jjgman21

just turned the game on in the 5th, and Peavy was getting 6 inches off the outside corner. has it gone both ways? pretty much. both benches have been yelling at the homeplate umpire. I dunno. Peavy got some of these pitches.

I'd root for the Rockies as a potential NLCS opponent for the Cubs. We're 5-2 against Colorado on the season and the Cubs have shown they generally match up well against the Rockies. Facing them in the NLCS would be like getting near the end of a big test and realizing you know the answer to the last question. They're a much different team now than when the Cubs played them. Hitting better, and their #2 pitcher was in the minors last time the Cubs played them. while Ubaldo is scary, Aram and Soriano combined for 5 games out of a possible 14 against the Rockies, Cliff missed most of those games as well, and the first series took place in the Koyie Hill era, so it's not like the Cubs were at full strength.

just turned the game on in the 5th, and Peavy was getting 6 inches off the outside corner. has it gone both ways?

I was going to bring this up in the Lou Mistakes thread, but decided against it. But I will bring it up here because I think it will be one of the keys to this series and the post season in general. Lou has to stop leaving his pitcher in, starters and relievers, hoping to get one more out or one more inning out of them. this strategy has been a disaster all year, and this is playoff baseball. there's no time for saving the pen for the rest of the series. there's no time for saving the bench for later in the game. there's no time for 'letting him learn to work out of it.' there's no time for building trust. if a starter gives up a run or two in the first and starts the second or third looking like crap, you must yank him. if a starter struggles early on without runs, then settles down, you must yank him at the first sign of trouble in the fifth or sixth. if a reliever gives up a couple line drives or is wild, you must yank him. this being said, I think Marquis has to be on the playoff roster, since he is the only one stretched out enough to give you three or four innings out of the pen. early yankings will also be more beneficial if the starter yanked needs to come back on three days rest. as for the pen, this goes to another problem I have with Lou. you must trust the fourth and fifth guys out of the pen. you must allow Wuertz to face lefties, especially since he's awesome at it. you must allow Kerry Wood to give you an inning in a close ballgame and not put middle relief all on Marmol. better staff management is needed here Lou. make the adjustment.

my interest in the NFL wains with three things, how good my NFL team is doing, how much the NFL is engineering which teams are good and bad, and how good my college team is doing. my NFL team is terrible, but I kept watching until Wale Oguleye was about to crush Romo, only to have the Cowboy's left tackle come from the other side and close line him to the ground. no flag, no replay of how he was put out of the game on a blatant penalty. that was enough for me. haven't watched a minute of NFL since. go Badgers.

Oh boy.,.. if I'm not mistaken, it's not Froemmings 'crew.' I think all the post season umpires are 'all-star' lineups of umpires. I also think that they only work one series, so if we get him in the NLDS, we won't see him in the NLCS if we get there. that being said, if we get a steady diet of Froemming, Reilly, Tschida, Reliford, etc., I will be extremely pissed.

this team is far superior to 98. that teams pitching was total crap, and it's offense one guy. they are also facing a much lesser opponent, than that 1998 team. I think this team is about as good as the 1989 team, but again, they will be facing a lesser team. the 'lesser' is not meant to detract from the DBacks. that 98 Braves team was incredible, and the 89 Giants were very very good.

I had not seen that article before. interesting, but has to be a little disconcerting for the DBacks as if they do fall behind early, they have a choice, allow the game to be put out of reach with meatballs, or burn up their quality bullpen arms in a game the odds are against them winning. the Cubs experienced a freakish phenomena the first two months of the season where the pen was great in blowouts and sucked in close ball games. that in large part is what prevented them from winning quite a few more ballgames then they did.

Argh, you're not trolling. Sarcasm, I'm guessing... No, I'm sure jjgman is being serious. --- Please cut out the name-calling, there's no need to say what Chris24Young is doing is bordering on trolling when it clearly isn't. perhaps I define it differently, but the one line sarcastic quips like "explain why you are sooooo superior" is borderline. I think others would agree, but whatever.

This myth needs to die RIGHT NOW. I'm completely sick of hearing it. Yeah, we got swept by Florida and it was pathetic...however, we did NOT back into the playoffs. The cubs have gone 13-7 in their last 20 games. That's hardly "backing" backing in? I think not crushing Brewers had a chance to tie by winning two straight vs a depleted Padre team, IIRC. They went on to win their last two games, it could have resulted in a tiebreaker. I may be wrong, but I think that's what I heard. It may not have necessarily been backing in, but getting swept in FLA could have been fatal. so what. that series was bookended by a sweep where the Cubs scored a ton of runs, and another series that they went 23 innings without allowing a run. while we were on edge during the Florida series where the Cubs combined for some of its worst and unluckiest baseball since April, we clinched with two games remaining, did so in convincing fashion, and followed that up with a one hitter. stating that the Brewers blew it is horsecrap. it would have taken a freakish hot streak in order for the Cubs to not make it after the Cubs/Pittsburgh series. furthermore, your argument that the Brewers just blew it by themselves detracts from your claim that the NL West is soooooo great. seriously dude, if you want to discuss this on a meaningful level, we will be more than happy to do so. fans of many different teams do so all the time. at this point, you're really bordering on what we would consider trolling. it is great that you have confidence in your team. we have confidence in ours as well. you want to compare and contrast the two, that would be great. as Roast and others have said or alluded to, you want to do it by evaluation of things that can not be quantified, you're not going to get far, and probably end up embarrassed and upset.

This myth needs to die RIGHT NOW. I'm completely sick of hearing it. Yeah, we got swept by Florida and it was pathetic...however, we did NOT back into the playoffs. The cubs have gone 13-7 in their last 20 games. That's hardly "backing" backing in? I think not crushing

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why? I thought you were making great progress convincing us that the DBacks were going to win this because they know how to win. my opinion is this Lee >>>> Jackson DeRo >>>>> Augie Theriot < Drew Aram >>>> Reynolds Soriano >>> Byrnes Young < Jones Floyd/Murton >>>> Upton Soto >> Snyder Kendal << Snyder Z < Webb Lilly >> Davis Hill >>> Livan Dempster << Valverde Howry = Pena Marmol >>> Lyon Wuertz/Wood < Slaten/Cruz

I think the crackdown played a part, but oodles and oodles of players that either have hit 40 or are capable of it had stints on the DL, nagging injuries all year, or flukish runs of poor performance. then again, if not for the crackdown, may of those DL stints may have been shorter and many of those injuries not so nagging.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/bvsp?playerId=5019&teamId=27 dance away Todd Helton

SD hoping for a Neifi moment here.

lol http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/playoffs?round=1

I just saw some Ubaldo highlights and he has some nasty breaking stuff. he potentially will be facing some non-regulars as well. if not him, I would say Homer Bailey. hope you took my advice.

It is called MLB.tv and/or Extra Innings. If anything this good for them because it is more reason for them to sell you on buying one of those since you need them to see these key games. while I had some things come up and wasn't able to watch anyway, why exactly did you have to be so snide about this?

for every Cub fan who has maintained his/her dignity after taking [expletive] simply for being the most loyal fans in the history of sports.

no, because even if it hasn't happened in forever, someone else did it before he did http://www.baseball-reference.com/g/grandcu01.shtml Awesome. Curtis Granderson is from around the area too. incidentally, those old enough may remember Ryno had like a week to get one more triple and one more HR to do it in 1984, but was not able to do so.

CONSIN

no, because even if it hasn't happened in forever, someone else did it before he did http://www.baseball-reference.com/g/grandcu01.shtml

color me surprised now don't suck against U of I, Badgers.

http://snltranscripts.jt.org/97/pics/97delnino.jpg El Duque is spanish for......the dookie.