AlwaysaCub

He's solid, but he had a 3.8 so far in 2007 pitching in Petco...although the NL central offenses aren't very good. Helps them a little.

At this rate, our outfield in the 9th inning is going to be Zambrano, Scott Eyre and Koye Hill

A .261 OBP? Are you serious?

People need to look at who is being given up rather than the position. People would've called Marmol nothing a year ago if he was included in a trade. Young relievers have potential value espec. in an era of overspending and inconsistent FA relievers. Look at the LH'ers out of the pen this year... Eyre, Ohman, and Cotts. There's no guarantee he would provide production, which you can say for Kendall as well at this point, Preach it, UK. The other side of that argument is that we have gotten on Hendry for not selling high and buying low...now he does that, and we're on him about it. It's only good to buy low if you think the stock/player's production will rise. The question is, if you buy low but then he only goes down, is it still buying low?

How could we possibly be winning with Jones, Bowen, and Izturis in the lineup? We're playing the Astros? At bottom, the drama queen act when the lineup came out looks a silly now. having a good game does not replace the fact that we're in dire need of an upgrade at SS, C, and CF. Take that to Hendry, not Lou. Freaking out on a manager every game when he's clearly doing well at the moment is, indeed, uncalled for. touche. However, it doesn't make people comfortable with our chances of winning when the lesser options are all playing on the same day. That's all Well, why? We play in the NL central. Look at the lineup Houston is running out there and how they play. The Reds have been equally horrible. We have all these games left against bad, bad competition, the easiest schedule in the NL the rest of the way. That said, yeah, we do need upgrades if we have real hope of contending for a pennant, not the NL central crown.

For the hitters today, in the words of Billy Williams, "Hit 'em high and watch 'em fly."

Yes, but if Cuban announces his bid and it is high and clearly the leading bid, and he drums up the support of the players, manager, and fans, Bud will have a hard time saying no. Or at least I hope he will.

I agree and agree. No way Krod's curveballs in the dirt get Pujols out there. Aaron Rowand pales in comparison. Did you see that first pitch? Pujols takes that out for a grand slam, a fastball right down the middle. Game. Instead, Aaron Rowand flies to right, which there is death valley.

This is awesome. Sell 'em all Kenny! Just not to the Brewers or Cards, okay? I'd definitely be fine with today's John Garland on the Brewers.

I remember that well. Specifically, they lost 8 in a row, then immediately turned it around and won 12 in a row. I don't recall any other team having such a long winning streak immediately on the heels of such a long losing streak without even a single game between the streaks. If I really strain my memory, I want to say that the streak was snapped when a player reached over the wall (not a jump, it was a very short wall) to take back a Sosa homer that would have saved the game for the Cubs with two outs in the ninth. pretty sure it was everyone's favorite recent Cubs RF: Jeromy Burnitz. Yep, I'm pretty sure thats who it was. Also, it was Sammy up to bat with 2 out in the 9th, the Cubs down by 2 and either one or two on base. That would have either tied or won it. They went on to sweep the Cards at Wrigley immediately after. In any case, do the 2007 Brewers = the 2001 Cubs? I hesitantly agree. In terms of makeup: This Brewers team is younger and offensively more balanced, but they still don't score all that many runs. Fielder's consistency with the streaks and slumps of the rest of the players around him, but I think Braun and Corey Hart are better than anything the Cubs had on offense with the possible exception of Rondell White and, later, the Crime Dog. The Pitching is the key here also, and is fairly similar. Oft injured ace Ben Sheets (sort of a cross of Lieber and Wood in 2001) is pitching well, but the 3-5 of the Brew Crew's rotation is sucky, kinda like the Cubs rotation was in 2001. The Bullpen is good, but also liable to be overworked, as was with the Cubs in 2001. Turnbow is a decent Farnsworth comp, and Cordero is somewhat better than Flash. Matt Wise is sorta like TVP I would say also, so these arms could get tired. So, for the season storyline, I could definitely see a late slide keyed by a tired bullpen, A la 2001 Northsiders, with Prince Fielder fighting his hardest all the way. By the way, I wouldn't rule out such a fate for this year's bullpen either. Just sayin'.

I feel like if Zambrano signs the long term deal with the Cubs, he will have shoulder surgery somewhere in the neighborhood of June 2008. If he doesn't sign with the cubs, he will give a speech in upstate New York somewhere in the neighborhood of July 2028.

2 Things about Jockety: 1. The Cards came up with Albert Pujols in 2001. He has basically kept them competitive ever since, the rock. 2. He has a manager who knows how to get a lot out of his players and runs the team nearly perfectly. These things make him look better than he has actually been as a GM. Still, he's probably better than Hendry.

Dirty Dempster showed up tonite.

Swizzle.

there is still time for them to come out of hiding Knock on wood Dempster.

As much as Rickey's 130 steals in a season is amazing, the more outrageous stat is that he attempted to steal 172 times that season. There are plenty of guys who aren't even on base 172 times in a season. That's insane.

http://baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=6272#CHN I'm not sure how many people would agree, but that's the jist. It's a free article. I do put some stock in that assessment, but maybe that's just me drinking the Cool Ade. Marshall has some potential to maybe pitch as well as a 3rd starter. If nothing else, we start a rotation of Zambrano and four three type starters. That has some potential, although it means we'll have to get about 4-5 runs a game to win. Maybe we can do that.[/url]

You know when Happy Gillmore yells at the golf ball, "WHY WON'T YOU JUST GO HOME? ARE YOU TOO GOOD FOR YOUR HOME?" I feel like yelling that at every single Cubs hitter.

Phitting with The Riot there was definitely the better move, but I'm guessing that Lou was going to hit Theriot for Marshall.

I think one of Hendry's underrated busts was his not winning Rafael Furcal. It led to the Pierre trade, and we could use the guys we gave up now. But also, we didn't get Mr. Furcal and now have a relatively weak middle infield instead of Furcal, who has some patience and plays in Dodger Stadium and had an .814 OPS there last season.

I was actually looking forward to going to my first game Saturday...now that's ruined also.

Now this season is officially over methinks. wowzers.

I've benched Dye several times this season, but I traded away my extra outfielders, so I've been forced to play him. Thankfully he occasionally does good things.

Will Carroll backed off what he said yesterday: http://baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=6242

Why? Gerald Perry currently has us at 2nd in batting and, more importantly, 4th in OBP in the NL. This is a big improvement.