jjgman21

they showed on BBTN CPatt was robbed of a near GS, although I think it would have bounced off the yellow line if not caught.

It's bad...very bad! He hasn't seemed so bad this year in comparison to the idiots we've had to deal with lately. Though my opinion may change tomorrow on him. CB's alot like Angel Hernandez. I don't feel we get a particularly bad shake from him, he's just inconsistent and incompetent. recent results with CB, including starting pitchers. 5/19/07 CHC 11 - CHW 6 J. Marquis J. Vazquez 9/17/06 CHC 11 - CIN 3 C. Zambrano E. Milton 8/26/06 STL 2 - CHC 1 C. Carpenter R. Hill 7/15/06 CHC 9 - NYM 2 C. Zambrano T. Glavine 10/1/05 HOU 3 - CHC 1 R. Clemens J. Williams 6/23/05 MIL 8 - CHC 7 B. Sheets G. Rusch 6/1/05 LA 5 - CHC 9 D. Lowe J. Koronka 8/26/04 CHC 8 - HOU 3 M. Prior B. Backe 5/15/04 SD 5 - CHC 7 A. Eaton S. Mitre -135/8.5 4/16/04 CHC 11 - CIN 10 S. Mitre A. Harang interesting that after tomorrow, the Cubs have had 10 different starters in the last 11 games with Bucknor behind the plate.

in future news, the Padres will announce Sunday morning that Chris Young will drop his appeal and begin serving his suspension immediately. Germano and Young will flip flop their slot in the rotation the last weekend of June and not miss a beat. meanwhile, in other future news, the league will announce in the middle of this week that Derrick Lee's appeal is denied or reduced minimally. he will miss the key series against the Milwaukee Brewers.

how will the Cubs be punished for Soriano's success this weekend?

learning them early this organization is. from 6/21 game log Boise Bottom 1st * Jonathan Wyatt walks. * With Dylan Johnston batting, Jonathan Wyatt picked off and caught stealing 2nd base, pitcher Wilmin Rodriguez to first baseman Matthew Downs to second baseman Jose Flores. * Dylan Johnston doubles (4) on a line drive to left fielder Garret Baker. * With Marquez Smith batting, Dylan Johnston caught stealing 3rd base, catcher Jackson Williams to third baseman Andrew Davis. * Marquez Smith grounds out, third baseman Andrew Davis to first baseman Matthew Downs. ETA I should have kept on reading before posting Salem-Keizer Top 2nd * Matthew Downs singles on a ground ball to pitcher Christopher Huseby. * Garret Baker reaches on fielding error by shortstop Dylan Johnston. Matthew Downs scores. Garret Baker to 3rd. Throwing error by center fielder Jonathan Wyatt. * Chad Rothford grounds out, shortstop Dylan Johnston to first baseman Marc Sawyer. Garret Baker scores. * Sean Van Elderen lines out to pitcher Christopher Huseby. * Jackson Williams strikes out swinging.

the previously declared dead Scott Moore seems to have really picked it up lately.

Dear Lou, Buehrle OPS against this year vs. Lefties .902 vs. Righties .644 Please start playing your best available lineup. Sincerely, Me.

I just thought of one added benefit of this trade. if Hill was tipping his pitches, the Cubs will now know what he was doing and can correct it.

because all of baseball, including the Cubs, know the umpires and league will disproportionately penalize and discipline Cubs players and coaches setting up a situation where the opposition knows they will not be justly punished for their actions and the Cubs can't respond less they are willing to accept unjust discipline?

Abreu has always been a slow starter, IIRC. It's one of the reasons whey people hated him in Philly. He's good and will likely be good for the next couple of years. It would be stupid to trade him and I don't think a small market team could afford him. I don't think you do recall correctly unless by "always been a slow starter" you mean "has had a couple of bad Aprils". other than that, there is no discernable pattern as to when Abreu does or does not hit well. in 2006, April was his best month, July his worst in 2005, April was his second worst month, May his best month, July his worst in 2004, April was his second worst month (with a .882 OPS), in May his OPS was over 1, his worst was Aug in 2003, April was his worst month, July was his best month in 2002, April was his third worst month (.863 OPS), July his worst month. 2004-2006 splits, April was his second worst month, but he still had an .860 OPS. career splits, which include this year, April is his worst month, but he still had an .842 OPS. if anything can be discerned out of these splits it is that Abreu seems fairly consistent throughout the year with the exception of having a massive slump in the summer (July or August). I think Abreu can still be decent for a year or two, but I think the days of the 900+ OPS are behind him.

Thank you. I'm glad I'm not the only one that feels this way. not to mention that pitches came from the bench at least half the time when Dusty was managing the Cubs and Barrett was catching. I'd like to see it broken down into PCERA - pitching coach ERA.

not to speak ill of or hope for injury on someone, but I really hope this trade signals that Henry Blanco's career is over. I could live with Soto/Bowen at catcher for a couple/few years.

I'd rather have a first round pick instead of someone who already showed signs of being a bust and a bag of custard than someone who will block one of our best prospects.

so by way of comparison, Chris Young gets the same penalty for throwing at someone's head and his part in inciting a brawl as Kerry Wood got for arguing with an umpire. Derrick Lee gets suspended five games for the exact same actions that Arod and Veritek got four games for. there will not be any games taken off of Lee's penalty. if they did that, they would have to reduce Young's also, leaving the obviousness of the non-penalty that he received all too obvious.

Anemic? His OPS places is 7th best among AL rightfielders. It's nothing special, obviously, but to say it's anemic is just flat out wrong. He'll be traded for more than what we dumped him for. the combined suckitude of Abreu, Drew/Pena, Die, and Nixon/Michaels does not make Sosa's suckitude any better. Shane Victorino's current OPS+ = 107 Juan Encarnacion's current OPS+ = 101 Sammy Sosa's current OPS+ = 96 Michael Barrett's current OPS+ = 90 plus, for the most part Sosa's been DH'ing, and hasn't hit a lick when playing as an outfielder. sure, it's not anemic in the sense of comparing him to Jones, but in terms of what rightfielders/DH's are expected to do, I don't care what the rest of the league is doing, it's anemic. if you think he will be traded for more than a platoon infielder and two of an organizations top 20 prospects, then the Cubs should get a bonanza for trading Michael Barrett.

Oh, come on. I'm getting tired of defending Barrett but this stuff is getting ridiculous. Agreed. I find it hilarious that Hill had a terrible outing and almost everybody is wanting to make excuses for him. If Brenly hadnt brought up the fact of him thinking Hill was tipping his pitches I doubt anyone else here would have said a word about it. Rich sucked today, nobody elses fault, he just sucked. Lets hope he doesnt have many more of these. I speculated he was tipping his pitches the last time he faced the Padres, and thought about it again after the second batter today. not sure what he is doing, but his 'stuff' was not all that different today than it was in his outtings against the Braves, yet the Padres hitters were never fooled even the slightest bit. they waited back on every single curve. it's pretty obvious when that is happening that a team has picked up on something that indicates what pitch is coming.

Michael Jordan did not punch Danny Ferry. he never punched any Piston, he never punched any Knick, he never punched anyone on the Heat. he never punched anyone. no matter how hard they hit him, no matter how many times they hammered him in mid-air, and trashed talked about it afterwords, he didn't punch them back, no matter how many times it was deserved. you know what he did? he had Stan Livingston and Will Purdue and Scott Williams take care of the dirty work for him. don't sit there and tell me that adult human males are incapable of showing restraint in that situation and that in so doing it was keeping the teams best interest in mind. I don't blame Lee for throwing a punch, but the insinuations that it was uncontrollable or good for the team or the right thing to do or morally superior to others actions are just insane. at some point someone has to be the 'mature baseball professional.' Soriano has to at the very least be a little more discrete in his celebration. Peavy has to shut his punk mouth. the Pads manager has to tell his team to suck it up and get payback on the field, not in the papers or with beanballs. Chris Young has to not be Peavys puppet and just go about the business of winning baseball games, not evening scores and being a punk when he does so. and Derrick Lee has to take it like a man, go to first, and get his revenge with his play. if any one of these idiots just acted like a 'mature professional' it wouldn't have gotten as far as it did. of all people, the one who wasn't a total fricken idiot is David Wells, who said he didn't even see Soriano's dance and he'd have to file it away. that's how you handle it. you wait until the next time you face the perpetrator, and even the score personally, either through getting him out and showing him up, or with a harmless beanball at the hip. I dont disagree with what you say about Peavy or Wells, but as it has been pointed out already, Jordan DID throw punches. It's just a fact that sometimes, when you feel you have been so wronged (or in this case, your safety has been endangered), there is no way you can expect any man to think about 'the team.' Lee did what anybody would do in that situation. Was it right? No, but you can't fault him for snapping at that moment. you're missing the point. the point is there were literally hundreds of times where Jordan was brought to the point of anger like Derrick Lee, and literally hundreds of times he did not throw a punch he wanted to throw. quit saying 'anybody would do it' when Jordan is only one of hundreds of millions of people on the face of the earth who have repeatedly shown the ability to restrain themselves. we are talking about voluntary actions that take volition and aforethought. maybe in your gangsta rap ferry tale world the compulsion to be violent is involuntary, but it's not in the real world.

prediction time, and I'm getting pretty good at it throughout these things. Hill loses his fastball up and in to lefties all the time and his curveball bounces near the feet of righties all the time. warnings will be issued before the game starts, at some point a fastball will get away from Hill up and in to a lefty, or a curveball in the dirt will nip a Padre toe, and he will be ejected.

Michael Jordan did not punch Danny Ferry. he never punched any Piston, he never punched any Knick, he never punched anyone on the Heat. he never punched anyone. no matter how hard they hit him, no matter how many times they hammered him in mid-air, and trashed talked about it afterwords, he didn't punch them back, no matter how many times it was deserved. you know what he did? he had Stan Livingston and Will Purdue and Scott Williams take care of the dirty work for him. don't sit there and tell me that adult human males are incapable of showing restraint in that situation and that in so doing it was keeping the teams best interest in mind. I don't blame Lee for throwing a punch, but the insinuations that it was uncontrollable or good for the team or the right thing to do or morally superior to others actions are just insane. at some point someone has to be the 'mature baseball professional.' Soriano has to at the very least be a little more discrete in his celebration. Peavy has to shut his punk mouth. the Pads manager has to tell his team to suck it up and get payback on the field, not in the papers or with beanballs. Chris Young has to not be Peavys puppet and just go about the business of winning baseball games, not evening scores and being a punk when he does so. and Derrick Lee has to take it like a man, go to first, and get his revenge with his play. if any one of these idiots just acted like a 'mature professional' it wouldn't have gotten as far as it did. of all people, the one who wasn't a total fricken idiot is David Wells, who said he didn't even see Soriano's dance and he'd have to file it away. that's how you handle it. you wait until the next time you face the perpetrator, and even the score personally, either through getting him out and showing him up, or with a harmless beanball at the hip.

like the way no ump is going to call the neighborhood play at second on a DP? sometime check out the play on which Chipper injured both hands.

I'm not sure that's true. I think Lee wanted to get at Young but, in watching the replay several times, I think he saw a Padres player/or coach running in at him and attempted to swerve to avoid him but the guy grabbed Lee from behind then Jacque and Barrett jumped on the guy's back and the pile went down... I don't think it's anything that will cost him extra time but I think that's what happened. I think that guy was Jake Peavy. I'd have to check the replay again though to be sure. Peavy was ejected, so it'd make sense. so Mr. I Would Put One In The Next Guy's Ribcage just 'happened' to be standing right next to the stairs and was the first guy out.

Lose the battle win the war; get the series. Let's hope so---one more complaint and I know this is a stretch but after watching the play on Theriot at the plate several times--the catcher NEVER tags him. They bump sides, but he never tags him. Again, i am not saying a guy would make that call, but technically he should have been safe. And say what you want--that is just the type of thing they would call somone like barrett for. this was discussed at length in the thread. you are wrong. NY says so and incidentally that exact call was made on the play in which Chipper was injured just a few weeks ago. Ok, my bad. I was not on computer during entire game. He definitely did not tag him. That is pretty clear I would say, now if you want to argue that this call will not usually go your way then that is a different story I'm being sarcastic. several of us saw it, and it's more obvious on the second angle they showed after the game. it's crystal clear that he never got him with the mitt. as for this call not going our way, believe me, I wouldn't be shocked at the umpires suddenly having uncanny abilities to observe things that hurt the Cubs, ie, Cedeno over sliding the bag, the phantom tag on a double play, etc. while missing things like fan interference on flyballs, punches to our middle infielders faces, etc. I didn't see it live, but this pic sure makes it look like he was tagged out: http://www.chicagotribune.com/media/photo/2007-06/30569985.jpg that's a great shot. an angle that was not available to anyone while the discussion was going on. I recind my comments. the angle during the game was from above home. it looked like Bowen just stuck out his elbow. then the one after the game it looked like shoulder and elbow, but there was certainly nothing to indicate he got his mitt on Theriot before that pic.

so on suspensions. most recent incident I remember like this was Arod-Veritek. both got four games and for whatever reason they dropped their suspensions. I'm think Lee will get at least 8 games, and it won't be reduced by more than a game or two. Young will get five games, he'll drop his appeal right before an off day, so noone on the Pads will have to go on short rest. essentially turning it into a nonspension.

Lose the battle win the war; get the series. Let's hope so---one more complaint and I know this is a stretch but after watching the play on Theriot at the plate several times--the catcher NEVER tags him. They bump sides, but he never tags him. Again, i am not saying a guy would make that call, but technically he should have been safe. And say what you want--that is just the type of thing they would call somone like barrett for. this was discussed at length in the thread. you are wrong. NY says so and incidentally that exact call was made on the play in which Chipper was injured just a few weeks ago. Ok, my bad. I was not on computer during entire game. He definitely did not tag him. That is pretty clear I would say, now if you want to argue that this call will not usually go your way then that is a different story I'm being sarcastic. several of us saw it, and it's more obvious on the second angle they showed after the game. it's crystal clear that he never got him with the mitt. as for this call not going our way, believe me, I wouldn't be shocked at the umpires suddenly having uncanny abilities to observe things that hurt the Cubs, ie, Cedeno over sliding the bag, the phantom tag on a double play, etc. while missing things like fan interference on flyballs, punches to our middle infielders faces, etc.

If I was about to be hit by a guy bigger and stronger than me, I'd probably change my tune real quick too. who knows who is stronger, but Young is gigantic. much bigger than Lee.