CubinNY

The Lions are the worst run team in PROFESSIONAL sports. And it isn't even close. Before the discrace that is Matt Millen they once drafted a tight end in the second or third round when they ran a run and shoot offense. A team with Billy Simms and Barry Sanders running the ball for all those years should have at least challenged for the conference title, at least once.

I just lost my respect for DeRosa. No DH! Yeah, not cool Derosa. Not cool at all. I don't get that argument at all. It's simple, if I were a Cub fan I would want to see Floyd. If I were the fan of the team opposite the Cubs I'd rather see the pitcher. As a fan of baseball, a game played by 9 individuals against 9 others I am not a fan of the DH. Imagine if scorcer/football would let tan extra player only when a team is on the opposing teams side of the pitch?

Me too, given how little debate there really is in the scientific community. Frickin liberal scientists :)

It was a rocket. the I-Cubs were a lot more patient against a left handed starter. Fontenot is NOT a ss. In addition to his error there were at least 2 other balls he should have got to but didn't. Micah Houfpaur was in LF. He made a great throw to gun a guy out at home but Soto dropped it. JR Mathis looked fine until the 4th. He got two quick outs and then after a couple of hits and a walk had the bases loaded, and boom goes the dinomite! A grand slam. Not much else to report.

This has nothing to do with whether he should play SS specifically. The Cubs strongest lineup has Theriot at SS and Pie in CF and Floyd in RF defensively the Cubs strongest defensive lineup has Cedeno at SS, and Pagan in RF with Pie still in CF (and Blanco behind the plate) This tells me that the Cubs need to get rid of Izturis, Jones and find a PH-C so they can insert Blanco in later innings. I think Murton in RF makes for a stronger line-up than Floyd. Pagan isn't on the team and shouldn't be. Ever! A pinch hitting catcher is a waste. If he could hit worth a crap, he would be starting as a catcher. Pagan is hitting .239/.261/.343 in Iowa. He sucks, he's always sucked and the Cubs bought his contract for $10,000.

I agree.

Rather than throw off the alignment of the page. (A LOT OF EYE ROLL SMILEYS.) Stats behind it: Rangers fall to 2-3 in games Sosa homers in. Orioles in '05: 7-4 in games Sosa homered in. (O's were also a TERRIBLE team) Cubs in '04: 20-12 with Sosa homer Cubs in '03: 24-10 Cubs in '02: (even worse than the '05 O's) 23-21 Should I keep going or should I wait for the anecdotal evidence of "all those times Sammy hit those meaningless HRs in the 9th and kissed the camera and walked out early on the team and corked his bat and did steroids" Cause if that's all that's coming, I'd rather not sit and count the games in which he hits is 64 HRs in '01 just to show they had a great record in those games. Wow, you caught some serious feelings there. Did Sammy pull you out of a burning car? All I was talking about was the fact that Sosa was on a lot of bad teams with the Cubs, and they tended to lose a lot. No, I don't think that was all KingCubfans were talking about. Nice post ryan

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.