not sub in for Moore.

Jeez, Cubs can't even lose right :roll:

Does it matter? Sure does, Cubs are in the running for the #1 draft pick!