CubinNY

He hit the ball real hard on his first two ABs. The first drove in a run on Guzman. However it hit the sprinkler head behind the mound and bounced over the 2nd baseman or it would have been an easy out. The second hit was a no-doubt hard-hit single. He did try to throw a runner out at the plate on a weak single. He had to run to about 30 feet behind second and his arm looked less than I'd extpect from a former pitcher. He had a clean singel against Webb. Against Piggy (LHP) he looked overmached but did make contact.

-doesn't have great tools -too many walks Then why did Theriot make it over him, and then they were planning to bring up Augie Ojeda before him? I was willing to believe that explanation until those two things happened. Fontenot, doesn't have a position. He cannot field. Greetings from Memphis. Observations form tonights game. Johnny Bench is a jerk. Or is he? you be the judge. A bunch of adults were hanging out trying to get his autograph. Instead of giving them his autograph he ran to the dugout. Funnily enough after the game started the autograph hawks were nowhere to be seen in the stands. pretty pathetic. Pitchers Guzman looked good but was on a pitch count. He didn't seem to like that. He worked in the low 90s but touch 96 on several occasions. He used mosty fastball and chang-up. He threw a handfull of curve balls, none of them sharp and most of them for balls. Overall, very strong outing against an overmached team full of non-prospects. Ankeil had two hits, the first was on a luck hop, but he hit the ball hard. Webb relieved Gooz and he is not a prospect. Piggy looked pretty good working in the low 90s and keeping hitters off their stride. He made Ankeil look bad. Batters The I-Cubs are much like the C-Cubs. They go up to the plate hacking. Eric Patterson saw six pitches in his first three ABs and swung at 5 of them. He did have two hits, one should have been an error. Fontenot had a dinger. Not much else to discuss. Lots of singles and some that should have been caught. The Redbirds have a terrible in-field, terrible. It's tough to judge because I don't think I saw anything on the Redbirds that I would consider a prospect except for the reliver in the 9th, don't know his name. Anyway, that was fun. We will be there tomorrow too.

I'm sure someone will, plus you can follow the game on MiLB's Gamecast. The game isn't for another 6 hours though. I'm off to see Gooz pitch!

It is really a shame...And I do believe it came from that collision with Giles. I think it all stems from that. Nope. http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=6151 In other words, yes, we can blame Dusty. Ahh....Interesting! Yeah, I think it's interesting, too. I've probably never been so interested in someone else's medical history. My completly unprofessional opinion is that his injuries stem from the second half of 2003 when he pitched on a bad heel and changed his mechanics ever so slightly. Then tried to come back several times with the same sort of issues. Imagine what a wuss he would have been called had he missed the second half of 2003 with a sore heel?

The majority of tools that operate on predicting wins work off of Runs scored for the season. I think all folks are saying is that, extrapolated across the season, you'd expect the Cubs to win more games on the current Runs trend. The problem is the extrapolation. There isn't enough data to extrapolate.

He's been really, really good this year. Far better then I thought. Hendry deserves some applause so far for Lilly, Marquis, and Derosa, all criticized signings. I think I'll hold my applause until after the season. The Cubs suck right now. For that he deserves the door (if it continues).

I'm crossing my fingers in hope you are correct.

http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/images/players/mugshot/ph_435039.jpg "Beans and franks! Beans and franks! Beans and franks!"

I'll be at the I-Cub games tonight and tomorrow. I'll give everyone my very unprofesional scouting report.

Especially since Mark Prior is a Cub. I really don't like how people blame this all on Kerry and Mark. They don't want to be hurt. They are also responsible for some great memories for most cubs' fans. How quickly we forget. I agree.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/o/ontivst01.shtml http://www.baseball-reference.com/t/tidrodi01.shtml http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/CHC/ The 1979 Cubs, 80-82. I was 10 and they broke my heart. 80-82 marked the high water mark until 1984 when they re-broke my heart

Obviously you were not alive in the 70's Oh, for the days of Steve Swisher, Jerry Morales, and Ivan DeJesus. Now that was some baseball. Steve Swisher fathered Nick Swisher. http://files.myopera.com/Eddie_Lopez/blog/The_More_You_Know.jpg[/img] Steve Onteverios was on some of those teams with Dick Tidrow. http://files.myopera.com/Eddie_Lopez/blog/The_More_You_Know.jpg

Also says he fits in the 2-hole nicely. That didn't come out quite right.

Whomever sings it, iit is 100x better than God Bless America.

What a whacky game.

That's rationalizing his decision, not defending it. Just because there is traditionalist logic behind his moves doesn't mean they are justified. I agree. I was just responding to the criticism of Lou at this point. I hope Lou can overcome his history and begin to see what the problems are and where the solutions lie.

Sorry if this is not topical, I'm going to defend Lou a little here. I think he's tried and is still trying to make this team better, but like I wrote yesterday, he is a chess player who was given too many bishops and not enough castles. He can move these guys around all he wants but at the end of the game he still can't get them in a positon to win, becuase he never had the right pieces to begin with. I think Lou wants SLG out of the outfiled. That is traditionally where a teams gets it. That's why Murton is sitting. I don't think he recognizes that the Cubs need to get guys on base. He's a traditionalist, just like Hendry. Similarly, "you gotta' be strong up the middle". Izturis has a repuation as a golve man. That's why he's playing. A tradionalist through and through. But I think Lou can be swayed by results. Let's just hope it is soon enough.

I'm with you, and they do play baseball the right way. I dream of a day when we play ball like that. Is this a joke? Do you guys know how many HRs the Sox hit last year and in 2005? Do you know their OBP for the 1-2 hitters? Stop it. It's grit and intestinal fortitude that wins games for the Sox.

Not to mention, hitting into an inning ending double play with the bases loaded. He can't even strike out. He always "puts the ball in play" . Utterly craptacular.

I'll give them credit...yesterday they did get an awful lot of hits...its hard to get that many hits and have so little to show for it. Not really. They only had two walks. This team's problem is walks, they walk too many and don't walk enough.

I wonder how many people go to an 11:30 am AA game? Do they still serve beer at that hour? Enquiring minds want to know.

Anyone who has studied this team over the last several years should have seriously questioned how good they could be. It's a long season and strange things can happen. I could see the Cubs going crazy and winning the division with a .500 record.

Prior will have to learn to be "crafty". A tough accomplishment for a righthander (I'm joking). Perhaps the Cubs should contact Doyle Alexander and have a sit down with Prior. Alexander started off his career much like Prior but he became a pretty good pitcher even after arm/shoulder injuries took away his fastball. http://www.baseball-reference.com/a/alexado01.shtml

Frank Chance and his liquer bottle.

There is no way in hell that is going to happen.